Backup of my old LiveJournal blog
בקטגוריות: Uncategorized
8 Feb 2009Outside the Chester Beatty museum in Dublin there’s a small gumball dispenser, the kind you see everywhere, only this one wasn’t filled with gumballs, but with gemstones. The charm of this method of delivery is kind of ruined when they had to put this sticker on, to avoid broken teeth and potential lawsuits. For those […]
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4 Oct 2008I can see why all those authors, poets and painters found themselves in the Greek isles some times. There’s something very peaceful about the Mediterranean. I found myself this week in Matala, a tiny little village in the south of Crete. The place isn’t much more than a handful of houses, hotels and restaurants around […]
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1 Oct 2008The Greek typefaces are lovely. Symbols familiar from mathematical contexts and college fraternity movies suddenly given life as meaningful words. Deltas and omegas do thetas and mu, and deciphering signs becomes an algebraic equation with infinite variables. One sign results in “Exodus” and the biblical reference strikes before you realize it is nothing, in fact, […]
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9 May 2008This is a reworked version of a recent entry of mine. I had brought it over to my creative writing workshop for review, and revised it according to the (excellent) comments I received. Now I wanted to have this version up as well, for comparison. *** I cross the Golden Horn to Galata, escaping Sultanahmed’s […]
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19 Apr 2008Galata is across the Golden Horn, very different from Sultanahmed’s twisting alleys and tourist traps. First thing that greets me is the underground shopping mall, crammed tight with consumer electronics and handguns, one shop next to the other, each proclaiming new sales, new models, just for you. Outside two young men push their cart and […]
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18 Apr 2008In recent years there have been many discussions of the place of art in everyday life. Should a tool that’s functional also be beautiful? Is there place for art in the workplace? Once we’ve gotten something working well, how much more should we invest in making it pretty? More and more, in the 21st century, […]
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18 Apr 2008In William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the protagonists take a detour through Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. I can see why. It meshes it wonderfully with Gibson’s claustrophobic oldnew dystopia. Narrow streets, winding, rising, falling, interlocking. Old shops selling leather goods, silversmiths, hookahs. Children’s clothing, leather goods, Turkish delight. Spices, doner-kebabs, leather goods. Vendors outside storefronts playing backgammon tossing […]
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18 Apr 2008Japanese tour guides are in something of a pickle in this Mediterranean weather. It’s too hot an dry for rain, but what will they raise up in the air to lead their group but an umbrella? Well, they find a way. Sometimes they carry an umbrella anyway. Sometimes they find substitutes. Long sticks with something […]
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18 Apr 2008They are a humble people, the Christians. A cheek-turning, brother-loving, genuflecting lot. How appropriate, then, that in order to share their humility with all and sundry they would build gigantic, overwhelming, towering edifices to honor their modest carpenter. Oh, but they sure knew how to build, those Christians of old. Vaulted archways 15 stories high […]
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7 Jul 2007I do apologize for my last entry, written while stone drunk in the middle of the night. I will try to make this better. I make no promises. As may have been gathered from my last post, I am not in Röskilde after all. The city is full of refugees like us. You can see […]
פעם היה לי לייבג'ורנל. עכשיו הוא כאן, מגובה.