Carlo | May 25, 2010
I miss my parents lately, particularly now that I’ve read The Orientalist, Tom Reiss’ biography of Lev Nussimbaum, a tortured intellectual and prolific writer who lived while the great empires—the Ottoman, the Hapsburg, the Russian—died and totalitarianism took over. Nussimbaum was also known as Essad Bey and Kurban Said; he was a Jewish Orientalist whose [...]
Carlo | April 22, 2010
I’m off to Europe on a hotel trip today, back May 1. Didn’t think I’d go because of the Iceland volcano, but the Continent seems to have quieted down, and the trip is on. I’ll be in Brussels, Barcelona, Toulon, Marseille, Chantilly and Munich. More train than plane is in the plans; it’ll be interesting [...]
Carlo | February 10, 2010
I’ve been neglectful of my website. It’s been nearly a month since I updated. I’ve been very busy, but it’s time to catch up. In mid-December, my wife suggested I e-mail as many people as I could think of to tell them I wanted to engage more. Being semi-retired can be lonely, even when there’s [...]
Carlo | December 27, 2009
These are my best 2009 reads. I reviewed all of them except Box 21. Maybe I included that one because I read it for fun. T.J. Stiles, The First Tycoon (Knopf) Hans Fallada, Every Man Dies Alone (Melville House) Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (Knopf) Peter Kuper, Diario de Oaxaca (PM Press) [...]
Carlo | September 29, 2009
I’m writing about jazz again. Just cobbled together a feature about Cleveland-based jazz saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio, who’s working his new CD, Modern Times. Just wrote a short about Fra Fra Sound, an Amsterdam septet whose Dya So CD is cool world music. These are for Scene. I’m also writing debut columns for a yet-to-be-announced, Cleveland-based [...]
