Wanderlust

The moment I stop and rest I look up at the road again and something small and nagging and insistent in my heart insists I throw it all off and walk again -

Guy Walks Across America

His route: Anyone Want To Do This???

Muffin Dream

Video

Very Strange.

Pointing to Indestructibility

Here is a cool video about the Pyramids at Giza.

I got the link from Cracked, which claims that the pyramids would probably have had a lot more bling on them, as it were, if we could see them in their full glory. This is also true, by the by, of the Greek and Roman statues which we think of as lovely marble white. Nope. They were probably painted the most garish of colours. A friend and I once reflected that Washington DC is built on a very misguided notion of how Rome looked like at the time (Source: actual exhibit that was at Harvard for a time! I loved this exhibit). In fact, if it wanted to be historically accurate, most of D.C. would be a loud shade of purple.

photo of Sphinx, partially excavated from Wikipedia.

also from Cracked.

So it was always my observation that earlier peoples liked bling. No one invented minimalism until the 20th century. Well, maybe the Puritans. But they didn’t call it minimalism. This is because poverty made bling very attractive. They got to a point where bling > no bling   –> more bling > less bling –> most bling > lots of bling. Only when we reached a point of ridiculous extravagance (think the Sun King in France) that you get a) revolutions b) voluntary renunciation c) minimalism = the new luxury (think Calvin Klein in the 90s). Yup.

This American Life

I love Madonna. I think she’s a genius. Who else has not crashed out from the entertainment industry after having No. 1 hits in every decade for the last 4 decades? Seriously.

This is the America I believe in.

So, do I have to change my name?

Oh Dem Russians!

So, America just arrested a bunch of unregistered Russian spies who lived in New Jersey and suchlike places, but can’t charge them with anything cos they (so far) haven’t seemed to have disseminated any state secrets. Super-subtle operation? A legacy of a communist payroll? Wheels within wheels? Publicity ploy? Who knows? But the Cold War is certainly not as hot as it used to be. Also, “sleeper spies” who refused to go home cos they “felt they had become Americans” is just hilarious. Is this just New York Times humor? Or would it really happen?

The New York Times Presents:
How to turn your Cold War enemies into Americans 101:

1) stop threatening to bomb them
2) let them live in your country
3) put them in suburbia
4) give them the SUV and the white picket fence
5) taadaa, hearts and minds!

too good to be true?

Here’s my little Beatles Music Video about present-day Russia:

Back In the U.S.S.R. from JHu on Vimeo.

The River Between

Between Minnesota and Iowa, the Mississippi Flows – Click for Video

The River between Minnesota and Iowa from JHu on Vimeo.

Poisoning the Well

Hello, and let me offer a few sweeping generalizations – don’t shoot me!

When I left the Northeast for the Midwest, a few people told me what I would find there. Here is a sampling:

1) Why are you going to the Midwest? There’s nothing there!

2) You’re going to find God in the Midwest? Most people go to India or something.

3) Well, you’re going to find it a lot less cosmopolitan than the Coasts…

4) You will see a lot of corn.

Here is what movies tell you about the Midwest (at least movies I’ve seen, especially Road Trip movies)

Well, first of all, a caveat – it’s kind of lumped together with The South, I guess…. Or, the Category of “Not the Northeast slash California”:

1) People have funny accents, a lot of boils, and are scarily into Jesus (cf. Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle)

2) Everyone there is white, and the women have scary smiles in which they grin very hard and have inbred children cos they marry their brothers and sisters (cf. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guntanamo Bay)

3) They are racist down/out there (cf Same as Above)

4) They are uncultured, or if they are cultured they are hypocritical (cf Borat, Cultural Learnings of America)

5) They are anti-Semitic (cf. Borat, Cultural Learnings of America)

Here are my findings, at least thus far:

3) There are a LOT of “ethnic” (by “ethnic” people mean “non-white”) restaurants in Iowa City, Rochester and St Paul. Also my first meal in Davenport was Chicken Masala with Egg Noodles. And it was really good.

2) Old families on the Northeast may have a lot of foreign friends, but they are less likely to marry them. (cf. the Hopes, my second cousins: Irene is Chinese of Cantonese ancestry, David is some mix of Irish, Welsh, English; Nathaniel is their first son, who married a Thai, Erin is single, Lauren married a half-Korean, half-white (not sure what kind of white, I need to find that out, but his last name is Seden) I know this is a small sample size, but still. For the difference between being friends with someone and allowing them to marry your daughter, cf. Othello’s speech below

1) I have seen, and eaten, a lot of corn.

OTHELLO. Her father loved me, oft invited me,
    Still question'd me the story of my life
    From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
    That I have pass'd.
    I ran it through, even from my boyish days
    To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
    Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
    Of moving accidents by flood and field,
    Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
    Of being taken by the insolent foe
    And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
    And portance in my travels' history;
    Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
    Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
    It was my hint to speak- such was the process-
    And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
    The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
    Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
    Would Desdemona seriously incline;
    But still the house affairs would draw her thence,
    Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
    She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
    Devour up my discourse; which I observing,
    Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
    To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
    That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
    Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
    But not intentively. I did consent,
    And often did beguile her of her tears
    When I did speak of some distressful stroke
    That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
    She gave me for my pains a world of sighs;
    She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange;
    'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful.
    She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
    That heaven had made her such a man; she thank'd me,
    And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
    I should but teach him how to tell my story,
    And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
    She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
    And I loved her that she did pity them.
    This only is the witchcraft I have used.
    Here comes the lady; let her witness it.

You are the Weakest Link. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Oh Kevin! You were so cute, and Bill Gatesy, and I liked your apology to the Native Australians. Also John Howard was not all that likable for all his fiscal responsibility. But you spent all our surplus and put us in deficit, and were doling out all our resources boom to various random causes (including, and I don’t even know how this was ever a good idea – giving the largest car manufacturer in the world a subsidy to invent a car that had already been invented!)!

Watch this amazing video!

The Lake at Toah Nipi

The Lily Pads from JHu on Vimeo.

The Muddy Banks from JHu on Vimeo.

Grace Notes from JHu on Vimeo.

The Muddy Banks from JHu on Vimeo.

A Couple Brambles from JHu on Vimeo.

Notes to Self from JHu on Vimeo.

The Fishing Rod from JHu on Vimeo.

The Boat Conceived from JHu on Vimeo.