Following the Ink: Prosa y Poesia en Castilla y Leon
Author: Miguel Cervantes
Each region of Spain boasts some literary significance, but Castilla y Leo--home to El Cid, Miguel Cervantes, Teresa of Avila, and birthplace of the Castilian language--is perhaps the most compelling province for a lover of prosa y poesia. I spent a week there, seeking out the magic between pages of old manuscripts and among streets lined with cobblestones.
Posted on Sun, Mar 23, 2008
Pearl S. Buck: A Foreigner in China
Author: Pearl S. Buck
The Chinese port city of Zhenjiang is situated on the Yangtze River, just west of Shanghai. It is small by Chinese standards: population 2.9 million. A scattering of ancient Buddhist temples, well-kept parks and small mountains hedge the city's new commercial district--a block of brightly lit chain stores, two-story McDonald's and colossal shopping malls. Enormous red balloons shaped like traditional Chinese lanterns hover over shop entrances, advertising cheap goods and sales, while blind erhu players busk on street corners, crooning Beijing opera or Taiwanese pop songs.
Posted on Sun, Mar 02, 2008
Jorge Luis Borges in Mythic Buenos Aires
Author: Jorge Luis Borges
Knife fights and backdoor Tango joints used to dot the cobblestone barrio where Jorge Luis Borges once lived. Now known as Palermo Viejo, this former Italian neighborhood in northern Buenos Aires was once overrun by hoodlums, gauchos and easy women who lived their lives like the lyrics of a Rubinstein Tango song.
Posted on Sun, Feb 24, 2008
Rousing Nietzsche in Orta, Italy
Author: Friedrich Nietzsche
Of all the Northern Italian lakes, Lake Orta and the town of Orta is a true prize. Divided by the Mattarone Mountain, Orta is cut off from the popular tourism of Lake Maggiore, and its shore town of Stresa--famously featured in Ernest Hemingway's war novel, A Farewell to Arms. Yet Lake Orta and the town are not short of literary connections. Its wooded alpine mountains, Monte Sacre, the holy mount (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Monte Rosa, have a history of inspiring those who arrive at this Piedmont idle, which is often overlooked. Yet the least unspoiled.
Posted on Wed, Feb 20, 2008
Standing in Jewish Rome
Titus' Arch towers above us; its white marble Corinthian columns and travertine inlays gleam in the sun. It is one of those June days that makes you happy to be alive, happy to be wandering Rome. This trip, we have decided to focus only on Jewish sites. That means staying in the ghetto, wandering its tiny streets, climbing Esquiline Hill to gaze at Michelangelo's Moses, visiting the Great Synagogue and the Jewish Museum. And that means heading to Titus' Arch.
Posted on Thu, Feb 14, 2008
The Visible City of Venice
Nothing is firmly rooted in Venice. As such, it is a city that lends itself to a great deal of missteps and wrong turns. Any traveler who has been there will tell you that finding any particular destination can be a great struggle, and not simply because the locals are apt to wave their hands about in a cheerful, vague way whenever you ask them for directions.
Posted on Sun, Feb 10, 2008
A Swiss-Italian Walk With Hermann Hesse
Author: Hermann Hesse
It was here in sun-drenched, sparkling Ticino, the southern, Italian speaking canton of Switzerland, that Hermann Hesse spent the last 43 years of his life and wrote many of his most famous works. As he gazed at towering, green mountains and walked through quiet woods, Hesse's creativity for writing and painting flourished, and now, 45 years after his death, literature connoisseurs, history buffs, and curious visitors alike can discover the jewel of Ticino that Hermann Hesse called home.
Posted on Mon, Feb 04, 2008
An Outsider in Latvia, America & Art: Mark Rothko
Author: Mark Rothko
East Marion Cemetery, Suffolk County, New York: the odor of pine trees, grass and inactivity loiters in the air. Tall pine trees responsible for the pitch smell stand in the distance like a living, green wall around the cemetery. In symbology, evergreen signifies immortality, which is ironic, since all illusions of immortality have come and gone for the permanent residents of East Marion Cemetery. The dead know only disappointment.
Posted on Thu, Jan 31, 2008
A Comical History of Brussels
From a country roughly the size of New Jersey comes an unprecedented amount of comic creativity--a level that has defined the genre from the industry's golden age to its present day renaissance. At the center of the Belgian comic culture is Brussels, the self-proclaimed comic strip capital of the world. From such international icons as Herge's Tintin and Peyo's Smurfs to the multitude of modern titles currently cluttering the comic store shelves, according to legendary comic writer and organizer of the annual Comics Fest Alain de Kuyssche, one thing remains the same: "Every one of them gets their start in Brussels."
Posted on Sun, Jan 27, 2008
Walker Percy's Hurricane Theory: An Existentialist Hope for Survivors of Katrina
Author: Percy Walker
By Northshore standards I'm considered a local, not a native, living here for more than 20 years, across Lake Pontchartrain thirty miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana. Most of us are transplants from the Big Easy seeking refuge under a canopy of piney woods and fresh water streams, pioneers carving homesteads and building new schools, the best in the state. But the people kept coming, so we rallied to save our greenspace and then Hurricane Katrina barrelled her way through our heartland. Tens of thousands of people rushed to higher ground on the Northshore to build a new future increasing the population of St. Tammany Parish by more than a third.
Posted on Sun, Jan 06, 2008
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