RIP Rutger Hauer

sure, sure, we all remember "attack ships off the shoulder of Orion" but the _real_ clincher is how he delivers "you people" (an android addressing a "real" human" that makes the scene iconic)

— Winterfell Barista James (@wetcasements) July 25, 2019

Gratuitous Summer Update Post Featuring Awesome Classic Korean Hip-Hop

CB Mass, "CB Mass Is My Friend"

I'd argue this is peak old-school Korean hip-hop.  And as Jay-Z taught us, using a children's choir as your hook will always make for a great banger.

This is my last week of adult classes, and my last week in Korea before summer vacation fully starts up.  Next Tuesday I'll fly to Seattle and visit my Dad for a few days, then fly to Baltimore to visit my sister for a little less than two weeks.  I'm looking forward to seeing my family of course, but visiting my Dad is a bit of a chore -- he lives in the middle of nowhere (about 90 minutes north of Seattle, in fact) and he doesn't have internet.  And while I'm fine with knocking out a few actual dead-tree books while I visit him every summer, his Luddite ways have gone from charming to annoying over the past few years.  The fact that he has FOX News on full-blast for the entirety of my visits means I basically sit on the front porch and read.  Not the worst thing ever, but not exactly ideal for father-son bonding either.

Baltimore will be a lot more fun, if only because my awesome sister and nephew actually look forward to my visits, and they actually plan fun stuff like trying new brew-pubs or restaurants, watching my nephew ride horses competitively, and probably an Orioles game.  (Hey, they're still my US-based team no matter how awful they are and always have been since 1983).

So all is well.  It's hot and humid as hell here in lurvely Daegu, and if you aren't running an AC at full blast everything in your office or apartment gets a slightly damp, clammy feel that's perfectly disgusting.

Also, as per usual, I'm getting about three or four free lunches and dinners this week with my adult students.  I'm all for great-big greasy Korean barbecue extravaganzas but, as mentioned, it's damn hot so we're going down more of the cold-soup and vegetarian bibimbab road.

Anyhow, blogging will be light to non-existent until mid-August when I come back.  Have a great summer!

Life's Rich Pageant

Source.

"One of the things that does disturb me is that some documentary photography is now being presented as art.  Although I am hugely honoured to have been one of the first photographers to have their work bought and exhibited by the Tate gallery, I feel ambiguous about my photographs being treated as art.  I really can't talk of the people in my war photographs as the subjects of art.  They are real.  They are not arranging themselves for the purposes of display.  They are people whose suffering I have inhaled and that I've felt bound to record.  But it's the record of the witness that is important, not the artistic impression.  I have been greatly influenced by art, that is true, but I don't see this kind of photography itself as being art."

-- Don McCullin, Unreasonable Behavior

I really enjoyed this book, a surprisingly unsentimental journey through pretty much some of the worst places, events, and outright slaughters of the 20th century, even into Syria in 2006.  My only complaint is that the selection of photos, while stunning, is smaller than it should have been.

"no defense of the volk is a betrayal"

Adam Serwer has been indispensable of late:

"The argument that Omar’s criticisms of her adopted country for failing to live up to its stated ideals justify revoking her citizenship substantiates the very criticism she lodged. Trump has said, “If you hate our country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!” but his entire 2016 campaign was premised on the idea that many Americans not only are deeply unhappy, but also have every right to demand that things be better. That Trump’s supporters believe Omar’s sins justify her banishment, and Trump’s similar transgressions justify his presence in the White House, helps illustrate exactly what is going on here. Under Trumpism, no defense of the volk is a betrayal, even if it undermines the republic, and no attack on the volk’s hegemony can be legitimate, even if it is a defense of democracy.

Faced with the president’s baldly expressed bigotry toward four women of color in Congress, Republicans turned to reporters to argue that his attacks are part of a clever political strategy, elevating four left-wing women of color into the faces of his opposition. I suspect these Republicans, and some political reporters, believe that this somehow exonerates Trump from the charge of bigotry, as though prejudice ceases to be prejudice if it becomes instrumental. In fact, the admission that fomenting racism and division is central to Trump’s strategy is a stunning rebuke to those political reporters and pundits who, for four years, have insisted that the rise of Trump is about anything else. Trump and his most ardent liberal critics are in full agreement about the nature of his appeal, even as they differ on its morality. Only the Trumpists, and those who wish to earn their respect, fail to see it."

The willful denial of Republican racism over the past few years by the American media has been as mystifying as it has been dangerous.

So Much Economic Anxiety At The Klan Rallies...

The only thing more ridiculous than Trump and his Republican Party's obvious racism is the media's inability to fucking call out Trump and obvious Republican racism.

Dungeons And Dragons And Prisons

Dungeons and Dragons is, surprisingly to me, very popular within U.S. prisons (but banned in Idaho, because fuck Idaho).  However, dice are almost always banned as gambling utensils.  So what's a con wanting to get his elf on to do?  Improvise!  To wit:

"During his time behind bars, Gabriel made dice using one of the most common resources of all: toilet paper. 'You don't even need glue, just toilet paper,' he says, 'The way I did it is just by folding it into very thick square, wetting it, and then shoving it into a square corner, say a window sill. You do this over and over again, applying water when it starts to dry out, alternating corners. Eventually you have nicely shaped square. You have to continue shaping it as it dries with your makeshift corner jig. It shrinks a bit and gets quite hard.'

Where May was housed, 'No one ever got in trouble (that I know of) just for making them. If someone pissed off a C.O [corrections officer]. they could theoretically get written up for making dice (gambling paraphernalia) but mostly the cops didn't actively harass us in closed custody. If a person lost their dice it would more likely be during a one of the big shakedowns, where the cops go cell to cell and throw almost everything out on the tier. As in the real world, folks in prison hoard random stuff. They'd go through and throw it all away once a month, once every few months, or whenever someone OD'd on meth or something. When I got to medium and then minimum custody they really stopped throwing dice away, and in fact those kind of tier wide cell tosses were much rarer.'"

Other means of randomization include playing cards, spinners, and perhaps most simply a cup filled with numbered chits.

This is all interesting to me as I slowly make my way through Jon Peterson's Playing At The World.  While six-sided dice quickly became a modern board game convention, early war-gamers grew frustrated with having to rely on limited variations of 1/6 (roughly 16%).  In fact, the first incarnation of Dungeons and Dragons solely used variations of one or two six-sided dice.  Eventually, savvy war-gamers in the 1970s became aware of an obscure Japanese mathematics company that would, for a princely sum of two or three bucks, send you some amazing creations -- both the 10 and 20 sided dice.

"bloodstained velvet, dirty lace / naked fear on every face"

Rush, "Bastille Day" live 1976

Will I ever tire of posting this every July 14th?  No.  No I shall not.

Meanwhile, the mask has fallen completely from the Orange One and his party of racist deplorables.  And it won't really matter -- anyone with two brain cells knew what was up from the beginning.  But at least we can stop playing pretend regarding the GOP, which is now officially and always the party of White Supremacy.

"The light of my life is going out tonight / In a pink champagne Corvette"

Purple Mountains, Darkness and Cold"

I mean, if we're getting new music from Dave Berman then 2019 can't be the shittiest year on record, now can it?

Purple Mountains is the new project from Dave Berman (Silver Jews) and it's predictably sad and beautiful.

Gorgeous Swedish Murder Cultists

All I have to say about Midsommar at the moment is that it's good, it's brutal, and there's no way in hell it shouldn't have gotten an NC-17 rating rather than an R one.

"these guys can play"

I'm obviously a big fan of Korean baseball, and I've always been fascinated by the lives of the (by rule) three foreigners, almost always American or arriving via MLB, every Korean squad is allowed to carry.  So here's a great interview with a few of them:

"How competitive do you feel the KBO is compared to what you faced in the States?

Lindblom: These guys can play. There are some really good ballplayers here. I think one of the common misconceptions when new foreign-born players who show up is that they feel that they can dominate the league. You see with a lot of guys that that doesn’t happen. It’s been a learning process for myself too. Hitters can hit. You put the majority of these guys in a Triple-A lineup and they can hold their own. There are a few guys you can put in a major league lineup and they would hold their own. There are some different areas where it’s not as developed, maybe like defense isn’t as important as it is in the States, but the players are really good.

Romak: It’s the hardest question to answer. These leagues are so different. It’s an unfair comparison because there’s one night you can face a 19-year old kid who, in the States, because of his age, he might be in A-ball. But here, he’s in the country’s version of major leagues. He has good stuff but he’s really young. The next night, you could face a veteran guy whose talent might be MLB-level. When KIA was really strong [back in their championship 2017 season], facing their lineup – that’s better than a Triple-A lineup, for sure. One night, it looks Triple-A. The next night, it looks Double-A. It’s just a very different league. That being said, there are tons of talented guys here."

I've always described an average KBO squad (Korean Baseball Organization) as somewhere between American AA and AAA farm clubs, with the top two or three at AAA level with a few MLB caliber prospects.  There are also some very interesting insights into the family lives of these guys as well, so read the whole thing.

Space Is The Place

"There is, of course, another way to meet people.  It is called networking.  Networking is what people have to do when those with like interests live too far apart to be thrown together in public spaces through chance and propinquity.  Networking is what people in small towns have to do to establish any complex cultural life today.

But contemporary networking is notably different from contact.

At first one is tempted to set contact and networking in opposition.  Networking tends to be professional and motive-driven.  Contact tends to be more broadly social and appears random.  Networking crosses class lines only in the most vigilant manner.  Contact regularly crosses class lines in those public spaces in which interclass encounters are at their most frequent.  Networking is heavily dependent on institutions to promote the necessary propinquity (gyms, parties, twelve-step programs, conferences, reading groups, singing groups, social gathering, workshops, tourist groups, and classes), where those with the requisite social skills can maneuver.  Contact is associated with public space and the architecture and commerce that depend on and promote it.  Thus contact is often an outdoor sport; networking tends to occur indoors."

-- Samuel Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue

First Against The Wall

The entire Jeffrey Epstein pedophile saga is beyond insane.  I'm spending a long afternoon in my office listening simultaneously to the sound of rain and a podcast about Epstein from Behind the Bastards.

It's sickening, fascinating stuff.  The rich really are very different from you and me.

"punishment for those who defy it"

One of the best things about living in a Korean city, even a relatively small one like lurvely Daegu (pop. 2.5 million) is that excellent, clean, and cheap public transportation is readily available.  Speaking more bluntly as an American, you don't need a fucking car, ever.  It actually frustrates me that if and when I move back to America it's highly likely my first worry is going to be buying a huge piece of metal that will depreciate by 40 percent the moment I drive it off of a lot.  I shall then be expected to feed the thing expensive, environment-destroying gas, pay insurance for it (which literally subsidizes other drivers to behave like shit-heads), and wonder whether or not some kid will key my doors just for the fun of it.

Anyhow, this is a long-winded way of saying that American dependency on cars is completely by design, and it sucks:

"As I detail in a forthcoming journal article, over the course of several generations lawmakers rewrote the rules of American life to conform to the interests of Big Oil, the auto barons, and the car-loving 1 percenters of the Roaring Twenties. They gave legal force to a mind-set—let’s call it automobile supremacy—that kills 40,000 Americans a year and seriously injures more than 4 million more. Include all those harmed by emissions and climate change, and the damage is even greater. As a teenager growing up in the shadow of Detroit, I had no reason to feel this was unjust, much less encouraged by law. It is both.

It’s no secret that American public policy throughout the 20th century endorsed the car—for instance, by building a massive network of urban and interstate highways at public expense. Less well understood is how the legal framework governing American life enforces dependency on the automobile. To begin with, mundane road regulations embed automobile supremacy into federal, state, and local law. But inequities in traffic regulation are only the beginning. Land-use law, criminal law, torts, insurance, vehicle safety regulations, even the tax code—all these sources of law provide rewards to cooperate with what has become the dominant transport mode, and punishment for those who defy it."

For what it's worth, I actually enjoy driving.  And renting a car in South Korea is easy enough.  But I've just never had the need to do so.  (Admittedly, if I ever have kids that might change things).

And no, a rush-hour subway car in Seoul or Daegu isn't my idea of paradise either, but did I mention how I never worry about asshole kids keying my door or ripping off my side-view mirror just for giggles like I did living in a "nice" American neighborhood?

Nine Thoughts About Stranger Things 3! With Spoilers!

I thought Stranger Things 3 was pretty close to perfect, and by perfect I mean finding a balance between outright fan service and solid writing which offered both closure and some good prospects for a fourth season.  Some thoughts:

1)  This felt a lot more action-oriented than the previous seasons, and that was OK.  They were juggling a ton of characters and while the first few episodes were slow, the fast pace of everything else felt justified and not at all rushed.

2)  There were plenty of emotional moments, but one that stood out for me was Will tearing down Fort Byers, "putting aside childish things" so to speak as his friends discover girls.  I had many a feel with this scene.

3)  Something I didn't like: while using music well is a powerful technique, they really overdid it here.  Every damn scene doesn't need a cutesie 80s gratuitous musical cue.  A few would have been awesome, but it became tedious and predictable.  (Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" is from 67, natch.)

4)  I really want Steve to find a nice girl and settle down.  He's earned it.

5)  Robin was great.  Erica was great.  Max felt a little underdeveloped, even though she got plenty of screen-time this season.  She grieves after Billy sacrifices himself but it felt kind of rote.

6)  As good as this season was, part of me kind of wants it to end here -- Hopper dead, the kids growing up and moving on, everyone fully experiencing "the hurt" of the final letter.

7)  I get that part of the show's charm comes in the form of 80's pop-culture references, but Grigori the Russian hit-man was a little too on-the-nose in referencing The Terminator.

8)  Nancy is bad-ass, as always.  The actual NRA is a terrorist organization, but if she started her own gun club I'd join in a heartbeat.

9)  As a life-long nerd myself who used to play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, you'd think I'd relate to one of the "core" kids the most (Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin).  But Steve -- saying stupid things, the faded glory, multiple romantic failures, but very occasionally rising to greatness when needed?

Yeah, I'm definitely a Steve.

"Even Harvard Makes Mistakes"

Just hearing "Harvard Fencing Coach"makes me want to polish the nearest guillotine.

— Winterfell Barista James (@wetcasements) July 10, 2019

Context.

"Vous étiez l'éternité, vous n'êtes que du passé"

Stereolab, "Parsec" live 2001

This is a genuinely freaky live version of what's probably my favorite song of theirs.

I didn't realize Stereolab were reissuing their catalog, but it's great news.  Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops are up next -- very much the sweet spot of their career.

Spoiler Free Spiderman Review!

Spiderman: Far From Home was pretty good, but the plot felt a bit too complicated for a Spidey flick.  Tom Holland and Zendaya were great though, as were Jon Favreau and Marissa Tomei.  (Why isn't she in more stuff lately?)  The lazy first half was made up for by a much stronger second.

3.5/5 web shooters!

USA!

It was awesome to watch the US women lift the World Cup early this morning (my time).  Their take-no-shit-from-anyone-especially-the-Orange-One is greatly appreciated.

"eat that steak"

Korean millenials face many of the same challenges that American ones do -- a sluggish job market (for full time work, at least), increasing costs for education and housing, and more generally a sense that they'll never do as well as their parents did.  So are they overlooked and under appreciated, or just wasteful spenders?  Enter "fuck-it expenses":

"Loosely translated to 'fuck-it expense,' the term is a compound noun combining shibal (a swearword for frustration) and biyong (expense). It first appeared in late 2016, with the earliest tweet about it referring to 'an expense that I would not have spent if I weren’t under stress,' such as 'an impulsive food delivery or a cab ride.' The post caught on, and the term was named “neologism of the year” by several South Korean media outlets.

A shibal biyong is an expense that might seem unnecessary but that helps you get through a bad day. It’s the $20 you splurge for a cab home instead of taking the subway after you’ve been denied a promotion or the comforting but expensive sushi you buy after you’ve been berated by your boss. The term implies that you might as well make yourself happy right now because your prospects in the long term seem bleak. Buy that nice coat, because you’ll never get on the housing ladder. Eat that steak, because you’ll never save up enough to retire."

Meanwhile the Korean demographic crisis continues unabated.

"Oh, but things just ain't the same"

X, "Fourth of July"

I have some genuinely great memories of July 4th growing up in the DC area.  The downtown DC fireworks were hardly the only choice -- I remember the University of Maryland had some pretty great displays as well.  But I can remember two times -- maybe three -- when we made the trip to the "official" display.  And they were great.  Pretty sure Bush the Elder was president during one of the events, and not a whiff of partisanship was there -- just people out enjoying their three-day weekend.

And now of course, like everything he comes into contact with, Trump has ruined yet another perfectly fine American tradition -- poisoned it on the altar of his bottomless ego.

Anyhow there aren't that many great American Fourth of July rock tunes but this is definitely one of them.  I'm finalizing my plans for America between the end of July and mid-August, and I'll probably catch the new Spiderman this weekend.

I only had one student call and complain about his grade.  That's a minor win as well.

Why Shouldn't Us Libs Responsibly Own More Guns?

Corey Pein on the rise of left-wing gun ownership:

"Consider the tense political climate in the Pacific Northwest, where Washington state Representative Matt Shea, a dough-faced Christian dominionist from Spokane, made news last year when his instructions on how to build a'holy army'that would kill 'all males' who refused to submit to biblical law leaked to the press. 'ssassination to remove tyrants is just, not murder,'he wrote. The tyrant he referred to was not Trump, of course, but the communists he imagined running the government. 


Such paranoid fantasies may be familiar to heavy consumers of YouTube and Reddit, but watching them transposed on to the structures of governance is a novelty. As a result, many leftists and even some liberals are beginning to reconsider their feelings about firearms, joining a loose amalgamation of gun groups, from John Brown Gun Clubs (which take their name from the abolitionist) to the Pink Pistols (an LGBTQ group), Liberal Gun Club, and Socialist Rifle Association. Some of these organizations are moderate and traditionalist, others radical and revolutionary. But all share one implicit goal: to normalize firearms ownership and training among liberals. Some of their members hope such efforts will at least make Republicans think twice before attempting a massacre."

I'm absolutely fine with this.  Fascism isn't coming to America, it has already arrived as far as I'm concerned.  Unsurprisingly, many fascists have already infiltrated the government as well.  The murder of Heather Heyer by a literal Nazi was no accident.

Buying and learning to use a firearm seems like a perfectly measured response.  I'd think twice if I had kids, but it's still an option.  Lest we forget before it became a terrorist organization, the NRA really did stand for responsible gun education.  (When my dad decided to teach me how to shoot he ordered some safety manuals -- free! -- and made me read them and memorize them before he took me to the range for the first time.)

Let's be brutally honest here -- Trump is a delusional incompetent.  But the next Republican president might actually have his shit together, and the toxic fantasies of White Supremacism will come even closer to fulfillment.

"so unfazed by the assholes of the world now"

Living as I do in South Korea I don't tend to do much for the Fourth of July, but this year I'm going to continue happily cheering on the US women's World Cup squad.  As The Orange Pussy-Grabber might literally destroy the Lincoln Memorial to satiate his bloated ego, have some fun with Megan Rapinoe's girlfriend, WNBA basketball star Sue Bird, throwing well-deserved shade:

"And I think Megan’s sensitivity is what drives her to fight for others. I think it’s what drove her to take a knee. The Megan you’re seeing now? It’s the stronger version of the one who knelt in the first place. All the threats, all the criticism, all the fallout — coming out on the other side of that is what makes her seem so unfazed by the assholes of the world now. 

I think in trying to help others, Megan has cemented who she is."

I'll stay up late Saturday night to watch the US taken on Sweden or Netherlands.  It should be a blast.

Teacher Of The Year

My final grades have been in the college computer system for over a week now, but this week students get to call me up and plead for mercy.  Granted, sometimes I do make stupid data entry mistakes and need to update their final score.  But usually it's just a handful of students who either a) know they fucked up royally by missing the maximum number of classes, and regale me with stories of emergency hospital visits or dead grandma funerals (why not tell me a month ago when it actually happened?) or b) grade-grubbers who want their A- kicked up to an A (hey, at least these students seem to care).

Anyhow, if you ever teach English at a Korean college or university this is our version of "desk-warming."  There are far worse fates but I'm also reduced to sitting in my office waiting for students to bring me phantom letters from phantom hospitals regarding phantom medical conditions.

Good times.

Entering The 21st Century

I've had my new (owned) smartphone for about four days now and still haven't dropped it in the toilet.#lifegoals#winning

— Winterfell Barista James (@wetcasements) July 2, 2019