tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61462146602441381122011-08-02T16:28:43.965-04:00b.noreply@blogger.comBlogger511100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-6826190709379021392009-12-14T14:13:00.002-05:002009-12-14T14:17:18.253-05:00

This blog is now retired, and is unlikely to return to active service in the near future. Now, let me gently but firmly push towards more interesting corners of the internet, like here, or here. Bye!

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-57197068141784686182009-03-15T15:07:00.007-04:002009-03-15T15:34:13.927-04:00

Things have been so busy, and I have been writing so much lately (work mostly, with some poetry thrown in), that preparing a blog entry has started to seem like an increasingly daunting prospect. I'm not giving up just yet, but I will take the easy way out right now and instead of writing up a bunch of stories, link to a bunch of pictures.So, I performed at the Freshblood Cabaret in Leamington

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-10023187606128448912009-03-06T20:44:00.002-05:002009-03-06T20:46:19.352-05:00

My capoeira group now has their own photostream on Flickr - check it out here.

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-660019355573931752009-03-05T12:45:00.002-05:002009-03-05T12:48:29.644-05:00

The wide angle lens came in the mail today! So, we took the camera along when we went to the post office this morning. Samples below.

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-47882113138354849632009-03-04T18:55:00.003-05:002009-03-04T18:58:08.564-05:00

Here's what I found in one of my work mailboxes:New Orgasm EnhancerrClick HEREMerit hereafter by killing (this creature), even of the sun,the moon, or the fire, that is the is almost adored. Hehas learned to excel them watercresses in the street orby stitching in diadem adorned with many gems, like thethunder.God I wish I could write like that.

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-70390810535020995862009-03-04T11:43:00.004-05:002009-03-04T11:55:50.161-05:00

I'm sitting in the Wolfson Research Exchange, a part of the Library reserved for PhDs. Every place is taken, but an uncanny silence reigns over the room, as everyone pretends as hard as they can to be working on their dissertation. The fact is that we all believe that the others are well-organised, self-disciplined researchers, who are just now ticking off items off their daily, weekly and

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-67659873987910660362009-02-24T18:33:00.002-05:002009-02-24T18:39:14.813-05:00

Back home from Warsaw. Will write more after I sleep.

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-51532566906722477422009-02-19T07:28:00.003-05:002009-02-19T07:46:09.556-05:00

Dla tych, co nie są na twarzoksiążce - przeklejka: tym razem, nie dość, że po polsku, to trochę poważniej, niż zwykle.WIęc tak: mam szansę pomóc organizacji, która używa poezji jako elementu terapii dla osób cierpiących na chorobę Alzheimera. Okazuje się, że często pamiętają wiersze jeszcze ze szkoły, a rozpoznanie i wspólne wyrecytowanie kilku wersów to dla nich frajda i rzadka okazja do

b.noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-48655356662712568482009-02-16T13:53:00.003-05:002009-02-16T18:40:08.717-05:00

Right: I felt I needed to wrap up the US part of the blog somehow. First off, you'll notice the slideshow is now showing pics from Birmingham. The pictures from my US stint will stay on Picasa - over here.Note also the "Half-baked" section: this shows my tweets (it's an RSS feed, really, so it does not always update as quickly as it should - if you wanna follow me on twitter, seek out @

b.noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-83701219037154671602009-02-06T20:26:00.003-05:002009-02-06T20:38:29.473-05:00

I will keep this blog alive in the post-DC era; I like it more than my old university-issue one anyway. Expect a flurry of activity here soon; this post, however, does not qualify as part of said flurry. It is a pre-flurry, if you will, an avant-flurry of sorts. An ominous flurry-prophesying sign. I just wanted to reassure the masses that visit everyday and clamour for more insightful and acerbic

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-26209224510166160202009-01-31T14:01:00.003-05:002009-01-31T14:07:23.417-05:00

A goodbye present for all those good men and women I'm leaving behind at the Library:Elizabeth BishopView of the Capitol from the Library of Congress Moving from left to left, the lightis heavy on the Dome, and coarse.One small lunette turns it asideand blankly stares off to the sidelike a big white old wall-eyed horse.On the east steps the Air Force Bandin uniforms of Air Force blueis playing

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-42180200605251994522009-01-27T15:06:00.004-05:002009-01-27T15:11:22.511-05:00

I was trying to find out how you go about formatting in-text citations from anonymous sources using MLA (which is the style we have to use for all our academic papers at the CTCCS - and I hate it, all those full stops are not doing it for me). Exciting stuff, huh? So they explained you just include an abridged version of the title and a page number, and gave an example. Ladies and gentlemen,

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-4469217116719870782009-01-27T10:59:00.001-05:002009-01-27T11:00:50.861-05:00

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-10830386618086778582009-01-26T17:15:00.004-05:002009-01-26T17:17:54.528-05:00

Continuing my series of blog posts I've been hoarding for when I have no time to write, please enjoy this screen cap from the Anglophone wikipedia page for Polish poetry. It has since been ammended, but I can't see why - it seemed like a masterful summary.

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-54297300383455458252009-01-24T16:49:00.005-05:002009-01-24T16:53:55.840-05:00

I've been sitting on this post for a while, and I figured this was as a good a time as any to let you in on the secret life of librarians. I mean, I know people sometimes order books on short notice, but still...I snapped all of these pictures on the Library of Congress staff parking lot:

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-74216235249676229232009-01-22T22:52:00.008-05:002009-01-22T23:27:05.824-05:00

20.01.2009, 7 am. -8 degrees Celsius, light wind. Federal Center Metro Station. I am yawning my jaw off, standing somewhere out of the way of the thousands upon thousands of confused tourists streaming out of the metro exit, hoping that the rest of the Cubicle Warriors will show up soon so we can go stand in front of a giant screen and watch Barack Obama become president. A girl wearing a hat

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-44698560799365277192009-01-19T16:32:00.003-05:002009-01-19T16:54:18.803-05:00

I took well over 300 pictures at the "We Are One" concert; a considerably whittled down selection can be found here, and a general report from someone who had a press pass - here.It was an unusual feeling, being there - it was much more a national event than a concert, and I felt a little bit like I was intruding on something that was not really meant for me. More than anything else, the whole

b.noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-39192854169310902542009-01-18T10:54:00.003-05:002009-01-18T11:14:32.942-05:00

Barack Obama is here - and so are most of the good people of this country. It's hard to even take the metro, but the locals are not complaining, primarily because they are for the most part too busy selling Obama socks and commemorative paper plates.The inauguration is on Tuesday, but a lot of people came early, some of them because of this event right here, and I think I may make my way there,

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-87964173872181480512009-01-16T22:36:00.005-05:002009-01-17T10:06:59.465-05:00

I was going to post about the upcoming presidential inauguration today, but it'll have to wait (I may also have pictures of the thousands of portable toilets that currently form a defensive structure around the Capitol tomorrow): I have another story to tell.Yesterday around midnight, my flat powered down: no light, no power in the sockets, no nothing - and most importantly, no heat, as my place

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-28769685581018465562009-01-12T16:45:00.004-05:002009-01-12T17:00:33.769-05:00

Here's a quote from Vladimir Tismaneanu's article in a 1994 issue of the Village voice:The fact that these intellectuals in the mid '90s no longer bark in their previous glory should not allow us to forget their original achievements. Who's a good intellectual then? Yes you are! Yes you are! You have plenty of original achievements!

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-77576576501292061772009-01-11T18:32:00.004-05:002009-01-12T00:08:30.518-05:00

I just noticed that the Golden Globes are on TV; I found myself mumbling along with Ryan Seacrest in Polish before I switched it off.Edit: Slumdog Millionaire got Best Screenplay and Best Drama. Yay!

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-35088709968053578952009-01-08T11:16:00.013-05:002009-01-08T17:16:41.032-05:00

We went to New York with my much better half, and now it’s been officially accepted by her, it’s only a question of time before we move there. Right? We met a legendary poet and activist from the Bowery Poetry Club and he took us out for delicious Cuban food, and told us about his programme for helping people with Alzheimer's syndrome with poetry; we walked around the East Village and Soho, and

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-32531301770315580512009-01-01T17:33:00.004-05:002009-01-01T20:43:04.057-05:00

The wind that blew through DC yesterday was really strong. The day started out all sunny and warm, and then the sunlight became even brighter against the backdrop of dark clouds that came out of nowhere. A few minutes later, a full-on sleet storm swept through Capitol Hill. The wind blew chunks of frozen rain against windows with worrying strength. It kept blowing and blowing, though, and so the

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-5766920659367856132008-12-30T22:38:00.005-05:002008-12-30T22:50:09.303-05:00

Together with my much better half, we're going to New York this weekend for her last state-side hurrah, before she is borne away by swans and fairies back to ye olde Albion. So, this is as good a time as any to revisit the recent Borg invasion of the Big Apple.

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-18399166696325002292008-12-28T01:06:00.005-05:002008-12-30T22:50:47.207-05:00

...with inflatable penguins......and snowmen trapped in oversized, electrified beachballs......fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-LA! Merry Christmas, everyone.

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-85298223865512751312008-12-22T16:27:00.008-05:002008-12-22T16:34:55.322-05:00

The sun is shining, and I'm stuck in the library, so I thought I would finally share what many of you have been clamouring for for years and years, albeit, to your credit, silently: fragments from the texts I'm reading. Well, I've just finished a survey of 28 years' worth of newspaper articles on Polish poetry, so I'll give you quotes from three articles, and because I like you that much, I'll

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-1107788062067272042008-12-19T11:43:00.001-05:002008-12-19T11:43:38.803-05:00

From Slide Show

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-41965057153074188292008-12-18T15:28:00.009-05:002008-12-18T15:47:21.690-05:00

I'm happy to announce I have managed to irrevocably break one of the library computers: it started with the silly excuse for an abaccus announcing that my account has been suspended (which it hasn't) and that anyway, I'm using the wrong password (which I wasn't). It went downhill from there.No-one seems to know what happened, or perhaps they just don't want to state the obvious: it's clear to me

b.noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-14629213296191249372008-12-11T12:18:00.008-05:002008-12-11T13:59:06.346-05:00

Yesterday was the Kluge Prize ceremony - it's kind of like the Nobel Prize, but with less publicity. To my Polish friends - did you know Leszek Kołakowski was awarded the prize in 2003? See? And yet, it's highly prestigious, by which I mean, they give you a million dollars. Well, not you. They gave a million each to Romila Thapar and Peter Brown, both historians, both in their seventies.We were

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-39001024272736245872008-12-04T15:11:00.003-05:002008-12-04T15:13:48.836-05:00

If you have a spare few minutes, you could do worse than spend them listening to this.

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-73927206098112851482008-12-03T16:27:00.008-05:002008-12-03T21:02:00.067-05:00

So there - the New York trip has been and gone, and I told all the stories to so many people already I don't think I will be able to bring myself to write a full report. You want to know something about MoMA or the Upright Citizen's Brigade, or what not to do on the subway, you ask. All right?In the meantime, I have partaken of my very first Thanksgiving dinner, which featured the companionship

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-33868255983755066312008-11-26T14:55:00.010-05:002008-12-03T16:40:16.554-05:00

Some pictures: click on this one, and it'll take you to where all the others are. I will be uploading new ones for the next day or two, as and when I find the time to resize them etc.From NYC

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-22441351127308538772008-11-23T01:05:00.004-05:002008-11-23T01:18:17.290-05:00

This short note is brought to you by my sense of inadequacy: I am accompanied on this trip by semi-pro bloggers whose output I could never hope to equal even on my home turf. I'm basically typing this to stay in the game, as it were.So: I'm in NYC, which to my city fetish is like a red rag to a bull, if the bull really likes red rags, and wants to get lost in them, and get to know their less

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-16845293317056889052008-11-20T11:58:00.008-05:002008-11-23T01:33:19.404-05:00

That's what my fortune cookie said.From Slide ShowThe last few days have been really weird - the borgs have arrived to pay me a visit, and being subjected to their constant stream of mockery (one likes to think it's friendly banter) here in the US has just raised the level of surrealism to a new high. We have learned many things together, such as:there is no time of day when CSI is not playing on

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-17743586504503977722008-11-18T16:11:00.003-05:002008-11-18T16:14:47.010-05:00

Though it's clean and crispI sweep all the snow awayDon't want accidents

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-82248921025806365552008-11-15T12:30:00.002-05:002008-11-15T12:32:12.288-05:00

The London Metro paper on the day after the election:

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-72560638171418037642008-11-15T12:16:00.005-05:002008-11-15T12:30:23.085-05:00

...but there was an election over here some days ago. By now you've read everything about it, so I figured you'd be interested in reading some more. 10 day old news. That's how relevant I am.Everyone was expecting a massive turnout, so lots of people voted ahead of time; many others got up at four in the morning to avoid queues, and ended up queueing with the rest of those qho tried to be smarter

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-57690582979710580642008-11-04T01:53:00.005-05:002008-11-04T14:56:09.499-05:00

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-64763087893909872442008-11-03T16:53:00.011-05:002008-11-03T17:22:11.081-05:00

It's late. I get on the metro in Columbia Heights, having just visited a haunted house (staged yearly, I'm told, by the friends and neighbours of our local Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Scholarly Programs, whose job this year was to grab peoples ankles as they clambered up the stairs, running from the chainsaw wielding maniac in the yard).Back to the metro: the car is almost

b.noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-12116353276115100132008-10-30T17:42:00.008-04:002008-10-30T17:51:11.670-04:00

In 1992, professional basketball players were allowed to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The players who were part of the team the US sent to Barcelona were superstars from the golden age of the NBA – everybody’s heard of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Charles Barkley, right? I remember watching the games on the wood-panelled TV in my grandmother’s living room (“Bohdan

b.noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-21669925471110935772008-10-27T11:37:00.005-04:002008-10-27T11:43:47.539-04:00

Here’s the thing about living in the US: you feel like you’re in a movie. I’ve seen so many films and TV shows set in the home of the brave that in my mind, Macy’s and 7/11 are not real stores, just sets in sitcoms and action films; pick-up trucks are props, not actual modes of transportation; the FBI is a fictional organisation of superheroes (or villains, it depends), not the guys who

b.noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-40702713690657312692008-10-23T12:14:00.004-04:002008-10-23T12:17:02.828-04:00

They looked up and yelled:It's a bird! It's a plane! No..Wait... Yeah, it's a plane.

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-89911447767065006912008-10-20T16:57:00.007-04:002008-10-20T17:35:59.949-04:00

I took the metro all the way to the University of Maryland . The station is way up there on the northern end of the green line:I made the trip to see the Junkyard Ghost Revival, the touring spoken word supergroup consisting of Anis Mojgani, Buddy Wakefield, Derrick Brown, and a fourth poet who changes every few weeks (it was Cristin O'Keefe that evening). If you don't know their stuff, google it,

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-63669392418276954002008-10-16T10:58:00.006-04:002008-10-20T17:39:20.216-04:00

So I went down to Pentagon City metro the other day to do some shopping, and noticed the billboards were different than at other stations. I took a closer look, and saw that while one or two were touting pension plans for federal employees - fair enough - most were ads for the acronymically named JAGM, by Boeing and Raytheon. Can someone please explain to me the logic behind a billboard campaign

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-82830108597743793372008-10-11T23:07:00.004-04:002008-10-20T17:38:21.679-04:00

Near the postboxes in the corridor that leads out of my house here, a crumpled, laminated sheet of yellowing paper is stuck to the wall.For one reason or another, I stopped to read it today, and I would like to share it with you all:Now if that's not reassuring, I don't know what is.

b.noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-67327910384867005582008-10-10T14:13:00.004-04:002008-10-10T14:54:56.234-04:00

So the other day, the National Portrait Gallery had a free showing of the Maltese Falcon. We went to see it with A., and boy, the movie is all kinds of awesome. Look here:What with me being in the middle of a noir phase after The Yiddish Policemen's Union, this really hit the spot. Repeatedly. With the butt of a pistol.And while we're wrapping up, it's time to call an end to the Shuffle & Baffle

b.noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-49224981854238688572008-10-07T17:31:00.017-04:002008-10-10T14:54:19.128-04:00

Stole this from a friend:Put your music player on random.Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly. Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!So. Here's mine:Frame by frame, if by drowning, in your arms, in your arms,

b.noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-64448436155808782252008-10-06T13:29:00.019-04:002008-10-07T16:13:26.583-04:00

I learned a few things yesterday.1. The Eastern Market is the best place to go for second-hand bikes.2. The National Gallery of Art is good for buying prints and posters as well as crashing parties.3. The Sylvan Amphitheatre is right next to the Lincoln Memorial, and the Christian McBride Quartet makes for an amazing soundtrack for Kavalier & Clay (which is a great book, and you should go read it

b.noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-29858264371475992352008-10-03T01:27:00.012-04:002008-10-03T09:25:19.028-04:00

Walking around in a daze today. I still have not gotten over the overwhelming feeling this whole thing is fake and/or is happening to someone else entirely. The feeling is compounded by the fact I have spent the last month or so checking out DC on google maps, and I keep wanting to zoom in on my surroundings and scroll them.The Library is humongous and it's a freaking maze:Seriously. I only got

b.noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-36646976385013273372008-09-30T21:32:00.005-04:002008-09-30T21:46:22.947-04:00

If everything goes according to plan, in almost exactly twenty-four hours I will be five time zones away. This will then, hopefully, turn into an amazing travelogue, full of insight and witty observations on life on the other shore of the Atlantic. Or, you know. It could just go the way it usually does, with a brief flurry of activity at the start quickly degenerating into a series of short,

b.noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146214660244138112.post-66262081647312623172008-09-01T14:17:00.001-04:002008-09-01T14:17:35.732-04:00

Aptly named, holding, as it does, what can only be called a place.

b.noreply@blogger.com2