NF LOL

I spoke with my Dad in Seattle on Christmas and, because we aren't allowed to talk about politics (he's a total MAGA-head) we did our usual thing and talked about (American) football.

And the thing is, I've managed to go through the fall and winter not paying any attention to the NFL at all.  Between the illegal blacklisting of Kaepernick (here's hoping he wins a shit-ton of money from the bastards with his ongoing lawsuit) and the fact that my home team has a racist name and owner I just can't be bothered.

Odds are I'll still watch the Superbowl, but everybody knows that's less of a football thing and more of a cultural ritual.

Anyhow, the NBA is a hell of a lot more fun to watch.

Baseball isn't, but my love of baseball, American and Korean, is highly irrational and very old-manish of me.

"a million deaths is a statistic"

I spent Christmas Day (which is a national holiday here in lovely South Korea, but only for one calendar date) doing traditional Yuletide things like watching The Death of Stalin.

The performances were incredible.  If you told me Steve Buscemi could "work" as Nikita Khrushchev I'd have laughed at you.

Sure, many liberties were taken, but the essentially comical nature of Stalinism comes across, as does the utter barbarity and tragedy of what was the ultimate terror state.

I'm far from an expert, but having read Simon Montefiore's Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar definitely helped me keep the many characters straight.

The murders and shootings and beatings and gulags, the shattered lives in general -- they didn't serve a purpose, they were ends in and of themselves.  Terror was the point of it all.

The Death of Stalin makes this crystal clear, and you'll feel bad for finding it so awfully hilarious at the same time.

It had to be a comedy.  It could only be one.

"safe treyf"

My step-father is Jewish, so I have a small bit of insight into the ways of The Tribe.  And I knew that going to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas wasn't just a myth.  (Then again, we never went to one because he genuinely loved Christmas himself.  Much more than I ever did, being the Grinch that I am.)

But here's a great article that gets into the history of Jews eating Chinese food on Jesus' Birthday:

"[Q]  Was there any reason, beyond proximity, that Jews wound up eating Chinese food, as opposed to some other immigrant cuisine?

[A]  In terms of kosher law, a Chinese restaurant is a lot safer than an Italian restaurant. In Italian food, there is mixing of meat and dairy. A Chinese restaurant doesn’t mix meat and dairy, because Chinese cooking is virtually dairy-free.

In Chinese-American cooking, if there is any pork (which is not a kosher food), it is usually concealed inside something, like a wonton. A lot of Jews back then — and even now — kept strict kosher inside the home but were more flexible with foods they ate at restaurants. Sociologist Gaye Tuchman wrote about this practice. She described (the plausible deniability of non-kosher ingredients) as safe treyf. (Treyf is the Yiddish word for non-kosher.) A lot of Jews considered the pork in Chinese food to be safe treyf, because they couldn’t see it. That made it easier to eat."

Of course, the history of Chinese food in America is a whole other story.

Reckoning With Rice

North Koreans who defect to South Korea face some serious hurdles when it comes to integrating into a larger, faster-moving, and highly competitive society.  Even the basics of eating a meal are one of them:

"'When they first arrive there are so many different options, that they don’t know what to eat,' he said. 'But they always crave rice, so they pretty much eat mostly rice for the first two to three months, even if there are many other options available. And then after this phase, they start missing food they had back home.'

Kim, a waitress who asked to be identified only by her surname, only ate rice a few times a year when she was in North Korea, instead subsisting mostly on corn. When she first arrived in the South in 2017 she was 'completely awed' by the supermarkets, eating a constant stream of spicy Jin instant noodles for months before she became sick of the taste.

'No matter how much I worked in North Korea I could never afford rice,' she said. 'So now I can never throw away rice, even if I order too much.'”

Older South Koreans with any memory of the Korean War and its related hardships aren't slouches either when it comes to not letting any food go to waste, so I imagine North Koreans must be at a whole other level of frugality.

2018 Was Rather Draining For All Sentient Beings, No?

Christmas is some bullshit.

— Very Legal & Cool James (@wetcasements) December 24, 2018

"Love's a feeling / and so is stealing"

The Slits, Peel Sessions '77

I'll be finishing this year trying to wrap up two music biographies, Viv Albertine's Clothes, Clothes, Clothes.  Music, Music, Music.  Boys, Boys, Boys. and Elvis Costello's Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink.

The thing is, I'm much more of a natural Costello fan.  I've been listening to his music ever since college where I made mix-tapes of his stuff for people who hadn't heard of him.  I was borderline obsessed for a good five years, and to this day can make an argument for Blood and Chocolate being one of the most insightful albums about sex and relationships ever made, despite the really (intentionally?) shitty guitar tone.

I came later to The Slits and, frankly, probably relegated them to "interesting political chicks who couldn't actually play their instruments" during my first listens.  I'll cop to that much.  My former rockism sins are many.

But reading the books side by side has been interesting.  First off, London between 1975 and 1979 or so must have been a hell of a place to exist.  The frisson must have been incredible, as was the actual violence and rape and (ahem) anarchy.  (Albertine narrowly escaped a gang rape but unfortunately Ari Up, at a mere 15 or 16, wasn't so lucky).

That said, Albertine's memoir is the much more compelling read.  It's tighter and more focused for sure, split into pre- and during-Slit years, and then post-Slit years.  Albertine is so incredibly honest about failure and feelings of artistic and personal inadequacy it can hurt at times.

And the Costello book is really great as well, but a different beast in general, much more of a baggy, anecdotal monster.  There are tons of really bad-good Dad jokes, which I didn't expect but probably should have.

Both books have tons of great pictures though, and both are worth your time.

And as for coming to fully appreciate The Slits, their Peel Sessions do a lot more for me than their actual studio albums, but their jittery cover of "Heard It Through The Grapevine" is still killer.  (That was the first thing they ever recorded in a professional studio with an actual engineer.)

"I ain't into trickin' / I'm into treatin'"

Ice Cube, "That New Funkadelic"

It's almost 2019 and Ice Cube is still pretty good at what he does.

In what's become something of a holiday tradition here in lurvely Daegu, I'm meeting some of my adult students for a sushi feast this Saturday.

I think Baby Jesus would definitely approve.

God bless all the little sushis.

Post-Rockin'

Tortoise, "Prepare Your Coffin"

I hate grading.  It's basically witnessing in real time all the mistakes I made as a teacher over the course of the past semester.

That is all.

"dreaming is free"

Say Sue Me, "Dreaming"

A good cover song is an art-form unto itself.

Going over musical "Best Of 2018" lists is a bit of a compulsion for me and, frankly, I didn't listen to a hell of a lot of new music this year.  Part of me doesn't care at all -- I'm an old, after all.  Part of me would like to devote more time to seeking out new stuff but, at the risk of sounding like Grampa Simpson, the new stuff doesn't do much for me.  (The 1975?  Really?)

But finding Say Sue Me (through a former Korean ex-pat on Facebook no less) was worth it.  In fact, they're playing a Christmas show that I might even go down to Busan for.  (I haven't seen them live yet.)  But this cover of Blondie's "Dreaming" is pretty much perfect.

Also really enjoyed boygenius.  And the new Beach House.  And the new Sea and Cake.

But that's cheating because everything by Beach House and Sea and Cake is consistently sublime.

"not like medicine, but like meat"

Laurie Penny went on a Mediterranean crypto-currency-cruise and hilarity (and sharp writing, as always) ensued:

"The women on this boat are polished and perfect; the men, by contrast, seem strangely cured—not like medicine, but like meat. They are almost all white, between the ages of 30 and 50, and are trying very hard to have the good time they paid thousands for, while remaining professional in a scene where many thought leaders have murky pasts, a tendency to talk like YouTube conspiracy preachers, and/or the habit of appearing in magazines naked and covered in strawberries. That last is 73-year-old John McAfee, who got rich with the anti-virus software McAfee Security before jumping into cryptocurrencies. He is the man most of the acolytes here are keenest to get their picture taken with and is constantly surrounded by private security who do their best to aesthetically out-thug every Armani-suited Russian skinhead on deck. Occasionally he commandeers the grand piano in the guest lounge, and the young live-streamers clamor for the best shot. John McAfee has never been convicted of rape and murder, but—crucially—not in the same way that you or I have never been convicted of rape or murder. I do not interview John McAfee. He interests me less than he scares the shit out of me, though his entourage seems relaxed. They’re already living in the crypto-utopia behind his strange pale-blue eyes."

The whole thing is similarly excellent.

Another Good Day In Korea

Adult student gave me some home-made kimchi last night (it's Kimchi season here in Korea).

My refrigerator is now pleasantly stinky.

— Very Legal & Cool James (@wetcasements) December 7, 2018

"Everybody's Happy Nowadays"

The Buzzcocks, "Why Can't I Touch It?"

R.I.P. Pete Shelley.

Profiles In Courage

Republican politician: "I do not support live dismemberment!"

American media: "WHAT A NATIONAL HERO!"#TCOT #MAGA @realDonaldTrump

— Very Legal & Cool James (@wetcasements) December 5, 2018

Kimchi Season

While far from dying out, the Korean practice of "kimgjang" or making fresh kimchi in late fall, is being challenged by an abundance of store-made options:

"While the more affordable option is to buy bulk-made kimchi from one of the market leaders - such as Daesang or CJ Cheiljedang - some are choosing other options. Among many kimchi masters who sell their product through social media accounts, Park Kwang-hee of PKH Food, who uses the title 'Art of Kimchi Mama,' is getting the most attention. Alongside making the ordinary baechu kimchi, made with cabbage, or ggakdugi, made with white radish, she has used a variety of vegetables available in Pyeongchang, Gangwon, where she lives, including dandelion. She has studied and researched different types of kimchi for decades. She said thinking outside the box to make kimchi with items that people don’t commonly recognize as main kimchi ingredients sells well. Some of the modern Korean restaurants, including the recently opened Myomi, serve Park’s kimchi as banchan, a side dish that commonly comes with rice and soup. With more and more locals buying her kimchi, her packages have become a gift to bring when people go overseas. She has started to export her kimchi to Europe. 

As kimjang, the kimchi making culture registered with Unesco since 2013, is now endangered, many cultural institutions are rolling up their sleeves to keep the tradition alive. At the the fifth annual Seoul Kimchi Festival earlier this month, over 3,000 gathered to making kimchi together, aiming to break the Guinness Book of World Records. The previous record for the number of people making kimchi together was 2,635. Schools and regional governments hold smaller events to draw locals in the neighborhood so they can better understand kimjang. People can just come and go whenever they want, without being at the kimjang event from the very start to the end."

I like the store-made stuff just fine but as a foreigner my palate isn't really advanced enough to notice flavor differences in various kimchi types.  But taking a cab or bus downtown and passing a local church or hospital where 20 Korean aunties are out making kimchi together, clad in plastic gloves and sun visors, is a pretty iconic (and welcome) image this time of year.

The Anti-Ramsay

This weekend I started binge-watching the first season of David Chang's Ugly Delicious, and it didn't disappoint.  He jumps right into the fraught question of "authenticity" in food by traveling between Brooklyn, Napoli, LA, and, ahem, spending a day working at a local Domino's to get to the heart of understanding pizza.

It was great.  It was totally unpretentious.  The Domino's stuff really impressed me as well because in addition to saying the occasional craving for Corporate Garbage Food doesn't make you an awful person, he took the time to seriously interview the manager and delivery dude as to how they saw their roles in the larger food universe.  He did it, as a Michelin-starred chef, without any hint of condescension.

I'm looking forward to the rest, and season two as well.

Please No Don't Do This To Us Korea

For about two years now my college has implemented a "reflection" class.  After the final exam, we're supposed to meet a final time to review the semester's work.

It's fucking awful.

I can't blame students for absolutely not giving two shits about this class.  Other than giving them their scores for the final, there's not a hell of a lot for me to do other than take attendance.

Mentally, they've checked out for whichever break, winter or summer, is about to begin.

Mentally, I've checked out after a frenzied week of constant grading.

And the thing is, while of course the students hate it, so do the other teachers and professors (the real, Ph.D.-having ones, unlike me).

Nobody wants it.  But the Korean education department decided this was a good idea so suck on that.  That's basically what it boils down to.

I'm going to put together some type of video-based activity, something light, but I'll basically be basking in resentful student gazes for two hours and, well, that's entirely their right.  To paraphrase Frank O'Hara, "bureaucrats of Korea, let your children go off to the PC-Bang."

That said, Bohemian Rhapsody has been something of a minor hit here so I'm putting together some study guides for "Under Pressure" and "We Are The Champions." (Teaching "Bohemian Rhapsody" itself would be fool's errand.  That shit cray.)

"Jazz bastards will fall and confess / We all love you so and your rock"

Guided By Voices, "The Colossus Crawls West"

My attempt at putting up an appropriately deep and amazing GBV cut, because I'm deeper into them than you bro!

This weekend I finished a Robert Pollard biography, Closer You Are.  It was appropriately thorough and workmanlike, covering pretty much everything you'd want to know about Dayton's foremost rock and roll genius.  The early days are fascinating, as Bob basically decided he wanted to make albums more than just music, and started famously designing band names and cover art before he ever picked up an instrument or gathered musicians around himself.

Also, while the influence of booze is pretty much part of the GBV credo, there were plenty of harder chemicals that got thrown in to the mix at various times but, Bob being Bob, he usually managed to put his foot down before too much damage was done to his band's reputation.  As "loose" and he comes off onstage and on recordings, he takes his musical legacy incredibly seriously.  (As he should.)

So not to damn too much with faint praise, but this is a perfectly serviceable bio that's strong on details (with copious citations) but maybe a little weaker on the themes and ideas that continue to drive Bob today, beyond his love of music and his insane level of productive energy.

As I suspected too, Bob is a much better musician than he tends to let on.  He played all the instruments on "Man Called Aerodynamics."  And scientifically and objectively speaking, that's a killer fucking track and one of the best album openers of all time.

We Will Pleasantly Surprise Your Lowered Expectations, You

I went and saw Bohemian Rhapsody despite a fair number of negative reviews and, well, I thought it was pretty great.  I've never been a huge fan of Queen myself, but I think the film got skewered by, on the one hand, fanbois and on the other Pitchfork-reading music snobs.  (Confession -- I am a bit of a Pitchfork-reading music snob!)

But Rami Malek shines as Mercury.  And I feel older than usual because I've never seen him in anything before, but he was fantastic.  The opening shot of him and the prosthetic overbite is just about as risky as a mainstream Hollywood film will get these days, but I got used to it quickly enough.

Is a bio-pic about the most prototypically bombastic and over-the-top front-man of all time allowed to be, in its own way, a bit bombastic and over-the-top, maybe even borderline cheesy?  I think so.  I really do, form fitting function and all that stuff.

I also think this movie "gets" creating music in ways most other films don't.  (Like, say, the incredibly overrated Whiplash, where songs are slavishly formed by musical Ubermenschen alone on their own mental islands, even when in the same room, and any hint of fun or abandon is bad and wrong).  Sure, there are some cliches of "frustration in the studio" but those are balanced out by shots where Freddie pushes the band in directions they wouldn't have gone otherwise.  It's awkward and painful and stochastic, creating great art, and it usually comes from more than one person and their sacrosanct "genius."

Good art tends to be messy, is what I'm trying to say, and this is a messy film that I think generally works with a few missteps (the press conference scene).

I did wonder why Bowie didn't make an appearance.  "Under Pressure" gets woefully short shrift compared to "Bohemian Rhapsody" or even "Another One Bites The Dust."  You've got Rami in buck-teeth prosthetics, why not role the dice on a coked-out '82 Bowie?

"You’re building a ghost town"

Double Dagger, "Luxury Condos For The Poor"

My humble little college is technically a private school (although as in America, it gets a decent amount of funding from the government).  And while we're roughly equivalent to an American community college (it's complicated) we aren't exactly cheap, either.

All of this is just so I can complain about students who simultaneously a) bitch about how expensive our tuition is while b) skipping my class, constantly.

Also, Double Dagger were a tremendous band.  They should never have broken up and then they should have moved to Daegu so they could hang out with me this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I still miss Christmas a little bit but frankly, Thanksgiving means close to nothing to me after nine years in South Korea.  Sure, I miss my family, and home-made food comas are always welcome, but since it's not a holiday here (Christmas day is, interestingly) it just doesn't register with me any longer.

That said, by all means this Thursday, feel free to call out your racist uncle on his #MAGA-bullshit:

"If you’ve got a truly virulent bigot awaiting at Thanksgiving, it’s important to remember that this person is bitter and afraid of having the privilege that comes with being rich or white or male (or all three) stripped away from them as marginalized groups fight for liberation. If they don’t see anything wrong with using homophobic language or screaming about the Second Amendment while everyone’s trying to enjoy their turkey and mashed potatoes, then you probably shouldn’t feel awkward about letting a few curse words fly in pursuit of telling them to shut the hell up.

In Hallmark movies, Thanksgiving is all about bringing families together to share in an expression of gratitude, but let’s not deny that these gatherings are more complex than that. The personal has always been political, and what happens in our homes has actual impact on the world outside them. Is there a better opportunity than this moment, when everyone is sharing a meal, to bring people together in a way that actually, honestly invites everyone to the table? If we are truly committed to justice for all, we have to create just spaces wherever we are. Our failure to translate private disapproval of bigotry into public protest, even at the dinner table, is an endorsement of immeasurable cruelty."

A vote for Trump was a vote for a racist pussy-grabbing fascist who is totes cool with the live dismemberment of dissident journalists.  I can think of plenty of lesser reasons to cut ties with family and friends, or at least to actively mock, shame, and shun them forever and ever.

Documenting The Atrocities

Things that apparently don't matter when a Republican does them:

1) Shitting on veterans / active military

2) Using personal e-mail for Top Secret stuff

3) Falling in love with foreign dictators (literally)@realDonaldTrump #TCOT #MAGA

— Cranberry Jelly James (@wetcasements) November 20, 2018

Inside (Korean) Baseball

I'd be lying if I told you I wouldn't shiv your grandma if it would net me one of these vintage Hyundai Unicorn jerseys.

This here humble Korea blog officially loves Korean baseball -- the chanting, the cheerleaders, the fried chicken and blood sausage, the bat-flipping, the beer.  Nothing better.

This article does a nice job of explaining the intricacies of Korean baseball team names -- the first thing to know is that neither the city nor the mascot is usually referred to like in American ball, but rather the corporate sponsor.  It can get pretty complicated:

"The Nexen Heroes exited the 2018 KBO playoffs early and nameless.

When the Heroes crashed out of the playoffs in the fifth game of a down-to-the-wire postseason clash with the SK Wyverns, the club’s sponsorship contract with Nexen came to an end.

Immediately after getting knocked out of the postseason, the team officially became the Seoul Heroes, the only team in the KBO without a sponsor in their name. The name Seoul Heroes didn’t last very long, though. Just week later, the club finalized a deal with securities firm Kiwoom Securities. The club is now tentatively being referred to as the Kiwoom Heroes, although its official name won’t be revealed until January.

This isn’t the first time that the Heroes have been rebranded. The club started life as the Sammi Superstars in 1982 and has since existed as the Chungbo Pintos, the Taepyungyang Dolphins, the Hyundai Unicorns, the Woori Heroes and simply the Heroes."

I mean, come on -- do team mascots get any better than these?

No they do not.

And my first ball game in Korea was watching the now defunct Woori Heroes (pics over at the old blog).

Excelsior! Part Two

I thought the internet would be a lot harsher on Stan Lee but I was wrong.  (I am usually wrong!)  Here's a really nice piece on how "Stan Lee Taught a Generation of Black Nerds About Race, Art, and Activism":

"It wasn’t until later in life, when I started studying and teaching about comics instead of just reading them, that I learned that none of this was a fluke. Stan Lee was an activist artist, a Jewish guy born to Romanian immigrants parents in New York who hated bigotry. He was explicit about it in both his Stan’s Soapbox editorials that ran across all Marvel Comics. He called bigots 'Low IQ Yo-Yos,' he said that anybody who generalized about blacks, women, Italians or whoever hadn’t truly evolved as a person.

He was doing this in comic pages when mainstream newspaper editorials were still deciding if black folks should be able to live where they wanted. When Marvel Comics were afraid that the Black Panther character would be associated with the Black Panther political movement, Stan Lee pushed for T’Challa to keep his name (at one point they wanted to call him Coal Tiger). All of this at a time when even having a black person in a comic was still considered controversial. Just last October, Lee posted a spontaneous video on the Marvel’s YouTube page stating the foundation of Marvel Comics was to fight for equality and battle against bigotry and injustice."

As mentioned, without Stan Lee's talent at self-promotion comic books would remain the marginal bits of niche culture they once were, not today's drivers of Hollywood.

It's no surprise that Lee and Kirby's creations were the original Social Justice Warriors which is to say, heroes.

Ruh-Roh

Guys: Nazi imagery and nuclear bomb explosion images are never funny.

(Except when a Korean boy-band unwittingly does it. Then, honestly, it's a little funny.)

— Cranberry Jelly James (@wetcasements) November 13, 2018

"they will never come back"

Is it even worth quoting from Trump think pieces any more?  Arguably, no.  But David Roth doesn't pull punches:

"Trump and a lot of the people in his thrall are, it seems safe to say, gone. They will continue to walk among us—Trump will be in a golf cart—but they will never come back. They are somewhere else. There is nothing they are not prepared to believe if the right people say it; they will choose the right lie over any truth not just without regret but with pride.

America loves to tell stories about itself to itself, and if these are not all quite lies they are mostly much sweeter and safer than fact. The lies that Trump has told since his party lost badly in the midterm elections have ranged from the usual—the loss was actually a win, thank you to all—into more explicit and desperate denial. It’s not a new thing for Republicans to justify voter suppression and resist vote-counting, but as Trump has subsumed his party the importance of his particular fantasies—Trump still, somehow, does everything off the opening position that he has never been wrong or lost—the attendant need to make his lies true has grown and grown. He will lie if the truth doesn’t fit and millions will hear that lie as a truth for that reason. Order will supersede Law, because it is easier that way. This is all open field. Anything that needs be can be labeled a fraud or the bought-and-paid-for result of a conspiracy, any fact can be made into something else afterwards."

Things will get worse before they get better.  But I do feel as if, unlike a year ago, things are going to get better.  Watching Trump crumble in real time is a delicious start.  But as he falls apart, how often and how strongly does he lash out, and how strongly will his Republican Party continue to defend him?

But for now, the feeble-ass motherfucker can't even go outside in the rain.

Excelsior!

Godspeed, Stan Lee.

I realize it's not very cool to mitigate the obvious facts -- Lee took a lot of credit (and money) for the hard work of visual craftsmen like Jack Kirby.  (I highly recommend this Kirby biography / coffee table book).  But if Lee was rapacious, he was also a brilliant promoter who managed to bring some incredibly weird-ass shit into the pop culture imagination.  (Let's not forget, superhero and horror comics used to be much less popular than Westerns and Romance ones -- Lee pretty much blew that dynamic out of the water.)

The issues of authorship in comics, the tension between writer and artist, remain fascinating, especially now that they've become staples of mainstream Hollywood film.

Eat Me

Korean "Meok-Bang" (literally, "eat broadcasts") are taking the Youtube world by storm, but the government here is worried about possible health repercussions:

"To slow down Korea’s rapidly rising obesity rate, the Ministry of Health and Welfare outlined pre-emptive and comprehensive obesity prevention and maintenance measures to hold onto 2016’s obesity rate of 34.8 percent through 2022. 

Without the regulations, the obesity rate in Korea is projected to jump to 41.5 percent by 2022, according to data provided by the ministry. 

When controversy over the government’s regulations snowballed, the Health Ministry later said that cracking down on mukbang is impossible.

Those against the government intervention generally argue that people should not be deprived of the right to watch the content they want in a democratic country while those on the opposite side stress the importance of the government’s role in regulating an environment that fosters obesity through the exposure of content that excessively stimulates their appetites."

I'm too old too appreciate this stuff I guess.  I'll just stick to porn.

"You will sing forever like an angel who flew away"

Stereolab, "Feel and Triple"

Lurvely Daegu is getting cold and the leaves have finally turned color.  (The ones up in the surrounding mountains turned about a week ago.)  Teaching continues.  I'm reading two books right now, a biography of Robert Pollard and one of Elvis Costello.  I might go back to America for a visit in February, but I might not.  (I usually go in the summer.)  And I'm playing Red Dead Redemption II and finding it, so far, surprisingly clunky and overrated.  (I swear the on-foot and on-horse controls are significantly worse than the original five years ago).

So yeah, things are OK I guess.

Is it OK to eat a cold brick of tofu with a pack of kimchi on top for dinner and watch Joe Robinet minimalist outdoor survival videos on Youtube at night?  Because I've been doing that a lot lately.

Mic Drop

I'm quoting Ed from Ginandtacos again because he's spitting absolute fire these days:

"So I get it. It's depressing. There's no amount of positives that can take away the nagging feeling that lots and lots of people in this country are just…garbage. They're garbage human beings just like the president they adore. These people are not one conversation, one fact-check, and one charismatic young Democratic candidate away from seeing the light. They're reactionary, mean, ignorant, uninteresting in becoming less ignorant, and vindictive. They hate you and they will vote for monsters to prove it.

Remember this feeling. Remember it every time someone tells you that the key to moving forward is to reach across the aisle, show the fine art of decorum in practice, and chat with right-wingers to find out what makes them tick. Remember the nagging sadness you feel looking at these almost entirely positive results; it will be your reminder that the only way to beat this thing is to outwork, outfight, and out-organize these people. They are not going to be won over and they will continue to prove that to you every chance they get."

The only way forward is to convince non-voters to vote.  "Redeeming" or "chasing" those who have gone full-Hannity is an exercise in futility and a waste of resources.

Register to vote, try to convince friends and family to do the same, then vote.

That's pretty much all we can do in the face of looming fascism.

Mixed Bag

I slept poorly last night.  (Note to self: bringing an iPad to bed to monitor early USian election results was not a good idea.)  Obviously, I'm happy the House was taken back by the good guys and that we'll finally see some actual checks on The Orange Pussy Grabber.  That's huge.

What sucks?  Well, basically Florida and Georgia and Texas.  How any electorate could turn down figures as inspiring as Gillum and Abrams is beyond me, especially when you consider that white people are gonna vote for white racist people, forever.  (Beto was always going to be a hell of a long shot.)

Barring Constitutional remedies, I'm not sure how the Senate ever becomes a functioning, semi-representational body rather than the White Rural Bulwark it was created to be.

Some good news in local races though, and those matter a lot.

Of course, Mueller is now going to wind up or wind down Russia-Gate in what should be appropriately dramatic fashion.

But to be blunt, I'm not sure if my mental health can sustain two more years of Trump, let alone six.  (Does he ever get fucking exhausted with his own bullshit?  No?  Okay then.)

Anyhow, Josh Marshall deserves the last word:

"But I come out of tonight feeling good about the result. Why? The country is in a position where we don’t have the luxury of getting everything we want or getting overly disappointed if we don’t. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that Gillum went down to defeat. But there was one absolutely critical thing that had to happen tonight: the Democrats had to reclaim a foothold of power in Washington to place a check on President Trump.

They did that. It wasn’t close. The victories had geographical breadth. That is critical."

Politics is the ultimate breeding ground for cliches, so embrace it: this is a marathon, not a sprint.

In The Army Now, Or Maybe Not

Nearly two years of military service is mandatory for all male Koreans, but unlike the U.S. military the concept of a "conscientious objector" is a relatively new one.  However, the Korean Supreme Court has now made it possible for C.Os to avoid jail-time:

"The Supreme Court's ruling comes on the back of a decades-long fight by conscientious objectors, many of them Jehova's Witnesses, to push back against the country's stringent military service law, under which all men between the ages of 18 and 35 are required to perform at least 21 months of military service.

'We are happy to hear that the Supreme Court of South Korea has made a historic decision to recognize the rights of conscientious objectors,' said Paul Gillies, international spokesman for Jehovah's Witnesses at their world headquarters in New York.

'For the last 65 years, over 19,300 Jehovah's Witnesses (in South Korea) have been imprisoned for standing firm for their Christian beliefs. This ruling is a huge step forward in ending this policy of imprisoning our fellow believers for conscientious objection.'

However, the Thursday ruling will not affect those already in prison, and only applies to the cases considered by the court and those in future."

Military service is a Big Deal in South Korea, and men who shirk it are definitely looked down upon.  But C.O.s who pick up a criminal record basically can't work white collar jobs for the rest of their lives.  I'm guessing that before long this will change.

Confessions Of A FOX News Orphan

Ed from Gin and Tacos is reliably excellent on every topic, but here in The Baffler he really cuts close to home for me on the subject of FOX News Orphans, i.e., the grown-up children of formerly smart and successful parents who have gone full-#MAGA over the past two decades:

"Spend a full hour reading right-wing Facebook. It is like a funhouse mirror; you’ll feel the what-was-in-those-cookies sense of having entered a fantasy world of grievance and rage—a Lewis Carroll version of The Turner Diaries, a John Birch Society children’s book for sundowning grandpas. It is a barrage of propaganda crafted around the biases of old white people to exploit their deepest racial fears and authoritarian-follower personality traits. Much of it makes Fox News look tame and responsible by comparison. Toy commercials could only dream of reaching kids as effectively as the right-wing noise machine hooks our elders.

Now imagine looking at that for hours per day, every day.

What would be left of your brain after several years of that? Like the president they so blindly love, the brains they once had become a puddle of Cracker Barrel sausage gravy strewn with flotsam and jetsam of the Greatest Hits of the reactionary playbook. These are randomly sampled, irrespective of time, logic, or coherence. Immigrant caravans! Soros! New Black Panthers! Vince Foster! Card Check! Seth Rich! Uranium One! MS-13! Crisis Actors! Anchor babies! Whitewater! Her emails! Cap and Trade! Thugs! Birth Certificate! Every obsession is equally relevant. And the right time to be very, very mad about all of it is right now."

I guess I should tread lightly here but it's interesting that my dad, who happens to have a Ph.D. in biology and had a very successful career in science, is basically one of these Zombie Republicans now.  It hasn't been easy to maintain a relationship with him, honestly, and Ed is right to point out the utter weirdness of these people.  During phone calls, snail-mail letters, and my annual visits, I try to stick to neutral topics like the weather and sports, but within three minutes of discussing Seahawks football he'll be asking me about Maxine Waters or Seth Rich.  He can't stay on any topic for longer than a cup of coffee without invoking the latest right-wing outrage de jour.

So maybe he's just poking fun at his liberal son?  All fun and games?

Well, no.  For years I've noticed that while standing in a supermarket check-out line he would sometimes bring up these kinds of FOX keywords with absolute strangers, or with (god forbid) the checkout clerk.  Because they must brood and fret and stew about whatever it is Limbaugh was on about earlier today just like he does, right?

(During the Obama years my sister and I were convinced that he'd shoot his mouth off about "this black Muslim president" and get beat up or worse, contacted by the police over a potential death threat, intentional or not.)

I'm convinced that simple pleasures like a sunny day or a glass of wine are permanently diminished for him, what with the constant siren call of "lock her up" or "Kenyan Muslim" resonating throughout his head always, everywhere.

Here's the kicker though -- as awful as Facebook is, my dad brought this upon himself with a steady diet of pre-internet media starting during the Clinton 90s, and exploding after 9/11.  He doesn't even own a computer, but Limbaugh and Hannity and The Weekly Standard were enough to poison him forever.  Analog paranoia and hate is more than sufficient to ruin a formerly free-thinking person.  And no doubt, Facebook has come along at the opportune time to amplify this lunacy to exponential heights of bitter madness.

It's brainwashing of the highest level.  Between hours of FOX on cable and radio, daily, I doubt Jim Jones could have done a better job of basically turning a high-functioning mind against itself and, frankly, fucking up what was once a perfectly imperfect but sorely missed father-son relationship.

The History of Right-Wing Hate (And Denial)

Matt Ford on the American denial of right-wing terrorism throughout history:

"Elaine Frantz Parsons, a historian who studied the organization, noted in her 2015 book, Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan During Reconstruction, that Klan denialism shaped public perceptions of the group as well as the responses to it. While journalists and federal officials went to great lengths to document the group’s atrocities, 'the national debate over the Klan failed to move beyond the simple question of the Klan’s existence,' she wrote. 'Skepticism about the Ku-Klux even in the fact of abundant proof of the Ku-Klux’s existence endured and thrived, perhaps because people on all sides of the era’s partisan conflicts at times found ambiguity about the Ku-Klux desirable and productive,' Parsons wrote.

There was overwhelming evidence to refute the denialists’ claims. Klansmen routinely engaged in murder, rape, and other forms of violence that left behind scars, corpses, and witnesses. Larger cells carried out massacres and skirmished with local militias and federal troops. The Justice Department, which was founded in 1870 to enforce federal anti-Klan laws, prosecuted and convicted hundreds of its members in public trials."

"Good people on both sides," of course.

This Is America

White Nationalists are going on murder sprees and it's all just a bit too surreal looking at my home country from the relative comfort of South Korea.

I checked in with the Washington State voting board (online, very convenient) and found that my snail-mail ballot had reached the state.

So, I voted.  In a relatively Blue State.

And that doesn't mean much but it's all we've got to fight against literal fascism and racial cleansing, isn't it?

"escape the corset"

South Korea is having its #MeToo moment:

"Cha is part of a growing movement in South Korea fighting against unrealistic beauty standards that call for women to spend hours applying makeup and perform skincare regimes that involve 10 steps or more at each end of the day. Among their complaints is that women must wake up two hours before work to ensure perfect makeup, meticulously removing dead skin with peeling gel and steam towels before beginning their regimen.

Women sick of the laborious routine have started to post videos on social media of destroyed piles of cosmetics with the catch-cry 'escape the corset', likening makeup to the garments that were part of daily women’s garments for years and worked to constrain bodies into a uniform shape.

The trend is part of a larger push against the country’s patriarchal society that has seen record numbers of women take to the streets to demand greater equality and fight against issues such as illegal filming and sexual assault."

The illegal filming of women in bathrooms is definitely a disturbing trend here.

In much less serious news, in a country where people wears masks when they have a cold, I've had a number of female college students admit that they'll also wear one when they don't feel like putting on makeup.

I'm Tired Of Living In Interesting Times

It'll be good times when a Trump supporter straps on a suicide vest and blows up a bunch of people and the @NYT reminds us that Sarah Sanders once couldn't eat artisanal fried chicken because BOTH SIDES DO IT.

— Register To Vote, Then Vote. (@wetcasements) October 25, 2018

If You Believe

I thought First Man was amazing, a perfect blend of tense action inside rickety metal tubes being flung into space at ungodly speeds and, even better, a family drama involving an American Hero who's too shaken by the deaths of friends and colleagues to function fully as a human being and father until his wife snaps him out of it.

Granted, I'll watch anything with Ryan Gosling but this really was superb.  And now, I'll have to watch anything with Claire Foy as well.

(Does that mean I have to go watch La La Land now?  Normally I don't do musicals.  And yes, that includes Hamilton.)

Who Could Have Known?

Tim Heidecker, "Richard Spencer"

Neo-Nazi also turns out to be neo-wife and child abuser:

"During their marriage, the white nationalist leader sometimes told her to use her own savings to pay for groceries, saying that his money was 'for the cause', she alleged. He also regularly failed to pay water, internet, electricity and cellphone bills and failed to make healthcare payments, causing their health insurance to lapse three times, including once shortly before the birth of their second child.

In 2014, when she was pregnant with their first child, he held her down with his body weight and grabbed her by the neck and the jaw, leaving bruises, she alleged. In 2017, when she was nine months pregnant, he attempted to punch her in the face, she claimed."

Trump's rise to power was really about economic anxiety and had nothing to do with white racial resentment.

Korean Music That Isn't K-pop!

Say Sue Me, "Old Town"

These guys are from Busan, and I think they're really great.  Buy their new album here.

I get some Yo La Tengo vibes, with maybe some Galaxie 500 and Feelies too.

Weeding Out

South Korean national identity isn't the easiest thing for a foreigner to understand.  To wit, with Canada legalizing marijuana South Korea has announced that Korean nationals who smoke weed abroad will be prosecuted to the fullest extent:

"Weed smokers will be punished according to the Korean law, even if they did so in countries where smoking marijuana is legal. There won’t be an exception,' said Yoon Se-jin, head of the narcotics crime investigation division at Gyeonggi Nambu provincial police agency, according to the Korea Times.

South Korean law is based on the concept that laws made in Seoul still apply to citizens anywhere in the world, and violations, even while abroad, can technically lead to punishment when they return home. Those who smoke weed could face up to five years in prison.

South Korea strictly enforces drugs laws even for small amounts, and celebrities caught smoking weed are often paraded in front of media for apology tours. Officials work to project an image of a “drug-free nation” and only about 12,000 drug arrests were made in 2015 in a country of more than 50 million people."

As the article states, it's hard to see how this can be enforced.  But the declaration of a virtuous ethnic identity that reaches across all borders is more likely the practical intention.

9.3

I'm not sure why Pitchfork has always gotten so much hate.  On the one hand in the internet age, nobody has the time to listen to every new band out there.  On the other, like everything in the universe when it's good it's good and when it's bad it's bad.

So what?

Anyhow, this is good Pitchfork, reviewing supposed wunderkinder band Greta Van Fleet:

"Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves."

It helps that the description is completely accurate.

World Series

I can't exactly hate the Red Sox, since they beat up on the Yankees and that is doing God's work.  Then again, they're kind of character-less without Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz.

So normally I'd root for any non-Yankees American League team in the World Series, but over the past five years the Dodgers and Cubs have emerged as teams I semi-regularly follow.

Add Manny Machado into the mix, along with South Korean starter Ryu Hyun-jin, and I've got to cheer for L.A. to win it in six.

Also, Puig.  I guess as I get older, I grow fonder of the guys who are willing to tell the "Unwritten Rules Of The Game" to go fuck themselves.

2018

Republicans are officially the party of "just a little murder by live dismemberment"

— Register To Vote, Then Vote. (@wetcasements) October 18, 2018

Worth A Dive

I finished Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach yesterday, and it was good.  You can tell she did a ton of research for this project ranging from the history of the Merchant Marine service during World War II, the history of children's games during the 1930's and 40's, the specifics of underwater welding and shipbuilding, to the ins and outs of getting an abortion 80 years ago.  And it doesn't come off as pedantic at all, but gets woven naturally into a story of family, sex, war and wartime, gangsters, and protecting your family at all costs.

It's much more conventional and "straight" than what I consider an obvious classic of 21st century novels, A Visit From The Goon Squad (2011).  Maybe there are a few moments where it feels like Egan wants to prove she can still tell it straight, and the book sags a bit for it.  Also, the technical details of an important scene towards the end of the book didn't make any sense to me, but that could be my own inability to understand the science involved in diving.

Recommended.

Philosophy Shmalosophy

Another awesome find via Open Culture, an interactive "History of Philosophy Visual Timeline."

It's the Thursday afternoon before midterms, and I'm doing my Global Zone hours (basically, students can come practice their spoken English with me).  So nobody's here, and I'm playing with this and it's great.

Forever Wars

Who would have thought that launching literally unending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, directed at abstract concepts like "terror," would come with high costs in terms of cash wasted, lives lost, and an American public that has pretty much tuned out when it comes to sacrifices made by military families?  Turns out, war-without-end is a pretty shitty thing for everyone involved:

"Young Americans now becoming eligible to enlist have seen primarily two portrayals of military service in their lives — either the heroics of Navy SEALs taking out high-profile terrorists or soldiers coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder in films such as American Sniper or The Hurt Locker, she said. One makes all military service seem unrealistic for most, the other a terrifying ordeal that ruins lives. This increases the likelihood that those who do enlist come from families and communities where they have been exposed to a more realistic image, and the range of options, she said.

'There is this huge respect and admiration for the military [in the US public], and very little real understanding,' she said."

The whole article is worth your time.  I'd only add that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were explicitly marketed as cheap, quick-and-dirty affairs that would be over in months with few costs in either blood or treasure.

Just shy of two decades later, here we are.

So I can understand why actual soldiers and vets and their families would be confused as to why regular Americans will have seizures when some athletes take a knee for the anthem, but at the end of the day can't really be bothered by somebody's son or daughter getting blown up by an insurgent's explosive device.  Not in 2018 at least, and not in any meaningful way beyond "thoughts and prayers."  War On Terror fatigue is real, and it's no accident that people basically don't care about wars where the "Mission" was "Accomplished" 15 years ago.

It's just sad all around that at the end of the day, we're talking about a "military caste" rather than shared sacrifice that cuts across class lines.  But it's no surprise, either -- support for post 9/11 invasions were based on the premise that deaths would be minimal at best, and that democracies would flourish with just the right amount of magical thinking and cash, and that everyone would be home in under a year.

Sure, I'll burn a pair of my Nikes in protest.  But that's about the extent of it.  Patriotism in America has become the ultimate form of virtue signalling.  And a lucrative one at that.

Winter Wordage

New books!

Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us

Viv Albertine, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes.  Music, Music, Music.  Boys, Boys, Boys.

Samuel Delany, The Motion of Light In Water

Matthew Cutter, Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices

Min Jee Lee, Pachinko

"male cruelty towards women is a bonding mechanism"

Adam Serwer takes the Trump era for what it is -- "The Cruelty Is The Point":

"The cruelty of the Trump administration’s policies, and the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets before his supporters, are intimately connected. As Lili Loofbourow wrote of the Kavanaugh incident in Slate, adolescent male cruelty towards women is a bonding mechanism, a vehicle for intimacy through contempt. The white men in the lynching photos are not merely smiling because of what they have done, but because they did it together.

We can hear the spectacle of cruel laughter throughout the Trump era. There were the border patrol agents cracking up at the crying immigrant children separated from their families, and the Trump adviser who delighted white supremacists when he mocked a child with down syndrome who was separated from her mother. There were the police who laughed uproariously when the president encouraged them to abuse suspects, and the Fox News hosts mocking a survivor of the Pulse Nightclub massacre (and in the process inundating him with threats), the survivors of sexual assault protesting Senator Jeff Flake, the women who said the president sexually assaulted them, and the teen survivors of the Parkland school shooting. There was the president mocking Puerto Rican accents shortly after thousands were killed and tens of thousands displaced by Hurricane Maria, the black athletes protesting unjustified killings by police, the women of the #MeToo movement who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse, and the disabled reporter whose crime was reporting on Trump truthfully. It is not just that they enjoy this cruelty, it is that they enjoy it with each other. Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to each other, and to Trump."

All completely true.  I didn't think Trump would win in 2016 because I didn't want to to even flirt with the idea that a solid one-third of Americans are racist, hateful towards women and non-whites and gays, and, simply, cruel.  In their very bones, hateful.

I was wrong.

The Universe Has Many Known Realities

It's such a cliche that Canadians are nice, but we have these Canadian nursing professors visiting my college and like, they're super-fucking nice. Just sayin'.

— I Like Beer. Do You Like Beer? (@wetcasements) October 3, 2018

Mister You're On Fire Mister

Busan, South Korea.

Over the years I've been down to Busan, the street performance scene has really developed in a good way.  As mentioned, they've made the whole Haeundae Strip area a lot more pedestrian friendly (which is kind of a shocker in South Korea).  So instead of just one area right by the beach, the jugglers and fire eaters and even the crappy Euro-trash / Australian hippy drum circle bullshit have relatively comfortable places to do their respective things.

Honestly, other big Korean cities could learn a few things from Busan's development here.  You don't need a gimmick to revitalize an area, you really just need quality public spaces and trust people to step in and provide their own forms of entertainment.

But this being Korea, people are suspicious of organic, bottom-to-top actions that don't involve multiple layers of bureaucracy and authority.

On The Beach

Haeundae Beach, Busan, South Korea.

I've been down to Busan many times during my years in South Korea, and it gets a little better with each visit.  The city government has narrowed the road of the Haeundae Strip, making it a lot more pedestrian and street-performer friendly.  I've also made it to new places around the city, although I've always considered Haeundae to be my anchor.  And if my biggest complaint is that I couldn't get a table at my favorite Spanish restaurant in the country, well, so be it.  (Unlike Koreans, I'm not a fan of waiting in line.  I had to settle for some pretty good Indian grub instead.)

Clothes And The Country

Hanbok are traditional Korean clothes that are associated most closely these days with the major national holidays of Korean Thanksgiving and the Lunar New Year.  But as times change, so do the designs:

"Hoping to make the traditional garment more a part of people’s lives, the government and experts in related fields have been trying to encourage people to wear hanbok, or at least variations of the dress that embody a hint of the traditional attire. Their efforts involved a series of events ranging from declared hanbok-wearing days and holding hanbok festivals and giving discounts to the country’s royal palace to people wearing hanbok. Thanks to their efforts, wearing hanbok has become more familiar to the general public compared to a decade ago.

The biggest problem in traditional clothing today actually stems from the efforts of trying to increase the number of people wearing hanbok, regardless of the style. While at first it was important to get people to try hanbok, the variety of styles that have been created now have some wondering if there are rules for what constitutes a proper hanbok.

As more people take to the streets wearing forms of hanbok that have never been seen before, two perspectives have come into conflict. On one hand, some advocate that hanbok should adhere to the traditional form of the dress, while the other side believes that it’s meaningful in itself that more people are wearing hanbok, even if it is somewhat distanced from the conventional form."

I had no idea that in addition to banning the Korean language, hanbok were also outlawed under the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) as being too strong of a symbol of Korean national identity.

Baseball In Busan

One of the glories of living in South Korea is baseball.  With cheerleaders, player theme songs, flag waving, and no-holds bat-flipping, I can't really think of a better way to spend an afternoon than at the ballpark.

10,000 won (about nine bucks) will buy you an outfield seat, and that's really all you need.  Now, my team of choice is the Samsung Lions (representing Daegu, as Korean teams go by their corporate sponsors' names).  But for Chuseok I went down to Busan to take in a game with their hometown squad, the Lotte Giants.

As much as I like Samsung Lions Park here in lurvely Daegu, Sajik Stadium in Busan is absolutely gorgeous.  Mountains surround the stadium, and I got very lucky with the weather.  And for food, while fried chicken is the preferred victual, I went with a tray of tasty blood sausage and some beers.

So all in all, it was another great day at the ballpark.  Busan came from behind to beat the NCSoft Dinos 8-7.

Even Morer Summer Pics

Mt. Airy, Maryland.

More Summer Pics

Bellingham, Washington.

I Believe Anita Hill. I Believe Christine Ford. I Believe Deborah Ramirez.

Some thoughts on Kavanaugh:

1)  I went to a DC area private school.  I've been told it is of "elite" status.  (The tuition certainly wasn't cheap.)  But it was also politically on the opposite end of Georgetown Prep (Go Friends!).  All of this is to say, I learned what teabagging was around 91' or so because a bunch of older Prep students basically forced their testicles into the mouths of freshmen.  I don't remember what sports team it was, exactly.  This is my most vivid memory of Georgetown Prep, other than the fact that they always crushed us in baseball.  Not that there wasn't a fair share of entitled, white-boy assholery at my esteemed institution as well, but at least it wasn't an ethos.

2)  Who hasn't come forward and admitted to literal attempted rape in order to get their good buddy onto the Supreme Court?  Two different dudes, actually, because she was that much of a slutty-Mcslut-slut!

3)  We now know Kavanaugh either is or was a serious alcoholic.  As strong as #MeToo has (thankfully) become, it would have been relatively easy for him to admit that he is / was a drunk, but now Jesus and / or an AA program has brought him to the light of sobriety.  Americans love this kind of story.  If his handlers had led with this narrative I think he'd have been seated already, with minimal drama.

4)  I still think the odds are 50-50.  Collins and Murkowsi and Flake want him seated, because they are Republicans (further tax cuts for Paris Hilton matter above all else).  Blasey Ford's actual testimony will be significant.

5)  Blasey Ford is an American hero.

6)  If Kavanaugh is seated, a probable harasser and possible rapist, nominated by an actual harasser and possible rapist, will provide the vote that overturns Roe, setting back women's health and rights by about a century.

7)  How any woman can ever vote for a Republican after this absolute shit-show of a spectacle is beyond me.

And A Happy Chuseok To You

I'm in Busan for the Chuseok holiday.  I'm at a Starbucks by the beach reading Elvis Costello's autobiography (I knew he had a musical father, but didn't realize he was actually a pretty accomplished and somewhat famous vocalist) and sipping on a way-too-big ice coffee.  Last night I took in a Busan iPark soccer match (Busan F.C., basically) and it was about what you'd expect from Korean second-tier play (the "above ground pool" of the sport, basically).  But the weather was lovely.

They've done some serious renovations around here at Haeundae Beach.  Some of the main roads are a lot more pedestrian friendly now (always a shock in Korea) and there are some honest-to-goodness public spaces where street performers can do their thing to large crowds.  (The fire jugglers are pretty amazing.)

So I'm here for a few more days before, inexplicably, going back to Daegu to teach on Thursday (why not just give us the whole week you beareaucratic slave-drivers?).

Free Speech Is Great. Nazis Aren't Interested In Free Speech.

Laurie Penny cuts to the chase when it comes to the pressures of "being civil" with fascists, Nazis, MRA's, etc.:

"If we deny racists a platform, they feed off the appearance of censorship, but if we give them a platform, they’ve won by being respectfully invited into the mainstream. Either way, what matters to them is not debate, but attention. There is no perfect choice.

But there is a choice, and this, to my mind, is the sensible one: To refuse to dignify these people with prestigious public platforms, or to share them. To refuse to offer them airtime or engage them in public debate.

Fortunately, we live in a brave new world where real censorship is something that is almost infeasible unless you are extremely rich and venal and have an army of lawyers. If you want to hear what Bannon thinks, you can. Extensively, at many, many websites and forums. If you want to try to tease out and challenge the deeper truth behind far-right ideas, you’re free to do so, although be prepared to be disappointed. You see, the deeper truth is that there is no deeper truth. No hidden nuance. The new right have already shown us exactly who they are. Now the rest of us get to choose who we want to be."

There are many, many very stupid Trumpers and White Nationalists and #GamerGaters who are literally too dumb to understand, behind the thick veil of their White Privilege, that "freedom of speech" does not mean a) freedom from consequences of speech and / or b) the freedom to force people to listen to you when they'd rather just ignore and mock and shun you.

Penny is right on that the smarter ones, the Bannons for example, are just better at playing the victim-hood game.  So can we dispense with the myth that there's some latter-day, mind-blowing series of Symposia just out of reach, just waiting for Richard Spencer and Bernie Sanders to sit down with one another?  (Maybe Charlie Rose could moderate!)

It's bullshit all the way down.  They're aren't worth the time or effort, let alone the normalization (and often, significant payday) that comes with pretending they're here to engage in substantive discourse, rather than just throwing rhetorical bombs and spreading their poison to the hopelessly ignorant.

Lazy Thursday

Red Garland, Stepping Out (1981, w/ Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Ben Riley)

Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, begins this Sunday.  I'm getting a five-day weekend out of it so I'm headed to lovely Busan this Saturday.  I might call up some foreigner friends for drinks, but a lot of them will be traveling abroad or going up to Seoul.  I've got plans to see a Busan iPark soccer match Saturday (Busan F.C., basically) and then my first Lotte Giants game (Busan's baseball team) on Tuesday afternoon.  And swim, maybe?  It's going to be in the mid-70's, but the ocean will be freezing I'm sure.

There's also a new brew pub I want to check out.  They are a bit of a welcome trend in Korea these days.  (I'm not a reflexive Korean beer hater by any means, but I do like knowing I can drink the bitter-y and dark artisanal stuff when I want to.)

Anyhow, Red Garland is a better piano player than you or I shall ever be.  Just sayin'.

Interesting Times

Among the many shocks of life under Cheeto Hitler the one that really stands out for me is the realization that for Trump supporters, sexual abuse, assault, harassment, and yes, even outright rape, are no longer disqualifiers for public life, let alone living outside of a dank, forgotten cave coated in misery and sackcloth for the rest of one's days.

In fact, crimes against women are now the ultimate badges of honor.

"the labor of women goes invisible because it’s supposed to come naturally"

An alleged rapist is on the cusp of becoming a Supreme Court justice.  This is, of course, because life is awful and terrible since Trump took power.

But maybe, just maybe, things will be different this time and justice will be served.

Meanwhile, I found this article about the history and current decline of American "breastraunts" (e.g., Hooter's) to be surprisingly timely and even a little hopeful:

"I was a Hooters Girl in Santa Monica, California, for the better part of 2005, while I attended college. The hourly rate was about one dollar above the state’s minimum wage, but the tips covered enough of my expenses that I could work just three shifts per week, and spend the rest of my time studying. The job offered me a chance to monetize my youth and beauty—the sole marketable assets I possessed before obtaining a degree or meaningful work experience—in a way that was legal and safer than many parts of the actual sex industry.

The problem was only that my cut should have been bigger. Hooters made multiple demands of the girls; we had to do our hair and makeup in a particular style ('like you’re going out on a date with your boyfriend,' the manager explained) and dance on the wooden barstools a few times per shift. We also had to upsell branded merchandise like T-shirts, beer koozies, and swimsuit calendars, and act as a sort of therapist to the needy men who regularly came in seeking attention from women 30 years younger than them. We had to perform the emotional labor of pretending to find these men fascinating, while deflecting their bolder advances because Hooters is, after all, 'a family restaurant.' The gimmick was genius: give married dads hot wings, beer, and flesh to ogle, but with plausible deniability. Hooters is no strip club. It’s wholesome, peak America, where the labor of women goes invisible because it’s supposed to come naturally."

One of my few claims to immortality in this life is that for one year I lived behind the only Hooter's located in South Korea.  I walked past it many times, but never went in.

This Is America

A possible rapist could decide women's health issues for the next 30 years.

A literal serial killer was working as a US border patrol agent.

What the fuck, reality?

— Stormy Jamesiels (@wetcasements) September 17, 2018

Test Day

Mt. Airy, Maryland.

Pizza And Patriotism Oh My

Military service in South Korea is mandatory for all males before they turn 28.  Some of them are pigging out on pizza to avoid the inevitable:

"But 12 vocal students have found a new way to avoid service: expanding their waistlines.

The aspiring singers, who were not named, binged on pizza and hamburgers five times a day in an effort to gain weight and ultimately fail the military physical. They swapped tips over chat apps and determined 'high-calorie protein shakes, supplements and drinking a lot of aloe juice to retain water weight' were the best options, according to a military investigation.

All South Korean men must serve about 22 months before the age of 28 and are subject to a physical to determine whether they are fit for duty. Those who fail the physical requirements are either exempt from service altogether or must complete alternative civilian work, generally seen as preferable to the privations of military life."

Kidding aside, military service here is, in scientific parlance, quite some bullshit.  Unlike service in the U.S., recruits here get paid less than 300 dollars a month.

That said my understanding, based on Kim Young-ha's novel I Hear Your Voice, is that the tried and true method of avoiding military service is to cut off the trigger finger of your right hand.  (The South Korean military does not accommodate lefties, so don't embarrass yourself and your ancestors by cutting off a left-handed finger.)

Here's a recent post about South Korea's current soccer star, Son Heung-min, and how he narrowly avoided military service with a win in the 2018 Asian Games.

Too Soon?

17 years ago the U.S. lost its fucking mind over a horrible, preventable tragedy and has only gotten crazier since.

— Stormy Jamesiels (@wetcasements) September 12, 2018

Pop Cultural Intake Update

The Wire and George Pelecanos and porn and dystopian nightmare 1970's New York and Maggie Gyllenhaal check a lot of my boxes but I still haven't seen The Deuce.  Franco-aversion, possibly.  But maybe this will be something I manage to binge-watch as we move into fall.

Minor Thought

you guys all realize re: America/American politics that there's no "going back to normal" after this Trump GOP, right? like, the crazy train has left the bat-shit genie insane-o bottle forever and ever and we all bought tickets?

— Stormy Jamesiels (@wetcasements) September 6, 2018

We Can Be Heroes (Not)

The White House is an actively anti-American snake pit.  No secrets there.  But "standing up to Trump" does not make you a hero, not by a long shot.  Erik Loomis:

"Fuck whoever this is. This isn’t resistance. This is self-preservation and nothing more. The person is either a fascist or a facilitator of fascism. This person, be it Pence or Mattis or Sessions or whoever, is a clown. If you want to be a powerful Republican actually resisting Trump, you have a model. It’s John Dean. Otherwise, please jump off a boat."

It's not hyperbole to suggest that while America will probably survive Trump, it cannot survive a Republican Party that lets the pussy-grabber have his way as long as Paris Hilton gets more tax cuts.