Call Me Chameleon
The selective memory of a kaleidoscopic-eyed globetrotter, from age 3 to this day
Now published as:
A Rainbow named Tel Aviv
All Burp has liiived on three continents, and if that was not enough, to drive him around the bend, he now wants to move to Tel Aviv, which is on the fourth continent, what more does he need to go completely bonkers? This is how he describes his new future residence:...
Japan + Thermal baths in France
Japan All Burp and his father visited the ladder’s Japanese business suppliers in the 1960‘s, and thanks to them they traveled a whole month through the country, treated as VIP guests. HOMO NIPPONICUS The Bullet Train zips by the misty slopes of Mount Fuji as he...
Brussels, Milan & Paris, mostly by me, Zapinette
Brussels, Milan & Paris, mostly by me, Zapinette Brussels: at the Tervuren African Museum, by me, Zapinette The next day was as gray as Father Van Winkle’s bald pate: when it doesn’t rain in this here very wet country people consider it a gift from...
Belgium: at boarding school, All Burp’s experience as told by me, Zapinette but …
Belgium: at boarding school, All Burp’s experience as told by me, Zapinette but before that, here’s the last poem he wrote about his parents, now in Heaven ADIEU, ADIOS, FAREWELL for Sam Vaseghi on the twentieth of April last Shelly left Belgium for good she who...
In this here story, All Burp tells how he almost lost his mind, the poor bloke!
In this here story, All Burp tells how he almost lost his mind, the poor bloke! Yeah, he’s the one to the right, with his ears pricking up and his eyes rolling. Brussels in the early 1970’s, in a psychiatric ward, my most trying period PARENTHESIS first...
ISRAEL (continued)
ISRAEL (continued) «Let’s come back here later on in the evening,» suggested Shanty, «I know a nightclub where a friend of mine is the DJ. The music there is just bashing! It’s the coolest place in town.» «Wait, wait, not so fast!» said Miki, «before that, I want...
ISRAEL (continued)
ISRAEL (continued) To repair the emotional damage caused by the visit at Yad Vashem, Bonka invited me to have a cool drink and fresh cookies in the gardens of the King David which is supposed to be the most famous hotel in the city, on account that during the...
ISRAEL (continued)
ISRAEL (continued) Every morning I’m allowed to go have a dip in the sea with my uncle - with him you don’t get nothing for nothing, it’s been like that ever since he first took me out of our apartment (my mom was quite happy to get rid of me for a few hours), that is...
AMERICAAAA, followed by Elisabethville and ISRAEL
All Burp still had pimples when he flew to Americaaaaa. America, September 1960 Friends of my parents came to get me at New York’s Idlewild airport (afterwards, renamed JFK) with their car. I had flown directly from Milan, to which Mamica and my sisters had...
Does this sound Greek to you, poweticklishly?
Does this sound Greek to you, poweticklishly? Greece PANDORA DEFYING MYTH like the tremors of your voice running the scale of a guitar the winds that swirl around your limbs waft pefumes in turn delicate and pungent reminding me of the high cliffs of a Greek...
Usumbura: the story of a classmate of All Burp’s, late 1950’s
Usumbura: the story of a classmate of All Burp’s, late 1950’s THE DISCOVERY broadcast on the World Service of the BBC "Do you know Anastasia Filopulos?" Jose asked me once during recess, "the most popular lady in town. Very olle' olle'! Want an introduction? Be my...
From the travels across Central Africa by LÉODINE OF THE BELGIAN CONGO (continued)
After that last adage, we all held our breath, for Ndeze examined each one of us in turn, as if to check any blunder we might suddenly make. There was no more doubt left as to the importance of his rank, his whole attitude vouched for it, from his long pauses, during...
From the travels across Central Africa by LÉODINE OF THE BELGIAN CONGO (continued)
Unlike Katanga’s ochre-hued laterite earth, the ground here was volcanic and thus had a sooty gray aspect. In Elisabethville, during the rainy season, following one of those terrifying if short-tempered storms, in which the skies were so dark they seemed to plunge...
THE WET HIDING – followed by PRINCES AND GODʼS murder of the Tutsi prince, and the travels across africa by LÉODINE OF THE BELGIAN CONGO
All Burp damn deserved it, Catherine was a real felinist! Usumbura: with my friend Catherine, in the late 1950’s THE WET HIDING It was pouring. I ran and took shelter under the platform of the school playground. Their backs against a pillar, Catherine and...
At the zoo in Elisabethville with my classmates, 1950
Father Vandamme took us all one morning to the zoological gardens, following a visit to the Cascades. Before getting to the zoo proper, we had to walk down a wide, terraced esplanade dotted with vivid mosaics of flowers. The esplanade was flanked by cypresses,...