In all the excitement of getting mugged (I now have my own, special, shiny crime number!) I almost forgot it was my birthday just this Tuesday. Aside from a deluge of cat-themed birthday cards, I accrued: the new Scott Walker album, a couple of Spalding Grays, David Mitchell's latest, a couple of bottles of Aussie vino, and a few DVDSThen myself, ( Read more... )

Hi. I am now a crime statistic. Muswell Hill is hereby crossed off my list of safe London neighbourhoods. Bye-bye iPod and Oystercard. Even at 7pm on a fine summer's evening gangs of youths hanging around in parks still feel the need to rough-up nonchalant passers-by i.e. me, and deprive them of their valuables. Fortunately, I escaped without a ( Read more... )

Of all the LJs I've followed since seeing the light, my friend sarmoung has given me the most pleasure. Unfortunately, it's been in hiatus since February which may be because, as a fairly observant member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Sarmoung was until recently deeply entrenched in the customs and practices of Orthodox Lent (though I'm not actually ( Read more... )

The bibliography is stucking to thicken. It's at about 40 books, monographs and articles now, and it's become something of a sisyphean task - each new source itself points me towards other sources. I don't have to hand it in until mid-September; things could get heavy. Considering the parameters of my thesis - Uzbeks, Uzbekistan, historiography and ( Read more... )

Soundbite of the day - Dubya lecturing Congress on why it's important to limit emergency funding to combat Avian Bird Flu:

"It's important there be fiscal discipline in Washington if we are to keep this economy strong."

Ok. Pot. Kettle. Black. Anyone?

Today's visit to the National Gallery to see the Bellini and the East exhibition coincided with the British Left's annual show of tomfoolery in Trafalgar Square. One group was swishing some very toney black-and-red flags - in honour, I presume, of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of Non-agression. This seemed very likely as the CPGB-ML stand was backed by a ( Read more... )

Where is Absurdistan? That will be the question everyone asks who reads Gary Shteyngart's new novel, reviewed here in the New York Times. I'm always interested to hear about new Russian novelists and their take on the post-Soviet world, particularly when they venture into the former Soviet republics (of which Absurdistan appears to be a composite ( Read more... )

Someday I'll write a book entitled "The Bureaucratization of Britain", and mostly it'll be based on my misadventures with the deskbound klutzes messing up my life e.g. being late for a Doctor's appointment means I have to reschedule for two weeks hence. Or, trying to claim some benefits, it apparently takes a month to process my claim. When I think ( Read more... )

Umm, I'd like to link to the great article in the New Yorker about Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (as mentioned in an earlier blog entry), unfortunately the New Yorker has airs and graces and deigns not to make the entire issue available online, so I'll link to the next best thing: the press release.

"Michael Specter reports from Kalmykia, one of the ( Read more... )

Today, I saw Him.

Previously, I have only heard Him ( Read more... )