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Timothy M. Leonard's books on Goodreads
A Century Is Nothing A Century Is Nothing
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The Language Company The Language Company
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Subject to Change Subject to Change
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Ice girl in Banlung Ice girl in Banlung
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Finch's Cage Finch's Cage
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Entries in Turkey (154)

Friday
May282010

Dream big - draw big

Greetings,

This is the day of my dreams: The color of a hammer on brick. A trumpet, cement smoothing tool, dance.

A bike. Free wind pushing a child. A clean clear air song. High grey clouds.

Process becoming: Butterflies: yellow, white, brown, black, orange speckled. 

Closing down the connections. Absolving thieves their mysteries. Selling toys.

I am the Rocket Tourist at 20% operating capacity. 

The Marxist tools of production: knife, hoe, axe, elephant control stick, scythe, hammer.

Her daughter's card was the Master. Her card was Intensity. His card was the Rebel. After a dinner of grilled salmon, green salad, black olives, and fresh hot bread in Bursa they went to a cafe high above the smell and music of a river.

The river flowed strong and fast from Green Mountain. Dancing with stars was a silver-white crescent moon. They listened to water as the river cried. It was cold (May) and she wrapped his long soft leather jacket around her shoulders. She was happy.

Her daughter sat across from them drawing in this book (filled with transformations and great powerful understanding. Waves) and drinking hot chocolate. She was happy. Although now, only 8 and a strong willed child, she was a guest performer musician (piano) and character actor. She looked at them and said, Being correct is never the point.

Please put the blue sky on the white table. Unfold it gently. It is fragile and may be slightly creased along the horizon.  

Am I a clown searching along the ground for an appropriate mask?

Am I this or am I dreaming? 

Metta.

 

Friday
May212010

Writing and sex 301

Greetings,

A Chinese computer science professor received a 3.5 year sentence for "crowd licentiousness."  This is vague government wordage. It covers crowds. It covers licenses. It mean a crowd gets together and applies for a license. In this case with broad overtones they applied for a license to swap identities.

He led informal swinger clubs for partner swapping. He pleaded innocent. "I had nothing to do with the North Korean submarine attack in an apartment with 18 people. I was only the middleman. I was formatting my hard drive and downloading data."

He was charged under Criminal Law 301. 

A Chinese academic said...“I feel that the thought process of the Chinese authorities is always to try to manage and control the population, the people. Beyond prosecuting criminal activities, they feel they have to control or manage people to their standards.” read more...

Turkey also has an infamous Article 301 law. This law makes it illegal to insult Turkey, Turkish ethnicity or Turkish government institutions. Writers Orhan Pamuk, Noam Chomsky, Elif Safak, among others have been charged under this article. All the cases were either dropped or acquitted.

A spoiled young girl in Ankara was recently arrested and charged under Article 301 for insulting her mother's cooking. "I hate Turkish food. Too many tomatoes. I don't want black olives. I don't want fresh salad. I don't want fresh seafood from the Marmara Sea. I want Italian pizza with extra cheese please squeeze." It was thrown out for lack of evidence.

Her mother said, "Eat what I give you. Hurry up. I'm late for my wife swapping seminary with binary logic."

Number 301 is very popular. The number of words mating and swapping with other words is increasing. Words remove an article of clothing like a, an, the.

Metta.

 


 

Saturday
Mar272010

Decode yourself

Greetings,

"Information is alienated experience. Is information alive and real?

"Get yourself uploaded into a computer to be immortal. You can redesign art, economies, and law to reinforce the perception that information is alive.

"Experience is the only process that can de-alienate information."

You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier.

Metta.

 

Discarded computers in Bursa, Turkey.

 

Tuesday
Mar092010

International Women's Day

Greetings,

To honor women this day, every day, everywhere, here are some cultural images.

Nature is what you are. Culture is what you can be.

Metta.

 

Wednesday
Aug192009

Ulus Club Scene

I came across a story in the NYT today about a hot new expensive trendy fancy pants nightclub in Istanbul called Ulus 29. I lived in Turkey for a year, teaching English, finishing my little opus, A Century is Nothingmaking images and staying alive to tell the tale.

In Ankara there is an ancient part of town called Ulus. The excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is in Ulus.

Ulus was my favorite area in the cold boring government city filled with Russian hookers, Mafia, faceless paper pushers and friends. Did I mention the well adjusted people and anxiety ridden urban population wearing huge watches to tell time something important and popping pills to relieve themselves of anxiety, passionate guilt, remorse, loss and fear? Probably.

I went to Ulus on my day off to sit with cafe owners, carpet makers and dealers, ceramic artists, painters, booksellers, antique junk sellers and the working class. Here are nine images.

These people probably have no idea there is a club named Ulus 29 in Istanbul and they could care less. You may as well be talking about extraterrestrial life in a distant galaxy.

Metta.