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'Footnotes' to Solo
Bulgaria, Sofia, photographs, music, chemistry
Nov 6 2010, 07:16 GMT
For photographs of old Sofia do look at this beautiful collection here.
Here is a collection of photographs of Sofia in 1944
Mesut Cemil
tanbur, cello, Ottoman, Germany, Constantinople
Aug 25 2010, 21:02 GMT
Mesut Cemil was the son of Cemil Bey, the greatest tanbur player who ever lived. During his father's lifetime, Mesut Cemil did not presume
Solo - a novel
novel, history, Bulgaria, Einstein, daydreams, music, chemistry, loss, epiphany crime, violin
May 27 2008, 00:24 GMT
Solo is ... an affirmation of the vitality of the spirit.
- The Wall St Journal (full review)
Solo is ... utterly
Akhmatova and Shostakovich
poetry, music, symphony, Soviet Union, love
Oct 24 2007, 01:54 GMT
Anna Akhmatova and Shostakovich admired each other from afar, but did not meet. Akhmatova rarely missed a Shostakovich premiere. After the first performance
Notes on CNN
television, globalization, propaganda, America
Jul 19 2007, 08:01 GMT
Notes I wrote in a hotel room in front of the eternally enraging CNN.
The "staging of the global". The hi-tech bragging of "live report"
"Fireflies" by David Albahari
Serbia, Yugoslavia, literature, fiction, insects
Jul 10 2007, 20:14 GMT
I met David Albahari at the Festival of the European Short Story in Zagreb in June this year, where he read his wonderful and
A Holiday from History, and Other Real Stories
terrorism, reality, fantasy, psychoanalysis, war, trauma, cinema, television, pornography
Jan 2 2007, 22:51 GMT
This essay was written to accompany the DVD release of Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, a film by Johan Grimonprez about the history of plane hijacking made for
Art from Central Asia
art, aesthetics, nationalism, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Communism, Soviet republics, USSR, artists, modernism
Jan 1 2007, 02:12 GMT
I enjoyed these two essays from the catalogue to the wonderful Central Asia Pavilion at the last Venice Biennale, curated by Viktor Misiano. The
Pioneers of Indian Photography
photography, India, colonialism, knowledge, history, Orientalism, Britain, technology
Jan 1 2007, 01:06 GMT
This historical survey, the text of a British Library catalogue, India: Pioneering Photographers, gives a nice sense of the way that photography entered the
Hospitality and the city
poverty, cities, art, creativity, charity, welfare
Oct 30 2006, 19:44 GMT
The beginning of a folktale, which all of us know:
A weary traveller arrives in a town at night. He is a stranger from
Images of the global city from China
art, cinema, cities, Li Wei Jia Zhangke
Sep 30 2006, 03:16 GMT
The images that capture most interestingly the uncanny, amnesiac intensity of the contemporary global city come usually, for me, from China. Here I'll just
The Architecture Of Impregnability
architecture, cities, terrorism, capitalism
Sep 30 2006, 03:08 GMT
At a time when it seems impossible to escape Hollywood's nauseating 9/11 narcissism - Oliver Stone's film is out this weekend here in England,
Commentary on Zidane's gesture by Dany Laferrière
football, sport, racism, music, France, media, television
Jul 13 2006, 10:40 GMT
Dany Laferrière is a francophone novelist from Haiti now living between Montreal and Miami. His commentary on the Zidane "header" - the head-butt attack
Demolitions in Delhi, and maps of sacred places
slums, demolition, resettlement, city, development, modernity
Apr 4 2006, 20:41 GMT
During the hegemony of Aryan culture across large parts of the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia, many rulers attempted to re-establish the sacred geography of
Creativity and the death camps
Robert Desnos, Nazism, holocaust, creativity, storytelling, performance, imagination
Feb 13 2006, 11:02 GMT
"Susan Griffen tells a story about surrealist poet Robert Desnos, who was imprisoned in the Nazi death camps:
One day Desnos and others were taken away
Beyond 'confident'
India, fiction, literature, writers, writing, nationalism, nation
Jan 30 2006, 19:46 GMT
A great article by Amit Chaudhuri on the anxious, tedious and mostly idiotic generalisations made about "Indian writing". As he points out, these are
Family photographs as art
photography, collecting, history, nostalgia
Aug 3 2005, 21:15 GMT
Two beautiful projects from Kristofer Paetau, who works with found family photographs:
The Shadow of a Photographer
Double Family
"The Storyteller" by Walter Benjamin
novel, fairytale, literature, time, death, information, narrative
Jul 7 2005, 22:47 GMT
I
Familiar though his name may be to us, the storyteller in his living immediacy is by no means a present force. He has already become
Recent articles about life in US jails
prison, medicine, healthcare, poverty, disease, population, violence
May 6 2005, 07:14 GMT
Two astonishing articles from Harper's (August 2003 and September 2004) about the parallel world of US jails. First one is about the parallel health
Paranoia dialogue from Don DeLillo's Underworld
paranoia, science, nuclear testing, culture, psychology
May 3 2005, 03:47 GMT
Don DeLillo is one of the greatest contemporary writers of dialogue. Here's a great one from Underworld in which two characters edge into the
Car accidents in fiction and film
cars, accidents, death, modernity, technology, fiction, film
Apr 16 2005, 07:05 GMT
I have often been surprised how ready novelists and filmmakers are to use car accidents as decisive in their plots - usually as a way
JG Ballard's Introduction to Crash
cars, sex, pornography, accidents, death, fiction, reality
Apr 16 2005, 06:01 GMT
[JG Ballard wrote this introduction some twenty years after the book. It is a provocative account of the fiction writer's contemporary role.]
The marriage of
Wonderful short story by J. Robert Lennon
story, town, uncanny
Apr 14 2005, 22:52 GMT
[One of the wonderful "short short stories" by J. Robert Lennon from his collection, 100 Pieces For The Left Hand which has just come out
"The Ignorant Schoolmaster" by Jacques Rancière
education, equality, inequality, schools, nation, progress, philosophy
Apr 11 2005, 07:45 GMT
[This is my very rough translation of an address given by Rancière. It should be noted that the word "master" that I have retained
Gabriel García Márquez on writing
writing, inspiration, magic realism
Apr 11 2005, 00:05 GMT
[From The Fragrance of Guava: Conversations with Gabriel García Márquez by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza (London: Faber & Faber, 1988).]
I began writing quite by chance, perhaps
William Hogarth and copyright
William Hogarth, art, intellectual property, copyright, printing, London
Apr 2 2005, 03:19 GMT
The artist William Hogarth (1697-1764), like a number of the men around him - such as actor David Garrick, and authors Samuel Johnson and Henry
Full text of Guardian Online interview about Tokyo Cancelled
novel, stories, imagination, magic, global, Rana Dasgupta
Mar 29 2005, 03:54 GMT
This is the full transcript of an interview with Guardian Online about my novel Tokyo Cancelled. The final article on the Guardian site can
Tokyo Cancelled
novel, stories, imagination, magic, global
Feb 19 2005, 03:52 GMT
"Only the most gifted writers, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jonathan Safron-Foer, can hold the surreal and the real in satisfying equilibrium. This elite
A Flowering Tree
fairytales, folktales, India, body, transformation, metamorphosis, magic, sexuality, gender
Feb 4 2005, 23:13 GMT
[This is the title story from the beautiful collection of Kannada folktales by A.K. Ramanujan: A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India.]
In a
The Real Begins Where the Spectacle Ends (A Manifesto of Sorts)
fiction, media, reality, spectacle
Feb 2 2005, 21:23 GMT
Si la littérature est le silence des significations, c'est en vérité la prison dont tous les occupants veulent s'évader.
- Georges Bataille
What are the forms of
"The Terrazo Jungle" by Malcolm Gladwell
architecture, Jewish, Vienna, shopping, modernism
Feb 2 2005, 19:14 GMT
[from The New Yorker. Another reminder of the astonishing contribution of European Jews to American life. In this case a story of a
"Future Primitive" by John Zerzan
human, primitive, anthropology, archaeology, progress, spirituality, symbolism, art, culture, science, language, labour
Feb 2 2005, 03:17 GMT
A fascinating and challenging essay that speculates about a pre-symbolic (yet highly intelligent) human bliss destroyed progressively by the parallel emergence of specialisation and symbolism.
Jim Lewis, The King is Dead
novel, Jim Lewis
Jan 1 2005, 00:34 GMT
Just finished reading Jim Lewis' The King is Dead. What fantastic writing. It's really a great novel. It has a few flaws,
On Fame
celebrity, suicide, literature
Dec 27 2004, 01:47 GMT
Fame requires every kind of excess. I mean true fame, a devouring neon, not the somber renown of waning statesmen or chinless kings. I mean
Bombay & The Swinging Sixties
jazz, Bombay, Mumbai, 1960s
Dec 9 2004, 22:02 GMT
A nostalgic, and impressive, reminiscence about Bombay's former jazz splendour.
See original article here.
A man called Chris Perry died in Mumbai a few weeks ago.
The ethics of meat
meat, vegetarianism, farming, environment, ethics
Oct 10 2004, 20:09 GMT
I found it difficult to defend my meat-eating in any way after reading these articles. Within the broad sweep of human history, it seems,
Giving money to beggars
Mulla Nasruddin, folktales, wisdom
Oct 8 2004, 01:39 GMT
As Mulla Nasruddin emerged from the mosque after prayers, a beggar sitting in the street solicited alms. The following conversation ensued:
MULLA: Are you extravagant?
BEGGAR:
Art in the Age of Biopolitics: From Artwork to Art Documentation
art, documentary, Benjamin, biopolitics
Aug 30 2004, 12:18 GMT
from the Catalogue to Documenta 11 (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2002), pp 108-114.
In recent decades, it has become increasingly evident that the art world has shifted
Colleges embrace homeland security curriculum
universities, education, security, terrorism
Aug 26 2004, 21:17 GMT
Anti-terrorism as a career option for the "brightest and best".
See original article here
Homeland security has become a hot topic in American culture, and higher
Thoughts on death penalty
death penalty, capital punishment, crime, criminals
Aug 24 2004, 22:30 GMT
Some of the discussion about this issue has seemed to imply that there is some kind of absolutely natural progression from rape (or other violent
Planet of Slums
slums, cities, religion, poverty, inequality
Jul 2 2004, 12:48 GMT
(Adapted from an essay by Mike Davis, in the March/April issue of New Left Review. Davis is currently writing a book about slums that will
The Fine Art of Car Bombings
Jun 26 2004, 01:22 GMT
Article about the excellent work of Walid Raad/The Atlas Group.
WALID RAAD was 15 in 1983 when his family shipped him out of Beirut to Boston,
Declaring War on Islam, by Edward Said
Israel, Palestine, United States
May 24 2004, 03:04 GMT
Old article from Said, published in The Progressive, May 1996.
At a moment of considerable Anglo-Indian tension in 1926, the British missionary and intellectual Edward Thompson
from Slaughterhouse Five
war, bombs
May 22 2004, 09:52 GMT
That well-known passage:
Billy Pilgrim padded downstairs on his blue and ivory feet. He went into the kitchen, where the moonlight called his attention to a
The Museum in the Age of Mass Media
art, museum, media
May 5 2004, 21:50 GMT
It's true: there is still a large audience that enjoys visiting museums these days. But in general, as an institution the museum is increasingly being
Against bad war writing
Iraq, war, language
Apr 17 2004, 13:30 GMT
Sometimes I'm shocked by how someone sees fit to write about people they are supposedly trying to defend. I had to pen some thoughts
Banksy
graffiti, art
Apr 13 2004, 16:20 GMT
Truly fantastic site by the famous graffiti artist:
www.banksy.co.uk
And here are some pictures of his stunts to hang his own parodic works in the great
Music and property
Bulgaria, state, Communism, music, traditional knowledge
Mar 3 2004, 20:24 GMT
MUSIC AND PROPERTY
(These brief notes are based on Timothy Rice's overview of Bulgarian music, May It Fill Your Soul (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).)
INTRODUCTION
When
Surveillance after "Big Brother"
surveillance, Orwell
Feb 21 2004, 21:25 GMT
The arguments of the media often proceed via the production of victims. That something is wrong is signalled by the fact that there is
Encountering the sustaining myths of copyright
authorship, property, copyright
Feb 3 2004, 10:24 GMT
Encountering the sustaining myths of copyright
Compiled by Mayur Suresh, Atrayee Mazumdar and Lawrence Liang
1. Encountering the myths of copyright
2. Some familiar tales
Giorgio Agamben "We Refugees"
refugees, nation state, citizens, rights of man
Jan 26 2004, 13:10 GMT
Enormously significant reflection by Agamben on the relationship between the decline of the nation state and the future of the concept of "citizen". It
Summary: Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil by Alain Badiou
ethics, good, evil
Aug 25 2003, 20:37 GMT
1. Does Man Exist?
According to current usage, the term "ethics" relates to the domain of human rights.
A universally recognisable human subject is proposed possessing rights
Summary: Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments
Adam Smith, economics, freedom
Aug 2 2003, 00:26 GMT
Adam Smith as historicised in contemporary political and economic debates is seen as the great theorist of free markets and thus the intellectual grandfather of
Pianos, torpedos and mobile phones
piano, military technology, Hollywood, radio
Jun 28 2003, 01:34 GMT
Came across this in the Economist recently. It's a fascinating story of how music (specifically, player pianos) provided a technology that was used to
The President's DNA
Iraq, Saddam Hussein, DNA, war
Jun 24 2003, 13:25 GMT
In Iraq last week the United States army launched a joint air and ground assault on a convoy of luxury off-road vehicles heading towards the
New political thinking in Argentina
Argentina, crisis, Marxism
Apr 8 2003, 03:08 GMT
I've been writing about Argentina in the last few weeks and wanted to share some of the incredible news that is coming out of there
Article from yesterday's Khaleej Times, Dubai
police, migration
Oct 22 2002, 03:25 GMT
POLICE TO KEEP STRICT VIGIL ON BEGGARS DURING RAMADAN
DUBAI: Police officials will keep a strict vigil on beggars, whose numbers are expected to increase during
Salonika, end C19
modernity
Oct 2 2002, 03:23 GMT
The century was drawing to a close. Stealthily the West was creeping in, trying to lure the East with her wonders. Almost inaudible
Summary: "Globalisation once more" by Deepak Nayyar
globalisation, migration, labour, capital
Sep 19 2002, 01:45 GMT
Globalisation is not new: 1870-1914 was another phase of intense integration of world economy. What can we learn from historical parallel?
Striking parallels in the
Bertrand Russell on war in the future (1952)
war, technology
Sep 23 2001, 21:49 GMT
From a lecture entitled "Science and war" in "The Impact of Science on Society" (London: Unwin Hyman, 1952). 49 years ago.
The right to make
The public domain audit
public domain
Aug 1 2001, 03:18 GMT
A proposition to the community of those concerned with the public domain...
As you all know, many business magazines and the UN publish rankings of countries
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