What had me hooked first was the fluttering of folding fans. They batted like eyelids, catching my attention as I entered the Culture Pavilion with their flickering movements, balanced delicately on fingertips; they swirled, dipped and soared, in fluid synchrony with their dancing wielders, looking as though they were an extension of their bodies than a […]

Arriving in Maglie was to walk into a lurid dream state. The August sunlight, reflecting on the limestones and alabaster, glazed a mist-like filter over my eyes; in this hallucinogenic translucence, Giorgio and I happened upon a cafe and brought our deckchairs under an umbrella – even in its shade, the heat was overpowering, senses-dulling. What […]

It was as though I could hear the thunder before I saw the lightning. My high stool could have rocked – if my ear drums hadn’t trembled and knocked me off onto the pavement. The beer vibrated within its glass, which pulsed atop rhythmic shockwaves drawing near. Then, everything stopped: the quake on the ground, the air-shattering thuds […]

I’d come to the old church to revel in its acoustic resonance – yet the only echoes I perceived were dirt grazing against my sole, and the soft-spoken Finnish dialogues between Johannes and the elderly parish overseer. But then, the recital wasn’t taking place until the evening, and the prolonged sunlight during Finland’s summer had me […]