|
7 . 3 1 . 0 6 Trying to duck out the heat wave of 2006, with heat indexes supposed to his 110 or 115 today I got up earlier than normal to see if I can beat the heat on my morning commute. The metro has been pretty stank lately, with a lot of District denizens seeking shelter in the air conditioned metrorail cars. On my way back from the law school there were a bunch of sweaty people looking very exhausted and drained. My course study and summer experience has given me a closer look at the city and the people that call the district home, in many ways it is depressing how split up the city is, segregated along demographic lines. I remember attending a research conference in Ann Arbor listening to a paper talking about how the most segregated cities in the country were in the midwest (Chicago, Milwaukee) I couldn't help but wonder how DC would fare. Something as simple as noticing the passengers riding a train from one quadrant of the city to the other would give you a sense what the demographic make up of the neighborhoods are. I also wonder if the choice of having stations above or underground has any correlation to the surrounding areas around the station. Its hot outside, thats for sure, and it sucks waiting for 20 minutes for a train. Had a dream last night that I was walking down a darkened city street, and noticed that the building next to me began moving down the street like a train. It was a new form of transporation, instead of going down the street to get someplace, the "somplace" moved for you. I walked into the building entrance and it moved down the street to the next building stop where more people got on and went to work. Later on I ran into an old flame, who was saddened/surprised when I told her that I was getting married. I was then surprised that she was surprised, and likely surprised that I was planning on getting married. More war in the middle east, now there is serious talk about Syria getting involved, either through an Isreali escalation or errant airstrike. Who knows what will happen if it spreads over the border, Iran has been talking about having to back up their ally in the region, maybe the US will invade from the rear. Strange how world events can shift and change so suddenly. I have been having the occaisional feeling of dread at night as to what is in store for us in the near future. I am still far from being enlightened and without worldly detachments afterall. 7 . 2 5 . 0 6 More bombs and rockets in the middle east, either way you spin it the situation isn't looking very good. I have my opinions on the disproportionate amounts of military power on one side over the other, but bottom line it distubs me to see kids and civilians getting blown up and burned alive. This is a decades, maybe centuries old conflict that has been festering and was bound to explode eventually. I also can't see how sending more bombs to the region is going to help any, even if they are supposedly precision bombs, or smart bombs. a really smart bomb would not kill anyone, maybe like those psychotrophic LTN (Love Thy Neighbor) Bombs in a Stanislaw Lem novel. More Youtube browsing, moving on from the reggae I ended up looking into some Japanese hiphop. I think there is something to be said about the fob factor which wanes in and out of the music depending on whether or not you watch the video, it seems strange hearing hiphop or reggae, in another language especially with the themes and gestures of the artist as a testiment to how the genre has evolved as it was exported from home country to overseas. hiphop has evolved as a brand that has become a sort of subculture in other countries like Japan packaged in the blingbling cristal-drinking partying form that dominates but more the MTV top 40 playlists today. The hiphop of today seems so commercialized and detached from its roots as a vessel of American urban political and social commentary, something that seems to have been lost as it has exported from America to the world. It shows in the garb, gestures and scattered ebonics among the crossover international artists. This disconnect is true even within the home country, you definitely see this among a lot with Asian American artists taking on the hiphop inspiration, with varied amounts of success. It all goes my ongoing observations that APIs are out of touch with their culture, and in search of something to define them and to identify with. Maybe the MTV-ized, commercialized party version is something that they can identify with better than the street version. Too often though, you end up seeing APIs trying to act black, ghetto, or just speak ebonics, despite never really having any real contact with black people growing up. Take off the mask of the aspiring hiphop artist and they would avoid living anywhere near a black neighborhood. They end up looking ridiculous, sadly, kind of fobby. To contrast this, I guess when you export something overseas you have the chance that it'll be misunderstood, but then again absent memes of direct comparisons it allows the host culture to run with it and eventually adopt a more original feel, or even funkier music the basic disconnect is along ethnic lines given the history of both music genres were formed originally as outlets of expression by ethnic minorities that sweltered under the oppression of slavery or colonial rule. Maybe that might explain the rise of reggae in the kansai area as opposed to Tokyo, but I don't think the comparison quite the same. Maybe 2nd generation north korean immigrants to Japan, that would be interesting. Then again it probably is the same for hawaiian hiphop and reggae, aside from the common language. For some extent I think Hawaii's history has many historical similarities with colonial societies, in many ways the plantation system is still very much intact. 7 . 1 8 . 0 6 More Japanese reggae madness from Youtube - this artist is named 'Moomin,' kind of a Beres/Rayvon influenced singer fused with Jpop, but I guess it works more or less. Don't really understand the concept of this song, but the beat is cool and the video is pretty cutesy and maybe a little scary. With the slower lyrics I can actually understand half of what they're singing. Too much going on in the world, looking more and more like a war in middle east, the latest twist of the day was reports that any Americans who are evacuated from Lebanon via cruise ship or US military helicopter will have to reimburse the US government for the cost of travel. Pretty stupid. A bunch of talking heads and newsies were quick to qualify this report with the fact that there is some federal statute or legislation that does authorize this charging of payment for rescue. Couldn't believe that they were actually saying this - once again, the right thing to do does not always equate the legal thing to do. But that would be too simple, too much common sense. It speaks volumes to the priorities we have when it comes to human life and well-being, even Americans. We're willing to piss away billions in government contracts to mercenaries and oil conglamorates but we can't foot a lift to our fellow citizens stuck in a war zone. Also got me thinking about all the images from Hurricane Katrina, the hundreds of stranded Louisiana residents waving to coast guard helicopters from their rooftops, others roasting in the sun screaming at the cameras. Back when it hit there were a lot of allegations thrown about regarding race and bias, maybe all of that was spoken too soon, I don't think Dubya cares about anybody outside his inner circle. Its not about race, or even class even. Its a failure of leadership pure and simple, our dear leader does not even care what happens to his own people. He's more interested in supporting the foreign policy of another country than saving American lives. I mean think about it. The US president has tremendous amount of power and line of communications with his allies, especially with the lone "western-democratic" nation state in the region, not to mention one of the biggest customers of US military toys. If he really wanted to he could at least stop the killing on one side pretty quickly. But since he has failed to do so, neither side has any incentive to step back and think about whats really going on. Of course whats really fucked up is that you'd think that if the US was to permit a massive military offensive as we have seen in the past weeks that would put civilians at risk the US would at least consider the 25,000 Americans living in the region? Maybe he just forgot. I wonder if any of them will be voting GOP in 2006. Also absent in the news is the point that the bombings of civilian airports, water purifiers, highways and other infrastructure is in violation of international law, namely the geneva convention. Along those lines theres something to be said about the violation of another nation-state's sovereignty, crossing the border with tanks and ground troops in what would amount to a full fledged invasion not when Iraq invaded Kuwait. All this talk about having a right to defend oneself through a pre-emptive invasion is even more reeking of BS. Just be up front about it, this action isn't in response to kidnapped soldiers or self-defense, this is about striking a death keel to one's enemies with no mercy. Once again the strong rhetoric of rule of law and civilization gives way to convinent exceptions. Collective punishment is a bitch, especially when coupled with military and technological superiority. But enough of that political shit. More reggae from Japan via youtube - I'm digging this happy and carefree grooves. This one features U-dou and Platy, an Okinawan reggae duo. If you watch closely you can see all the goya in the background of the video. 7 . 1 5 . 0 6 Mid-july, on the brink of a heatwave, and war is spreading in the middle east. Seems like the past week has been marked with rapid escalation of bombings, airstrikes, rocket attacks, and casulties. It all happened so quickly it was surprising to see the newsreporters talking about bustling cafes and tourists in the "venice of the middleast" which quickly turned into a war zone. The recent developments are disturbing, mostly by the callous tactics on both sides, the bombing of civilian infrastucture and residential areas by the IDF, which are superior in terms of firepower and technology - and the kidnapping of soldiers by Hezbollah, reminiscant of the kidnapping and beheadings of western hostages in iraq broadcasted on the internet. However I think what is most disturbing is the pathetic situation the US has been left as far as being able to broker any kind of a peace deal, or even a temporary cease-fire. In the past the US at least had an arguement, although cynical one, in being at least a somwehat credible peace broker to the ongoing palestinian-isreali conflict. This credibility and potential is gone now that we're busying playing crusader. Its relaly hard to argue that you are in an impartial, nuetral situation with 145,000 troops occupying a neighboring country that are getting shot at and blown up daily. It is even harder to argue integrity in a peace process when some of these very same troops are committing war crimes that would amount to rape, murder and good old fashioned pillaging. I'm hoping that this new conflict will be resolved peacefullly, but the cynical side of me thinks that this time it might be fore keeps. surprisingly enough, I have heard of a segmant of people who are cheering this on for, ironically, religious reasons. Kill the infidels, sure why not. On a lighter note, I've been stumbling on more international reggae music courtesy of youtube - I'm digging this reggae singer Pushim - browsing around on the web I found some more clips and another video posting for some song called Bulldog" - has a good beat and groove to it, although I can't quite get used to the Japanese lyrics mixed with random English words. Got into a conversation on the then hot topic of the recent missle tests by N Korea, ot into the US military stance in E & SE asia regarding a potential confrontation with N Korea over a pre-emptive strike by Japan, or and/or a conflict with China over Taiwan declaring independence. speaking in hypothetical scenarios of course, he seemed overconfident of the US military ability to fight a triple fronted war against multiple adversaires, and that maintaining a naval blockade of China would not have any negative effects on the US and global trade economy. Granted on paper on certain specific points I could not disagree with him, I was a little taken aback by how hawkish he was about exerting US military capabilities so far so soon. of course, there was also the cultural relativity question, being from Hawaii and perhaps ignoring the colonial and plantation and contract labor elements of our shared history, I would hope that any intelligent individual would have benefittd from that kind of perspective when looking at the current state of world affairs. The economic and political forces that granted a lot of Hawaiians and plantation immigrants their American citizenship were driven by global conquest and capitalistic missions of self-interest. The massive profits of the few and powerful were made from the blood sweat and tears of the weak, the immigrant, the poor. You might think that knowing this history one would inevitably question the motives and what the actual benefit to society does this approach have both in the short and long run. applying the economic arguement beyond the strict bottom line and think of it in terms of human captial and moral captial. Eventually I asked if he had ever considered serving in the military given his hawkish stance, of course he said no. The next question would've been if he had any relatives or close friends in the military that might be sent into harms way, but I thought better of it, figuring I proabably already knew the answer to that question as well. Of course the third question would've been whether he would be a draft resister if the US ever has to start the draft boards up again to make up for a shortage of troops, or whether he would go willingly with the affirmed confidence he has in the capabilities of our armed forces to keep him out of harms way and unscathed. I hope I'm wrong in the split-second impression, but I thought it was a pretty convincing illustration of the neo-con mentality that is captivated the country today. Ideally those that are so quick to wage war should be forced to sacrifice just as much as the soldiers who have to fight it on the ground - if you ask me anyone that is so quick to even think about putting others in harms way based on a classroom theory is unfit to lead. I hope that this past administration hasn't been inspiring the younger generation that this is a proactive way to interact with the rest of the world. 7 . 4 . 0 6 Another sweltering fourth of July in the District, decided to duck out the heat this year with my new grill pan and watch the fireworks on TV. After crazy thunderstorms and flash flooding, it's been pushing 100 lately, with the freak storn lighting up the sky and forcasts of torrential rain and hail. Been a very busy weekend, NASA got a shuttle launched, N Korea tested a missle, the IDF blew up another Hamas building in Gaza, some US soldiers were indicted of war crimes, and I rented the zipcar to run some errands. Found some Lienenkugal's red up in Rockville, a couple of six packs on the bottom shelf of the beer locker at this small beer & wine shop in a strip mall. It's been a little bit of a treasure hunt for me scoping out Wisconsin brews out east, I think eventually the market will strengthen and some of those beers will come out here. Meanwhile another wrinkle in the crazy DC housing market, thinking that I fit in the category of people too rich for public housing assistance, but too poor to buy in an overheated and insane housing market. People like me are left with no choice but to keep renting and hope that the market eventually regains some sanity. At the current rate it doesn't make sense to buy anything around here, still can't get over the $1.3M house down the street from me that sold a year ago and the $870K 2 bedroom/furnished basement townhome that just went on the market last month. Last week I went to a eat at Agraria in Georgetown, an organic-themed resturant that apparently uses the family farm that runs the farmer's market down the street from me. Being that I don't head down there very often due to the over-pricey venues and limited access by public transportation, I have to say that it was an exception to the rule and was worth the trip down. Walking along the waterfront I ran into several crowds of people enjoying the weather - thought it was a strange concept to see people there with their boats parked alongside of the canal, I guess its kind of like having a car on the water to pick up chicks. Getting down there was a pain in the ass though, I debated catching a cab but with the traffic I opted to ride the DC circulator, which is a great idea I might add, if the city would ever get around to devoting a lane or two on K street for just public transporation I'm sure more people would ride it. I keep recalling the story that GT residents once fought plans to expand a metro station in their neighborhood because they were trying to keep "those people" out. Funny how there seem to be more panhandlers and vagrants in GT than most other areas of the city, I suppose the opponents to the metro station didn't realize that bums can walk across bridges and set up camp pretty much anywhere if they really wanted to. It doesn't matter really, the whole area is a hot/trendy place to hang out, especially with the younger college and yuppie crowd. I kind of wonder what would it be like if you were to swap the demographics of DC and Hawaii, in terms of venues, city layout, neighborhoods, who konws. Afterall cities are defined by the people who live there. GT definately has the Ocean's vibe to it, lots of kids and young adults flaunting their affluence, both new and old, of course. Brings to mind some old Honolulu Weekly article about "Jappies" (The Author's code name for Yuppie-Hawaiian-Japanese) hanging out at the trendy Honolulu hotspots. The article was pretty funny, a total rip on the private school, uppper-middle class descendants of Japanese ancestry that have risen to be a socio-economic-political force in Hawaii. It was self-defeating though, how the author seemed to have a very specific set of presumptions of this group of people, namely that they are all social conservatives, and the hardest sounds they listen to is christian rock. Been doing some random browsing on Youtube and came across some clips from the J-Reggae scene out of Osaka-Kansai area. I had heard about some groups back in college but didn't realize how widespread it was. I found this one video that had a good beat and groove to the lyrics "Respect", one live recording of a performance by Spinna B-ill, some clips of reggae/R&B singer Pushim, one of her better songs "Forever", one with a ragga named Ryo the Skywalker "From Distance", and the whole home grown reggae crew watch for the big gorilla??? - Curious to what they're singing about since my Japanese isn't getting any better over the years. |