PUBLIC
HISTORY
The Sound of Silence: Jeju Island March/April 2025
White waves, green water, and black volcanic rock, stirred by high wind. The view was wild, but inside, all was calm. I was at a coffee shop in the Naedo neighborhood of Jeju City, on Jeju Island. A sweet Korean ballad played softly. I was alone. My partner in this...
Order, Chaos and the Desire to be Free. Egypt, January 2025
For the ancient Egyptians, the universe was composed of dualities fertile and barren, life and death, order and chaos. (1) A new museum has been built to showcase Egypt's ancient artifacts yet no structure exists to honor our desire to be free (2) People on...
Icelandic Winds
Iceland is a land of ghosts and ghouls, sea monsters, and an earth that howls. It is an island of volcanoes and fjords, endless flat petrified lava fields, green valleys, black, white, and grey mountains, outdoor swimming pools, and salted fish. It is also a land of...
People’s Living History of Northern Ireland
To understand the so-called Troubles of Northern Irleland one must remove the veils of religion, ethnicity, and even nationalism, and begin with economy, which means learning about the unique properties of the flax plant and the geography of the North Channel. The...
A Good Tourist in Oslo?
Every adventure should include a messenger who provides the lesson of your visit. Oslo is on a hill. From the central train station, it climbs steadily. Four miles up is Frogner Park— a grand stretch of green. Advancing to the pinnacle, we passed a mass of bronze,...
Five Questions about the Economy and Politics of Tirana, Albania
"I accepted the story I heard on foreign media: that the [1997] Albanian civil war could be explained not by the collapse of a flawed financial system but by longstanding animosities between ethnic groups... its plan could be disrupted only by outside factors — like...
Berat, Albania, Opens Windows to the Sky and Doors to the Stranger
Berat— Albania’s oldest city —has 1,000 identically-shaped windows in its Ottoman-era old town and a Byzantine city on top of one of its mountains. The Osum River runs through the town with buildings hugging the slopes. A green ridged range covers its north side....
Tirana, Albania, Minneapolis, Minnesota. If we build it, will they come?
In Albania, time folds, though the marching chronology of the country's last 130 years appears stark with fundamental change: The Ottoman Empire, Nationalist Monarchy, Italian Fascism, Enver Hoxha’s Stalinism, Enver Hoxha’s Maoism, Enver’s Hoxha’s Enverism— a kind of...
Madrid Miracles. Aging on the Run Post #4
Getting off the train in Madrid we followed the crowds into the dark city. Our train companions formed a line for taxis, but we crossed the street and miracle of miracles, got on the right bus with backpacks and naked guitar, off at the right stop, and to the right...
Against Forgetting? (Aging on the Run, Cádiz #1)
For seven months in Minneapolis, we gave away our things. Items with memories attached, once gone—are quickly forgotten. Gifting two thousand books I thought represented me, I felt more free than I had in decades. And yet, in our tiny apartment in Portugal, what did...