Fattening Frogs For Snakes

Bolivia and Venezuela cut ties with the Israelis

2009-01-16T06:07:00.002Z

For the past 21 days, Israel has been attacking the Gaza strip, ostensibly targeting the Islamist group HAMAS, but in actuality mainly killing shitloads of civilians. 30% of the Palestinian dead are women and children. According to figures cited by Reuters around 20 minutes ago, 13 Israelis had been killed (10 of them soldiers) and over 1,055 Palestinians were killed, 670 of whom were civilians. (I hope you've heard about this conflict by now...)

Given the current set up of the world, there's not much that's going to be done about Israel's current attack on Gaza. Israel is just being Israel, and with the exception of the US, they're not going to be influenced by anybody to stop what they're doing. But nonetheless, it's refreshing to see some kind of concrete action by the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela against Israel. Both governments cut all diplomatic ties with the Israelis, with the Venezuelans expelling the Israeli ambassador and embassy staff, and the Bolivians calling on the International Criminal Court to bring human rights abuse charges against Israel.

Paul Auster

2008-09-20T17:51:00.018+01:00

I was in my friend's apartment in Syria the other day, browsing through his bookshelves, and I was delighted to find a copy of a book by Paul Auster, which I borrowed and read from cover to cover that very night (finally going to sleep at 0730). The book was Oracle Night. It's about a writer who has just recovered from a serious accident, about his relationship with his wife and about some of his writing. But like other Auster books, it's really about ideas.

One of the main themes of the book is about starting a new life. The main character, inspired by an anecdote in a Raymond Chandler novel*, tries to write a story about a man who is nearly killed in a freak accident, and who then spontaneously abandons his family life in New York in order to start from scratch in a new city. Leaving the house to post some letters, the main character of this story within a story ends up taking a plane to Kansas City to embark on a new and bizarre existence, working in an underground room filled with telephone directories.

Like other Auster books, Oracle Night zips along and is very easy to read, and raises plenty of existential philosophical questions in the reader's mind without ever really pinning anything down. For me, Auster's trademark is the juxtaposition of a set of complex themes about what it means to be human with a straightforwardly written narrative about the day to day activities of a central character. On one hand, his books are very entertaining and earthy, and on the other, it's never quite clear what exactly he is getting at. In the case of Oracle Night, Auster refers to "the power of the random, purely accidental forces that mold our destinies", and the motif of abandoning your life and starting again afresh is an attempt to embrace the randomness of life.

Paul Auster

Auster also writes about writing. Many or most of his protagonists are writers, and I noted one very nice passage in Oracle Night about the process of writing which may evoke feelings familiar to anyone who has searched in vain for inspiration:

"I put down the book and started pacing around the apartment, walking in and out of rooms, scanning the titles of the books on the shelves, parting the curtains and looking through the window at the wet street below, accomplishing nothing for several hours.

Now I'm off to do some reading about Auster online...

* PS: I just learned it's actually Dashiel Hammet rather than Chandler...

Orwellian reading

2008-09-04T09:41:00.008+01:00

I recently finished George Orwell's Coming Up For Air, which I bought on the street in Syria for about €0.70. Good to get back to some Orwell. He's one of my favourite writers, to the extent that I can say that he has had a formative effect on my thinking. I would recommend anyone to check out some of his essays, such as 'Politics and the English Language', which are available online. I love his simple, clear writing style. He seems to really hold to the belief that you shouldn't use a big word where a smaller word will do, and that sentences should be short. A big problem with a lot of writing - and particularly academic writing, I'd hazard - is that people like to use very complicated sentence structures. Clarity suffers as a result.

Eric Blair aka George McOrwell

Coming Up For Air is the story of 45-year-old George Bowling, a man who is pissed off with his lot. It is set in the run-up to World War II. Bowling has a wife and family and a job that is unexciting, and he goes back to his village of origin to try to capture something about himself. However, the trip is entirely disillusioning and deflating because his village has been swallowed up by the march of the urban.

The book has been referenced as a forerunner to 1984, and I can see the similarity, although the society depicted in Coming Up For Air is less extreme and the story less intense. Politics are to the forefront however, and the novel deals with a newly emerged middle class of sorts in inter-war England, evoking the misery and defeat of the capitulation to wage slavery. This is my take on it, at least. There isn't really much hopeful coming out of the narrative that I can recall. But maybe there's some hope in the protagonist's vague realisation (which is far from epiphany) that the human experience contains the potential for a more meaningful existence. So there is hope but not redemption methinks.

World War II looms large over the plot, and Bowling's memories of his service in World War I colour his pessimism and apathy.

Listening to Charles Mingus Fables of Faubus in my favourite cafe... Beautiful.

Books I read in 2006

2008-07-12T18:26:00.011+01:00

And now I present the long-awaited follow-up to 'Books I read in 2005'. Since 2005, I've been keeping a record of the books I've read each year. Unfortunately this habit kind of fell apart around the end of 2007, but I'm going to try to resurrect it as it's always good to catalogue these things, I find...

Introducing Critical Theory - Stuart Sims & Boris Van Loon

Generation of Swine - Hunter S Thompson
(The great Gonzo journalist's take on the 80s. Lots of stuff about Iran-Contra as I recall.)

Hunter S Thompson

The Plague - Albert Camus
(Supposedly a metaphor for the French resistance to the Nazi occupation, but for me it's more effective as a straight up story about the human condition. It's quite a straightforward narrative about a town that is hit by the plague. First the disease emerges, and then the town is quarantined, and we are treated to an account of life under quarantine and the constant threat of infection. I had high hopes for this book, as The Outsider is one of my favourite books of all time. I'm glad to say that Mr. Camus did not disappoint.)

Tar Baby - Toni Morrison (an audio book)
(This was an amazing book - one of the best I've come across. I've read a couple of Morrison's other books since then and they had nothing on this. But I wonder if that was because it was an audio book? Lynne Thigpen read the text and did a great job of it. But the content of the book was really great. It's centred around the interactions between six characters living in close proximity, along with flashes back and forward from this core setting. There's an elderly white rich guy; his seemingly shallow former beauty queen wife; two of his black servants, themselves a married couple; their niece, a fashion model; and an additional stowaway. The action is primarily set on an island where the elderly rich guy lives in colonial-style luxury. Each of these six characters is drawn in exquisite and believable detail, with all their motivations and inclinations immediately accessible to the reader (or listener). The story basically illustrates how the different filters through which our identity is formed - such as race, gender, age, and social class - shape our interactions with each other. The dynamic between all the characters and the little conflicts between them portray these tensions beautifully.)

Toni Morrison

Reading Lolita in Tehran
(Excellent, but hard not to notice that it's very one-sided politically.)

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
(This was a great account of a society's colonial transition.)

The Cherry Orchard - Anton Chekhov adapted by Tom Murphy
(I went to see this in The Gate. Irish playwright Tom Murphy had adapted this classic to bring in some Irish lingo, most memorably when one of the characters exclaims "Merciful Hour!!")

Roadkill - Kinky Friedman
(Didn't like this at all.)

Beloved - Toni Morrison

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress - Ross O'Carroll Kelly

Inside Track - John Francome

The Namesake

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
(This is an absolutely beautiful book about an Indian couple who emigrate to the USA, and about their son's travails as a man who is neither Indian nor North American. Really captures the immigrant experience (not that I've first hand experience of this, of course).)

Firestarter - Stephen King

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
(Another very worthwhile read.)

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - John McGregor
(A promising book throughout absolutely ruined by a crappy, saccharine, cop-out of an ending. Total rubbish.)

Dancer - Column McCann
(A novelisation of the life of Rudolf Nureyev. McCann is one of the best writers around, and one of the few novelists all of whose books I've read. This was very interesting but I prefer his other books. However, my Russio-Lithuanian friend Sasha assures me that he really captures what Russia is like.)

Nureyev

The LBJ Brigade - William Wilson
(An engaging account of the Vietnam conflict.)

Last Exit To Brooklyn
(Bleak and brilliant - touches what it means to be human.)

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell

Clockers - Richard Price
(A great book made into an even better film by the maestro, Spike Lee.)

Woody Allen - Interviews

From Hell - Alan Moore (a graphic novel)
(This is about Jack the Ripper and was made into a film I really like, directed by the Hughes Brothers, who made a pretty impressive transition from portraying the African American urban ghetto of the US in 'Menace II Society', to the Whitechapel district of 19th century London.)

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore

The Dublin Korean society

2008-07-11T23:29:00.005+01:00

To my eternal pride, I am now featured pictorially on the website of the Dublin Korean society, courtesy of my friend Donghyeok. The pictures look a lot better on the society's homepage if you really want to peer closely at pictures of me.

This privilege has inspired me to resurrect my long-defunct blog, which I hope will now blossom again to share my brain activity with the world. But we'll see...

Allen Iverson Highlight vs Kobe Bryant LA Lakers 04/05

2007-08-12T05:03:00.001+01:00

Iverson with three or four fantastic alley-oops and a great dunk. 15 assists for AI but 2 for 20 in the first 3 quarters, then 13 points (of 20) in the fourth. Great highlights.

Iverson vs Kobe (2001)

2007-08-12T04:37:00.001+01:00

This is a great video of the 2001 NBA Finals. Two of the best shooting guards in the game going up against each other. Iverson the MVP, versus Kobe Bryant who is just a little younger than me. Excellent footage of the battle.

Living a productive life & Capote's In Cold Blood

2007-08-05T17:41:00.001+01:00

What a day! It's around 6 in the afternoon, and I've been lounging in bed all day. I've done absolutely nothing since waking up except lie in my cot fooling around on the internet. I joined up to Bebo, and made up a 'how well do you know me' style quiz. I've been looking at various stuff on YouTube as well, such as clips from Apocalypse Now and some basketball. The only drawback is that I've had nothing to eat except a couple of yoghurts and a lump of bread. I'm just after getting dressed this minute, and now I think I'll go across to the shop and buy some ice-cream. I know, I know, I'm an inspiration to you all...

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote

Yesterday I added a book to my 2007 list of books: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Earlier this summer I blogged up a list of all the books I read in 2005, with the 2006 list to follow at some point. I'll publish the 2007 list at some stage next year. It's one of those books I've been meaning to read for a long time. I wanted to read it before I saw that film about Capote that came out recently, so I must rent that out one of these days now that I'm finished. Anyway, the book is a novelised account of a real-life multiple murder that happened in 1959. The novel begins shortly before the murder and ends with the evetual death of the two perpetrators, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. It reminded me of Steinbeck a little, although I'm not sure if that was due to the setting or the writing. Probably a little of both.

Apparently Capote was fascinated by the crime, and he certainly brings the events he's relating to vivid life. He paints an evocative picture of US society and does a great job of getting right inside the skins of each of the characters, even those who are only present for a handful of pages of the book. He also manages to successfully tread a fine line between having some empathy with the killers (particularly Perry Smith), and also emphasising the sheer nastiness and pointlessness of the crime. He manages to draw the events in a way that draws attention to all the contradictions and contingencies of the human experience, so that, for example, it's possible to see Smith as representing all points along a spectrum from cold-hearted, brutal psychopathy to likeable, sympathetic vulnerability.

Killers Perry Smith (top) and Richard Hickock

I believe that Mr. Capote was gay. One thing that I wondered as I read the book was whether Smith and Hickock themselves had some manner of homosexual relationship. They seem to behave like a couple quite a bit, and Hickock has a tendency to call Smith 'honey' when he talks to him. But maybe that was just his way of talking. The book contained a reference to Smith being hassled by 'queers' in the armed forces, all right, but I don't think there were any other overt references to homosexuality. But I wondered if there was a latent current going on there. I'm not for a second suggesting that just because Capote was gay himself, this was all he was able to write about (or think about), or that he was projecting his own sexual identity onto these real-life characters. I just thought that this might have been an undercurrent in the book. I'll probably look into it myself on the interweb at some point.

You wouldn't think I've a thesis to write with all this blogging, novel-reading, internet-browsing, in bed-lying and quiz-making-upping, but I actually have to write 15-20,000 coherent words about International Relations by 6th September. It's a serious struggle. I do put a lot of time into it, and I've a reasonable amount of work done, but I've been finding it extremely slow going. I haven't yet been able to get into any kind of flow with my writing as yet. So far, I've only come up with around 2,000 usable words, and it was an ordeal to squeeze every single one of those out onto the page.

Nonetheless, I actually feel reasonably good about the whole thing. I have a couple of essays that I wrote during the year that I intend to plunder for more wordage, and I'm sticking with my mantra: there's plenty of time... Even though it's almost time to start counting down to the deadline in days instead of weeks... Aaaarghhh...

Plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time plenty of time...

A great, close game of basketball

2007-07-28T23:26:00.001+01:00

I present Kobe v Iverson...

Some of the best news I've heard all year

2007-07-05T16:37:00.000+01:00

After 16 weeks in detention, the BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston has been released from detention by his kidnappers. The journalist was released as a result of negotiations between the Palestinian Hamas, who are in control of the Gaza Strip, and his captors, another Palestinian Islamist movement called 'the Army of Islam'.

Free at last

In my view, Hamas form the bulk of the legitimate government of Palestine (although there is no Palestinian state). They had a decisive victory in elections in January 2006. The EU declared these elections to be free and fair. Hamas went on to form a national unity government with Fatah in March 2007.

However, despite all of this, the so-called 'international community' has refused to deal with Hamas. The EU, the US, and Israel all favour Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who was the Palestinian President, and have marginalised Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who was the Palestinian Prime Minister. The political system in Palestine is semi-presidentialism, whereby power is divided between a president and a prime minister who is answerable to a parliamentary assembly. A friend and fellow blogger is writing his thesis on semi-presidentialism in Palestine.

In any case, this fragile set-up between Hamas and Fatah continued for a while despite the fact that many powerful external actors would only speak to Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, instead of dealing with the government as a whole. Indeed, Israel attempted to blow up Hamas members of government in the Gaza Strip at every opportunity. Eventually, relations between these partners in the Palestinian government have broken down.

Hamas politician Khalil al-Hayya
Israel bombed his home, killing his wife and six of his family

The current situation is that, following fighting between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas have now taken control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah are in control of the West Bank. As can be seen from the map, both territories are entirely separate (although the map does not show the extent to which Israel has encroached into the West Bank so that it has now shrunk significantly in size). Mahmoud Abbas has declared that Haniyeh is dismissed as Prime Minister, but Haniyeh and his Hamas colleagues have refused to accept this. But there is an evident consensus throughout much of the mainstream media and the major actors of the international political establishment that it is Fatah who are legitimate. Abbas is still recognised as the Palestinian President, whereas Haniyeh is described as a terrorist.

This is the background to Johnston's release. Having taken over Gaza, Hamas are probably hoping that they will gain some credit for freeing Johnston. But they surely realise that the situation is unlikely to change to any significant extent. The main external players with regard to the issue of Palestine are known as the quartet: the US, the EU, the UN and Russia. Although Russia has made some attempts to gain more recognition for the Hamas government, the other three legs of the quartet are steadfastly anti-Hamas. This amounts to backing up Israel's position.

As I said, for me Hamas are the legitimate representatives of the Palestinians. Despite the fact that I have plenty of problems with the group, I reckon that the only practical, rational course of action to any man, woman or child in the occupied Palestinian territories (particularly in Gaza) is to support Hamas. But I reckon that Hamas will continue to be isolated, despite a BBC report suggesting that there may be the potential for a change in attitudes to Hamas - but then, I tend to be pretty pessimistic about these things.

The Army of Islam group that had been holding Johnston is also one of the groups responsible for the kidnap of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. It was following Shalit's kidnapping that Israel intensified its targeting of Hamas - an Israeli helicopter fired two rockets into the home of Ismail Haniyeh a week later. The fate of this young soldier is a key issue for Israel. It is awful to think of the 19 year old soldier - who was injured during the kidnapping - being held by kidnappers for over a year. However, at least he was a military target, whereas Alan Johnston is a civilian. Meanwhile, about 800 Palestinians are being held in Israeli 'administrative detention' - in other words, being held without being charged with any crime.

The young Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit

Certainly the Israel state considers itself at war with Hamas - in yet another of its frequent extrajudicial executions, Israel killed at least six Hamas members the night after Johnston's release. Yet one of its three stated reasons for refusing to deal with Hamas is that Hamas refuses to renounce violence. The mind boggles...

The importance of a good poker face

2007-07-01T17:54:00.001+01:00

A little lesson in poker.

The joys and risks of poker

2007-06-24T23:16:00.000+01:00

I had a few of my team-mates from the Division 4 team of St. Declan’s basketball club round for poker last Friday night. As well as the intrinsic joys of gambling, drinking, smoking cigars, and verbally abusing each other, the night was also a fundraiser for the club, with half of the money going to our permanently indebted treasury department.

I used to be involved in a regular poker game a while back, but we used to play 5 card draw. Friday night was No Limit Texas Hold-Em, which is an entirely different animal. It’s a lot more expensive to play each hand as there are more rounds of betting, and you can go ‘All-in’ at any time, pushing all of your chips into the pot. I decided it was a good idea to do this on the second hand of the night, with a full house. So I went ahead and lashed all €40 into the pot. Unfortunately, a certain team-mate who will never be forgiven had four 2s and called my bet in a hot second. So I was the first to crash out after 12 minutes of play.

Luckily there was an option to buy in a second time, so I had the opportunity to stay in the game and squander more money. I managed to outlast two people (out of 7 of us) before I went bust for good. Not much of an achievement, but I’ll get them next time...

I really enjoyed the game and I'm itching for another one. The following night I called over to a friend's gaff, and we called in on a neighbour of his and interrupted a poker session. There were about 8 lads sitting around a purpose built table, with little drink holders and chip holders and a green felt tabletop. It all looked very inviting, I must say.

I've set up an internet account, and I play a little online Hold 'Em every so often. I'd like to play a few more live games though. I have mixed results playing on the internet - I usually buy into a table for around €30, and I have often doubled my money. But my problem is that if I start losing, I compound it by keeping playing (and losing), instead of quitting and living to play another day. On Sunday night I stayed up till all hours, blowing €70 in the process.

I thoroughly enjoy the poker but it remains to be seen whether this little hobby is going to be in my own interest or not. It could so easily go horribly wrong... But fuck the begrudgers. I could become an expert and turn pro - and bid farewell to the Monday to Wednesday* grind...

By the way, a few times (usually with alcohol involved), I played a crazy variant of poker apparently called 'Indian poker'. It's mad stuff altogether. You whip a card quickly from the top of the deck, and hold it facing forwards atop your own forehead. You can see everyone else's card, but not your own. You then make bets on who has the highest card, basing your reaction on the expression on your opponent's face, I suppose. In my experience, it's generally difficult to judge their expression as s/he tends to be convulsed in laughter. It's good craic, but not one for the purists...

* the joys of worksharing... Heh, heh...

The CIA and Shannon airport

2007-06-16T16:32:00.000+01:00

My friend Ian has noted that it is disturbing how little media attention is on the current extraordinary rendition case being heard in Italy. Extraordinary rendition is the process whereby the CIA kidnaps people, and detains them extrajudicially. These people are often subject to torture. It really is that stark. The US is having people abducted from the streets of EU constitutional democracies without the knowledge of the domestic governments, and subsequently tortured.

I just want to note an Irish connection in this issue. Last summer, the Council of Europe rapporteur, Dick Marty, included Ireland's Shannon airport in a map of "secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers". The Irish government response is basically to say that they trust the Americans and everything will be grand. Irish Foreign Affairs minister Dermot Ahern accepted the assurances of Condoleeza Rice that Shannon was not used as a transit point for the CIA's abductees.

The US Air Force at Shannon

In February of this year, the European Parliament rejected Dermot Ahern's position and called for a Dáil inquiry into Ireland's role in instances of extraordinary rendition. In 2005, Amnesty International reported that 800 secret CIA flights had used European airspace, and noted evidence about specific flights in which Shannon airport was used as a stopover.

College night out

2007-06-15T18:32:00.000+01:00

I'm just about to head out on the town with my college colleagues. We're going out for a meal, and I've totally forgotten where the meal is. It's all right though, we're going to the pub first so I'll just follow the crowd.

Haven't seen any of them for a while now, as we've broken up for the summer, and are all supposedly working away on our respective theses (dreaded deadline: September). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, though meeting up makes me feel like I should have done a lot more work on my thesis over the last while. Oh well... Maybe when I hear how much work everyone else has done I'll be motivated to slave night and day in order to catch up.

This is officially the most useless post ever on this intermittent blog of mine.

Books I read in 2005

2007-06-09T01:32:00.001+01:00

And now, partly inspired by the fact that Martin Scorsese keeps lists entitled ‘Films I have seen this year’, I present the list of books I read in 2005:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
(this book has been a huge influence on me, and I’ve read it three times now.)
Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene
The Third Man – Graham Greene
The Basement Room (filmed as The Fallen Idol) – Graham Greene
Hell’s Angels – Hunter S Thompson
(If I was forced to pick, HST is probably my favourite writer.)
All the President’s Men – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoevsky
(I read this in a hostel in Toronto.)

The Last Season – Phil Jackson
(…and this on the plane on the way home. This is about the LA Lakers 2003-4 season, detailing the many feuds between the team's two talented stars, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. It’s written by their coach.)
Introducing Environmental Politics – Stephen Croall & William Rankin
Saints & Spinners – David McWilliams
(This is a kind of forerunner to The Pope’s Children – it’s different to the more well-known version – this one was written for marketers rather than for a general readership. It wasn’t what I expected but it’s very interesting. There’s a lot of pretty cynical stuff in there. It discusses Ireland’s future demographics, predicts how consumer tastes will change, and offers ways for marketers to get a piece of the action. I really like McWilliams’ analysis of Irish society and his honesty, but I don’t share his benign view of the market. I would have a more critical view of consumerism and put more emphasis on its inadequacies and its damaging effects. This book really shows the extent to which men in suits will put a huge amount of work into pigeonholing the general citizen as a very specific target market.)

David McWilliams

Chronicles, volume 1 – Bob Dylan
An Giall – Brendan Behan
(Delighted with myself to have read this in the original Irish from cover to cover. Behan was not a native Irish speaker, but while in jail, he learned Irish from his cellmate. This prisoner was from Ballyferriter in the Dingle peninsula. It was in Ballyferriter that I did a week-long civil service Irish course to resurrect the Irish language within me (in 2003, I think it was).)
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky

Me at the entrance to Dostoevsky's gaff in St. Petersburg

Collected Short Stories – Anton Chekhov
(I love the Russians)
Buddha: His Life and Thought – Karen Armstrong
(This writer has serious credibility when it comes to religion. She spent seven years as a Catholic nun, has received a Muslim Media Award, and has taught in some school for the study of Judaism. I’ve seen her speak, and she has a great take on religion and how it interacts with politics and society.)
Wilt – Tom Sharpe
Cape Clear Island: Its People and Landscape – Eamon Lankford
(This is about an Irish language-speaking island in Cork that I have often visited, and is one of my favourite places in the world. I think it’s the most southerly inhabited point in Ireland – the most southerly point of all is the nearby Fastnet lighthouse, which casts its light over the island at regular intervals.)
The Hard Life – Flann O’Brien
The Sandman Companion – Hy Bender
The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran

Lebanese writer Kahlil Gibran

Smoke and Mirrors – Neil Gaiman
Vision and Transformation – Sangharakshita
(A book about the Buddhist eightfold path.)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter S Thompson
(200 pages of drug fuelled insanity – very un-Buddhist.)
The Comedians – Graham Greene
Twelve Bar Blues – Patrick Neate
Justice Seeker: An Anthology in Tribute to Malcolm X – James B Gwynne (ed.)
Pork Pie Hat – Peter Straub
(an audio book.)
Down and Out in Paris and London – George Orwell
(one of my favourite books.)
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
The Crucible – Arthur Miller

The great Arthur Miller

So that comes to an average of around two books a month. Obviously, now that I'm a student, reading has become pretty essential. But I’ve always been a big reader. I used to eat books when I was a child, and I never really take any length of a train or bus journey without a book to read. I fell out of the habit a couple of years ago, but got back into it with the help of a book group and have never looked back.

Much better than TV...

Miles underground

2007-04-29T20:34:00.000+01:00

A strange quote from the 1989 autobiography of the great jazz legend Miles Dewey Davis III:

I did some weird shit back in those days, too many weird things to describe. But I’ll tell you a couple. I remember one day when I was really paranoid from snorting [cocaine] and staying up all the time. I was driving my Ferrari up West End Avenue and I passed these police-men sitting in a patrol car. They knew me - all of them knew me in my neighbourhood - so they spoke to me. When I got about two blocks away from them, I became paranoid and thought that there was a conspiracy to get me, bust me for some drugs. I look down in the compartment on the door and see this white powder. I never took coke out of the house with me. It’s winter and snowing and some snow got inside the car. But I didn’t realise that; I thought it was some coke that someone had planted in the car just so I could get busted. I panicked, stopped the car in the middle of the street, ran into a building on West End Avenue, looked for the doorman, but he wasn’t there. I ran to the elevator and got on and went up to the seventh floor and hid in the trash room. I stayed up there for hours with my Ferrari parked in the middle of West End Avenue with the keys in it. After a while I came to my senses. The car was still sitting where I had left it.

I did that another time just like that and a woman was on the elevator. I thought that I was still in my Ferrari, so I told her, “Bitch, what are you doing in my goddamn car!” And then I slapped her and ran out of the building. That’s the kind of weird sick shit that a lot of drugs will make you do. She called the police and they arrested me and put me in the nut ward at Roosevelt Hospital for a few days before letting me out“.

From 1975 until 1980, Davis was a self-confessed hermit, living without any meaningful contact with the outside world. He spent his days drinking Heineken and brandy, and taking heroin, cocaine, or injecting speedballs into his legs. A speedball is the lethal combination of cocaine and heroin that killed John Belushi and River Phoenix. Davis also says he “fucked all the women I could get into my house” (p. 325). And through it all, he never once picked up his horn throughout more than four years.

Another one bites the dust

2007-04-13T19:15:00.000+01:00

Another essay falls before the might of my academic endeavours!! Just handed in my first assignment of the semester. The task was based around an imaginary scenario in North Africa. We had to imagine that there were upcoming negotiations on reform of the constitution, and each student had to give advice to one of the various delegations to the conference. I had to write a policy brief advising the nationalist and conservative party of Morocco, Istiqlal. The other participants included the EU, the socialists, the hardcore Islamists, the more moderate Islamists, and last but not least, the top dog and key holder of political power, the defender of the faith, and personal owner of 60% of all the shares on Morocco's stock exchange, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for his majesty the king, Mohamed VI!!! (known as M6 to his buddies).

King Mohamed VI

It seems to me that the king would only agree to democratisation to the extent that it makes his rule look more legitimate. Although there is an elected parliament in Morocco, most of the power rests outside this system. The government's decision-making powers are constrained by the fact that many other members of parliament are indirectly appointed, and the key ministries are given to confidants of the king who may not even be a member of a political party. Indeed, the current prime minister, Driss Jettou, isn't in any party. So I reckon that M6 would like to throw in some superficial reforms to make it look like he is liberalising, without actually devolving meaningful power outside of the palace.

The increasing popularity of the Islamist movements are putting pressure on the more established political actors in Morocco, so I'm confident that my nationalist/conservative colleagues can do a deal with the king to gain some power and marginalise the Islamists.

Great to get one assignment out of the way. As usual, I was up all night last night putting on the finishing touches. I didn't get to bed till after 0600. And the next deadline is just three days away!! But it's all under control. I've done plenty of groundwork for this next one during the week. Roll on Monday...

Reem Kelani

2007-04-09T22:43:00.000+01:00

This is a review of a Reem Kelani gig I saw at a festival last August. Reem Kelani is a Palestinian singer who sings a mix of songs from Palestine and the Palestinian Diaspora. Her father comes from Jenin, and her mother from Nazareth. She has an incredible vocal range, and her vocal style incorporates Arabic chanting and ululations as well as conventional singing. I really enjoyed this music, which was a new kind of sound for me, as it’s not a style of music I’m familiar with. As well as loving the music in its own right, the concert was interesting because Kelani talked quite a bit about the origins and meanings of many of the songs.

There seemed to be a certain formlessness to some of the music, which left a lot of freedom for the different musicians to breathe within the structure of the songs. Kelani on vocals was backed by a bass clarinet, Egyptian violin, drums, and double bass (which was both plucked and played with a bow), but the first number was backed only with syncopated handclaps. This first song was a wedding song from Acre on the Mediterranean, and is about the bride taking the mickey out of her new husband’s family. Her family are saying that they will make their new son-in-law a shepherd or an Arabian king depending on how he treats their daughter. The song is in 6/4 time, which is a very old Palestinian rhythm, apparently.

Next was a song from Gallilee originating from the period of Ottoman rule. It is a slow, sad song, sung by the women when the men are going off to fight in a war. The music is based around a drone in E flat, I think it was – this was the tonic, and Kelani invited the audience to hum the tonic. The singing is in the tradition of the Greek orthodox church, and comes from the influence of Byzantine chanting.

The next song was about a group of women crossing the desert who are refused a lift by a convoy of caravans. They show their resilience by singing to the drivers. The tempo here was a bit faster, with the percussion more in the foreground, with Kelani playing a kind of bodhrán. She clearly still has a love and enthusiasm for this music. It was clear that she was enjoying herself on stage, dancing and communicating with her sidemen.

The next song was the highlight of the concert for me. It was called ‘Baker’s Dozen’ because of the time signature, which is a cycle of thirteen beats. Kelani described it as 12+1 beats, but to me it sounded like 3 measures of 3/4 time followed by a measure of 4/4 time. The song began with a double bass solo and then went into the 13 beat rhythm. This time signature comes from a folk tradition common to Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

In this tradition, even in the middle of a happy song like this one, there is a middle section where people sing of a longing for their homeland. In this way, even a wedding song can become a song of resistance (according to Kelani). This section takes the form of a dialogue between the vocalist and an instrumentalist (in this case, the bass clarinet). The singing is similar to the Spanish ‘deep singing’/canta chondo, apparently – this was an influence that the Arab influence introduced to Spain. (Kelani compared this to a scene in a Bollywood movie, where people can start singing and dancing in the middle of a battle scene, saying that this kind of mix of emotions was part of a similar tradition.)

Kelani was a mine of information, and the music itself was excellent. Very evocative. They finished up with a more conventional Western song, for which they were joined on stage by a guitar-slinging Christian minister dude named Garth Hewitt. He’s a campaigner for Palestinian human rights and so forth. This song, which I think is one of Hewitt’s, was called ‘The Death of Trees’, and is about the removal of a million olive trees since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. These trees were sold, destroyed, or replanted in illegal Israeli settlements, and in the song they symbolise the death of a culture. This is all very well, but the music wasn’t a patch on what had gone before. Kelani’s own music really stood out from anything else at the festival, and I bought her debut album, Sprinting Gazelle, on the strength of her performance. Kelani’s vocal range is very impressive, and the instrumentation was great as well. This is great stuff.

Cab Calloway chooses music over the Harlem Globetrotters

2007-03-05T00:07:00.001Z

This YouTube thing is addictive. Just found a very short clip of the great basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about music legend Cab Calloway. It seems that Calloway was actually a pro basketball player after playing bball in high school. In the 1920s, he was selected to play with the Harlem Globetrotters, but decided instead to tour with his band. He also played baseball against Dizzy Gillespie - the great jazz trumpeter.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a national championship in college and then went on to win 6 NBA championships for two teams, and played professionally for 20 YEARS!!!
He also was one of the pilots in the film Airplane, and fought against Bruce Lee in Game of Death. He was born as Lew Alcindor, but changed his name because of his conversion to Islam. Advice from fellow students from Muslim countries led to his avoiding the US Black Muslim movement, the Nation of Islam, whose ranks had once included Malcolm X. In this interview, Abdul-Jabbar talks about what he calls the "totalitarian" version of Islam that underpinned the September the 11th attacks.
20-July-2007: I've just noticed that YouTube have removed this video due to an alleged violation of its terms of use. Not sure what that's about...

Independent news from African-American Los Angeles

2007-03-04T01:57:00.001Z

After covering a story down the street, a Hood News reporter shoots footage of the LAPD shooting at a homeless man who was running away from them. The police tried to stop Hood News from filming and argued with the reporter.

I came across this after watching a message from the stars of the NBA to the youth of the urban ghettos of the US. A few black basketball stars who had grown up in the hood had some words for these African-American communities. In this other Hood News video, the crew also try to interview the young star LeBron James and are snubbed. The crew dismiss James as 'Hollywood' when he refuses an interview. The reporter said that James was refusing to address a "community in poverty, and up and coming youth" as LeBron James stood behind him, and then called to James to give a shout out on Hood News, but was totally ignored as James got into his car. The reporter reckoned he was on a "solo mission" and it was "a disappointment to the black culture, and minorities". See also details of LeBron's dance-off defeat, below.

Shaquille O'Neal wins dance-off

2007-03-03T23:01:00.001Z

I've just signed up to YouTube, and I'm posting a video I came across on my brother's bebo page. It stars 7'1" Shaquille O'Neal, who plays professional basketball for the Miami Heat. At the annual NBA all-star weekend, Shaq took on two other players in a dance-off. It's hilarious...

His first opponent is the talented LeBron James, who came into the league a couple of years ago aged just 19.

Basketball glee

2007-02-27T23:55:00.000Z

We won a game last night. We were playing at home against a team called Ravens. The final score was close - closer than it should have been. We were ahead and in control, but Ravens narrowed the gap in the last quarter. It got quite scrappy at the end. A few of our players were missing, and so I played for most of the game. I got a couple of baskets and defended well in the first half. I was absolutely exhausted at the finish... It's a good feeling to be winning again though.

We have now won 6 and lost 6. Apart from the top two teams, every team has lost at least 6 games. This gives us an excellent chance of getting into the play offs - the top four teams in the league qualify - for the first time in my four-year basketball career. We've another game on Friday, against a team with only two wins - Trinity. I was in Russia when we beat them before Christmas, so I haven't played against them yet. That's the latest...

The Division 4 league table (I play for St. Declan's)

Previous basketball update

Ireland v England rugby

2007-02-24T19:32:00.000Z

I'm pretty much a one-sport guy, and that's basketball. I don't often watch other sports on television. Although I watch Irish soccer internationals, I am not a fan of soccer or rugby, and I seldom watch Gaelic football or hurling. But I've just watched Ireland play rugby against England in Croke Park. In England's first game in Croke Park, they lost to Ireland by their biggest margin ever. The final score was 43-13. Ireland played some very skilful rugby, including a GAA-like kick and catch for Ireland's third (I think) try. Ronan O'Gara didn't miss a kick at goal.

Stringer against France a few years ago

Before the game, there was a lot of focus on political issues surrounding Ireland's colonial history. In 1920, the British army killed 14 civilians in the very stadium where the game would be played (as al-Jazeera also reported). For decades, the Irish GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) have forbidden English sports (known as 'garrison games') from being played at Croke Park. This afternoon, as my friend Kealan noted on his blog, England's team and supporters sang God Save the Queen in Croker before the game, before going on to suffer a decisive defeat.

Croke Park

An interesting mix of sports, culture, and politics this afternoon at Croke Park, which I can actually see from the window of my house...

Randy Newman

2007-02-23T12:45:00.000Z

One all-time classic piece of music is the 1972 Randy Newman album, Sail Away. Newman is a songwriter who’s had big success with soundtracks to films such as Toy Story, but he started off as a guy with a piano, singing songs he had written. The music was beautiful, and the lyrics were acerbic.

The title track of Sail Away is about a slave trader recruiting in the African jungle, trying to convince the potential slaves how wonderful life would be in America:

Ain’t no lion or tiger, ain’t no mamba snake,
Just a sweet watermelon and a buckwheat cake
Everybody is as happy as a man can be
Climb aboard little wog, sail away with me

He similarly satirises a racist point of view on the song ‘Rednecks’, from his concept album Good Old Boys, by singing a song from the point of view of a white supremacist from the deep South:

We talk real funny down here,
We drink too much, we laugh too loud,
We’re too dumb to make it in no northern town –
We’re keeping the niggers down

Going back to Sail Away, there’s some great songs on there. The music is very melodic – sometimes it’s Randy and his piano, sometimes there’s a band, and sometimes there’s an orchestra in the background. Newman has been covered a lot, and included here is ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ (covered by Tom Jones) and ‘Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear’ (covered by the Muppets). As an atheist, one song I particularly like is the slow, mournful ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’, in which some of His distraught subjects appeal to God for answers. God replies:

I recoil in horror at the foulness of thee –
From the squalor and the filth and the misery,
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me,
That’s why I love mankind
…
I burn down your cities – how blind you must be,
I take from you your children and you say ‘how blessed are we’,
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me,
That’s why I love mankind

Basketball woes

2007-02-20T22:51:00.000Z

Three posts this year! I'm on a roll. Lightning blogging here...

We lost another basketball game tonight. That's four in a row since Christmas. Before Christmas we were having a great season - we won five and lost two. Similarly to the past few years, most of the teams in the league are around the same standard. Most teams are capable of beating any of the others. The strongest team is probably Rathmines, who have an extremely tall player who is high-scoring. At the end of the year, there are play-offs between the top four teams in the league. We still have a chance to make it that far in the season. Here's the league table.

I play Division 4 basketball with St. Declan's in Cabra. Tonight we were beaten by Ranelagh Fire. The game was quite close in the last quarter. Unfortunately, at that stage I was sitting on the bench. I scored one free throw in the first half. We were down a lot of points at half-time, but we made a comeback, and halfway through the last quarter, we were only losing by eight. By the end of the quarter, we had cut the lead to four points. But in the end, we just weren't able to catch them, as we ran out of time.