Whew... I have some sort of stomach flu. I went to the Ministry of Sound last night, and it was bad news. They do have nice toilets though...and nice toilet paper (though unfortunately the pre-cut kind).

The place isn't quite as big as I thought it would be. I went because the school was selling tickets and I normally wouldn't be cool enough to go in. Anyway, with their world famous DJ's who sell thousands of CD's the world over... I walk in and what do I hear? Trance? House? No... Hanson's Mmmbop.

Shitty indeed.

I recently read "The Satanic Verses"... (btw..thanks a lot Scott for giving me both that AND the Dom DiLillo... both of those guys are big on writing non-linearly)...

It didn't really seem all that "satanic", at least not in the traditional sense. Though perhaps if atheism is the modern Satan, then Rushdie made his point.

The book is only mildly blasphemous to Islam. It could be compared with Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" rather than with Nikos Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ". Both Bulgakov and Rushdie recreate a historical narrative of the of the crucial moments in the founding of their respective religions from a secular perspective.

What "really" happened. Bulgakov speculates Christ was an illegitimate and slightly crazy itinerant preacher run afoul of the Pharasees and pitied though misunderstood by Pilot. Rushdie speculates Mohammed was a megalomaniacal demagogue, but of stern vision for the betterment of humanity. One who believed his visions, so strongly that he failed to realize the difference between his own will and a Divine Will.

Rushdie obviously owes quite a bit to Bulgakov. In both books, interspersed between the historical narrative, there is a story occurring in the present, in which the fantastic and magical are commonplace. Kind of a clever irony to try to rationalize a religion with the supremely irrational. In Bulgakov's case the Devil has come to Moscow and is leading all the good communists into perdition because they don't believe in him. In Rushdie's, two Indian actors become avatars of Gabriel and Satan.

Ultimately, I think that the reason Rushdie's book is so much more inflammatory is that he more or less explicitly denies the metaphysical aspect of his topic. His critique is thus more overtly harsh. Despite the fact that most critics claim that "Master and Margarita" is an attack on Christianity.... I think that he was writing under the Soviet constraints and that he actually was supporting it. Or at least he wanted it to be true. In his book, the goodness of Christ, even this mortal character, becomes undeniably apparent to Pilate. On the other hand, Rushdie's Mohammed is a petty tyrant who is successful exactly because he caters to the lower instincts in men. I think the final event in both books, which I won't reveal, even states this case more explicitly....

My housing situation is finally resolved, albeit the outcome unsatisfactory...

I'll be living in a place in Bethnal Green, in East London... just a bit north of Whitechapel. It's like crossing the ocean to live on east Washington in Indianapolis. Well, at least the place is clean...but it has no attractive Chinese (or otherwise) roommates either...


Story: When I first got here, I was going to the McDonald's in Leicester Square to get online. Well, one day I was trying to go this site, and apparently my blog was not ok, because a large red 'X' and the worlds "BLOCKED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT" came on the screen. This of course involves some embarrassment as the Indian mother of three sitting behind me casts disapproving glances my way. At that very moment, the song "Call On Me" was playing (it is a techno version of Steven Winwood's "Valerie"...."Call on meeee. Call me.....I'm the same boy I used to be") anyway, this is by far one of the most vulgar videos I've ever seen. It consists of an 80's aerobics class of all women and one men... with close up shots of the women thrusting their crotches an and oscillating their tits... I'm glad McDonald's has such high concern for the kids. Well, they'll NEED aerobics after eating a big mac.

I've been thinking of posting this for awhile:

Well, on the surface, it is like a medieval pilgrimage.. and I couldn't help but
be reminded of Renaissance criticisms of the commercial nature of such things.
On the other hand, I now understand the benefit of such enterprises as well. It
can be a wonderfully contemplative experience.

Though I usually like to travel "Lonely Planet" style, the family with whom I
was staying in Alexandria insisted I take a tour. So I did take one from Sharm
el Sheikh (about three hours south of Mt. Sinai or Gebel Musa ("Moses Mountain"
as its called there). The bus left at about 11 pm and the tourists hiked up in
the middle of the night. It is VERY cold. I would estimate about 20 F (~ -7 C).
However, it is about a 4 mile hike, up the "camel path", at about a 20% grade
(my estimate) most of the way, until the 700 steps tot he summit. There are
also 3400 steps carved by the monks, the "steps of penance," that lead to the
summit, more on those later. Needless to say, I was sweating most of the way.

The path was full of people. Primarily large tourist groups, though some people
did emerge from the monastery (which has a guest house open to all) and come
with our group.

Of course, it was pitch black, and I could only see as far as my flashlight in
front of me... and the long line lights in front of and behind me. I could,
however smell the camel dung I constantly stepped in, and the camel flatulence
that was constantly being released in front of me. There are bedouins all up
and down the path, offering to take people to the 700 steps (for a hefty fee
of course; because it was a rather strenuous hike. There are also shacks along
the path selling tea and candy bars (staffed by the ubiquitous Bedouins trying
to squeeze every dollar they can from the people). I almost bought a scarf from
them (for 10 dollars, a fortune in Egypt) at the base of the mountain but I
rightly surmised I'd warm up over the course of the hike. It was in one of
these shacks that I unfortunately saw the "ugly American" emerge (in fact one of
the only Americans I saw in Egypt), when a woman started yelling at a Bedouin
because he didn't mix enough coffee with the water... "DON'T YOU PEOPLE KNOW
HOW TO MAKE A NESCAFE?"

Anyway, I made it to the top of the mountain just as the sun was rising... (this
was by design... a bit corny but it really was beautiful).


As for the landscape... it is so stark, one cannot help but be affected by it.
It certainly met all the expectations built in my mind by the book of Exodus.
Its not joking when it says its a wilderness. But more impressive than the
landscape... was the people.

There was a group of Korean Catholics who held a service as the sun was rising,
they would chant and cheer everytime a member of their group reached the
summit. (many of them were rather elderly) There was a group of Russians who
would cross themselves and silently pray. And there was a group of Nigerian
Protestants who sang some of the most beautiful hymns I've heard in my life.
The joy on the people's faces, and the sense of brother/sisterhood and
peacefulness was one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen. I will
keep many of those faces different and wonderful as they were, though I will
probably never see them again, with me always.

There is an Orthodox chapel on the summit (as well as a mosque), but
unfortunately it was closed. Still, I couldn't help but feel that no building
in that spot could contain the holiness one feels there.

Now I realize that there is scholarly doubt as to whether or not this is Sinai.
I personally am inclined to believe that it is. And while I was there I was
certainly awestruck by the thought that this was where Moses spoke with God...
Where one of the most important events in history took place. That said, I
don't think it REALLY matters if it is Sinai or not... Christianity isn't about
fetishes.. and its meaning transcends and physical space.

After spending a few hours there, we started our descent. My group took the
"steps" on the way down. When I read of them, I imagined 3400 steps in a line
making a sheer descent down the mountain... it is more like uneven slabs of
rock placed at irregular intervals. Still it is considerably shorter in
distance than the path. That said, as it was so jagged, and many of the steps
covered in ice, I would not have wanted to ascend it in the dark!

The way the sunlight played of the mountains really emphasized the desolation of
the Sinai peninsula. The only living thing (that wasn't a tourist) that I saw
on the way down was one solitary thorn bush. Too good to be true, I took a
picture (of course, there is a bush on the monastery grounds that the monks
claim is descended from the burning bush).

One advantage the steps have though is breathtaking views of the
fortress-monastery at the base of the mountain.


At the base of the mountain, the monastery itself is splendid. The church is
basilica style and has a very ancient mosaic of the Transfiguration. It also
has the oldest icons I've ever seen (dating from the 6th century), as well as a
world class museum (some rich Greek must have ponied up quite a bit for that).
I didn't have time to enter the famous library.

Contrary to what many have said, the monks were by no means condescending or out
for money. In fact, the monks didn't want to take any of my money. They
wouldn't even let me pay to enter the museum. (I hope that they treat
non-Greeks well too... most, but not all, of the monks are Greek) I have a
feeling that anyone who enters with a respectful/devout attitude will find the
monks most hospitable. They are human though, and I'm sure even they are pushed
to their limits by so many tourists. I was exhausted by the climb... but felt a
bit ashamed to see one of the monks walking UP the steps as I was walking
down... at 8 am!




It is my great regret that I was not able to stay for services. My tour left at
10 am.. and in fact I didn't even have time to see the entire museum. I really
wanted to stay, but it was a 3 hour drive to the airport.. and my flight left
that afternoon for Cairo. I fervently hope to return!

The search for housing goes on... I wish I could just live in the Savoy. It's right next to school....


I just finished "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. It was pushed pretty hard by the publisher and the NY Times as the next "Da Vinci Code" (which I haven't read). An Eastern European "Da Vinci Code" dealing with Dracula.

Well, it was pretty terrible. Both in style and substance. It was boring, poorly paced, and contrived. Not to mention huge plot holes. All the action in the 642 page book takes place after page 600. The characters go all over Europe to make astounding discoveries that could be found in the encyclopedia ("Dracula was a real ruler of Wallachia who impaled people!)

But I can forgive an aesthetically bad book (as Belinsky said), but not a morally bad one.

The author, who tries to withold all information about herself save that she went to Yale, has a Bulgarian name (and I assume is from Bulgaria the way she writes about it).

The themes she explores in her book are sexuality and hatred. In kind of a reversal of Bram Stoker's book, here, Eastern European men are emasculated and the book focuses on the sexual liberation of Eastern European women by Western men. The only sympathetic Eastern European men are old and impotent (maybe literally). Her three female protagonists all find love and liberation in Englishmen. Way to sell us out Elizabeth. Its bad enough we're superstitious and irrational and thus incapable of defeating evil, but now our women need pasty dudes? I'll stick with our sexual predator rep.

***SPOILER***

Ok, this is almost comically bad. The whole point of the book is that Dracula (who is only in about 20 pages of it) is trying to find someone to catalogue his library that in which he has gathered "lost" works over the last 500 years. In a Darth Vader "I am your father" moment, the protagonist says ,"I'll never join you" (in cataloguing your books).

********

The book which is overflowing bookshelves on both sides of the Atlantic is being sold for half price here now... still overpriced.

What else could the gov have done prior to Katrina? Declared martial law and forcibly evacuated people? That would have seemed amazing foresight given the eventuality, but in other circumstances would have also been a political disaster. What I don't understand is why the governor didn't declare eminent domain over all buses in the state and have them all at the limits of the flood to carry people out. I can understand people not wanting to leave their homes... some people will just make bad decisions in a disaster. For that matter, why couldn't most people have simply hiked out of the city? It wasn't ALL 20 ft of floodwater so the swimming doesn't seem to have been that much. I suppose the people to truly lament are those who were both poor and incapable of leaving. Those are the ones that the state has a special responsibility to care for.

As for "looting", I don't see what the big deal is at all. Its not as if:

A) Walgreens/CVS/WAL-Mart don't have insurance.

B) The food and clothes would have been able to have been sold when the city is re-occupied in 8 months.

So I don't see the moral issue in "looting" any of those things. The police should have declared eminent domain and distributed food anyway.


Finding a flat:

1)Greek girl - This was about a mile walk from the nearest tube.

2)Greek guy - This was promising except the front door is in an alcove w/ a huge wrought iron gate in front of it. There is no dryer and when I asked him about where he dries his clothes he said.. well we can't outside the neighborhood is dangerous. I might come back to this one though.

3)Vietnamese girl - Great apt, close to campus, nice roommates...who want me to pay for HALF the flat.. a mere 19,000 for the year.

4)French girls- Ok, this place was FILTHY. Mold and dirt abounded. It was in Finsbury Park (more later). Still, I almost fell for it b/c they had bottles of wine setting out and posters of early 19th century French commercial art. (Les Biscuits!) I could have been so cosmopolitan!

5)British guy- House on Abbey Road! But they don't have it yet... and they don't know if the landlady will allow them to have four people... and...

6)Tonight, Japanese guy...

What a pain.

So yesterday was Ethiopian New Year's Day! It is the year 1998 for them. They were cut off by the Arabs from the rest of the Christian world, so they developed quite a few independent traditions. There was an Ethiopian party at a club yesterday...with DJ Mekunin and DJ Tewdoros. I didn't go.

But I was in Finsbury Park where quite a few of them live and I had lunch in an Ethiopian diner. I was served the usual type of food, but it was wrapped in the injira (that spongy bread) and it was the size of 2 bricks! I could barely finish it, but as I was eating the place filled up (it being a holiday) and I wasn't about to waste food in front of a bunch of Ethiopian grandmothers. When the owner saw I was enjoying it, he put some red powder (cumin?) and thick red paste down and told me to put it on my food. I obliged and soon was sweating profusely with red hands (no utensils here).

I thought of the story in in the Arabian Nights where the noblewoman marries the peasant, but tries to make love to her with cumin stained fingers. So she drugs him and cuts his thumbs off. He waits by the roadside, abducts her and rapes her. Then they live happily ever after....

I left the diner (with my thumbs) and couldn't resist walking by the Finsbury Park Mosque. This is the former home of the "Mad Mullah" aka "Captain Hook", a scary looking imam with a hook for a hand and a glass eye courtesy of the Soviets (so the story goes). He used to call for the banner of the prophet to hang over 10 Downing St. and for Muslims to do everything in their power to make this a reality. After years of his calls for violence, he was finally deported home (to Jordan?).

There was a huge banner on the mosque that said, "A new beginning for better community service, better public image, better neighborhood". I was surprised that the building was brick and architecturally modern. It could have been an apartment building in NY with a minaret and small dome on it.

Almost literally in its shadow, are the Ethiopians. One could almost take them for Muslims as well with their salaams and Semitic speech. But in the diner I was at, there was huge poster of St. Michael guarding Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo to dispel any doubt. There actually are Ethiopian Muslims. Ethiopia is an empire and contains many ethnic groups. The Amhara (who we in the West think of as THE Ethiopians) are actually a small minority. There are several other Orthodox ethnic groups, but the largest single ethnic group is actually split between Christian and Muslim, and there is a large Somali minority as well.

Interestingly, there were both Christians and Muslims buying food in the diner for the celebration of what would seem to be an exclusively Christian holiday.

I spoke too soon about media coverage here. Now every paper, and the BBC and SKY1 have been trumpeting how the US is incompetent and racist. On the BBC last night, "This wouldn't have happened in MARYland or Beverly Hills". Obviously Nigel has never been to Baltimore. Most of these British know about as much about America as I know about Britain. Except, I'm spouting my nonsense here instead of of tv.

Nonsensical observational interlude: Though I've read that Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in the world, it would be hard to beat the British. Nearly every one I've met has been highly irreligious. I think Jeremy Bentham, JS Mill, and Bertrand Russell intellectually battered them (being already traumatized by Henry VIII altering their whole metaphysical outlook on whim) and left them pliable for the likes of Richard Dawkins (and Douglas Adams warms them up as children). I was in Foyle's and there was a whole shelf of Dawkins, but only THREE books by Stephen Jay Gould. Now Gould was no friend of religion (he was in my mind the better evolutionary theorist than Dawkins) but at least he had an intellectually honesty about it and wasn't grinding his smarmy axe. Regardless, irreligiousity isn't something to ruffle my feathers per se, BUT the one thing that the Brits have retained from their years as champions of Protestantism is HATRED of the Catholic Church (And consequently... or maybe because they.. hate Hispanics, Irish, and Italians). The cab driver who brought me from Heathrow said, "I'm not religious one bit, but the Mooslims don't bother me at all so long as they behave. Now the Catholics, they're the biggest fucking hypocrites around. An EYEtalian can fuck his brother's wife and go to confession and he's right as rain." You have to respect theological insight like that. I've worn my Notre Dame shirt every day since (and it stinks). See if they'll let ME say all THAT on Nightline.

Anyway, as for my thoughts on the hurricane. It DOES look to the rest of the world that we got caught with our pants down. I think everyone knows we're trying to do something basically impossible in Iraq, so they don't really think we're weaker for it. But for us to seem so helpless in our own backyard? The images in the papers and news (and I realize they're manipulated) DO look like a 3rd world country. The general sense is that we're overestimated, a paper tiger like the Soviet Union was. I'm don't' really agree with that. Bureaucrats don't ruin a country with a strong Geist, certainly not to be found in Europe anymore.

I think the MUNICIPAL government in NO failed MISERABLY, and that the mayor is a scoundrel using to media to attack the federal government so he not only doesn't lose his own political career, but go down as one of the most ignominious politicians in our history (he shouldn't worry too much though... the whole Bush administration is right behind him).

That said, people have to take SOME responsibility. I don't know, but weren't buses made available for evacuation? Aren't there people who STILL won't leave? I'll have to wait until more information is forthcoming.

And since I haven't posted regularly-

Update of last week and a half:

Flight was uneventful. Knees were cramped. Stewardess spilled tea on my favorite jacked (it's white). Got housed. Pretty standard.

Its odd I moved into as being not too bad before. The Regent "Palace" in Piccadilly is a rathole. It smelled of mildew, there was a bloodstain on the pillow and the bed, when the toiled up stairs flushed, the sink would back up and I could smell it, and I got a rash (ok now you know I don't think any girls will read this). I stayed there for 5 days until my sister did me an AWESOME favour and booked me a hotel that usually costs $250 a night for $71 dollars a night! It is in Kensington right by the V&A and it's the sheez. Too bad tonight is my last night there and I can't get the same rate and... I still haven't found a place.

Finding a place is slow going. I don't know where I'm going most of the time, so I go to a lot of places that are really inconvenient (travelwise) or dumps. I have to go to the school accommodation office to use the computer to find the listings.. and I don't have a phone so it is hard to contact people. (thought tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get a shady store to unlock my old phone so I can get a pay as you go sim card) On top of all that, though I DO use email to contact them (which is slower of course) half the time the KCL email server is down (such as right now). Its frustrating, I just want to get somewhere and stop wasting time. But not in a $380 a WEEK 10 x 20 "studio" in Notting Hill (its not THAT posh of a neighborhood.. the bombers lived there)

On the weekends I can't do anything else b/c no one does anything resembling work here. So I went to Brighton and then to Windsor and Eton.

Brighton is like UK Myrtle Beach. I've never seen so many pierced and tattooed hooligans in my life. The beach is actually a pebble beach, and the pebbles are big. Think rock garden under the stairs in a 1970's decorated house. And worse, the hooligans are THROWING THEM. Since I had the misfortune to go on a bank holiday, it was packed. The water is also polluted and its not a good idea to go in. Despite all that, it was calming to get out of the city and sit on the beach. The heat and the breeze and the waves were synchronized to soothe everyone (almost...not the guys climbing the ~35 ft. pier and jumping in).

The main sights there other than the beach are the huge pier which has an amusement park at the end (what the pavilion in Myrtle SHOULD be), and the Royal pavilion. The Royal pavilion was a castle bought and extensively remodeled by George IV (who was quite a dandy) to resemble an oriental palace. It looks like an Indian mosque on the exterior, and on the interior the rooms have various (mostly Chinese) Asian themes. Victoria thought it was uncouth and sold it to the city which has kept it as a tourist attraction ever since. It IS kind of cool inside. I wouldn't mind having a 15 ft wide chandelier being held up by a 6 ft long dragon. But the decor is also a little perverse, not to come off as Edward Said, but it was dehumanizing... the little mandarins and Chinese courtesans....a game for the civilized Brits. Aesthetically worth seeing though... it was done by John Nash.

I also went to Windsor and Eton. Pretty standard tourist stuff. Windsor is cool... a huge castle on a hill.... the rooms are lavish, w/ beautiful furniture and art. I never thought I'd say this, but you've seen one palace, you've seen them all. There isn't much to be said that can't also be said about Buckingham Palace or the royal Palace in Brussels. The one exception would be the art collection which truly is amazing. There must have been a dozen van Dyck's alone. Not to mention several each of Rubens, Breugal, and Holbein. And to think the poor queen had to open up Buckingham to tourists to pay her taxes. :/

Eton on the otherhand is pretty unique. A high school older than any university in the US, with more famous alumni than Harvard. The chapel was built by Henry VI, and is pretty cool, despite being truncated due to his political problems. Once again, iconoclasts beat me to it, and so most of the paintings on the walls were destroyed by the Protestants. The tour was guided by a Mary Poppins-ish older lady who was truly in awe of the young boys who go there. She even took us off the tour into one of the medieval classrooms where boys had carved their names... Gladstone, Shelly, the Nepali prince who gunned down his family.. you get the idea. Still, I was impressed (perhaps too easily) by the culture there. They have their own sports, lingo, dress...and the educational opportunities are pretty impressive. I think people SHOULD graduate high school able to compose in Greek and Latin.. and SHOULD be proficient in several instruments. Plato would be impressed by that, if not by the snobbery. If I am ever in a position to do so, I would shell out the £24,000 a year to send my kids there. (or to Andover or Exeter in the US)

I've seen a bunch of movies in the evenings when I've been pretty bored. Those of you that know me are of course shocked that I haven't been going to the Ministry of Sound or Tantra to run some trim with my sick dance moves... I've seen Kung Fu Hustle (very funny), Wedding Crashers (kind of funny), Red Eye (bleh, more Russian terrorists?), Crash (overrated), and and Indian movie called The Rising (sorry, the Sepoy Rebellion doesn't lend itself too well to the musical format).

I also went to a book signing by Salman Rushdie. Security was surprisingly light. They didn't search my bag until I was within 20 ft. of him. I could have taken him out and collected the Ayatollahs $ 3,000,000... (and lived like a shah!?!).

Weird news of the day:


Mike Tyson as Grand Hetman AND lighting candles in the most important Orthodox Church in Ukraine? I think he just wants to be a Cossack.
In church

Hetman

I can't believe when I check online what I am reading about the Gulf Coast. It is almost negligible in the news here. Of course, in transit, it is hard to keep track of the news... it's not as if I'm watching BBC 24-7 (or at all).

As I was leaving, it seemed like a rather minor hurricane. Now I read thousands are dead and the entire city of New Orleans is evacuated!?!? That's almost shocking beyond words... I'm not sure if it represents a flaw in our civil engineering (which is why these things tend to happen in 3rd world countries) or just a statement that no one escapes the wrath of God (in a Sumerian sense... ?).

Is the average price of gas really over $3.00/gal?

I was walking down Tottenham Court Road today towards Oxford Street, and I saw something that was both captivating and nauseating.

There was a girl, in a daze, bouncing back and forth between the crowd like pinball. She wasn't running into anyone, but was clearly very high. She was Oriental, but I couldn't discern from which part of Asia (ok I'm not good at that anyway) because her face was pretty swollen and she had something of a sloping jaw (which may have been broken). There was dried blood streaked underneath her nose and out of the corners of her mouth. Her hair was a mess and her feet and ankles were filthy and strapped into the 'Tevo-ish' sandals usually worn by homeless people. The truly odd thing was that other than that, she was dressed really smartly. She was wearing a plaid skirt of moderate length and a sweater that wouldn't look out of place among any of the fashionable Japanese girls at Japan Center or Misato.

I couldn't help wondering what her story was. She could have been a Chinese immigrant kidnapped by Albanian mobsters in Belgrade, a Krygistani peasant sold into slavery by Turks, or a the daughter of a Japanese business man who ran away from home. The only thing that was clear was that something very bad had happened to her.

She was for all intents and purposes invisible there. I only really noticed her b/c of the way she was dressed and the fact that it is extremely rare to see non-white homeless people here.

I feel like a scoundrel not helping her at all... I mean I might be too sterile, but I could have at least alerted a police officer... Then again maybe she's just another hardluck story, like any other city London is full of them. What I mean is maybe there is no helping... That would make me feel better, but I don't think its true.