Scenes from Freiburg June 2022
Lunar Festival of Lights in Sofia
Such a cool project which made the whole city come alive with art and light. The perfect way to forget for a few moments about the pandemic, war, and impending recession.
Working in the National Library today
And I found a great article about Alexandra Kollontai!
Chillin' in Athens so I can get to Italy
Since I have a lecture at the European University Institute on December 8th, I needed to first come to Greece because the Italians won’t let me in from Serbia. So I am taking in some sights outside and trying to avoid the crowds. Thankfully, late November is the low season in Athens, and most of the famous sites are relatively empty. And the weather is glorious.
My visit to the Belgrade book museum →
Yesterday, on my hunt for information about Yugoslav typewriters, I found myself at ADLIGAT, the Society for Culture, Art and International Cooperation in Belgrade. This place is a bibliophile’s dreamland; they have over one million books and various exhibits and displays about book cultures from around the globe. They also have an impressive number of typewriters on display, many which belonged to famous writers, including the wonderful UNIS tbm de Luxe, which was manufactured in Bugojno from 1971 to 1991 under a German license and was exported with 92 different keyboards to nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I’m told they have more than 100 machines in storage, and I am lobbying for a special typewriter room! Below are some photos from my visit, but they simply cannot do justice to the magical nature of the place. Visit if you can!
More views of beautiful Belgrade
I am just loving the energy of this city. The weather has been phenomenal. I am the consummate flâneur these days, just walking the vibrant streets of Serbia’s capital city, meeting colleagues, and chasing typewriters.
Sunset over the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers
And more sights from Belgrade
Scenes from Serbia
I wandered around the old city of Belgrade yesterday, soaking in the late October sunshine and reveling in my return to the Balkans. It feels so good to see Cyrillic again.
Sunset in Belgrade
I was quite sad to leave Germany, but happy to be back in the Balkans.
Ich bin wieder in Berlin!
A new typewriter for my collection
So I was in Montmartre yesterday and I was thinking that I should head out to one of Paris’s famous flea markets to do a little typewriter hunting. On my way to the metro, I popped into an antique shop and saw a pretty beat up Remington Portable, made in the USA for the German market with a QWERTZ keyboard, dating from the 1920s or 1930s. I think it’s a Portable #2, but I’m not sure yet because I haven’t located the serial number. In any event, I spoke to the proprietor in Spanish and it was clear he had no idea how the thing worked. (Paris tip: NEVER speak in English when you want to bargain for anything. The French are much nicer if you start in another language and then come to English as a third common language. They are very sensitive about English linguistic imperialism, and I really don’t blame them. All over Paris I hear Brits and Americans speaking loudly in English and just expecting locals to understand it.)
Anyway, I bargained for this lovely machine in Spanish, and the proprietor gave me a reasonable price for a machine in this condition. I am looking forward to restoring it and addition it to my growing collection.
Scenes from Paris with my former student and co-author Julia Mead
So delighted to see my former Bowdoin College student, Julia Mead, who is now a Ph.D. student in history at the University of Chicago. She is currently doing archival research in Prague and we rendezvoused in Paris for the Gender and Materiality conference at Sciences Po. We found some time to enjoy the pleasures of the City of Light –embracing the numinous!
Scenes from Bologna, Italy
Having lots of fun with my camera! Bologna is one of the most beautiful places on earth IMHO.
The breathtaking beauty of the Maine coast...
I made it out to Land’s End in Harpswell before leaving Maine. There are certainly some things I miss about that state, and being so close to the ocean all of the time is definitely one of them.
Maine!
Enjoying the late summer in Maine
Lunch at the Seadog in Brunswick
Berlin at dawn
So I could not sleep last night and I decided to take my good camera and go out onto the streets of Mitte for some classic scenes in the hour before sunrise (5:15). It’s my last day in Berlin, and I will certainly miss this place.
Berlin days
The first couple of days in Berlin have been amazing so far. I am sinking deep into the history of the DDR, and trying to better understand the transition after 1989. I met with my brilliant German editor at Suhrkamp on Thursday, had dinner with my dear friend Susan Neiman on Friday, and have hit the Berlin Trödel markets hard this weekend.
In front of a portrait of August Bebel in Prenzlauer Berg.
Berliner Dom by night
DDR-era bust of Marx purchased in the Weissensee trödelmarkt for 3 euro
Two new typewriters from the trödelmarkt: An Olympia Traveller de Luxe and a Prvileg.
the Plaza of the 9th of November 1989
Back in Berlin again
I'm enjoying some time in the German capital, a city I first visited in 1990, almost 30 years ago. Needless to say, it has changed a lot in the intervening years. Here is the view from my temporary apartment in Mitte.
Images from the Bulgarian village of Lyutibrod
So I spent a day in a village in the northwest of Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa. This is a very poor part of the country where people live quite close to the edge, and is probably one of the poorest regions in the European Union. But it is also breathtakingly beautiful, and it is in this part of the country that many people maintain an allegiance to leftist ideals. I am always humbled and honored to be a guest here.
