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. Read more…

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. Read more…

A long shot of the space where Salvation will loop. The video screen is at the end. Read more…

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. Read more…

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 . . .” Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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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.