The abstract modernism of “monuments and memory” in Tito’s Yugoslavia
Controversies over the newer monuments in Yugoslavia also came up as we talked. We discussed the memorial at Tjentište in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Ćosić argued that...
Tirana 2025: Bunk’Art 2 and a Skanderbeg Square protest
During our recent foray into the Balkans, one of the drivers we engaged succinctly remarked, "Albania was the North Korea of Europe."
Albania emerged from...
In Tirana, 31 years between views of Enver Hoxha’s house
As of 2025, it is likely that outside of Albania, very few inhabitants of the planet Earth recall who Enver Hoxha was. This is...
A brief recounting of the Balkan getaway in February, 2025
Obsessions can be of lasting duration, as with my history of 47 pilgrimages to the European continent since 1985, or they can be more...
February update: 40 Years in Beer, Baylors in the Balkans, and a forthcoming book...
Regular readers know that my "day job" is at Food & Dining Magazine, where responsibilities have expanded over the years from writing a quarterly...
Daphne Phelps and “A House in Sicily”
The struggle to learn the language was wearing, when study necessarily took place after long days of dealing with endless kind visitors who felt...
Tilda Swinton in Berlin: “Cycling the Frame” (1988) and “The Invisible Frame” (2009)
It's been at least two years since I created this draft, and it has waited patiently for me to return to the story of...
Beers with a Stoic: “Until philosophers become kings”
This morning at Facebook, Diana and I were both targeted with a memory reminder in the form of the cover photo, which was taken...
My Beers in the GDR, Part Three: Yes, there was lots of beer in...
Previously: My Beers in the GDR, Part Two: Sharing a few Pilsners with a future war criminal.
“Germans absolutely cannot live without sausage and beer.”
--Soviet...
My Beers in the GDR, Part Two: Sharing a few Pilsners with a future...
Previously: My Beers in the GDR, Part One: A working lunch in East Berlin, August 1989.
East Berlin: August, 1989.
Each Friday afternoon for three weeks...
Latest article
Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 2: Crawling across the borderline into Luxembourg
Previously: Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 1: Three months that shook my world.
Madonna's “Borderline” reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1984. It...
40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 78: We just had to get to...
Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book II), Part 77: A “tight” 1998 European summer (San Fermin & the French Alps).
The whole point of convening in...
Euro Pilgrimage ’85, Ch. 1: Three months that shook my world
Introduction to the 2025 Edition
1984 gets all the ink, but it was the year 1985 that changed me forever. There was no keeping me...
