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An Englishman in Havana (from my book, Life On Mars)

View from Coco Cab Havana. Photograph copyright  © Darcie Goldberg www.darciegoldberg.com When the Rolling Stones played their historic concert in Havana on Friday , it marked, for many Cubans, a major turning point: “This will be one of those weeks that people will use to measure other events. In the future, they’ll ask, was it before or after the Stones played,” predicted Tania Livia, a businesswoman attending the concert. “This is the biggest moment in my life,” said tattooed club owner Ferrer Castillo, who had travelled 200km by bus and taxi to see his heroes. (Quoted in the Guardian article, Pleased to meet you: Rolling Stones treat Cuba to spectacular and historic gig ) Likewise, President Barack Obama's visit of the preceding days - the first by a sitting United States president since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928 - underlined the huge changes in the US-Cuba relationship that Obama's policy toward Cuba has brought about: “Obama is doing this no

Down The Rabbit Hole...

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” Alice explains negative interest rates to Janet Yellen of the Federal Reserve (please click here).

Sunset over the Pacific

Photograph  copyright © 2016 Alexander Chow-Stuart. The magnificent Pacific late this afternoon, how I love it 

California Dreaming - South and North

One of a series of photographs by our friend Dwayne Moser from behind the Hollywood Sign.  Photograph copyright ©  Dwayne Moser. I've lived in many cities in my life, and visited many more. I love the memory of Marrakech, Havana, Hanoi, London, Brighton, Rome, Sydney, Miami Beach (as it was in the 1990s) and, above all, the city that has occupied my imagination , sleeping and waking dreams and heart for most of my life, and my actuality for about 15 years of it, Los Angeles.   I love living in Santa Cruz  now, because it feels like how I imagined Malibu might have been in the 1960s, when it was loose and groovy and surf-crazy and just easy going.  My daughter and me boogieboarding on the beach in Santa Cruz. Photograph  copyright © 2016 Alexander Chow-Stuart. Now I find myself facing the possibility of San Francisco , and with all apologies and respect to those of our friends who live there, I just don't get it as a city.  A couple of days back,