Anti-Rant

Yesterday, on my way to work again, I was crossing Vassileos Konstantinou, the street which, further down, goes past the ancient stadium. The only approaching traffic was a small truck signalling a left-hand turn. As I was further up the street, after the intersection, I decided it was safe to jaywalk. But the driver decided [...]

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Regret

Sometimes, when we stopped in the doorway of a room, one of us entering, the other leaving, we would step into each other’s arms, as if it were a chance meeting and we didn’t live together in such a small house. Other times, in the twilight of late afternoon, lying next to each other in [...]

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The Last Page

He has a book with countless pages, beautiful sheets of transparent rice paper, the kind once used to protect frontispieces from yellowing. They are so delicate that each one tears off when he turns it. He is meant to write or draw on them, but for now he only likes to feel them between his [...]

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The Collective Solipsism

The time has come for my first rant here.
Today as I was walking down my street, I was sort of hit by a car.
I came to a corner, and this young guy drove past. When he had passed, I started to cross, but he suddenly and quickly began to go in reverse. I didn’t have [...]

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Ron Sexsmith

Earlier I wrote about meeting Ron Sexsmith. One of the reasons I decided to follow him and catch up to him was that on his first record he says, at the beginning of one of his songs, “Is it rolling? Oh, OK. Sorry.” He says it in one of the most unassuming voices that I [...]

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Uneasy Rider

About a year ago, I came across a site that hosted photos and writing by some “Elena” who liked to ride her motorcycle through the empty streets of Chernobyl.
Today I came across a thread that pretty much settles it that she was lying about a lot of things. Nevertheless, the pictures are still great to [...]

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A Downright Moron

“When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, [...]

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Another by Gatsos

After the last post, I was rummaging around and I found some translations I had done of Nikos Gatsos. This one is a poem, one of two found in the edition of Amorgos, although it is not actually a part of that poem.
ELEGY
In the fire of your eyes God must once have smiled
Spring must have [...]

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Goodnight, Kemal

Perhaps the greatest Greek song lyricist was Nikos Gatsos (1911-1992). In his entire life, he only published one volume of poetry, Amorgos (1943), which nevertheless was extraordinarily influencial for its use of surrealism with Greek elements. The rest of his life was devoted to theatrical translations, especially of Lorca, and to writing lyrics for composers [...]

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Too melancholy for words

Anything I could say has already been more eloquently expressed here.

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One more coincidence

For a while last year I kept seeing a Greek theatre actor named Dimitris Katalifos in various parts of Athens. I had recently seen him in an excellent production of Glengarry Glen Ross, playing the role of Shel Levene. He has also played the title role in Cavafy and has a part in the recent [...]

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(Coincidence)3

I recently read Oracle Night and I've been dipping into The Art of Hunger lately. Since I'm on a Paul Auster kick at the moment, I'll write about another coincidence. Or rather, a series of coincidences.
One day a couple of years ago, I was browsing around in the big Eleftheroudakis bookshop, near the English books. [...]

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