Turkish coffee

"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." - Turkish Proverb

Just made my first ibrik in several months now. I seem to be rusty, I even had to look up instructions again. There are so many subtleties to preparing Turkish coffee, the closest to alchemy of the bean I know of. The first pot didn't have enough coffee in it, so I started over. The second one had too much and I had the heat on too low. Nevertheless I finished it and am now sipping it. I plan on preparing a pot daily for a few weeks, I will probable have it perfected once more in three or four days. I also haven't made Vietnamese coffee in awhile, another distinct coffee experience.

Two new links

1) Kavitayan: An Anthology of Indian poetry in English Translation.
http://www.geocities.com/kavitayan/portal.html

2) Ravi Kopra's blog if Indian poetry in translation.
http://indianpoetrytranslations.blogspot.com/2006/03/jayadeva-sanskrit-poet.html

Propsero's Books

After dropping my wife off at work I decided to stop by Prospero's (they made international news last year for burning excess stock that no institution was willing to accept, even for free). The reason I went there today, my book buying is temporarily on hold, was to see if they had the current issue of Rain Taxi. Much to my delight they did (truly amazing considering that Rain Taxi's site posted the contents of this issue only this week) and I decided to browse. I found Coleridge's "Biographia Lieraria" and couldn't resist purchasing it, all the while justifying this purchase to myself (if I go one day next week without an iced mocha it won't matter, etc.). On my way out the door I noticed another book, picked it up and flipped through it and found myself right back at the counter. I plan on giving it to my brother for X-mas but it is so amusing I might keep it.

Speaking of Rain Taxi, they are holding their annual auction on ebay this Sunday. I hope they post what they are putting up for sale soon on their site, esp. since I will be at work and will have to let my wife bid for me.

Turkish cinema

In one of Silliman's latest entries he writes about Turkish cinema. Although "Head-on" is a wonderful film worth watching I'd have to say that my favorite director from that fascinating country is Nuri Bilge Ceylan. There are currently two films available on dvd by Ceylan. "Distant" & "Climates". The first distributed by New Yorker Video & the second by Zeitgeist, both among the greatest film distribution companies around in this country.

"Distant" was very reminiscent of Tarkovsky, in several points during the film he is cited and in one scene one of the main characters is watching "Stalker". The second film, although retaining elements of the first, seems more influenced by Antonioni. Of the two "Climates" might be my favorite, but I was so amazed by the first that when "Climates" opened I immediately went to see it.

Fulcrum, Adonis

Despite working from 8-5 today I have managed to read quite a bit. I just finished the astonishing book by Adonis "Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs." Earlier today I read various poems in Fulcrum # 6. The works that stood out the most: George Seferis' "Thrush," the section of Boris Vian's poetry esp. "I'll Die of a Cancer of the Spine" which strangely echoes Vallejo's famous poem (I say strangely because I'm uncertain if Vian was familiar with the Vallejo poem, it's doubtful that he was) & contains the prophetic lines:


...I'll die like a daisy plucked
A little a lot passionately madly
Not at all without enthusiasm...


& ten poems by Quevedo, one of which "Love Constant Beyond Death" is easily one of the greatest love poems ever written in any language.

Two new links

Silliman's latest links entry contained many treasures, two of which I am adding to my Links List.

First, Scantily Clad Press ebooks page, featuring a Salamun book among others:
http://issuu.com/andrewlundwall/docs/curtisharnack?mode=embed&documentId=081123040824-2f47dfb4cd5b40b0ab94b16b4c92e851&layout=grey

& "Original Ideas in Magic" by Tim Davis:
http://canopycanopycanopy.com/4/original_ideas_in_magic

Francisco Aragon

Attended a reading by Francisco Aragon this evening. Awake early this morning for work, it will be even earlier tomorrow. Finished Mandelstam's "The Noise of Time" a few minutes ago.