Hope springs eternalOn a gaudy neon streetNot that I care at all Such a muddy line betweenThe things you wantAnd the things you have to do Friday 16 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Above: In Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland On the way to Konstanz, 15 km away, to get my teeth cleaned upon the… Continue reading Place your bets
Category: movies
Synod
Above: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Tbilisi, Georgia Wednesday 15 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Violent wind. Heavy rain. Hailstones. Nothing about the weather yesterday did I have any control over. Above: Weather Wizard (Mark Mardon) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. We readily speak of acts of God. Earthquakes. Floods. Lightning. Events beyond human control.… Continue reading Synod
The road to the border
Sunday 12 July 2026 Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Above: Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland I sit at my laptop and I write. About places I have known, conversations I have heard and people I have observed in the hope that my own experiences are rich enough material. It is only 0900 but I have been up… Continue reading The road to the border
The big chill / The last station
Above: Lev Tolstoy railway station, Russia Wednesday 7 December 2025 Ankara, Türkiye Above: Ankara in winter “We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.” Kahlil Gibran Above: Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931) I sit in my room on a December evening in Ankara with the windows open to… Continue reading The big chill / The last station
A cacophony of sax and violins?
Sunday 7 December 2025 There is a familiar joke — one that sounds almost like a mondegreen (a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song) — That people don’t want “sex and violence” in schools, but everyone loves “sax and violins”. It is a playful pun, yes, but it captures something surprisingly… Continue reading A cacophony of sax and violins?
Invisible
Christian Friedrich Hebbel (1813 – 1863) was a German dramatist, lyric poet and novelist. Above: Friedrich Hebbel Besides his major works, the two tragedies Agnes Bernauer and Maria Magdalena, his love poems such as Sie seh’n sich nicht wieder (They Will Not See Each Other Again) and Wenn die Rosen ewig blühten (When the Roses Bloom Forever), nature poems such as Sommerbild (Summer Picture) and Herbstbild (Autumn… Continue reading Invisible
Sober reflections
Sunday 2 November 2025 Ankara, Türkiye I want to talk about the events of Friday 31 October when I witnessed the visit and public lectures of Professor Elliott Sober and a concert by musicians Sinan Ayyıldız and Tolgahan Çoğulu. In the same building I also visited an exhibition about Gaza called “Homeland“. I had the… Continue reading Sober reflections
Café de la Paix
Sunday 26 October 2025 Ankara, Türkiye The night is still heavy over Ankara when you wake, not to the call of inspiration, but to the high-pitched drone of a mosquito. It is 3:30 a.m. Outside, the world sleeps. Inside, something stirs — part irritation, part calling. The kind that brings a man to lace his… Continue reading Café de la Paix
The Oppressed Pedagogy
Above: Socrates teaching Sunday 19 October 2025 Ankara, Türkiye Education as Power Throughout history, the most dangerous person to any oppressive system has not been the warrior or the rebel — but the teacher. Throughout history, great thinkers have recognized that education is not merely about learning facts — It is about shaping the mind… Continue reading The Oppressed Pedagogy
This mediocre adventure
Journal de Jules Renard February 28, 1895 “I think that if I had to choose a profession all over again, I would not be a writer. I would be a peasant. A peasant doesn’t need to please anyone but the land. The land does not flatter in return. Writers grow hunchbacked over paper, hungrily awaiting… Continue reading This mediocre adventure