Solzhenitsyn, lying and the existential ridiculousness of Russian/Soviet life

Recent Posts

• My sister wanted to know about what soï we had in Arta, so begin the Megillah December 17, 2022
• “Turcos” mostly Arab Levantine Christians in LA. Earlier, ran into these guys waiting for another wedding to start… December 11, 2022
• Colombian women December 11, 2022
• This has to be one of the most religiously, socially, culturally and ethically damning maps I’ve ever seen December 9, 2022
• New Kitchen Wall Art: Belgrade, Gavrilo Princip, Vladimir Mayakovsy December 6, 2022
• My response to the Holy Kingdom of Croatia… December 6, 2022
• “I LOST my dashBOARD in the kaFAAAANA, and it was black as my soul and as my very HEAAAAART… zašto da živim za tebe sad sam, senka iz prošlosti sto uzalud te moli.” December 6, 2022
• “Interesting response to this poll. People hate Instagram… December 6, 2022
• Varvara St. Barbara’s Day December 4, 2022
• Patagonia, me, L and P December 4, 2022
• Nietzche: dangerous women, dangerous men December 4, 2022
• Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2022
• Novak, just ’cause November 4, 2022
• A short thread to @hannibulk––follow him November 3, 2022
• Andrew Tate Reveals Why He Converted To Islam: What’s the big surprise? November 3, 2022
• New Header Image: New York City Hot Dog Man 1963 October 30, 2022
• P.P.S. Shubh Diwali once more October 24, 2022
• Shubh Diwali to everyone! October 23, 2022
• From the seemingly eternal Forverts: “Di balade funem 11tn september” (“The Ballad of September 11”) September 11, 2022
• To all my fellow πανταχού παρόντες Neo-Greeks, à propos death of Elizabeth II: you don’t have to have a full, complete, instant opinion about every-thing… September 11, 2022
• The Queen (2006) September 10, 2022
• New Header Image: Full Moon over Hagia Sophia, Happy Byz New Year! September 2, 2022
• I think photo shoots and PR stunts like this are obscene and exploit the suffering of the Ukrainian people. August 12, 2022
• “Conan! What is best in life?” “To crush your enemies — See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!” July 11, 2022
• On anniversary of Sivas massacre, reposting a ten-year-old, loooong, confusing thread-posts on Alevi, Alawite, Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Shia––unfortunately, key video is no longer available. July 2, 2022
• Trying to keep love for Russia alive––desperately June 2, 2022
• Here’s to Croats’ eternal Viennese wetdreams June 1, 2022
• Finally, a useful parenting book May 29, 2022
• “Miçotakis yok”, μαλάκα… May 24, 2022
• May 1948 May 15, 2022
• Perhaps marginal, but equally disgusting, Israeli skeeviness at Shireen Abu Aqleh’ funeral… May 13, 2022
• Damn, who’s the new guitarist in Alcatrash from the Niko Moutsina show Καλό Μεσημεράκι (Good Afternoon)? April 14, 2022
• Solzhenitsyn, lying and the existential ridiculousness of Russian/Soviet life April 9, 2022
• Finally, a useful parenting book March 27, 2022
• Amy March 26, 2022
• Vanishing Yiddishisms March 24, 2022
• Oliver Jackson Cohen March 15, 2022
• Great to see this! March 3, 2022
• SurvivorGR February 26, 2022
• Oum Kulthum: 47 years without the Queen February 3, 2022
• New Header Image: Monica Vitti (1931 — 2022) February 2, 2022
• Dome of the Rock – قبة الصخرة – interior – Jerusalem/Al Quds January 28, 2022
• Snow in Istanbul, boy, cat January 24, 2022
• While we’re on Serbs and tennis… January 19, 2022
• Martin Luther King on the myths of capitalism January 17, 2022
• Ironic Serbs January 17, 2022
• This takes some real balls: National Arab Orchestra – Inta ‘Omri / إنت عمري January 17, 2022
• Greatest mahallades in NYC (not sure I agree, but…ok) January 15, 2022
• I finally went down to the World Trade Center, first trip since 2002 first anniversary — what a bummer… January 12, 2022
• Serbs, Djoković and hate, a tweet from my penpal P. in Belgrade January 12, 2022
• Whose are you? – Čiji si ti? January 11, 2022
• Photo: Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, Arcadia, Peloponnese, girl with distaff and spindle, date unknown (I’d say 1950s), my grandmother’s kilimia, my mother’s house January 11, 2022
• Novak and his cross January 10, 2022
• Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Child” January 10, 2022
• New header image: Bosnian woman and child in Sarajevo, 1947 January 10, 2022
• Bosnian History (@BosnianHistory) has fantastic pictures of Old Bosnia January 10, 2022
• The Nick Bakos urge to ask the beautiful Korean kid on the 7 train with the gorgeous eyes to put down his phone and pull down his mask for a minute…just a minute December 7, 2021
• St. Nicholas December 7, 2021
• New Header Image — St. Demetrius on this his saint’s day, El Greco’s hand obvious October 26, 2021
• New Header Image: Damascus 1930 October 19, 2021
• From Wong Kar Wai’s most charming and lilting and despairing love film (I know that there are millions who will screech in opposition horror), but sorry…it’s CHUNKING EXPRESS! Watch it! October 14, 2021
• New Palestinian film and documentaries on Netflix October 12, 2021
• Guess where in Greece these traditional women’s costumes are from October 11, 2021
• Fascinating map of languages in New York October 11, 2021
• P.S. to the disappearance of Armenian Tbilisi October 11, 2021
• Same shit as everywhere else: “Tbilisi’s largely forgotten and neglected Armenian heritage” October 11, 2021
• From Markaz: Anastasiadou’ C-town’s Rums — Rana Hadad October 10, 2021
• Where now for Greeks? October 10, 2021
• Mitsotakis, Merkel and Macron… France über alles October 8, 2021
• Albanian mother 1930 September 29, 2021
• The great Pyotr Nalich, with his maybe all-time classic, “Guitar” September 26, 2021
• The Guardian: Immigration and the two sides of Angela Merkel September 22, 2021
• Erdoğan: As they say in Spanish: ¡Qué oso! September 20, 2021
• Steve Salaita: “Palestine and the Anxiety of Existence” – “The reality of Israel disrupts the succor of modernity, putting the vileness of colonization into deep conflict with the comfort of redemption.” September 18, 2021
• “I’m Turkish…” September 17, 2021
• I declare 40 days of mourning September 14, 2021
• The Greco-Serbian bromance takes many forms: even obscurantist dumbness — from the Guardian August 23, 2021
• New Header Image: Federico García Lorca teaching his sister Isabel how to read music August 18, 2021
• First Ashura under the Taliban August 18, 2021
• The Feast of Booths August 17, 2021
• Anti-Blackness and transphobia are older than we thought… June 16, 2021
• The new Lorde video; wheew… for a sec I thought it was another part of Greek bicentennial celebrations June 15, 2021
• …or the joy of anyone who could dance for that matter June 15, 2021
• Jackson Heights: por bulerías June 14, 2021
• Banks: “We’re here for you” June 7, 2021
• “Equity, diversity and inclusion;” the next Israeli government. A time to hope? June 7, 2021
• Victimhood rarely guarantees a greater sense of humanity June 7, 2021
• Flamenco: tangos June 4, 2021
• Macedonians: wow, people are speaking out June 4, 2021
• Genocide June 4, 2021
• This must have been one of the stupidest things ever built in New York — and to compare it to the Villa Giulia in Rome… May 27, 2021
• The beautiful restoration of the beautiful bridge of Plaka in Epiros, which collapsed several years ago, has been granted the European Heritage Award. May 27, 2021
• Photo: Greek refugees in Greece, 1920s May 27, 2021
• Pirosmani May 27, 2021
• A great article on Palestine from the Guardian, by Nesrine Malik May 25, 2021
• Lubyanka/KGB monument May 25, 2021
• From George Antonius’ classic 1938 “The Arab Awakening.” May 23, 2021
• Albania Remains Hostage to Its Communist Past May 21, 2021
• New Header image: Oum Kalthoum, date and provenance unknown May 20, 2021
• Peter Beinart May 19, 2021
• Audience at an Oum Kalthoum concert, Cairo 1960 May 19, 2021
• Yey May 19, 2021
• Never-ending Nakba May 18, 2021
• Which Europeans think their culture is superior — gee, what a surprise… May 9, 2021
• Babel May 9, 2021
• White people go away May 8, 2021
• ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ  ΑΝΕΣΤΗ May 2, 2021
• Joseph Fiennes in “Risen” May 1, 2021
• New Header Image: Konstantin Savitsky, Monk 1897 March 28, 2021
• Thank God I’m not actually IN Greece right now — I gladly admit that I’d be fit to be tied and committed. March 27, 2021
• 1821-2021: Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall enjoy the Karagözilikia of the Bicentennial celebrations — masked, of course March 27, 2021
• Mosque in Greece vandalized in honor of “Greek” “Independence” March 27, 2021
• Two Hundred Years Ago Today Apparently: some Greek and Albanian-speaking Christians in southern Greece declared their secession from the Ottoman Empire… March 25, 2021
• Death and Exile: the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Muslims: 1821 – 1922, some suggested reading for Greek Independence Bicentennial March 25, 2021
• What “really” happened on March 25th :) March 25, 2021
• Makdisi brings us Césaire: “…the deepening of each particular, the coexistence of them all.” March 25, 2021
• سال نو مبارک to everyone, Happy New Year March 19, 2021
• New Header Image: Zinaida Serebryakova’s children, House of Cards, 1919 — lots of us feeling this way? March 8, 2021
• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, Harvest 1915 February 14, 2021
• Happy New Year! February 12, 2021
• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, artist’s sister Olga Lanceray, at Neskuchnoye, family estate near Kharkov, 1911 February 7, 2021
• New header image: Zinaida Serebryakova, artist’s sister Olga Lanceray, 1910 January 31, 2021
• BYE January 28, 2021
• Why it’s a big deal that Kamala Harris is VP January 24, 2021
• P.S. and you have to be a particularly willing kind of blinded to the reasons behind Serbian anger too… January 24, 2021
• Problem solved: how to clean out the image-swamp of our civilization: get together once every ten years… January 24, 2021
• Us: “…a people of relationship and dense social interaction…” January 24, 2021
• Brando in “Streetcar…” Oh, please…no January 23, 2021
• Novi Sad: January 21 – 23, the Racija January 23, 2021
• Photo: protestor in Omsk, January 23rd 2021 January 23, 2021
• “This is so me.” January 23, 2021
• “Russia will be free.” Can a critical mass of Russians actually get a critical degree of angry? January 23, 2021
• New Header Image: Zinaida Serebryakova — Зинаида Серебрякова — self-portrait, 1909 January 23, 2021
• Lies, lies, lies….the olympus view again January 20, 2021
• St. Nick’s, my parish church when in Peter January 18, 2021
• Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse located on the Pennine moors, is thought to have inspired Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights (1847). January 18, 2021
• Scumbags…forgive my French… When does Russia fucking grow up??? January 18, 2021
• Photo: Bosporus, winter 1954 January 16, 2021
• French imperialism, still rearing its ugly head, fomenting sectarianism and Islamophobia, promoting “elite minority supremacism”, and teaching French… January 16, 2021
• New home page image: Zinaida Serebryakova’s portrait of husband Boris January 16, 2021
• Neveska: protected from everything except the erasure of its historic name by the Hellenic Ministry of Hellenism January 16, 2021
• John Singer Sargent, Palazzo Grimani, Venice 1907 January 15, 2021
• Kiev and Kievans, decked out in gold and sun and honey — summer 2010 January 15, 2021
• My friend P’s sardonic Serbian humor: terrible government January 15, 2021
• My friend P’s sardonic Serbian humor: Peace on Earth January 15, 2021
• “Ok, Salman, where was the Prophet (PBUH) born?” January 15, 2021
• Cute Kitty Twitters: your cats are stupid. January 15, 2021
• Women from villages in the region of Ikonio (Konya) in the 1910s January 15, 2021
• Two of Edward Lear’s least striking and interesting drawings of 19th century Jiannena — just can’t find the others anywhere. January 15, 2021
• Photo: Selfie in Jiannena January 15, 2021