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From the archive: Vienna Pup 2008
Sitting in a coffee shop watching the final snow of the season. Lovely day. considering the lilting chaos of precipitation. Awaiting important feedback on my dissertation draft, had to walk away from it, too, as was an albatross, albeit, an invited one, but, need to step away and catch up on reading and some journal subs. Nothing else going on, which is a very good thing.

Head in the clouds, feet in the Rhine….

Just a quick note, halfway thru my Swiss workshop, my presentation is early tomorrow afternoon here in Basel, so need to get all my ducks in a row by then, looking good. Enjoying myself as much as possible, there is a Van Gogh exhibition of around 40 works here that I hope to take in tomorrow night. I really should as the Magritte exhibit I saw in Montreal was memorable for life, as the Maxfield Parrish 3x in San Diego, this would surely be. Then I have a late night Friday train to Brussels where I meet up with Bart on Saturday morning/afternoon. Will stay with him till Tuesday/Wednesday when I leave for Belfast. It’s going fast!!! Peace, out.

This timely debut by Porochista Khakpour is an important work of fiction that helps bring the current Western mindset into deeper understanding of Iranian thought. Despite its fictional foundation, the book is rooted solidly in Iranian culture, and its characters dreamily pulled from one of the planet’s longest raging fires. Read it and be better off in the realms of compassion and tolerance toward those hapless persons caught in the post-9/11 global struggles for nationalism, religion, and cautious yet respectable appropriation of personal freedoms amidst Western values.