It kept on raining

This is old news, but I just watched Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke," about the causes and effects of the disaster in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. It's a sad and angry documentary, and worth your time. Three years after Katrina bands of armed raiders prowl the asbestos-lined FEMA trailers.

"Use the double-wide!"

Even Homer voted. Will you? (HT to Matt)

3 thoughts on the VP debate

1. Sarah Palin would make an excellent talk show host, but I don't want her running the United States of America.

2. Joe Biden makes me feel like I'm listening to a wise man, but I'm skeptical of his ability to lead the country with real dynamism, and that's what is needed.

3. The lack of potential for controversy is disappointing.

4. Biden won.

Chinese children

Slate has an interesting story here about Asian-Americans in the political system.

"Unless I'm hit by a bus or fall off a horse, I don't see why not."

Do you all remember Sufjan Stevens? C'mon, try hard. He was that indie songwriter with the ethereal textures, the one with all the instruments, that wrote all those songs you liked? Remember?

(Casmir Pulaski Day, from "Illinois")


Does that do it? No? Remember he said he was going to write an album about all 5o states? Well, it's been three years. The rumor was the next one is going to be Oregon, but it's been a long time since I've heard anything. Dude better hurry up or he's going to be double-discing the Dakotas and the Carolinas just to get it done.

Oh how I love the shirts you wear

As I'm not a street photographer, I don't have pictures of these. Imagine them on women in their 30s with long t-shirts, the words written in all caps down the front.

DROP ACID NOT BOMBS

SUN YOUR BUNS

I WAS IN NAM WHEN YOU WERE IN MOM

YOU LOOKED BETTER AS A FRESHMAN

PUREFUCKINGCANADIAN (Made in Italy, born in Canada)

THE HANDSOME BOY IN BLUE OFTEN DANCES WITH A GIRL

I SUPPORT THE COSMETIC SURGERY

And my favorite, I mean I stopped on the street to laugh -- a boy wearing a bright, canary yellow t-shirt that read in big block letters, I'M WITH STUPID and the arrow was pointing up.

Where are all the protest songs?

How long have we been at war in the Middle East? Where is Phil Ochs? Where is Woodie Guthrie? Where are the songwriters? We have talented lyricists, we have David Berman, John Darnielle, Conor Oberst--we have all these so-called folk singers that play acoustic guitars and sound "folky," but they forget what it is to be a folk singer. Is it going to take to a depression before our country makes the type of art that the world we live in requires? I wrote about this four years ago, and still nothing's changed.

At least Steve Earle's trying ("Come Back Woody Guthrie" at the 2008 Philadelphia Folk Festival)


Phil Ochs singing "I Ain't Marching Anymore":

Cleanse song

Korean food, even if I avoid gochuchang (red pepper paste) and keep it mild, can seriously hurt. Especially if there's a lot of beer and soju involved. Saying I live in a place where it's culturally required to drink misplaces the responsibility; it's ultimately up to me what goes in and out of my body. For a long time now, though, I've pretty much taken in everything put in front of me. I am an excessive American, and at times it catches up to me. I'll have brutal nights of stomach pain that over-the-counter medicine doesn't salve, doesn't cure.

I've long talked about getting a colonic, which I've heard great things about, and would love one if I find the right clinic. In the meantime, when I was back in the States I picked up a cleanse. As much as I laugh at West Coast New Age philosophy, there are some parts of their culture people can benefit from, namely their ideas about food and health.

For the past week I've been on the First Cleanse, an herbal program intended to detox. At the health food store in my hometown, the woman clerk told me it wouldn't be overly intense, not send me running to the bathroom, and I'd be able to work on it. So far I haven't noticed any real differences in anything. I have to piss a lot, but that's about it. If anything I'm acting healthier knowing that I'm on this, so that's a start.

Joe Six-Pack my ass

This is the type of Republican deceit that I find the most maddening. It's what got W. elected and what I can't understand. Why do American voters want a quality of average in their leaders? I don't know about you guys, but I want exceptional.

Cities in rivers, Oregon Trail, end of summer, and Hymn California

One of my great favorite writers is also one of my great favorite friends. He wrote a book that got published this year, and it's Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac, but today. It's stories about America from a guy that's done more living in 30-some years than three people do in their lives. Raw, vivid, lyric descriptions--sung stories about fighting through hard times in hard places.

Hymn California’s characters witness a strange wide-sweeping, panoramic America unfolding before them, while its 200 pages examine death obsessions, regional history, difficult love, and having an abusive relationship with a place (California) rather than a person. It shows displaced characters scattered across the continent, burdened by fear and homesickness while fighting to have a good time, raise hell, and live unencumbered by bourgeois ideology and “bullshit consumer culture.” Death stalks at every intersection and on every riverbank. Lives sway in the delirium of wartime. Waffle Houses, UFO cults, dead friends, serial killers, yellow-lit billboards, reluctant soldiers, suicidal teenagers, drug dealers, grandparents, Mexican cops, drunken cat-killers, and the Pope collide like trains. As its road story unravels, the characters find heavy violence, superstition, hard drugs, and surreal and wonderful mornings set across the contidental US and Mexico. Says Gnade, “a friend of mine asked me if I was trying to write ‘American magic realism’ with the book and I didn’t really have an answer for him. If it is, it was an accident.”

He lives in Portland, Oregon, and if you do too you can buy the book at Powell's Bookstore. If you don't, you can order it here.

5 podcasts

1. NPR: World Story of the Day Podcast

Hard news from around the world. Short, usually 3-4 minutes.

2. The FADER

Street-level music magazine set lists. If I had a house, I would have a party every month when these come out and all my friends would think I had excellent taste in music.

3. Rocketboom

Smart, breakneck 3-minute videos on internet culture. I have a huge crush on the host, Joanne Colan, who is often funny, always attractive.

4. Slate Magazine Daily Podcasts

Insightful commentary on the world. News stories everyday are relevant and sharp. My favorite part is the Gabfest, where three whip smart journalists hash out the week's news and give recommendations for party chatter.

5. This American Life

Great stories.

6. New Yorker: Comment

Analysis about America from the best writers in America.

7. APM: Weekend America Enhanced Podcast

Stories about America that remind me why I miss it. John Moe is hilarious. Last week he told the joke: "What is brown and sticky? A stick."

Find all these by searching the titles in iTunes.

Someone great in Seoul?

LCD Soundsystem is playing a disco set in Seoul on Oct. 10. Maybe. I don't trust Korean promoters, especially whenever it sounds too good to be true, as this does. I'm trying to do a story on it for the Herald for next Thursday's paper. We'll see. If it does go down, I'll be there with my disco boots and gold chain, and you should too.

Mix Tape #1

If I would make you a mix CD right now, I'd make you two, and this is what I'd put on them.

Disc 1
1. "People As Places As People"-- Modest Mouse
2. "Call It A Ritual"-- Wolf Parade
3. "You Belong"-- Hercules and Love Affair
4. "Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above"-- CSS
6. "No Substitute Love"-- Estelle
7. "First Class Riot"-- The Tough Alliance
8. "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"-- Paul Simon
9. "Lost Coastlines"-- Okkervil River
10. "Love Dog"-- TV On the Radio
11. "Visions of Johanna"-- Bob Dylan
12. "Skinny Love"-- Bon Iver
13. "Twilight"-- Elliott Smith
14. "Waiting Around to Die"-- Townes Van Zandt

Disc 2
1. "Four Provinces"-- The Walkmen
2. "Constructive Summer"-- The Hold Steady
3. "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As Your Told)-- The White Stripes
4. "Gobbledigook"-- Sigur Ros
5. "Party Barge"-- The Silver Jews
6. "I Luv the Valley OH"-- Xiu Xiu
7. "Where Summer Goes"-- Peter and the Wolf
8. "Fools"-- The Dodos
9. "Rise Above"-- The Dirty Projectors
10. "Little Brother"-- Grizzly Bear
11. "Lawyers, Guns, and Money"-- Warren Zevon
12. "Sympathy For the Devil"-- The Rolling Stones
13. "If I Had a Boat"-- Lyle Lovett
14. "Green Gloves"-- The National

Ways of Seeing

For the duration of this blog, nearly two years, I have been posting longish pieces written for newspapers in Nebraska and Korea. I have since decided to take a slightly different approach. It won't always be about Korea -- in fact it probably won't be that much about Korea at all, aside from the obvious fact that I live in Seoul and that will underscore my writings. I'll still post stories I write for the Herald and elsewhere, but I'll try to keep my posts brief and more frequent. As always, comments, feedback, etc. are encouraged.

--Bart

5 Pictures of Bukhansan