Sinaloa town provides glimpse into many Mexicans’ daily life under narcos

It was 2019 when I arrived at El Fuerte, Sinaloa, with the plan of taking El Chepe, the train more formally known as the Chihuahua al Pacifico, across the 650 kilometers that covers the Copper Canyon. That night, I stayed in the heart of town at the Posada del Hidalgo, a hotel believed to be […]

Journey to the Otherworld

In 2019, I went to Russia. I wanted to have an otherworldly experience. I wanted to go to Siberia. I heard about a lake that was the deepest in the world and had special shamanic significance. You had to get the Trans-Siberian Express to get there. Somehow, I can’t remember now, I found out about a shaman, […]

The Three Graces of Soho Part I

Tearaways, layabouts, lesbians, queers, mysteries, and hangers-on. We just sat in the café, waiting. Waiting for another day to kill itself. Every time the door opened we looked up as if we were expecting someone. We wandered from café to café. ‘Have you been to Tony’s? Who was there?’ ‘No one.’” – Bernard Kops, The World […]

The Three Graces of Soho Part II

A recent interview with cult novelist Laura Del Rivo triggers memories of a lost poetess and a mysterious countess. The Mandrake began as a chess club in the 1940s. By 1953 it was advertising itself as ‘London’s only Bohemian rendezvous’. Once inside, the camera takes up its restless roving, allowing the viewer to eavesdrop on […]

The Three Graces of Soho Part III

“People who just went into Soho after work like me were still living at home with their suburban parents. We still had jobs; we just went into Soho in the evening. But there were a few genuine bohemians.” “Some, I suspect, like Sylvia [Gough], were paid an allowance by their upper-class families on condition they […]

Under the snipers’ bullets

There is a large, handwritten sign on the fence that lines the road leading from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport to the West Bank city of Bethlehem. It stands just by the checkpoint, and reads: “You cannot sit on a fence in the Holy Land.” It was the morning of Easter Saturday, and I was on […]