This morning I was taking a shower and noticed a bug flying around in the shower with me. I filled my mouth with water and sprayed the little creature. But, he was insistent and came back again. So I filled my mouth a second time with water and repeated the process. He flew away but was back a minute later. I thought, hey, maybe the little fly is lonely and just wants someone to be around. I felt compassion for him. This reminded me of when I was little. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
. . . I want you to know that the hackneyed accusations leveled against us are entirely unfounded. These are the facts:
- The reason we don’t like anything innovative is that there is truly nothing new worth liking.
- We treat most men like morons because, indeed, most men are morons, not because we’re poisoned by anger, unhappiness or some other flaw in character. (Granted, treating these people better would be more refined and sensible.)
- The reason I forget and confuse so many names and faces – except those of the miniaturists I’ve loved and trained since their apprenticeships – is not senility, but because these names and faces are so lackluster and colorless as to be hardly worth remembering.
– Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red .
Filed under Digressions
I just finally finished My Name is Red, and Orhan Pamuk has created a true masterpiece. I don’t even know where to begin. This doesn’t mean that I necessarily recommend the book. Although it is only about 400 pages long, it is dense, often times too slow and over descriptive on the history of Persian and Ottoman art. Nevertheless, I am in awe of Pamuk’s endless creativity and insight.
As alluded to in my previous post about the book, Pamuk has created a multilayer story that appears to be a murder mystery, but which in reality, is an in depth analysis of the role of the artist, the meaning and purpose of art, the paradoxes of Islamic art, and the Islamic world’s struggle to accept the inevitable influence of the West in 16th Century Istanbul. In this sense, Continue reading
Filed under Essays, Friends / Family, Literature
A few weeks ago, I was waiting to board a flight when I looked up to see my neighborhood Chinese convenient store owner’s wife and eldest son. They were off to China for the summer to see her parents. The experience reminded me, strangely enough, of my maternal grandmother and her sister and got me thinking. Here is what and why: Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
Six Billion Others is a very interesting website and concept. The idea, created by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, was to tell an ongoing story of people from all over the world. His team visited some 65 countries and interviewed 6,000 people.
Filed under Essays
A few weeks ago, Nicolas (FON’s bearded Canadian) and Borja organized a barbeque with the official office hoser doing all of the cooking. I was not able to attend. Today, I finally saw some of the photos and was shocked at the realization that:
When I am not around, my co-workers continue to exist. They are live human beings that breathe, eat, and do all sorts of things even when they are not in the office or in my presence. Of course, I wasn’t there to witness any of this, but unless the photos were part of a covert conspiracy to make me believe in their independent existence, they do actually exist outside of my perception. And they all appear to be enjoying themselves in the photos. Maybe I am not the axis upon which all else revolves.
This is just a preliminary thought, though, and is not meant to be conclusive.
Filed under Digressions, FON
Menorca has some of the most beautiful beaches and calas (typical Mediterranean coves) that I have seen anywhere. Traditionally, it has been a very hippie island with some Catalan tourists, while most mass tourism was directed towards Mallorca, Ibiza or other Mediterranean destinations. Also most of its beaches are protected biospheres, have no hotels and are accessible only after a 10-40 minute walk from distant parking lots.
So when I arrived in Menorca (my third trip there), I was expecting some kids on the larger beaches and many hippie nudists in the more remote calas. I have always hated a couple of things at the beach, all of which include audio and visual distractions, such as people playing paddle, listening to music, or putting up big tents and umbrellas. You usually don’t have these problems in Menorca, at least that was what I thought. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
Here comes another post that will interest no one other than myself, but a few weeks ago I wrote a post where I mentioned that I was looking for the original version of the song “Emta Hata’raf” by Asmahan. And then just now (while procrastinating at work), I found this video on YouTube of a film with her singing “Emta Hata’raf”.
Asmahan was a Syrian Druze who made a name for herself singing and starring in Egyptian films, but died suddenly and mysteriously in a car accident in 1944.
Filed under Digressions
While on the farm in Menorca this weekend with William, Yasmine, Sanaa, Waya, and little Leo, William put on Joe Henderson’s Page One (with McCoy Tyner on piano!), and I loved it. William was also telling me about how he subscribes to and downloads podcasts from iTunes onto his iPod. He has pretty much the same taste in radio and news as I do, so once I got back to Madrid, I decided to go through the iTunes podcast library to see what I could find.
What I found were some of my favorite shows that I always look forward to seeing or hearing whenever I am back home. In particular, I enjoy watching the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS every evening at 7:00pm with my father. They just don’t have news shows, debate and analysis this good anywhere on European TV. Next, I love driving in my car and listening to NPR. Once I subscribed to my favorite stuff, I then proceeded to download Henderson’s Page One. I am afraid (figuratively, not literally) that the music and podcasts will distract me from finally finishing My Name is Red. Anyways, here is a list of the podcasts I have just subscribed to (if you have any other good ones, let me know): Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family, Jazz
I was away in Menorca, incomunicado, the last few days and hadn’t heard anything about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis until I opened my email this morning and found this letter that my friend, Fadi, sent to CBS regarding its coverage of the tragedy. As is always the case, Fadi has a great way of putting things into perspective. Check it out: Continue reading
Filed under Essays, Friends / Family
Grave Error 