A heat wave had struck the city, and Kristos could not bear it, even with his apartment's air conditioning turned on full blast. He took to spending the unbearable afternoons on his terrace, drinking water and hiding in the shade of an umbrella. It was so hot he could not stand to even wear shorts; he sat in his wicker chair in a jockstrap, legs ( Read more... )

Viewing the weather from the relative safety of a coffeehouse, I'm reminded of spring storms in the countryside where I grew up, and watching ancient elm trees thrash in the wind. There would always be the lichen-strewn piles of branches and leaves, the muddy ponds in the driveway, and the occasional tree toads hugging the eave drains ( Read more... )

This is a story about a town ( Read more... )

I took a trip, over a week, with one Rose Macaulay, in search of "The Towers of Trebizond" . . . I saw them briefly, in the flash of a dream, and in the circumnavigation of a world I will never encounter. I fell in love with the eccentric British upper class that flocked, spies and book signings and evangelism and schizophrenic camels and all, to ( Read more... )

Glancing over the "friends" list on this journal's page, all I see are a number of abandoned windows and locked doors, empty fascades where once amusing conversations and photographs took place ( Read more... )

There is a restaurant, on the north side of town, by a highway, and I work there ( Read more... )

So excited! My most recent delivery brought me biographies on Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, a collection of postcards featuring Ganesh, and Edward Gorey's two-in-one "A Halloween Treat" and "Edward Gorey's Ghosts ( Read more... )

I found a most unexpected tome: "The Crooked Timber of Humanity", a collection of essays by Isaiah Berlin, and only 25 cents to boot! I came to Berlin on account of Akhmatova, who was recommended - recited, even -  by a young man from South Haven. I can recall the Russian edition of Akhmatova's poems that he stole from the university library, where ( Read more... )

Today, I will be passing the 500 mark in terms of journal entries . . . Of course, I would technically have more if my previous incarnation still existed, but still . . . I looked back on some of my previous entries, and had a good laugh at some of my silliness, queenly attitudes, and general mayhem of journal writing. It is slightly comforting to ( Read more... )

"We know that human minds have proved themselves capable of everything from imbecility to Quantum Theory, from ( Read more... )