Babel

The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas. There's a heaven above you, baby.

Babel

Wei Ming Dariotis

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On-line Dating: An Adventure

Posted by  on Tuesday, December 30th 2008     

When I finally embraced being an-almost-40-year-old divorcee, my main concern was how I could possibly find anyone I would find interesting intellectually, sexually, and emotionally. My marriage had been such that I was shut down both emotionally and sexually–my friends couldn’t understand why I no longer even felt comfortable hugging them–I, who had been the [...]

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On Coming Home

Posted by  on Friday, August 15th 2008     

After traveling in Europe for two months, I was worried that I might come home to San Francisco and find it rather sad and small, and unlovely. I wondered how my homely little town–my village, really–could compare to Rome, London, Paris, or even Brussels. And I arrived back at the end of summer, our season [...]

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Chile Relleno Super Burritos…and Speculoos

Posted by  on Thursday, July 31st 2008     

[lang_en]Do you have a favorite food in your hometown that you just can’t get–or doesn’t taste the same–when you travel? I just got back to San Francisco after 2 months traveling in Europe, mostly living in Brussels, and I indulged myself in a Mission style chile relleno super burrito. The Mission District is a mostly [...]

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On Tattoos, Race, and Family

Posted by  on Sunday, July 20th 2008     

[lang_en]My brother and I got matching tattoos when I was 30 and he was 18. It was a coming of age experience for us both–his first year in college and I had finally finished my PhD and gotten a  tenure track position. That year we were both living in the Bay Area–he had insisted on [...]

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The Feng Shui of Questions

Posted by  on Sunday, July 20th 2008     

[lang_en]at your back the tall mountain your deep research what is it you want to know by asking evaluate who is asking whom about what and why are you asking the question does the identity of the asker matter a question is a power relationship what are you he asks me he asks and where [...]

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the word angel (poem)

Posted by  on Thursday, July 17th 2008     

[lang_en]the word angel could be revised as “a woman with wings.” you seduced me with the intensity of your dream a woman whose wings were broken she needed all of us to lift her body with the breath of our song I took water and pigment applied to paper the woman’s face her eye like [...]

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Obama as a multi-racial candidate

Posted by  on Tuesday, July 15th 2008     

[lang_en]My take on Obama as a multi-racial candidate (this was written in response to a reporter’s questions to me on this topic): So far, Obama has mainly been seen as a “Black candidate”–but as one whose “Blackness” is problematic because his father is not African American but Kenyan, and his mother is White. What is [...]

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Hannibal's Elephants

Posted by  on Monday, July 7th 2008     

[lang_en]Umbria’s Lago Trasimeno is most famous for being the place where Hannibal, the Carthaginian, surprised the Romans in a bloody ambush. This happened in the marshy area that is now approximately where the little town of Tuoro is located. Yes, Hannibal is the elephant guy, but by the time his army had arrived here, the [...]

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Uncle Sam’s Desires: On US Independence Day Abroad

Posted by  on Monday, July 7th 2008     

[lang_en]July 5th, 2008 Brussels My Brussel’s host, Alvilda, through some odd connection, was invited to the US Embassy’s “U.S. Independence Day 2008” part on Friday, July 4th. The invitation read: Sam Fox Ambassador of the United States of America to Belgium, and Christopher W. Murray Charge d’Affaires of the U.S. Mission to the European Union [...]

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Mongolian Cashmere

Posted by  on Saturday, June 28th 2008     

Ulzii has sold two yurts already–real, whole room, boiled wool felt yurts–for only 3000 Euros each.  The full sized yurts are advertized by a much smaller table-top model that looks like an interesting child’s toy. Ulzii, who is Mongolian and was trained as a water engineer, has the most lovely cashmere shop–which is the most [...]

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