London Mink

Surplus City

2011-10-20T13:39:00.002+01:00

my new bloghttp://surpluscity.wordpress.com/

LSE normal

2010-06-22T23:09:00.004+01:00

I arranged to meet with a friend to hear a lecture in the LSE titled "Beirut Normal" by architect and scholar Hashim Sarkis. Approaching the LSE I was surprised by the large number of well-dressed people in front of the doors, chattering happily in Arabic. Are they all Arab architects and town planners, the Zaha Hadid aspirationals?As I was locking my bike, to my surprise I saw the well-dressed

Categories of being

2010-02-06T15:54:00.005Z

Yesterday in the Somerford grove clinic, a woman was trying to get an apointment for her baby. The clinic secretary was going through the registration procedure with her. She asked the woman for her race. The mother was surprised: European, I am European (she looked Mediterranean, dark, I thought she was Turkish)."There's no European, there's "white british" "white irish" and "white other".

Pirates at Lambeth

2009-05-03T19:52:00.003+01:00

I have been researching Somali piracy for the last few days (as part of my paid work). As usual, my commissioners are keen to learn the numbers. Not for them, long descriptions of knife held between the teeth, and jumps onto ships; or alternatively, the plight of Somali fishermen, who, when seeing their seas plundered by international fishing boats, decided to jump the fishing boat, and board the

Collapsing demand

2009-03-23T11:09:00.003Z

The current global recession is manifested, we are told, by a collapse in "demand". That is to say: less products and services are being sold; business is slowing down; less profit is made, and therefore less is spent. Companies go bankrupt; and people are laid off. Economic hardship takes on different forms: for the few, it means less champagne and oysters; for the many, it means real suffering.

British Library encounters

2009-03-09T16:07:00.005Z

The British Library is a good place to do lots of things. One if them is meeting crazy people.Encounter (1) I go up to the coffee machine. An elderly woman seeks my assistance in operating the machine. Or rather, she commands my assistance, and from her demeanour and accent I assume she was, once upon a time, the product of the public school system. After I get her a cup of coffee, she asks where

A trip down south

2009-03-06T22:22:00.007Z

Going South There was a food order waiting for me in South London, at the Food Co-op. I usually go there - when I go, every month or two - on Thursdays, so I can chat with C, who has his usual shift then. But yesterday I was in the Library and Friday is my designated running-around sorting-things out day (I'm trying to be a good Jew, finish the chores before the Sabbath).I decided not to cycle

Culinary Hackney

2009-03-05T21:55:00.004Z

Where: "Tina we Salute You Cafe"What: Latte, small glassHow much: £2More: No doubt the best Latte in London, in a dodgy corner of Dalston. It is of the same quality you find in Melbourne and Tel Aviv, both Latte capitals. I could speak critically of the ironic decor and the designer chairs, and pay lip service to the sturggle against gentrification, but when it's class struggle or good coffee, I

To the losers who will not give up

2009-03-02T14:55:00.005Z

These men had as if casually been imprinted with the same expression, the expressions of the losers who do not give up, who know: they will lose again and again, and again and again till not give up, and that is no accident, no mistake or mishap, but it is meant to be that way .... yes, the most dreadful shame, the real crying shame, the greatest delight.* * *I am reading Christa Wolf on the bus

about snow and sex

2009-02-20T01:23:00.004Z

Cycling on snow sounds like a Yoguslav brass band under your pedals* * *The man in the Cafe yesterday talked about "tantrum sex". Everybody liked the idea

The market diaries: monetising tomatoes

2009-02-16T15:53:00.003Z

I am drawn back to the wholesale market, the one I've been visiting for six years now, on the south bank of the river. It is not a short cycle for me, perhaps even an hour. I wonder if it is nostalgia that draws me back there; or the search for continuity, while my life is changing.But there are simpler reasons, as my fridge is empty of vegetables, and the distance is hardly an excuse - what is

Olympic Market

2009-02-03T16:38:00.006Z

The usual wholesale market to which I've been going for five years and more is far from Hackney, which has meant that I've been there only a few times in the last year. Last week I decided to try another wholesale market not far from my house.I went on a Saturday because I know Saturdays are slow. Markets work for half days and there's less traffic of traders and buyers and vehicles. It also

What's in a name

2009-01-26T19:04:00.005Z

God this blog is becoming Nostalgia central.No, it's just that I'm sorting my papers. After two years of mayhem. I want to claim some tax back, and I need the receipts. So I go through my stuff. And I found exam candidates name cards.When I supervise exames, I am bored, so I look for funny names, as I tick the students' attendance list. Sometimes the name really suit the person. For example, Mr.

2009-01-25T18:30:00.003Z

I just found my notes from the Gleneagles, the G8 summit three years ago. In the same folder with my NHS cards and emmigration stuff, for some reason.Tuesday, walking on the highway, not sure where. The hotel should be nearby. Nick is talking about the midges, Scotland's menace, little flies that never leave you alone. We are overheard by two robocops. One of them trying to be friendly, says,

Gaza as entertainment

2009-01-18T11:33:00.004Z

In watching UK responses to the Gaza war, I find myself in a by-now familiar predicament. I am resolutely against this pointless carnage. And I do think there is room for action here in the UK: Britain and Europe is supportive of Israel in a range of ways, which make them in my view involved, partisans. Yet at the same time I dislike much of what I hear on British and European anti-war rhetoric.

Waltz with Bashir

2008-12-05T01:01:00.002Z

I wrote a review on Waltz with Bashir on my Jerusalem Blog, for those interested.

Marx on the 73

2008-12-04T11:44:00.003Z

An idea for a short story/film:Karl Marx is sitting on the 73 bus, on his way to the British Library. He is deep in thoughts when a group of gorgeous 17-year old Somali girls board the bus and take every seat possible around him (some of them sit on top of each other). They're wearing veils and make-up, and constantly play on their mobile phones, and shouting in an East London accent.He is

another obscure visual sign

2008-12-04T00:30:00.001Z

Only Goths (or rollerbladers) can put their feet on the seats.

Thinking about the financial crisis

2008-11-18T20:07:00.008Z

I am taking this opportunity to think out loud. I don't know much about finance: what I know I learnt mostly in the past month. Beyond the prospects of a recession or even depression, there are questions of history and politics that I am thinking about.In the last fifteen years' debates on globalisation and its discontents, I can't remember anyone mentioning finance as a serious issue. The evils

2008-11-04T18:05:00.005Z

Two days ago I saw a couple shoplifting. I used to have this somewhat-glorified image of the professional shoplifter as cool and nonchalant, like magicians, with a sleight of hand, expensive merchandise ending up in their bags. Poof! Now you see it, now you don't. But whenever I saw shoplifters in shops they didn't look anything like that. They were nervous and hysterical, their movements obvious

2008-11-01T22:48:00.003Z

For the past week, the British mainstream media has been busy discussing a story of foul-language prank played by two BBC radio broadcasters. I don't buy the newspapers but I see them lying on the streets, and read the headlines as I cycle passed shop fronts. So these are the front pages: Will the broadcasters they be suspended? will they resign? will they... whatever? I don't even know what the

Some more obscure signs

2008-10-30T16:40:00.005Z

As you know poverty is verbotten on Swiss trams, as is spraying shaving foam on the person next to you

obscure visual signs: do not chop off the tram seat you're sitting on

2008-10-27T15:04:00.002Z

Zurich provided me with some very interesting signs, more to follow

Notes from Zurich

2008-10-27T14:25:00.008Z

It wasn’t a good start. I was late for a job interview and we were still circling above the airport. “There has been an… incident in Zurich airport ” said the captain, clearing his throat “we will be landing 40 minutes late”. Later as we approached I could see the crashed aircraft on the ground, a few metres from the runway, and the emergency vehicles parked around it, but no special motion: the

In Zurich

2008-10-22T22:27:00.003+01:00

Earlier this evening I watched people in the Supermarket. They were making choices, silently, observing their options, contemplating slowly, comparing prices and packaging. But this was the wine section, or the meat. It was the chocoloate section.I brought dahl and rice with me on the plane and cooked dinner in the guesthouse: a pete-style dahl, with tomatoes and coconut cream, and then I added

3 special poridge haikus for the financial meltdown

2008-10-12T13:57:00.006+01:00

solace, solace, sostaring into the abyssstirring, round and round+ + +Not liquiditytahini is the answerfor morning panics+ + +as screens go bright redand bankers choke on croissons go long on rolled oats .

UCLA

2008-09-22T21:05:00.003+01:00

I stumbled into the Young Library at UCLA, carrying two heavy suitcases of books to return. I stopped at the sofas near the issue desk. "Are you English?"The man addressing me in a loud voice had very few teeth, John Lennon glasses, and a long grey hair. He was slouching and his feet were on the small table in front of him."Are you English?" he asked again.No, I'm not. But I live in London.And

There's no place like OM

2008-09-09T23:11:00.006+01:00

Having arrived to California, signing up in a yoga centre seemed inevitable. I took a 10-class pass and tried six different teachers. Yoga in LA is quite unlike yoga in London. Here are my conclusions:Thank you (not) for the music - almost all the teachers arrive with their ipods and play music throughout the class. It ranges between new age chanting with electronic drums in the background,

The Library

2008-08-11T19:31:00.005+01:00

The day we arrived, we circled the library twice and found all doors closed. The sun was making eyes squint, and the whole place was very quiet. A small red brick villa - but was it really here? Finally we found the servants' entrance, and rang the bell (it is permanently locked; a librarian has to let you in and out). The door opened, and we descended into the scholarly basement. Our

Valero

2008-08-09T00:28:00.003+01:00

We could have chosen not to hire a car: there is a surprising number of cyclists on the road, and public transport from our house to the library is reasonable. But a car makes it much easier to go to the beach and Pasadena and other places after work. It's a strange experience: I've hardly driven in the past six years. One of things I noticed first was the Valero gas-stations. I immediately

heretical musings on the British class system

2008-08-06T20:47:00.004+01:00