pleasureful additions

Now that I'm finding some time to put into the blog again, I've made some additions to the Occasionals list on the left--some pleasureful and provocative new (or new to me) blogs.

Teju Cole has launched a new one-year blog called Modal Minority, cohering around the theme of cultures of the global South. A recent post reviews Pankaj Mishra's Temptations of the West, while some earlier ones describe the secretive delights of watching the World Cup in the bars and lunch counters of immigrant New York. There's also this nice entry on a recent essay of Orhan Pamuk's that I've been meaning to write about (which reminds me: we're about overdue here for another round of posts on the neverending game of Nationalist Asshats vs. the Novelists, Journalists, Publishers, and Human Rights Activists of Turkey--stay tuned). But one post of Teju's has provoked an almost unreasonable amount of delight: 'On Being A Rioter'--a mischevious remix of a Naipaul essay with the Amit Chaudhuri poem 'The Writers (on constantly mishearing 'rioting' as writing' on the BBC)'. The latter is wonderful in its own right (how did I miss it when it was published? probably was on a plane to London, with Afternoon Raag nestled into my suitcase). But the subverted-Naipaul now includes the glorious line: "I had worked hard for the scholarship to go to Oxford, to be a rioter. But now that I was in Oxford, I didn't know what to riot about." I'm gonna put that on a t-shirt, and give copies to thariel, F, and B. Although we knew, I think, what we were (are) there to riot about.

Paris-based academic and editor Sean Lee emailed me about a recent post, which sent me to his blog The Human Province--media analysis and current events, often with a Middle East/Islamic world emphasis (our passports probably share a crazy-quilt of stamps). He's just written about this new Sy Hersh piece on the Bush administration and the war in Lebanon as a "test run for Iran", which left me stranded between disbelief and fury when I read it this afternoon. Also check out his striking photos from a recent trip to Israel/Palestine.

I was surprised to realize I wasn't actually already linking to the excellent 3 Quarks Daily, since I've been reading their mix of science, art, literature and current events for some time now.

Finally, another food blog--Mahanandi, a gorgeously-designed compendium of South Asian vegetarian recipes (and the occasional cat photo). Vivek appears to be too busy studying the law to post any recipes these days, so I have to get my South Indian vegetarian fix from someplace other than the Dominion Wine & Cheese Society. There's scarcely a recipe on Mahanandi that I don't want to try--I need to buy me a dosa skillet--but particular temptations include brinjal-ginger curry, cold peanut rasam, and this coconut chutney.