Berfrois

November 2015

Liminal Trains

Liminal Trains

In America, the idea of traveling by train is something of a touchstone. Mention it to some people and their eyes light up; an instant bond is formed and stories of memorable journeys tumble out.

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Ireland’s Fight Against Big Water

Ireland’s Fight Against Big Water

If the potential was there for an outbreak by the autumn of 2014, why did water charges come to be its focal point?

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Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei: Winning

Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei: Winning

Once upon a time a young man ventured to hold an exhibition in a museum. He offered the museum a curator, well-known artists, and a bag of foreign money.

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Tea for HDP; Lunch for AKP

Tea for HDP; Lunch for AKP

On a Sunday morning the trendy district of Cihangir rarely gets going before noon. Today, though, at 6am everyone seems to be up.

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Itō argued that stream of consciousness originated in the works of Edouard Dujardin

Itō argued that stream of consciousness originated in the works of Edouard Dujardin

by Michael Chan “James Joyce’s Method—Regarding the “Stream of Consciousness” “(Jeimuzu Joisu no metōdo “ishiki no nagare” ni tsuite) is an article published in June 1930 in the journal Shi, genjitsu by the author and literary critic Itō Sei (1905-1969), who was also one of a team of three...

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Commons People

Commons People

The most important lesson urban commons can take from its digital counterpart is at the same time the most difficult one: how to make a structural hack in the moment of the creation of an urban commons that will enable it to become structurally self-perpetuating

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Many parents feared the necronym was a murderous curse…

Many parents feared the necronym was a murderous curse…

Parsed from the Greek, necronym literally translates as “death name.” It usually means a name shared with a dead sibling.

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Claudia Landolfi: Pathologies of Affect

Claudia Landolfi: Pathologies of Affect

Long ago, when the Universality of a ‘Western Empire’ was both the premise and the purpose of political strategy the West’s identity was born.

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Pissed and Dancing

Pissed and Dancing

We took our drinks to the front row of empty tables and wondered whether to stand or sit. It seemed impolite to sit. But maybe Exmouth is a such a cool place, and the standard of rock’n’roll there so high, that sitting down is how they take their pub...

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Figure to yourselves Virginia Woolf in a bedroom with a pen in her hand…

Figure to yourselves Virginia Woolf in a bedroom with a pen in her hand…

It is true I am a woman; it is true I am employed; but what professional experiences have I had? It is difficult to say.

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Building ZOOM

Building ZOOM

Comic strips can vividly illuminate a sequential story, and thus bring alive the often long, tedious, disjointed, and arcane process of architecture.

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Canadian prime ministers have not often been all that nice….

Canadian prime ministers have not often been all that nice….

Opponents attempted to paint him as a vain celebrity, evidently failing to realize he displayed very little discernable investment in his own image or fame.

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What Rhythm Holds

What Rhythm Holds

In thinking of the innovative lyric, it seems useful to look at archaic lyric, since it too was experimental in its day - maybe even wildly so.

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The left in Hong Kong has been inchoate since the 1967 riots…

The left in Hong Kong has been inchoate since the 1967 riots…

“Many people ask me, should we have halted the occupation a lot earlier?” It would seem that Joshua Wong has no regrets. “We could not have stopped the movement,”

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Teresa K. Miller and Gregory Giles Discuss Agnès Varda

Teresa K. Miller and Gregory Giles Discuss Agnès Varda

Gnomish Agnès Varda, with her mushroom cap of hair dyed the color of a dark, ripe cherry, with her visual groaners—she operates in the spirit of happenstance, fearless of mockery.

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