From my friend Michael in a Facebook message} How’s the new post, Elkie? How’s your corner of the world?
Me} I have this idea. Or maybe it was a dream? I am in a mashup of Star Trek and Bishkek and it is called Star Kek. I am here with Captain Kirk (okay, it is a dream) and together we speak Russian and wear Star Trek uniforms and swashbuckle our way around Central Asia. Out in the countryside there is bride kidnapping, fermented horse milk as the local hooch and a game played on horseback with a headless goat carcass. There are mountains that stupefy with their beauty, one of the largest alpine lakes in the world and the Kyrgyz—poets and storytellers. It’s Warp Factor 10.
untidy exuberances 