Everyone was excited that Orhan Pamuk and Salman Rushdie were coming to to town. Bookstores around Venice displayed posters for the literary conference, “Crossroads of Civilization.” This bookstore is on a street leading away from the Querini Stampalia. › Continue reading…

Planes in the Hudson, ferries in the sky. Join us on Upstage on 20 May at 9 pm Venice time. Go to the Salvation page on this site for login instructons. › Continue reading…

A long shot of the space where Salvation will loop. The video screen is at the end. › Continue reading…

Tara Rebele will make a screen recording of “Salvation.” The Querini Stampalia will loop the recording on the video screen you see in this photo. › Continue reading…

It means, “I don’t understand this, either.” Christopher A. Francese speaks out about Diploma Latin in the nytimesonline. I do recall quite clearly the commencement ceremony at which Howard Swearer, fifteenth president of Brown University, then recently arrived from a certain college in the Midwest where Latin is optional, read his commission out of a hat.Yes, he took off his velvet hat and stared into it, intoning painfully, “Auctoritate mihi commissa . . .” › Continue reading…

What a convenient format! Finally, a guidebook that does not break the camel’s back. Love the photos, and the entries are useful and accurate. And I know Venice! For all these reasons, I will search out the Top 10 series’ book for the next city I’ll visit–a city I do not know at all–Hong Kong. › Continue reading…

From popsicles to Algeria-Vietnam: the sixties that were about repression and war, before they mutated into dope and the weird but brilliant outburst of new forms of thinking. Authentic, detailed   memoir of a Polish-American-Jewish girl growing up largely in Paris. › Continue reading…

It’s a long weekend in Bavaria. May first, the communist holiday (=Labor Day), fell on a Friday. May first is also Lady Day, a feast of the Virgin Mary that, as far as I know, is strictly a popular fertility holiday having nothing to do with the liturgical year. › Continue reading…

I found out later that both events of that night—The Birthday Party and the Eiffel Tower on Bling—were anniversary celebrations. The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter’s first full-length play, debuted in 1959. The Eiffel Tower, which was supposed to be temporary, was unveiled 120 years ago. Neither of these things . . . went away.

I don’t know what to say, except that I am honored to have been present on this monumental occasion. I am in fact grateful to whoever organized this outing, because let’s face it, I would never have dreamed of one iota of this agenda myself, and it is important to do unexpected stuff, so that you do not develop some kind of ultra-snob Alzheimer’s, n’est-ce pas.