surma

Recent Posts

• Kashmir: “The city from where no news can come” – Agha Shahid Ali
• Kashmir: “The Collaborator”
• Macedonia: Happy now? You and your friends in the 4th grade…
• Hasan Minhaj, surprisingly ‘meta’ about his own work
• And…also August 15th: a day to remember one of the great crimes of 20th century history
• Dormition — two old posts — one me snarky about modern Catholicism; the other Rebecca West on Dormition fresco at Gračanica
• “…I loved language and turns of phrase and what they could mean…”
• “Now the order is, the more commotion, the better; the more Hong Kong panic, the better; it won’t be a good show if no bullet is fired.”
• Guardian: “UK should give British nationality to Hong Kong citizens, Tugendhat says”
• Times: Inside Kashmir, Cut Off From the World: ‘A Living Hell’ of Anger and Fear
• The Dying Art of Instruction in the Digital Classroom — Tim Parks — NYRB
• Manet, modernity, beauty
• Glad to see my Naples getting the attention and affection it deserves
• Good Russia news?
• From NYRB: India
• Hong Kong: had told you so,as back as 2015
• P.S. Yugoslavia money quote
• From NYer: Yugoslavia, “…the idea that political alternatives can exist, however briefly.”
• Why hasn’t Wong Kar-Wai said anything?
• Hong Kong: surprised at protestors’ ballsiness and persistence; and “Ten Years”
• “Sholay” — in New York? Dunno where…
• Ya Khoda already.
• From the Times: “Crocodiles Went Through a Vegetarian Phase, Too”
• Treaty of Versailles — from the Times
• Shvuyes (from 2012)
• Pentecost 2019 (2012 repost)
• Proud to be “a citizen of nowhere”
• Spain and Turkey — Elif Shak in the Guardian: “…one type of “benign” nationalism has dangerously inflamed another to stoke a vicious conflict.”
• Like I needed another reason to love Madrid
• From the Gita: “Freedom is union with the deathless”
• The Saturday of Lazarus
• From Apollo: Hagia Sophia
• I’m from Queens.
• Sweetest Italian waitress
• Excellent review of what seems like excellent book on Brexit: “Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain” – Fintan O’Toole
• NYTimes: “Novak Djokovic Defeats Rafael Nadal for His 7th Australian Open Title”
• surma
• So, I guess it was the least we could do…
• “Apna Time Aayega” — Anybody else waiting for the opening of this film with as bated a breath as mine?
• Wanna go ice-skating…
• Sorry…but is this something to be proud of?
• St. Nicholas repost from a while ago: “They’re human beings” — December 6th
• What a great guy….
• “Two Catalonias”
• “He walks away, the sun goes down…”
• Yes! Finally! Oum Kulthum film!
• Portugal Dared to Reject Austerity, and It Has Paid Off By — LIZ ALDERMAN
• “Aux armes, citoyenes…”
• Interesting — if a little unfair — video from the NYer: “How Millennials Became the Selfie Generation | Annals of Obsession”
• Cool: “Caring for Georgia’s Old Wooden Mosques”