Thomas Wyatt: The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar / Petrarch: Amor che nel penser mio vive e regna

February 9, 2015, 2:51 am

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Petrarch: Canzoniere and Trionfi: Italian miniaturist, manuscript (Plut. 141.1), c. 1463 (Medicea Laurenziana, Florence)

The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar

...and in myn herte doeth kepe his residence

...into my face preseth with bold pretence

...and therin campeth spreding his baner

She that me lerneth to love & suffre

...and will that my trust & lust negligence

...be rayned by reason shame & reverence

...with his hardiness taketh displeasur

Wherewithall unto the herte forrest he fleith

...leving his entreprise with payn & cry

...and ther him hideth & not appereth

What may I do when my maister fereth

...but in the feld with him to lyve & dye

.....for goode is the liff ending faithfully 

Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542): The longe love that in my thought doeth harbar (text from Egerton MS. 2711, British Museum)

Petrarch: Canzoniere and Trionfi: Italian miniaturist, Incunable (inc. Ven. 546), 1470 (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice)

      Amor che nel penser mio vive e regna
e ’l suo seggio maggior nel mio tène,
talor armato ne la fronte vène,
ivi si loca, et ivi pon sua insegna.
      Quella ch’amare e sofferir ne ’nsegna
e vòl che ’l gran desio, l’accesa spene,
ragion, vergogna e reverenza affrene,
di nostro ardir fra sé stessa si sdegna.
      Onde Amor paventoso fugge al core,
lasciando ogni sua impresa, e piange, e trema;
ivi s’asconde, e non appar più fòre.
      Che poss’io far, temendo il mio signore,
se non star seco in fin a l’ora estrema?
ché bel fin fa chi ben amando more.

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374): Amor che nel penser mio vive e regna, in Canzoniere: Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta (codice Vaticano 3195)

 

 

Francisci Petrarchae: Poetae laureati, epitome virorum illustrium: Italian miniaturist, manuscript (Ms. Latin 6069F), 1379 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)

 

Jeanne de Boulogne, Duchess of Berry: Hans Holbein the Younger, 1524; black and coloured chalks, 39.6 x 27.5 cm (Kupferstichkabinett, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)

Battle of Anghiari (Tavola Doria):Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-05, oil on panel, 85 x 115 cm (formerly private collection, Munich; now lost)


 

Portrait of Anna Meyer:Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1526; black and coloured chalks, 39.1 x 27.5 cm (Kupferstichkabinett, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)

Group of riders in the Battle of Anghiari:Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-04, black chalk, white highlights, 160 x 197 mm (Royal Library, Windsor)

Lady Elyot: Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532-33; chalk, pen and brush on paper, 28 x 20.9 cm (Royal Collection, Windsor)



Rearing horse:Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-04, red chalk and pencil, 153 x 142 mm (Royal Library, Windsor)

Jane Seymour: Hans Holbein the Younger, 1536-37; black and coloured chalks on paper, 50 x 28.5 cm (Royal Collection, London)

Studies of Leda and a horse:Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-07, black chalk, brush and ink on paper (Royal Library, Windsor)


 

Portrait of Lady Mary Guildford: Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1527; black and coloured chalks, 55,2 x 38,5 cm (Kupferstichkabinett, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)

Study of battles on horseback and on foot:Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-04, pen and ink on paper, 145 x 152 mm (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice)

Head of a Warrior ('The Red Head'):Leonardo da Vinci, 1504-05, red chalk on brownish paper, 226 x 186 mm (Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest)

The Battle of Anghiari (detail):Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-05, black chalk, pen and ink, watercolour on paper, 452 x 637 mm  (Musée du Louvre, Paris



Head of a Woman: Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1522, drawing (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

  
Battle Scene: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1504, pen and ink on paper, 179 x 251 mm (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

 

  
Kneeling Female Nude in Profile (recto): Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1503-04, pen and brown ink on paper partly prepared in red, 258 x 153 mm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

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Primacy

February 10, 2015, 6:20 am

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Kristen and @maddieziegler: image via sia @Sia, 9 February 2015

 Kristen Wiig and @maddieziegler giving TOTAL BOSSNESS: image via sia @Sia, 8 February 2015

Kristen Wiig and Maddie Ziegler perform with Sia at the Grammys: photo byFrank Micelotta/REX via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

Mystery of Baboon Apathy -- Have the Grammys Done It?

Zoologists are puzzled by the strange behaviour of hamadryas baboons at the Emmen zoo in in the Netherlands. Usually, they are very active and spread over the whole playing area. But this week they appear to have been struck by mass apathy, sitting still, huddled together in fear and hardly eating: photo by Vincent Jannink/AFP via The Guardian, 2 August 2013

Spooked baboons baffle Dutch zoo in Emmen: BBC News Europe, 2 August 2013

Staff at a zoo in the Netherlands say they are baffled by their baboons, who have spent days sitting still, huddled together in fear and hardly eating.

The behaviour started on Monday evening, and only now are the 112 baboons becoming their normal, active selves again, said a biologist at Emmen Zoo.

The zoo still has no idea what spooked the hamadryas baboons, but it is a good sign that some are now eating apples, biologist Wijbren Landman said.

The zoo last saw such hysteria in 2007.

"What frightened them? We don't know, it's a mystery. There have been many suggestions -- an earthquake, escaped snakes, aliens, thunder," Mr Landman told BBC News.

"The other animals here are OK -- they have lemurs, elephants and kangaroos as neighbours, and they show no sign of panic."

The baboons took to the trees in fear... and stayed there: photo by Emmen Zoo via BBC News Europe, 2 August 2013 

Emmen lies in the north-eastern Netherlands, near the German border.

Mr Landman said he had consulted a French baboon expert who had witnessed such baboon hysteria in the wild, triggered by awareness of a predator. But the French expert said such hysteria had not lasted as long as in the Emmen case.

"The first deviation we saw was on Monday evening," Mr Landman said.

We were going to bring them to the night enclosure -- it normally takes a minute for all 112 to enter, but it took more than an hour to get them all inside. Then the next morning it was a problem to get them out, and then they were immediately sitting in the trees and on the rocks doing nothing at all."

He said some males in the hierarchy must have got frightened for some reason, and the rest of the baboons followed their lead.

According to Mr Landman, it is unlikely they would have been spooked by a fox, as the zoo is in the city centre, and they are used to seeing herons flying low over their enclosure, so a bird of prey is also an unlikely cause.

The Emmen baboons had similar scares in 1994, 1997 and 2007 and some would have experienced the previous hysteria, as hamadryas baboons can reach the age of 30, Mr Landman said.

Hamadryas Baboons in Awash National Park, Ethiopia: photo by BBC NHU/Matt Pines via The Guardian, 18 July 2012

 Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas), Madrid Zoo: photo by Manuel González Olaechea y Franco, 2007



Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas), Brooklyn Prospect Park Zoo: photo by Wally Gobetz, 28 April 2007



 Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas): photo by davidbuttle, 16 October 2011

Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas): photo by davidbuttle, 16 October 2011

 Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas): photo by davidbuttle, 16 October 2011

 Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas): photo by davidbuttle, 16 October 2011

 Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas), Singapore Zoo: photo by Li3, 18 January 2010

Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas), male, Singapore Zoo: photo by Li3, 18 January 2010

 Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas), Antwerp Zoo: photo by Truus and Zoo, 27 March 2010

Pink ladies, fright wigs and butt cheeks

Sia, Rihanna and Madonna shocked and awed at the 2015 Grammy awards: photo: Guardian composite, 8 February 2015

Grammys 2015: Madonna's bum eclipses Rihanna's 'toilet doll' dress on red carpet: Madonna’s bottom-scrunchie affair was the standout outfit on a night of fashion extremes which saw Sia channel Cousin It and Rihanna cover up: Brigid Delaney, The Guardian, 8 February 2015

There were a lot of standout outfits at the Grammys this year, but Madonna’s bottom-scrunchie affair may safely be described as the most gasp-worthy.

The elasticised band clutched the southern side of her butt cheeks, pushing them up and out and emphasising their Pilates peachiness.

The bottom scrunchie –- in case it didn’t make enough of an impact –- was matched with fishnet stockings, thigh-high leather boots with silver spiked heels, and biceps-high black gloves.

It was a look that said “German beer wench crossed with Weimar Republic cabaret crooner”. It also said “matador crossed with Mad Max” and “I’m 56, what of it?”

While Madonna was all flash and dash, performers such as Sia and Rihanna went the other way, covering up and over themselves with wigs and acres of fabric.

Sia channelled Cousin It in a fluffy white triangular wig reminiscent of roofing insulation remnants. Only her mouth –- wearing a fetching bright, red lipstick -– and nose remained visible.

She was accompanied (or “supported” as some websites had it) by child doppelganger Dance Moms’ Maddie Ziegler.

Then there was Rihanna. Her pink Giambattista Valli creation was a gorgeous, vivid colour but its high waist and full skirt resembled the "toilet dolls" sometimes sold, in days of yore, at regional craft markets.

Bare your bum, cover your body and face entirely – it was a night of glorious extremes at the Grammys.

We are real, these are our real faces

Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), Jigokudani hot spring, Nagano, Japan: photo by Yosemite, 2005

A Japanese snow monkey relaxes in a hot spring in the Jigokudani valley in northern Nagano Prefecture in Japan. The macaques descend from the forests to the warm waters of the hot springs in the mornings, and return to the security of the forests in the evenings: photo by Nick Ut/AP, 11 February 2012

Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata), Jigokudani Onsen, Yamanouchi, Nagano Prefecture, Japan: photo by Fg2, 25 February 2006

Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) (Nihon zaru) soak in a hot spring (onsen), Jigokudani Yaen Koen (Snow Monkey Park), Yamanouchi town, Nagano, Japan: photo by edamame note, January 2010



Japanese Macaques (Macaca fuscata) (Nihon zaru) soak in a hot spring (onsen), Jigokudani Yaen Koen (Snow Monkey Park), Yamanouchi town, Nagano, Japan: photo by edamame note, January 2010

#Japanese #Macaque (#SnowMonkey) is the northernmost-living nonhuman primate, found at Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu: image via TravelExpo @TravelEXpo, 29 November 2014

Nature amazes: #Japanese #macaque thinks about taking dip in hot spring at Jigokudani Wild MonkeyPark, Nagano Woods: image via The Earth @myearthfriend, 31 January 2015

I Am Cousin It. This Is Not My Real Face. Be Afraid.

I am #Sia #GRAMMYs: image via Lisa Chang @MSLisaChang, 9 February 2015

Yeah, let's be clear, I'll trust no one You did not break me I'm still fighting for peace #ElasticHeart #Sia: image via Vanessa Aguilar @vanelli, 4 February 2015

This might be my real face

Oooh, this is why she never shows her face.. #Sia: image via Allysha Petkovic @AllyshaPetko, 6 February 2015

Sia #Sia Showing face or not, hit songwriter Sia heads to centre stage at Grammys as ... 623: image via Mary Smith @smitharyy, 8 February 2015

I am Cousin It and whoever's face it is, this is an Epic epic honor

Wigging out! @Sia and @maddieziegler have arrived at the #GRAMMYS #sia: image via Daily Front Row @DailyFrontRow, 8 February 2015

#Sia on the #GrammysRedCarpet. Fashion??? @Sia @alschaben: image via Cindy Hively @cindyhively, 8 February 2015 Los Angeles, CA

In person, this is even more bizarre. #GRAMMYS #Sia: image via Matthew Belloni @THRMattBelloni, 8 February 2015

This is what I do every time I'm in Anthropologie, too. #GRAMMYS #Sia: image via Matthew Murphy @MurphyMade, 8 February 2015

There's an SM58 back there. We swear. #GRAMMYS #Sia: image via Shure Incorporated @shureinc, 8 February 2015

 #Sia Sia Sia Wore A Massive Wig To The 2015 Grammys, Bow Down 566: image via Mary Smith @smitharyy, 9 February 2015

Pretty Flamingoes

Mating ritual of the James's Flamingo (Phoenicopterus jamesi); also known as the Puna Flamingo, it breeds on the high Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina: photo by Pedro Szekely, 19 August 2007

 

Flamingoes in Laguna Colorada, Ayuni, Bolivia: photo by Carlos Adampol Galindo, 23 February 2008

 

James's Flamingos at Laguna Colorada in Bolivia: photo by Valdiney Pimenta, c. 20 August 2007
 

Phoenocopterus jamesi (James's Flamingoes, aka Puna Flamingoes) on Laguna Colorada, Bolivia: photo by Sarah and Iain, 12 December 2006

Phoenocopterus jamesi (James's Flamingoes, aka Puna Flamingoes) on Laguna Colorada, Bolivia: photo by Sarah and Iain, 12 December 2006

Phoenocopterus jamesi (James's Flamingoes, aka Puna Flamingoes) on Laguna Colorada, Bolivia: photo by Sarah and Iain, 12 December 2006

Clouds of salt stirred by the harsh afternoon wind on Laguna Colorada, Bolivia: photo by rackyross, 11 January 2011



American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), National Zoo, Washington, D.C.: photo by Stevehdc, 2007

Lesser flamingos (Phenicopterus minor), Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania: photo by Charles J. Sharp, 2004

Lesser flamingos (Phenicopterus minor), Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania: photo by Charles J. Sharp, 2004

 

Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), Lisbon Zoo: photo by Alfonsopazpoto, 14 July 2005

 

Untitled (Warsaw, Masovian, Poland): photo by Dorota Marta (Sex Crime 1984), 13 July 2013

Untitled (Warsaw, Masovian, Poland): photo by Dorota Marta (Sex Crime 1984), 29 April 2013

Partying with Pink Ladies Everywhere

London, UK. Guests arrive at a Conservative party fundraising event at the Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair. They paid £1,500 a head to feast on a starter of smoked salmon with horseradish; a main course of confit of lamb neck with celeriac and a haggis sauce; and to finish, panacotta with rhubarb and mint oil: photo by Frantzesco Kangaris/for the Guardian, 9 February 2015

MT @Breaking3zero #swiss leaks #HSBC may have worked with arms dealers & diamond merchants and some dictators: image via Chitra Subramaniam @chitraSD, 8 February 2015

"We could be heroes" #Swiss leaks: image via Héctor Juanatey @héctorjuanatey, 8 February 2015

Interactive map showing how much money #HSBChas helped tax dodgers hide around the world: image via gmapsmania @gmapsmania, 9 February 2015

Not sure about this new #HSBC advert: image via James Martin @Pundamentalism, 9 February 2015

Rihanna: the Most Fabric on One Human award. One question – how much does this amount of frou frou weigh? Ri-Ri is up for the challenge of finding out. Her pink wedding-cake dress makes us happy: photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic via The Guardian, 9 February 2015

Sia performs on stage at the Palais Theatre in February 2011 in Melbourne, Australia: photo by Graham Denholm via The Guardian, 7 July 2014

No wonder the pink ladies could afford to sponsor that girls education they were evading tax #bbcpanorama #HSBCLeaks: image via Scott Holmes @scottlovesstuff, 9 February 2015

Lord Green to BBC's Richard Bilton: "I'm not prepared to make any comments on #HSBC''s business past or present": image via Ian Fraser @IanFraser, 9 February 2015

@EtonOldBoys I see Cameron is desperately trying to defend Lord Green #bbcpanorama: image via Noel McGivern @Good_Beard, 9 February 2015

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga at the Grammys: photo by Jason Merritt via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

Cheek-a-boo! Madonna at the Grammys: photo by Jason Merritt via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

Madonna … Making an entrance at the Grammys: photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

I Am Cousin It. Total Bossness.Goodnight.

Notoriously face-shy Sia arrives at the Grammys with Maddie Ziegler: photo by Jordan Strauss/AP via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

Sia (right) appears with her stand-in, dancer Maddie Ziegler: photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage via the Guardian, 9 February 2015

Epic epic honor. Kristen Wiig and  Bossing it up on the red carpet with my sister in arms @maddieziegler: image via sia @Sia, 8 February 2015

 "He purposely erased a lot of his own humanity” #LastDay #Warhol @tateliverpool (booking rec.): image via The Double Negative @TheDbleNgtve, 8 February 2015

Another face with trademark hair: photo by Nancy R Schiff via The Guardian, 9 February 2015

Sia: as unidentifiable as a unicorn bum. Sia and New York City's Gay Men's Chorus pose backstage during Logo TV's 'Trailblazers' at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in June 2014: photo by Andrew H. Walker via The Guardian, 7 July 2014

American Terror

February 12, 2015, 7:43 am

≫ Next: Craig Stephen Hicks, Angry White Men and Falling Down

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my name is yusor my husnand is deah my sister is razan we were killed by a terrorist called craig #ChapelHillShooting: image via @Elbhaery, 12 February 2015

The Face of American Terror

87% of U.S. mass shooting are committed by caucasians 13-56 but [shooters] are never called 'Terrorists'#ChapelHillShooting: image via Bipartisan Report @Bipartisanism, 12 February 2015

 

Every time I go at it with some GOP gun-nut on here, it's like they all have the same profile pic and it's THIS one: image via Pin Head @TomAdelsbach, 12 February 2015

Trayvon Martin mural by Sean Marshall; inspired by Shepard Fairey's Obama poster, Hamilton at Tuxedo, Detroit, 2013: photo by Camilo José Vergara, 23 October 2013 (Library of Congress)

#TeaParty folks have created a support page for the #ChapelHillShooting terrorist. Welcome to conservative America.: image via Bipartisan Report @Bipartisanism, 12 February 2015

Threats: image by Rania Khalek via The Electronic Intifada, 22 January 2015

This is absolutely disgusting and honestly makes me so scared. #ChapelHillShooting: image via Maria @Maria Aliaa, 12 February 2015

 

Reminder: News agencies decide which narrative they want to sell you. #ChapelHillShooting: image via JRehling @JRehling, 12 February 2015

Just in: We don't give a damn what the #ChapelHillShooting gunman's wife has to say about anything: image via Anonymous @occupythemob, 12 February 2015

BREAKING The #ChapelHillShootingwas not over a parking space. The killer had harassed the victims with a gun before: image via Bipartisan Report @Bipartisanism, 12 February 2015

Facebook pages "honoring" Hicks keep popping up. Like this one. Here are the admins too. #ChapelHillShooting: image via rabia chaudry @rabiasquareds, 12 February 2015

 

This is what a terrorist looks like #ChapelHillShooting: image via Anonymous @occupythemob, 12 February 2015

American Terrorist #Craig Hicks makes his first appearance in court on murder charges #ChapelHillShooting: image via Delonte @Delo_Taylor, 12 February 2015

The Victims

One of the #ChapelHillShooting victims was planning a charity trip to help Syrian refugees: image via World News Tonight @WNTonight, 12 February 2015

 

Deah Barakat's brother, Basem, 10, cries "I want to see him again, I didn't get to say bye"#ChapelHillShooting: image via TKP @tkpsky, 12 February 2015

 

#RIP .. They were recently married.. innocent students .. Murdered .. #ChapelHillShooting: image via Islamic Tweets @MuqeemAlii, 12 February 2015

 

Sorry this ugly world couldn't handle your beautiful dreams.#ChapelHillShooting: image via Humna Usmani @HumnaIsmani, 12 February 2015

 

A Hate Crime?

Report: Muslim victims' father calls deadly #ChapelHillShootinga hate crime: image via CBS News @CBSNews, 12 February 2015

 

but its ‘just a film’ right? #ChapelHillShooting: image via @sempiternal, 12 February 2015

Execution style: "He hates us for what we are"

Way of Holiness Church, 5258 Indiana Avenue, Chicago: photo by Camilo José Vergara, 2003 (Library of Congress)

from their engagement, to wedding, to heaven..together. <3 i="">3>#ChapelHillShooting: image via Yousef Saleh @fouseyTUBE 12 February 2015

 

 "He hates us for what we are," one of the #ChapelHillShooting victims had said of the shooter: image via Yousef Saleh @fouseyTUBE 12 February 2015

 #ChapelHillShooting: "My best friend was killed and I don’t know why": image via ABC News @ABC 12 February 2015

 

 #ChapelHillShooting: Namee Barakat embraces his wife Layla, parents of shooting victim Deah Shaddy Barakat: image via AJ+ @ajplus, 12 February 2015

Friend of #ChapelHillShootingvictim describes encounter with the gun-wielding neighbor: image via William Lafi Youmans @wyoumans, 12 February 2015

 

 The two sisters murdered yesterday, 21 and 19, with their parents. #ChapelHillShooting: image via rabia chaudry @rabiasquareds, 12 February 2015

 

“'he hates us for what we are and how we look," distraught father quoted his daughter as saying #ChapelHillShooting: image via Gaza Writes back @ThisIsGaZara, 12 February 2015

 "He took so much—from me, from this family, from this community."- Amira #ChapelHillShooting: image via Latoya Peterson @LatoyaPeterson, 12 February 2015 Washington, DC

 

They had such a beautiful and harmless soul. #ChapelHillShooting: image via I LIKE 5SOS AND FOOD 5@sose31d, 12 February 2015

 

Good evening @BarackObama U condemned #CharlieHebdo - when will U Condemn #ChapelHillShooting happening at your Soil?: image via Bea @Bea4Palestine, 12 February 2015

"They control the minds of the masses"

 

you all were quick to tweet political cartoons after charlie hebdo why stop there?? #ChapelHill #MuslimLivesMatter: image via aisling @gameofhorans, 12 February 2015

I'm reminded everyday of how sick this world we live in is. #MuslimLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter: image via Raneeeeeem @heyraneem, 12 February 2015

Hypocrisy in media reporting. #ChapelHill #MuslimLivesMatter: image via Abbas Hamideh @Resistance48, 12 February 2015

The vigil

Suzanne Askar with North Carolina State University students Safam Mahate and Nida Allam during a candlelight vigil for murder victims: photo by Al Drago/Corbis via The Guardianm 12 February 2015

North Carolina shooting victims remembered for their 'amazing spirit': Thousands gathered to pay tribute at vigil for three students who were gunned down on Tuesday, as crowd reminded that ‘Muslim lives matter’: Nicky Woolf in Chapel Hill, North Carolina or The Guardian, 12 February 2015

Thousands gathered on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on Wednesday night to pay tribute to three local students who were shot to death the night before.

Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her younger sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were killed on Tuesday evening in the couple’s apartment in a leafy suburb of Chapel Hill.

The assembled crowd, which included students from both UNC and North Carolina State University, as well as members of the surrounding community, numbered as many as 3,000 people, university officials confirmed.

1000s gathered in Chapel Hill to remember 3 Muslim Americans who were killed #ChapelHillShooting: image via MC HAMMER @MCHammer, 12 February 20

Brian Swift, a friend of Barakat’s and the president of his class at the dentistry school, told the Guardian that the turnout was “unbelievable.”

“If Deah were to see me now, he would give me a smack and tell me to put a smile on my face,” he added.

Many held candles, while students from the school of dentistry –- where Barakat was studying, and where his wife was set to enroll in the autumn -– wore their white coats in an act of solidarity.

Craig Stephen Hicks, who turned himself in to the police, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting deaths.

Deah Barakat with his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. All three were shot dead: photo supplied to The Guardian, 12 February 2015

The motive for the shooting is not yet known, but many, including Barakat’s family, have suggested that the murders may have been a hate crime.

After news of the attack broke, the hashtag “#MuslimLivesMatter” began trending on Twitter, and in a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Barakat’s sister Suzanne described the attack as an “execution-style murder.”

Barakat’s comments echoed those of Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the two women killed, who said he believes the killings were a hate crime, perpetrated against his daughters and son-in-law because they were Muslim.

Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Guardian earlier on Wednesday that his organization was joining the Barakats in calling for authorities to treat the attack as a hate crime.

The vigil crowd is easily in the thousands. #ChapelHillShooting: image via Colin Daileda @ColinDaileda, 12 February 2015

At the vigil, people stood in near-perfect silence in the clear, cold air, as friends and family lined up to pay tribute to the “amazing spirit” of the three victims, and to try and make sense of the horrific crime.

Yasmine Inaya, Razan’s best friend and classmate at North Carolina State University, referenced the hashtag that trended on Twitter after the attack. “Muslim lives matter. 

Black lives matter. All lives matter. Human lives matter,” she said.

Dr Omid Safi, the director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center, also addressed the crowd, ending his remarks with “love is more divine than hatred.” At that moment, the bell at the top of the university clock tower sonorously tolled the hour.

Thousands have gathered at the vigil as officials and victims' family members speak. #ChapelHillShooting: image via The Daily Tar Heel Historical Pics @dailytarheels, 12 February 2015

Barakat’s brother Farris made an appeal for calm. “Trust me, as a Muslim, I know: one act does not define a mass,” he said, adding “Do not fight fire with fire”.

After he spoke, a murmur of “Allahu Akhbar”–- an Qur’anic phrase spoken by Muslims meaning ‘God is great’ -– arose in solidarity and support from Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the crowd.

"Love prevails": image via Nicky Woolf @NickyWoolf, 12 February 2015

After the vigil, people left candles burning around the base of the two giant oak trees that dominate the quadrangle. A sign leaning against the trunk of one tree bore the names of the three victims, alongside the simple slogan “love prevails.”

 

Mohammed Dorgham, a childhood friend of Bakarat’s, told the Guardian that the turnout “showed the life Deah –- and Yusor, and Razan –- led.”

“Words can’t explain it,” he said. “But this turnout may have done.”

Namee Barakat, second left, father of shooting victim Deah Shaddy Barakat, kisses his wife Leila Barakat during a press conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday: photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via The Guardian, 11 February 2015

Craig Stephen Hicks, Angry White Men and Falling Down

February 14, 2015, 4:08 am

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What do we need? #MCFC #CTID #FallingDown: image via MCFC Nashville @MCFCNashville, 11 February 2015

North Carolina triple murderer Craig Stephen Hicks' first wife says he was obsessed with the 1993 Joel Schumacher film Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas as William "D-Fens" Foster, an angry white man on a maniacal sociopathic rampage.

The dark white-world wish-fulfillment fantasy in this popular Hollywood film was designed to tap a generalized social antagonism toward "reverse discrimination" and multiculturalism in the 1990s.  The film valorizes the frustrations and anger of the isolated "liberal" individualist, an engineer who's been put out of work in the nuclear defence industry, has marital difficulties and shows little patience with the traffic problems which crop up on LA freeways (of all places!); the film charts this new-age American hero's erratic, credibility-stretching reassertion of white privilege in a series of increasingly destructive stupid-macho acts, beginning with a more or less random assault upon a Korean shopowner, who has the audacity to charge him all of 85 cents for a can of Coca-Cola, while looking and acting extremely... "Korean".

Tasha Robinson, a critic reviewing the film for the site The A.V. Club, wrote:

"It's seemingly meant as a sort of dark comedy about the petty annoyances of life, and how they can accumulate and become so maddening that over-the-top cathartic violence seems like the only satisfying option. But Douglas' violent reaction to his surroundings, and the way the film treats virtually everyone around him as worthless, and presents his violence as the comedic payoff, turns it into a tone-deaf, self-pitying lament about the terrible persecution facing the oppressed majority in an era of political correctness and increasing multiculturalism. In its ugly, skewed world, almost everyone but this madman is dumb, incompetent, and offensive, and his only possible solution is to wipe a few of these losers off the face of the earth, then die. It's a profoundly hateful film disguised alternately (and erratically) as either tragedy or humor."

Did Craig Hicks see himself as the irascible, wronged and legitimately aggrieved American lone-wolf hero played by the Hollywood actor?

"A woman who lives near the scene described Hicks as short-tempered. 'Anytime that I saw him or saw interaction with him or friends or anyone in the parking lot or myself, he was angry,' Samantha Maness said of Hicks. 'He was very angry, anytime I saw him.'

"Hicks' ex-wife, Cynthia Hurley, said that before they divorced about 17 years ago, his favorite movie was 'Falling Down,' the 1993 Michael Douglas film about a divorced unemployed engineer who goes on a shooting rampage.

"'That always freaked me out," Hurley said. 'He watched it incessantly. He thought it was hilarious. He had no compassion at all,' she said."

-- AP, 15 February 2015

RT @OnePerfectShot: FALLING DOWN (1993) Director of Photography: Andrzej Bartkowiak Director: Joel Schumacher #dfens: image via Rich Ratner @RichRatner, 29 October 2014

It is clear from his Facebook page that Hicks, viewing the world from within his private fantasy bubble, considered religion a problem in general as well as a personal nemesis. The page includes no mention of parking issues. It does however contain strong hints as to Hicks' private conception of a remedy for the larger issues concerning him.

"Frequent posts about atheism and featuring anti-religion views appeared on a Facebook page in Hicks’ name, with a recent post reading: 'People say nothing can solve the Middle East problem, not mediation, not arms, not financial aid. I say there is something. Atheism.' One post also featured a photograph of a revolver on a scale bearing the caption: 'Yes, that is 1 pound 5.1 ounces for my loaded 38 revolver, its holster, and five extra rounds in a speedloader.' According to the page, Hicks studied as a paralegal at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, North Carolina, and was a supporter of 'Atheists for Equality.'"

-- IB Times, 11 February 2015

Saw a man walking down the middle of road between two lanes of traffic, smart suit, no coat. #DFens #fallingdown: image via Adam Moran @AdamMoran, 14 February 2013

Joel Schumacher, who directed Falling Down, had been regularly aiming his films at specific target audiences; most commonly, in his string of box-office successes immediately preceding Falling Down (Flatliners, The Lost Boys, St Elmo's Fire), at "generational" audiences composed largely of males in their late teens and twenties. He called "working with adults" a defining aspect of his moving on to do Falling Down."I felt that there was a critical mass building in culture of anger and rage," he told interviewer Chris Robergé of Tech after the film's 1993 release.  "In the last 12 years it was swept under the carpet while all of the problems kept getting worse and worse. Unlike in the 60s when most creative people were expressing their feelings, outside of African-American filmmakers and rappers and street art, I didn't see much going on. I wanted to be in people's faces about what was going on. In some ways I think that it's worse now than when we started making the film. Local news seems to be filled with these types of crimes. This sort of crime is on the rise in the country. Just last week there were two in D.C. and one in Memphis. I tried to put a face and a soul to these six o'clock news stories. This is the guy whose neighbors you see saying, `I don't understand. He was very nice.'"

Even very nice guys have bad traffic days, right?

You know its people like this clown that make me feel like Michael Douglas in #Fallingdown: image via Edward Browne Adam Moran @ER_Brwone, 20 January 2015

But it seems the real-life individual upon whom Schumacher based the Michael Douglas / "D-Fens" character was viewed in a somewhat different light by those who had actually known him: his mother and ex-wife, for example, suggested he had been not quite so "nice", perhaps, as the director would have it.  "Both of them," reported Tech, "thought that he was a somewhat frightening man with a propensity towards violence even before he begins his tragic trek across Los Angeles. Still, Schumacher insists, "'I thought that he has an Everyman quality. I didn't want him to be a lunatic.'"

Everyman good. Many butts in seats.

A similar confusion of fact and intent haunts the film, which attempts repeatedly to elicit a sort of sick sympathy for this character -- whose bad day starts, not with an exacerbated parking dispute, yet parked and exacerbated all the same, in a freeway traffic jam. Honk! Then later, logically enough... apocalyptic American Terrorist mayhem. When a pissed off nuclear engineer blows his wig, common sense and civilization watch out! It's like in the game of Risk: the best defense is a vigilant, aggressive offense.

#Risk Lands on #XboxOne and #PS4 Consoles: I remember playing the board game Risk growing up….: image via Technabob Ashley Romatowski @technabobAshRommatowski, 5 February 2015

Falling Down is tugged to and fro by more jagged reversals of sympathetic identification than perhaps any other film in cinematic history. The cause of the movie's deep confusion? Simple enough, to hear its creator tell it: this is Hollywood, not reality.  "First and foremost, I have to make some sort of entertainment. I don't like movies that are soapboxes. I felt that the movie was a good story with a western type formula... I feel that [the enraged protagonist] acts out a fantasy behavior. I think that audiences will be hard pressed not to identify with him. I think that people are conflicted. That's the purpose of the film. I think that it would be nice to do this, but we can't... I think we are a violent culture and there's a thin line between what's considered acceptable violence and what's considered unacceptable violence."

Fancy a 60 mile traffic jam that lasted 11 days?.... I'd have done a Michael Douglas in that #Fallingdown: image via James @Islandsnapper, 21 January 2015

Falling Down tries to have it both ways, wobbles back and forth across that thin line, now proposing itself as a serious drama about the plight of the ordinary decent hardworking average Joe turned righteous avenger, now as broad comedy portraying, with tongue no more than half in cheek, a cartoon psychokiller taking out his moment-to-moment rages on a series of predictable racial stereotypes (which is evidently the way Craig Hicks also envisions the game, though of course Craig's not Michael Douglas, he's a real player, and he's all too dead serious). 

To employ two of its old reliable clichés, Hollywood has been having its cake and eating it too while getting away with murder for a good while now.

"Un dia de Furia" #Fallingdown qué #peliculon: image via Mariano Rinaldi @marianoorinaldi, 8 February 2015

The Douglas character in Falling Down doesn't waste any time doing depth analytics on the sociology of the neighbourhoods he invades. Exactly how much Hicks might have known about his young Chapel Hill victims is unclear. Did he know that Deah Barakat was a Syrian-American of Palestinian origin, who along with other UNC dentistry students was actively involved in arranging a humanitarian mission to Turkey, to treat Syrian refugees as part of a project organized by UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry and the Syrian-American Medical Society? Did he know that Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha were terrific students, lovely generous happy talented young women, and Palestinian-Americans? Did he know how these young people spent their time, when they were together in the condominium with friends? Did Craig Hicks suspect they were up to something sinister -- mapping out a cunning parking plot, say? Or scheming up frightening new ways of providing free dental care to the indigent?

Friend of #ChapelHillShootingvictim describes encounter with the gun-wielding neighbor: image via William Lafi Youmans @wyoumans, 12 February 2015

There can be no question as to whether the killer understood that these people were devout Muslims; that much he would have had to immediately recognize, every time he appeared, armed and angry, at their door, which was decorated with a prayer in Arabic -- the sort of tense encounter which, according to witnesses, occurred every month or so.

Way of Holiness Church, 5258 Indiana Avenue, Chicago: photo by Camilo José Vergara, 2003 (Library of Congress)

But it seems as though Craig Hicks wasn't one to care much about prayer, in any form.

 "He hates us for what we are," one of the #ChapelHillShooting victims had said of the shooter: image via Yousef Saleh @fouseyTUBE 12 February 2015

"Imad Ahmad, who lived in the condo where his friends were killed until Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha were married in December, said Hicks complained about once a month that the two men were parking in a visitor's space as well as their assigned spot.

"'He would come over to the door. Knock on the door and then have a gun on his hip saying 'you guys need to not park here,' said Ahmad, a graduate student in chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill. 'He did it again after they got married.'

"Both Hicks and his neighbors complained to the property managers, who apparently didn't intervene. 'They told us to call the police if the guy came and harassed us again,' Ahmad said."

-- IB Times, 11 February 2015

@ MarkArum This mornings commute was like the movie #fallingdown wiyj #MichaelDouglas I wanted to go on a rager.: image via Average Joe @Thompsonetti, 22 January 2015

On the occasion of the murders, Hicks may have been surprised. There were some differences to be seen in the target environment. Deah Barakat and Yusor Abu-Salha were now married (they'd wed in late December, just six weeks before). Yusor's younger sister Hazan was visiting, evidently using one of the designated visitors' parking spaces outside the condominium. There is some question as to whether Hicks may have regarded these spaces as his own.

"Police have not said how Hicks got inside the condominium, but on Wednesday afternoon there were no visible signs of damage to the door, which was affixed with orange stickers warning of biohazardous material inside. A wooden placard bearing Arabic script that translates to 'Thanks to God' hung over their doorbell."

-- AP, 15 February 2015

 
Craig Stephen Hicks: photo by Zuma/Rex via The Guardian, 13 February 2014

 

Had Craig Hicks perhaps also seen the film American Sniper -- another, more recent popular fantasy vehicle featuring American Terror (the export version) and vigilante-style Muslim-stalking spiked with execution-from-a-distance -- and empathized with its murderous hero's summary method of dealing with Muslims?

This much is certain: if Craig Hicks made his bright young Muslim neighbours nervous, they had cause to be fearful; perhaps greater cause than they, even in their darkest private moments of secret distrust of the American Dream, could have guessed -- committed optimists though they seemingly all were, can they never have had a single such doubtful moment, looking as they looked, being what they were?

By looking the way they looked, and being what they were, and living so near to him, they were playing a mortal game of risk.

Playing #risk. Im out. Quote of the game: "let's talk about mice- mice conspiring. Little mice get caught in traps!": image via Ashley Romatowski @AshRommatowski, 13 February 2015

"Search warrants show the suspect in the shooting deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina had an arsenal of a dozen firearms in the home he shared with his wife, along with a large stash of ammunition.

"Records filed in Durham County superior court on Friday list items recovered by police from the Chapel Hill condominium of Craig Stephen Hicks, the 46-year-old charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The warrants show that three handguns were recovered from the Hicks home, in addition to a pistol the suspect had with him when arrested. Also listed are two shotguns and seven rifles, including a military-style AR-15 carbine. Police also recovered numerous loaded magazines and cases of ammunition. Eight spent shell-casings were found in the neighboring apartment of the young couple killed."

-- The Guardian, 13 February 2015

Rational people stayed out of this fellow's way, maybe quaked a bit inwardly when unfortunate enough to be in his presence, for when the bleak, chill winds of American Terror blow, the little leaves clatter meekly in the campus condo parking lots, as before an enchanter fleeing.

American Cinematic Icon Clint Eastwood, like a BOSS #ChrisKyleDay #Feb2 #American Sniper: image via Infidel @HeidiL_RN, 31 January 2015

But the risk game's not quite over.  Let us return across the rank, bitter field of ashes and aloes beneath which the soul of this country now lies buried, to consider again the grim, compulsive power of its media images: had the killer, like so many other frustrated and enraged white men with free-floating persecution complexes, counting over the hated names, fondling the beautiful weapons in the neatly kept gun lockers, been affected by, even, perhaps, derived some deranged sense of empowerment from the most recent wave of Islamophobia in America incited by publicity surrounding the atrocities of Islamic State?  

Totally crushed it! (I'm yellow) @kenshreds @zedd @engineerskinny #risk #worlddomination: image via Arkady Zaslavski @ ArkadyZaslavski, 12 February 2015

"Leaders from UNC, N.C. State, Duke and North Carolina Central University spoke at a news conference Wednesday evening on the UNC campus and stressed that it was too soon to know whether the students were victims of a hate crime.

"Imam Abdullah Antepli, a Duke University Islamic leader, said he had 'full trust' that law enforcement officials would determine the killer’s motives. But asked if tensions had been higher recently, he said, 'Absolutely.'

“'This incident immediately revealed the vulnerability of the Muslim community and the image and reputation of Islam as a religion and Muslims as people in American society at large,' he said. 'There are several hundred Muslim families in the greater Chapel Hill area, including myself, and we didn’t send our children to school today. We wanted to know what was going on.'

from their engagement, to wedding, to heaven..together. <3 i="">3>#ChapelHillShooting: image via Yousef Saleh @fouseyTUBE 12 February 2015

"It was logical for some people to hear about the shootings and wonder if recent news involving the Islamic State -- including the deaths of a Jordanian pilot and an American hostage –- could lead to some sort of reprisal against Muslims, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

#FallingDown was on this morning, always love watching this flick. #Joel Schumacher was quite the innovator!: image via Grson Cedillos @GersonCedillos, 10 March 2015

“'I think it’s perfectly natural to guess that this is anti-Islamic,' Potok said in a telephone interview Wednesday. 'Not just because the three victims are Muslim, but because there has been so much terrible news in recent days about extremist Muslims.'”

-- Washington Post, 11 February 2015

#DFENS #FALLINGDOWN: image via CRY HAVOC! @jonnydisaster, 7 February 2015

Mourners stand during the funeral service for the three students killed in Chapel Hill: photo by Chuck Liddy/Zuma Press/PA Images via The Guardian, 13 February 2015

Love Songs

February 15, 2015, 5:45 am

≫ Next: Camilo José Vergara: When Everything Fails (Repurposing Salvation in America's Urban Ruins)

≪ Previous: Craig Stephen Hicks, Angry White Men and Falling Down

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Six months after crushing war, Gaza: "Scenes of misery are one of the few things in abundance": image via Kenneth Roth @KenRoth, 14 February 2015

I  Desolation

The storm lashed several countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015



Palestinians ride donkey-carts during a sandstorm at the al-Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. The buildings were destroyed in Israeli attacks during last year’s 50-day siege of Gaza: photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via The Guardian, 13 February 2015

Palestinians walk through the storm along the harbour of Gaza City: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Gazan fishermen, already struggling with the desperate economic situation, cannot go out to sea, due to dangerous weather conditions: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Palestinians stand in front of metal caravans which are used shelters in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza. They say the caravans are ill-equipped for the winter: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Children try to warm themselves around a fire in one of the destroyed sections of Shujayea, east of Gaza City: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Palestinian women from the Shamali family prepare food in a tent near the destroyed section of Shujayea: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Members of the Shamali family in front of their shelter which is home for four families: photo by Middle East Eye/Anne Paq and Basel Yazouri via Middle East Eye, 13 February 2015

Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

Never has the #ecology of #Palestine been in as poor shape and as threatened as it is now under the supremacist israeli occupation: image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

 Sundown’s fading light shows the destruction in the Sha’af neighborhood of Gaza City after the summer war: photo by Heidi Levine via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

II  Love Songs

Injured Palestinian Sharif al-Namlah, 3, is dressed by his grandfather, also named Sharif, after his bath at his home in Rafah, Gaza, 31 January 2015. The lower part of his left leg was blown off when Israeli rockets hit the family during last summer’s war: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

An early morning beam of light shines through the home of Palestinian Ramba Kafanah as she stands breastfeeding her newborn baby in the kitchen of her damaged home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza on 30 October 2014. Her home was heavily damaged during the recent 50-day Israeli siege in the Gaza Strip but she still lives with her family in the home: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Palestinian bride Anaan El Harazen, 24, sits in the damaged salon of her family’s home as she waits to pose for pictures with family members before her groom comes to take her away for their wedding in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, 4 November 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Palestinian children dressed in their best clothes wait for the arrival of bride Anaan El Harazen in the family’s damaged home in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, 4 November 2014. The family’s home was severely damaged during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

A young Palestinian girl prepares herself for school as she pins her headscarf in place using a tiny broken mirror that is on the wall at the UN school in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, 31 December 2014. Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are still displaced by the war.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Injured Palestinian Wael al-Namlah takes a shower at his home in Rafa, Gaza, 20 January 2015. He lost one of his legs during last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip. His wife, Asraah, lost both legs and his three year old son lost the lower part of one of his legs as well during the war.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Injured Palestinian three year-old Sharif al-Namlah, as he plays during his bath at his family’s home in Rafah, Gaza, 31 January 2015. His mother Asraah lost both of her legs and his father Wael lost one leg when an Israeli bomb hit the family homes on 1 August 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Nabil Siyam, 34, who lost his arm and sustained other injuries stands, with his son Badruddin, 5, at their home in Rafah, Gaza, 29 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

 

Palestinian woman Safa Fayez, 29, during her rehabilitation treatment session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, 11 December 2014. She was seriously wounded by shrapnel during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict when IDF shells hit the UN school crowded by hundreds of Palestinians seeking shelter on 24 July 2014. She lost her her baby and husband. She was a mother of four.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

 

Palestinian woman Safa Fayez, 29,  pulls herself up the staircase of her home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, 11 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Wounded Wael al-Namlah, 26, and his wife Asraah watch 3-year-old son Sharif crawl on the carpet at their home in Rafa, Gaza, 20 January 2015. The family was fleeing on foot trying to reach a safer area when an Israeli rocket attack hit them. Wael’s 11-year old sister and his brother Yusef and his wife were killed.: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Palestinian Mustafa Majedah 19, is carried by his friend Mohammed as they arrive for his rehabilitation session at the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City, 30 December 2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015



Palestinian technicians at the Artificial Limb and Polio Center in Gaza City make new prosthetics, 11 December 2014. According to Hazin Shawa, the Director of the center, 60% of the amputees the center is now rehabilitating are from last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Palestinian Manar Shabari sits in her wheelchair by her prosthetic legs that have been fitted with festive shoes to be worn at her brother’s wedding at a relative’s home in Jabalya, Gaza, 30 December 30,2014: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015



Wounded Palestinian woman Asraah al-Namlah, and her injured husband Wael in the evening as they listen to Arabic love songs in a room lit by safety lights during a power cut at their home in Rafah ,Gaza, 20 January 2015: photo by Heidi Levine/Sipa Press via Washington Post, 13 February 2015

Love and let people Love ! .. Love in #Gaza <3 span="">3>: image via Nadia AbuShaban @Nadia AbuShaban 13 February 2015

III  Flowers into the sea

@levantina "Palestinians in besieged #Gaza throw flowers into the sea in honor of #ChapelHill shooting victims": image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

Iterative

In loss begins

the struggle, over

and over 

@levantina "Palestinians in besieged #Gaza throw flowers into the sea in honor of #ChapelHill shooting victims": image via Tarek Al Farra @Talfarra, 13 February 2015

WHAT #ISRAEL DID TO #GAZA'S ONLY DISABLED CHILDREN'S SCHOOL Share & DONATE for new wheelchairs: image via Dr Bassel AbuWarda @DrBaselAbuwarda, 14 February 2015

TODAY Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian homes and farmers in southern #Gaza: image via Dr Bassel AbuWarda @DrBaselAbuwarda, 13 February 2015

Namee Barakat, centre, watches during funeral services for his son, Deah Shaddy Barakat, on Thursday: photo by Chuck Liddy/AP via the Guardian, 13 February 2015

Camilo José Vergara: When Everything Fails (Repurposing Salvation in America's Urban Ruins)

February 17, 2015, 2:16 am

≫ Next: Rumi: The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty (A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer)

≪ Previous: Love Songs

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Former Werth's Appliance Center, State Street, Hammond, Indiana, 2000

La fascinación por ahondar en los contrastes urbanos de Camilo José Vergara nace de su experiencia personal antes que de su interés académico por la sociología, reconoce el fotógrafo. “Mi padre era de una familia muy rica que se las arregló para perder todo lo que tenía y a nosotros nos mantenían los parientes ricos, de modo que, desde pequeño, mi visión fue que las cosas siempre iban a empeorar”, señala. Esa perspectiva pesimista se reafirmó en el documentalista cuando llegó a Estados Unidos. “Visité las capitales del Medio Oeste y me pregunté cómo podía ser posible que los americanos que habían construido esas ciudades tan fantásticas, con unos edificios tan perfectos, los hubieran dejado destruirse”.

Esa inquietud llevó a Vergara a documentar con cámara la evolución de esa decrepitud y, también, en algunos casos, su recuperación y revitalización. “Mi trabajo no consiste en tomar imágenes de cosas bonitas. Yo no creo belleza, yo creo historias”, afirma el documentalista. Como si de un Monet moderno se tratara, Vergara regresa cada año -- y siempre que se lo permite su economía -- con sus lentes ópticas para refotografiar desde el mismo preciso lugar, la misma explanada desierta, el mismo muro, la misma calle para contar sus historias y captar su espíritu.

Camilo José Vergara, el fotógrafo del declive americano: Eva Sais, El País, 10 July 2013

7316 South Broadway, 2014 (via The Guardian, 9 February 2015)

7316 South Broadway, Los Angeles, 2012



7316 South Broadway, Los Angeles, 2012



7316 South Broadway, Los Angeles, 1999

7316 South Broadway, 1996 (via The Guardian, 9 February 2015)

 

7316 South Broadway, Los Angeles, 1992

Former Honda dealership turned to Gospel Church According to Jesus Christ, East Monument Ave. at East Ave., Baltimore, 2002



Home of Life Missionary Baptist Church, 4650 West Madison St., Chicago, 2003



True Gospel Church of the Living God, 1855 Third Ave., Richmond, CA, 2004



Portable sign to advertise Sunday services, of Little Widow's Mite M. B. Church, placed on the Bronx temple. Seventh Day Adventist Church, where they rent space, Willis Ave. at E. 147th St., Bronx, 2004



29th St. at Thomson St., Philadelphia, 2004

1891 Washingon Ave., Bronx, 2001

San Toribio, Cristero, Nabors Market, Hooper Avenue at 88th St., Los Angeles, 7 April 2013



3344 Third Ave., Bronx, 1981



65 East 125th St., Harlem, 2014



65 East 125th St., Harlem, 2011



65 East 125th St., Harlem, 2009



Christ, Ruben's Body Shop, 4325 S. Avalon Blvd., LA, 2014



Sacred Heart Seminary, 2701 Chicago Avenue, Detroit, 1994 [2003]



Schaffer St. at Broadway, Brooklyn, 2008

All Nations Spiritual Church, Garfield Blvd. at S. Normal, Chicago, 1992

10828 South Avalon Blvd, Los Angeles, 1980 (via the Guardian, 9 February 2015)

10828 S. Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles, 1980



12107 Kinsman Ave., Cleveland, 2002

1600 N. Bond St., Baltimore, 2002

7123 S. Halsted St., Chicago, 1992

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 2014

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 2012 (via Time, 9 July 2013)



4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 2011



4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 2009



4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 2003

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1994 (via Time, 9 July 2013



4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1989



4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1988

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1987

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1983

4344 West Madison St., Chicago, 1981 (via Light Box, 9 July 2013)



1722 55th St., Oakland, CA, 2006



14849 Livernois Ave., Detroit, 2000



6419 S. Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, 1999

 

3339 Third Ave., South Bronx. 2013



3339 Third Ave., South Bronx. 2009



3339 Third Ave., South Bronx. 2006



3339 Third Ave., South Bronx. 2003



3339 Third Ave., South Bronx, 1994

3344 Third Ave., Bronx, 1990

Pierre Gaspar, Street evangelist, St. Nicholas at West 116th St., Harlem, 2008



Street evangelist, SE corner of E. 125th St. at Lexington Ave., Harlem, 2007



"Satan, you are not longer my Lord." outdoor service of the New Creation Ministry, Sutter Ave., Brooklyn, 2003



Carrie and Archie, Malcolm X Blvd. at W. 125th St., Harlem, 2007

Baby Dorion outside the New Friendship M. B. Church, Harvey, Il., 2003



Deacon E. M. McGee, New Jerusalem Baptist Church, South Halsted Ave., Chicago, 1998



Pura and Juana singing at Senda de Bendicion, 506 Brook Ave., South Bronx, 2001



House of Blessings, 5440 S. State St., Chicago [between 1970 and 2009]



Anthony Ray, The Greater Temple of Praise, Snediker Ave., Brooklyn, 2002



Rev. Denson, Fellowship M. B. C. Church, 410 East 31st St., Los Angeles, 2002



Sunday service at Saint Martin's Spiritual Church, Utica Ave. at Prospect Pl., Brooklyn, 2002



Gospel Concert, Supernatural Deliverance Revival Tabernacle, 70 First Street, Newark, 2003

 

 Lilly of the Valley Spiritual Church, singing "I really like my God, I do, I do," 48th Place at S. Princeton Ave., Chicago, 20o2

Charles on the wheel chair, Daphne wearing blue, Paloma, Hilda, and Nora sitting at the center, 11165 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles, 2014

9036 South Ashland Ave., Chicago, 12 January 2014

Mt. Lebanon Missionary Baptist Church, South Western Ave. between 96th and 97th Streets, Los Angeles, 2014



Sweet Kingdom Annex, Chene at Superior, Detroit, 21 October 2013



Former Broadway Trust Company, Broadway at Walnut St., Camden, New Jersey, 2003. The large classical building is now the St. James Apostolic Temple. It glows like a survivor from an ancient civilization.



View north along 7th St. towards Florence, Camden, New Jersey, 2005

McClellan at Goethe, Detroit, 3 June 2014. Nativity scene painted on the ruins of an apartment building. Berry, the postman, said, "The neighborhood is being blessed, the area is so bad that they could use a blessing." Kat, the lady that lives across the street hired a sign painter. The Goethe Building erected in 1924, is according to the postman "Not so much the eyesore that used to be" explaining that "The murals on it are about faith".



Crossover Inner City Gospel Ministry, Cass Ave. at Temple St., Detroit, 1994



Christ as a body builder; mural by Curtis Lewis, Gratiot, Detroit, 1995
 


Holy Bethel M. B. Church, Gary, Indiana, 1988

Salem Travellers Bus, Lawndale, Chicago, 1990

Way of Holiness Church, 5258 Indiana Avenue, Chicago, 2003

3029 Wabash Ave., Joy Mart Party Supplies, East Los Angeles, 1997

 

St. Rest M.B. Church, 3056-3058 West Polk St., Chicago [before2005] (from How the Other Half Worships, 2005, via Invincible Cities)

St. Rest M.B. Church, 3056 West Polk St., Chicago, 1980 (from How the Other Half Worships, 2005, via Invincible Cities)

 

Steadfast Baptist Church, Chicago [before 2005] (from How the Other Half Worships, 2005, via Invincible Cities)

St. Francis of Assisi, View east From Hammond at Buchanan, Detroit, 16 July 2009



Former City Methodist Church 6th at Washington St., Gary, Indiana, 1998 (2009)

Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church of Detroit, 12051 East Seven Mile Rd. Detroit, Jimmie Jackson Pastor, 2013 (via Light Box, 28 April 2014)

Fellowship for Christ, Hamilton and Tuxedo, Detroit, 2013 (via Light Box, 28 April 2014)

Excellent Praise Word Center with a blue circle where the clock used to be, 8101 Mack Ave., Detroit, 2013 (via Light Box, 28 April 2014)

Former Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church Abbyssinia built in 1911. The church became the Interdenominational Church at Woodward Ave. at Pingree, now it is a ruin. The Rev. Gary M. Douglas Jr. was the Pastor. Detroit, 2013 (via Light Box, 28 April 2014)

All photos by Camilo José Vergara (b. Santiago, Chile, 1944) courtesy Camilo J. Vergara Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Rumi: The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty (A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer)

February 18, 2015, 1:55 am

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Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273 CE): The Diver's Clothes Lying Empty (translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne et al, in The Essential Rumi, 1996): A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer, from Nora Sawyer, 4 August 2013

Carl Sandburg: I Am the People, the Mob (A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer)

February 18, 2015, 3:14 am

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Carl Sandburg (1878-1967): I Am the People, the Mob (A Poetry Comic by Nora Sawyer), from Nora Sawyer, 5 February 2015
I Am the People, the Mob first appeared in Chicago Poems (1916)

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A Voice from Troy

February 20, 2015, 3:19 am

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Chapeau. MT @Pray4Pal: Despite not receiving his salary for months, this cop continues to help. #Gaza #Palestine: image via Asem Khalil @Asem Khalil, 19 February 2015

Balancing on the pivot point, small arms held out like frail stabilizing wings

no handrail over the permanent beckoning abyss of imminent disaster

in the flooded back alley of the land of the forgotten this lost Troy

clogged drains and swamped pavements an arabesque of ripples maybe sewage 
and fanning out from there in thought from afar as an implausible possibility miraculous 
waves that will someday reach or not reach a shore that extends beyond

this cruel kind of child's play

Gaza City. A Palestinian girl walks on a makeshift iron bridge in Shati refugee camp during a rain storm: photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Corbis via The Guardian, 19 February 2015

Lena River Delta: Landsat 7 satellite image by USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch, 27 February 2000 (NASA)

Two brothers from #Gaza are carrying their younger brothers to protect them from the intensity of the rain: image via Huda Kishawi @Huda Kishawi, 19 February 2015

What follows is an excerpt from a long Interview with the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), conducted in Hebrew on 7 February 1996 by Israeli literary critic and poet Helit Yeshurun in Amman, Jordan (where Darwish was awaiting Israeli permission to take up residence in Ramallah). An edited version of the interview was first published in the spring 1996 issue of the Israeli cultural journal Hadarim (founded and edited by Yeshurun); this was immediately translated into French by Simone Bitton and published in the autumn 1996 issue of Revue d’études Palestiniennes; it was translated for the first time from Hebrew into English by Adam Stern, a Harvard Ph.D. candidate in the study of religion, and appeared in English in extended excerpts as Exile Is So Strong Within Me, I May Bring It To the Land in Institute for Palestine Studies Vol. 42 No. 1, 2012/2013

In the poem “A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies,” which you wrote in 1967, the soldier is asked if he will die for the sake of the homeland. And he answers: “No, No. . . . They taught me to love her love/but I never felt her heart to be my heart. . . .  My instrument of love is a rifle."The same soldier wants to live in peace for the sake of his small son, and as far as he is concerned the homeland is nothing more than “drinking my mother’s coffee” -- in contrast to the Arab, who “smells its grass, its branches, and its roots.” Aren’t you minimizing the connection between the Israelis and this land?
 
I understand what’s hidden behind the question. I’m not evading the answer, but I want to remind you that I was severely criticized for this poem by Arab artists, because it goes against their stereotypical view of Israelis. The subject here is a soldier I knew. We sat together one night and he told me the story of his life. He hated the State and the Ministry of Defense -- something unacceptable at the time in the wake of the 1967 war. The poem was a response to a stereotype. In the Israeli soldier, who was supposed to be a tank, I saw flesh and blood. That was seen [by the Arabs] as a great betrayal. The story is true. This soldier left the country after the war.
 
There is a feeling in Israeli society of rootlessness. It’s a new society. Not all Israelis were born in Israel. In 1967, the State was only twenty years old. It is impossible to create a society with roots and cultural references in one or two generations. That’s why learning love for the land had to come through Israeli education. There were no Jewish farmers in Russia. That’s a new patriotic profession that was created in Israel. That’s why the kibbutz came into being. I’m not criticizing here. There was no real physical connection between the Jewish psyche and the earth in Eretz Israel. The Zionist movement worked hard to convince Jews to cling to the soil, and is still trying. So what are you claiming? I am claiming that this was the first Arabic poem to give the Israeli voice a platform.
 
And what does this voice say? That for him this homeland is “drinking his mother’s coffee".
 
This voice says that he is human, that he is a human being, not a rifle. That his relationship to the homeland is a search for security, drinking coffee in the morning in silence. Today, that is my Palestinian dream.
 
That sounds new to me.
 
Right. Where do I minimize the relationship of the Jew to the land? That is not the central point of the poem, which is rather that the soldier was a human being. You can’t stand in my place and see the image of that soldier as pictured in the mind of my reader. I’m not trying to draw a prettier picture, but I was very touched by this young man, who went through the horrors of war and hoped to hear the cooing of doves from the roof of the Ministry of Defense. I don’t want to lie to you and say that it disturbs me when someone speaks against the state. I welcome it. I didn’t have any love for the State of Israel. And I still don’t. And I think that you all need to listen to me well: You can’t ask a Palestinian to love the State of Israel.

 Israeli Extremists Attack A Palestinian Shepherd Near Hebron via @imemcnews #Palestine: image via al whit @soitiz, 19 February 2015

I was speaking about the relationship to the land. I wasn’t speaking about the state.
 
For the Palestinian this is not Eretz Israel. This is Palestine. A foreign body is a foreign body. Today it’s rare to find a Palestinian who speaks the truth. We are in a process for peace, everyone has to change his account of his history, but don’t get upset when every Palestinian is convinced that Palestine belongs to him. Now he accepts that he has a partner. That is tremendous progress. Don’t take this lightly. And don’t be alarmed if you find out that he thinks that Palestine is his. For what country is his? He was born there. He doesn’t know any another country. You are the foreigners in his eyes. How many years ago did you arrive? You -- at one time you were there, and he can’t count how many years he has already been there. And it’s not even certain whether or not you were those [people]. Are you the descendants of King Solomon? True peace is a dialogue between two accounts. You claim that this land has always been yours, as if history didn’t continue while you weren’t there, as if there was no one there, and as if the land had only one function -- to wait for you. Don’t force your account on me and I won’t force mine on you. We must recognize that everyone has the right to tell his own story. And history will laugh at both of us. It doesn’t have time for Jews and Arabs. Many peoples have passed through. It’s good that [history] is cynical.
 
This soldier says: “My instrument of love is the rifle.”
 
That’s the soldier’s profession. Without the rifle the Israeli state wouldn’t exist today. If one values true confessions -- this should be said. But coming from an Arab it doesn’t sound good.
 
And what are your instruments of love? There’s also great violence in your love: “And this land is a guillotine whose blade I love.” Hasn’t hate harmed you?
 
No. My instrument of love is poetry. When I see the shadow of hate in my poem, I change it. One must never write from a feeling of hate. It is against literature. The verse you quoted is the pinnacle of love: Even if this land is a guillotine, I love it.

Water ripples: photo by Ron Pieket, 26 January 2009

In Memory for Forgetfulness you say: “We have no choice but to maintain the present condition of our lives: the weapon. To take the weapon away from us is to take away our means of existence”-- are you prepared to accept this sentence that, in the past, was spoken by many Israelis?
 
In a specific period, yes. I could understand it. Because history doesn’t act in an elegant and just way. The balance between power and justice always leans toward the side of power. And power creates justice. That’s history. When we are witnesses to a historical turning point, we suffer. When we are the inheritors of a historical situation, we justify. That’s the difference. The Arab presence in Spain wasn’t legal according to the standards of justice, but history worked out that way. Now I’m witness to a dialogue between presence and absence. And as a living witness who has just emerged from the previous historical situation, I cannot accept the inequality that I see. If I were only a reader of history, I would accept it. Our tragedy is that we are all witnesses to a historical turning point, a new order in history and geography. That’s why everyone is making his own claims. We have arrived at a new chapter, which is called the peace process. Unfortunately, it’s more about the process than about the content. It is a pragmatic, sometimes despicable, American expression. It’s vulgar. This process leads to a shared and divided reading of the shared and controversial history of this place. And we have one place. Regrettably. Or happily. I don’t know how to write poems about this period. The whole conflict arose over the same place. You love this place, and express your love for the same plants, the same grass, as if you were me. As if you were speaking in my name. And that is the power of literature. Hebrew and Arabic poetry intersect in the writing about the landscape. A number of Israeli poets express my relationship to the landscape in poems that I could have signed myself. I won’t mention names. Wars between poets are harsher than wars between dancers. I’m not engaging in rivalry when I write about the same place or the same plant. But it is our fate to dwell in and inhabit the same metaphor. And that is new.
 
Set aside the metaphor.
 
Very well. Also in reality. With the same nostalgia. When speaking about returning to the land, you don’t know who’s a Jew and who’s an Arab. You rose up, were victorious through the power of the rifle, and -- you won’t believe me when I say it -- through the power of morality. Through the power of the rifle, you succeeded. Through the power of the stone, the Palestinians also succeeded -- in being present, nothing more than that. So if we understand one another in this way, a background will be set for true debate. The time has come. But don’t set preconditions. I won’t speak with you if you think that Palestine is yours! Palestine is mine. And I will think that forever. What right did you have to think the Land of Israel was yours for two thousand years? And how many cultures, how many empires were there! You never stopped dreaming. OK, dream. But your dream was farther away in time and place than the distance between myself and the dream and the place. I have been an exile for only fifty years. My dream is vivid, fresh.

Archaeological excavation in Troy: photographer unknown, 1937

You know very well that time doesn’t apply to a dream.
 
I know how much power the dream has. But it’s also possible to dream differently in the future. To dream that this land will become a paradise. This land is called the land of peace; there was never any peace in it. But don’t ask us to justify our presence there. We weren’t conquerors. There’s a certain tendency now to push the Palestinians to think that they’ve erred in their account of their connection to the land.
 
Where do you get that?
 
It expresses itself in the perception of the Zionist movement as a national liberation movement. That wasn’t so. It was a complex and nonreligious settlement movement, which was connected to commercial interests of the West. You think that the Arab liberation movement was neo-fascist. One must establish a dialogue between the two accounts. This peace doesn’t require me to change my reading of the history of Zionism and my position toward it. I need to change my perception of the future, but the battle over the past exists. Only the language has been refined.
 
Even if I think that your grandfather was a conqueror, that doesn’t prevent me from recognizing your right to exist. Every one of us has a conquering grandfather. Show me one innocent grandfather in all history. So why do we need to acknowledge that Zionism is a liberation movement? Liberation from whom? At whose expense?
 
A not insignificant number of Israelis speak about the tragedy of one justice opposing another.
 
I don’t accept that the two sides are both just. Justice doesn’t battle justice. There is one justice. I prefer entity versus entity. Account versus account. Claim versus claim. Absence versus presence, or vice versa. But not justice versus justice. That’s the biggest sham I’ve ever heard, like the other one, “that the Land of Israel is a land without people for a people without a land.” Two lies. Why are we renewing this conflict? In order to liberate Israeli consciousness from the illusion that the Palestinians lost their collective memory. For the Palestinian there is no other land. And for the Israelis there have been many lands. You are a mixture of how many people? From how many places of origin have you come? At least fifty. Yet historical development created two entities in one land and it’s good that we’ve arrived at a dialogue. Permit the historian to speak. Otherwise you’ll suffocate the right to speech. That is the cultural aspect of the matter. And it will recover from a number of diseases, illusions, and lies.

Zionist colonists destroy hundreds of olive saplings #Palestine: image via Voice from Palestine Asem Khalil @Palaestina, 19 February 2015

I have also listened to Israelis who see Palestinians as their brothers in this land. Are you able to feel that way toward Jews?

Not yet. Because I was cut off from the land for twenty-six years. Helit, the conqueror is always more forgiving. He has the luxury of being moderate. If I had been victorious, I would have been able to say that. But in the meantime, don’t believe me if I say it. There are conditions for love. The lover must be accepted, and not hungry. It’s true that there is no absolute equality in love, but the lover must at least feel desired. Until now the Palestinians haven’t felt accepted. What you said sounds beautiful to my ears. The Palestinian must tell you that you are his sister, and one must work to actualize that understanding.  But let him complain.
 
The history of relations between intellectuals and power has always been characterized by a healthy antagonism. Don’t you think that there are historical moments when their courage should be expressed precisely in support and encouragement, as when some among us supported Rabin and Peres?
 
Our task is to criticize the process. I wasn’t opposed to the Oslo accords. I expressed doubts about them. I’m not opposed to peace. I wanted the land to be divided between two peoples, not to have one part here and another part there, closed off in ghettos. Only culture is a guarantee of true peace. I encouraged the leadership in its time of weakness. Now that they are strong, I’m allowed not to applaud. If a Palestinian state is established, I will be in the opposition. That’s my natural place.
 
In an interview the two of you held, the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze posed the question: “Why did the Israelis choose Hebrew and not another living language?” You answered: “This choice was a part of the creation of the great legend that the ‘right to return’ to the land of the Torah requires its own linguistic tools: the language of the Torah.”
 
I know that the Israelis chose the Hebrew language. For five hours already we’ve been on good terms, and it seems to me that there’d have been no point to the interview if we weren’t going to argue. The choice of Hebrew was meant to actualize the Israeli national identity. It is impossible to create the consciousness of a true identity without a common language. Hebrew existed only in the synagogue, in texts, perhaps in the heart. That is beautiful. But it was not the language of communication between people, just like a few crazy people still write in Latin. Maybe there is someone still writing in Assyrian? Hebrew was an almost secret form of writing. Without relation to society. There were writers, but there weren’t any readers.
 
Hebrew never ceased to exist, and in any case it wasn’t a question of choice. It was also the language of longing.
 
I’m not an expert in this matter.
 
You’re not an expert in longing?
 
The language of longing was sometimes Yiddish, no? But the State of Israel chose Hebrew and fought against Yiddish. Deleuze’s question was about Jewish genius. He thought that the Jews were geniuses who had contributed a great deal to human culture. Why did a portion of them agree to cut themselves off from world culture and go into the ghetto of Hebrew? That is a philosophical question that shouldn’t be taken lightly. As a philosopher, as a student of Nietzsche, [Deleuze] has the right to ask how a culture can be created through the choice of language, out of an ideological impulse, and succeed. The question is simply a question.
 
As to the expression “the legend of the right to return,” which bothered you -- it’s good that we’ve passed beyond the era of legends. What was a legend has become true. I am busy with my own right to return. I can’t defend the Israelis’ right to return.

 This is how people who lost their houses in the war spend the cold rainy weather #Gaza photo by @Mahmoud_Gaza1: image via Guess What @Farah_Gazan, 19 February 2015

Your poem “Other Barbarians Will Come” ends like this: “Can a new Homer be born after us . . . and myths open their doors to everyone?” How do you see the Homeric poet in our era? Is there a place for epic poetry today?
 
There is no place for the Homeric poet, but there is a place for the poet of Troy. We haven’t heard his poem. We haven’t heard Troy’s account. I’m sure there were poets there. The voice of Homer, the victor, vanquished even the Trojan’s right to complain. I try to be the poet of Troy. Is it painful? I love the vanquished.

Be careful, you’re beginning to sound Jewish.

If only. Today it’s very accepted. There are always two faces to the truth. We’ve heard the Greek account. We’ve even heard the voice of the Trojan victim from the mouth of Euripides, the Greek. I am searching for the poet from Troy. Troy hasn’t told its story. Does the state that has great poets have the right to vanquish a people that has no poets? Is the absence of poetry in a people reason enough for it to be vanquished? Is poetry allusive, or is it one of the instruments of power? Can a people be strong without poetry? I am the son of a people that until today hasn’t been recognized; I wanted to speak in the name of the one who is absent, who is the poet of Troy. There is more inspiration and human wealth in defeat than in victory. There is great poetry in destruction. If I belonged to the victors, I would turn out for demonstrations of solidarity with the victim.

Are you sure?

I wrote it. “Let Arafat besiege Tel Aviv, and I would turn out to demonstrate against him.” Do you know what a pleasure it is to be both victorious and humane? To be in solidarity with the defeated? . . . Do you know why we, the Palestinians, are famous? Because you are our enemy. Interest in the Palestine problem comes by way of interest in the Jewish problem. . . If our war had been with Pakistan, no one would have heard of me. So we are unlucky that our enemy is Israel, which has so many sympathizers in the world, and we are lucky that Israel is our enemy, because Jews are the center of the world. You have given us defeat, weakness, and publicity.

"@LeJebly: Found a Mahmoud Darwish quote way at the top of the Sacré Coeur cathedral in #Casablanca" #Palestine #Darwish: image via Ahenjar @ahenjar, 8 September 2014

When you say that you would like to be the poet of Troy, isn’t there some desire for defeat in that?

No. I find what is vital there. There I can speak the un-spoken, say the things that haven’t been said. Poetry is always a search for things that have yet to be said. I can’t add anything to Homer, but the human void within me, which is Troy, I can build on that. Defeat is a key to observing human fate, an observation impossible for the victor. Despair brings the poet closer to God, returns him to the genesis of writing, to the first word. It counteracts the victor’s power of destruction, because the language of despair is stronger than the language of hope. Troy’s words have still not been spoken, and poetry is the beginning of speech.

Do you know the Book of Lamentations? That is also a poem of Troy.

True. But you must choose: to be Sparta, Athens, or Troy. You can’t have it all.

In Eleven Stars you write: “Soon we will investigate the affinity between our history and your history in distant lands.” Has the moment of investigation arrived? How does it illuminate this affinity?

The time for investigation has arrived. We are now turning to one future. We are now speaking in the language of a new world, economic prosperity, mutual forgiveness. I think that the future is clearer than the past. We will fight over the past. I am linking this to what I said about the right of every side to its own account. When one goes to the international party of dreams, all of the opposing sides speak one language. I could write the speech of every side. But the struggle is over the point of departure. We are the two stupidest peoples in history. We are so small, unaccepted, Josephs hated by their brothers. The ideology of states and identity cards is what created the conflict. We are peoples who were born to be the subject of poems. When we came to the political game we began to fight. When we make peace, we will laugh about this entire phase. But there is a question that worries me: Are we ourselves? Are we free enough to make independent wars and an independent peace, or are we pawns in a game of chess? Once we wanted to be Jews. Now you want to be Palestinians. What is it with you and the Palestinians? You have obtained the whole universe, why suddenly do you want to be Palestinians?

Binyamin Netanyahu: being used as a ‘political tool’ according to some House Democrats: photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP via the Guadian, 19 February 2015

What do you mean by “Are we ourselves?”

Poetry must always ask the question without answering it. This poem is about people returning and not finding themselves. Is the I-that-was the I-that-returned? Even Ulysses didn’t return as the same man. The sea changed him. The sea and the years. He didn’t find the same house. He didn’t find the same Penelope. You don’t find yourself twice. Every day you are a different man.

Who told you that we want to be Palestinians?

You came to Palestine. Culturally, you were global. Is the flag more important than Homer? Let history answer the question. And we wanted to be Jews. Our whole region hates us. So we play games that might entertain the historians, but I am sure that in ten years we’ll become bored. We will have obtained the whole legend, all of reality, all the wars, and all the peace. What will we work for? Will it be possible to turn this hole into a place of musical creation? I doubt it. We will be normal. And to be normal, everyone must pass through legends, myths. Afterward I think we will all be assimilated into the region.

... In Eleven Stars you write: “I am one of the knights of the end/I will jump off/my horse in the last/winter, I am the Arab’s last gasp.” Does the poet have no other mission than being a “knight of the end”?

That saying comes from Abu ‘Abdallah al-Saghīr, the last Arab king of Granada, who, upon arriving at the mountain, looked behind him and wept. The Spanish engraved it on a stone: Here was the Arab’s last sigh. His whole story is tragic. His mother pushed him into a war whose outcome was clear. He had a choice: to accept peace, which was nothing other than surrender, or to suffer defeat. I identify with this. I am not “the Arab’s last sigh,” but when I write it, I live within it. As if I’m not of the twentieth century.

There is a very important level to your question, and that is the matter of the past in poetry. I think that poetry is a reactionary form of writing. It always listens to voices from the past, to voices that are no longer. There is no modernism that comes from the present. The past is the most inflexible time. You need to be on the oldest street in Paris for the tone of the poem to be modern. Poetry that is cut off from the ancient past is an echo that cannot return. In every poem it’s possible to read the history of poetry. A poet is the first man. Every poem must say that man is currently arriving, currently being expelled, and returning to his true paradise. The balance between the past and the future in poetry is that, however far in the past it may be, that is how close it is to the future. No poetry comes from an “American way of life.” [in English in the original] The more you delve into the Canaanite, the Sumerian history, the more rooted you will be. No piece of earth ever completely dries up. Even when you listen to a song on the radio, if it doesn’t remind you of a distant place, it doesn’t touch you.

A boy riding his bicycle in Al-Shijaia area east of #Gaza city during bad weather! #GazaunderRubble: image via Asmaa @Asmaa Abdalla, 19 February 2015
 

And the poet is the knight of the end?

As a poet I felt as though I was the last knight on the page of history. I identified myself with the man who was the Hamlet of Andalusia. He doesn’t know [what to do]: To fight or not to fight? So his mother recited the famous poem: “You cry like a woman over a kingdom that you did not defend.” She knew that he would lose, and pushed him to fight. That is exactly what is happening now. Truth doesn’t have only one face. No historian can judge him. His fear, hesitation, and defeat are understandable. There were those who said to him: Kill yourself. Be valiant. So between being valiant and being pragmatic, this man became the Arab Hamlet. And every generation curses him. Granada was finished. All of Arabic culture ended there. So how does a man respond to such a trial? He saves himself. They allowed him to flee. They promised him a small kingdom, but they betrayed him.

“Who am I after the night of the stranger?” Who are you?

Ooh la la! That question remains unanswered in the poem. I am not myself. If there is no stranger in my identity, I don’t recognize myself. I can be defined only through the dialectical relationship between myself and the other. If I were alone, without my fellow man, what would I understand? I would be filled with myself, my entire truth, without dualism.

Ever since I left Andalusia I have been searching for the answer, ever since I left the history of the other, of my fellow man. Ever since and up until today I have been searching for a place in history and am far from finding it. I am outside the history of my fellow man and outside the history of myself.

Rivers of southern India: photo by NASA, 2005

You speak about the other, when for the most part the other is the Palestinian. Is there a place within yourself today for the other who is the Jew, the Israeli?

It is impossible for me to evade the place that the Israeli has occupied in my identity. He exists, whatever I may think of him. He is a physical and psychological fact. The Israelis changed the Palestinians and vice versa. The Israelis are not the same people that came, and the Palestinians are not the same people that once were. In the one, there is the other. If the Israeli left my identity, would it crumble? That, I suppose, was your question. I don’t want to get into these types of questions. After all, I am a son of Arab culture. If I were absent from this historical moment, I would find myself in Morocco or Yemen. So you should know that neither the Israeli of yesterday nor the new Israeli has the power to remove me. Because I have a massive identity card and it stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to Yemen. I have somewhere to flee, somewhere to die, and somewhere to be born anew. At this moment we are speaking about the Israeli component of Palestinian identity. It is a multivalent, heterogeneous element. I need heterogeneity. It enriches me.

The other [aḥer] is a responsibility [aḥarayut] and a test. Together we are doing something new in history. Fate asked us…

Forced us. . .

Initially it forced us, now it asks -- it is so polite now! -- to be examined a different way. Will a third way emerge from these two? That is the test.

What is Hebrew for you?

. . . Hebrew is the first foreign language I learned, at the age of ten or twelve. I spoke in this language with the stranger, the police officer, the military governor, the teacher, the prison guard, and the lover. So it doesn’t signify the language of the conqueror, because I spoke words of love in it. It is also the language of my friends. My relationship to it is pure. It opened the door for me to European literature. I read Lorca in Hebrew, as well as Nazim Hikmet, who was required reading in the leftist camp. I first read Greek tragedy in Hebrew. It is also the language of memory for my childhood.When I read Hebrew I am reminded of the place. It brings the landscape with it. Many of my friends in Europe are jealous that I can read the Bible in the original. I haven’t stopped reading Hebrew, even Israeli newspapers. And I am interested in the literature, particularly in the poetry. I hope that I will be able to recreate the language.  I don’t have any complex about it.

Has exile become a mask?

No. I am now being tested: I can choose between an external exile or an internal one, an external or internal homeland -- I don’t know what I want. Exile is so strong within me, I may bring it to the land.

RT @palinfoen: Think of those whose houses Israel destroyed in Gaza, Jerusalem, Hebron, Naqab. #Palestine @PalinfoAr: image via Asem Khalil @Asem Khalil, 19 February 2015

There is no Homeric echo here
Myths come knocking on our door when we need them
There is no Homeric echo here… only a general
looking through the rubble for the awakening state
concealed within the galloping horse from Troy

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008): excerpt from A State of Siege, Ramallah, January 2002, translated by Ramsis Amun

The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1773, oil on canvas, 39 x 67 cm (National Gallery, London)

The narrow approach leading to the city gate of Troy, up which the Trojan horse needed to be hauled: photo by Brian Harrington Spier, 13 October 2007

The walls of Troy, erected nearly 5000 years ago: photo by Brian Harrington Spier, 13 October 2007

Euripides: Hecuba: The chorus sing the fall of Troy

 

Hector putting his armor on, surrounded by Priam and Hecuba. Side A of an Attic red-figure amphora, ca. 510 BC. From Vulci: photo by Bibi Saint-Pol, 13 February 2007 (Staatliche Antikensammlung)

 

Ilion, o my city,

no longer will you be named among the cities

never taken: lost in the Greek stormcloud,

speared, sacked,

your wreath of towers hacked

from your head: sorry, fouled

in the smoke and the ash strain,

sad city

I shall not walk in you again.

Ruin came at midnight.

We were in our room, sleepy-eyed, happy,

tired, with the dancing over

and the songs for our won war,

everything over, my husband resting,

his weapons hung on the wall,

no Greeks to be seen any more,

the armed fleet

lost from our shores and gone.

I was just doing my hair

for the night, and the golden mirror

showed me my own face there

calm and still with delight, 

ready for love and sleep.

And then the noise broke out in the streets

and a cry never heard before:

'Greeks,

Greeks, it is ours.' (They said.) 'Finish the war:

break kill burn:

end it, and we can go home.'

Out of our bed, half naked

like any Dorian girl

I ran for the sanctuary

of Artemis' shrine. No use, for I never made it.

I saw my husband die.

They have taken me over the sea.

I look back at my city.

Greek

ships hasten for home, taking me

with them, foredone

with sorrow and pity.

Curse Helen, curse

Paris, the fatal pair

whose love came too dear,

who married to destroy

my people my marriage and me,

whose marriage burned Troy,

May she never tread Greek ground.

I hope she never makes it over the sea.

I hope she is wrecked and drowned.

She ruined me.

Euripides (c. 485-c. 406 B.C.): Hecuba, lines 905-951, translated by Richard Lattimore in The Stride of Time: New Poems and Translations, 1966

Bertolt Brecht: "The Trojans too, then" (Bei der Lektüre eines spätgriechischen Dichters / Reading a Late Greek Poet)

Helen's head, detail from a scene representing Menelaus' meeting with Helen. Attic red-figured krater, ca. 450 BC–440 BC. From Gnathia (now Egnazia, Italy): Menelaus Painter (eponymous vase); image by Jastrow, 2007 (Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Musée du Louvre)

At the time when their fall was certain --
On the ramparts the lament for the dead had begun --
The Trojans adjusted small pieces, small pieces
In the triple wooden gates, small pieces.
And began to take courage, to hope.

The Trojans too, then.

 

Ruins of Ancient Troy. Ancient Troy was once a mythical city, known only through the text of Homer’s Iliad. In 1870, however, the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of Troy (and several cities above and beneath it) in northwest Turkey. He located the city by scrutinizing the text of the Iliad, and laboriously exploring the area on foot: IKONOS space imaging satellite composite image, 18 July 2000; image processing by Robert Simmon (NASA)

In den Tagen, als ihr Fall gewiß war --
Auf den Mauern begann schon die Totenklage --
Richteten die Troer Stückchen grade, Stückchen
In den dreifachen Holztoren, Stückchen
Und begannen Mut zu haben und gute Hoffnung.

Auch die Troer also.

Bertolt Brecht: Bei der Lektüre eines spätgriechischen Dichters / Reading a Late Greek Poet from Buckower Elegien / Buckow Elegies, July/August 1953: English version by Michael Hamburger in Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim with the co-operation of Erich Fried, 1976

Flight of Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius from Troy: Luca Cambiaso, 1555-60, pen and brush and brown wash, 404 x 281 mm (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

C. P. Cavafy: Trojans
 
Our efforts are those of men prone to disaster;
our efforts are like those of the Trojans.
We just begin to get somewhere,
gain a little confidence,
grow almost bold and hopeful,
 
when something always comes up to stop us:
Achilles leaps out of the trench in front of us
and terrifies us with his violent shouting.
 
Our efforts are like those of the Trojans.
We think we’ll change our luck
by being resolute and daring,
so we move outside ready to fight.
 
But when the great crisis comes,
our boldness and resolution vanish;
our spirit falters, paralyzed,
and we scurry around the walls
trying to save ourselves by running away.
 
Yet we’re sure to fail. Up there,
high on the walls, the dirge has already begun.
They’re mourning the memory, the aura of our days.
Priam and Hecuba mourn for us bitterly.

C. P. Cavafy: Trojans (1905), from Collected Poems, edited by George Savidis, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, 1975
 

Rana and her mother...she can't see anything just she could feel in her mother mercy. #GAZA #Palestine: image via Ahmad Gaza @ahmadsaman7, 19 February 2015

Mon brillant hiver sur le magnifique lac Érié

February 21, 2015, 4:56 am

≫ Next: Poetry and Extreme Weather Events: William McGonagall: The Tay Bridge Disaster

≪ Previous: A Voice from Troy

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I've flown over #LakeErie into @CLE countless times, but I've never seen such solid ice cover: image via Aaron Kraus @AaronKraus, 13 February 2015

Winter in Cleveland -- ah, the gelid memories!

Solitary confinement! Strict curfew! Jesuit rules!

Climb out window anyway, leap two storeys into deep snow, make tracks to Bob Lee's bar on Euclid!

Bleak dates with bleak night nurses!

Bleak basement slowdancing with sad bleak night nurses in frozen desolate apartment houses to Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole records!

Wool coats over cashmere sweaters, skinny shivering lonely overworked Slavic girls, no heat, one red light bulb hanging from an exposed wire!

Deep snow!

Bleak Cleveland hospitals!

Daredevil leap fall down stairwell through double pane glass with wire mesh between, rubber tearaway skin tears away, emergency, surgery, skin grafts, night hospital in Cleveland alone staring at dark high ceiling looking out dirty window over bleak building tops into frigid snowy nowhere Ohio night, with frozen polluted river beyond, not catching fire yet!

Not letting anybody find out any of this happened!

More snow!

Bleak study dates! Never wanting to study! Sleet! Frozen streets! Late to eight o'clock History every morning! Not being able to account for these actions to the patient Professor Eugene Oberst!

Bleak dates with bleak tall skinny plaid skirt ice cold blue kneeboned smiling pessimistic Lake Erie College girls!

Driving girls' cars across the bleak stinking frozen Cuyahoga River with dirty snow slushing in the wipers!
 

Bleak suburban dates with high school girls whose dads owned Borgwards!

Bumping into the Japanese gardener while sneaking out of the high school date's house in the morning during a sudden early spring cold snap and not saying anything and making it down the steps and not slipping on the ice!

Lake Erie is more than 90% frozen in this NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite image captured on Sunday and released on Wednesday. The aftermath of a deadly winter storm paralysed much of the north-eastern United States, and forecasters warn of the worst cold in two decades from another arctic front this week: photo by NASA/Reuters via The Guardian, 18 February 2015

Following #cold snap, #LakeErie is nearly entirely ice covered (Photo: GLERL) @NOAA_GLERL: image via DetroitRiverCleanup @DetroitRiverRAP, 19 February 2015

Interesting RT @ErinLaviola: Scientists say #LakeErie is 98% frozen now #NOAA: image via MichaelBowers @Michael Bowers, 19 February 2015

Walk on frozen #LakeErie. Looked like the moon! #PortStanley: image via ExplorationProject @Explorationproj, 26 January 2015

finally, maybe no more lake affect snows MT #OhioLakeErie  Amazing shot from our Life on #LakeErie @LakeErie Surfer: image via HughEDillon @iPhilyChitChat, 16 January 2015

A wintry view of #LakeErie, at Eastlake, USA, from #Flock! (Credit: @planetlabs):: image via eoPortal @eoportal, 21 January 2015

Love this. #lakeerie MT @AerialCleveland Frozen lake...#thisiscle #cleveland: image via Cleveland CVB @TheCLE, 11 February 2015

And then, after the thaw, come summer, for the hardy survivors, the reward: chillin' by the foul lake with a tall cool green one...

Want more info about the#LakeErie Crisis? ATTEND a webinar TMRW @ 10AM: image via Alliance Great Lakes @A4GL, 7 August 2014

It may look pretty, but here's what you need to know about the damaging #LakeErie algal bloom: image via NatureConservancy_NY@nature_ny, 13 September 2014

 C'mon cleveland!! We're better than this! #mylake #lakeerie: image via chad pado @CoachPado, 1 September 2014

WATER WARNING issued for South Bass Island #LakeErie #WaterCrisis: image via NBC24 @nbc24wnwo, 1 September 2014

saddens me to see this beautiful lake changing for the worse because so few care. #LakeErie #NoFilter #Green: image via livelovewander @jungleboy8you, 25 September 2014

 

@wkycweather Lake is looking very eerie today. #LakeErie #MentorOhio: image via Ron Gardner @DJRockinRon, 7 October 2014

#Weather plays an important role in #LakeErie oxygen levels, scientists believe: image via Green Atom @greenatomnet, 7 January 2015

The Senate OKs bill to control toxic #algae blooms #toxicalgae #ohio #lakeerie: image via Beagle Bioproducts @BeagleBio, 18 February 2015

Poetry and Extreme Weather Events: William McGonagall: The Tay Bridge Disaster

February 22, 2015, 5:38 am

≫ Next: Movie of the Year: Leviathan: In the Belly of the Beast

≪ Previous: Mon brillant hiver sur le magnifique lac Érié

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The water has shaped this fixing to resemble wood... #taybridge #tayraildisaster 100 plus years old: image via CLARKE PICKETT @CLARKEPICKETT, 27 May 2014 

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

’Twas about seven o’clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-
“I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.”

When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say --
“I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.”

But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers’ hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov’d most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.

So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o’er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill’d all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav’d to tell the tale
How the disaster happen’d on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

 William McGonagall (1925-1902): The Tay Bridge Disaster

 RT @Brandweercanon "OTD 1879 the #Taybridge collapsed while a train was passing. All 75 passengers died.": image via We Follow History @WeFollowHistory, 28 December 2014

Dreadful Accident on the Tay Bridge

Loss of Passenger Train

Dundee, Sunday Midnight

To-night a heavy gale swept over Dundee and a portion of the Tay bridge was blown down while a train from Edinburgh due at 7.15 was passing. It is believed that the train is in the water, but the gale is still so strong that a steamboat has not yet been able to reach the bridge. The train was duly signalled from Fife as having entered the bridge at 7.14. It was seen running along the rails, and then suddenly was observed a flash of fire. The opinion was that the train left the rails, and went over the bridge. Those who saw the incident repaired immediately to the Tay-bridge station at Dundee and informed the station master of what they had seen. He immediately put himself in communication with the man in charge of the signal-box at the north end of the bridge. The telegraph wires are stretched across the bridge, but when the instrument was tried it was soon seen that the wires were broken.
 
Mr. Smith, the station-master and Mr. Roberts, locomotive superintendent, determined, notwithstanding the fierce gale, to walk across the bridge as far as possible from the north side, with the view of ascertaining the extent of the disaster. They were able to get out a considerable distance, and the first thing that caught their eye was the water spurting from a pipe which was laid across the bridge for the supply of Newport, a village on the south side, from the Dundee reservoirs. Going a little further, they could distinctly see by the aid of the strong moonlight that there was a large gap in the bridge caused by the fall, so far as they could discern, of two or three of the largest spars. They thought, however, that they observed a red light on the south part of the bridge, and were of the opinion that the train had been brought to a standstill on the driver noticing the accident. This conjecture has, unfortunately, been proved incorrect. At Broughtyferry, four miles from the bridge, several mail bags have come ashore, and there is no doubt that the train is in the river. No precise information as to the number of passengers can be obtained, but it is variously estimated at from 150 to 200.
 
The Provost and a number of leading citizens of Dundee started at half-past 10 o’clock in a steam-boat for the bridge, the gale being moderated; but they have not yet returned.

Monday, 1.30 A.M.

The scene at the Tay-bridge station to-night is simply appalling. Many thousand persons are congregated around the buildings, and strong men and women are wringing their hands in despair. On the 2d of October 1877, while the bridge was in course of construction, one of the girders was blown down during a gale similar to that of to-day, but the only one of the workmen lost his life. The return of the steamboat is anxiously awaited.

The Times, 29 December 1879 (via McGonagall Online)

This day in 1878 Scotland's #TayBridge  opened. Asked of his design 1.5 yrs later, Tom Bouch said "Oops!": image via Bill Peeples #BPeeples17, 1 June 2014

Did the Tay Bridge disaster appear to William McGonagall before the event, in a poetic vision or dream?
 
In 1877, McGonagall, a weaver, was struggling to find work. His family was in trouble; his daughter had just given birth to an illegitimate child. Then there occurred "the most startling incident in my life... the time I discovered myself to be a poet... [I] seemed to feel a strange kind of feeling stealing over me, and remained so for about five minutes. A flame, as Lord Byron said, seemed to kindle up my entire frame, along with a strong desire to write poetry." (quoted in William McGonagall: Collected Poems, ed. Chris Hunt, 2006)

Dream Vision (Apocalyptic Dream): Albrecht Dürer, 1525. Watercolour on paper, 30 x 43 cm. Text written by the artist beneath the watercolour:  "In 1525, during the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whitsuntide, I had this vision in my sleep, and saw how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the ground about four miles away from me with such a terrible force, enormous noise and splashing that it drowned the entire countryside. I was so greatly shocked at this that I awoke before the cloudburst. And the ensuing downpour was huge. Some of the waters fell some distance away and some close by. And they came from such a height that they seemed to fall at an equally slow pace. But the very first water that hit the ground so suddenly had fallen at such velocity, and was accompanied by wind and roaring so frightening, that when I awoke my whole body trembled and I could not recover for a long time. When I arose in the morning, I painted the above as I had seen it. May the Lord turn all things to the best." (Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna)

 

Can the science ever be wrong?

The Tay River Bridge, completed in 1788, seen before the disaster of 28 December 1789: photographer unknown, from Tay Bridge enquiry: views of the wrecked piers of the Tay Bridge, which collapsed because of high winds on 28 December 1879. Commissioned by John Trayner on behalf of the Board of Trade, 1880 (National Library of Scotland)

from Astronomers Royal, scientific advice and engineering: Rebekah Higgitt, The Guardian, 12 September 2013 
 

ARs also advised on areas like cartography, instrument design and weights and measures, that involved techniques closely allied to astronomy. But they were also asked to consider a wide range of fields of interest to the Admiralty and other branches of government, simply because they ended up being their available scientific expert.
 
One of the ARs who most obviously became the government's go-to scientific and technical guy was George Airy, who was in position from 1835 to 1881. Airy covered a great deal of ground, intellectually and practically. Unlike all his predecessors he was not much involved with daily observations and he had a significantly larger workforce at the Observatory, onto which observation, calculation and even management could be delegated.
 
Airy, for example, did a considerable amount of work on the effect of iron ships' hulls on compass use and design. He also advised, like many other ARs, on education and he was involved in the organisation of the Great Exhibition. He was, perhaps most intriguingly, called in to advise the Great Western Railway on track gauges and the engineer Thomas Bouch about the pressures that might be exerted by wind on the planned rail bridge crossing the Forth.
 
That latter advice got him into trouble. It was first applied by Bouch to the Tay Bridge and, when that collapsed in 1879, Airy was called in by the enquiry. He claimed that his advice had been specific to the circumstances of the Forth and the design for that bridge (which was now speedily discarded). The enquiry agreed, suggesting that Bouch "must have misunderstood the nature of [Airy's] report".

George Airy, a 19th-century Astronomer Royal, was called in to the enquiry set up after the collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879: photographer unknown, 1880 (National Library of Scotland)
 

The aftermath of the Tay Bridge disaster: views from the official enquiry

Photos from Tay Bridge enquiry: views of the wrecked piers of the Tay Bridge, which collapsed because of high winds on 28 December 1879. Commissioned by John Trayner on behalf of the Board of Trade: photographer unknown, 1880 (National Library of Scotland)

Was the Tay Bridge disaster caused by tornadic waterspouts?

The collapse of the Tay Bridge in 1879: photographer unknown, 1880 (National Library of Scotland)

Weatherwatch: Tay tragedy's new twist: David Hambling, The Guardian, 22 December 2014

The Tay Bridge disaster of 28 December 1879, subject of a famously bad poem by William McGonagall, may have been caused by tornadoes.

The wind was blowing hard that night, perhaps as much as a Force 11 gale, bringing down chimney pots and roof slates. The iron girders of the Tay Bridge, opened in June 1878, should have been strong enough to withstand any winds. But a half-mile span of the bridge collapsed just as a train was crossing. The rain plunged into the Tay, killing all 75 people on board.

A court of inquiry ruled that the collapse was due to an “insufficiency of the cross bracing and its fastenings” to withstand the gale.

However, the inquiry did not hear the testimony of one witness, engineer WB Thomson, who reported seeing “two luminous columns of mist or spray”, perhaps 100 metres tall, travelling across the river. The spray from one column struck a nearby house with hissing sound, leaving the windows caked with salt. A second witness, William Robertson, also described the columns.

Researchers at tornado research organisation Torro believe these columns were waterspouts -– tornadoes over water made visible by the water droplets they carry. They believe the impact of one or more tornadoes brought down the bridge after it had been weakened by the wind.

After the disaster rules were introduced requiring new bridges to be built stronger. As McGonagall observed: “For the stronger we our houses do build / The less chance we have of being killed.”

Allen Upward: the story of the waterspout: strength turning inside out

Waterspout close to the shoreline near Batemans Bay, 140 miles south of Sydney: photo by Reuters / NSWRFS / Phil Caminiti, 18 November 2012

The story of the waterspout, as it is told in books, shows it to be a brief-lived tree. A cloud is whirling downwards, and sucking out its whirlpoint toward the sea, like a sucking mouth. The sea below whirls upward, thrusting out its whirlpoint towards the cloud. The two ends meet, and the water swept up in the sea-whirl passes out into the cloud-whirl, and swirls up through it, as it were gain-saying it. . . .

In the ideal waterspout, not only does the water swirl upwards through the cloud-whirl, but the cloud swirls downwards through the sea-whirl. . . .

The ideal waterspout is not yet complete. The upper half must unfold like a fan, only it unfolds all around like a flower-cup; and it does not leave the cup empty, so that this flower is like a chrysanthemum. At the same time the lower half has unfolded in the same way, till there are two chrysanthemums back to back. . . .

It is strength turning inside out. Such is the true beat of strength, the first beat, from which all others part, the beat we feel in all things which come within our measure, in ourselves, and in our starry world. . . .

Allen Upward: from The New Word, written 1901, self-published 1908

 

Residents view huge waterspout close to the shoreline near Batemans Bay, 140 miles south of Sydney: photographer unknown, via The Sun, 18 November 2012

A giant waterspout is seen over Hongze Lake in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province: photo by Yue Mingyou / Rex Features, 29 August 2012

Waterspout, Alanya, Antalya Province, Turkey: photo by rinselsbacher (Ralph Inselsbacher), 11 September 2002

Waterspout, seen from Clifton, Woolongong, New South Wales: photo by dirtymouse, 22 April 2007

 

Waterspout off the Florida Keys:: photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1969

Waterspouts in the Bahamas Islands: photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, n.d.

 

 

Tornado waterspout near Cape Formentor, Mallorca: photo by Julian Kupfer, 2006

 

Waterspout off Singapore coast: photo by Sgyjk, 25 September 2011

 

Twin waterspouts, Kakaaka Waterfront Park, Honolulu: photo by rubbah slippahs, 2 May 2011

 

Twin waterspouts, Kakaaka Waterfront Park, Honolulu  (last gasp, just before the spout on the left dissipated): photo by rubbah slippahs, 2 May 2011

 

Waterspout: photo by SICAL808, 2 May 2011

 

 

Trombe marine a rion antirion (Grèce): photo by Bruno Arnaud, 15 December 2007

   

Tromba marina da Caia d'Oro, Solenzara (Corse): photo by azuk, 26 July 2010

Tra cielo e mare (Civitanova, Marche, Italy): photo by F. Fausta, 9 October 2011

 

Waterspouts seen from the air, approx. 1200 feet high, about 40nm north of Vanderlin Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, Australia: photo by Tony (austr07), 1987; image 27 August 2009

Movie of the Year: Leviathan: In the Belly of the Beast

February 23, 2015, 5:13 am

≫ Next: Broken Promises

≪ Previous: Poetry and Extreme Weather Events: William McGonagall: The Tay Bridge Disaster

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A brilliant reflection of corruption in modern #Russia. Really, really worth watching #Leviathan: image via Natasa Vidakovic @navidakovic, 7 February 2015

Vodka goes to... #Leviathan: image via ShukhratJalilov @ShukhratJalilov, 23 February 2015

 #Leviathan with @AiaPaec: image via A fish that reads @Un_pez_que_lee, 22 February 2014

'#Russia's official Oscar entry #Leviathan now playing. Seen. Enjoyed. Depressed confronting so much reality.: image via Rosanna Ubanell @RUbanell,  20 February 2014

¿Y qué tiene que ver Vladimir Putin con #Leviathan? Reseña de un filme supremo: image via Darwin-The Movie @Darwin_Movie,  11 February 2015

La religión y el poder van de la mano en #Leviathan: image via Mantarraya @mantarrayfilms, 9 February 2015

Aquí las razones por las que creemos que los cinéfilos deberían ver #Leviathan: image via EnLaButaca @ EnLaButaca, 7 February 2015

 #Leviathan now playing!: image via Gables Art Cinema @gablescinema, 7 February 2015

 Best foreign language Oscar nominee #Leviathan now playing!: image via Gables Art Cinema @gablescinema, 6 February 2015

 

@empiremagazine says #Leviathan is "Funny, heartbreaking & magnificently shot": image via Gables Art Cinema @gablescinema, 3 February 2015

 #Leviathan could win the #AcademyAward as best foreign #film: image via Vancouver Observer @VanObserver, 30 January 2015

 Bigger and louder than a giant? The Campaign Against #Leviathan in #Russia: image via Philip Lyon @PhilipLyonDC, 27 January 2015

 Ma trebe se va explic ce film e aista? #Leviathan image via Jax @JAX_226, 23 January 2015

 #Leviathan, by Zvagintsev, is a marvelous movie: the great beast of corrupt state & church is no match for simple man: image via Wilhelm Weitkamp @WWeitkamp, 23 January 2015

 

Last chance to watch #OscarNominated film #Leviathan in cinemas: image via Culture Whisper @CultureWhisper, 23 January 2015

#Leviathan, la #pelicula rusa nominada a los #Oscars2015 se enfrenta a una avalancha de críticas en #Rusia. #cine: image via Pere Trad @PereTrad, 19 January 2015

 #Leviathan playing song: Vladimir Central, north wind: image via CaliFUCKINfornia @Rita Reckless, 11 January 2015

Rusia llegará a México con el estreno de #Leviathan en febrero del 2015: image via Mantarraya @mantarrayafilms, 31 December 2014

 

"...rigorous and challenging workout for the soul" @tbmeek3 on Andrey Zyagintsev's #Leviathan: image via Paste Movies @PasteMovies, 29 December 2014

The most compelling movie of the year: #Leviathan: image via kassia st clair @kassiastclair, 23 December 2014

Dustin & Donna review #leviathan the Russian submission for best foreign language film: image via Texas Art & Film @TexasArtFilm, 20 December 2014

#Leviathan is No. 9 on our 2014 #VeriteTopTen: image via veritefilmmag, 14  December 2014

 

 The Guardian top 10 films 2014 is based on US release dates: No 5 –- #Leviathan: image via davidcaffey_123@_djc, 12 December 2014

#Leviathan is reviewed by @myfavtalkies and gets five stars: image via Spoooo.ie @spoooolers, 12 November 2014

Trailer Break: #Leviathan Makes the Rounds with Brute Force: image via The Script Lab @TheScriptLab, 22 October 2014

#Leviathan un relato de nuestros días, del director Andrey Zvyagintsev: image via Mantarraya @mantarrayafilms, 13 January 2015

Broken Promises

February 24, 2015, 7:44 am

≫ Next: William Carlos Williams / Dorothea Lange: The Descent

≪ Previous: Movie of the Year: Leviathan: In the Belly of the Beast

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I  Forbidden Games

Palestinos jugando en #BeitHanoun: image via ferHomer @ferHomer, 22 April 2014

 Sunset over #Gaza and #BeitHanoun tonight as ceasefires fall apart and conflict appears to escalate #happeningnow: image Seth Fratzman @afrantzman, 28 July 2014

"@KelvinNews: #BBC #Gaza the remains of a children's playground in #BeitHanoun." :'(: image via Zuwaina Salim @Zuebarbie, 26 July 2014

BREAKING: The Israeli army has attacked an UNRWA school in #BeitHanoun, Gaza: image via Humanitarian Relief @IHHen, 24 July 2014

II  A rip in the fabric

Dozens feared dead as Israel shells UN shelter in #BeitHanoun #Palestine #GazaUnderAttack: image via al whit @soitiz, 24 July 2014

A UN team had to cut short a visit to the scene of Thursday's attack on a school in Beit Hanoun when it encountered gunfire, UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness says in a statement. The Israeli army had been notified of the mission in advance, he says:

At 1400 today an UNRWA team which included an international weapons expert went to the school at Beit Hanoun which came under attack yesterday causing multiple deaths and injury. The aim of the visit to the site was to survey the scene in the aftermath of the incident. The Israeli army had been notified in advance about the composition of the team, the time and purpose of the visit. The mission had to be cut short and the team was forced to leave the area after gunfire around the school. UNRWA regrets not being able complete even this initial assessment. We will attempt to visit the site when the situation allows. We again underline our call for an immediate and comprehensive investigation.

The Guardian, 25 July 2014

#BBC #Gaza The school that was hit in #BeitHanounis now abandoned except for a few horses: image via Kelvin Brown @KelvinNews, 24 July 2014

#BBC #Gaza When we visited the school in #BeitHanounwe found blood stained furniture scattered in the playground: image via Kelvin Brown @KelvinNews, 24 July 2014

#IsraeliTerror Scenes from Kamal Adwan hospital after the zionist strikes on #UNRWA school in #BeitHanoun: image via CemDM @Defect101, 24 July 2014

 

III  A pool of blood

a pool of blood in a @UN-operated school after an Israeli air strikes in #BeitHanoun, northern Gaza strip: image via Tamer Yazar @tameryazar, 24 July 2014

Escuela de #UNRWA#BeitHanoun que Israel bombareo #Gaza (Foto @AP), northern Gaza strip: image via Monserrat Galvan @MonsetGalvan, 24 July 2014

Palestinian carries a wounded child in #Israeli strike on #UN chool in #BeitHanoun #Gaza @Independent: image via Amr Heikal @Amr_Heikal, 25 July 2014

MT "@BoothWillliam: destroyed #BeitHanoun, huge bomb craters, minarets hit, fires still burning, bodies” self defence !: image via HudHud @FathimaTL, 26 July 2014

 

a displaced #Palestinian girl who lost a relative in a blast at a #UN school cries at #BeitHanoun hospital #Gaza: image via Tamer Yazer @tameryazar,, 26 July 2014

Belongings left behind at #UNRWA kids shelter in #BeitHanoun after bombing on Wed killing 16 #Gaza: image via Kristina Dei @kdei, 26 July 2014

#UNRWA kids school yard #BeitHanoun where 16 died, littered w/ razor sharp metal shrapnel.@UN @UNICEF: image via Kristina Dei @kdei, 26 July 2014

#BeitHanoun today.  #Gaza death toll close to 1000. image by @hhenden: image via Rune Thomas Ege @rtege, 26 July 2014

IV  In the war zone, Beit Hanoun, last summer

#Crime committed by #Israel terrorist army #BeitHanoun children and animals caught in this hellish war zone #Gaza: image via Hegazi is #Anti_Coup@Hegazy, 26 July 2014

#BBC #Gaza Panorama shot of the destruction to #BeitHanoun. The UN school that was hit is just next to this area: image via Kelvin Brown @KelvinNews, 26 July 2014

 "@allisonCD: Family fleeing #BeitHanoun earlier today. #Gaza."  image via _AlQuds_@AlQuds_, 26 July 2014

If you see this, does it make you wonder what happened to the people? #Gaza #BeitHanoun: image via Allison Deger @allisonCD, 26 July 2014

Classroom of #BeitHanounschool, still smouldering 48hrs after "single errant shell that hit an empty yard" #Gaza: image via James Wright @JamesW60729527, 27 July 2014

Back to #Nazi era! This how a hospital in #BeitHanounlooked like this morning after #IDF shelling!: image via Heba Haddad @Heba_Haddad, 26 July 2014

Así quedó el hospital #BeitHanoun en #Gaza tras recibir repetidos bombardeos de #Israel sin importarle los enfermos: image via Esio G. Moreno R. @EGMorenoR, 27 July 2014

@StanleyCohenLaw What happens to a school in #BeitHanoun when crazed Israelis think weapons are there: image via Srab Secularist @ArabSecularist, 27 July 2014

"@KelvinNews: #BBC #Gaza Abandoned wheel chair on the road outside#BeitHanoun hospital." #ICC4Israel #GazaUnderAttack: image via Sara @SaraQ1981, 26 July 2014

V  "Only love makes life better"

 

Una joven palestina reacciona desde la puerta de su vivienda dañada, en #BeitHanoun #Gaza (Xinhua/ZP): image via XinhuaGráficaEspañol @Xinhua9, 19 August 2014

"Only love makes life better" at the #BeitHanounBoys and Girls #school via @dancohen3000 /s/fnlA #GazaUnderAttack: image via Alif Bay Tay @AlifBayTay, 22 August 2014

VI  Into the Ruins

here is #BeitHanoun,  Gaza! a Palestinian girl holding her sister walks through debris near remains of a mosque!: image via Tamer Yazer @tameryazar, 27 July 2014

here is #BeitHanoun, northern Gaza!... #Palestinian Mukaram Kefema cries upon her return to what was the family house: image via Tamer Yazer @tameryazar, 27 July 2014

here is #BeitHanoun, northern Gaza strip... a #Palestinian woman carries her belongings past the rubble of houses: image via Tamer Yazer @tameryazar, 27 July 2014

Palestinians walk past destroyed houses in #BeitHanoun #Gaza: image via Amr Heikal @Heikal_Amr, 27 July 2014

Children collecting belongings from their damaged house in #BeitHanoun while waiting for their parents: image via Osvaldo Calderón @Ostwaldo, 27 July 2014

"Everything's gone!" said Ahmed,11. #IslamicRelief was with him, at moment he saw his home collapsed #BeitHanoun #Gaza: image via Hatem Shurrab@HatemShu, 2 August 2014

"@Beltrew: A mural of Mickey Mouse peeks out from gutted building in #BeitHanoun -- an area entirely flattened #Gaza": image via Osama Bin Javaid @osamabinjavaid, 4 August 2014

#Palestinian woman at a hospital in #BeitHanoun. photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters: image via Pouria Moradi @mouradpouria, 3 August 2014

Cool le retrait de #Tsahal ! MERCI Les gazaouis peuvent enfin retourner dans leurs mai... Ah non :-((#BeitHanoun: image via Angry Bisounoours, 5 August 2014

 

A scene from #BeitHanoun #Gaza -- families assess the damage and collect any personal items: image via ICRC in Israel @ICRC_ilot  5 August  2014

 

 
Israel doesn't just bomb #Gaza. It wants it flat. Completely flat. Photo from BeitHanoun: image via Mariam Barghouti @MariamBarghouti, 10 August 2014

This is #BeitHanoun holocaust! #GazaUnder Attack #MyCam: image via Anas @EngAnasRajab, 8 August 2014

 

VII  Broken Promises

Jibril, left, lost two of his four grandchildren to hypothermia in the storms last month. The family now live in a tiny plastic-covered wooden structure in Beit Hanoun with a blanket for a door.: photo by Belal Hasna via The Guardian, 22 February 2015

 

The world has broken its promises about rebuilding Gaza -- and the chldren will suffer. Six months after international donors pledged billions after the last war, the cash has not materialised, lives remain shattered and the desperate suffering goes on.

Chris Gunness, director of advocacy and strategic communications for The United Relief and Works Agency, The Guardian,  22 February 2015

Baby Salma died of hypothermia at just 40 days old. Her body was drenched with freezing rainwater. It was frozen “like ice-cream”. Gaza was hit by a severe winter storm called “Huda” in January. Salma was its youngest victim.

I meet Salma’s mother, Mirvat, and 14 members of her extended family in the very place, indeed the room, where Salma slept during her last night at home. They still live there in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, in a tiny three-room wooden structure, covered with plastic. When I see it from the road, I assume it houses animals. The door is a blanket which flaps in the biting wind. It is raining. Water flows in. Mirvat pulls back the sodden carpet that serves as flooring and scoops the wet sand below. Memories of Salma’s death on 9 January are painfully fresh.

“The night she died the storm was strong. We were all soaking wet, but some of us managed to sleep. The rain came and in and drenched Salma’s blankets. I found her shaking. Her tiny body was frozen like ice-cream. We took her to hospital, but later the doctor called. Salma was dead. My beautiful girl weighed 3.1kg at birth. She was healthy and would be alive today if we had not been bombed out of our home in the war and reduced to living like this.”

During the Gaza conflict last summer,  Mirvat, her husband and four children lived in a complex of five simple buildings with their 40-member extended family, just one kilometre from the barrier between Gaza and Israel. Her father-in-law, Jibril, knew that life on the frontline was unsustainable.

“There was a smell of death in the air. The children were traumatised and couldn’t sleep,” he tells me. “After a week of fighting we fled as the bombs fell around us, terrified for our lives. We went to my brother’s house, but that became too dangerous, so we took refuge in a hospital. After an hour, that was hit, so we ran to the shelter of an UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency] school. There were thousands of us living in a school built for one thousand students. So after the war we came here.”

The family tragedy does not end with Salma. Her sister Maes, aged three, is in hospital suffering from respiratory problems brought on by exposure to harsh weather. “I worry that Maes will die like Salma,” says Mirvat.

Outside, I meet Mirvat’s sister-in-law, Nisreen, 28. Her son died at just 50 days old in the UNRWA school where the family had taken refuge. “Moemen’s death was unexpected. There was nothing anyone could do to save him. I felt that he was cold. I covered him up and I put him to sleep. The child was sleeping in my lap. When I woke up at four in the morning he was blue. Moemen was dead. I have waited for a boy for five years, and now he’s gone.”

Jibril is an extraordinary grandfather, even by Gazan standards. Two of the four children killed by hypothermia in Gaza in recent weeks were his grandchildren. He says the war has robbed him of his past and his future. “My home lies in ruins, flattened. I worked hard for over 40 years as a farmer. I provided for my family. But in a matter of hours it was all lost. I had a piece of farmland that they destroyed. We planted lemon trees on it 17 years ago, but tanks bulldozed it.”

Jibril is an entrepreneurial man deliberately reduced to destitution. “My son has a donkey and earns five to 10 shekels a day [£1 to £2] transporting rocks to support all of us. We live mainly on hubeyza [a wild grass eaten like spinach] which we can pick in the streets.”

And whom does he blame for the untimely death of his grandchildren? “The international donor community killed those babies,” he tells me. “They have pledged billions. But where is it? We need a home, not promises. UNRWA has no money. What can they do without financial support?”

Jibril is correct. UNRWA, the agency for which I work, was forced to suspend what for this family would have been a life-saving programme just three weeks ago. After the conference in Cairo last October at which donors pledged $5.4bn to rebuild Gaza, we created a $720m project. With the generous pledges at Cairo we were certain the funds would be there. Or so we thought. With this money, we aimed to give rental subsidies to people whose homes were uninhabitable. We hoped to give cash so people could repair and rebuild their houses. But the billions pledged did not materialise and the programme was left with a shortfall of nearly $600m.

Baby Salma’s uncle with the wild grass soup that makes up the majority of the family’s diet: photo by Belal Hasna via The Guardian, 22 February 2015

The day after we announced suspension of the cash assistance, anger boiled over. The office in Gaza of the UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process was attacked. The threat of violence remains. You can feel it in the air, just like last summer.

Certainly the need is great and the sense of desperation is palpable and profound. We estimate that approximately 100,000 housing units were damaged or completely destroyed, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Many of those with homes that are habitable have found themselves on water and electricity grids that are dysfunctional. 

Rebuilding Gaza physically is only part of the story. If Salma and Moemen had lived, what future would they have had? The next generation in Gaza is traumatised, shocked, brutalised. The recreational spaces where they play are littered with some 8,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance.

The UN estimates that some 540 children were killed in the conflict, many in their own homes. UNRWA could not provide safe sanctuary. Our schools took direct hits on seven occasions. Children died in and around classrooms and playgrounds under the blue UN flag. Almost every child in Gaza has a family member or friend who was killed, injured or maimed for life, often before their eyes. One thousand of the 3,000 children injured in the conflict are likely to have physical disabilities for the rest of their lives. Had Salma and Moemen lived to adulthood, they would have entered a job market with an unemployment rate which hit an unprecedented 47% in the third quarter of last year. 

Average power blackouts are 18 hours a day. Around 90% of all water in Gaza is undrinkable.

Gaza is not a natural disaster. It is man-made, the result of deliberate political choices. 

Different choices must now be made. What is the point of rebuilding a place while condemning its population to the indignities of aid dependency?

The situation teeters on the brink of another major crisis, with worrying implications for Palestinians and Israelis. Funding for humanitarian operations is urgently needed, but such assistance will only mitigate the worst impacts of the crisis.

The shack in Beit Hanoun where Baby Salma lived with 14 members of the extended family: photo by Belal Hasna via The Guardian, 22 February 2015

People in Gaza need urgent change: they need all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international law; the removal by Israel of all obstacles to the enjoyment of human rights; and the immediate lifting of the blockade, allowing imports and exports, a necessary step to enabling economic recovery.

The rockets fired from Gaza must cease. There is an urgent need for Palestinian unity, so that the Palestinian Government of National Consensus can assume its governance and security functions in Gaza. The Middle East Quartet should exert effective political pressures, as the time for humanitarian action alone is long past.

I urge donors to translate their pledges at the Cairo conference into actual disbursements, and for the international community to promote and demand compliance with international law. Most importantly, parties to the conflict have obligations to protect civilians. Those found guilty of violations should be held accountable and brought to justice.

Another major crisis can be averted. If we mobilise the political, financial and moral resources to break out of the deadlock, we can give Gaza back its future. It is too late for baby Salma and Moemen, but it is not too late for the next generation, some 950,000 children they left behind.

#Israel'i soldiers scrawled this message for schoolchildren in #BeitHanoun #GazaUnderAttack #JewishNazis: image via Rafael @achops, 26 August 2014

 

A #Palestinian child views a classroom, damaged by a massive fire at #United Nations boy's middle school in #Beit Hanoun: photo by Ashraf Amra, image via /Anadolu Images @anadoluumages, 18 February 2015

William Carlos Williams / Dorothea Lange: The Descent

February 25, 2015, 2:36 am

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≪ Previous: Broken Promises

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Untitled (garden steps. Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

The descent beckons
 

.............as the ascent beckoned.

.............................

 .............................Memory is a kind

of accomplishment,

.............a  sort of renewal

 ............................ even

an initiation, since the spaces it opens are new places
               
.............inhabited by hordes

.............................heretofore unrealized,
of new kinds --

.............since their movements 

 ...........                     are toward new objectives

(even though formerly they were abandoned).

 

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

No defeat is made up entirely of defeat -- since

the world it opens is always a place
 
................formerly
 
............................unsuspected. A
world lost,     

................a world unsuspected,

............................beckons to new places

and no whiteness (lost) is so white as the memory

of whiteness.......

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

With evening, love wakens

                though its shadows                          

............................which are alive by reason

of the sun shining --              

.............grow sleepy now and drop away

                            .....from desire........

Untitled (garden steps, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Love without shadows stirs now

...............beginning to awaken

...........................as night

advances.

Untitled (garden, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

The descent

...............made up of despairs                    

............................and without accomplishment

realizes a new awakening:                          

 ...........................which is a reversal
of despair.               

.............. For what we cannot accomplish, what

is denied to love,               

...............what we have lost in the anticipation --                           

............................a descent follows,

endless and indestructible..............             

 

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963): The Descent, first published in Paterson II (1948); included as the opening poem in The Desert Music (1954)

Untitled (path, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (window, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), 5 December 1956 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)


 

 Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oaks, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (oak tree, Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)



Untitled (Berkeley): photo by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), c. 1957 (Dorothea Lange Collection, Oakland Museum of California)

for A.

Almost Time Now

February 26, 2015, 3:53 am

≫ Next: Bertolt Brecht: Parade of the Old New

≪ Previous: William Carlos Williams / Dorothea Lange: The Descent

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Watching time go by @unionstationTO #BlackAndWhite #Org1: photo via Dré @OrganizedNoise1, 18 February 2015

  Untitled (The Netherlands): photo by Akbar Simonse, 10 June 2013

  This is Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California): photo by Mark Nye, 18 November 2012

Untitled: photo by Joshua Perez (Strange Goodness), 4 October 2013



Untitled(Dirty Jerzey): photo by Joshua Perez (StrangeGoodness), 3 August 2013

Night ferry (Portland, Maine): photo by Robert Schneider, 3 November 2013
 

Worcester, Massachusetts: photo by Billy (STREETIZM), 27 January 2014



2741 (Temple Avenue, Los Angeles): photo by michaelj1998, 27 January 2014

ways around (Adogawa-cho, Lake Biwa, Shiga prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 17 November 2012

Speaker, Portland: photo by Austin Granger, 5 February 2014

the day the Emperor came (Annpachi-cho, Gifu prefecture, Japan): photo by Stephen Cairns, 30 September 2012

searching for Sugimoto. Hiroshi Sugimoto has a fantastic series of images featuring the interiors of American theatres. The series is borne from a simple idea: what would happen if a camera were brought into a movie theatre and the shutter kept open for the length of the film. The answer is equally simple but brilliant. After two hours of entertainment nothing remains -- nothing but the light. This is a huge pachinko LED sign. Pachinko is a Japanese gambling pastime. I leave you to draw your own conclusions: photo by Stephen Cairns, 26 October 2013

 caution sign(Kansas City): photo by Clayton Percy, 26 January 2014

Hotel (Skid row, Los Angeles): photo by michaelj1998, 23 January 2014

shinjuku, tokyo: photo by wire_paladinSF, 10 April 2014

star lofts and fireplug, downtown kansas city: photo by Clayton Percy, 26 January 2014

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Bertolt Brecht: Parade of the Old New

February 27, 2015, 3:18 am

≫ Next: Bertolt Brecht: Die Musen / The Muses

≪ Previous: Almost Time Now

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A very grey day on the very Grey Lady of #Nantucket: image via Michael West @ACKstronomy, 22 February 2015

I stood on a hill and I saw the Old approaching, but it came as the New.

Off Season #14, Newburyport, MA (Sunpet camera): photo by Jim Rohan (Lower Darnley), 10 February 2015

It hobbled up on new crutches which no one had ever seen before and stank of new smells of decay which no one had ever smelt before.

 

 

Intertidal Zones #2, Rowley, MA (Holga): photo by Jim Rohan (Lower Darnley), 11 February 2015

The stone that rolled past was the newest invention and the screams of the gorillas drumming on their chests set up to be the newest musical composition.

║tidal inlet[Gnome Pixie Flex / inverted lens / expired Orwo NP 20 / September 2014]: photo by Polar Noire, 28 January 2015

 

Everywhere you could see open graves as the New advanced on the capital.

i. early night. 2 hours after sunset. ~ 90 sec. long time exp. with Agfa Clack (Inverted lens) / Fomapan 100. 2014 ACFL_whv_2014_1: photo by Polar Noire, 15 January 2014

Round about stood such as inspired terror, shouting: Here comes the New, it's all new, salute the New, be new like us! And those who heard, heard nothing but their shouts, but those who saw, such such as were not shouting.

Black Horse #5, Wakefield, MA (Holga 120S): photo by Jim Rohan (Lower Darnley), 24 February 2015

So the Old strode in disguised as the New, but it brought the New with it in its triumphal procession and presented it as the Old.

∩ ∩ ∩ ∩ ∩ ∩ plastics hot green house. Some trees watching. ^^ [Gnome Pixie Flex / inverted lens / Orwo NP 20 exp. 1986 / February 2015]: photo by Polar Noire, 24 February 2015

The New went fettered and in rags; they revealed its splendid limbs.

Stampede #3 (Rocket Camera): photo by Jim Rohan (Lower Darnley), 25 February 2015

And the procession moved through the night, but what they thought was the light of dawn was the light of fires in the sky. And the cry: Here comes the New, it's all new, salute the New, be new like us! would have been easier to hear if it had not been drowned in a thunder of guns.

Bertolt Brecht: Parade des alten Neuen (Parade of the Old New), 1939, translated by John Willett in Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim with the co-operation of Erich Fried, 1976

m o o n. attracted by the moon. [Kodak Cresta / flipped lens / RPX 400 / Xtol]: photo by Polar Noire, 24 October 2014

Living Through History: Stoneham, MA (Holga 120S): photo by Jim Rohan (Lower Darnley), 26 February 2015

/°\ [Fuji FP-3000b w. Polaroid Land Camera 100 converted Wollensak Raptar 127mm. WP_2014_WHV_4a]: photo by Polar Noire, 1 February 2014

/°\ [Negative from Fuji FP-3000b taken with converted Polaroid Land Camera with Wollensak Raptar 127mm. January 2014. WP_2014_WHV_4anegRS]: photo by Polar Noire, 17 January 2014

 

 

Near frozen waves off the coast of Nantucket: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh/Stay Wild: image by Rhonda Berglas, 27 February 2015

Frozen "slurpee waves" on Nantucket: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh/Stay Wild; image by Rhonda Berglas, 26 February 2015

 

  Nearly frozen waves captured on camera on Nantucket Island: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh/Stay Wild: image by Rhonda Berglas, 26 February 2015

The slurpee waves of Nantucket: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh via Stay Wild; image via Rhonda Berglas, 26 February 2015

The unrelenting cold in Massachusetts has created "Slurpee waves" off the coast of Nantucket: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh via Stay Wild; image by Rhonda Berglas, 27 February 2015

Photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh spotted ocean waves frozen over with slush off the Nantucket coast amid below-average temperatures throughout the region. The freezing water created an unusual effect on the wave shape. ‘When I got to the top off the dunes I see that about 300 yards out from the shoreline that the ocean was starting to freeze. The high temperature that day was around 19F (-7C). The wind was howling from the south-west, which would typically make rough or choppy conditions not good for surfing, but since the surface of the sea was frozen, the wind did not change the shape.’: photo by Jonathan Nimerfroh via The Guardian, 27 February 2015

 

RT @JasonGraziadei"Slurpee waves of Nantucket" so hot right now. Slurpee waves. #nantucket: image via @JasonGraziadei@JasonGraziadei, 27 February 2015

Awesome. Nearly Frozen Waves Captured On Camera By #Nantucket Photog via @cbsboston: image via Jon O @bzzagentjono, 27 February 2015

Snowing afternoon on jetties beach #Nantucket #jetties #ack #snow #winter: image via Nantucket Bike Shop @ackbikeshop, 18 February 2015

Bertolt Brecht: Die Musen / The Muses

February 28, 2015, 3:08 am

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#SkiptheSpeech gains traction as #Netanyahu Continues to Insult America @jvplive: image via Carbonated.TV @CarbonatedTV, 27 February 2012

Wenn der Eiserne sie prügelt
Singen die Musen lauter.
Aus gebläuten Augen
Himmel in sie ihn hundisch an.
Der Hintern zuck von Schmerz
Die Scham var Begierde.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu (R) and his wife Sara, who described him as ‘a giant of a leader’. Sara Netanyahu has been thrust to the centre of his election campaign after the release of an alleged transcript of her ranting down the phone to Monique Ben Melekh, the wife of Netanyahu's political rival Eli Moyal, during the war in Gaza last summer, From the transcript: “Does anyone in the country want anyone else other than Bibi? Huh?! Someone in this entire country?! They admire Binyamin Netanyahu the entire world over![He is] a man [who] took all of the State of Israel upon his shoulders; he sends soldiers to war, he behaves with rare political wisdom, speaks with leaders all the time! Binyamin Netanyahu’s experience, his wisdom, his education! [He has] extensive education, university degrees! He also reads books, understands the economy, security, policy, he knows how to speak with leaders of the world!... In the United States they say that if he had been born in the US, he’d have been elected president there!” : text by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem; photo by Nir Elias/Reuters via The Guardian, 27 February 2015

When the man of iron beats them
The Muses sing louder.
With blackened eyes
They adore him like bitches.
Their buttocks twitch with pain.
Their thighs with lust.

Bertolt Brecht (1998-1956): Die Musen (The Muses), from Buckower Elegien (Buckow Elegies), 1953, translated by  Michael Hamburger in Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim with the co-operation of Erich Fried, 1976

Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu. A damning official report into spending by the Israeli prime ministerat his official residence in Jerusalem and private seaside home has accused him of excessive and improper use of public funds, including spending huge amounts on takeaway food, hairdressing and cleaning. Prepared by Israel’s state comptroller, Yosef Shapira – and passed to the country’s attorney general to consider whether any laws have been broken – the report is potentially highly damaging to Netanyahu, coming only a month before Israel’s elections. The government auditor’s report appears to confirm allegations that have been rumbling for several years of excessive spending by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, and a lack of proper management of the costs in the prime minister’s official home. It has come on top of lurid allegations, detailed in a civil court case, of the high-handed and abusive treatment of staff in the official residence by Sara -– claims strongly denied by the Netanyahus. What has made the issue potentially politically toxic in the middle of an election campaign –- where Netanyahu is running neck and neck with his main rivals -– is the sharp contrast it has afforded to Israelis suffering under a high cost of living. The claims of potential illegal conduct centre on two issues: the so called “bottle-gate affair”, which saw Sara Netanyahu pocket deposits on bottles of drinks paid for by the state, later reimbursed; and claims that garden furniture bought for the official residence was sent to their private home. Among spending items criticised in the report is a bill to the Israeli state for more than $18,000 (£11,700) for takeaway meals in a single year, despite the fact that the Netanyahus are provided with a cook and staff at the government’s expense. Another expenditure highlighted was the cost of cleaning for Netanyahu’s private home in the upmarket beach resort of Caesarea. It cost the Israeli state $2,120 a month –- more than the monthly income of many Israelis -– despite the fact that the Netanyahus spend the majority of their time at the official residence in Jerusalem. Netanyahu was also criticised for excessive spending on a raft of other items including hairdressing, clothes, water consumption and electrical repairs made at the taxpayer’s expense at his private home. The official examination of the expenses -– incurred between 2009-13 –- showed that cleaning costs claimed at the Netanyahus’ two residences doubled without explanation from an already hefty $138,000 in 2009 at the official residence alone. Perhaps most damaging of all is the revelation that employees of the prime minister’s office were obliged to pay for some of Netanyahu’s personal expenses out of their own pockets –- often small sums and not reimbursed.“The meaning of a failure to pay back these invoices from petty cash is that employees absorb the cost of private expenditures of the prime minister or his family,” the comptroller wrote in his report. “When an employee is forced to pay from his own pocket for an expenditure by the prime minister, this is improper administration and it makes no difference whether the sum is large or small.”: text by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem; photo by Riccardo De Luca/AP via The Guardian, 17 February 2015

Netanyahu Denies Wife Pocketed From Returned Bottles #Netanyahu #Sara Netanyahu #Likud #Israel; image via ZERO Filtered @ZEROFiltered, 31 January 2015

#SaraNetanyahu; image via Noga Halperin @HalperinNoga, 30 January 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the campaign trail near Jerusalem. Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has ordered a preliminary investigation into alleged fiscal misconduct at the private and state residences of Prime Minister.: photo by Nir Elias/Reuters via the Guardian, 27 February 2015

 

Angering the White House and Democrats, Binyamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republican leaders to address a joint meeting of Congress on 3 March and speak about Iran. The Republican leaders did not consult the Obama administration, which the White House called a breach of protocol. Democratic senators Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein on Monday invited Netanyahu to meet in a closed-door session with Democrats during his visit. He declined the invitation on Tuesday: photo by Reuters via The Guardian, 17 February 2015

Netanyahu’s Iran bomb claim contradicted by Mossad, leaked spy cables show. Binyamin Netanyahu’s dramatic declaration to world leaders in 2012 that Iran was about a year away from making a nuclear bomb was contradicted by his own secret service, according to a top-secret Mossad document. It is part of a cache of hundreds of dossiers, files and cables from the world’s major intelligence services -– one of the biggest spy leaks in recent times. Brandishing a cartoon of a bomb with a red line to illustrate his point, the Israeli prime minister warned the UN in New York that Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons the following year and called for action to halt the process. But in a secret report shared with South Africa a few weeks later, Israel’s intelligence agency concluded that Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons”. The report highlights the gulf between the public claims and rhetoric of top Israeli politicians and the assessments of Israel’s military and intelligence establishment: image extracted from leaked Israeli intelligence document via The Guardian, 23 February 2015

Everything you need to know about #SkipTheSpeech: image via End the Occupation @US_Campaign, 27 February 2015

A former head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad is urging voters to oust Binyamin Netanyahu in the next general election, accusing the prime minister of endangering the country’s security with his stance on the Iranian nuclear programme. Meir Dagan, a vocal critic of Netanyahu's Iran policy since stepping down as Mossad chief four years ago, is to be a keynote speaker at a rally in Tel Aviv next weekend, calling on the public to turf the prime minister out of office on 17 March. Netanyahu was due to fly to Washington on Friday. In a trenchant critique of Netanyahu’s leadership, delivered in a long interview in Israel’s biggest-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Dagan said the prime minister’s policies were “destructive to the future and security of Israel”. Netanyahu’s planned speech has brought the already uncomfortable state of relations with the Obama administration to a new low amid suspicion that the speech -– at the invitation of Republican house speaker John Boehner –- was designed to enhance the Israeli prime minister’s electoral prospects.: text by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem, photo by Abir Sultan/AP via the Guardian, 27 February 2015

Binyamin Netanyahu visits at a military outpost overlooking the Israel-Syria border on Wednesday. The Israeli ambassador to Switzerland and a diplomat in India have been called home over comments critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. Among the alleged infractions was a retweet by Ambassador Yigal Caspi, citing criticism of Netanyahu’s accepting a controversial invitation to address the US Congress over Iran’s nuclear policy. “Every time one thinks Netanyahu has taken the relationship with the White House to the lowest point ever, he manages to take it even lower,” said a tweet by Haaretz newspaper writer Barak Ravid, reposted on Caspi’s private Twitter account before it was closed. Foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told AFP that Caspi and Assaf Moran, political counsellor at the embassy in Delhi, had been called home. “They have been summoned to a hearing in order to check the comments attributed to them on their Twitter accounts.”: text by AFP in Jerusalem; photo Baz Ratner/AP via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

Tell us why, Star Parker, we shld welcome #Netanyahu, who allows this kind of hate run amok in Israel against BLK PPL: image via 3ChicsPolitico_3 @Chics Politico, 27 February 2015

Netanyahu Disrespects Obama & Palestinian Human Rights #SkipTheSpeech via @DreamDefenders #BDS: image via #NoJusticeNoPeace @PalsJustice, 27 February 2015

#SkipTheSpeech campaign: image via Rana1 @Tantoon, 23 February 2015

#BiBiStayHome #SkipTheSpeech cc @IsraelPM #Netanyahu @SpeakerBoehner @HouseGOP #Senate_GOPs: image via T @southerntalkerTantoon, 20 February 2015

 @SpeakerBoehner belongs behind bars, not in House! MT MT@crazylary51 @DoggedlyBlue @MoveOn @Senate_GOPs #SkipTheSpeech: image via TeaBaggersNightmare @BlueVA_Hound, 20 February 2015

Sickening that we can take care of Israel, but not our own people! Time to end all aid to Israel, and #SkipTheSpeech campaign: image via Jovan @CSRA_prsn 23 February 2015

CALL NOW: Ask your Members of Congress 2join 29 others & #SkipTheSpeech: image via California Cathy @JaneVoter, 21 February 2015

US Officials Say #Israel = Distorting the Reality of Peace Talks With Iran #SkipTheSpeech #BDS: image via #NoJusticeNoPeace @PalsJustice, 20 February 2015

Close your door "@jvplive: Dear Congress, Please #SkipTheSpeech" by Netanyahu: image via Hello haiku @Aamilne_Tetsuya, 21 February 2015

Probably going to be a short conversation...@ZZion @kharyp @politicsusa #DHS #SkipTheSpeech: image via stu stein @thestustein, 27 February 2015

Wislawa Szymborska: Some like poetry

March 1, 2015, 4:37 am

≫ Next: Minnie: Safely Home

≪ Previous: Bertolt Brecht: Die Musen / The Muses

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 Zawiercie, Poland: photo by Koos Fernhout, 6 January 2013

Some --
therefore not all.
Not even a majority just a minority.
Not counting schools where they have to,
and the poets themselves,
that's probably two per thousand.

Like --
but one also likes noodle soup,
one likes compliments and the colour blue,
one likes an old scarf,
one likes to have one's way,
one likes to pat a dog.

Poetry --
but what is poetry.
There have already been
several shaky answers
to this question.
But I don't know and I don't know and I hold on to this
like a saving hand-rail.

Zawiercie, Poland: photo by Koos Fernhout, 6 January 2013

Norris Dam and powerhouse. Night view of Norris Dam with floodlighting. The more spectacular dams of the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) are equipped to be floodlit at night and are popular excursion points. Pinpoint lights along top of dam are small lenses in back of the handrail bracket road lighting fixtures. Wet spots on dam are the result of small shrinkage cracks during initial years which later sealed themselves by the sediment contained in the water: photographer unknown, between 1933 and 1945

The Spiral Staircase, directed by Robert Siodmak, 1946: snapshot from film trailer by wondersinthedark, 2008

Spiral staircase in a tall pagoda, Singapore: photo by Ray Tornes, 23 April 2007

Niektórzy -- 
czyli nie wszyscy. 
Nawet nie większość wszystkich ale mniejszość. 
Nie licząc szkół, gdzie się musi, 
i samych poetów, 
będzie tych osób chyba dwie na tysiąc. 

Lubią -- 
ale lubi się także rosół z makaronem, 
lubi się komplementy i kolor niebieski, 
lubi się stary szalik, 
lubi się stawiać na swoim, 
lubi się głaskać psa. 

Poezję -- 
Tylko co to takiego poezja. 
Niejedna chwiejna odpowiedź 
na to pytanie już padła. 
A ja nie wiem i nie wiem i trzymam się tego 
Jak zbawiennej poręczy. 


Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012): Niektórzy lubią poezję (Some like poetry), 1993, translated by Adam Czerniawski

 "Hasta aquí" de #Szymborska: el mejor poemario traducido del 2014 según Babelia @CulturaUNAM: image via PLenMéxico @PLenMéxico, 20 December 2014

Some --
therefore not all. 

 Early, unseen  #Szymborska poems hit the shelves: image via Wislawa Szymborska @WSzymborska, 8 October 2014

Poetry --
but what is poetry. 

#Szymborska @WydawnictwoZnak 3 #Anniversary: image via Wislawa Szymborska @WSzymborska, 5 October 2014

But I don't know and I don't know and I hold on to this
like a saving hand-rail.

#Szymborska 3 #Anniversary: image via Wislawa Szymborska @WSzymborska, 31 January 2015

NK Mall (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 1 September 2012

In Line (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 29 August 2012

New Subway Station (Stockholm): photo by Mikael Jeney, 1 September 2012



Round Tower: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1749-1750, etching and engraving (first state of six) (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

Stairway in rooming house, Washington, D.C.: photo by Carl Mydans, September 1935 (U.S. Resettlement Administration / Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

Staircase of the Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), Vatican City: photo by Robert Catalano, 26 July 2005



 Staudammkrone dam at Lüner Lake, Austria: photo by Friedrich Böhringer, 2010

Look downstairs into stairwell whirl (looking over centripetal banisters, Marzahn, Berlin): photo by quapan (Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann), 5 August 2008

The #Passion #Tower #spiral #stairwelldown to the bottom #SagradaFamilia #Barcelona: image via Bla Barcelona @blaBarcelona,, 26 September 2014

 
2 luglio: ricordando Wisława #Szymborska : image via SoloLibri @SoloLibri, 2 July 2014

   
Así despide Polonia a sus poetas. Hace 2 años, 10.000 personas despedían a #WislawaSzymborska en #Cracovioa: image via Carmen Garrido @CarmelaGarrido, 3 February 2015

Minnie: Safely Home

March 2, 2015, 7:14 am

≫ Next: Where Is the House of the Friend?

≪ Previous: Wislawa Szymborska: Some like poetry

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Nobody looked like they were having more fun #RIPMinnie: image via Matt Rodewald @MattRodewald, 1 March 2015

 

Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta. He was the best ballplayer I ever got to see up close, on a regular basis. I worked at the ballpark. I got to see him play 60-70 times a year, in his prime -- or as close to it as he was going to be, having left his youth and no doubt some of his best years in Cuba and the Negro League. His famous friendly disposition was no act; he was cool with everybody. He had to be. He also possessed a kind of natural happy swagger that was new. Off the field, the flashy shirts and hats and ties. The big green convertible. His abilities made all that extravagance possible. But he was as tough as any player who had ever played the game. He had to be. Now there is talk of five-tool players. Minnie had the standard five -- run, throw, play the field, hit, hit with power -- plus some others that were at least equally important: the personal and cultural skills that allowed him to endure the racial abuse that came as a matter of course in that time, place and situation. He let it all roll off, kept on smiling anyway. Pitchers feared him and threw at him mercilessly, but he refused to back off the plate, even after one particular "purpose pitch", delivered a bit too purposefully, fractured his skull. He missed a couple of weeks, came back attacking at the plate as before. His attitude was, Bring it on. He ran the bases just as aggressively, with an edge and abandon that surprised opponents, routinely stretching singles into doubles, doubles into triples, giving outfielders bad dreams. His daring as a basestealer distracted and aggravated opposing pitchers and managers, but proved contagious in his own team. The traditionally lame and near-inert White Sox suddenly became a very interesting team; sparked by Minnie's example, everybody was stealing bases; the old ballpark in its mean South Side precinct, over which, on sultry summer nights, the prevailing breezes from the prairie always seemed to waft the choking reek of the stockyards, was now awake with a new energy, crowds chanting Go! Go! Go! into the stinking night whenever a White Sox player reached base. Meanwhile Minnie, who had initiated all this, continued giving the impression he was enjoying everything enormously. Of course one understood he had left family behind in Cuba, and that he was troubled by having done so. There had to be things he was holding to himself. Yet, that wonderful sunny demeanour.  His English wasn't very good, but his teammates seemed to think the things he said were charming and funny, though they could only half-understand. A little thing like English wasn't going to hold Minnie back.  Given how far he'd had to come to get where he was, really nobody was going to get him to back off ever.  

 

Minnie was hurt by being left out of the Hall of Fame. He is the finest player ever to have the honour of being left out of that elite company. His absence makes it seem just that little bit less elite. Last year he made it into the baseball Hall of Fame in his native country, however. Safely home at last.

Perico, Matanzas, Cuba: photo by Denise Diaz via Spirited Pursuit, 8 July 2014

Legendario pelotero cubano Minnie Miñoso murió en Estados Unidos: El cubano Minnie Miñoso, oriundo de la occidental provincia de Matanzas, fue seleccionado a nueve Juegos de Estrellas y ganador de tres Guantes de Oro en las Grandes Ligas: Juventud Rebelde, 1 de Marzo del 2015 

WASHINGTON, marzo 1.— El expelotero cubano Orestes Miñoso, primer latino negro en jugar en las Grandes Ligas de Estados Unidos, falleció este domingo en el condado de Cook, Illinois, reporta PL.

Minnie Miñoso, como era conocido, debutó en 1949 con los Indios de Cleveland, dos años después que el estadounidense Jackie Robinson rompiera la barrera racial con los Dodgers de Brooklyn.

El jardinero, oriundo de la occidental provincia de Matanzas, fue cambiado en 1951 a las Medias Blancas de Chicago, equipo con el cual se estrenó conectando un jonrón en su primer turno al bate, el 1 de mayo contra el diestro de los Yankees de Nueva York Vic Raschi.

Aquel cuadrangular fue el primero de los 135 en 12 torneos con Chicago, al que tributó también un promedio ofensivo de .304 y 808 carreras impulsadas.

La franquicia de la Windy City (Ciudad de los Vientos) retiró en 1983 el número 9 utilizado por Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta, su nombre completo, cuya estatua aparece en el U.S. Cellular Field.

En Cuba, el beisbolista fue nombrado Novato del Año en su primera temporada (1945-1946), ganó dos pergaminos de Jugador Más Valioso (1952-53 y 1956-57), además de conquistar un título de bateo y varios lideratos en carreras anotadas, triples y bases robadas con los Tigres de Marianao.

Miñoso, seleccionado a nueve Juegos de Estrellas y ganador de tres Guantes de Oro en las Grandes Ligas, no llegó a Cooperstown, el Salón de la Fama del béisbol estadounidense, un templo al que sus número lo catapultaron hace mucho tiempo ya.

El pasado año Miñoso fue incluido en el Salón de la Fama del béisboll cubano junto a Conrado Marrero y Camilo Pascual, quienes también brillaron en la Major League Baseball.

 #Minoso #latinopride #Chicago #WhiteSox thank you, rest in paradise: image via Alberto Gomez @Betowskie, 1 March 2015

Perico, Matanzas, Cuba: photo by Denise Diaz via Spirited Pursuit, 8 July 2014

Former MLB All-Star Minnie Minoso writes about his hopes for his home country: Time, 22 December 2014

When I heard the news that the United States and my home country, Cuba, were resuming diplomatic relations, I was so happy. I never thought this day would come in my lifetime. Though it took too long—I’m 90 years old—I’m thrilled to be here to see it. I’ve been an American citizen for 30 years. I have always loved living here. Playing major league baseball in America was my dream. But you always have a soft spot for the place where you were born.

I grew up on a sugar farm in Perico, a small town around 90 miles east of Havana. We were poor; we had no electricity, no radio. But I was raised in a loving family, and my parents taught me the values of hard work. Like my father, I worked in the sugar fields while growing up, but also knew I had baseball talent. Each sugar ranch had a baseball team, and I threw so hard—I was a pitcher back then -- that other players were afraid of facing me. We didn’t have real gloves. To pay for our uniforms, we would buy empty sugar boxes and resell them for a dollar profit. We gave our money to a woman who made them out of cotton flour sacks.

In 1945, I left Cuba to play in the Negro Leagues in the U.S. Some people warned me not to go to America, because of racial discrimination and segregation. But although segregation wasn’t as formal as it was in the United States, Cuba was no racial paradise. It was very, very difficult for black ballplayers to play professionally in Cuba.
As my major league career took off in the 1950s, I went home to Cuba every offseason, to play winter ball and visit my family. It was a golden age. Tourists vacationed in Cuba. Havana nightlife was thriving. You can’t overstate how big baseball was in Cuba.

A view of a rural road in Perico (Matanzas Province, Cuba). The street is just nearby the central gas station on the Carretera Central: photo by Der Borg, 18 January 2013

Things started to change once Fidel Castro came into power in 1959. I was a ballplayer, not a politician. To me, you don’t prop up the poor by taking away from the well-off. I feared the Cuban people would lose their freedom, their hard-earned property.

In 1961, I made the painful decision to leave Cuba for good. I saw where the country was headed, and did not agree with the Castro’s policies. I said goodbye to my two sisters, and my father. I never saw them again.

This brought great pain. But I like to look at the positive: We are entering a new era. If my doctor says I’m healthy enough to fly, I plan on traveling to Cuba soon, to be inducted into a hall of fame. Maybe I’ll see some of the same trees, the same sugar fields, I remembered as a boy.

We still don’t know what this new policy means for Cuban baseball players. Will they be able to go to the majors, and have the same opportunities I did? Will baseball teams construct academies in Cuba, like they’ve done in the Dominican Republic? If I get to talk to any young up-and-coming Cuban baseball players, I will tell them: don’t try to escape. Be legal. Don’t risk it. Everything is going to work out now. Everything is going to be happy. -– as told to Sean Gregory

Minnie Minoso, a seven-time MLB All-Star, is the first black Cuban player to appear in the major leagues, and the only player to appear in a professional baseball game during seven different decades.

 

Perico, Matanzas, Cuba: photo by Denise Diaz via Spirited Pursuit, 8 July 2014

White Sox outfielder Minnie Minoso poses outside the Comiskey Park dugout on Sept. 3, 1960: photo by John Austad via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015

Minnie Minoso dies, Chicago's first black big-league baseball player: Los Abgeles Times, 1 March 2015

Minnie Minoso, the “Cuban comet” who became Chicago’s first black major league baseball player when he signed on with the White Sox in 1951, died Sunday.

He was 90, according to Major League Baseball, but accounts of his age vary.

Found unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a car at a Chicago gas station at about 1 a.m., Minoso was declared dead at the scene, police said. Family members believe Minoso’s death was caused by a heart ailment, his son Charlie Rice-Minoso told the Chicago Tribune.

The son of sugar-cane cutters in Cuba, Minoso was regarded as the first Latin American superstar, inspiring young players from the region who dreamed of joining him in the big leagues.

Puerto Rican native and Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda once called him “the Jackie Robinson for all Latinos; the first star who opened doors for all Latin American players. He was everybody's hero. I wanted to be Minoso. [Roberto] Clemente wanted to be Minoso.”

Minoso was a seven-time All-Star whose combination of speed and power led a White Sox revival in the 1950s. In his later years, he served as one of the team’s top goodwill ambassadors.

Warm and outgoing, he decked himself out in broad-brimmed hats and colorful shirts.

“He was adorned with gold -- on his wrists and his neck and in his teeth,” sportswriter Marty Noble wrote in a tribute for Major League Baseball. “He liked to flash cash and loved his green Cadillac. Minoso became famous for being fabulous. The public adored him.”

From his first at-bat for Chicago -- a home run against the New York Yankees -- Minoso became an immediate star, batting over .300 eight times, with 1,023 RBIs over 17 major league seasons.

In 1952 and 1953, he led the American League in stolen bases. He led the league in triples in 1954 and 1956 and in doubles in 1957.

With his tightly crouched batting stance, Minoso also made the record books for the number of times he was hit by a pitch -- 22 in 1956 alone. For 10 seasons he led the American League. In 1955, he spent nine nights in a hospital after a pitch fractured his skull.  

Yankees manager Casey Stengel once marveled at how fearless Minoso appeared as hurlers aimed for the strike zone he was crowding.

“I tell my fellows to throw 'em inside there with plenty of mustard on the pitch,” Stengel said. “But that don't scare Minnie.”

Minnie Minoso at Comiskey Park on June 19, 1954: photo via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015

 

Born Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso Arrieta in the small Cuban town of Perico, Minoso said in his 1994 autobiography “Just Call Me Minnie” that his birth date was Nov. 29, 1925. Confusion arose, he said, after he inflated his age by three years on a U.S. visa application. However, a biography on his website gives the date as 1922, as do other sources.

At 14, Minoso played for a team run by the Ambrosia Candy Co. in Havana. He was well known as a professional in Cuban baseball before coming to the U.S. in 1945 and playing three seasons for the New York Cubans in the Negro Leagues.

In 1948, Bill Veeck, then owner of the Cleveland Indians, purchased his contract and Minoso made his major league debut in 1949, playing nine late-season games for the Indians.

Traded to the White Sox in 1951, he hit .326 in his first season and was a runner-up for rookie of the year.

After another few years with Cleveland in the late 1950s, he rejoined the White Sox in 1960. Veeck by then owned the Chicago team and the two maintained a decades-long relationship.

Famous for his crowd-drawing gimmicks, Veeck brought Minoso out of retirement for fleeting appearances as a player in 1976 and in 1980. In the former outing, Minoso managed one hit in eight at bats; in the latter he went 0 for 2.

Still, Veeck scored with publicity and Minoso walked away with bragging rights, pointing out that he was on the field for the White Sox  in five successive decades.

Minoso received some criticism for participating in Veeck’s publicity stunts. According to some baseball pundits, it even hurt his chances for election to Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

In 2014, the most recent White Sox campaign to get Minoso to Cooperstown failed, despite his .298 career batting average, his .389 on-base percentage, and his well-known skills in the outfield.

Bill James, a baseball statistics expert, rated Minoso the 10th-best left fielder of all time in a 2001 analysis.

“Had he gotten the chance to play when he was 21 years old, I think he'd probably be rated among the top thirty players of all time,” James wrote.

In his later years, Minoso made no secret of his hope for a speedy induction.

“Don't put me in the Hall after I'm dead,” he said. “I want to taste it, like a good steak. I want to enjoy it.”

Minoso’s survivors include Sharon, his wife of 30 years; sons Orestes Jr. and Charlie; and daughters Marilyn and Cecilia.

#RIPMinnie: image via REC21 @REC21, 1 March 2015

Chisox legend Minnie Minoso, 1960. Minoso died today at 90. Another sad day for baseball.#minoso #ripminnie #HofF: image via Vintage Tribune @vintagetribune, 1 March 2015

#rip MLB's 1st black Latino star, Minnie #Minoso, has died (Getty image): image via Anne Trujillo @annnetrujillo7, 1 March 2015

What terrible, terrible news to wake up to. You will truly be missed. #RIPMinnie: image via Louie Penna @Louie_Penna, 1 March 2015 Justice, IL

Chicago loses another one of baseball's greats. R.I.P Minnie Miñoso #WhiteSox #minoso #minnieminoso: image via Louie Penna @SalOMag, 1 March 2015

Say hello to Nellie Fox for me Minnie. They were teammates 1951-1957 #RIPMinnie: image via Bob from Niles @Bob_from_Niles, 1 March 2015

 

Nobody looked like they were having more fun #RIPMinnie: image via Matt Rodewald @MattRodewald, 1 March 2015

Nobody looked like they were having more fun #RIPMinnie: image via Matt Rodewald @MattRodewald, 1 March 2015

Nobody looked like they were having more fun #RIPMinnie: image via Matt Rodewald @MattRodewald, 1 March 2015

Minnie lit up and talked to us for 5-10 mins and gave me an autograph. Really made my day as a kid. #RIPMinnie: image via jesse @WhiteCrow12, 1 March 2015

Miñoso was an instrumental piece of the Go-Go Sox: photo  by AP via The Guardian, 1 March 2015


White Sox players of Latin descent (left to right) Mike Fornieles, Chico Carrasquel, Minnie Minoso and Jim Rivera, pose for a photo at Comiskey Park in 1955: photo via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015


Minnie Minoso is greeted by fans as the team arrived at LaSalle St. Station on May 28, 1951: photo via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015

White Sox great Minnie Minoso, 82, visits the mural that features him prominently as the largest figure (see player directly behind him) in a series of African American ballplayers that was unveiled on 35th Street below the Metra tracks at Federal: photo by Nancy Stone via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015

 


The White Sox's Minnie Minoso slides into third for a triple in a 12-1 route of the Cleveland Indians on May 12, 1951: photo via Chicago Tribune, 1 March 2015

Safely home. RIP Minnie #CubanComet #Minoso: image via MOReilly @oreillys708, 1 March 2015

Where Is the House of the Friend?

March 3, 2015, 4:13 am

≫ Next: Friedrich Hölderlin: Narcyssen . . . / Jim Dine: Thistles in September

≪ Previous: Minnie: Safely Home

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..and another photo of me! Not taken by me, still pretty handsome! #fly #crow #three #sepehri: image via Black Crow @FartingCrow, 12 January 2015
 

In the false-dawn twilight
a rider enquired of a passer-by:
Where is the house of my friend?
The sky paused
The passer-by held a branch of light
which brushed the dark sand

He pointed to an aspen:
before you reach that tree
turn off at the garden path
that leads into a space more green
than any god could dream
and go down that path
as far as the wings of honesty can reach

Continue beyond the end
of the first part of your life
and then turn again
take two steps
toward a flower that grows untended
alone
at the base of a fountain
whence springs the second part of your life
stop and you will be swallowed up
by fear transparent as water

In the closeness of the space that flows
something rustles
in one of the surrounding pines
a child has climbed
to pluck a young bird
from a nest made of light
and you call out to that child

Where is the house of my friend?

Where Is the House of My Friend? (After Sohrab Sepehri): TC, 2009/2015

stiil from Where Is the Friend's House, dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1987

Sohrab Sepehri: Neshâni (Address)

still from Where Is the Friend's House, dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1987 (image via Poemas del Rio Wang, 28 December 2009)

نشانی

خانه دوست کجاست؟ در فلق بود که پرسید سوار
آسمان مکثی کرد
رهگذر شاخه نوری که به لب داشت به تاریکی شنها بخشید
و به انگشت نشان داد سپیداری و گفت:
نرسیده به درخت
کوچه باغی است که از خواب خدا سبز تر است
و در آن عشق به اندازه پرهای صداقت آبی است
می روی تا ته آن کوچه که از پشت بلوغ، سر به در می آرد
پس به سمت گل تنهایی می پیچی
دو قدم مانده به گل
پای فواره جاوید اساطیر زمان می مانی
و تو را ترسی شفاف فرا می گیرد
در صمیمیت سیال فضا، خش خشی می شنوی
کودکی می بینی
رفته از کاج بلندی بالا، جوجه بردارد از لانه نور
و از او می پرسی خانه دوست کجاست؟

Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980): Neshâni (Address): text via Poemas del Rio Wang, 28 December 2009

stlil from Where Is the Friend's House, dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1987

Where Is the Friend's Home: Abbas Kiarostami, 1987 (video wrapper)

Tomorrow an entire generation will learn who Israel’s PM @netanyahu is… the man who won't allow #Iran to go nuclear !: image via Defund NPR PBS & NEA @Jarjarbug, 2 March 2015

We'll do okay (ridiculous): image via Sohrab Sepehri 3 @Sohrabsepehri3, 26 February 2015

"What woman flower: @san3tm"": image via Sohrab Sepehri 3 @Sohrabsepehri3, 23 December 2014

"feransesz: Undoubtedly, the discovery of a river to the sea is unlikely" he might be homeless but still manages cartoons: image via Sohrab Sepehri 3 @Sohrabsepehri3, 4 December 2014

.. and he was a good man, a great painter, and an amazing poet #SohrabSepehri: image [Sohrab Sepehri, 1928-1980, self-portrait] via Mostafa Modirrousta, 6 October 2014

Bir bekleyiş sallanmadaydı Bir bakış yolda kalmıştı ve bir ses yalnızlıkta ağlıyordu #SohrabSepehri: image [Sohrab Sepehri, 1928-1980] via Ahmed Bozkurt @LePoetTravaille, 3 January 2014

Neden İran sineması? #Kiarostami: image [from Close-Up, dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1990] via Zeynep Cavusoglu @zepcavusoglu, 15 March 20133

Still from Close-Up [1990], dir. Abbas Kiarostami: image via Bombastic Scholastic @BombasticScholastic, 3 February 2015

Still from Close-Up [1990], dir. Abbas Kiarostami: image via Bombastic Scholastic @BombasticScholastic, 3 February 2015

Still from Close-Up [1990], dir. Abbas Kiarostami: image via Bombastic Scholastic @BombasticScholastic, 3 February 2015

Neden İran sineması? #Kiarostami: image Close up #Iran #kiarostami: image [from Close-Up, 1990] via Stella Morgana @stellamorgana, 16 November 2013

Sohrab Sepehri'nin 21 adet şiiri internette ilk kez okuyucuyla buluşuyor: #sohrabsepehri: image [Sohrab Sepehri, 1928-1980] via Nerduban @NerdubanCom, 16 August 2014

El viento nos llevará Forough Farrokhzad #Poetuit #Cine #Kiarostami: image [from The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999] via Jorge Fuentes  @jjorgefuentes, 26 December 2013

Le parole che racchiudono gli ultimi mesi della mia vita. Fotogramma di #Kiarostami, Il vento ci porterà: image [from The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999] via Tina Raissi @Laneskij, 27 August 2013

"Le vent nous emportera" d'Abbas #Kiarostami: un hymne à la vie et aux régions septentrionales d'#Iran: image [from The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999] via Voyages et cinéma @routardcine, 18 July 2014

 

#Kiarostami,s "The Wind Will Carry Us" visually such a beautiful film #iranian #cinema: image [from The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999] via Philip Bolton@philipdocom,12 February 2013

Avec un sens incroyable de la couleur, #Kiarostami exalte la beauté naturelle du #Kurdistan: "Le vent nous emportera": image [from The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999] via Voyages et cinéma @routardcine, 25 July 2014

Dede kapıyı aç! #Hamsarayan #Koro (#KisaFilm) #Abbas Kiarostami (1982): image [from Hamasarayan / The Chorus, 1982] via Mahmut Islam @mahmutislam, 24 September 2013

 

La banlieue de Téhéran capitale d'un pays très riche en Pétrole! Merci #Kiarostami & #Farhadi pour vos beaux films!: image via Dadsetan Djavad @Dadsetan, 9 April 2014

You can sympathize, understand, show compassion. But feel my pain? No. #Kiarostami #TasteofCherry: image [from Taste of Cherry, 1997] via Alma Krillic @ AlmaKrillic, 2 August 2014

If I told you, ... you wouldn't understand. #Kiarostami #TasteofCherry: image [from Taste of Cherry, 1997] via Alma Krillic @ AlmaKrillic, 2 August 2014

Et La Vie Continue... (Va Zendegi edame darad, 1992) Abbas Kiarostami #Kiarostami: image [from And Life Goes On / Life, and Nothing More, 1991] via Xacobo Martínez @Iacobus_81, 9 August 2014

Untitled, 1978, Abbas Kiarostami © 2003, from a series of 32 photographs, 122 x 93 cm.#Fotografía #Cine #Kiarostami: image via Xacobo Martínez @Iacobus_81, 9 August 2014

New York, US. A worker cleans the snow from the pavement in Midtown Manhattan as snow falls again in the city: photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP via The Guardian, 2 March 2015

You see that, Sara? Just like Sheldon and Shmuley promised! Ticker tape blizzard on the limo ride to AIPAC already!? You called it, babe! And all for us! Plus the hotel bottle deposits!