Paintings in London

A bit of promotion, aimed especially at those living in London. My mom is having an exhibition of her paintings in the city today (i.e. 30th June) onwards till 4th of July. It's at the Nehru Centre (8 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London, W1K 1HF). It's central and all, so please try and go have a look, if you can!

In other news, I was in Bangkok over the weekend. Mostly eating fantastic food, drinking and taking some photographs. Shall have photos up soon.

Floodlit Ruins

One can miss mountains

and pine. One

can dismiss
a whisper’s

revelations
and go on as

before as if
everything were

perfectly fine.
One does. One

loses wonder
among stores

of things.
One can even miss

the basso boom
of the ocean’s

rumpus room
and its rhythm.

A man can leave
this earth

and take nothing
—not even

longing—along
with him.

Todd Boss
(From The New Yorker)

How not to love this man?

Pamuk on football in Der Spiegel.

"The image that I remember most of all is of the Fenerbahçe players storming into the stadium before kickoff. They were called the canaries because of their yellow jerseys. It was as if they, like canaries, were fluttering into the stadium out of a hole. I loved it. It was poetry"

This was endlessly amusing too:

Spiegel: Albert Camus once said this about his days as a goalkeeper: " All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football."
Pamuk: Oh, come on. That may have been true in Algeria in the 1930s, but today it's naïve. Morality is probably the last thing one can learn from football today.

Of course this being Pamuk, some nonsensical controversy can't be far behind - what do you know, the man is an "inadequate nationalist'! Jeez.

I have been (an still am) stuck without internet and cable at home so haven't really seen the Euro 2008 matches yet - didn't miss much as France had a shittily boring and useless opening match. And as expected the Zizou ghost did come up - I miss him! I am totally for Turkey too (on principle alone - I can't not be right?) except for the fact that they must be the frustrating team ever and I have less than zilch expectations.

Also, I have been told this is Female Sexual Desire Week, so yeah, photos in this post are an added bonus. Excuses to still put up Zizou pictures are always welcome. And I don't think I've ever put up a picture of Pamuk before. It was the man's birthday on Saturday. Belated doğum günün kutlu olsun to him!

House

So. I have finally understood why people buy houses. Because it means not having to worry about finding a new place within your budget when your lease expires. And because it means not having to worry about shifting. Which is the biggest pain in the ass process ever. It took me five days to pack my room. I can't even imagine what a painful process packing a house would be. It's also amazing how much junk I have accumulated. Jeez.

In other news - I don't think it's a good sign that I got into office in the morning and my first thought was "I need alcohol. Nicotine also." Sigh.