Thursday, June 19, 2025

Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth
Yay! A public holiday
Now we can forget

Parades and marches
Especially in Texas
How about a t-shirt?

The old slavery days
A questionable legacy
How soon we forget

The seeds of conflict
Uncomfortable memories
Buried in fine print

And if we must pay lip service to unease to save face
Recall that in earlier arrangements, everyone knew their place


juneteenth preparations



Juneteenth, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)
Bonus beats: Remember the time by Michael Jackson


Juneteenth 2021 Austin eagle butterfly bike



Juneteenth 2021 Austin spirit of the drum



They played Fight the Power
As if to remind everyone
That the struggle continues

The firemen and city workers dispensed candy
My son had borrowed my hat for easier collection
Before long, his belly was full

The black cowboys would come later
Deftly riding their brown horses
The soundtrack was Maze, Before I Let Go

black cowboys and horses Juneteenth parade



My daughter's school principal
Was giving out candy
We stopped for the marching band

The grocers touting their flour tortillas
HEB was founded by Charles Butt
On the float, they danced to Cameo's Candy

Concealed carry state
The Central Texas Gun Works
A grim reminder

Central Texas Gun Works



Oakland meets Texas
Too Short dog: Blow the Whistle
The aunties got loose

The old Cadillacs
The newfangled sound system
Nightmare for the ears

black cadillac



Good competition
Battle of the marching bands
Cell phones were pulled out

The heat of midday
The scent of marijuana
Think about the children

The cowboys arrived
It's hard to be cynical
God bless America

black cowboys and horses Juneteenth parade



The red, black and green
The colors of memory
In God's own country


black cowboys and horses Juneteenth parade



Juneteenth 2025

See previously: The Last Holdouts and Bloodbath, South Carolina


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Writing log: June 19, 2025

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Urban Renewal

High intensity
Low impact
Sloganeering

Mission possible
Curated profiles
Instagrammable

Menus with truffles
Plant based delicatessen
Crypto bandwagon

Ethical living
Bio fuels
Renewables

Locally sourced
Recycling
Durables

Contactless payment
Sensors, amenities
Modern conveniences

Look, creature comforts
Signs of urban renewal
Progress is the rule


jenny hurth bags

Renewal, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version) File under: , , , , ,

Writing log: September 7, 2022

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Contraction

"Can I help who's next?"
The mantra of the person at the service counter
An aggravation. A provocation to this grammar pedant

For the question always sounds awkward to these ears
As it appears to be a contraction of "Can I help whoever's next?"1
A contraction born of sheer number of times the question is uttered every day

Mind you, I too would seek to minimize the number of syllables I have to say
I too would pay lip service to the corporate overlords that write my welcome script

It struck me, however, that a little syntax could come to the rescue
That my naysaying can be remedied with some punctuation
For, if rendered as "Can I help? Who's next?"
The insertion of a question mark would solve the concern

The only problem is that, in practice, it never sounds like two questions
And so my ears continue to screech at the damn contraction2:
"Can I help who's next?"
onomatopoeia



Contraction, a playlist


A mostly dance soundtrack for this pedantic note (spotify version)

Bonus beats Excuse me Miss by Jay-Z

...

  1. A former linguist pointed out that "Can I help the person who is next?" might be a better source for the contraction. I concur, although like the service industry invocation of Can I help the next customer? (or client, guest or whatever term The Company's service manual recommends), it is quite the mouthful.
  2. A political scientist harkened to the more salutory New York City contraction "Next!" which, with its conscision and emphatic declarative stance, minimizes the demands on the speaker, clarifies the intent to the bearer, reframes the mooted question as an exclamation, serves the proletarian interest being amenable to be uttered by a grunt while still paying lip service to the transactional demands of capital. I heartily recommend the practice.

See previously Public Nuisance Number 64 and Ode to the word nuisant

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Writing log: May 31, 2025

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Default Deny

Default deny is a very simple policy
Easily defended on grounds of complexity
What with the ease of implementation, even if cruel
With the golden excuse, we were just following the rules

Insurance companies often take refuge in it, it's a frequent addiction
Imposing on their customers by default, as it were, this untoward friction
Cynical, in their time of loss when they need rapid compensation
They instead offer up the burden of these inconvenient fictions

In the full knowledge that many won't bother and simply drop it
Their bean counters salivating in the back office thinking: profit
Mind you they're quick to pretend that the end result was not intended
And that it is perfectly normal to shy away from services rendered

Even if the sheer outrage is hard to countenance
It speaks to the perils of living with your fellow man
It's the injustice of it, all those years you duly paid those premiums due
Then it turns out that, all along, they were taking you for a bloody fool

Hence the importance of norms, rules and regulations and enforcement
But also the stick of tort, laws, oversight and, ultimately, punishment
The constant need to redress the wrong and put them on notice
To do the right thing by default and resist the temptation

And shame too has been known to work its charm
Applying the fear of god to prevent such harm
Brand damage remains a powerful tool for compliance
Eternal vigilance being the price of soul insurance

II. Coda


Default deny is also well known in networking technology
Firewalls, those gatekeepers, often turn to this strategy
Out of the box it gets you up and running very quickly
It's the low hanging fruit, good enough, the poor man's security
Protection from without but, sadly, it doesn't cover every layer
'Tis quite the pity, you still need to guard against bad actors
The real world is complicated, it's merely the start of a fight
Trust in Allah, goes the proverb, but always tie up your camel at night


Order. Do not thrown refuse dumb here

Default Deny, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version) ...

Timing is everything
Observers are worried

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Writing log: September 18, 2022

Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Aliens Must Go

Legitimacy and exile
Aliens must go

Papers and passports
Inspection of identity

Stamp of approval
Proof of residency

Overstayed welcome
Fairweather friends

Fiasco
Exigency

Scapegoats
Contingency

Indefinite leave to remain
There's a price to be paid

Fraught deadlines
Tight timetable

Hasty evacuations
Explicit threats

Swift deportation
Fractured boundaries

Unkind labels
Verbal taunts

Herd of illegals
Circling touts

Overnight precarity
Status in doubt

Expulsion orders
Border crossings

Crowded ports
Land checkpoints

Dispersed families
Rushed upheaval

Overstuffed bags
Hurry

Tension, loss
Worry

Official decisions
Informal penalties

Enforcement actions
Emboldened gatekeepers

Entry permits
Mournful exits

Brethren
Neighbors

Rivals
Strangers

State of emergency
Failure of diplomacy

Ancestral memory
Histories of dislocation

Politics of closures
Season of migration

Internally displaced
Traditional evacuees

Modern travelers
Sudden refugees


talking drums 1984-06-04 what makes people leave Ghana - nigeria trials changing the rules in midstream

Aliens must go, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version) Bonus beats: Don't leave me this way by Thelma Houston


See previously Bags and Stamps (Ghana must go) and Expulsion orders

...

Postscript (June 3, 2025)


My current publishing schedule means that what you read above today was written three years ago (Indeed, if I don't pick up the pace, the trifle I wrote today will only see the light in 2038, 12 1/2 years from now). That being said, I am struck that the above musings on displacement, forced and otherwise, that I wrote in 2022 still seem timely.

I was then in the process of digitizing the Talking Drums archive and taking in the reverberations of arbitrariness and the reign of strongmen in khaki in what I read in those pages. The ripple effects continue over the surface of our regional politics.

My friend Senam had just published her dissertation and was sharing some of the stories that she'd unearthed in her excavation of this, our signal topic. Ghana must go has a very tangible legacy beyond Nigeria and Ghana. It is a living history, disclosed often by artful omission and subject to the opacity of our elders. It a family history and, in its sweep, marks its bearers.

More recently, I've been thinking about the exodus from Sudan and what that country has suffered in the past two years, the reign of locusts, if you will. You don't hear much about the strain on the surrounding countries and the fodder for resentment that any old demagogue could harness if they chose to do their worst. I've been thinking of the smaller but no less disruptive waves in the Sahel region where many leaders are indeed inclined to do their worst for fear of losing their positions. Displacement seems to be the rule and many of our neighbors' houses are on fire.

This is a time of brutes.

And here, again, I welcome the US to the Third World. The Stephen Miller incited and Trump led assault on everything is hitting many near and dear to me. Things have long moved far beyond rhetoric. Livelihoods and personal safety are affected, even moreso than usual for those darker than blue. Unspoken threats now explicitly verbalized. And horizons have contracted. Many now adopt a fetal pose to shield from the incoming blows heeding the warning: protect yourselves at all times.

This is a time of precarity.

And exhaustion. Take, say, immigration for example. Many of my cousins are on student or other immigrant visas in the US, and are currently weighing the calculus of just being themselves versus adopting a studied pose of neutrality and normalcy.

No sudden moves is the refrain, don't become a target etc. It looms, that culture of silence. It's present, the retreat to that mask of civility that we wear all too well.

This is a time of erasures.

People disappear, sometimes literally pulled off the streets, bodies are snatched with glee. But worse is the eclipse of the soul. Pieces of identity are being erased. The spark and joie de vivre in many is being extinguished, curtailed by cruelty and disembodied by vindictiveness. I can't recognize so many folk.

Sidenote: one of my cousins was recently accepted by Harvard, all his hard work paying off. After the initial celebrations, however, everyone in the family has been holding their breath as we watch that institution and others being targeted. The saving grace is that he was born in the USA and so is somewhat shielded from the trials of non-citizens. (I'm still somewhat curious about whether the currenly stymied attack on birthright citizenship would notionally affect him, or if that strange interpretation would only affect births going forward). I don't envy him. He gets to wear multiple mantles as a living embodiment of Stephen Miller's worst fears, a foreign student but also an American-African and that's before he even opens his mouth. I really don't envy him. What paradise have we lost?

Anyway... Perhaps, this is all background noise, and, as I'm often reminded, the virus sets the timeline. The ongoing pandemic can make all this turmoil in the world moot, a sideshow at best, in very short order.

Aliens must go. I too will make my accommodations. I continue to focus on small things and move to my own tune. The present collection of toli, being doled out every week, bears a title that is all I aspire to: A Comfortable Unease.


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Writing log: September 6, 2022

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Palliative Relief

Past remedies for a double heart:
Chocolate ice cream, or better yet, butter pecan
Revenge affairs and crying, nay, sobbing at the betrayal
Screaming into a pillow (loudly)
Screaming into the air (silently)
Disturbing tranquility and causing a scene
Do note that cackling with maniacal laughter is no catharsis
Consult your physician before dispensing these treatments
In many cases they only provide palliative relief

Past remedies for a broken heart:
Staring forlorn into space for hours on end
Mum's comfort soup and a long cry
Kleenex (two-pack), and apathy
Dark rooms and music (blues preferably)
Curating a heartbreak playlist
Revising the heartbreak playlist
A book in times past, a poetic trifle is recommended
A b-movie - suitably mindless, you can't get too invested
Social media these days - fashions change, gossip is cleansing
Long walks, solitude, communing with nature
Short runs, working out, lots of company
Copious amounts of alcohol - religion permitting
Wistful perusal of letters and photos (moderate quantities for greater effectiveness)
Inventory of digital artifacts featuring the loved one
Making lists, revising lists, tearing them up and starting again
A night out with old friends or siblings
Revisiting old haunts, macabre and weighted with meaning
Rebound flings in extremis, calling up exes
Booty calls and, if necessary, meaningless sex
(Always practice safe sex in such circumstances
Caveat emptor, you do not want to add to your predicament)
Truth in advertising notice, the label is indeed accurate:
Meaningless, and only providing palliative relief

Past remedies for a grieving heart:
There are none, pursuant to the laws of grief
Experiments confirm the lack of even a placebo effect
Patient advisory on sorrow: there is only palliative relief



After: And wilt though leave me thus? by Sir Thomas Wyatt


Sunflower seed - Portia portfolio

Heartbreak, a playlist


I have curated many a heartbreak playlist in my time, I am built that way - my go-to of late is Meshell NdegeOcello's Bitter album, or parts of Portishead's Dummy album if I want to be cinematic, or anything by Cesária Évora. Still, for the purposes of devising a soundtrack to this note, here's a literal heartbreak playlist, your mileage might vary (spotify version) File under: , , , , , , , , ,

Writing log: September 9, 2022

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Silt and Sediment

The erosion of norms
Weariness upon despair
The burden of loss

Inured to outrage
Mollified by distractions
Shapeless sense of dread

Acceptable loss
A comfortable unease
This fine dislocation

Failure to protect
The slaughter of innocents
The worth of a life

Recriminations
The bodies accumulate
Shame runs off slowly

Ritual hand wringing
To dust we shall all return
Silt and sediment


digable planets


After the bloodbath in Uvalde, Texas

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Writing log. May 27, 2022

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Love and Death

The slightly stilted language, as if through a veil of translation
The rhythm and cadences came from a different place
Performing with a twinkle in the eye, full of hints and allusion
The marked confidence, the groove, we've got our own thing

Speaking of heaven, but not hell
Singing of love, but not hate
Trickster tales that leave you in the lurch
But, crucially, clear-eyed about death

...

Laments and celebrations walk hand in hand
And comfort lies in the company you walk with
The hidden realms one passes on the journey
The dreamy truths revealed along the way
Hold tight, for friends will one day sway off the road
And, at the tail-end of the journey, your traveling companion will be your shadow


After seeing Ebo Taylor perform at age 89

Ebo Taylor



Love and Death, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

Pat Thomas and Ebo Taylor



I caught Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas on the former's farewell tour in Austin on May Day 2025. Then aged 89, he relied on his very capable 6 piece band (helmed by two of his sons) to do the heavy lifting. Ageless afro-funk grooves, nasty keyboards and the horns. Pat Thomas's voice too, still had that honey-coated baritone and the vocal range that could hit the high notes that would excite you. They still had it, they still had that ineffable style that emerged fully-formed in their Seventies heyday. Heaven for this exiled soul.

Bonus beats: I captured a few snippets of their live performance with my cell phone: Heaven , Love and Death and Kwaku Ananse, some mellow highlife Ene Nyame A Mensuro, encore

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Writing log: May 2, 2025

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Health Insurance Codes

A doctor friend, it was, who graciously shared the secret
Explaining how to unlock a small measure of respect
Strategic, the secret codes the layman must decipher
To advance within the confines of this healthcare system

Apparently all it takes is to ask two simple questions
The mere mention of which triggers an industry alert
Healthcare professionals immediately put on guard
For it augurs that one is at ease with their language

In retrospect it's surprising that one needs this bit of self advocacy
Jargon to be able to navigate this rugged terrain of uncertainty
An American landscape of billing codes, errors and complexity
Rigged. Defensive medicine in the face of litigious uncertainty

Of course these are just openings, an entrée into a conversation
You make your own luck afterwards, for these are fraught situations
Your body and mind will continue to confront daily adversity
And your interlocutors will contend with the vagaries of biology

And so to the questions, deceptively simple but specific
It is best to feign an aura of comfort with the scientific:

What is the diagnosis?
What is the prognosis?



M.C. Escher



Code, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version) File under: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Writing log. October 8, 2022

Friday, May 09, 2025

You Voted For This (And Other Songs)

Elections don't make for great subject matter for music (or art in general). They are typically uneventful in most countries. And most would rather sing about love, conflict, loss or betrayal. Audiences don't favor the banal when escapism, gossip, or spicy takes are available.

Still, there is a certain strain of art that emerges when elections are contentious, or if the personalities involved are striking in some way. The loss may hurt more, the win might be long overdue, or against all odds, the results might be shocking...

Joy, shock, upheaval or outrage rightly deserve an artistic response. In contrast, the poet of the quotidian lives in considered penury, envious of her more successful peers.

Hands down, the greatest artistic reaction to an election is B-movie by Gil Scott Heron. It starts with the immortal line "Mandate, my ass", and goes on from deconstructing Ronald Reagan's 1980 election to painting a pointillist portrait of a nostalgia-ridden USA (said nostalgia endures).

Beyond the biting poetry, set to that militaristic bassline, the performance benefits from its panoramic scope that moves beyond Skippy's loss, and RayGun's ascension, to a cold-eyed assessment of the wider culture.

(His band would soon be renamed the Selective Amnesia Express.)

The song, B-movie, like the earlier Winter in America, continues to resonate due to the range of his ambition and careful economy of the execution. The sparse musical arrangement is just the icing on the cake.

The prescient lyrics, of course, diagnosed, at length, Bush 2004 and Trump's MAGA appeal:

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia
They want to go back as far as they can - even if it's only as far as last week
Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards
But if B-movie is sui generis, what about the more routine reactions? Sticking to music and what is available on YouTube music, and focusing on the USA, I give you a representative playlist of twenty songs that cover the past twenty years. As usual, I have a few thoughts (call them liner notes)...

The most recent reaction songs started right after the November 2024 US election. The most typical response contains the expected mix of disgust, I told you so, you've made your bed, now lie in it, this is your mess etc. In short, schadenfreude, anger and fear prevail.

While I understand the impulse and there's certainly the urge to react, politics remains a contact sport. One wonders: what is the intent of all this sound and fury? What is the underlying theory of change?

Anger may motivate to wrath while disappointment often leads to depression and disengagement. Perhaps the idea is that even though writing in righteous anger, or singing the blues, may not change the world, their palliative relief is very welcome. Perhaps we should look elsewhere for change.

(But perhaps I'm not the wisest person to opine on such matters, after all I've written 5,000 words on an html button, 7,000 words on a taxonomy useful idiots, and even 9,000 words on a bookmarked tag. What change did I drive?)

Every act of creation should be celebrated. Moving on...

I voted for this by Friend of USAID


The most impressive finding comes from the aptly-named band, Friends of USAID. Newly-formed in 2025, they fully embrace the satirical mantle. Opening this playlist is the just-released I Voted For This. A delicate duo, melding male and female voices, they add sweet insult to injury

Calm delivery, sample lyrics:
My cousin's kid caught the measles - I guess that's kinda sad
But at least she won't have to learn how slavery was bad
The crops are dying, the aid is gone, but I don't care 'bout that
At least I don't have to speak Mexican and hear 'bout them eating cats
The inspired band name highlights the the Doge cuts that have decimated the mission of the eponymous agency. The artwork of the 15 singles they have released this year accentuate the effect. As do the songs themselves sample titles: Thoughts and Prayers, inc, Reverse Robin Hood (The Tariff Two-Step).

I hope that, like Randy Rainbow, they commit to the bit and continue to release more music. They have an album's worth of material already. We could all do with more biting satire to leaven the next few years.

More typical in the 2025 crop is You Voted For This Fool by Lazy Radiographer which reeks with disgust. The chorus: "You chose the fire / Now feel the cost / Watch freedom burn / While you praise the boss"

This Is What You Voted For (I Hope You're Happy) by After Everything continues in the vein of anger and outrage. It's rock-infused so less restrained. Lyric: "Sooner or later they'll come for you and you'll be the next in line". Bleach is the cover of their last album title A-Jax Everywhere

Is This What You Voted For? by Rhett Sawyer is more earnest and conciliatory, seeking to question and start a conversation. He's a country musician worried about his country and reels a litany of problems starting with "a land of the lost, locked up and poor", and carrying on from there

Cory Legendre is all bitterness in You Get What You Voted For - off his album, We Tried To Tell You (cover with Putin and Musk and a sitting Trump). Albeit looking at vote counts in the recent election, I'd hope the b-side would address those who didn't vote.

Lopkerjo has fully signed up with the resistance and has Nobody Voted For This, the titular track of his furious album... Still, methinks that Liz Cheney Hero of Integrity is where I step off (I would have added a question mark to that song title at the very least, but your mileage may vary).

Late in 2024, Me & Melancholy wounded by Trump's victory released We Never Voted For This. Working fast but protesting too much, I think. Who is the We he is talking about? I would rather point him in the direction of Antibalas's 2010 album, Who is this America Dem Speak of Today?

YaBoi Dirty is more philosophical with Who You Voted For. His is more a plague o' both your houses missive. The kind of demoralized outlook that would lower voter turnout - and perhaps that is the point of his intervention. Politicians are crooks, spokesmen for the rich etc...

Capture the state by Friend of USAID


Stepping back to 2022, we have part of Ben Frank's standup comedy routine which is riffing on political hypocrisy with This Is What You Voted For. The private sexual mores versus the public severe prudity. Cynicism about the bonafides of leaders.

Turn to hip-hop also in 2022, Mr Trumptastic released You Voted For Jb You Must Be Smoking Dope. He'd had enough of a whole year of Joe Biden's presidency and was looking forward to Trump's rightful return. One wonders if he'll have more to say for the current moment.

in 2021, Art Neuro, more punk than rock, chimed in with This Is The Stuff You Voted For taken from his Sadistic Ineptitude album. Not quite mellifluous, his is a rather acidic take.

Preaching reconciliation in 2021, JCAR93 weighs in with Come Together (Even If You Voted For Trump), trap rap noodling. I suspect The Beatles were more artistically successful being all sugary and omitting the snark.

In 2020 from England, we have If You Voted For This Then You Are Part Of The Problem by Dannydangerously, his grime flow is less outraged at Boris Johnson's shenanigans than of his countrymen's continued voting for the Tories. England was then the new epicenter of the covid pandemic.

In 2015, Me Time released You Voted For This. Again punk-inflected, and furious about the GOP's assault (presumably under Bush) on gun control, the EPA, bloody wars, corporate cronyism.
"Thank God we chose to back the GOP / The world is a wasteland / It's piles of grass, ash and sand"
Also in 2015, The Walking Toxins chime in with You Voted For Them. Angry at a fascist state that dropped the bomb (unclear whether it was Obama drones or Bush shock and awe that drew their ire). Like the music they produce here, they are not happy campers.

In 2012, Zygsville sound bewildered in Who Voted for This, a nice uptempo joint that one can do a line dance to. More musically interesting with some nice guitar licks. Giving the date of the release, I suspect Barack Obama wasn't his favorite but the lyrics are rather ambiguous consequently the song has legs.

In 2008, Beatnik Turtle whistles his acute observations on buyer's remorse, describing how the new guy becomes "the incumbent, he's got the peoples mandate, but he's passing wacky laws now, showing all his flaws and he's the guy that everyone hates. And all of a sudden nobody voted for this guy"

The humourous point is well taken about how partisans turn quiet when those they put in power screw the pooch. And, quite likely, this year we'll be repeating the observers are worried mantra.

Stylistically, then, the songs are mostly country, rock and punk, perhaps because I stuck to the Anglosphere. It's not easy listening as the singers are trying to provoke a reaction. Where we have hip-hop, the political commentary is a sideshow, braggadocio is a necessity in that form.

I do think that the songs with songs that broaden the perspective will likely endure but I appreciate the lesser works as fodder for the time capsule, cultural artifacts for later historians mining the zeitgeist of these trying times. I hope we make it to the other side.


Bonus beats: Your Mess by Omar, timeless soul, and an extract from Black Wax the film that featured a live performance by Gil Scott Heron of B-movie


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Writing log: May 4, 2025

Tuesday, May 06, 2025

Kindness for Weakness

While it may feel good
  To use me as an emotional crutch
   Don't mistake my kindness for weakness

The neediness though understandable,
  At length, can be grating
   Shall I compare thee to a leech?

A bit of restraint, please,
  It's a little too much
   The straw that broke the camel's back

I know you're tired
  But taking it out on those close to you can be dangerous
   Even dormant volcanoes sometimes erupt


the rhinoceros

Kindness for Weakness, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version) Bonus beats: Emotional Pump by Prince. Still fascinating that he thought it would be something Joni Mitchell would sing...

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Writing log: September 10, 2022

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

A Comfortable Unease

Ambitions are somewhat tempered
In this autumnal season
The earlier aspirations slightly tarnished
But still remain well within reach
Clear-eyed about the task ahead,
The obstacles will be surmounted
The searcher's gaze resolute and firmly set
Focused on the promise of better days
Traveling light, with bags at the ready
The journey presents itself as ever
Proceeding on the road to freedom

II.

Off kilter living is our lot, it seems
A pose of preemptive cynicism readied

Prescience perhaps, and lessons learned
And so we make the best of things

Caution, my kin, take heed
For fairweather friends loom

Such is our jaundiced perspective
The sense of dislocation prevails

That we are guests in our own lives
And truly behold the shock of the familiar

We make homes for friends alike and visitors
As we cross these boundaries seeking shelter

Weapons of restraint. Contra provocation
We turn to conversation, and quiet reflection

Yet we were left unrequited, aching with yearning
While, beneath the surface, understanding was on hand

We were promised: our liminal dreams would be fulfilled
Still we engage in the struggle, if they would only listen

The burden of early sacrifice, in this, our quiet revolution
Has left an impact that can only be discerned in the stillness in time

The broad outlines emerge of a duty of care, if not a philosophy
And so pause, momentarily, to trace the reflections in the mirror

It's fine to affect hospitality, for it doesn't cost you none
Most of all, speak softly, my friend, speak softly, your time will come

III.

The sad fact of our fraught modernity remains
Our sole assurance in this life of precarity
Is to live out elusive dreams of normalcy

Good enough, some say, good enough
Hold them to their precious words
We heard of liberty and equal protection

Yet experience has taught us harsh lessons
All their rules were made to be broken
And the inconvenient ones rewritten at will

Who do the laws serve? We deserve an answer
Justice and freedom are the heart of the matter
The rhetoric ought to be more than propaganda

Presented with the reality of a fickle state
Replete with escape clauses and underlying conditions
We recognize that we tread a fine line of liability

So we made our peace with this life
Consoled with a comfortable unease
But vigilant, we will bear witness


Gold Coast by Kagyah (2002)


A Comfortable Unease, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note. (spotify version)
See previously: The Fleeting Canvas

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Writing log. June 2, 2022

Friday, April 25, 2025

Gunboat Diplomacy

A kiss in a shadow
Trying to catch the wind
The person who tied the bell must untie it

Gunboats on the Pearl River
Treasures loaded onto their wagons
Silver was drained from our veins

Torches in the Summer Palace
Countless lives lost under the lie of "Fair Trade"
Today, those same powers that pushed opium
Now threaten with trade wars and blockades

We're going to live together very happily
So face up to the rational voices
The shackles you cast will clasp your own wrists


After Presidents Xi Jinping, Donald Trump and Ministry of Commerce spokesman, He Yadong (April 23, 2025)

Oakland Container Port 053



Diplomacy, a playlist


A soundtrack for this note (spotify version)

Bonus beats: Learn Chinese by Jin

Oakland Container Port 063



See previously: A Very Beautiful Thing and Facilitate

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Writing log: April 24, 2025