JarJar Nixon's Blues Kitchen

Mart Stewart has a wonderful article in the new issue of Southern Cultures. A study of Gone with the Wind in Vietnamese classrooms. Bet U can score a copy of the essay if you are a member of an on-line university library.

http://vietnamnet.vn/vanhoa/tintuc/2005/11/516128/

http://www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp#

From the Freer Gallery (Washington, D.C.) web site:
These great recent films from Vietnam have rarely, if ever, been shown in the United States. Don't miss this rare chance to enjoy a fascinating glimpse into Vietnam's people, culture, and history. Each film is in Vietnamese with English Series cosponsored by the Embassy of Vietnam and the Vietnam Cinema Department. Travel costs provided by the Ford Foundation.

Glorious Time in Me Thao Hamlet
Friday, December 2, 7 pm
At the turn of the twentieth century, Nguyen, a wealthy nobleman, loses his lover in a car accident and, in the madness of his grief, forces his employees and servants to rid his vast estate of all modern technology. When the authorities begin to move in, Tam, a musician Nguyen shelters from the police, devises a desperate plan to cure his friend. Featuring intricate period details and mesmerizing performances of traditional Vietnamese music, this film by Nguyen Viet Linh, one of Vietnam's foremost female directors, blends history, legend, and fantasy into a haunting tale of love and loss. 2002 / 90 min.

Sandy Lives
Sunday, December 4, 2 pm
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a man returns to his seaside village after a twenty-year absence. His wife has remained faithful, but he has remarried and fathered a daughter. Together, members of this unconventional family must find a way to get along while they pick up the pieces of their war-torn lives in this poetic and beautifully realized film by Nguyen Thanh Van. 1999 / 90 min. Preceded by Ceramic Traders, a compelling documentary by Nguyen Truing Giang that offers a rarely seen glimpse into the daily life of Vietnamese craftspeople. 2004 / 36 min. / video. A brief tour of Vietnamese Ceramics is offered at 1:15 pm; meet at the Freer info desk.

King of Rubbish Dumps
Sunday, December 11, 2 pm
Mixing gentle humor with gripping realism, this film from Do Minh Tuan follows the exploits of Trong, the self-appointed ruler over a community of poor people who scavenge a garbage dump for things to sell. When he falls in love with a pretty florist, his tough-guy attitude melts, and they collaborate on a scheme to turn the junk around them into art. 2002 / 100 min. Preceded by Night Cyclo Trip, a delightful short film by Bui Thac Chuyen about a young man from the country whose first night on the job as a bicycle taxi driver must be one of the worst ever. 2000 / 27 min. A brief tour of Vietnamese Ceramics is offered at 1:15 pm; meet at the Freer info desk.

Lost and Found
Friday, December 16, 7 pm
This well-crafted tragicomedy tells the story of an eccentric mathematician whose decision to pretend to be the father of his student's unborn child throws his personal and professional life into turmoil. Director Vuong Duc brilliantly captures the contradictions of contemporary Vietnam, in which cultural change and explosive economic growth often clash with time-honored traditions. 2003 / 97 min.

Deserted Valley
Sunday, December 18, 2 pm
Guests: Pham Nhue Giang, director; Nguyen Thi Hong Thai, Deputy General Director, Vietnam Cinema Department Set in a remote village among one of Vietnam's many ethnic minorities, this breathtakingly beautiful film follows three teachers whose personal lives threaten to pull them away from the pupils they have grown to love. This moving, deeply humanist work is one of the truly great contemporary Vietnamese films. 2002 / 90 min. Please join director Pham Nhue Giang for a discussion following the film. A brief tour of Vietnamese Ceramics is offered at 1:15 pm; meet at the Freer info desk.

LONDON: "When Gary Glitter was riding the crest of the British glam rock wave in the early 1970s, Vietnam was still a big issue in the news.

"The sad and desperate life of a fallen rock 'n' roll star trying to escape his shameful past in Asia Even if he gave much thought to the world beyond pop stardom, Glitter could hardly have envisaged that, 30 years later, he too could face death in that country.
Under Vietnamese law, sexual contact with a minor under the age of 18 carries varying penalties, depending on the charge. Child rape carries the maximum penalty of death before a firing squad."

More at...
http://www.sundaytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,9353,17374297-28779,00.html

Annapolis, Maryland--"A five-alarm fire ripped through the heart of Main Street last night as holiday shoppers and diners thronged downtown, gutting several businesses and eerily recalling a similar blaze just blocks away eight years ago."

More at...

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/11_26-26/TOP

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1126704061436B112

Came home to a puppy on Wednesday night. The family calls her Hannah or Snow White. I call her Caligula. Good walking mate, though. A Maltese. She is pure hair and energy, a Slinky on Jell-o drugs, a random noise generator on four paws.

Charamblontical

-------------------------------------------------------------------AOPA ePilot Special Airspace Bulletin November 23, 2005-------------------------------------------------------------------A special notice to AOPA members in the eastern Maryland area==> ATTENTION PILOTS <==FAA ESTABLISHES 'PERMANENT' TFR OVER ST. MICHAELS ON WEDNESDAYAOPA is sending this message to advise pilots in and near St. Michaels,Maryland, that the FAA has issued a notam restricting flight in thearea indefinitely starting Wednesday, November 23.At the request of security officials, the FAA has issued a1-nautical-mile-radius temporary flight restriction (TFR) over St.Michaels, Maryland, where Vice President Dick Cheney is expected tobuy a house. The TFR extends up to 1,500 feet agl and abuts theWashington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The TFRwent into effect at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning and will remain ineffect "until further notice" regardless of whether the vicepresident is present. See AOPA Online for the full text of the notamand a graphic ( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html#5/0860 ).

Posted by James Sullivan, but I am not sure what newspaper it comes from:


Guitarist Link Wray Dies

"Father of the power chord" was seventy-six

Link Wray, the electric guitar innovator who is oftencredited as the father of the power chord, died earlier this month at his home in Copenhagen,apparently of natural causes. He was seventy-six.

He may have died quietly, but Wray's life was notablefor its enthusiastic devotion to volume. "Rumble," the guitarist's 1958 signature song, had the uniquedistinction of being widely banned by radio stations across America despite the fact that it had no words.As legend has it, Wray poked a pencil through the coneof his amplifier to achieve the song's groundbreakingfuzz tone.

Its ragged, ominous chords, overdriven anddragged to a crawl, sounded like an invitation to aknife fight. At a time of national hysteria overjuvenile delinquency, many cultural scolds took thesong's implied threat literally.Wray's early, highly stylized instrumental swagger,further evidenced in follow-up hits such as "Raw-Hide"and "Jack the Ripper," would prove to be a greatinspiration for some of the most potent guitarists ofthe classic rock era, including Pete Townshend, NeilYoung and Bruce Springsteen.

Bob Dylan, another teenage fan, opened his show in London Sunday night byplaying "Rumble" in tribute. Link Wray was born Frederick Lincoln Wray Jr. in Dunn,North Carolina, on May 2, 1929. He claimed to have learned to play guitar at the age of eight from a traveling circus performer named Hambone.

Afterserving in the Army and contracting tuberculosis,which led to the loss of a lung, Wray played in asuccession of groups with names such as the Lazy PineWranglers and Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands,often with his brothers Vern and Doug and a cousin,Shorty Horton.By the mid-1950s the Wraymen, as they were then known(sometimes billed as the Raymen), were regular guestson Milt Grant's Washington, D.C., dance program.

When one fan asked the band to play a stroll, Wray,unfamiliar with the term, improvised on the spot. The prowling riff he came up with got such a positiveresponse that Grant took a demo to Archie Bleyer atCadence, the label then nurturing the Everly Brothers."Rumble," despite the radio bans, eventually reachedNumber Sixteen on the national pop charts.Subsequent labels cast about wildly in trying toduplicate the success of "Rumble" and "Raw-Hide,"which reached Number Twenty-three in 1959.

"They had me in the studio with Mitch Miller," Wray said in1998, at the outset of one of his frequent comebacktours. "I did 'Clair de Lune.' They wanted me to do'Zorba the Greek.' Can you imagine Link Wray doing'Zorba the Greek'?" With his brother Doug, he formedhis own label, Rumble Records, selling copies of "Jackthe Ripper" out of the trunk of his car until the songwas picked up by the Swan label. By the mid-Sixtieshe'd announced his retirement from music, declaringhis intention to become a farmer.But Wray, who proudly described himself asthree-quarters Shawnee Indian, set up a crudethree-track recording studio in a chicken coop on hisproperty in rural Maryland. In 1971, Polydor releaseda self-titled album from those gutbucket sessions tocritical acclaim, if disappointing sales. (Link Wrayand two subsequent albums were recently reissued on atwo-CD set called Wray's Three Track Shack.) Featuringswampy guitar, gospel-style choruses and Wray's ownsoulful singing, the albums marked a surprising newphase; there are appealing, Americana-style echoes ofthe Band, Van Morrison's pastoral period and theRolling Stones circa Exile on Main Street.The resurrection took Wray for a time to SanFrancisco, where he often performed with survivors ofthe Summer of Love. Later in the 1970s, he worked withthe rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon; a lateNineties comeback tour found him backed by theeccentric San Francisco band Dieselhed.Over the years Wray's early instrumentals have becomenatural favorites of soundtrack producers, appearingin John Waters' Pink Flamingos, the 1983 remake ofBreathless, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and manyother films. A flurry of soundtrack activity in themid-Nineties helped convince the guitarist -- thenresettled with his wife, Olive, and son, OliverChristian, on a remote island in Denmark -- to returnonce again to the stage."I like to get personal with the kids with my rock &roll," he said at the time.After performing forty North American dates this yearto celebrate the release of Wray's Three Track Shack,Wray died at his home in Copenhagen on November 5th.He was buried in a private family ceremony on November18th.Guitarist Link Wray Dies"Father of the power chord" was seventy-sixLink Wray, the electric guitar innovator who is oftencredited as the father of the power chord, diedearlier this month at his home in Copenhagen,apparently of natural causes. He was seventy-six.He may have died quietly, but Wray's life was notablefor its enthusiastic devotion to volume. "Rumble," theguitarist's 1958 signature song, had the uniquedistinction of being widely banned by radio stationsacross America despite the fact that it had no words.As legend has it, Wray poked a pencil through the coneof his amplifier to achieve the song's groundbreakingfuzz tone. Its ragged, ominous chords, overdriven anddragged to a crawl, sounded like an invitation to aknife fight. At a time of national hysteria overjuvenile delinquency, many cultural scolds took thesong's implied threat literally.Wray's early, highly stylized instrumental swagger,further evidenced in follow-up hits such as "Raw-Hide"and "Jack the Ripper," would prove to be a greatinspiration for some of the most potent guitarists ofthe classic rock era, including Pete Townshend, NeilYoung and Bruce Springsteen. Bob Dylan, anotherteenage fan, opened his show in London Sunday night byplaying "Rumble" in tribute.Link Wray was born Frederick Lincoln Wray Jr. in Dunn,North Carolina, on May 2, 1929. He claimed to havelearned to play guitar at the age of eight from atraveling circus performer named Hambone. Afterserving in the Army and contracting tuberculosis,which led to the loss of a lung, Wray played in asuccession of groups with names such as the Lazy PineWranglers and Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands,often with his brothers Vern and Doug and a cousin,Shorty Horton.

By the mid-1950s the Wraymen, as they were then known(sometimes billed as the Raymen), were regular guestson Milt Grant's Washington, D.C., dance program. Whenone fan asked the band to play a stroll, Wray,unfamiliar with the term, improvised on the spot. Theprowling riff he came up with got such a positiveresponse that Grant took a demo to Archie Bleyer atCadence, the label then nurturing the Everly Brothers."Rumble," despite the radio bans, eventually reached Number Sixteen on the national pop charts.Subsequent labels cast about wildly in trying to duplicate the success of "Rumble" and "Raw-Hide,"which reached Number Twenty-three in 1959. "They hadme in the studio with Mitch Miller," Wray said in1998, at the outset of one of his frequent comebacktours. "I did 'Clair de Lune.' They wanted me to do'Zorba the Greek.' Can you imagine Link Wray doing'Zorba the Greek'?" With his brother Doug, he formedhis own label, Rumble Records, selling copies of "Jackthe Ripper" out of the trunk of his car until the songwas picked up by the Swan label.

By the mid-Sixtieshe'd announced his retirement from music, declaringhis intention to become a farmer. But Wray, who proudly described himself as three-quarters Shawnee Indian, set up a crude three-track recording studio in a chicken coop on his property in rural Maryland. In 1971, Polydor releaseda self-titled album from those gutbucket sessions tocritical acclaim, if disappointing sales. (Link Wrayand two subsequent albums were recently reissued on atwo-CD set called Wray's Three Track Shack.)

Featuring swampy guitar, gospel-style choruses and Wray's ownsoulful singing, the albums marked a surprising newphase; there are appealing, Americana-style echoes ofthe Band, Van Morrison's pastoral period and theRolling Stones circa Exile on Main Street.The resurrection took Wray for a time to SanFrancisco, where he often performed with survivors ofthe Summer of Love. Later in the 1970s, he worked withthe rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon; a lateNineties comeback tour found him backed by theeccentric San Francisco band Dieselhed.

Over the years Wray's early instrumentals have becomenatural favorites of soundtrack producers, appearingin John Waters' Pink Flamingos, the 1983 remake ofBreathless, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and manyother films. A flurry of soundtrack activity in themid-Nineties helped convince the guitarist -- thenresettled with his wife, Olive, and son, OliverChristian, on a remote island in Denmark -- to returnonce again to the stage."I like to get personal with the kids with my rock &roll," he said at the time.After performing forty North American dates this yearto celebrate the release of Wray's Three Track Shack,Wray died at his home in Copenhagen on November 5th. He was buried in a private family ceremony on November18th.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/4454738.stm

The unfortunate incident reported above is the reason why White House staff spend hours--days--rehearsing the exact steps the President will take. I am sure someone locked the door at the last minute, or there was a miscommunication. What would be an unnoticed glitch for any lesser event becomes front page news for a world leader. While the rest of the world may get a guffaw out of this, I feel the pain of the people who labored to make the event perfect.

http://www.vietnamlit.org/news.html

Back in Seoul after two weeks in Busan. Two huge bowls of pho upon my return yesterday. The exhaustion did not hit until this morning. Feel like I am swimming in Jell-o. Good thing is I will have an invigorating bike ride back home. Hopefully Mexican food for dinner.

Also from today's WSJ...

China Reports Bird-Flu Cases in HumansChina said three people had contracted avian flu, its first human cases. Five Asian countries have recorded human cases of the flu, all apparently due to close contact with poultry. The virus has not yet developed the ability to jump between people, after roughly eight years of striking terror in the hearts of global health officials, who fear it could become a deadly pandemic killing millions of people. After a series of recent outbreaks, China yesterday said it planned to give every one of its estimated 14 billion yardbirds a flu vaccine.

Excerpts from today's WSJ...


November 16, 2005 -- 5:44 p.m. EST

GM in the Breakdown Lane
By MARK GONGLOFFTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
General Motors watched its shares post yet another huge decline, dragged down by labor strife at GM's top parts supplier and chatter of an imminent bankruptcy filing, causing Wall Street to ask: What would Kirk Kerkorian do?

....Not long ago, the very idea of the iconic GM, the world's biggest auto maker, filing for bankruptcy sounded far-fetched. It has some $19 billion in cash, after all. But its stumbling auto operations also have some $31 billion in debt that is rated "junk" by credit agencies. And GM is gushing money, having lost $4 billion in the first three quarters of the year. Foreign competitors continue to devour its market share. It recently announced an earnings restatement. And in the credit default swaps market, investors wishing to hedge against the likelihood of GM defaulting on its debts have to pay cash up front, a dubious distinction recently afforded to Delphi and Delta Air Lines, both of which ended up in bankruptcy.

....Meanwhile, the executive office chair under CEO Rick Wagoner is getting less comfy by the day, and investors are increasingly turning their lonely eyes to Kirk Kerkorian, hoping the corporate gadfly who fixed Chrysler will take control of GM and work his magic again. At 88 years old, Mr. Kerkorian, who paid $31 a share for a big stake in GM in May, may not feel up to the task of turning around another struggling behemoth. But he could grab a board seat and play a role in picking Mr. Wagoner's replacement. And if anybody has $12 billion -- GM's current market cap, the smallest of all Dow Jones industrial average components -- and the appetite for a whole lot of debt, they could just buy the whole thing.
* * *

Bilateral press conference in a big room in historic Gyeongju with Presidents Roh and Bush just finished. Both looked casual (blazers, no neckties) and healthy (glowing under the big lights). President Bush was the most animated when responding to a question about Iraq. President Roh responded well to a question about soured relations when he said that both countries have never dealt with so many big issues before.



And my mind wandered to this site:

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/towns/Cawker/twine.html

I am sitting in the fabulous International Media Center here at APEC 2005. This place seats at least three hundred reporters and has two of the biggest indoor plasma screens I have ever seen. Super fast Internet, free health drinks in the fridge. Only thing missing is some news.

The slogan for the APEC host city is DYNAMIC BUSAN

The taxi driver referred to in an earlier post was forcibly removed by the hotel this morning.

Looks like Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO, will also be in town. He just finished a stint at the EU.

Economic summits are not exactly the hippest places to be in the world, but there is a fleet of sleek black and silver BMWs with low-profile tires, alloy wheels and APEC stamped on the back lip of the trunk.

HEADLINE: AMERICAN STREETS NAMED AFTER GREAT VIETNAMESE MEN

The Houston metropolitan administration in Texas has decided to name roads and streets in the overseas Vietnamese-inhabited quarter of Huston after 18 great men of Vietnam such as Le Loi, Nguyen Hue, Hai Ba Trung and Tran Hung Dao. This is an unprecedented move in the United States. "This is the pride of overseas Vietnamese," said Truong Trong Trac, President-Publisher of the Vietnamese language newspaper "Ngay Nay" (Today), who was one of the first Vietnamese residents in Houston and its adjacent areas. A new park called "Vietnamese Heritage Park" is also expected to be inaugurated in Houston by the end of this year in order to help overseas Vietnamese enjoy Tet (Vietnamese lunar new year celebrations) which will fall on January 29, 2006. - VNA

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42365

Was out on the tarmac yesterday and a group of colleagues from DC was holding a heated conversation among themselves while a two-prop plane about the size of that dragon in Shrek was bearing down on them. The plane swerved at the last minute, the group scattered, and there were no severed heads to scoop up off the tarmac.

When you walk into one of the premier hotels here in Busan, you almost step on a guy laying out on a metal, paramedic-style stretchet in the lobby. Turns out he is a taxi driver protesting his treatment by the hotel. He was outside, across the street with several other colleagues a month ago when I visited, but for some reason the hotel is now allowing him to stage his protest inside their facility.

Here is the philosophy behind a big Presidential visit: all the functions that are normally conducted at the White House are replicated on the road. It's amazing how successfully that infrastructure can be transferred half-way around the world.

Found a bulgogi (grilled beef) place near where we are working here in Busan that has an APEC special: $6/person. Unbelievably cheap for Korea.

Have felt hotter here in Busan than I have in the past three months I've been in-country. Super-quick ride on the KTX but the heat was craked up to 90 degrees farenheit. Staying at a hotel with a local-style under-floor heating system. Felt like a lizard on a hot rock all night the night before. LIttle better last night because it has cooled to around 50 or so F at night.

Had the weirdest late night experience yesterday involving reporters from Korean-language publications representing the very opposite ends of the spectrum--folks who normally never mingle together here. The equivalent of sitting down with Christopher Hitchens and William Kristol. From my neutral viewpoint, my message to them was that they were all working for the same purpose, to make the country stronger and more prosperous. Wine, steak, cigars, weird but enjoyable.

Will be writing posts from Busan starting this weekend. Been a little hectic.