Blog

  • Guitar Man

    Jerry Reed, introduced here by Jim Ed Brown, with his 1967 hit:

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95V1XJZ2xYE&w=560&h=315]

    The song's probably best known in Elvis's version:

    Reed recalled how he was tracked down to play on the Presley session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer at RCA Victor) He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut "Guitar Man" all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys [you're using in the studio] are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"

    Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session. "I hit that intro, and [Elvis's] face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut [my] U.S. Male at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son."

    The great She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) was a late career (1982) hit, as well as being a hot contender for best parenthetical song title. Though in fact Reed married once, to Country singer Priscilla Mitchell, and they stayed together til his death in 2008.

    [He played with quite a range of talent: nice duet with BB King here, and here with Chet Atkins.]

  • At the aquapark

    /p>

    Milach5

    Milach7

    Milach4

    Milach6
    [Photos © Rafal Milach | Magnum Photos]

  • Rabbit stew

    a military source in the country on June 7, the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces (MPAF) ordered that each soldier must breed “1.5 rabbits of at least 3.5 kilograms.” The order instructed the households of each soldier to “breed 15 rabbits” while stating that an “evaluation” of their progress in raising the rabbits would be held at an unspecified date before late August. 

    Given that summer military drills began on July 1, the new order is expected to place a significant burden on soldiers. A company of 130 soldiers, for example, would have to breed at least 195 large rabbits in addition to participating in military drills. 

    Indeed, since the order was handed down, soldiers have been tasked with expanding the number of rabbit cages, boosting rabbit numbers and obtaining rabbit food. All of this has eaten up much of their rest time. 

    “Soldiers carry out their duties and training in the morning, then have to head into the hills to pick acacia leaves and clover for an hour before they can rest,” the source told Daily NK.

    The families of soldiers, for their part, are already busily preparing food for a weekly holiday honoring soldiers (“The Day of the Soldier,” which is held on Sundays during the summer military drills period). The new order means they all have to find time to raise 15 rabbits.  […]

    Daily NK’s source pointed out that the order to raise more rabbits has shown how poorly military units are supplied with food from the government. 

    “Although [the authorities] have made a lot of noise about raising rabbits in the past, this is the first time they have given soldiers a specific number of rabbits to breed,” the source said. 

    “The authorities seem to be subtly hinting that soldiers must find things to eat because they won’t get much food from the government,” he added.

    Nothing subtle about it.

  • A priceless ideological and spiritual treasure of our people

    As I've noted before – most recently with reference to the Supreme Leader's sister, and her stipulation that a 75-volume series of literary works focused on the building of the Pyongyang General Hospital project should be produced in time for the 75th anniversary of Party Foundation Day in October – in North Korea there's no culture beyond regime propaganda.

    They admit it themselves. They're proud of the fact.

    Cycles of Novels Conveying Greatness of Peerlessly Great Persons:

    Over 80 novels belong to the cycles of novels “Immortal History” and “Immortal Guidance”, literature of national value splendidly depicting the noble revolutionary careers, immortal exploits and personalities of the great leaders.

    These novels constitute another historical document conveying the great revolutionary history and undying feats of the leader to posterity as well as the present generation.

    They also serve as a true textbook in people’s struggle and life and a weapon of revolution.

    They are a priceless ideological and spiritual treasure of our people which has their unique ideological and artistic features as revolutionary novels depicting the leader.

    Ours is the only one among numerous countries in the world which has a veteran creative team mainly portraying the leader with literature and the cycles of novels, a national treasure handing down the greatness of the leader.

    The only one among numerous countries in the world, that is, which has no independent creative life.

  • The war zone of the American left

    e like the little boy saying the emperor has no clothes, namely pointing something out that a large number of people believe in the first place but have been cowed into acquiescence.

    “No one’s [been] murdered yet, or burned at the stake, so I wouldn’t go too far in tasteless comparisons to the Chinese cultural revolution or the European witch hunts, but in terms of the psychology and social dynamics that arise from the psychology, there are parallels. Societies can get locked into a circle of mutual, pre-emptive denunciation: you denounce lest you be denounced. You prove your bona fides, that you’re on the right side of the moral crusade, by denouncing those on the wrong side before you yourself get denounced. I don’t want to say that the criticism of journalists and academics is the same as burning a real witch, [but] some of the underlying dynamics overlap.”

    Update: more on that Steven Pinker letter:

    An open letter to the Linguistic Society of America has called for the removal of Steven Pinker from its list of distinguished fellows. It accuses the Harvard professor of using racist dog-whistles, scientific racism and broadly opposing the goals of racial justice. The accusations in the letter have been thoroughly contested and rejected by the likes of Nicholas Christakis, Michael Shermer, John McWhorter and Noam Chomsky, among others. The attempt to cancel Steven Pinker has failed in spectacular fireworks – fitting indeed for the week after Independence Day.

    But don’t be distracted by the explosions – this letter wasn’t really about Pinker at all. In fact, it has a very specific function – to dissuade lesser-known academics and students from questioning the ideological consensus. The letter says, in not so few words: ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re Steven f***ing Pinker. If you don’t agree with our ideological prescriptions, you don’t belong here.’

    The letter is really directed towards you – the unknown academic, the young linguist, the graduate student. And in this particular goal of dissuading dissent, it will undoubtedly be successful…

  • Woman in white

    On Parkland Walk, at Crouch Hill:

    IMG_4707s

    From Do1Cancer.

  • Showing their gratitude

    Well yes, sometimes nice stuff happens:

    Jihyun Park and Timothy Chow understand the meaning of hardship. Both suffered under the brutal North Korean regime, enduring famine, the deaths of family members and imprisonment in forced labour camps – before fleeing and eventually receiving asylum in the UK.

    Wanting to give something back to the country that gave them safe haven, the pair have teamed up with other members of the North Korean community to donate a total of 7,000 sets of personal protective equipment to seven care homes in the north of England.

    "I escaped North Korea two times," says Jihyun, who lives in Manchester. "The first time I only escaped as far as China where I was married off to a farmer and effectively became his slave. I was later sent back to North Korea and forced to work in a labour camp in the mountains."

    Stockport-based Timothy Chow's experience was also harrowing. He grew up during a famine in the 1990s known as the Arduous March, a period of mass starvation which left anywhere between one and three million North Koreans dead.

    "I grew up during the famine and lived on the street for years," he says. "It wasn't just me; there were thousands of children living on the streets. There was no help from the government, only the threat of imprisonment, torture and oppression. It was a strange life, but that was my childhood."

    After successfully escaping the North Korean regime, both Jihyun and Timothy received asylum in the UK.

    "When I arrived in England in 2008, I couldn't speak any English," says Jihyun. "But people were so kind and welcoming. I cried and cried, because in North Korea, I didn't feel welcome, but in the UK people made me feel at home."

    Timothy had a similar experience. "It was very difficult when I first came here with no friends or family. But I was quickly welcomed into the community.

    "In North Korea, people are being spied on all the time and you cannot trust anybody. But here in the UK, the warmth of the community has been wonderful."

    Jihyun and Timothy credit this generosity of spirit when they were at their most vulnerable, with fuelling their desire to help the Covid-stricken UK.

    "I was following the news and seeing that so many people were dying and I thought how can I help?" says Jihyun.

    "When I lived in North Korea, I was a teacher and my students would often complain that their stomachs ached from hunger. But at that time I couldn't do anything to help. Now I'm in a position where I can help.

    "And there are nearly 700 North Koreans in the UK who also want to show their gratitude."

    Jihyun and Timothy enlisted the help of another defector living in South Korea, and were able to import the 7,000 PPE sets they donated to English care homes.

  • The gift-wrapped house

    Clever stuff from Dutch artist Leon Keer, turning the side of a housing complex in Morlaix, France, into a massive, wrapped gift.

    Safe House:

    It is not obvious for everybody to have a roof over their head, your home is precious and gives you the comfort and protection, a gift for the necessary needs in life. In honor of the great Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

    Keer-1

    Keer-2

    Keer-3
    [Photos © Leon Keer]

  • New York waterfront

    February 15, 1950. "N.Y. Telephone Co. headquarters and the World-Telegram building, from a helicopter." With the Woolworth Building looming in the background:

    image from www.shorpy.com
    [Photo: Shorpy/Al Ravenna for the New York World-Telegram & Sun]

    Both buildings still stand. The N.Y. Telephone Co. headquarters became the Verizon Building. It was badly damaged by the collapse of the adjacent WTC towers on 9/11, but survived thanks to its thick-walled masonry construction.

  • A well-meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming

    >All has not been plain sailing, though:

    One signatory – Matthew Yglesias, co-founder of liberal news analysis website Vox – was rebuked by a colleague on Tuesday for putting his name to the letter.

    Vox critic at large Emily VanDerWerff, a trans woman, tweeted that she had written a letter to the publication's editors to say that Yglesias signing the letter "makes me feel less safe at Vox".

    But VanDerWerff said she did not want Yglesias to be fired or apologise because it would only convince him he was being "martyred".

    One signatory recanted within hours of the letter being published.

    Jennifer Finney Boylan, a US author and transgender activist, tweeted: "I did not know who else had signed that letter.

    "I thought I was endorsing a well-meaning, if vague, message against internet shaming."

    She added: "I am so sorry."

    Oh dear. "I did not know who else had signed that letter." Worried about being grouped together with Chomsky? Salman Rushdie? No, we know perfectly well who she was so offended by.

    How to miss the point completely…

    Update: the Times report – headed, of course, by a photo of Rowling – notes that both Rowling and Margaret Atwood have signed the letter, despite their differences:

    Atwood, 80, who has twice won the Booker Prize, has expressed support for transgender campaigners, saying “biology doesn’t deal in sealed either/or compartments”.

    But it does deal in either/or compartments. That's precisely what it does. Notably, with sex.