Random thoughts of late

Last Saturday I made mariscada for dinner, a pitcher of Sangria and watched "The Song Remains the Same" with my baby girl on my digital projector. I forgot about the famous "Dazed and Confused" clip where Jimmy Page plays with a violin bow. That concert film, preposterous and pretentious in parts of course, takes a lot of heat, but there are some brilliant moments and the No Quarter/Song Remains the Same/Rain Song section ranks really high for seamless transitions of brilliance and innovation. The only thing that flows together as well that I can think of is the Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window section of Abbey Road.
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I love Ancient history, especially that of Rome, Greece and Egypt. This isn't the best set of podcasts I've heard on these topics, but it is very good and it's free. This one is much better, but it costs money. I got it as a gift from a friend. There are countless others on that website I'd like to have. When traveling, or just farting around in line at the bank or shopping, I absolutely love having access to these lectures and podcasts. There are tons of free podcasts at Itunes. Some of these things pile up, and traveling gives me a chance to catch up on a lot of them.

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I love the movies, but find the vast majority wretched beyond belief. I'm not the biggest Eastwood fan, but I plunked down $9.50 and saw Gran Torino last week, and it is a really good film. It captures the generational divide especially pointedly at the vacuous nature of the current one.

I also saw Slumdog Millionaire, and while I liked it, I wasn't overwhelmed or anything. It is a very dark film for sure. It captures India and poverty really well. I saw a Filipino film called Cavite, which also captured poverty really well, but the overall plot of that film was nowhere near as realistic as Slumdog Millionaire. Prior to that I saw Nixon/Frost. I've read and seen a lot about Nixon, who was before my time. The most striking thing about him I think what is that what Bush did is so much worse, but Nixon paid a much higher price. Nixon was chased out and largely ostracized for far less damaging over the top political shenanigans -- crimes for sure, but can they really compare to what W did. Bush will most likely get away with far worse crimes such as lying about reasons for war, torture, extraordinary rendition, the Scooter Libby commutation, asleep during Katrina, the Alberto Gonzales attorney purge scandal and the general politicization of the Attorney General's office, snooping on citizens et al.

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I'm normally skeptical of celebrities hawking things out of their area of renown, but I was especially impressed with the Estefan Kitchen cookbook and bought a copy last week. I scanned numerous Cuban cookbooks at my local Barnes and Noble and I thought this one was the most useful by far.

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My sister is a big fan of Bill Burr. I think he belabors some of his bits too much, but I like his style and agree with her on his talents. He's coming to the Phoenix area in May. Mitch Fatel will be here late next month, and I will doubtlessly check out that show.

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I wonder if this was humbling at all for U2, whose new album and doubtless tour I'm looking forward to seeing. Legendary band at historical moment in a monumental location and all of Bono's efforts can't warm up that frozen stiff crowd.

In case I need a mood lifter

I want this image easily accessible for those dark, depressing or sad moments. I was only slightly comforted that the rest of the country finally "got" what an inept clown this guy was --five years too late for what was painfully obvious on day one. His legacy: financial wreckage centered on an unimaginable debt, joblessness, homes lost, medical care unaffordable, millions of Iraqis dead, thousands of Americans killed or maimed, the terrorist who killed 3,000 Americans still at-large, the language butchered, our global prestige dissipated, the culture even more dumbed down and the document he promised to "preserve, protect and defend" pissed on. Good riddance.

David Letterman George Bush Finale Top Ten List

I think number eight says it all.

It's not kryptonite

I picked up a Himalayan Crystal Rock Salt Lamp in Sedona and I love it. So far it hasn't drained any of my non-existing superpowers.

Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers

I read this book in its entirety last night, which means I found it pretty compelling. I've read Malcolm Gladwell's two previous books, Blink and the Tipping Point, and I liked both of them and the author's manner of presenting scholarly research in a rich, vibrant style with lots of anecdotes and personalized stories. This book takes a look at what factors determine wild success stories, as well as the role of culture as it impacts success in certain endeavors. His chapter on why Asians succeed in math was especially fascinating. There were a few dull sections, and some of the conclusions about education I think are way removed from the real world, but overall this is a fantastic read.

New Years Day in Sedona

Budae jigae: One of the first Korean fusion dishes

When I was teaching in Korea some friends told me about this famous stew called Budae Jigae, which roughly translated means, "Military Soup." Everyone prefaces the description by saying, "It sounds horrible, but," which is a fair assessment. When food was scarce in the Korean War period people improvised and came up with this fusion soup of traditional Korean red pepper broth and added the hot dogs and spam that were readily available. It takes something like this to make me touch Spam with a ten foot pole, but I have to admit, this is pretty good food. The items below are fairly standard, but people have been known to add bulgogi, baked beans and rice cakes. If the idea of spam and hot dogs is too horrifying, one variation is to omit those and use a can of tuna. This is basically called chamchi jigae, and is also very good. It sounds strange, but it is a nice dish. Serve it over rice of course.

3 tablespoons Korean soup stock mix
3-4 cups water
2-3 tablespoons gochujang or more if you like it even spicier
2 hot dogs sliced up
2 slices spam
2 green onions chopped up
3 garlic cloves chopped
tofu
1 or 2 packages of ramen noodles
bean sprouts
leafy vegetable like kale
kim chi, of course

From the Bill Simmons mailbag

Q: How hilarious would it be if President Bush pardoned O.J.???!!! I just think that would be a great ending to a terrible presidency! He'd go out with a bang.-- Gian Gonz, Austin, Texas

SG: This idea slayed me for some reason -- not the premise as much as how everyone would react to the news. I think it would make Bill Maher self-combust. He'd just explode like a hot-air balloon.

Foxy

I was strolling down memory lane this morning looking at old pictures, and this one struck me. I'd see some awfully strange stuff living in Korea.

Out in the open in one of the most polluted cities on earth, Incheon, it might seem like a good idea to wrap up those chickens sitting quite close to the exhaust fumes on this pick up. It was cold as hell that day, I'm not sure ice was the most important idea to be had.

And how many eggs exactly can fit on one motor scooter, which leads me to the Ja Ja Myeong problem as philosophers call it. In Korea, restaurants will deliver food to your place in minutes, and they'll give you real plates. They come around and collect the plates and silverware from your hallway an hour or so later. Tipping is also forbidden. If you try to tip them, they'll refuse. The drivers take their scooters on snow and ice and take quite a few nasty spills. If you screw up in high school, noodle deliveryman is pretty much your fate. Late bloomers aren't such a huge feature of Korean society. I'd pose the question to my students on whether these guys were nuts to deliver food for little money risking life and limb, or noble servants doing their duty. Most sided with the latter option.
I used to live in this little office tel in Incheon, and I do mean small. I never knew any of my neighbors. I'd just hear the click of high heels late at night. The only people who would live in that place were English teachers, a ubiquitous lot in Korea, and room salon girls, who were equally ubiquitous. Korean businessmen pay a couple hundred dollars to sing karaoke, eat fruit and drink whiskey with young, attractive Korean women. Supposedly that was all that went on. Around that apartment I would see several ajummas, the perm was the telltale sign, carrying off the cardboard in their rickshaws.

Now this is a warning sign. How many drunken, pregnant, old people attempt to ride a roller coaster? Unrelated to Korean experiences, but I took this in the late 90s on the Staten Island Ferry. It still seems like some kind of bizarre movie idea that those towers went the way they did.