Archive for August, 2007

Saturday, August 11th, 2007

Shoo Fly Don’t Bother Me

This morning I was taking a shower and noticed a bug flying around in the shower with me. I filled my mouth with water and sprayed the little creature. But, he was insistent and came back again. So I filled my mouth a second time with water and repeated the process. He flew away but […]

18 Comments » - Posted in Digressions, Friends / Family by eric

Friday, August 10th, 2007

Old and Wise

. . . I want you to know that the hackneyed accusations leveled against us are entirely unfounded. These are the facts:

The reason we don’t like anything innovative is that there is truly nothing new worth liking.
We treat most men like morons because, indeed, most men are morons, not because we’re poisoned by anger, unhappiness […]

No Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric

Friday, August 10th, 2007

My Name is a Masterpiece

I just finally finished My Name is Red, and Orhan Pamuk has created a true masterpiece. I don’t even know where to begin. This doesn’t mean that I necessarily recommend the book. Although it is only about 400 pages long, it is dense, often times too slow and over descriptive on the history of Persian […]

7 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Friends / Family, literature by eric

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

The First Generation

A few weeks ago, I was waiting to board a flight when I looked up to see my neighborhood Chinese convenient store owner’s wife and eldest son. They were off to China for the summer to see her parents. The experience reminded me, strangely enough, of my maternal grandmother and her sister and got me […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Digressions, Friends / Family by eric

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

6 Billion Others

Six Billion Others is a very interesting website and concept. The idea, created by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, was to tell an ongoing story of people from all over the world. His team visited some 65 countries and interviewed 6,000 people.

6 Comments » - Posted in Essays by eric

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Being and Perception

A few weeks ago, Nicolas (FON’s bearded Canadian) and Borja organized a barbeque with the official office hoser doing all of the cooking. I was not able to attend. Today, I finally saw some of the photos and was shocked at the realization that:
When I am not around, my co-workers continue to exist. They are […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Digressions, FON by eric

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

Naked!

Menorca has some of the most beautiful beaches and calas (typical Mediterranean coves) that I have seen anywhere. Traditionally, it has been a very hippie island with some Catalan tourists, while most mass tourism was directed towards Mallorca, Ibiza or other Mediterranean destinations. Also most of its beaches are protected biospheres, have no hotels and […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Digressions, Friends / Family by eric

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

Emta Hata’raf

Here comes another post that will interest no one other than myself, but a few weeks ago I wrote a post where I mentioned that I was looking for the original version of the song “Emta Hata’raf” by Asmahan. And then just now (while procrastinating at work), I found this video on YouTube of a […]

No Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Page One and Podcasts

While on the farm in Menorca this weekend with William, Yasmine, Sanaa, Waya, and little Leo, William put on Joe Henderson’s Page One (with McCoy Tyner on piano!), and I loved it. William was also telling me about how he subscribes to and downloads podcasts from iTunes onto his iPod. He has pretty much the […]

No Comments » - Posted in Digressions, Friends / Family, Jazz by eric

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Missing the Point in Minneapolis

I was away in Menorca, incomunicado, the last few days and hadn’t heard anything about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis until I opened my email this morning and found this letter that my friend, Fadi, sent to CBS regarding its coverage of the tragedy. As is always the case, Fadi has a great way of […]

35 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Friends / Family by eric