Far away
The cattle is furrier
The mountains are sharper
The birds cry louder
The houses are homelier
And the women
All about: dream
When I was elected President of the United States
A few nights ago, I dreamed that I was elected President of the United States. Not an unusual dream, as the job of the most powerful person in the world is naturally appealing to the subconscious apparatus that processes our experiences while we sleep. And given the condition of our world, it is no surprise ...
Reading: A Dream by Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was a hero of Russian literature, and not just for the famous Doctor Zhivago. He translated Goethe, Schiller and Shakespear and published influential books of poetry, including his breakthrough 'My sister, Life'. The English Wikipedia page on Pasternak is has lots of details that I am not going to mention here. I read ...
What is needed?
Some call it the greed at the heart of the capitalist system, others call it the impossibility of infinite profit on a finite planet, still others call it the dead-urge of our entire industrial civilization. What we can - and should - all agree on, is that we are heading towards the biggest disaster in the ...
July 16. The Cave from my dream.
I am supposed to take the ferry to Vladivostok today, but "due to natural disaster" it has been postponed. I receive the email from the friendly Dongchun ferry employee on time, and I'm happy about it. Now I can go hiking Soraksan with Malia and Andrea. I wonder what the "natural disaster" would have ...
April 16. Buenavista Coffee.
Buenavista coffee beans, dried on the groundDays begin with a cup of Buenavista coffee in a small tienda artesenal and some empanadas to bite on. I look for a place in the shade and write. Today, I work on my novel again, after many weeks. I'm a bit worried I can't repair the narrative anymore ...
February 10. Pasteleria and abstractions.
There are very good Pasteleria's in Lisbon, and the coffee is very cheap. I can work fast without caring too much about quality, about what the reader might think. I can't put the bricks of words together when I know what the building must look like. I can't guarantee you the building isn't going to ...
February 7. Adamastor and the human condition.
In Lisbon don't miss the Miradoura Adamastor. Adamastor, a great Portuguese discoverer, an icon of the empire that has been. His statue looks out over the Tejo now, and there are always young people drinking and laughing in the square of the Miradoura. The sun heated up the scene, a drunk Scottish boy mooched about ...