Things I loved here…. The Grande Hotel de Londres – Amazing place, loaded with history and a great crowd in the lobby. Wireless access, central location, strong tea, great decor and wonderful staff. (And they have great new carpeting in the lobby.) Hemmingway stayed here, so should you. Beyoğlu – This is the neighborhood where… (read more)
I am getting ready to leave Istanbul. In a lot of ways, I have left already. I have sort of contracted into a ball here, walking around the city in the morning and coming back to the hotel in the afternoons to sleep for a few hours. Then going out in the evening for dinner… (read more)
Michael Kimmelman memorializes him in the NYTimes (and actually mentions his partner, Darryl Pottorf). For me, he is so incredibly important because he could do whatever he wanted. He exercised complete freedom in his work. When I saw the Guggenheim Retrospective in 1997 (so large that it filled the museum’s midtown and SOHO locations),… (read more)
There is pending congressional legislation that will remove significant copyright protection from all works of art if it is enacted. The Orphan Works Act of 2008 makes it possible to declare a copyrighted work “orphaned” if an infringer says that he is unable to locate the author based on the infringer’s idea of a reasonable… (read more)
OK. I think a sufficient amount of time has passed since the purchase of my Turkish carpet to begin to talk about what happened. I had just come out of the Basilica Cistern. I had gone there at the suggestion of my friend Cecilia because she said it was one of the things in Istanbul… (read more)
When I told my friends back home I was going to Turkey, I asked them if they knew anyone there. I was prepared to spend my time alone, but I thought it would be nice to have a contact in country. Elise, who works for Skowhegan, put me in touch with here dear friend Alina,… (read more)
Everybody smokes in Turkey, whether they want to or not. I am not one of those reformed smokers who thinks everyone would be better off if they quit. I do not see it as my mission to stop others from smoking. Once I quit, I figured I no longer had a dog in that fight…. (read more)
I have a sketchbook that I take with me everywhere. I really pride myself on having a daily practice, but I gotta say I have not made a single drawing since I have been here. I have been so completely overwhelmed visually that I can’t even conceive of how to make a image right now…. (read more)
Let me reiterate: cops are the same all over the world. My friend and colleague, Noel Ignatiev says “All over the world cops beat up poor people; that is their job, and it has nothing to do with color.” I spent the majority of the day in my hotel room yesterday. In every country that… (read more)