This year in Bhutan

September 2003  •  7,074 words  •  Reportage & Criticism

I was walking in the mountains of western Bhutan, with a guide and two muleteers, along the high path that leads from Thimphu to Paro, from the capital of this pocket-sized Himalayan state to its only airport. … more»

The last of the Bohemians

15 September 1989  •  3,400 words  •  Reportage & Criticism

At a time when the worlds of Islam press with special intensity on the political awareness of the West, the works of an American writer… more»

Miracles of the People / Milagres do Povo

Caetano Veloso

22 June, 2016  •  368 words  •  Translations

Atheists who’ve seen miracles, as I have done
Know that where God is not, the gods … more»

An atheist who saw miracles

31 July 1998  •  6,547 words  •  Reportage & Criticism

In 1997 I received an irresistible summons from Rio de Janeiro. A Rio samba school, União da Ilha do Governador, one of fourteen in the… more»

Call me Carlos

6 July 1996  •  1,206 words  •  City of Words

I was a child shaman, si, señor, a teenage Toltec sorcerer. Back in the 1970s, with others of my tribe, scatterlings of the hippie generation, I turned for… more»

Armageddon, east of Greenwich

June 1996  •  762 words  •  City of Words

The outfit that terms itself, with a certain grandiloquence, the Millennium Commission—a quangolette that launders money from the National Lottery—has been having a hard time… more»

Back to the mystic

15 February 1999  •  1,057 words  •  City of Words

I’m drunk and you’re insane / Who’s going to lead us home? It’s good to know, if you’ve been drinking, that a mystical poet is there… more»

The phoenix in the burning season

June 1996  •  1,037 words  •  City of Words

In the dry forests of the northern hemisphere it is the burning season. In New Mexico and Arizona, in India and Mongolia, wild fires consume… more»

Ramadan, Lent and the meaning of the fast

19 January 1998  •  795 words  •  City of Words

Drumming and chanting and beating of gongs. A loud noise in the early… more»

Epiphany at Pantip Plaza

26 June 1996  •  1,100 words  •  City of Words

Here’s a 1990s shopping saga from Thailand, a tale of disks and amulets, commercial piracy and power-knowledge. The Thai capital holds diverse attractions for visitors.… more»