Congrats

I think it's clear by now I'm a conflicted Orioles fan, but goddammit if the Nationals didn't fight the fuck back every step of the way.

Congrats DC!#WorldSeries

— (I Ain't Afraid of No) James (@wetcasements) October 31, 2019

"a real ajumma"

An interview with Korean-American internet sensation Maangchi:

"For years, fans have been tuning in for her. She’s a comforting presence in her consistency, giving viewers the things they know to expect from a Maangchi video: her signature greeting, 'Hello, everybody!' in her thick, endearing Korean accent. Glitzy outfits, complete with elaborate headpieces. The occasional text that pops up on-screen to give personalities to the ingredients she cooks with. ('Oh, we are good looking anchovies! :)') But most importantly, it’s the fact that she’s an authority figure on Korean cooking — a real ajumma, a term of affection for middle-aged Korean aunties — that makes her so appealing.

It’s a relief when I meet Maangchi at a Starbucks in Manhattan and discover that her real-life persona is pretty much exactly as we see her on the internet. She walked in wearing white platform stiletto heels, and after giving me a warm hug, she ordered a caramel Frappuccino with whipped cream. When her drink came out, I regretted not living with the same vigor for life, looking pitifully at my watery iced latte."

Her videos are cute and funny even though I've never cooked (or plan to cook) a Korean dish in my life.  Also noteworthy that her name (Korean word for "hammer") comes from her days as an obsessive City of Heroes player.

Poor Little Dictator...

Take your pick with regards to Cheeto Hitler getting booed at a World Series game in DC.  Let's go with Roy Edroso for now though.  Or Matt Ford.

I'm from the DC area.  And yeah, it skews liberal but not just because it's a historically black city.  It's also because it's filled with Federal workers, and Trump has done nothing but shit on them (not just the "Deep State" FBI and CIA) since he came into office.

Of course he was going to get booed, and the sheer hubris of thinking his one and only foreign policy success ever would change that is, like everything about him, laughable.

And I'm still rooting against my better senses for the Nats, but it looks like the Astros and their shit-headed management have this thing won.

Halloween Growth

When I came to Korea 10 years ago Halloween parties were only to be found in 1) foreigner bars and 2) kindie hagwon, or private academies catering to kindergarten and elementary students.

Things have changed, I guess.  Even in this little suburb of northern Daegu I've noticed a few Korean bars, specifically the bars catering to my college students, setting up for Halloween parties.  (I know for a fact foreigners don't go to the places in my neighborhood, because other than my foreigner co-worker there aren't any.)

There's even one place, a fried chicken joint, that closed down recently.  It was strange to see it hadn't transmogrified into a noodle restaurant or coffee shop or even (this being Korea) a new fried chicken joint.  In fact, it's been gutted and is being turned into some kind of Halloween haunted house with stupidly expensive tickets (like 40 bucks or so).  Not that I'm going, but I'll be disappointed if it's not all-you-can-drink at least.

So I think it's fair to say Halloween has "made it" as an adopted Korean holiday.  (If you're wondering, Christmas is actually an official Korean holiday, with a real day off and all that.)

The Debate Over High / Low Culture In Movies Is Kind Of Stupid But Also Kind Of Important

There's far more stupid in the world today than necessary, so can we put the whole "Marvel and Star Wars movies aren't really movies" thing to bed?

Yes, they are trite and formulaic.  But there is world enough and time to appreciate "easy" movies as well as, say, the latest Yorgos Lanthimos or Claire Denis.

Same thing for books.  Or music.

I think what's really going on behind these arguments (remember Roger Ebert and video games?) is just territorial marking.  And it's mostly harmless.  Stay in your lane, nerds, and don't taint our supposedly superior cultural norms and forms.

It is elitist as hell to say only critically accepted directors (almost entirely white men) are allowed to create something called "art," and I'm fine with those arguments getting Twitter-mobbed by the nerdly, neck-bearded masses.  (I have little bad to say about Scorsese other than he's slightly over-rated but woo-boy, Coppola has made some genuine crap in his career.  I'll take B-level Marvel over Jack any day.)

At the same time, so much nerd and sci-fi culture has been bought up by Disney now that what used to be healthy, enthusiastic, and sometimes subversive fandom is now basically rooting for Mega-Corporations.  And these corporations can never be criticized for putting out tepid, obviously soul-less shit, but god forbid they write in a chick or a black dude or a gay couple.

Blindly self-identifying with corporations is always dangerous, even if they happen to put out the more easily digestible comfort culture that you love.  But not being willing to recognize that nerd shit has broken through to a wider audience of people who don't always look like you, who identify differently than you, is also dangerously stupid.

And to bitch and moan otherwise makes you look like the entitled bigot you may have been all along, not so much the misunderstood cultural outsider you wish you still were and can never be again.

Why Bother?

It takes a lot for me, a life-long Orioles fan (stop laughing) to root for the Nationals in this World Series.  But lo and behold, an overpaid douche-bro sexual violence apologist managed to do the trick!

Go Nats!

(Ugh.  Why do I bother with sports at all?)

"a badge of professional failure"

Adriana Gomez-Weston is a published writer trying to make it in Hollywood.  She also works at McDonald's to support herself.  Why does this bother, if not infuriate, so many of her fellow Americans?  Because:

"Unfortunately, the fast-food job has been pigeonholed as a badge of professional failure. Social media has further pushed this narrative through memes, viral videos and a culture of instant gratification and clout-chasing. Fast-food workers aren’t harming anyone, and we’re just doing our jobs. What’s so wrong with that? Working a fast-food job to make a living isn’t something to be ashamed of, but to many people, it is. To some, fast-food work is a last resort and implies that I didn’t make the right decisions in life. Due to the assumptions, it’s easy to not think about the people behind the counters. What people don’t know is that I went to college, left my hometown and decided to pursue my dreams in the entertainment industry. So riddle me this, what if you made all the right choices, but still don’t end up exactly where you want to be and work in fast food for stable income while you are still pursuing your passion?

As a society, we love to demand goods and services, especially greasy, unhealthy food. Yet we make fun of the people delivering those things. In the past, the fast-food job was seen as a launching pad to the American dream. These restaurants were havens for character-building and for social mobility. In some ways, they still are, but not like they used to be. The likes of Jeff Bezos, Jay Leno, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Lin-Manuel Miranda, among many others, worked at McDonald’s before becoming wildly successful."

One of the greatest con jobs ever pulled was convincing the majority of Americans that class doesn't matter, not in the land of bootstraps, grit, gumption, and a laughably inadequate minimum wage.

The fact is, Americans are some of the biggest class snobs on the face of the earth.  Most Republicans hate people who actually work for a living.  And at the end of the day, work is work and there is no such think as "unskilled" labor.

Also, if you can't leave a good tip don't go out to eat.

Always Be Hating

Halloween is stupid and over-rated and if you're over 13 you shouldn't participate.#discuss#constroversialtweet

— (I Ain't Afraid of No) James (@wetcasements) October 22, 2019

"failing upwards"

Nick Cohen on what links the sheer incompetence of men (almost always men, white men) like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump as they drag us all down to a hell of their own making:

"Johnson’s career of failing upwards since he left Eton illustrates that overconfidence is class determined. In politics and so many other British institutions, you see mediocrities take jobs for which they are not remotely qualified, because wealthy families and a private education have emboldened them.

In all spheres, catastrophic men and women are united by an imperviousness to the suffering they cause. Even on the most optimistic assumptions, UK in a Changing Europe found Johnson’s 'deal' will take £16bn from already dangerously underfunded public services and all who depend on them. (The pessimists believe £49bn will go.) The PM’s lack of concern for them is typical. Dixon described the siege of Kut in 1915 in what is now Iraq: an operation that led to 30,000 British and Indian army casualties. It distinguished itself, even in the First World War, for having no military purpose whatsoever."

Arguably, England is screwed even worse than America right now, because Brexit will last for generations.  Not that Trumpism is going away any time soon (there is no difference between Trumpism and Republican ideology), but at least we can start to turn things around next year, given some exceptional luck in the polls.

Swimmingly

Apparently What The Book? (I know, I know) has shut down -- the best resource for English-language books in South Korea.  So, I just gave Book Depository a shot for the first time.  They offer free delivery to Korea, so we'll see how it goes.  I'm ordering paperbacks, and nothing too obscure (N. K. Jemisin, Kim Stanley Robinson), so it should go swimmingly.

Clowns

BernieBros remain adorable.

An old man's recent heart attack doesn't matter!

Me: So let's vote for Kamala instead?

BernieBro: Hey, whoa, slow down there fella....

— (I Ain't Afraid of No) James (@wetcasements) October 16, 2019

Lunchy Munchy

I love Korean food, and I've been lucky to experience almost all of it in 10 years in lurvely Daegu.  But I'm also fascinated by Korean food culture -- the tendency to eat together, a drinking culture where food is always consumed with alcohol, the (too?) noisy bustle of almost all Korean restaurants.

So this a is a roundabout way of getting to lunch culture in Norway, via Vox:

"'Norway doesn’t have a warm lunch tradition,' explains Andreas Viestad, food writer and host of the public television series New Scandinavian Cooking. With the exception of employees at some large companies that offer hot lunches, he adds, traditionally everyone from the lowest-level worker to upper management would eat their own individually wrapped, brought-from-home matpakke.

So what exactly is it? To borrow from the architect Louis Sullivan, matpakke’s form follows its function: The point of these open-faced sandwiches is to provide a quick, easy, somewhat nutritious lunch-time meal that provides sustenance without leaving you too full. They typically consist of two or three slices of bread, smeared lightly with butter, each topped with a single slice of cheese or meat, or perhaps a thin layer of jam, liver paste, or tubed caviar.

And that’s ... basically it."

Not having a "warm lunch tradition" jumped out at me, because Korea has got to be the Disney World of "warm lunches."  While I have lunch with my boss every Monday at any number of local restaurants, for the rest of the week I tend to do the "American thing" of bringing my lunch to work.  (Usually a sandwich and some fruit, and a can of coffee or some juice, or even some convenience store sushi, and maybe a cookie if I'm feeling like Kanye.)

My boss, Doctor Kim, thinks I'm insane for doing this.  No, really -- the expression on his face is one of pure disgust if he catches me eating lunch at my desk.

And he's right to do so, in a lot of ways.  I've mentioned before that South Korea is one of those rare countries where it's actually cheaper to eat at restaurants than it is to cook at home.  For the equivalent of five to six dollars (well, maybe seven to eight in Seoul) you can eat a huge, relatively "from scratch" meal that will last you most of the day.  Play your cards right, and you can find "self service" or "refill" places with unlimited rice, kimchi, and pickles if you're really trying to stretch your won.

The point being, there's no need for frugal, American-style bag lunches here because for the same cost as a sandwich and chips and a drink, you can sit down and eat a real meal -- and not just fast food, mind you.  (Strangely enough, a Burger King or McDonald's set menu order can run for more than a local mom-and-pop, non-chain joint.)

So anyways, the next time my boss catches me munching a sandwich at my desk I'll let him know about Norway, and how really my lunch is an extravagantly fancy feast compared to what our Nordic Cousins are having that day.

High Life -- What I Thunk

High Life  soundtrack, "Willow"

Yes, Robert Pattinson is singing here and it's amazing.

Recently I took in Ad Astra and didn't think much of it -- dull, slow, but with some interesting ideas.

So this past weekend I finally got around to High Life.  I'll be the first to admit it might not be for everyone -- extremely violent, an intentionally confusing time line, and featuring "The Box" where crew members can frequently and violently masturbate at will.  And the crew members?  They are all convicted criminals who have chosen a final suicide mission to a black hole rather than prison on earth.

But strange as it is, it ultimately manages to offer a meditation on family, death, and infinity that's much more engaging, provocative, and original.

It soars and disintegrates weirdly, fiercely, whereas Ad Astra kind of plods along and manages to do a few things right in spite of itself.

The soundtrack is great too.

"Life is tenacious"

"The Canada lynx?  I call it the Manhattan lynx.  It feasts on New England cottontails, on snowshoe hares, muskrats and water rats.  At the center of the estuarine network swims the mayor of the municipality, the beaver, busily building wetlands.  Beavers are the real real estate developers.  River otters, minks, fishers, weasels, raccoons: all these citizens inhabit the world the beavers made from their version of lumber.  Around them swim harbor seals, harbor porpoises.  A sperm whale sails through the Narrows like an ocean liner.  Squirrels and bats.  The American black bear.

They have all come back like the tide, like poetry -- in fact, please take over, O ghost of glorious Walt:

Because life is robust,

Because life is bigger than equations, stronger than money, stronger than guns and poison and bad zoning policy, stronger than capitalism,

Because Mother Nature bats last, and Mother Ocean is strong, and we live inside our mothers forever, and Life is tenacious and you can never kill it, you can never buy it,

So Life is going to dive down into your dark pools, Life is going to explode the enclosures and bring back the commons,

O you dark pools of money and law and quantitudinal stupidity, you oversimple algorithms of greed, you desperate simpletons hoping for a story you can understand,

Hoping for safety, hoping for cessation of uncertainty, hoping for ownership of volatility, O you poor fearful jerks,

Life!  Life!  Life!  Life is going to kick your ass."

-- Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140

Late Capitalism Is Adorable

It's as if, under Capitalism, companies care more about profits than they do human rights and Democracy.#obvioustweet@apple@blizzard

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

Trumpism Can Never Fail, It Can Only Be Failed

Matt Ford calls it like it is, regarding Cheeto Hitler:

"What we’re witnessing is the birth of a lost-cause mythology for the Trump presidency. His supporters are being told that if he is impeached and removed from office, it won’t be due to the fact that he violated his oath of office by inviting foreign governments to interfere in the American democratic process. His downfall will instead be precipitated by a shadowy cabal of partisan Democrats, bent on overthrowing him—and American democracy, by proxy—through corrupt and illegitimate means. The risk here, as with the original Lost Cause narrative, is that it will encourage far-right groups to assault and murder Trump’s political opponents."

You say "Lost Cause," I say Dolchstoßlegende, but we're treading in the same dangerous, fascist pool here regardless.

But I'm sure Mitt Romney's measured tweets will protect us all from actual right-wing violence.

R.I.P. Ginger Baker

Ginger Baker's Air Force, live in 1970

If you're looking for a classic rock god with a ton of great deep cuts beyond their main gig, look no further that Ginger Baker.  Also, he was fucking crazy.

R.I.P. Ginger Baker, who has probably pissed of God more than a few times since he got upstairs to that great band riser in the sky.

Joker -- What I Thunk

Joaquin Phoenix is a great actor, but putting the camera on him for two hours and letting him exude his inner Travis Bickle does not a complete film make.

I enjoy watching the dude act, but I wish they'd created the rest of a functioning movie around him.  Deniro falls flat as the antagonist.  There are some nice mood moments, and 1981 New York City is incredibly, starkly believable.  (Yes, kids, Manhattan used to be the ultimate shit-hole.)

There are the bones of a great film here, but not nearly enough meat, moments of ultra-violence notwithstanding.

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood -- What I Thunk

I saw Tarantino's latest, Once Upon A Time. . . In Hollywood last weekend and did some Very Serious Tweets about it.  I think it's his best film so far, and would recommend it to anybody with a specific caveat -- the ending will make or break it for you.  Without saying too much, I think your reaction will be similar to whatever you thought of the ending of Inglorious Basterds.

The performances were excellent.  (I think Leo is actually becoming a better actor as he ages.)  The music was amazing.  (It's difficult to fault QT when it comes to any of his soundtracks.)  And it was just quirky enough in the right places to move the story along without winking at you too much.  (Lena Dunham is fine and unassuming, the Bruce Lee stuff goes by pretty fast but yeah, QT thinks he was an arrogant asshole.)

I might have more to say about it later.  I think there's a ton of symbolism going on in the last three minutes of the film, and not so much through the rest of it.  It's smart, at many times laugh-out-loud funny, and very much a love letter to old Hollywood, both as a place and an industry, both of which are long gone by now.

Your Scary Thought Of The Day

Over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, a perfectly cromulent question is asked -- if Trump loses the presidential election in November, 2020 (I'd put it at a solid 50/50 as of now) will he step down?  Will he physically walk out of the White House and fly back to his gold-plated toilets in New York?  More specifically, will his Republican enablers deny the will of the Electoral College?  (They obviously don't give a shit about the popular will, c.f. Gore 2000 and Clinton 2016).

In this great experiment known as American Democracy, the answer is clear -- Who the hell knows?