Stakes Is Weird

Went to Fresno this past weekend to visit the family. Sold a million CD's I never listen to anymore, and armed with a princely sum in store credit, I went on an Elton John binge. I also bought the Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist album because I have not heard "MTV Get Off the Air" since I was a fifteen year-old of much smaller physical frame and much larger optical frames. Frankenchrist is still really good and the intro to "Soup Is Good Food" still sounds weird and great. And as every last person in this country loses his/her job and finds no safety net, the words are disappointingly relevant again. It's officially the '80's, but worse. We're dying again folks.

But on to more important things. Brother-in-law Matt stumbled across something strange at the used record store: an LFO record. You know, "I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch." The Lyte Funky Ones. Those guys.

Or rather, these guys:


They had another album, post-Abercrombie & Fitch. Three high-profile cameos. Sit down for this. The following all actually did verses on an LFO album.

De La Soul

Kelis, "the loud screaming chick with the hair."

And the ever-scary M.O.P. Huh? (This means they went into the studio with LFO right around they went into the studio with Pharaohe Monche for Internal Affairs. Simon says think about it.)


The weirdness crown obviously goes to the MOP appearance, but these are all sufficiently horrifying to ruin your day one by one. I remember this period of time well, from about 1997 to 2002, where everything in the entire world went insane. Does it surprise anyone that a country that could produce such an unsettling musical collaboration would be sending innocent men to Syria to be tortured indefinitely within a year?

P.S. I just put tags on this post, and it earns six: photos, hilarious, politics, celebrities, hippy, music. This is probably two or three more tags than any other post I've done, and I think only a musical-collaborative-nightmare of this scale could cast such a wide net.

P.P.S. I just reread this post and I think only Eric will be even remotely interested, and he's probably not aware that I'm still updating this here weblog. Apologies, but it's already done.

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Suggested reading, checking out the lake right now

London Review of Books has published a series of short editorials on the brutality in Gaza. They are interesting and worth reading.

Tariq Ali seems to call for a one-state solution, which is something I don't have an informed opinion about. I think Edward Said is like the only other person in history to have held that position.

"The war on Gaza has killed the two-state solution by making it clear to Palestinians that the only acceptable Palestine would have fewer rights than the Bantustans created by apartheid South Africa."

David Bromwich hits the nail on the head with respect to our inability to grasp (and unwillingness to condemn) the disproportionality here.

Like the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada, the rockets from Gaza were a choice of tactics of a spectacular vengefulness. The spectacle was greater than the damage: no Israeli had been killed by a rocket before the IDF launched their assault. Yet the idea of rockets falling induces terror, whereas the idea of an army invading a neighbouring territory has an official sound. The numbers of the dead – as of 15 January, more than 1000 Palestinians and fewer than 20 Israelis – tell a different story. Many people remain unmoved by the tremendous disproportion because they cannot get the image of rockets out of their heads.

Further, he makes this statement about Obama.

The unhappy message of his recent utterances has been reconciliation without truth; and reconciliation, above all, for Americans. This preference for bringing-together over bringing-to-light is a trait of Obama’s political character we are only now coming to see the extent of. It is an element – until lately an unperceived element – of a certain native moderation of temper that is likely to mark his presidency. Yet his silence on Gaza has been startling, even immoderate.

Conor Gearty (never heard of him) says something more hopeful about Obama, and then goes on to trot out a list of possible U.S. actions that would only happen in a Utopian dreamland.

"It is just possible the killings in Gaza may mark the end of Israel’s disastrous plunge into militant Zionism. The key is Obama: will he collapse under pressure like most of his predecessors, or is there more to him? Let us assume he knows how senseless it is for the US to collude in a crime of the kind going on in Gaza."

R.W. Johnson's (also never heard of him) contribution is maybe the best - pessimistic about Obama, brings in some explanation of why it happened which I think is useful.

The present crisis was probably unavoidable given (a) Iran’s position, (b) the coming Israeli election and (c) the failure of Israel to achieve full-scale victory over Hizbullah last year. That last factor has weighed on all minds, showing Iran how much leverage it had, threatening to turn all Arab-occupied land into rocket-launching grounds and increasing Israeli determination to show that this is a prohibitively expensive option for anyone who opts to host such an exercise. The stalemate seems complete.

I doubt whether Obama will make much difference. His chief of staff is an ex-Israeli soldier and his administration will be heavily in hock to the Israel lobby from day one. Israel may be unhappy that he will talk to Hamas but this unhappiness is quite unnecessary. He is not going to soft-talk them into accepting Israel’s existence and laying down their rockets, so what will such talks really change?

The real key remains US-Iran relations.

With respect to that last one . . . does anyone know what Rahm Emanuel did for Israel? People say he was in the IDF, several sources online say he "volunteered for the IDF in the Gulf War," which means something like nothing, and I've also heard that he basically made bricks or something f0r the IDF on a volunteer basis. His Wikipedia page says nothing at all about it.

Related - what about that missing digit? I've heard he lost it in a bar brawl, that he lost it making bricks or something for the IDF on a volunteer basis, and from his Wikipedia page that he lost it working at Arby's. It seems Rahm is a mystery man of the highest order. However, it is quite clear that he is a vile person who helped turn the Democratic Party into the center wing of the GOP in the '90's. I hope he goes away sooner rather than later.

Anyway, check out the London Review of Books link.

I'm at Lago Atitlan right now, and it is quite beautiful. A bit of advice if you ever come here: don't go to San Pedro. It is over run with Ras-Trent and company, as well as their German co-dreads, Ras-Hans and Ras-Gretel. It's really not even worth stopping there, except to rent a kayak. I think Santa Cruz seems a little bit nicer.

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Pepsi is bigger than Coke here.

More appalling news from Gaza: Israel sent in ground troops. Call, fax, or email your representatives, people. It takes ten minutes. Not going to make a difference in the short run, but in the long run people need to be way more engaged about this issue.

¨The UN has warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis, and believes 25% of more than 400 Palestinians killed by Israel so far were civilians. Israel says about 80% of those killed were Hamas militants. Four Israelis have been killed by rocket fire from Gaza.¨

Several were killed while at prayer yesterday, FYI. This is particularly terrible, though the whole thing is insane.

Anyway.

I fell into conversation yesterday with two people who worked at a restaurant where I ate. Found out that Zona 13, where I spent the first day, is home to many former Central American presidents, one Nicaraguan president in particular. Not sure who it was but I looked up all the post-Samoza folks, and it seems likely that his person is way shadier than any of the Zona 1 people that everyone warned me about.

Spent some time at the National Palace and the Cathedral. Bought a candle in a plastic container outside the Cathedral. Went back to my hotel, lit it, started reading Anna Karenina, promptly fell asleep. Woke up this morning with black phlegm and black soot under (and in) my nostrils. I guess the container melted and the candle burned down to the desk it was on. And so, in this way, I have already left my mark on Guatemala.

Spent much of today on a bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela), where I will be studying. My taxi driver from Zona 3 to Zona 1 asked me how to pronounce our new president´s name, and I told him, and we agreed that he is better than Bush. Then we both had a hearty laugh, probably not about the same thing.

Xela is really sunny. That´s all I can say so far. When I knocked on the door of my hotel for tonight, I was greeted by a twenty-something American with weird-beard who appears to have been cultivating his personal odor for the better part of his adulthood. He just sort of opened the door and walked away in his too-good-for-shoes bare feet, leaving me in the doorway sort of peaking inside for a front desk. He´s one of those guys who is so laid back that you start to worry; clearly he had not heard the news about the ground invasion into Gaza! I have never understood why these people come to countries where procuring drugs is so much dodgier than it is in the suburban U.S. I´m sort of worried that the hippy and crust-punx contingent from America will be in full effect, but if the good people of Xela can handle it, then I suppose I can as well.

This Internet cafe is really awesome, because the lady who works the desk is also in all the adverisements on the front door. Remember those heady days of the late-90´s when an Internet cafe would serve coffee? I remember when that stopped in Chicago, but apparently the no-coffee-at-the-cafe rule is worldwide. Or at least hemisphere-wide.

One final note: can anyone explain to me why people paint the bottoms of their trees white? It´s huge here in Guatemala, but it´s something I´ve noticed in the States my whole life, but I have never been able to figure it out.