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?
Tag: music
Lament of the Akedah
Saturday 6 December 2025 Ankara, Türkiye There are stories humanity tells itself when the world grows too large to understand. Among the oldest, the Akedah — the Binding of Isaac — stands as a wound passed from generation to generation. A father raises a knife over his own child, convinced that the divine has demanded… Continue reading Lament of the Akedah
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
Candle in the wind
Friday 18 April 2025 (Good Friday) Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland On this day in the predominantly Christian nation of Switzerland there is little that anyone can do today. Above: Flag of Switzerland Shops and businesses and cinemas are all closed to commemorate the execution of Christ by crucifixion on Golgotha (Calvary) outside the walls of… Continue reading Candle in the wind
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
The winds of change
(Part 2 of “Peace of Mind” / Part 1 of “The road to Rorschach“) Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Sunday 23 March 2025 We can’t go on any more with this notionJust saving up to buy a ball and chainSeems it’s all arranged.You can’t buy time and you can’t buy emotion What have you and I… Continue reading The winds of change
Invention of self
“Life is other than what we write.“ André Breton, Nadja (1928) Friday 7 March 2025 Landschlacht, Schweiz Above: Landschlacht, Canton Thurgau, Switzerland Literature is both a mirror and a chisel: One reflecting the world as it is. The other carving out the world as it could be. This blog may not be literature, but the… Continue reading Invention of self
Another season
Sunday 16 February 2025 Sometimes words are like tears. Sometimes they quietly emerge from out of the corners of our perception. At other times they pour out of us like the torrent of my rushing river. And there are times when they cannot flow. My research on this calendar day has drawn me to 1923.… Continue reading Another season