tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-198805312024-03-13T12:37:51.188-04:00The Orange Partyit's the party that's orangebrian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-2416890475775852832007-09-13T02:10:00.000-04:002007-09-13T02:16:14.907-04:00I Love You, Let's Light Ourselves On FireMy little sister did this on <a href="http://indiewallflower.livejournal.com/165039.html">her blog</a>. I couldn't resist trying it out with <a href="http://www.themountaingoats.net/cgi-bin/songs.cgi?ACTION=show_all_songs">The Mountain Goats</a>.<br /><br />1. Choose a band / artist and answer ONLY in titles of their songs:<br />The Mountain Goats<br /><br />2. Are you male or female:<br />Golden Boy<br /><br />3. Describe yourself:<br />I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink<br /><br />4. How do some people feel about you:<br />I Will Grab You By the Ears<br /><br />5. How do you feel about yourself:<br />The Irony Engine<br /><br />6. describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend:<br />Bad Priestess<br /><br />7 Current boyfriend/girlfriend/crush:<br />Going to Reykjavik<br /><br />8. Describe where you want to be:<br />Flight 717: Going to Denmark<br /><br />9. Describe where you live:<br />Warm Lonely Planet<br /><br />10. Describe who you love:<br />I Love You, Let's Light Ourselves On Fire<br /><br />11. What would you ask for if you had just one wish:<br />Love Love Love OR Cobra Tattoo<br /><br />12. Now say goodbye:<br />No, I Can't.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-903818311833129122007-09-03T23:07:00.000-04:002007-09-03T23:34:09.382-04:00Wax on, wax off<div align="center"><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IlQOmO44_bA"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IlQOmO44_bA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Today I washed and waxed my car. This is not terribly exciting. Not even when you consider that i believe it to be just the second time I've washed my car and the first time I've waxed it in the some 5 plus years I've had it. (I think </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.xanga.com/bethsbdc">bethy</a><span style="font-family: georgia;"> may have washed it when she was using it regularly a few years ago, but she is a Howard, and you just know how we are.) When you use a car as infrequently as I do, and have no easy access to a garage or, most importantly, a hose, well, washing it is not something you consider so often. I've pondered taking it to the ol' drivethrough carwash several times in the last month, though -- until my mom sent me an e-mail forward about ripoffs -- or rather things people spend money on that they oughtn't that add up (one and two on this list: cigarettes and booze, natch).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">So anyway, I was up in Bethlehem visiting Amy and took the opportunity while crashing at the mom's place to wash the dear, neglected Green Hornet. And after washing it, I was all like, hmm, i ought to wax it, imagining fondly the emeraldy glow that would radiate from my little VW. Well, I guess this should be a lesson that, um, you shouldn't go several years between car washings. (And a lesson that I can't wax my car without spending the rest of the day thinking about the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;font-size:85%;" >Karate Kid</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">.)Rather than produce the aforementioned glow and turning my buggy into the visage of, oh, say, The Emerald City's finest delivery vehicle, the wax served to accentuate every scratch, nick and ding with a glaring chalky residue -- kind of like outlining the dead -- that was impossible (alright, very difficult) to remove with what I'll deem "normal buffing effort." It is my hope that the next rain rinses the crevice-clinging wax (and, of course, bead magnificently on the rest of the finish).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">So yes. I've just washed my car, and I'm hoping it'll rain.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">In other car related news, i've caved and started putting bumper stickers on my rear bumper (to compliment the white, clear-backed Phillies decal on the hatch). Now my Golf will be an advert for: </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.tedleo.com/">Ted Leo /Pharmacists</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">, </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.thethermals.com/">The Thermals</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">, </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.postalservicemusic.net/">The Postal Service</a><span style="font-family: georgia;"> (the band) and the </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.citypaper.net/">City Paper</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">, all causes we can agree, I think, that one should support.) Oh, and going a bit nuts, i also applied two of the homestar runner static stickers bethy got me for Xmar a year or so back, </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Trogdor">Trogdor the Burninator</a><span style="font-family: georgia;"> on the right rear side window, and on the left rear side window, of course, </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/cheat">The Cheat</a><span style="font-family: georgia;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Also, each and every time I typed the word "car" in this post, I first typed the word "care." anyone else have this typing affliction?</span></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-72056080143482745952007-04-23T22:45:00.000-04:002007-07-18T01:39:55.445-04:00BH1 Classic: Bring Tha' Hanoize iii: You get what you pay for, and then you jump off a boat<span style="font-family:arial;">Sorry for the delay. Here's the third and final installment of Bring Tha' Hanoize<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1/rm1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 219px; height: 175px;" src="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1/rm1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">From: Brian Howard </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;font-family:arial;" class="lg" ><beegee73@gmail.com></beegee73@gmail.com></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Sent: Aug 1, 2004 10:56 PM</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Subject: BRING THA' HANOIZE No. 3: You get what you pay for, and then you jump off a boat (the GMail edition)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Ladies and Gents,</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So what have you been up to for the last couple of days?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Me, I've been getting around. As you may recall from <a href="http://theorangeparty.blogspot.com/2007/04/bh1-classic-bring-tha-hanoize-ii-africa.html">installment 2</a> of </span><span style="font-family:arial;">this little trip-o-logue, I was on my way to Hanoi's <a href="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1.htm">museum of </a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1.htm">military history</a>. Viet Nam, in it's short history as an independent </span><span style="font-family:arial;">country has seen more than its share of bloodshed. Maybe you've heard </span><span style="font-family:arial;">about this. The museum, a sort of modest, ramshackle affair chronicles </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the string of fairly amazing military victories of this tiny country. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">It was difficult to walk through the place and not be in awe with the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">way the Vietnamese people have persevered a string of armed conflict. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">The musuem's exhibits feature a mix of historical kind of strategy </span><span style="font-family:arial;">stuff, maps depicting the movement of troops, air strikes and the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">like. But most of these exhibits are marked in Vietnamese only. Marked </span><span style="font-family:arial;">in English and French, however, are exhibits depicting weapons used </span><span style="font-family:arial;">against and confiscated from enemy soldiers from the French conflict </span><span style="font-family:arial;">in the '50s all the way to the "American War of Aggression" or the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">"American War of Sabotage" as the police action we call the Vietnam </span><span style="font-family:arial;">War is called over here.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Though I've always felt that the U.S. had no business being in </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Vietnam, there was a weird sense of gnawing in my gut seeing the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">helmets of downed American pilots, captured flags and rifles. These </span><span style="font-family:arial;">troops, like those presently in Iraq, were not the ones who made the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">decision to go; they were pawns in what turned out to be a </span><span style="font-family:arial;">wrong-headed venture.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.wienerkaffeehaus.com.sg/u_menu_coffee/081cfa64185063e383430f9e30c1e0bc"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 100px;" src="http://www.wienerkaffeehaus.com.sg/u_menu_coffee/081cfa64185063e383430f9e30c1e0bc" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">Later that day, while admiring a Christian church in the center of </span><span style="font-family:arial;">downtown Hanoi, I was approached by a man on a motorbike; normally in </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Hanoi, when someone approaches you on a motorbike, it's just a taxi </span><span style="font-family:arial;">driver looking to make a quick buck. However, this fellow, a guy named </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Vinh, asked me if i spoke English and if I'd be willing to have a </span><span style="font-family:arial;">coffee with him so he could practice. I figured why not, and, sort of </span><span style="font-family:arial;">wearily hopped on his motorbike. After a coffee, a smoke and the </span><span style="font-family:arial;">exchange of the names of some good books on both American and </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Vietnamese history, Vinh offered to take me to the lake where a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/hanoi/images/b52.gif">B-52 </a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/hanoi/images/b52.gif">bomber crashed</a> during the war and has been partially submerged ever </span><span style="font-family:arial;">since. I'm fairly sure that this was the plane of one John McCain (ed. note: I'm now pretty sure it wasn't his). </span><span style="font-family:arial;">After taking me to buy some top-notch Vietnamese coffee beans (I may </span><span style="font-family:arial;">have been taken on this deal, paying far more than it probably cost, </span><span style="font-family:arial;">but still much cheaper than in the US), we parted ways (after, of </span><span style="font-family:arial;">course, he asked me for some money to buy a dictionary, and I </span><span style="font-family:arial;">graciously obliged). It was one of those chance encounters -- essentially </span><span style="font-family:arial;">getting a personal tour just by being in the right place at the right </span><span style="font-family:arial;">time -- that can't help but make you smile, even if you probably got </span><span style="font-family:arial;">bilked on the coffee.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">And that was just Friday.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.halongtours.com/map/zoom_bandovinh.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.halongtours.com/map/zoom_bandovinh.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">Saturday, Kate and I set out for a tour of Vietnam's famous, </span><span style="font-family:arial;">picturesque <a href="http://www.halongtours.com/map/halong_map.htm">Halong Bay</a>. You may have seen <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=Halong+Bay&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=pLh&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title">pictures of it</a>; it's waters </span><span style="font-family:arial;">are punctuated by hundreds (maybe thousands) of rocky islands that jut </span><span style="font-family:arial;">straight out of the water. I think I read somewhere that the story is </span><span style="font-family:arial;">that in the early days of the land, it's believed that a dragon </span><span style="font-family:arial;">somehow made these islands as a way of protecting the Vietnamese </span><span style="font-family:arial;">people. (Take this with a grain of salt, as there's also a story about </span><span style="font-family:arial;">one of the lakes in Hanoi that involves, I think, a <a href="http://beifanchina.com/hanoi/01hanoi-turtle.html">turtle emerging </a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://beifanchina.com/hanoi/01hanoi-turtle.html">from the water with a sword</a> that a warrior then used to battle someone </span><span style="font-family:arial;">or other.)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Booking the tour was no easy feat; after shuttling around the numerous </span><span style="font-family:arial;">travel agencies in Hanoi's <a href="http://www.queencafe.com.vn/History/Hanoioldquarter.htm">old quarter</a>, I'd settled on one of the tour </span><span style="font-family:arial;">packages that seemed no better or worse than any of the others. This </span><span style="font-family:arial;">turned out to be a mistake; the tour, which left on Saturday morning </span><span style="font-family:arial;">by bus to Halong City and then by boat from Halong, was an ongoing </span><span style="font-family:arial;">debacle of poor organization, rude tour guides and crap meals. A </span><span style="font-family:arial;">four-hour drive to the bay was punctuated by an hour and a half wait </span><span style="font-family:arial;">for a boat; the boat ride was pleasant enough, but once we arrived at </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Ba">Cat Ba Island</a>, we were shuttled through a tourist-trap of a cave and </span><span style="font-family:arial;">treated to a largely uninformative guided tour of the cave. We were </span><span style="font-family:arial;">then shuttled back onto the boat, fed the most crap meal you could ask </span><span style="font-family:arial;">for, and then we docked for the night.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This is the only part where things get good. Once our boat docked for </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the night, a bunch of us threw on our bathing suits and dove headfirst </span><span style="font-family:arial;">into the South China Sea. There's nothing quite like taking a dip in </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the ocean at night. Unfortunately, there's also nothing quite like not </span><span style="font-family:arial;">being able to get a decent shower after a salt-water dip and then </span><span style="font-family:arial;">having to sleep in a stuffy, cramped cabin cooled only by a fan. But </span><span style="font-family:arial;">you have to take your little victories where you can.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The next morning, after a sufficiently bland breakfast the boat set </span><span style="font-family:arial;">back on the three-hour trip back to dock, then another crappy meal at </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the restaurant on the dock, and then a four-hour drive (with a </span><span style="font-family:arial;">requisite stop at a tourist trap) back to Hanoi. In all, we changed </span><span style="font-family:arial;">boats about four times, changed tour guides just as often, and got </span><span style="font-family:arial;">back feeling like herded cattle.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">All this can be yours for just $30, though it would have felt like a </span><span style="font-family:arial;">rip-off for $30 less.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Best,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Brian</span><br /></blockquote><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-66338183981086136492007-04-23T22:29:00.000-04:002007-04-29T23:59:54.375-04:00BH1 Classic: Bring Tha' Hanoize ii: Africa hot has nothing on Hanoi hot<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><a href="http://theorangeparty.blogspot.com/2007/04/traveling-writing-and-writing-about.html">As promised</a>, I'm digging the old Bring Tha' Hanoize (BTHz) travelogues out of the gmail and publishing them here. Enjoy. Or don't.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Originally published August 2004<br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bluffton.edu/%7Esullivanm/vietnam/hanoi/lakepagoda/0008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 196px; height: 147px;" src="http://www.bluffton.edu/%7Esullivanm/vietnam/hanoi/lakepagoda/0008.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></span><blockquote><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Everybody, everybody,<br /><br /></span><div style="direction: ltr;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I may have mentioned in the <a href="http://theorangeparty.blogspot.com/2007/04/bh1-classic-bring-tha-hanoize-i.html">first installment of BTHz</a> that there was a little matter of the heat here. I hope to not beat this horse too vigourously over the course of our correspondence, but allow me to get this out of the way, and hopefully this will be the end of it: Holy crap it's hot here.<br /><br />Granted, today is a little better than yesterday, as overcast skies have made a liesurely stroll around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoan_Kiem_Lake">Hoan Kiem Lake</a>, the body of water that sits in the middle of Hanoi's Old Quarter, quite pleasant. But still I find myself, like David Lee Roth before me, going a little bit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_from_the_Heat_%28EP%29">crazy from the heat</a>. Keroac, in his rambling travelogue </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >On The Road</span><span style="font-size:85%;">, described the heat in Mexico (or was it Central America? My days of reading the Beats are so far behind me) as a sort of enveloping presence, and that those who live in such conditions develop a symbiotic relationship with the clime. I recall his description of a young child whose face was covered with beads of sweat that seemed almost permanent. And I imagine that the population of Hanoi have a similar relationship with the heat; some people buzz to and from wherever it is they're constantly buzzing to and from on their motorbikes decked out in suits, sleeves, long pants and other seemingly unfathomable modes of attire given that the temperatures seem to be consistently in the 30s (celsius, goddammit). Sure, there are some who sport shorts and short sleeves, but y'know. (Also fascinating is that many motorbike pilots sport facemasks or bandanas to guard their lungs from exhaust, dirt, etc. But more on this in a future edition perhaps.)<br /><a name='more'></a><br />As it turns out, I packed all wrong for this trip. The doctor who gave me my immunizations suggested that I just keep as covered as possible so as to avoid a potentially Malarial skeeter bite. I'm gonna guess she's never been here. My one pair of shorts is getting a workout, and I wore a long sleeved shirt my first day out and I think it almost killed me. So I'm going shorts and t-shirts from here out; the next mosquito I see will be my first.<br /><br />On to other things; last night <a href="http://www.friendster.com/user.php?uid=449645">Kate</a> and I were escorted by a classmate of hers, Tran, to the the <a href="http://www.vme.org.vn/index.asp">Museum of Ethnic Minorities</a> aka <a href="http://www.vietnamtravelguide.com/article_detail.php?cat=1&show_cat=1&sub_cat=1&article_id=402&city_id=22">Museum of Ethnology</a>. Vietnamese people make up a large percentage of the country's population, but there are smaller ethnic groups (the Khmer, for instance; the Chinese are an ethnic minority here, too) who live throughout the country; the museum we visited celebrates their contributions to the country's history. As interesting as the museum is, the ride there and back was the more exhilirating experience. On the way there, Kate and her friend rode on her motorbike; i rode on the back of a hired motorbike. This was my first experience actually inside the droning motorbike cacophony that fills the streets morning and night; it was actually uneventful. There aren't a lot of stop signs here, which, you might think, could lead to all sorts of mishaps; but the fact is Vietnamese drivers simply don't have the mindset so many American drivers are possessed of, that they have inalienable rights to a) the 100 feet of road directly in front of them; b) never have to brake and c) never have to deviate from the straight-line course they're presently on. Vietnamese drivers are immensely attentive, and though there is a constant honking, bleating and tut-tutting of horns, these aren't horn blasts in anger, simply a way of saying "here I am; there you are." Traffic moves a little more slowly, but people hardly ever actually stop, so nothing ever seems to be congested.<br /><br />On the ride home from the Museum of Ethnology, which was on the edge of town, there were no motorbikes for hire, so the three of us hopped on Than's bike and rode back. While three people on a motorbike is technically against the law, people do it all the time; in fact, on the ride home we spotted a bike carrying four (4!) adults. We took a detour to one of Tran's friends houses, ducking in and out of alleyways and eventually getting stuck behind the "garbage truck," essentially a hand-pushed cart. Seems that among the things that unite us all as human beings is that anyone, anywhere, can get stuck behind the garbage truck.<br /><br />Not a whole lot else to report at present. Still adjusting, slowly, to the local time. By the calculation of one day for every hour of time difference, I should be fully clicking along on Hanoi time by the morning I leave.<br /><br />Realized yesterday that among the channels we get on the set in our hotel room is CNN. Woke up this morning and watched John Edwards' speech at the convention at 9 a.m. I'm still trying to figure out how to make this whole "being 12-hours-ahead" think work out for you in terms of getting you sports scores and stock quotes early enough to make a killing with your bookie; I'll let you know when I've got it.<br /><br />Alright, people, I'm off to book a trip to scenic Halong Bay and then pay a stop a the <a href="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1.htm">Miltary Museum</a> where, I'm told, there's a pile of <a href="http://vnmilitaria.com/museum1/aircraft2.jpg">gunned-down U.S. fighter planes</a> in the courtyard.<br /><br />Alrighty then,<br /></span></div><span class="sg" style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><br />BH</span></blockquote><span class="sg" style="font-family:arial;"></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-34772490428440794292007-04-12T19:02:00.000-04:002007-04-12T19:20:44.138-04:00BH1 Classic: Bring Tha' Hanoize i: The Serioiusly Jetlagged Installment<span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://theorangeparty.blogspot.com/2007/04/traveling-writing-and-writing-about.html">As promised</a>, I'm digging the old Bring Tha' Hanoize (BTHz) travelogues out of the gmail and publishing them here. Enjoy. Or don't.<br /><br /><blockquote>From: Brian Howard [wewerepatriots@earthlink.net]<br />Sent: Jul 27, 2004 9:54 PM<br />To: Subject: Bring tha' Hanoize No. 1, The seriously jetlagged edition.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.google.com/images?q=halong+bay&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=LH8&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title" target="_blank"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 215px; height: 161px;" src="http://dream.sims.berkeley.edu/MT/vanhouse/archives/IMG_6768.JPG" alt="Halong Bay" border="0" /></a><br />Hey everyone,<br />Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'm in freaking Hanoi.<br /><br />Still adjusting to the local time (which means that I was wide awake at 3 am and will likely be crashing at, oh, 5 pm).<br /><br />The defining characteristic of this place thusfar is the heat. christ on a popsicle stick, is it hot here. I'm writing to you at 8:30 a.m. in a shirt that's soaked through with sweat (my own). I'm kind of learning my way around the city at present, and have already had tens of friendly interactions with motorbike drivers offering to take me anywhere I'd like to go. I've declined thusfar, preferring to hoof it.<br /><br />I hope within a couple of days to work up the gumption to rent a bicycle and brave the chaotic byways of downtown Hanoi. The traffic in Hanoi is unworldly. There are very few cars, just a sort of constant peloton of motorbikes and bicycles swerving, bobbing and weaving through the streets. And yet, I've not seen even the slightest hint of a smack-up. Traffic moves both ways on pretty much all streets, with ill-defined lanes. But it moves pretty slowly in anticipation other motorists, pedestrians (the sidewalks are predominantly unpassable on foot, blocked as they are by, natch, parked motorbikes), and women and men toting their wares on long sticks they balance across their shoulders.<br /><br />I had my first bowl of honest-to-goodness vietnamese pho (noodle soup), and was summarily underwhelmed. The bowl I had was chicken pho (pho ga) that — Kate and I both agreed — was sorta bland. Kate says she's yet to have a bowl of pho that's knocked her off her keister (though she also admits she doesn't exactly love the stuff back home). We ate the pho for breakfast in this little hole-in-the-wall eatery where we perched on tiny little plastic stools that were barely a foot off the ground at a table that was maybe a foot and a half off the ground. I'm no towering specimen, but even I felt a bit like Tom Selleck's Jack Elliot in that quintessential West-meets-East folly <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104926/" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">Mr. Baseball</span></a>. While the pho has been something of a letdown, the coffee here has not disappointed. Thick, dark, and sickly sweet, it is presently powering me through this maiden installment of BTHz.<br /><br />It's also taken a bit to get used to the whole currency thing here. One US dollar equals approximately 15,000 Vietnamese dung/duong. So you start getting into pretty big numbers quickly, even for a relatively inexpensive meal. I paid 90,000VND, for instance, for dinner for Kate and I last night. At first, I was like "holy shit, 90,000!" until i realized how little that actually was. (Like six bucks. For dinner. For two).<br /><br />Anyway, I'd best wrap this up as it's approaching 9 and I've got travel agencies to visit. Kate and I are planning on heading to <a href="http://www.halongjunk.net/images/map/map_halong01.gif" target="_blank">Halong</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Long_Bay" target="_blank">Bay</a> for the weekend, which means beach action [editor's note: I was wrong about the beach action]. (I'll be keeping my eye out for <a href="http://www.goldenstateautographs.com/photographs/images/D/delaneydana.jpg">Dana Delaney</a>, though I'm pretty sure I'm in the wrong half of the country for <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094433/" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">China Beach</span></a> references to make any sense at all.)<br /><br />Till next time, people.<br /></blockquote><br /></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-62762180970800773912007-04-04T23:43:00.000-04:002007-04-05T00:09:36.449-04:00Traveling, writing and writing about traveling<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/nile.from.perveens.apt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/nile.from.perveens.apt.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I recently took part in a "storytelling" event called <a href="http://web.mac.com/gasandelectricarts/iWeb/Gas%20%26%20Electric%20Arts/Generating.html" target="_blank">Generating</a> put on by the good people at <a href="http://www.gasandelectricarts.org/" target="_blank">Gas & Electric Arts</a>. The point of the evening was to find regular folks with amazing stories and then have them tell them -- in an off-the-cuff manner -- to a crowded room. Lisa Jo at G&EA thought the story of my amazing/tragicomic trip to Cairo at the end of 2001 fit the bill. So I kicked off their first Generating event with a story that started out: "This is a story about a bad idea..." I'm told they recorded the evening, so if a recording becomes available, I'll share it here.<br />But the whole experience -- combing through my brain and attempting to render a story that I could go on for hours in 15 minutes -- was a pretty interesting one.<br />And it got me to thinking about not only my time over there, but the writing I did while in Cairo. It got me to dig up the web site, <a href="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/dust.htm" target="_blank">Dust Never Sleeps</a>, that I was working on over there.<br />And the three "blog" entries I wrote:<br /></span></span><ol><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/dust/dust1_01_17_2002.htm" target="_blank">The maiden installment: Landing face-first in the desert</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/dust/dust_24_1_2002.htm" target="_blank">Feelin' Chipsy</a></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and the maudlin <a href="http://www.geocities.com/bribri777/dust/dust_02_10_02.htm" target="_blank">Don't nobody know how dry I am</a></span></span></span></li></ol><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">It also got me thinking about the heretofore unpublished (save for the e-mail blasts to friends) writing I did a couple years later from Hanoi -- a little project I'd dubbed "Bring Tha' Hanoize" (BtHz). I managed to retrieve the three installments (two from good 'ol Gmail, which was just in beta at the time and one from <a href="http://ireadashortstorytoday.com/" target="_blank">Patrick</a>, who never throws out an e-mail).<br />And I decided that I'd post them here, on my largely underused personal blog. I've found that the writing, which was done entirely in Internet cafes, is not as sharp as Dust Never Sleeps. Guess that's what happens when you're writing on the clock (and sweating through your shirt at the same time).<br />So stay tuned. I'll post "Bring Tha' Hanoize No. 1, The seriously jetlagged edition" shortly.<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1152059956650874952006-07-04T20:16:00.000-04:002006-07-05T12:12:21.676-04:00Sadness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.twisteetreat.net/images/Twistee%20Treat%20Rasta%20Man.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://www.twisteetreat.net/images/Twistee%20Treat%20Rasta%20Man.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Got some <a href="http://www.citypaper.net/clog/2006/07/04/mpozi-mshale-tolbert/">bad news</a> this morning. <br /><br />First, the back story. This year is City Paper's 25th anniversary and to commemorate this, Patrick and I are, in the 25 weeks leading up to our anniversary issue, going through the archives year-by-year and telling the paper's story through bylines, headlines, etc. in a regular feature called <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22paper+trail%22+site%3Acitypaper.net&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official">Paper Trail</a>. <br /><br />Each week, we spend a few hours with a year's worth of bound volumes and note the big stories, important staffers who debuted, and choose one cover from that issue to print in the paper. <br /><br />A <a href="http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006-06-22/papertrail.shtml">couple of weeks ago in the 1991 installment</a> we proudly noted that a young photographer named Mpozi (Mshale) Tolbert (that's him, above, in a photo we ran in 1997 in an ancillary publication called Earshot), a teenager at the time, had made his debut in the paper. Mpozi was already an established figure in the offices by the time I showed up in 1995. As an intern, I remember seeing this hulking, 6-foot 6-inch dreadlocked man pop into the office now and again to chat with Margit Detweiler and Neil Gladstone. He was a giant man, but always incredibly kind. He was the kind of guy you couldn't help but like, be drawn to. As a freelance photographer, he wasn't in the office all the time, or regularly. But whenever he did, it was like an event. "Mpozi's here," the vibe in the officed seemed to suggest. If Mpozi was here, it meant there was something going on that we should take notice of. He was plugged in, and his vision as a photographer was such that if he'd shot something, or wanted to shoot something, you'd better damn well pay attention. His photography was such that he really got into the lives of his subjects. There was an empathy in the celluloid. <a href="http://images.google.com/images?q=mpozi%20tolbert&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi">He was magic.</a> <br /><br />So last week we received a letter to the editor from Mpozi thanking us for being mentioned in Paper Trail. We'd received a letter a couple of weeks prior from Miguel Gonzalez thanking us for <a href="http://citypaper.net/articles/2006-06-15/papertrail.shtml">his mention</a> as well. As we found out, there's something of an e-mail list of former CP staffers out there chattering about who gets nods in the column and who does not. Well, any and all feedback is smiled upon, but it was especially nice to get a nod from Mpozi (his message is replicated in the first link of this post). <br /><br />So it was a horrible shock to learn that this wonderful man -- strong, peaceful, brilliant, artist -- had fallen, let alone that it had happened so young. He'd been working at his <a href="http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006607030429">desk at the <span style="font-style:italic;">Indianapolis Star</span></a> when he collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A cause of death has not been determined yet, but when someone young like this passes suddenly, your first inclination is to think something was wrong with his heart. Which is just not something you could ever say about Mpozi. <br /><br />I didn't know the man well, but I knew him well enough to say that his loss is huge. My condolences go out to his family, and anyone whose life he touched with his work or his generosity.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1138205778339312222006-01-25T11:03:00.000-05:002006-01-26T11:35:49.970-05:00Requiem for a Nice Guy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/palngeddie2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/320/palngeddie2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Was kinda shocked to read the news that <a href="http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1694433,00.html">Chris Penn was found dead</a> in his Santa Monica home yesterday at the tender age of 40 or 43. Until, that is, I saw the most recent picture of Penn wherein he's looking, well, let's call it "not quite the picture of health." His latest jawn, the now sort of eerily monickered <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428446/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHNvdXJjZWlkPW1vemlsbGEtc2VhcmNofHE9IlRoZSBkYXJ3aW4gYXdhcmRzInxmdD0xfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxjbz0xfGh0bWw9MXxubT0x;fc=1;ft=20">The Darwin Awards</a>, is set to be screened at Sundance. I've got an e-mail out to my Sundance correspondent, Andy Williams, to check on the mood.<br /><br />Go gently into the night, <a href="http://www.toymania.com/columns/spotlight/niceguyeddie.shtml">Nice Guy Eddie</a>.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1138038197656343932006-01-23T12:22:00.000-05:002006-01-23T12:50:44.826-05:00Thanks for your years of service; please file this form to claim your gold watch. Also, the door swings shut quickly.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.docmartin.at/frozenshoulder/frozen6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.docmartin.at/frozenshoulder/frozen6.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>There will probably be lots of hand-wringing on both sides of <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2302547">this story</a> wherein the Astros are attempting to avoid paying the bulk of the final year ($17 million) of <a href="http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/jeff-bagwell.shtml">Jeff Bagwell</a>'s contract because he's been hobbled and in decline for the last few years thanks in no small part to a shoulder condition for which he had capsular release surgery (right) performed. The ’Stros want Bagwell declared unable to perform or something like that so they can file an insurance claim that'll net them $15.6 million. Bagwell would need to retire for this to happen, something the <a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bagweje01.shtml">Hall of Fame-bound</a> slugger ain't having. Of course, this would be a pretty crummy way for the organization to part ways with a guy who's spent his entire major league career with it, but then again, $17 million is a high price to pay for sentiment, and since it's not a matter of screwing Bagwell out of his money, but a pre-agreed term of the contract, I say bravo to the Astros for making a prudent if unpopular business decision. That said, it seems unlikely that it'll work out well for anyone involved. Bagwell's no longer a $17 million a year player (and it's unlikely he ever will be again), but pride -- ooh, that pride, it gets you -- is driving him to prove he's fully recovered from last year's surgery. Conversely, the Astros $15.6 million would be better spent trying to convince another <a href="http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/C/roger-clemens.shtml">relic</a> -- this one with a recent history of stellar performance -- to rejoin the squad. Stay tuned for ongoing coverage of this public relations debacle.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1136765825539197252006-01-08T19:12:00.000-05:002006-01-08T19:17:05.556-05:00Man vs. beast<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/annalee_2280_fire_fighter_mouse.0.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/200/annalee_2280_fire_fighter_mouse.0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/08/mouse.fire.ap/index.html">I'm at a loss here</a>.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1136667186709755602006-01-07T15:35:00.000-05:002006-01-07T15:53:12.286-05:00No they di'n't!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.baseballamerica.com/images2005/wbc200200.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.baseballamerica.com/images2005/wbc200200.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Yes, they did. The <a href="http://www.baseball.ch/">IBAF</a>, the organizing body for international baseball, tells the <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/wbc/index.jsp">World Baseball Classic</a> it <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2283232">will not sanction the tournament</a> unless Cuba is allowed to participate. Not sure whether the WBC really cares, but hey, IBAF, get down with your bad self.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1136573984060065512006-01-06T13:47:00.000-05:002006-01-06T13:59:44.073-05:00Last Night a DJ saved my life... almost<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.peteprice.com/000BFE8A-3C7B-1F95-B51C80BFB6FA0000.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.peteprice.com/000BFE8A-3C7B-1F95-B51C80BFB6FA0000.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This <a href="http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1680937,00.html?gusrc=rss">story</a> is both awesome and sad. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Price">DJ Pete Price</a> (at right) of Liverpool's <a href="http://www.mediauk.com/radio/139">Magic Radio 1548</a> abandoned his call-in show to rush to the aid of a caller who had mysteriously stopped talking during a debate. While the results were less uplifting than you'd hope, it's not the first time Petey's played the role of <a href="http://www.peteprice.com/LE05-02-04.htm">hero</a>.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1136559503452433102006-01-06T09:37:00.000-05:002006-01-07T18:40:17.413-05:00Et tu, Google?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.logoogle.com/images/Google-Logos/Jenny/Fake03.07.2004GoogleCube.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://www.logoogle.com/images/Google-Logos/Jenny/Fake03.07.2004GoogleCube.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I've been engaged in a love affair with Google for several years now. It all started when my friend, the <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thefamousbrettburton">famous Brett Burton</a>, hipped me to the no-frills, results-centric engine some 7 or 8 years ago. I fell for the image search, swooned over Google News and waited anxiously for an invite to gmail (even though I consider my address to be something of a vanity thing — like the good towels — to be used for special occasions). I got a little suspicious when they started doing that personalize-your-home-page thing. I mean, displaying ads based on the text of the e-mails I was reading was, y'know, fun, but the thought that the big G! might be collecting information about me was a little disturbing... like discovering that your friend with the really good taste in music has a soft spot for Dave Matthews. And now <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech-Hardware/wtr_16123,294,p1.html">this</a>: rumors of Google Cube. If the G-peeps go into making machines (and yes, it's all rumor and conjecture at this point), will they become just another monolith?<br /></div>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1135354954377405182005-12-23T11:07:00.000-05:002005-12-23T11:22:34.420-05:00Now batting for New Orleans: Cuba<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/castro_baseball.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/320/castro_baseball.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">First there was the Bill Delahunt/Hugo Chavez Massachusetts </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/11/20/thousands_in_mass_to_get_cheaper_oil/?page=1">heating oil orgy</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Now the Fidel Castro </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2269713">"Let's play nine for N'awlins"</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> campaign. We got socialists keeping our poor from turning into icicles, and commies throwing sliders to raise money for Katrina relief, and even if it is just a very clever ploy to get past the U.S. embargo and play in the World Baseball Classic, you gotta wonder how many more clever ways the Bush administration's foes are gonna find to embarrass them. What's next: Chinese citizenship for Valerie Plame?</span></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1135276077793483672005-12-22T12:58:00.000-05:002005-12-22T13:27:57.813-05:00But There's Portable Nut ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/squirrel.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/320/squirrel.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Seeing <a href="http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=3353">this ad</a> ("It's like a nut you can play outside") for Sony's PSP filled me with the kind of awe I've only experienced once or twice over a televised signal — the last time being some 5 or 6 years ago when I first saw MTV's too-good-for-its-own-good <a href="http://www.sifl-n-olly.com/">Sifl & Olly</a>. It's a sort of "This is so screwed up, and I love it, and I can't believe there's someone who finds this as funny as I do" kind of feeling. Saw it for the first time with my friend Pat — we were just hanging out on the couch half-watching TV — and we were both stopped cold when it aired. (We were also hanging when I first saw S&O.) Found it online and sent it to my favorite squirrel fanatic <a href="http://www.ihavethe.info/">McKenna</a> who had it up on his blog in a matter of <a href="http://www.ihavethe.info/?p=59">seconds</a>. Reaction in the gaming world to the spot was <a href="http://www.dsrevolution.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=06fa2ce02f4f5c1799f56d5d957eb48b;topic=1744.0">typically</a> <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/28/psp-like-a-nut-you-can-play-with-outside/">mixed</a>. The accompanying "<a href="http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=3492">Carpet you can watch outside</a>" ad done by the same folks was amusing, but slightly less so.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/dust.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/200/dust.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1135187386971952422005-12-21T12:39:00.000-05:002005-12-21T12:49:46.980-05:00Totally my favorite thing this year<a style="font-family: verdana;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/01.Epic.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/320/01.Epic.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not even sure if I disovered </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cabanonpress.com/tomsshed/3.EPIC.htm">this</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> this year. I actually saw it in the November 2004 issue of </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.arthurmag.com/news/">Arthur Magazine</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, which I'm fairly positive I didn't come into possession of until sometime in the oh five. It's by a guy named </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cabanonpress.com/tomsshed/1.astronauts.htm">Tom Gauld</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">, and you can find it in his new book, </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.cabanonpress.com/Postcards/RMEtc.htm">Robots, Monsters, Etc.</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Of all the goofy nods and winks in this, I love "The Floating Skull" most of all. </span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1134965432698678802005-12-18T22:32:00.000-05:002005-12-19T16:34:05.510-05:00I Didn't Do It For You<a style="font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/1600/wrong.cgi.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6291/803/320/wrong.cgi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" >It's not so odd that I picked up Michela Wrong's<a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28467&cgi=product&isbn=0060780924"> </a><a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28467&cgi=product&isbn=0060780924"><i>I Didn't Do It For You: </i><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation</span></i></strong></a><strong style="font-family:georgia;"><i>. </i></strong><strong face="georgia"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What's odd is that I finished it. I'm all about starting books. Not so big on finishing them. But when I picked up Ms. Wrong's (gotta love the name) journalistic account of <a href="http://hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/atobrukh/archaeology/matara/images/Eritreamap.GIF">Eritrea</a>'s struggle from independence from Ethiopia, I honestly couldn't stop coming back to it. First off, Eritrea's a country that as of a few years ago, I (a map and geography junkie as a kid) didn't even know existed. Second, Wrong's just a flat-out amazing writer. Her opening descriptions of Eritrea's blast-furnace climate, craggy topography and time-warp Italian architecture hooked me (made me want to visit, truth be told); her accounting of the country's heroic, ascetic, supported-by-nobody secession movement was romantic; and her dissection of the newly independent country's fall into despotic bickering tragic. When I discovered that <a href="http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3576296">The Economist</a> named it one of the <a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5278132">year's best books</a>, I felt kind of validated. I can't recommend it enough.</span></strong></span><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><font><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><strong face="georgia" style="font-weight: normal;"></strong></span><strong face="georgia" style="font-weight: bold;"></strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19880531.post-1134616301435636682005-12-14T21:22:00.000-05:002005-12-14T22:14:49.860-05:00the digital music wars will be ugly. literally ugly.Can't but read <a href="http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=40175">this story</a> about how Bill Gates and MTV are teaming up to take on iTunes and cringe a little bit. Sure, apple and its proprietary m4u technology is irksome, and yeah, yeah, yeah, competition is "good" or whatever. i instinctively fear (because it is in my nature to root for li'l underdogs that are preordained to be bloodied by roaring mechanisms) that iTunes will go the way of Netscape, bludgeoned out of extistence by the sheer we're-already-on-your-system ubiquity of Microsoft products. In fact, as Top Tech News' Elizabeth Millard cheerily, unflinchingly and unironically reports of the looming "next iteration" of the only slightly-less-clumsy-than-it-used-to-be Windows Media Player:<br /><blockquote><a name="story-start"><span class="regtext"> Mainly, its technology already is on the majority of home and business computers, and when the Windows Media Player arrives in its next iteration, the inclusion of Urge means users will not have to download additional software.</span></a></blockquote>Urge, natch, is what the unholy Gates/MTV tag-team will call their new service. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Microsoft get into a little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Internet_Explorer#United_States_v._Microsoft">hot water</a> with the whole bundling thing back with the whole IEv.5 v. Netscape jawn?<br /><br />Whatever.<br /><br />The thing that sets me atrembling most is that however Urge ends up functionality-wise, you just know it's gonna be butt fugg. I mean, look at <a href="http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/winxp_beta2_wmp8full.gif">what's</a> <a href="http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/news/2002/09/05/18al.gif">come</a> <a href="http://www.citforum.ru/operating_systems/windows/players/1_wmp10.png">before</a>. This has never been an attractive program, and even the <a href="http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&amp;amp;c2coff=1&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=windows+media+player+skins&btnG=Search">doofuses </a>who design "skins" (ew) for it are aesthetic imbeciles. this is why we can't have nice things. cuz <a href="http://citypaper.net/articles/021501/nc.arcadia.shtml">nice things</a> get muscled out of the market.brian g howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08351934940256464212noreply@blogger.com2