CHRONICLES archives the successive newsletters.
Or What’s the Appropriate 15th-Century Term for “Weekend”? THE MIDDLE AGES I dearly love that term. What other historical term covers, in three easy-to-learn words, more or less one millenium of recent Western culture. What other term implies that the millenium in...
Or All Work and No Play… This time, no amateur philosophizing, no more fooling around. Introducing the fully illustrated newsletter (which means I can substract nine thousand words and still get away with it). Started in the evening, after spending the day reworking...
Or Vivacissimo Con Violenza We have a friend who sings at the opera. Whenever we can, we go to see him sing, so a few weeks ago we were in snowbound Besançon, to see Puccini’s Tosca. You know the end of the story. Tosca, after stabbing Scarpia, and wrenching...
Or the View Over Imalogos Recently, I said (quite) a few words as a totally unqualified commentator about the recent cataloging of standing stones in the Neuchâtel region for a local radio. (No, I don’t know what I said, I never listen to broadcasts, preferring to...
Or Fan Letters and Flights of Fancy It seems like every time I go somewhere, I end up somewhere else. My mind is like a toddler in a mall, always wandering off and getting lost… I have an internal PA system constantly reminding me to come to the information booth to...
Or George Washington’s Boots, Gandalf in the Back Seat, the Wings of Angels and a Workshop in Bristol. Just finished reading a book entitled “The World through Blunted Sight” by Patrick Trevor-Roper Despite a rather hokey foray into the symbolism of eyesight (I always...
Is Actually Looking Forward Any excuse is a good excuse to set a milestone here and there on the road. In a world where it’s easy to confuse well-being with monotony, every mark you can leave that fixes a moment in time is worth making. About two years ago, I wrote «...
Or When No News is… Just No News Ever have that feeling that you might not make it to the next gas station? It seems like my engine has stuttered to a halt, but I’m at the top of a long slope, like those ones you get in the Southwest USA, where the road seems to drop...
Or a Long Story Short… Just back from Bruges. Hardly an abandoned city, even in December it is crammed to overflowing with tourists. The most fun was going through the city with The Abandoned City in hand, trying to figure out where everything was again. If Copenhagen...
Or When Margin is Horizon by Another Name… Never one to miss an opportunity to let someone else write the newsletter… this time Viggo Mortensen is doing it for me. Following is the original preface from the new book, reproduced with his permission. In the Margins With...
Or Hitchhiking to Byzantium A few weeks ago, we (yes, we do manage to coerce our son into accompanying us - occasionally. Privately, I believe he only accepts when he’s sure we won’t bump into any of his classmates.) were strolling through the streets of Lucca, when...
Or Falling off the Edge of the World DOCUMENTARY FILM SHOOT: CONCLUDED DAY 11: INTO THE WEST The tides and B.C. Ferries wait for no man, so it is wise to leave early for Horseshoe Bay. As it is, we are there in plenty of time, but too early for the Starbucks at the...