Turkey: The Islands
It’s raining on the Sea of Marmara. It’s raining and cold. The warm cocoon of the ferry boat, on …
Category Archives: Art & Culture
The Crimean War: Orlando Figes
In 1853 the United States was 8 years away from a civil war. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo only …
The Idle Years — A Short Novel from Turkey
Orhan Kemal would not be one of the widely known names of Turkish literature in the West, unlike his semi name-share, …
The Land of Rumi
We are in Cappadocia, the land of Rumi, central Turkey, after a week in Istanbul. The incredible “fairy towers” are …
Children: A Poem from Cahit Kulebi, Turkey
Prowling the bookstores on Iskitlal Street, Istanbul’s famous pedestrian walk-way, I came on a volume of poems in English Translation …
The Rage of the Vulture: Barry Unsworth in Turkey
Barry Unsworth, the English Booker Prize winning novelist has written many memorable books, perhaps best known being Sacred Hunger (1992), …
Deep Blue Sea: Dark and Cold
Sometimes stage plays make it to the movies very well, other times not. Terrence Rattigan’s 1952 play, of love and …
Turkey Unveiled: A History
Turkey, whether as part of the Roman, the Byzantine or Ottoman Empires has been for millenia the hub to the …
Earl Scruggs, 88: Gone
Oh man! Do I remember the first time I heard Flatt and Scruggs light up the room I was sequestered …
Adrienne Rich: Gone
III from Adrienne Rich’s “Twenty-One Love Poems:” via www.danagoldstein.com Since we’re not young, weeks have to do time for years …
The Official Story: Loss and Love in Argentina
The self declared “dirty war” of the Argentine junta that governed the country after Isabel Martinez de Perón, successor to …
Me Gusta La Gente Simple
Facundo Cabral is an Argentine singer known in folk-circles around the world and especially in Latin America. He will strongly remind …