Notes

On Sitting and Finding I’ve been in Los Angeles for a few weeks building out a new retail project. Checking in with a friend in my home base of San Francisco they asked if I could recount any special experiences that I have had during my stay here. Immediately

Nelly Growing up my family in Chile had a strong willed Mapuche Indian maid named Nelly. Nelly worked for my grandparents for over 50 years until her death in her mid 70s to cancer. She officially retired at 65, but still worked half days with us to keep busy and

Álvaro Mutis, the Colombian poet and novelist who created one of Latin American literature’s more memorable characters, the rambling and ruminative Maqroll, an inadvertent explorer of jungles and his own jaded soul for whom life seemed a long and futile boat ride, mostly upriver, often running aground, died on

Mukokuseki[in Japanese] means ‘no nationality’, stateless, “without ground”.  Prior to the Edo era there were no words for the 'national’ or the 'non-national’ because Japan was closed to world. Only when the ports opened in 1864 was the existence of other cultures given official recognition with a

“Youth is a disease cured by age” “Bernard Shaw said that.”  Pausing my Grandpa for me to reflect. My Grandpa is 91. His name is Heinz. He’s lived through a lot. Born in a hospital on the entrance of Valpariso, an important, central, and global port. He moved to

Walking from the east and heading on Regent to the corner of Dwight, a sheet of paper screened with the image of Gandhi slid with the wind in such a way that when Jagdish stepped the paper became flat in perfect unison with the sidewalk. He stopped and looked not

Matches are played in India with kites whose strings are covered with glue and ground glass. Each player attempts to sever the string held by his opponent. The desert is no longer one…. green shades shadow the sand… lifting boys raise their arms into the sky. Upper Cuts to the

Poets(Bengalis?), Freedom Fighters, Scheduled Castes, and other nightmares… !!! Q please… And I try pushing the short little man wearing a Goodyear cap in a proper line behind me. “Space dedo, ne” But space doesn’t exist here, only for poets and freedom fighters. Imagine a nightmare, unimaginable even to

Drippings of tamarind smeared onto the neatly cut dolly plate as he picked up the still warm somosa and bit into its peak… The mint chutney tasted a bit like bitter spinach; he asked himself, had these owners cut down on costs? But still good, he continued enjoying his mid

Rin Tin Tin. Lhasa, Peking, Bali, the Taj, the wonders of empire. Something of Edward Said floats through his head… some thought on structuralism, but fuck it’s his right, his duty, his nature… On his back the elegant trim of the ceiling surprises him. The Delhi air is thick,