More on Havel’s Office

As an addendum to Alex’s post about our visit to Vaclav Havel’s office, I thought I’d offer a list of some of the cooler stuff I noticed floating about the room:

• A picture of Havel having an animated discussion with Lou Reed
• A small bust of Gandhi
• A flag mandala given to Havel by the Dalai Lama
• Selections from his bookshelf: The Holy Quran, a collection of Bob Dylan lyrics, a biography of Nelson Mandela, and a multitude of art histories and critiques (e.g. “Art and Humanist Ideals: Contemporary Perspectives”)
• His CD stack was topped off by “The Bill Clinton Collection Volume II,” which, given Havel’s music bona fides, must have been a gift. (I can almost imagine Clinton handing Havel his CD and saying, “I hear you like music. Did you know I play saxophone?” I mean, say what you will about Clinton, but Coltrane he was not.)