100 posts
The Greece of Theo Angelopoulos | Costas Douzinas
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Forget deficits, debt and corruption. Theo Angelopoulos, the film-maker who died this week, captured the true Greek soulThe sudden death of Theo Angelopoulos, the greatest Greek film-maker, while shooting his latest film on the current troubles, has...
Rest in Peace dear Theo. A tribute to Theodoros Angelopoulos
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In the Summer of 2007, Theodoros Angelopoulos attended our Cinema and Media conference at Istanbul Bilgi University Communication School… Rest in peace Theo… View the story “R.I.P. Theo Angelopoulos” on Storify Storified b...
Some Of Our Finest Achievements Were Inspired By Great Speeches
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As people, we are inclined to live as groups, despite our never ending protestation that we are all individuals. The phrase you are unique, just like the rest of us helps explain that social groupings are at the heart of our behavior. It is little wo...
My Perspective at 50: A Scholarly View on Modern Society from the Cheap Seats
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Exactly half a century after I came into this world during what in the Northern hemisphere is the coldest week of the year, I set out on an open-air jaunt over snow-plowed roads on a bright, bitterly cold morning on a bike that had been “given” (...
A literati roundup: “12 Writers Who Still Refuse to Use Computers”, digital humanities, 2011 Words of the Year…
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Orhan Pamuk is one of them… 12 Writers Who Still Refuse to Use Computers Jan 1st, 2012 Computers are incredible tools: we use them to connect around the world, gather all of the information in the universe, find inspiration, and maybe play a f...
Ja visst gör det ont för kultursektorn
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Karin Boye dog 1941, vilket är 70 år sedan. Från och med den 1 januari 2012 får hennes verk spridas fritt. Nu har upphovsrätten på allt hon skrev äntligen gått ut, och hennes lyrik och prosa tar sin rättmätiga plats i det gemensamma kultura...
On this day : December 12
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ON THIS DAY, DECEMBER 12. 1941 –Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery 1942 – World War II: German troops begin Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircle Axis forces during the Battle o...
Eurozone crisis summit: what David Cameron will say
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Odd things happen in the early hours of the morning at European Union summits. Sometimes, the Justus Lipsius building on Rue de la Loi seems even to warp the very laws of physics. In one such remarkable event here this morning, a wormhole in the spac...
The body language in EU politics
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At the EU summit October 23 Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barosso was rather loose and relaxed, when they met the press after hours of talk in the council. They were there to tell the press that they could not present a comprehensive package, bu...
Making a List, Checking it Twice
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Perhaps you overslept the 4:00 am sales on Black Friday or your friends and family do not understand the thrill of a waffle iron. To help you with the yearly chore of finding the perfect present, here are some books on Europe published this year that...
Catto’s Christmas Crackers
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The Catto Gallery in Hampstead traditionally offers an artistic pot pourri in December, and the Christmas Selection exhibition that opened there this evening is no exception. The variety of the artists shown is startling, both in medium and style. I...
Dive in politics or the politics of diving
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It was late in the evening. As usual, I was taking part in a board meeting. Business as usual, you would say. Unusual was that this board was not political. In the last twenty years, pretty much any other meeting that I took part of was political. No...
11/11/11
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In Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate on 11/11/11 in 2011, costumes were the norm in the evening as revelers celebrated the numeric convergence. I suspect that unlike the Chinese, the Europeans were struck by the convergence itself, rather by any good lu...
A Good Movie: W.
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Oliver Stone’s “W.”, ths story of George W. Bush’s life and time in the White House, is far more workmanlike than his other movies. It’s not as memorable as “JFK” or “Nixon”, but I suspect that is...
A silent film…about Louis Armstrong!
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A new silent film about the greatest jazz musician of all time? At first blush, the most stupid idea since the chocolate fireguard. But the guy who thought of it, Dan Pritzker, is patently sincere: “I was listening to Armstrong, Duke Elling...
Ryan Anderson interviews Jason Baird Jackson on anthropology and open access…and an anthropology roundup….
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Anthropology & Open Access: An Interview with Jason Baird Jackson (Part 1 of 3) from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog by Ryan During the last few weeks I had the chance to conduct an email based interview with Jaso...
Kurosawa’s Rashomon
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This evening we watched Kurosawa’s 1950 classic mystery crime thriller, Rashomon. The basic plotting device is brilliant in its simplicity. Four people – a woodcutter, a samurai, his wife and a notorious brigand – give their account...
Representing Rape Culture – The Dangerous Art of Rafal Karcz
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Trigger Warning! The latest series of works by the Polish artist Rafal Karcz is called “I wanna kill Cindy Sherman” – is it a coincidence that he references a female artist who has been viewed time and time again as … Continue...
WordPress.com Blogger Scores Book Deal for “You Are Not So Smart”
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According to David McRaney, “You may think that you’re a rational, logical being who sees the world as it really is. But you’re as deluded as the rest of us, and that’s OK, because it keeps you sane.” David is a journalist a...
Vildan Orancı’dan film kritiği: Margin Call, 2011 by J.C. Chandor
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Margin Call, 2011 by J.C. Chandor Herkes kendi cehennemini yaşar Feodel Lord’un tamamen kendi keyfine göre birini seçip öldürmek üzere olduğu, sayıca daha kalabalık olmalarına rağmen kimsenin karşı koyamadığı bir ortaç...
An Evening with Julian Fellowes
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Since its foundation 18 years ago, the Friends of Heath Library has organised 150 literary events in the 1930s single storey building that houses the library, right next door to glorious Keats’ House in Hampstead. The very first speaker was the...
For proof of Leonardo da Vinci's genius, this is where you need to look
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The father of art history, Giorgio Vasari, tells a beautiful story about the Leonardo cartoon above: Finally, he made a cartoon, in which there was an Our lady and a Saint Anne with a Christ, which not only made all the craftsmen marvel, but when it...
More new novels from Erkan’s favorite authors…
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view book The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates Release Date: November 1 “The Corn Maiden” is the gut-wrenching story of Marissa, a beautiful and sweet, but somewhat slow, eleven-year-old girl with hair the color...
A Great Book: Strange Days Indeed.
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A great read, indeed. I enjoyed it so much that I just have to give five stars to Francis Wheen’s “Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia.” The book is a look at some of political and social madness of the 1970s, primaril...
4 new novels from Erkan’s favorite novelists….
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view book The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides Release Date: October 11 It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Der...
Bringing Europe’s cultural treasures to a new generation
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Imagine you have gold in a vault but you forgot where the key is. In times of crisis, there are not many treasures that Europe can use to boost growth and prosperity. There is one treasure we have however in Europe, for which we need a new digital...
A poet wins (Tomas Tranströmer)
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Good news is never stale, so even though I’m a few days late, I want to post about the poet who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. Announced by the Nobel committee last week, the winner is Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. Transtr
Terraferma, Emanuele Crialese’s Film About Migrants, Nominated as Italy’s Entry for Best Foreign Film Oscar Award
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From Adnkronos News: “Movie director Emanuele Crialese’s new film about the plight of migrants landing on the southern Lampedusa island from Africa will be Italy’s contender for the 2012 Best Foreign Film Oscar, a jury decided Wednesday...
It's good to live in a shared European Union
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Verdun, 24 September 2011 CC BY-NC-ND André Feldhof much better than to live in a Europe of hostile nation-states...
Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
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What would it be like if a Swede made a classic British spy movie? Well, we found out. One of the things I liked most about this version of Tinker, Tailor… was that it was a visually convincing portrayal of Britain. The cinema is always in the...
A book I really enjoyed: Dark Horse.
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As I’ve written previously on the blog, I’ve a taste for second-hand political fiction or thrillers from the 1960s and 1970s. I recently read “Dark Horse” by Fletcher Knebel, who was a well-known novelist of the time (He wrote the bestseller...
Warsaw Declaration on the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, 23rd of August 2011
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The ministers of Justice of 16 Euroepan Member States and the President of the European Parliament signed the Warsaw Declaration on the occasion of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, 23rd of August 2011. Please find...
A new Golden Age for the EU (and the US)
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A Chef as the head of the European Union could be the beginning of a New Golden AgeWe live in challenging times, to say the least. The present leaders of the European Union (and also the US) seem incapable of solving the serious financial crisis...
The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman
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“There is no sense or truth in my present position, in my physical freedom while the book to which I dedicated my life is in prison. For I wrote it, and I have not repudiated it, and am not repudiating it. (…) I ask for freedom for my boo...
The myth of Judaeo-Communism—and the reality of history
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A scholarly look at the myths of Jewish participation in Communist rule in Europe...
Mark Allen’s Arabs
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Mark Allen and I were contemporaries at Oxford University’s Oriental Institute, though he was studying Arabic (under the inimitable Freddie Beeston) while I was doing my first degree in Chinese and Japanese (under the aetherial David Hawkes). W...
Althusius: A Thinker of European Federalism
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As the ‘F-word’ is increasingly discussed in the intellectual and political circles as a viable solution to the Eurozone crisis, it is useful to remind ourselves that there is more to federalism than the well-known model of the United Sta...
When you don’t want people reading your book!
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The source of both joy and angst. When you publish your first book, even just as an eBook, you experience all sorts of funny feelings. When you see it on sale on Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or read your first review, it’s all new to you. When...
Great books: Things can only get better.
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I can’t say enough about this book! If you ever spent any time in British or Irish politics at branch and street level, you’ll love “Things can only get better” by John O’Farrell. In fact, it is, along with Joe Klein...
European Origin
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Europe is an centuries old continent with a rich and diverse mix of countries and cultures. There is no single European origin, but rather it has evolved over the centuries and is still constantly changing as a result of climate, geography, politics...
28 Months Later: Europe after the collapse of the European Union.
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NBC Dateline Brussels, Belgium, 2020. Camera pans an imposing star shaped building, revealing the odd broken window, and weeds growing up through the forecourt. A vandalised sign, missing letters, reads “ur ommission”. Camera pans to a ha...
Writing political fiction.
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As many of you will know, I recently uploaded my first novel, “The Ministry of Love”, up onto Amazon (Available to US/Ireland here, UK here), and since I’ve done that, some of you have been in touch on the topic of writing fiction.
Thoughts on the current state of the EU: Alexander the Great, city-states, Cpt Kirk
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The strategic mistake of Alexander the Great was that instead of uniting the 200+ Greek city-states into a permanent federal union, a kind of United City States of Greece, he decided to unite the world that was then known to him. and beyond He thus...
Thoughts on the current state of the EU: trailer parks, China, greed, threats culture, parochialism, Babel, Socrates, national champions
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This is my rambling about the sorry state of EU affairs, more or less as I tweeted to night (late Thursday night, early hours of Friday, August 26): The EU reminds me these days of a trailer park. A building is needed to house the members but no one...
The country of humor is … Germany!
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As an economics blogger, I am not an expert on international humor, but today’s sad news got me thinking. Germans insist – mostly unsuccessfully – that “German humor” is not the least bit oxymoronic, the rest of the worl...
[Review] Pas d’Europe aujourd’hui, sans Europe hier
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Lorsqu’il s’agit de l’enracinement de l’Union Européenne dans le passé, il ne s’agit pas seulement de regarder très loin en arrière, mais aussi juste quelques dizaines d’années avant l’établissement d...
British Council, Cervantes Institute, Goethe Institute, French Institute: and why not an European Institute?
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British Council, Cervantes Institute, Goethe Institute, French Institute: and why not an European Institute? On the 12th of July 2010 the French Parliament voted the bill about the State's external action creating a new industrial and commercial publ...
[Review] Cours d’Histoire
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Si les questions sur l’avenir de l’Europe peuvent se poser, il est également important de regarder vers l’arrière et de connaître l’Histoire qui a conduit au continent Européen tel que nous le connaissions maintenant. Un...
A shameless promotion for my eNovel The Ministry of Love.
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And now a shameless plug for my satirical thriller eNovel available on Amazon for €1.14. Yes, €1.14! Here’s the blurb on “The Ministry of Love”: Love. Everyone wants it. Prime Minister Alexander Fairfax reckons he might just get a second...
The French Way: “Why You Can’t Say “Twitter” Or “Facebook” On French TV” and a massive cyberculture roundup…
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Why You Can’t Say “Twitter” Or “Facebook” On French TV by Christina Warren Television and radio personalities in France can no longer say “Twitter” or “Facebook” on the air unless it’s in a news story about those specific compan...
Azerbaijan scoops unexpected Eurovision win just days after MEPs bemoan human rights abuses
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The Eurovision Song Contest will next year be heading east to Baku, Azerbaijan as Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, singing as Ell/Nikki, were the surprise winners of the 56th competition and crowned before 35,000 in the Fortuna Düsseldorf Arena, Germa...
The pop culture that unites Europe!
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Is there a pop culture that unites Europe? Of course there is: US pop culture (movies, TV series, music, etc)! That's the europainful truth (with some notable exceptions of course)NickPthinks on business, EU policy, socio-economics and systemics in...
That time of year again: Eurovision 2011
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Its nearly here and I can barely hide my excitement! Tomorrow it all starts! The first Semi Final of the 56th Eurovision Song Contest gets under way with 19 countries fighting out for 10 places in the final on Saturday. I have a full preview up on ES...
Reindeerspotting director Joonas Neuvonen: story of a Finnish junkie
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Reindeerspotting - Escape from Santaland, a Finnish documentary about drug addicts, is a film that you will probably never see at the cinema. Widely criticised in Finland, where it is accused of promoting the use of hard drugs, it’s been a viral hi...
Istanbul roundup: Cafes to read and more…
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Here is a Friendfeed discussion: Users discuss which Istanbul cafes are good to stay and read. Discussion in Turkish.. ******* Europe’s Tallest Building is in Istanbul Now from Mavi Boncuk by M.A.M Kiler Group will spend an additional $150...
Just A Closer Walk
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You may have noticed that I’m not very religious. But when I go, I want a send-off like this: Hat-tip: Norm...
FM - First Motion @ Berlinale 2011
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In the evening hours of 15th February 2011 First Motion welcomed more than 300 guests from the Baltic Sea Region and its Creative Industries in therepresentation of Land Schleswig-Holstein to the Federation in Berlin.The reception during this year's...
Waterstone’s to close in Dublin
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I was genuinely saddened when I heard the news yesterday, although not surprised. I like Waterstone’s a lot. I love browsing, coming across books that I don’t see anywhere else in Dublin in their excellent history section. I liked their s...
