Where To This Time? Anton Foek Amsterdam, June 8 th 2021–Kalmykia is in Southern Russia. North of the Caucasus it is bordered by the Oblasts of Volgograd, Dagestan, Astrakhan, Rostov and Stavropol Krai. It has access to the Caspian Sea and the Volga River. The Republic has many natural resources and wildlife including the protected…
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And yet so rich and easy Part II Amsterdam, 30 june 2021– One often hears that Rilke’s poetry is so difficult, so very incomprehensible. This is true for his mystical late work, but not for the poems from his middle period. These are surprisingly concrete and clear, if you make any effort to follow the…
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Part III by: A. van Veelen Amsterdam, June 28th 2021– It is as if Amsterdam Football Club and Ajax’s selection escapes relegation in the post-competition and we still praise the coach: just go for it, he did it in the very end. Nothing seems to break our self-image. No pandemic, benefits disaster or corruption scandal. The…
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1913 – 1960 Part II Anton Foek Amsterdam, June 2021– By 1943, he was back in France, to join the staff of the clandestine Resistance newspaper Combat, and publish those books: first the novel “The Stranger” and then a book of philosophical essays, “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The novel and the essays announced the same theme,…
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Pleasure rules at Vauxhall Part II source:bbc af Amsterdam, 18 May 2021–Music was a major draw for the 1,000 or so nightly visitors to Vauxhall, which hosted the leading musicians and composers of the day; George Frederic Handel made regular appearances; and Thomas Arne – best known for “Rule, Britannia!” – was Tyers’ in-house composer.…
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The Vauxhall Gardens from the bbc Amsterdam, 18 May 2021– A flash of green amid traffic-choked roads, elevated railway lines and anonymous high-rise apartment and office blocks, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is a well-kept but unremarkable south London park. When I visited on a sunny spring afternoon, wildflowers dotted the grass and shouts sounded from the football…
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Food for people who think A series of nine articles number 01 Amsterdam, May 3d 2021–Towards the end of a conversation dwelling on some of the deepest metaphysical puzzles regarding the nature of human existence, the philosopher Galen Strawson paused, then asked me: “Have you spoken to anyone else yet who’s received weird email?” He navigated…
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In Photographs Amsterdam, March 12 2021– Lusi, or Lumpur Sidoarjo Indonesian word for hot mud. It now is a household word in Indonesia, the result of an erupting mud volcano in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo in East Java, Indonesia since May 2006. We visited not long after, for the BBC’s Outlook. Some suggest it happened…
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