Travels

Banning the Indian rupee notes really was dumb

The cash ban was floated in a Tamil action film, of all places, yet somehow became real policy

Car bombs and gangsters in Malta

I found that the Maltese talk openly about the criminals in their midst

Bali ruined, again

A photo I took in Ubud in 1989 shows the changes on Monkey Forest Road


Lijiang, China as it used to be

One of the world’s most exquisite towns, now lost, captured on video the very year I first saw it

On the attacks in Paris

Le Ca Rillon and Le Petit Cambodge, both hit by Islamic State, were two of my favorites in Paris

The future of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia

Gaudi’s eternally unfinished church may actually be nearing completion


The cultural destruction of war in the Middle East

My beloved Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo may not be a total loss but much is elsewhere

When I stumbled into John Galliano’s greatest show

On John Galliano’s return, a memory of seeing one of his greatest moments

The Jeff Koons show at the Whitney is a failure

This exhibit will not change any minds about Koons so what was the point of mounting it?


An unworldly article on the world’s game

The Brazilian game of futevolei is just the Asian sport of sepak takraw and not as impressive

Narendra Modi mask at a BJP rally

Why Narendra Modi is a bad choice for India

India is too internally diverse to privilege any single group within society, but Modi will try

On the Mario Testino exhibit in Buenos Aires

In Mario Testino’s work everyone always looks like they’re having fun


How I got to Libya one month after the embargo was lifted

Ten years ago the US lifted its embargo on Libya. I landed a month later. It was complicated

My favorite museum in Cairo damaged by a car bomb

Terror attack on Egyptian police HQ badly damages the Museum of Islamic Art, an overlooked marvel

Dead, but right, in Beirut

Hezbollah can’t kill everyone in Lebanon who believes it should give up its weapons


Lou Reed, RIP: the luckiest man in rock

He was irascible to the end despite having a legendary career that far surpassed his talents

Shooting an elephant at MoMA

Douglas Gordon’s “Play Dead; Real Time” is terrific, even the way MoMA has installed it

Why James Turrell is perfect for the Guggenheim

Turrell turns Wright’s building — already a work of art — into a new and different work of art


Was the coup in Egypt even necessary?

Morsi might have been forced from power anyway, but the military short circuited that

Where you can ignore the US ambassador

What presidential donors have to give to get a vacation spot ambassadorship

The Yugoslav war reappears in Syria

War never ends: it breeds skills that just get applied to perpetrating bad deeds later on


My twenty years in Egypt

My first trip to Cairo was in 1992. Here are some thoughts on how it has changed

Car bomb in Beirut, invisible map revealed

Even in peacetime, every Beiruti knows which sect ‘owns’ each district

The amazing mural on Mohamed Mahmoud that was just painted over

What a loss for Cairo, artistically as much as politically