Completed Category: Best Original Song

 Oh, this weird little category!

Original Song
"Dear Me" - from Diane Warren: Relentless
"Golden" - from KPop Demon Hunters
"I Lied To You" - from Sinners
"Sweet Dreams of Joy" - from Viva Verdi!
"Train Dreams" -  from Train Dreams

Now, listen.  I am going to tell you right now that I greatly enjoyed the Diane Warren documentary, and I don't care what anyone thinks about my enjoyment of it.  Notably, it did not make the shortlist for Documentary Features, but this latest song that Diane wrote did in fact get her another Original Song nomination, and she once again, I'm sorry to say, is unlikely to win. I learned so much about her and her life and her friend group, and I will tell you that her prickly personality, stream of f-bombs, and liking animals more than people all really work for me.  The song "Dear Me" is performed by Kesha and is not the greatest Diane Warren song. Oh well. Try again next year! 

Another movie I love, but am not picking to win this category? Train Dreams.  I still want all of you to watch that gorgeous, sad, lovely movie (it's on Netflix!) when you are in an appropriate, thoughtful mood.  The song, performed by  Nick Cave, very much fits the vibe of the movie, but it's not anything next level as a song.  Moving on... 

Viva Verdi! is the "Huh?" movie of this year's Oscar nominees. Well, it's a documentary about some folks living in the retirement home in Italy designed by Verdi himself (!) as a home for retired/older musicians. It was a really interesting little slice of life, but again, not nominated as a doc but rather for the song "Sweet Dreams of Joy."  Well, it was fine.  You can actually enjoy the folks singing a lot of more famous songs throughout the film in little snippets, by the way, if you're into that kind of thing.  But the movie also features their personalities and some history. It's available to rent on the Jolt indie film streaming service (I told you, Huh?)  Thanks, Jolt!  It's an honor for you to be nominated, Viva Verdi. 

Right, then. Sinners vs. KPop Demon Hunters.  It is going to be hard for anything to beat the extremely popular and now Grammy-winning "Golden" and KPop Demon Hunters delighted everybody, or at least a lot of bodies. But there is a tiny smidgen of a chance that Sinners busts out to a big night and collects trophy after trophy including this one for "I Lied To You."  That of course would mean Sinners seizes the glory - and the Oscars - from One Battle After Another  or as I now think of it One Nomination After Another.  A girl can dream. 

Which of these movies and songs did you like? 

Order I want them to win:  
Keeping in mind that I'm not sure how much I care, really?  And that as much as I liked Sinners I'm not all that into blues, which I know is like an egregious sin among most guitar players but I said what I said? Probably the same as the... 

Order that I think they're likely to win: 
Golden, I Lied to You, big gap here, still in the gap, still in the gap, Train Dreams, then another gap and then Dear Me or Sweet Dreams Of Joy  

Completed Category: Original Screenplay

 The other category that I completed by seeing The Holdovers last week was Writing - Original Screenplay. 

And in this category, I have a dilemma. You see, I loved Past Lives. I loved it, loved it, loved it.  But I don't think it was the best screenplay - that's not why. It was the feeling, the performances, the mood, and the direction. I was really hoping for Celine Song to shock everyone some people with a Directing nomination. 

Instead, she was nominated for screenplay, while... 

ANATOMY OF A FALL - Justine Triet got a Directing nomination along with her Original Screenplay nod here, which also surprised some people, mostly because she's not Greta Gerwig, but hey, people love Anatomy of a Fall. I also really liked it and would not be mad if it won here. It's talky and gives you lots to think about, both of which I generally like in movies. 

THE HOLDOVERS - You could sort of say the same for The Holdovers.  I love this misfit story quite a bit, and I might want it to win just a bit more than I'd want Anatomy... to win. I think The Holdovers also has a chance: people like it, and they might not be "able" to vote for Paul Giamatti so this would still be a vote for this film, and it's so exactly the kind of movie that gets a Screenplay nomination and I'm so okay with that. 

MAESTRO - This on the other hand?  Not as subtle or understated, and I think not as much of a chance to win this category, as Maestro was also not so much about the Screenplay as about the everything else about it, the boldness, the fantastic performance(s), the big swings it took. I think when people are thinking about the writing of words and crafting of a story, as opposed to the delivery of big scenes and big moments, they aren't going to dwell on Maestro. 

MAY DECEMBER - But May December? May be. First of all, it did not get any other nominations, despite the prognostication and the wicked good performances, and secondly, it was devilishly good. You are sort of horrified as it goes along at how dearly fucked up every character is, and it's great. It sneaks up on you. I am all for it winning here. 

PAST LIVES - And that is even above what was my favorite film in this category, Past Lives.  Taken as a whole experience, yes, this was far and away my favorite of these five. But I only put it third or fourth of these five for the Original Screenplay award. 

Order I want them to win: 
May December
The Holdovers
Anatomy of a Fall - Past Lives  (tie. I think.) 
Maestro

Order I think maybe they will win maybe: 
The Holdovers
Anatomy of a Fall (I might move this up) 
May December
Past Lives (I might move all these around, really)
Maestro

 But there's nothing terrible in this category!  That's always a plus. This will NOT be one of the times we feel like throwing something at the television on Oscars night. 

"War and peace?" -- Radar O'Reilly

I do believe the time is here. This is the year to re-read War and Peace. Who's with me?

Why now, you ask? Careful readers will note that I first began reading The Book, as I like to call it, that magical Russian novel that lives up to all its promise of literary glory, in 2005. (In fact, it's what prompted me to start my Literary Supplement blog in December of that year.)(Have you actually looked at the URL of my Literary Supplement blog?) And now it's 2015. (CANYOUBELIEVEIT'SBEEN10YEARSSINCE2005?!! BECAUSEICAN'T.) It's been nearly a decade since I moved to Korea, started a blog, assumed my Linda Without Borders identity, and bought my treasured copy of War and Peace (not in that order, because I had bought the book at Borders -- which has since died, leaving us all Without Borders -- in Massachusetts well before leaving the country). Ten freakin' years, my friends.  Side note: we shall perhaps have to have a tenth blogiversary party this fall.  I have mentioned in the time since I read The Book that it is definitely a book to be reread over one's lifetime, since it's so goddamn wonderful and all, and naturally this reminds me of the random guy on the Boston Common who jabbered to me about Goodbye, Columbus. Remember him? Go on and click that link to refresh your memory, if you don't recall the encounter. I'll wait here.  ...  OK, all caught up? He was funny. And I still haven't watched Goodbye, Columbus.

(Is Ali McGraw going to annoy me in it as much as she did in Love Story? I mean, that is one overrated movie and her character was SO irritating! I hated that movie. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Ugh, who thinks that? Who wants a relationship based on that? Good god. That is second only to "The customer is always right" as the emptiest platitude of crap that everyone repeats as if it speaks some profound truth. Blech.) (It does occur to me to wonder, though, whether the man on the Common jabbered to me because I reminded him of Ali somehow. I mean, she could play me in the movie of my life, right? Or the older version of me, anyway. What is she doing these days?  Maybe it was just her character that was annoying. Maybe I should give her the actress another chance, or read her book, or something. But not that horrible overrated Love Story again, no thanks.)

OK, so where were we? Right. War and Peace. Over the past almost-decade, I have cherished my memories of reading that novel, that quintessential novel of novels, that standard of bookdom, that ultimate literary fiction experience. I remember the excitement of plunging in, reading those first few pages of something SO big and famous and intriguing. I remember the cafe across from my job in Daegu where I would read for an hour or two each afternoon in between classes on my split shift days. I remember finishing it on the plane on the way back to the U.S.-- such interesting timing -- and then the random Eastern-European-who-spoke-Russian man next to me talking to me about it and me being utterly unable to form an answer to the immense question "So, how was it?"

And I'm inspired to reread it now because every ten years, why not, and also because at the bookstore here in Chicago where I attend my Women's Classics book group there is also another book group that is reading big books (called, would you believe it, the Big Books Group) and taking two or three months/meetings to discuss each one, so like they just did Middlemarch and are now doing Vanity Fair and in the spring will be doing, what else, the ol' War and Peace.

I'm starting to get a little bit giddy with the anticipation. (Even among all the other books and projects and reading plans I have for 2015.) Who wants to revisit The Book with me, or perhaps discover its joys for the first time?  Who's in?

Poznan, or Go west, young/old Poland traveler

It seems that most travelers to Poland start with Krakow, Warsaw, and Gdansk. That's fine, of course, but they also tend to end there.

I hereby urge you, in the paraphrased words of my least favorite White House occupier of all time, "Don't forget Poznan!"

Poland has a really interesting history. Of course, I've been aggressively reading stuff from and about Poland in preparation for this Habitat trip, but I've found it worthwhile to explore, whether you think you have a reason to be interested in Poland or not. Interestingly, as the trip approached, I happened to be on FDR in my read-a-bio-of-every-president-in-order project, so I had tons of context for all the WWII  and pre-war history, and I also happened to have Holocaust- themed novels on tap by Styron and Amis in my A-to-Z project further reading, so I've been drowning in Auschwitz, which, frankly, I recommend. I mean, I recommend visiting there, and doing a ton of reading to attempt to grapple with it, because grappling with it is tough. But also, the preceding centuries of Poland history are equally fascinating and relevant to world history.

Poznan old market square, which around here we call a Stary Rynek

In some ways, Poland is like good ol' Korea, sandwiched between powerful and/or power- hungry empires that have invaded/occupied/partitioned/oppressed it over the years, but both Korea and Poland have managed to maintain their identity, culture, and language. Good job, guys.

Poznan is a very interesting prism through which to view all this. It has more of a German influence than Warsaw and eastern Poland, and it has a certain proudly-of-German-heritage-but-totally-Polish population and more people with German last names, but also it was the site of an insistent uprising in 1918, when independent Poland was being reestablished after many years, when the Treaty of Versailles hadn't done enough, and Wielkopolska was like,  Dude, we are Poland! Don't go putting us in Germany!

And for good reason, because this is basically where Poland started back in the day, by which I mean 1,000 years ago.

Where the goats do their thing

 Krakow is an old, pre-Warsaw capital, but if you want the site of the first stuff, the first cathedrals, the first dukes' and kings' hangouts, you need to check out Poznan (and nearby Gniezno).

And check out Poznan we did. Our guide, Simon, led us on a seven-hour walking tour. Highlights include:
*The old market square, bombed in the war of course, but restored and super cute
*The goats in the clock tower who fight when the clock strikes noon-- no, they're not real. They're a fun mechanical recreation of the two legendary goats who escaped being the meal at a royal feast
*A big ol' church built by the Jesuits in mega baroque gold and fake gold splendour

*Cathedral island, where even now, centuries-old secrets continue to be revealed
*St. Martin croissants, totally a thing in Poznan, which we learned to make in a very funny interactive show/demonstration that happened to end with me winning an extra croissant for coming closest to guessing the weight in grams of the croissant that we as a group made. Actually, the weight was between what I said and what another audience member said, but by The Price Is Right rules I win because the other person overbid.

I won!

*An imaginative and high tech experience at a museum that uses audio, visual, films, holograms, models, and more to explore Poznan history

And later, our new friend Piotr, the young Polish construction supervisor

A noble Poznan cat

on our work site who has lived in Poznan for seven years, showed us a night out on the town. Have I mentioned that there is a lot of beer in Poland?

Here's to another great millennium, Poznan!

I remember when, I remember, I remember... when in the course of human events

Today, the 13th anniversary of the tragic September 11th/nine-eleven/World Trade Center however-you-personally-like-to-say-it terrorist attacks on multiple U.S. cities that caused the deaths of thousands, has turned into a veritable "Where I was when" fest on the ol' Facebook. Rather than add to that with a mere status update, I thought I'd give a quiz about where I was during some of the big news events of the Generation X Lifetime. I'll tell you my vivid memory of where I was when... and you see if you can determine what newsworthy event happened when I remember Where I Was When it happened.  (Small prize to the winner!)
note: events are in chronological order, which might help you figure them out...

1. Phoenix. Home sick from elementary school that day. Watching an Indiana Jones flick, I think on, like, The Movie Channel, in our Villa Rita house living room when Grandma called to see if we were watching the news. Since we weren't, she informed my mother what had happened, and needless to say Mom hurried in, shut off the movie, and turned to some broadcast network or other. How will I ever know what happened to Indy, mom?!?! Does he vanquish the enemy and get the girl and save the treasure or what? Before Setpember 11th, this event was often described as "my generation's" Kennedy-assassination-like moment, but I am going to demonstrate here that I remember where I was when I heard other news, too. This was the first biggie for people of a certain age (mine), though.

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

2. Phoenix. Chez Marcia, one of my high-school best friends. Watching a little after-school Jeopardy (nerds then, nerds now, nerds forever!) on the small TV set her family had on the kitchen/breakfast nook counter. A breaking news alert meant we never did get that final jeopardy answer, but instead watched several hours of harrowing reporting from people who were indeed in real jeopardy.  (Now both Harrison Ford AND Alex Trebek have been interrupted. Is nothing sacred?)

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

3. Provo, Utah. Walked into my friend Ranj's apartment and I distinctly remember being on the stairs next to her kitchen and she poked her head into the stairway to announce the news. She was either on the phone with her younger sister or had just got off the phone; said little sister had been plunged deep into mourning, for she had apparently just recently been to a concert where he waved at her... (She was probably already wearing black, though, to the best of my recollection of her wardrobe.)

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

4. Back in Phoenix. Working at Best Western's reservations call center one seemingly normal evening, and suddenly the call volume just plummets. Nothing. The phone lines aren't dead, but nothing's coming in. Finally a guy calls, and as we're checking out his double room and continental breakfast options, he asks, "Are you watching this?"  I warily reply, "Watching...what?" Ahhhh. That explains it. I had a 15-minute break coming up; naturally, everyone in the break room downstairs was glued to the TV. Not that there was really anything happening, but that was kind of the point of this one. What was going to happen? Anything? Just keep moving, as they say.

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

5. Phoenix. Listening to the radio this time, at home in the apartment I lived in with my mom on Thunderbird, getting ready to leave for class. I was an avid listener of the 106.3 The Edge morning show with Jayn Sayd and Dead Air Dave (Willobee having left for greener L.A. pastures). They read the news and I altered my morning radio routine just a little by turning on the living room TV to get some visuals and more details, though I kept the radio playing in the bedroom. And I totally remember lots of "Who's the Muslim?" speculation. (Not necessarily on the part of Jayn and Dave, just people in general.)

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

6. Phoenix, but just in town visiting, staying with Mom at her 19th Avenue apartment. Very recently returned from Cuba (by like a week), I was trying to practice my Spanish one night. We were watching this already-starting-to-develop story on TV, and I had insisted on keeping it on the Spanish news channel for a bit, so I could impress myself with my new language listening skills, as opposed to my previous growing-up-in-Phoenix life in which I had always cruised right by the noticias en español. Well, I was letting the details wash over me aurally when suddenly the newscaster upped the ante and I sat bolt upright. "Mom!" I said, then repeated (in English) the devastating new detail in all its finality, adding, "I think that's what he said?!"  She quickly flipped to an English news station, which confirmed the sad news.

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

7. Los Angeles. I had bizarrely fallen asleep with the TV on the night before, which was weird because at that time of my life I rarely if ever watched TV, let alone fell asleep with it on overnight. I had been drowsily continuing to sleep and drift with no real awareness of what the morning newscasts were saying until a sudden noise and clamor on the television was enough to jar me awake, around 7 a.m.. Took one look at the screen and then jumped out of bed and ran to look out the window, sure I was going to see bombs raining down from the sky over L.A., or some such thing.

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

8. Boston. It was a Sunday morning and I was on my way to work at Borders, which entailed me taking a quick bus ride from my house to Harvard station, stopping by the in-subway little Dunkin' Donuts for my coffee, then proceeding through the station to catch the red line of the T. The station had that sleepy Sunday morning feel, with only alternative-shift kind of commuters like myself passing through. I'm not sure I'd ever noticed that there even were little TV sets anywhere in that station, but that day I realized the Dunkin' Donuts workers were watching this oh-so-satisfactory-to-many announcement.

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

9. Andong, Korea. Way ahead of many of you time-of-day-wise, it was Monday morning for us. Brian and I were at home in our apartment, working on our various things. We often had CNN International on in the background, while also both being online; I was likely writing up and researching stuff for About.com, with multiple tabs open, and one of them was probably Facebook. In other words, the news suddenly came at us from several sources at once, but I definitely stepped out of our "study"/spare room into the living room where the TV was (and where Brian was) and we watched some footage of, as Brian called it (referencing his girl Miley), the "party in the U.S.A."

News Event? ______________  Year?  __________

10. Honorable mention: These two bits of breaking news weren't quite as major, no offense intended, but are memorable and particularly so for me because I was basically in the same place and circumstances, two years apart, for these eerily similar announcements. Both times, Brian and I were staying in our same beloved apartment-hotel in Phuket, Thailand. Both times, it just so happened that the TV was on with news in the background, I was focused on doing other stuff on my laptop, and Brian was lying  on the bed. Both times, the news appeared (thank goodness in English) on the screen and I said to Brian, "Hey, ________ Ho----n died!"  Both times, a similar tragic cause of death of not-that-far-apart-in-age people. 

News Events? _______________   Years? ___________

Well, ladies and gents, how did you do on the quiz?  And do you remember where you were when these things happened? 

Isn't it interesting to consider that in the course of all these newsworthy events, and despite my other ways of getting the news on multiple occasions, my reaction was always to get more details from television news? Talkin' bout my generation...I guess that's just how we do. (Some other generations do that, too.) Although I have logged fewer television-watching hours than many of my Gen-X cohorts, I recognize its place as a sort of "gathering" place for us all to watch, hear, learn, and experience when earth-shattering news happens. I used to think of breaking news on television as a kind of proxy for a town square, or suburban street, or dorm hallway, where instead of rushing out to say, "Oh my gosh, neighbors! This news!" we all watch from our own homes/workplaces and collectively experience it that way, and later talk face-to-face and remember together what we watched separately and yet kind of together. I suppose Facebook is kind of sort of where we do that now, although Facebook itself is still not really breaking news to us, just alerting us to "trending" things that we are all putting up there, news that we got from somewhere else first. Would I prefer to experience these things on my smartphone, tablet, or other handheld device? Abso-!@#$^&-lutely not. The time element is key: whatever was being broadcast over the airwaves, it was being broadcast at that time, and though some might have tuned in earlier than others, we then watched our many minutes or hours or days of coverage as they unfolded. Watching uploaded videos individually on our phones at our leisure removes that transmission (I'm sorry, millennials, should I say that "streaming"?) element from the collective experience. And although I have never really had to get earth-shattering news from the morning newspaper headlines, I definitely of an age where I liked to look to the morning paper for the details, the full story, the yellow ribbon on top of the front page of The Arizona Republic when the hostages in Iran were released (I was a tiny tyke -- that and John Lennon's death are basically the first news events that I remember, ever), or the Christmas Day end of the Soviet Union (who wants to blare TV news on Christmas? but reading the paper surrounded by a tree and opened presents seemed all right...)   I'm pretty sure I saved a few major The-Next-Day newspapers over the years, although I might have eventually recycled them, as I didn't find them while we were unpacking here in our new apartment in Chicago. We do have a television, though, and we watched Obama last night, talking to the nation about air strikes and ISIL...and so it goes, and so it goes.

Who Should Win the World Cup?

World Cup Fever: catch it! No, I didn't make that up (duh) but Brian and I have been saying that to each other for the past few weeks to amuse ourselves as we watch the 32 teams whittle themselves down to a mere four via the process of football aka soccer aka fútbol aka #becausefútbol matches. The benefit to being unemployed a part-time freelancer (me) and between jobs (him) is that we can watch pretty much every game and do the other things we need to do at other times of the day. Bosses are for suckers! Ha!

But seriously, folks. The World Cup is great fun, especially if you like soccer and if you like it when nations get together for peaceful endeavors instead of to blow one another to bits with guns and bombs. I'm big on the whole Make Sports Not War idea. Now, the USA sadly failed to advance to the quarter-finals, despite the Tim-Howard-and-his-many-saves performance, and some of Brian's and my other chosen teams are also out:  Mexico, where we lived and where the fútbol spirit is always fun, lost to the Netherlands and thus did not make the quarter-finals, while my good friends (Republic of) Korea and Honduras failed to make it out of their groups. The Honduras national team is always my first second choice (after my patriotic duty), ever since I happened to be in Honduras in 2008 for a Habitat for Humanity trip and we attended a World Cup qualifying match in San Pedro Sula. Vamos catrachos! Alas, they did not see fit to do any winning this year.And France, Brian's other-other team, lost to Germany the other day, while our CONCACAF solidarity pick Costa Rica, despite a noble effort, went down to the Netherlands. Since those Dutchies also beat Mexico, and even Chile (my other-other-other pick, although that was early and didn't eliminate Chile), I am basically against the Netherlands right now, my fondness for Curaçao and the former Netherlands Antilles notwithstanding. (And despite the fact that I like the color orange.)

Which means I need to cheer for Argentina against the Netherlands tomorrow. What about the other match, today's exciting encounter between Germany and Brazil? Well, folks, I have nothing against Brazil (in fact, I really want to go there, AND we've been drinking caipirinhas during several of the games...) but Brazil beat both Chile and Colombia, which was annoying, plus when it comes to choosing between a massively hyped superpower home team favorite and their opponent, I'm generally going to go for the opponent. Guten tag, Deutschland!

In honor of the World Cup, I've already added a film from each of the eight quarterfinals teams to my Netflix queue, and I've also decided to add a book from each of the final four countries' literature to my to-read list. Do you have any suggestions for a great book by any authors from Brazil, Germany, Argentina, or the Netherlands?

Trouble in Paradise

Well, I don't want to fall off the blogging wagon (or is that get on the blogging wagon, if being on the wagon means you're not doing something? because then I'd be trying to avoid falling off the not-blogging wagon, right? OK, that's what I meant. ANYway...) but I've been a little busy and uninspired the past few days. Let's see what happened....

Our good friends Ann and Kyle, whom we first met in Korea and have since hung out with in two different cities in China, are on vacation in Phuket, so we all got to hang out in our third country together. Naturally, when you gather four expat teachers around a table, it's pretty easy to guess what sorts of beverages will be on that table. I spent more money and read fewer pages in the four days after their arrival than I really care to think about. But, a good time was had by all as we took second place at the weekly trivia night at Roxy Bar, spent an afternoon at Patong (including: barefoot lunch in the sand, sunset, and a game of pool at a shady bar once darkness fell), spent a day at Laem Singh (more barefoot lunch, they paddle boarded, and I flew! my first para-sailing adventure!), wandered the Phuket Old Town Festival that so nicely coincides with these Jan-Feb stints we like to have in this place (last time, in 2012, it fell on our first weekend here and we've since referred to it as our "welcome party"), and then, as if that weren't enough, set sail to Ko Phi Phi!

Yes, I'm still talking about the same four-day period. Naturally, Kyle and Ann planned to head to Phi Phi Don because they'd not seen it before on their first (lackluster, monsoon season) quick trip to Phuket. Brian and I had done a day trip to Phi Phi in 2012, but this time we decided to stay over in a bungalow and see what all the beach fuss was about. Oh, my god. The fuss, apparently, is about madness! Kyle said the beach smelled like "gasoline and bad decisions" and I'm inclined to agree.

First of all, though, I would like to confess that I am ever so slightly underwhelmed by the KPP. I can't tell you how much I heard about it being one of the best beaches in the world. At the risk of sounding spoiled, I've seen other beaches that pleased me just as much. Now, the rising limestone rock faces surrounding the cove are apparently what gets Phi Phi its accolades, as well as the by-all-accounts superb diving below the surface (of which I didn't partake -- we just kayaked and snorkeled a bit), but I just don't see the point of dragging all of those boats, people, food, drinks, infrastructure, construction, shops, etc. to this tiny spit of land. It seems better suited to be a day trip or camp-on-the-beach place. I've been hearing so much about how Thailand/Phuket are basically doing nothing wise with regard to the rampant development as tourists flock to this paradisiacal place that is going to be an environmental disaster in a few minutes here if someone doesn't start paying attention, and this hit me harder than ever at Ko Phi Phi.

It's like Obama all over again: while I appreciate Ko Phi Phi to a certain extent, it didn't captivate me. It's like I'm missing something that others see, which is generally how I felt whenever Barack opened his mouth in 2008. "But have you heard him speeeeeeeeeeeeak?" the people would swoon. Yes, yes I had. There was no there there, you might say. Funny enough, on the boat on the way to Phi Phi we got in just such a politically themed discussion, which ended with Kyle and I placing a bet on Hillary 2016.  He thinks she's going to win; I think she's not going to run. (Why? Because fuck all y'all, that's why. She should have been prez in 2008 and everyone knows it, including B & Michelle O.) She's fated to be like that other great HC in U.S. politics, Henry Clay, the great compromiser, the perhaps smartest and shrewdest of all the peeps of his time (up there with my boy JQA, at any rate), the hardest worker, the one who was destined to be president, like, four times in a row but was continually thwarted by upsarts (Van Buren, Polk) and assholes (Jackson) and other bizarre political circumstances.

Back to Phi Phi. As for the nighttime debauchery, there was certainly a lot of fire involved. Juggling fire, shooting flames on a lick of gasoline, spinning fire, flaming jump ropes, you name it. Where there's fire, there's bound to be smoke, and I'm sure that the lungs of many were indulging that night. Interestingly, while we were enjoying some beers at the Chillout Bar (I think that's what it was called), I looked around at the spectacle unfolding up and down the beach and stated that I felt reasonably certain someone somewhere was going all Walter White on this scene and that there was probably meth in the crowd. Upon returning to the mainland and picking up the latest Phuket News, I read two stories of recently busted meth dealers. So there's that.

It's not that I don't recommend going to Phi Phi, but I do recommend lowering your expectations bungalow wise, if you don't spring for a fancy resort, and I do hope you can handle the smell of more than a few bad decisions, most relating to sewage and other basic infrastructure delights that take on new meaning when you have thousands of revelers showing up on a sandbar. Meanwhile, Brian got food poisoning, and it seems most likely timing-wise that it was from something he ate there, which is perhaps adding to my negative take on these last few days. (And no, I'm not one of those people who calls every twinge of the gut food poisoning.)

And so we come to the one-week point:  one week left in Phuket (this time!). I have accomplished a bunch of things, and by a long shot I have not accomplished all of the things I had hoped to accomplish at the end of week three, let alone a full day into week four, but isn't that the nature of life and creativity and work and passion and also beer?

Furthermore, we had to face a tough decision here. On a whim, I applied for a newspaper editor position here and much to my delight/anguish, was offered the job. The unfortunate reality, beyond the low salary (not Mexico-teaching low, but lower-than-China-teaching low), is that I couldn't accept it because we have things to do at the moment, plans that can't be easily altered, a few engagements in the U.S., some life details to attend to, financial commitments, and so on, and one can't really ask an employer to hold a job for two months, now can one?  I had a majorly traumatic 48 hours trying to figure out how to make it work, and when I realized I couldn't make it work, I accepted that but still felt a little sad.

The moral of the story is: can we have a few more filtered water coolers and a whole lot less plastic tossed into the bins/street/ocean? Can we work on the public transit on this island and ditch the vast numbers of motos, private cars, and many accidents? (The having-to-get-a-car-if-we-live-here thing was part of the anguish, I might add, financially speaking. Why can't this place get some nice, clean shuttle buses going and discourage so much individual motorized transport? Also: bicycles, people! Bicycles! Alas, I know there's a rainy season...)  Can we please try to keep everything magic and beautiful?

I would, however, recommend that all the assholes in China who have the evil nerve to tie up their cats take a trip to Phuket and see how beautiful and glorious it is to let cats have their freedom to walk around to which they are entitled. There are plenty of Chinese tourists here; I hope they get inspired when they see cats living how they should live to tell friends back home to knock it off with the cruel restraints.

How to learn a language without really trying

The short answer: you can't.

The longer answer: you still can't, but I'll talk about it in more paragraphs. Ever since I have started trotting off to teach English in Asian countries, one of the most common questions from friends back home has been more of an assumption than a question. They'll ask if I speak Korean, or, now I guess, Chinese, but they seem kind of surprised to learn that the answer is no, that I am not fluent, not by a long shot, in these languages of countries where I have lived.

And by the way, I am the person who likes studying languages, who has always liked studying languages, who got the highest of my high grades in high-school German and French, who took Polish for a semester in college just 'cause, who regularly reads newspapers and books in French and Spanish and is always looking for simple German books, who has taken Korean and Mandarin classes while living abroad,. etc. etc. The spirit is willing, indeed! One of my friends said to me the first time I lived in Korea, after a few months of my being there, "If I know you, you're speaking better Korean than the Koreans by now." But I wasn't, and I still don't, and here's why: when you teach English abroad, you often find yourself working full-time in an English speaking environment, immersing your students, disciplining the children who speak in their native language. Even at my current job, teaching adults, there's an English-only policy that is indeed enforced.

Most people don't understand.how very much of my day is spent speaking English. Add to that the fact that I live with an English-speaker, and the tendency of expat teacher communities to be separate from locals in nightlife, poetry readings, arts, etc.. and you have a recipe for being nowhere near fluent in the official language of your country.

Yes, I believe you should try. You should take a class (I'm doing that) and listen to the language in various media and study a bit on your own and jabber with people in your daily encounters. I got really proficient at store/taxi/ticket counter Korean!  As it happens, I would try to learn Mandarin even if I didn't feel compelled to, because I like language and languages. I just invite you to consider how good of a football player you would be if you hung around watching football practice for a year, or how well you would play the violin if you worked in the box office of symphony hall.  News flash: language is a skill. It totally needs to be practiced to be acquired, just like a sport or musical instrument. You might have a talent for it, but you still have to pick up the equipment and do something to bring out that talent.  Living abroad gives you chances to practice a language, of course! But not 24/7.  Not when you are teaching English and being paid not to speak any other language.

I would also invite you to consider how a person from Honduras or Ecuador living in Phoenix who gets a job as a dishwasher in a Mexican restaurant and speaks in Spanish with a bunch of co-workers every day and then goes home to Spanish-speaking roommates might not magically become fluent in English overnight. Just putting that out there.

That said, my goal for June is to ramp up my language study. The first four months here were busy, chaotic, and full of out-of-town commitments. I plan to spend most of the summer right here in Guangzhou, and I am going to improve my Mandarin when I am not working. Let's check in come August and see how I did!

How the other half karaoke

It should go without saying that one of the greatest things about living in Asia is the plentiful, unabashed karaoke. As many of you know, this usually takes place in karaoke room establishments. Unlike in the U.S. where, if you're lucky, you have one or two bars within stumbling/cheap cab distance that have karaoke once a week, and it's packed, and you can probably do your song, maybe, three hours after you put in your request, and if it's in any way problematic (bizarre, tinny accompaniment/weird key/you realize you don't know it after all) then your night is shot, the karaoke places in Asia are a different animal. You go into a room for which you pay by the hour. The room has couches, a screen, a song book, etc. You and your friends have it to yourselves. You can sing whatever you want, as much as you want. You can press a button to skip ahead when a song turns out to be a bad idea. You don't have to worry about anyone who is annoyed that you're making a fool of yourself. You can order beer, and often some salty snacks show up. The places don't ever close, it seems. This is a wonderful industry, and I find it delightful that in certain cities in the U.S. (New York, Boston, where else?) enterprising Asians have started these same businesses there (although they are sadly more expensive in the U.S.A.)

Now, I have been to multiple noraebang ("singing rooms") in Korea, but I must say the softest spot in my heart is for the one we frequented in Andong, there in lovable Ok-dong with the woman who I developed quite a rapport with throughout our year of late night arrivals. The place is tiny, cheap, and a little dingy, with a convenience store cooler-like fridge of beer in the lobby. It's like home. If home had squat toilets and a few disco balls.

Here in China the karaoke magic happens in KTV establishments. Due to our whirlwind of activity these first few months as well as the general (and annoying) tendency of most people I know to not want to go singing every week (I mean, why not people? Really, why not?) I had not even been to KTV yet (I know! the horror!) until last night.

But about last night:

Wow! This was our company party for the center where I work, a reward for hitting all of our sales and numbers targets for the quarter. The place we went, apparently a favorite of our staff, is quite the posh karaoke joint. First, you walk down a wide, marble-like hallway lined with aquarium walls -- fish on one side and sharks on the other. I mean, they're little but geez! And no, I do not approve whatsoever of imprisoning little sharklets but I'm just trying to convey the sort of "glamorous" approach this place takes. Then you check in at a desk that looks more like a hotel reception. I happen to know that our center director made a reservation for our group, although I don't think you have to do that. Then, we go into our absolutely palatial suite. Did I say suite? Why yes, there was more than just the room with couches and tables -- there was also a wet bar and a private bathroom. (With a western toilet!)  The biggest screen was HUGE, and there were two smaller screens on each of the side walls. Then we got a printed menu (Chinese and English) and proceeded to order beer, and bottles of wine, which were brought to us along with wine glasses (!) by uniformed service staff. Our snacks included things like M&Ms, popcorn, noodle dishes, and god knows what else we ordered up, plus fruit baskets -- really beautifully arranged with the fruit of many colors all carved in spirals and whatnot.

Meanwhile, rather than punching numbers into a grubby keypad, you have a touch-plasma screen to scroll through and search by artist or title (with Roman alphabet options) as well as a one-touch button to move your song to the top of the queue, which by the way you can see on the side of the screen the whole time, or minimize if you prefer. Note: I do not approve of skip-your-song-to-the-top features any more than I approve of the sharks, as they are constantly abused despite a noble effort to keep the Chinese-English-Chinese-English rotation balanced.

Needless to say, I won't be spending all of my hard-earned yuan at this place, but when the boss is paying? Yeah, fill up that wine glass and let's sing!

For those interested in the set list, I believe I was involved with Taylor Swift, Avril Lavigne, "The Loco-Motion," "American Pie," "Single Ladies," and "Waka Waka," among others. But I may have been at my best most drunk when we did "Gangnam Style" and the words were actually in hangeul and out of the 40 or so Chinese, Canadian, Scottish, New Zealand, and me employees, but one of us knew how to read the language of Psy, and so the microphone was passed to me and I handled vocals while the others galloped around gloriously.

I would not really like to discuss the hangover with which the KTV gods saw fit to punish me this morning. Didn't someone once say that there's no such thing as a free night of luxurious karaoke? I have certainly paid the price.

Querétaro with six weeks to go

It's a relaxing Friday evening at home. I've got the baseball game on TV (trying to decide which of the Atlanta Braves' recent playoff nemeses to root against, San Francisco or St. Louis?) and I'm attending to various tasks, both functional and creative, on my to-do list.  I'm also rather enjoying some cookies that I bought at the Mercado Escobedo earlier today. I have time to get a bit of writing and reading done.  All in all, like I said, a relaxing Friday evening at home.

And that's the weird part. We've had so many homes over the past few years, and in so many different countries, to boot! I've always moved a lot (home ownership and settling down are maybe the last two things on my list of life priorities) but I've also enjoyed my recent periods of (what passes for) stability of two to four years in the same place, in Brooklyn and in Boston. (Hmmm, B----n, coincidence? Perhaps I'm destined to settle down in ... Bhutan! Or Bahrain. Maybe Berlin?)

We've had some really great homes during these years of galvanting, Brian and I have. Even our short-term homes, like Baan Suwaan in Phuket, Thailand. (There's that B------n theme again, although in that case it's the name of the hotel/apartments.)  I wanted to stay in Baan Suwaan forever! If we hadn't made post-Phuket plans, like with an already booked plane ticket, we would very likely have kicked it there for a few months. Ahhh, Phuket.

Our main apartment in Andong, Korea was awesome, too. We really dug living in Ok-Dong (Ok-Dong kitties! and the restaurants, my goodness) and if we hadn't been moved to the new and improved digs above the new Avalon school location, we just might have been persuaded to re-up for one more year teaching at Avalon.

And Chicago...sigh. I miss living there a lot. Our apartment was in the Best. Location. Ever! (thanks, Sara and Houston) and I loved it, and I did all sorts of things and I barely scratched the surface of that city in one year. I mean, we are definitely planning to go back, but when I start thinking about Chicago I start getting really depressed, because it reminds me that there is such a big world to live in and I just want to live in all of it. I want to live in the U.S. (in Chicago, and L.A., and New York, and Boston, and sometimes Tucson and Atlanta and D.C. as well) and I want to live outside the U.S. (ZOMG! So many choices!!!)   Why is that so much to ask?

I'm sure you can tell why I'm thinking about these things. Our Mexican time is ticking, and with only six weeks until my Next Big Move, I have definitely started getting that mix of thrill and anxiety that comes with determining just what exactly the Next Big Move is.

Meanwhile, let's review. What are some of the things I have most enjoyed about living in Querétaro 

1. The PLAZAS!  We live right across the street from Querétaro's Centro Historico area, which is thanks to Brian ensuring he got us a great pad in this area, when he was here for two weeks before I came, so kudos to Brian! I love, love, love strolling across the street and wandering around the andadores amid the colored colonial architecture. I love that there is pretty much always an event happening on the Plaza de Armas -- music, art, literature, crafts, concerts, festivals, performances of some sort, all the time. And that doesn't even mention the other plazas I love, like the Jardín Zenea or "our" plaza, the one on our cross street of Ezequiel Montes, with the fountain and light show and dramatic opera-like music.  Yay, plazas!

2. The food - obviously. And I can't even try to summarize it all here, but let's just say I was clearly meant to come to Querétaro because their local specialty, enchiladas queretanas, are cheese enchiladas with potatoes. I mean, this basically screams "Linda! Eat me!"

3. It's the little things, but I sure do like it when people as they leave a restaurant/cafe say "Buen provecho!" to the other patrons who are still eating. Brian and I are pretty proud of ourselves every time we provecho our fellow diners on our way out. 

4. I could keep talking about food and restaurants for a long time, so let me just give a few shout-outs: Tacos Tucson. Our dearly departed guajolotes/enchiladas queretanas place that seems to have recently closed. Bisquets. Cafe del Fondo. Tacos El Pata. Cafeto. Tacos Goyo. Other street tacos places and holes in the wall and little random discoveries. ChilaKing (do I have that right? our local chilaquiles spot). THE BLUE MASA GORDITAS PLACE!!!! Yes, I am shouting. None of you have really lived, because you haven't been to the blue masa gorditas place. 

5. The Arcos. That's what we call Querétaro's aqueduct, because of its many 20-meter high brick arches. It's awesome. It's a symbol of the city. I see it all the time. I dig it. 

That's just a taste. I have not been a prolific blogger from Querétaro, for reasons that I shall elaborate upon once I'm out of here, but just so you know: if you're on the fence about coming to Querétaro, I do recommend it. Bring an appetite. 

My landlocked travels

"The sky pours out biblical rain
then days so still the beauty gives you pain
The heat waves kills the green

and she remains unseen...."

                    --- indigo girls, 'she's saving me'

I am familiar with rainy seasons. Tropical rain, desert monsoons, four straight days of drizzle in central Korea, the daily afternoon shower in the Caribbean....and as luck would have it, we arrived in Querétaro pretty much just in time for rainy season. Two months, I'm promised, of rain. Lots of rain. Let me tell you a few things about the rain in Querétaro:

1. It can be astonishing. This morning (happy Friday the 13th!) the rainfall has been so hard and steady for so many hours in a row that I'm a little worried about why Noah didn't contact me. Also, I'd be perfectly happy to leave these !#%&* cockroaches off the ark this time.
2. I have to drive in it, once every week or so, and this wouldn't suck nearly as much if a.) the drivers on the highway didn't insist on still careening around in their fast, aggressive Mexican highway fashion, complete with rumbling 18-wheelers and cars whipping around the curves and b.)I wasn't just three weeks in to my whole driving-a-stick-shift stop-and-go thing and c.)we had anything resembling decent windshield wipers on the car. You know, like maybe more than two speed settings. Or maybe if one of them didn't have a flapping piece of rubber peeling off of it. Stuff like that. 
3. It's so - patchy! (despite being a deluge) The weather in the hills ten minutes away can be different from the weather down in the city. As those hills are part of my commute, it fascinates me to feel the ten-degree difference in temperature and the huge shift in a matter of minutes. In the city itself, you can often walk in sunshine, then feel the sprinkle while still feeling sun on your face, and you can watch the clouds shifting above you and see the patch of blue sky a few hundred yards ahead. (Note: today's downpour is not one of those sprinkle days.)

OK, well, since I haven't washed away yet, I'm off to continue the productivity of my Friday the 13th. My apologies for actually writing an entire blog post about weather. But what a great soundtrack I have for it in Become You!

"Headed back to the flatlands, 

and you're headed up to the hills-
rain brings you home middle of July..."
                               --indigo girls, 'nuevas senoritas'

Disgust/Frustration 2012

I think that as the time gets closer, I can officially say that I am thoroughly unimpressed by my choices when it comes to 2012 U.S. presidential candidates.

I wish we could have a political convention like those of 1876 or 1880, when there was legitimate doubt as to the outcome and in the end a dark horse snatched the nomination. The delegations had to vote for sometimes dozens of ballots and do lots of shady wheeling and dealing to eventually select a nominee.  My boy Rutherford B. Hayes, one of my favorite obscure presidents, was the Republican nominee in 1876. The 1880 Republican convention held in Chicago was particularly exciting, with arguing and drunken shenanigans and stomping of feet and yelling from tabletops before James A. Garfield got the nod. If only something exciting like that were in store for us on Mitt-Romney-selection day.

Possibly even less interesting than the Republican party this year? The Democrats. After four years, what I feel about Barack Obama is remarkably similar to what I felt about him last time around: decidedly uninspired. Of course then, my lack of inspiration was at least poked and prodded by the hyperventilating of everyone around me babbling on about "Change" and whatnot. Every time he opened his mouth, people heard something that I could not, try as I might. They heard fantastic visions and bold dreams and some promise for the future where I heard the same generic cliched rhetoric of any run-of-the-mill politician.

But the problem with being Just Not That Into Obama is that people tend to associate you with the anti-Obamas, who, as far as I have been able to observe, say a lot of bizarre shit ranging from goofy to incendiary. No, thanks! I'm disappointed in Obama for many reasons (mostly to do with not prosecuting torture, not closing Guantanamo, war-on-terror-blah-blah) but it's hard to find anyone to talk about that stuff because they're too busy freaking out about their fever dreams of socialism. (As if!)

Unlike 2004, then, there's no one to vote against and also no one to vote for. In 2004, it was a matter of having a conscience: if you did anything but try to remove Dubya and the Warmongers* from D.C., I have serious doubts about your morals. This year, like 2008 and 1996 and 1976 and most election years, frankly, there's just not that much at stake. The candidates are largely the same. No one's going to save us. No one's going to achieve world peace, or even try very hard to do so. (Or even try a little, from the looks of things.)
*someone please start a band with this name?

Obviously, if it comes down to the least of all the evils, one can turn to the Green candidate, in this case, Jill Stein. The Green party tries to do a bit for social justice, but I wish they would do even a fraction of that with social media and getting themselves out there. Why doesn't everyone in the country know Jill Stein is running? (Or any other third, fourth, fifth party candidate?)  This is such a perfect year for a third party candidate too, with so much disappointment in both the Republican and Democrat nominees, with the batshit loony wing of the Repubs siphoning off lots of them and leaving reasonable Republicans looking for something better...sigh. The big money two party system continues to rule the day, with about as much integrity in its "competition" as you'll find in the war on drugs.

While we were living in Korea last year, I joked that I really didn't want to come back to the U.S. for 2012 and have to suffer through the presidential election. Actually, it's turning out to be less horrifying or even eye-roll inducing, and instead it's boring me. Someone, anyone, convince me to care!

MovieWatcher is dead, long live...Stubs?

There were a few significant deaths whilst we were living in Andong, Korea last year (2011), such as Harry Morgan, Elizabeth Taylor, and Sherwood Schwartz.  But the death that hit me the hardest was the death of AMC Theatres' MovieWatcher rewards program.

I have been a loyal MovieWatcher from the beginning. The beginning. Longer than any of you reading this except for my friend with whom I went to that initial run of movies in 30 days to become eligible for the card. That's right, back in MY day signing up for MovieWatcher Rewards, you had to see a certain number of films in a certain time period. Because we were hard core AMC moviegoers, of COURSE we did it. And I have been turning people on to AMC MovieWatcher ever since. Even though at first I would use my moviegoing friend/significant other to get double points for myself, I also shared with them the fact that they, too, could earn points and get free stuff including free popcorn on Wednesdays. A significant percentage of the movies I have seen in the past twenty years have been on Wednesdays. The AMC MovieWatcher program was a thing of beauty.

And then, it ended. Just like that, shortly after we arrived in Korea, AMC emailed us to tell us they were taking away our beloved MovieWatcher program to replace it with Stubs. All the elegance of the MovieWatcher experience replaced by short little Stubs, a new program that does away with the free Wednesday popcorn!!!!! and gives $10 rewards for every $100 spent at the theaters (um...ok, but...no free Wednesday popcorn?) and get this get this get this COSTS MONEY.  Twelve dollars per year, to be exact.

Needless to say, I was not happy about this, but I was also in Korea, where there are no AMCs, so the full impact of this death did not really hit me until March 2012, when I returned to the United States only to go back through all the saved-but-not-yet-dealt-with Hotmail messages from 2011 and realize:

1. They apparently gave some of their "most valued customers" (me, obviously, but I'm sooo curious what the cut-off was?) a first year of membership free: March 21, 2011 - March 21, 2012. And I got back to the U.S. on March 8, 2012. So I could get a whopping 13 free days?  I sighed, heavily. And...
2. They also apparently offered last fall/holiday season a chance to get your second year of Stubs for half price, a mere $6 instead of $12, but that offer has expired...again, before I was even back in the U.S.A.

Surely, I thought, something could be done about this. Surely since I am the most loyal of loyal MovieWatchers -- I mean, really, I ALWAYS go to AMC unless the movie is too indie/quirky/hardcore to be there, and in recent years there have been fewer and fewer of those..oh, also there was my unfortunate incarceration* in Grand Rapids down the street from the $4.99 Celebration Cinema, but even then we went to the AMC sometimes...anyway the point is, I am loyal! Surely they could reward me! They have in their system all my loyal AMC-going activity. They must love me as I love them.

So I emailed AMC and pointed out that I went back to AMC the first week I was back in the U.S. and here I was, now, Stubsing, and even though the death of MovieWatcher made me so, so sad, wouldn't they love to extend my first free year to another year, now that I am actually here? I could even show them my boarding passes and prove I was in Korea?

No. "Unable to extend it," they said.

Ewwww, I replied. First of all, don't say "unable" when you mean "unwilling."  Secondly, how about that half price offer, then? Come on...I'm SO devoted to you. I mean, I want to be. But it takes two to make a relationship work.

They forwarded my message somewhere, and said I'd hear back in 5 - 7 business days.

Meanwhile, during those 5-7 business days, I go to another AMC movie (see! it's what I do!) and they offer me a chance to renew my now expiring but in a few days' grace period in the theater and get a free large popcorn, offer valid until the end of March. But I hold off, because I'm waiting to hear back on that email. And then I never hear back. So then I miss out on even the free popcorn offer.

AMC, you are killing me!

I dislike this new Stubs. I miss my MovieWatcher Rewards and my points and my card and my free Wednesday popcorns (which I always upgraded from small to medium anyway, duh, they always got a dollar off of me that way), and finally I emailed them and was like "And you didn't even answer me in 5-7 days?!" and ugh!! Just ugh, AMC!

So that is my woeful tale of the loss of MovieWatcher and my painful reentry into the U.S. and this brave new world of Stubs. Finally, today, someone took pity on me and said they'll send me a free popcorn coupon for my trouble...mostly because they didn't actually answer when they promised to in 5-7 days, I think.  And I just have to adjust to this new, lonely world in which AMC, Harkins, Landmark, what does it matter?  I mean...I still want to believe that There Is a Difference.  Because Silence Is Golden. And all that.

But I will always in my heart of hearts be a MovieWatcher.

Broccoli Insurance

The incessant coverage of the Supreme Court oral arguments about the affordable healthcare law have been fascinating, even without the broccoli fetish.  But it has been really annoying when interviewers and reporters talk about the "fact" that the uninsured are going to use these services and not pay for them (therefore insurance companies/the law/lots of people want everyone to pay in to the system, which I think is a fine idea, by the way).  They always just gloss over that part about how "the uninsured are going to go to the emergency room and receive care."  Well, yes, anyone who is in an emergency will have their condition stabilized; the paramedics at the car accident aren't going to watch you bleed to death or refuse to pry you from the car until you show your health insurance card. But the talking heads keep talking as if that's the end of the story. Have you people ever been to an emergency room, or doctor's office for that matter?  You still get billed for the services. It's not like the uninsured just waltz in with their broken leg or ruptured spleen or whatever and get in the Uninsured-So-I'm-Not-Paying line.  What planet do these people live on that they don't think uninsured get billed for services rendered?   Besides, insured people get billed, too. The most recent health insurance I had in the U.S. was so laughably far from covering things at 100% that of course I got billed after the fact.

The inaccurate, incomplete way people have been talking about getting free healthcare when you are uninsured is a fantasy! I know - because I'm uninsured right now, having returned from my job in Korea (fabulous cheap health care!) and not yet able to cough up the $500/month the companies want to insure a single freelancer.  I would love to have some free health care just by showing up at a hospital! I wish!

Toto, I don't think we're in Korea anymore

Wednesday was a banner day, and one that made me think about the fact that I am back in the U.S.  I would say that overall, our re-entry this month has been seamless. Perhaps it's because we've been bouncing around so many different places in Asia over the last few months that coming to Arizona to chill out for a spell has been easy-peasy in comparison.  At any rate, I haven't given it that much mind-boggling "Wow-so-weird-to-be-back" thought this time around, but on Wednesday it hit me differently.  Brian and I headed to downtown Phoenix for two events: first, the MSU Spartans pep rally in anticipation of the next day's Sweet Sixteen game of the NCAA basketball tournament, played in downtown Phoenix, and second, the Amy Ray (plus other musicians) show at the Crescent Ballroom, a FABULOUS new (ish?) little venue on 2nd Avenue and Van Buren. A great time was had by all, but after the show I remarked to Brian that in the preceding couple of hours I had enjoyed:

1.  A bean and cheese burrito
2.  Microbrews
3.  Live music featuring multiple acoustic guitars

Obviously, I was not in Korea anymore.

"North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe..."

Yesterday we saw My Week With Marilyn.  I thought it was a fine film, with very good acting, and overall I enjoyed it. However, it got me thinking about something I have never understood: Marilyn Monroe.

I don't mean someone I have never understood, because I'm not really referring to the person. I mean the whole Marilyn Monroe thing. I have never been able to relate to the fascination with this woman, and it has always mystified me. I feel like when it comes to the Marilyn-Monroe-magic-spell, there's everyone in the world and then there's me.

It might start with the hair, quite frankly. I mean, here's this woman who is supposed to be the ultimate sex symbol, the most beautiful, alluring, recklessly charming, perfect encapsulation of all that is sexy, and I just can't get past the hair. It's a hideous shade of fake blonde that I'm not entirely sure would look nice on anybody, and secondly, it's short. I don't care for short hair and I generally don't find that it makes a woman sexier, or more beautiful, let alone the sexiest or the most beautiful. In fact, I can't think of anyone with short hair that I would consider to be ultimately sexy. Long hair just looks better. (And prettier, for sure.) So I suppose the idea of Marilyn Monroe being a supremely beautiful woman was always lost on me, for this and other reasons.

So then, OK, so she acts in movies and is charming, but by all accounts is a total pain in the ass, racked with insecurities and a fragility act. And she manipulates people and acts this whole persona so that no one ever really knows the whole person and then - surprise, surprise - she takes all these pills, and dies early and tragically. I mean, really? She's a walking cliche, so it's interesting that she is considered so very special. I mean, just objectively speaking.

Anyway, the movie My Week With Marilyn contemplates a few of these issues, not that it ever stands up and screams "Get over yourself" and/or "Get over her" to everyone around herself. But it is very interesting and I totally and completely see why Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh were nominated for Oscars. Branagh was great as Laurence Olivier. The interaction of the cast of great actors in this film was wonderful and fun to watch.

Brian and I desperately need to catch up on all the 2011 movies we missed while living in Andong, and so I declared a goal of watching 40 movies in March. We have watched three so far since March 1st: Hugo, My Week With Marilyn, and The Descendants.  (We launched our catch-up project when we watched The Artist, but that was on February 29. Should I count it?)  It may seem like I'm off to a slow start, but we will be back in Phoenix for a while, and I am going to be a theater-goin', Netflixin' fiend. I will totally get to see 40 movies this month. Just you watch!

It's goodbye again

Well, here I am, leaving Korea. Again. Linda Without Borders is going to once more wend her way across the Pacific Ocean to the U.S. and an unknown future. And while it is so different from the last time, it somehow  manages to be very much the same in some ways. Life is sneaky like that.

One way it was very much the same and also oh so very different was last night when I once again had my final commune trip. My favorite bar in the world is still the lovely Commune's lonely hearts club in Junangno, Daegu, and one of my greatest thrills in 2011 was returning to that place, my old haunt of haunts, the locale of so much of what I experienced when I lived in Daegu 2005-06. I never thought I would go back there (or to Daegu at all) and being able to revisit it multiple times while we lived in Andong brought me pure joy. I know that a lot of people don't understand; they think, "What? It's just a bar, and a smoky one at that. How great could it be?" But that's OK; they can stay upstairs on the harsh neon streets and I will experience the truest souls I've yet found on the planet in the beautiful basement darkness below.

Only - I won't. Not for a while, anyway. Because now Brian and I are headed out of the country, so last night was our final night in Daegu, and our last stop had to be our last Commune trip for at least a little while, if not a long while. It was so interesting to be there though, because this time I know that you can never say never. This weekend I sat where I sat almost six years ago, and I conversed with the two special people I conversed with six years ago, and took shots with them like we did six years ago...and I was filled with a quite beautiful melancholy. I know it will be a long time before I can go back there, but I was still marveling at the fact that over the past year I was able to go back there at all. When I left in 2006 there were tears and there was anger and there were so many things I didn't understand about what I was leaving behind. I like to think I have a deeper understanding now, but I suspect there are still many things I need to figure out, too many to count.

I kind of miss my solitary journeys and the moments I used to spend in deep, pensive solitude. I thought about that this weekend, and I think that part of the Commune magic, for me, is that it lets me glimpse and remember that part of myself.

There's more, of course, but not all of it can be blogged at this time in this space.

In which I interview myself about 2011

Time for a 2011 recap as we head into 2012!  What do you mean, January 31st doesn't still count as "heading into 2012"? Whatever. It's still January, that's all I have to say. Oooh, not true! I also have to say, in my defense, that I have for the last three weeks been hanging out in places decidedly more concerned with the Chinese New Year than the January 1st new year. So I am entitled to only get around to doing this questionnaire, which I got from multiple bloggers, now. All right, let's look back:

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
A whole lot! I visited new places and flew around the world with Brian - I'd been alone on most of my previous long-haul flights in life (symbolism intended in that statement). Also, I finally won NaNoWriMo.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Apparently my resolutions for 2011 were to acquire the Southern belle ability to speak my mind or tell people off without "being angry," and to read more books and travel to more countries than I did in 2011. Well. I did in fact make my Goodreads goal of reading 44 books in 2011, check! I traveled to the same number of countries in 2011 as 2010 - four, but one of those I moved to (Korea), and I took two trips to another (Japan), so on the whole I think we can say I traveled more, since two of the 2010s (England and Ireland) were just stopovers anyway. (My other two 2011 countries were China and at the end there Cambodia.) As for the Southern belle ability, I still covet it, but there were multiple times -multiple!- in 2011 that I successfully bit my tongue when listening to someone and responded diplomatically instead of arguing. It's a start. 

Duh, of course I will make resolutions for 2012! Writing and exercising more, as usual. Four books per month.  Visit four more countries. And one more that I'm forgetting now. I'll think of it.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?


My sister welcomed #4, Kristen, so of course that is the closest. Some friends gave birth, too! It was a good year for babies.  (I suppose that's what happens when the previous four years have all been spent attending multiple weddings…)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
In 2011, no, although my family and I were still reeling in some ways from Grandpa’s late 2010 death.  Aaron, a good friend of Brian’s from Michigan, whom I got to know a little bit through Brian and his crew during the last couple years, also passed away.

5. What countries did you visit?
Well, Korea again, as we moved there on Jan 1, 2011. Japan (twice), China, and Cambodia.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Willpower, the ability to set boundaries and convey my sense of urgency without starting quarrels, and a way for full-time freelancers and independent contractors and unmarried people (i.e., me and thousands like me) to have health insurance that the rest of the U.S. has through their employers or spouses’ employers.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 1 because Brian and I moved to Korea together. My birthday because it was a Friday the 13^th, and those are my favorites! June 27^th because my aforementioned niece was born on my friend Mo’s birthday. August 18th because we climbed Mt. Fuji. Actually, to be honest, that is more etched in my head as the Thursday of our week in Japan and I had to double check the date.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Mt. Fuji? Completing my teaching contract? Making myself act in a play again? Learning some Korean? Creating a book swap for Andong? I guess just coming back to live in Korea and having it work out really well. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
Demand Studios. I don’t want to talk about it.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I was barely ever sick at all - one or two colds. Nothing at all like the first time I was in Korea! A few little minor injuries that would make me skip working out for a couple days.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My Nike indoor exercise shoes for kickboxing class. I adore them with all of my being.

12. Where did most of your money go?
China. But not the way people in the U.S. funnel it to China, through WalMart. I mean directly on site! Well, and all the plane tickets I bought to various Chinese cities. 

13. What did you get really excited about?

China. And Japan. And galmegi.

14. What song will always remind you of 2011?
"Like a G6," "Please Be My Baby" (Britney), Rihanna's stupid sex in the air song, and anything else that played over and over and over at kickboxing. And I.U.!

 

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder?  I think about the same. Thinner or fatter?  Unfortunately, about the same. I lost weight when we got to Korea, then gained it back. Brian cooks too much, too well. :)
Richer or poorer?
Just the eensiest bit richer. Only because I went from freelancing to having the teaching job, but really, just the teeniest little bit so don't get too excited, folks. (That means you, income-based student loan repayment.)

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?


Write.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Drink. 


18. How did you spend Christmas?
On a plane. Seoul - Hong Kong - Bangkok - Phnom Penh, ending with a delightful Merry Christmas nightcap in a riverfront bar.  I love Phnom Penh, and I love Cambodia.

19. What was your favorite TV program?

Cuh-rim-i-nal Ma-eend-dz. That's how it's announced on Korean SkyHD TV, where Brian and I discovered it, learned to love it, and began craving it during 2011. We are so excited that there are still many more episodes for us to see!

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

Reasonable Creatures by Katha Pollitt. Everyone should read this book. Everyone. Yes, you too. If you are reading my blog, you should read that book. Your friends who aren't reading my blog should read it as well, so buy an extra copy for one of them. Also, I loved Virginia Woolf's The Waves, Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down, W. Somerset Maugham's The Summing Up and Jose Saramago's Blindness. Do I need to note that none of these came out in 2011? 
.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?


Anything and everything, as long as we were singing it in the no-rae-bang!

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

If these count because I saw them in 2011: True Grit, Eat Pray Love, and The Green Zone.  Out of movies that came out in 2011, it would have to be Moneyball, because I don't think it's Super 8. I definitely didn't see enough movies this year.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

It was a Friday the 13th, that's all that matters!  And I had a one-track mind: noraebang. 

 

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

More noraebang, Less of the b.s. noraebang resistance among the expat English teachers. It really bugs me when they do that. 

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

 Outsourced! I finally accomplished my lifelong dream of getting a personal shopper to go buy clothes for me. Actually, it was just once, but Jody and Brian totally went around Seoul and scored me some shirts, dresses, skirts, etc. and all I had to do was pay them. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do this all the time. I definitely want to repeat this in 2012. I am interested in having more/different/cuter clothes, but I am not interested in making the effort to pick them out. If I ever move to within striking distance of your city, do let me know if you are interested in my personal shopper position.

26. What kept you sane?

N/A

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.


We need to bring back protective tariffs in place of income taxes, and stop this love affair with free trade. I have learned an incredible lot about this from reading my prez bios (I'm now on #18, Grant.)  I wish Michael Moore, the #Occupy peeps, and other people who care about the disaster that is the U.S. would listen to my reason and start promoting this idea far and wide. National boundaries as jingoistic lines in the sand are stupid, but as a place to collect tariffs they are genius, because economically-tax wise we are all divided up by country, for convenience. If we have tariffs, then we can stop blabbering about tax cuts and increases all the time (freeing our government to actually get some work done), and greedy corporations can stop f***ing everyone up by taking all their jobs out of the country, because it would no longer be cheaper for the companies to do that, because they would have to actually fairly pay to bring all the stuff in. NO MORE FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS! I watched with interest as some in Korea tried to stop the Korea-U.S. FTA. Sigh. 

All righty then, so that's 2011. On to 2012! Or, you know. The rest of it. How was January for you? I missed a bunch of it on this blog because I was in China. 

The Annual Oscar Nominations Post, 2012 Edition

You were worried, weren't you?  Afraid that I was so busy and so blogligent and so traveling-around-southeast-Asia that I was not going to post about the Oscar nominations?  Silly you. Never worry your poor little head about such a thing. High on the agenda for night one in Bangkok (see what I did there?) were the Oscar nominations! As we walked back from our first dinner in Thailand, we even saw TVs in bars tuned to the live announcement on CNN. I was so excited for the details, and not too surprised by any of them.

I am happy to note that I have seen four of the nominated films already, because the following stellar (ahem) flicks that graced our Andong, Korea cinema screens managed to score Oscar nods: Moneyball (good), The Help (not good, and sooooooverated), Harry Potter and the Eighth Adaptation of Seven Books, and let's not overlook Real Steel. I love those random categories -- in this case, Visual Effects --  that get a totally empty popcorn movie on the board. The Visual Effects category is particularly full of so-not-Oscar-movies-that-get-Oscar-nominations this year, also including Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, both of which also played in Andong but which I couldn't be bothered at all to go see. However, if Hugo doesn't grab this category -- and I truly have no idea what the chances are, being totally out of the Hugo  loop, other than what I've read in EW -- I'm really thinking Harry Potter Number 7 or 8 or Whatever might get this category, and possibly Art Direction, too, in a kind of cumulative thanks. You know, LOTR style. Not that the HP flicks are as good as the LOTR flicks, but you know what I mean.

OK, onto the acting and the other "big" categories!  You can be worried here about my abysmal percentage of nominees seen, because we flew out of Korea on Christmas Day, just in time to miss everything as we volunteered in Cambodia, cruised the Yangtze, and otherwise made ourselves wholly unable to watch movies for a month. ‘Zounds!  At least I saw Moneyball, though I have no belief whatsoever that Brad or Jonah will win. I have got to see The Artist - that is my must, and not just because of its two acting nominations. Also with two acting nods is Albert Nobbs, which I FINALLY saw a preview for the other day, causing me to ponder why the Academy gets really excited to nominate someone playing someone who's playing the other sex, a la Hilary Swank and stuff, but I will save that for another blog entry.

With a horrifying three acting nominees we have The Help.  Sheesh. I suppose this is as good of a time as any to complain about its Best Picture nomination. UGH! It's this year's The Blind Side, only based on a much worse book. The Help is about the most overrated thing around, when it's not busy being factually incorrect and/or just plain offensive. And just like with Doubt the other year, the world is going gaga over Viola Davis and I don't see it! To be honest, I thought the actress who played the other maid, not Viola's or Octavia's but the one who wants to send her sons to college and gets fired by self-righteous what's-her-name, had some of the most compelling acting. I mean, Viola Davis is fine...but...I just don't get the fuss. Octavia Spencer is apparently the total front runner for Supporting Actress, and I am so utterly bored with foregone conclusions in that category. I realllllllllly want me an upset in that category to liven things up. Enough that I will pull for Melissa McCarthy, even though I didn't see Bridesmaids and have absolutely zero desire to do so, even with it having a "major" nomination.

Before I leave the actresses behind, let me also register my contempt for Rooney Mara's nomination because a.) speaking of massively overrated books, but more importantly b.) there was already a Swedish movie and the U.S. just sucks for having to make its own, and Noomi Rapace was clearly recognized for being awesome in it and is now even making Hollywood movies, so even more reason to be all whatever about Rooney Mara, and by the way does anyone else think its weird how weird and weirdly similar their names are, with lots of the same letters and stuff?

Here was a pleasant surprise: The Tree of Life. Let me just say that I suck for not seeing this (and A Better Life, and maybe some other movies about Life I can't think of now) because they played in Daegu. Not Andong, but Daegu, where we spent many weekends -- sigh. I suck. And The Tree of Life got nominated for Directing, too, which shows it is a real Best Picture nomination, and not one of the extra ones now that we can have more than five. *cough* like The Help *cough*  The Descendants is playing in Thailand and I totally hope to get on that soon, and on the War Horse, too. But I'm thinking The Artist  might win this category, really. Remember this is based on my speculation only, but that's where my money is, today anyway. I will reevaluate that bet when I am more than 2/9 of the way through that category.

I could see Midnight in Paris maybe possibly winning Original Screenplay.

You know who it will totally suck to be on Oscar night? The Original Song loser. There are only TWO nominees in that category this year! That is seriously messed up. The Muppets and Rio. (Yes, both played in Korea. No, I didn't see them.)

Yeah, so basically to sum up, I have seen hardly anything but I liked Moneyball  OK, hated The Help, and will get right on The Descendants, The Artist, War Horse, Beginners, and all the other movies I've been wanting to see for months as I have read about them in EW and yet somehow managed to be anywhere but at a multiplex.

What are your favorites/surprises/snubs?