More 60s Vietnamese rock

There was a commercial that had music I immediately recognized as Vietnamese rock from the 60s (ish) and the music spoke to me–as is always the case when you encounter something familiar and know you can find that thing–so I was on a quest. I remembered it was a travel commercial. Possibly about luggage? After failing on YouTube, which is pretty surprising, I did a full-internet search and finally got to a site that sells commercial viewing metrics called iSpot.tv and it has videos of the commercials it tracks.

Behold: Away Luggage TV Spot, ‘Let Travel Happen: Motorcycle’ Song by Phuong Tam

The singer, Phương Tâm, has a few 45s listed on Discogs which I would love to have but none are available. Understandable considering the history:

After the fall of Saigon, this specific genre of music was removed and buried along with any American-influenced culture in the reunification of Vietnam on April 30, 1975. … Piles of vinyl, reel-tapes and cassettes were thrown out, burned or confiscated.

…

There are a small but passionate group of collectors dedicated to salvaging the recordings from this unique period of Vietnam’s musical history. Most of these original records have been caked with dirt and mud, requiring careful cleaning and repairing before the tracks are even playable.

liner notes by Tâm’s daughter Hannah Hà

The collection that I was able to purchase was released on the Sublime Frequencies label, which I’ve learned guarantees quality restoration and informative liner notes based on the previous albums of theirs I’ve acquired (of Cambodian and Vietnamese music of the same period, covering tragedies of different diasporas). This collection was no different:

Particularly notable, along with Mark Gergis’s liner notes, are the notes written by Tâm’s daughter Hannah Hà telling of how she discovered her mother was a Rock Star decades ago and what she (Hannah) had to do to rally a global community of collectors to gather the source recordings. It’s a beautiful story.

Sublime Frequencies no longer sells it on their web site, but it’s available (albeit a little pricey) on Discogs/eBay/etc.

My first Blue Apron meal

I had avoided these meals-by-mail services only because they seem very environmentally unfriendly: single portions packaged and shipped individually, somewhat logically, eliminates the efficiency of scale. However, NPR reported back in 2019 on a study that found that meal kits were better in several ways:

Results indicate that, [1] on average, grocery meal greenhouse gas emissions are 33% higher than meal kits [and] A Monte Carlo analysis finds [2] higher median emissions for grocery meals than meal kits for four out of five meals, occurring in 100% of model runs for two of five meals.

However, the environmental friendliness of home delivery with other types of shopping is much more uncertain.

So, how did the meal go? I am an average to less-than-average cook–cooking quite infrequently–so there’s a handicap in how I might view the process, but overall I was extremely happy. First experience last night was Smoky Butter Shrimp & Orzo with Zucchino and Tomatoes.

Continue reading My first Blue Apron meal

Witness–The Indictment II

A lot of feelings.

It echoes my previous assessment for the NY-related indictment:

This is definitely more substantial. I mean, logarithmically more substantial. Watched MSNBC as soon as we heard, which was maybe an hour, hour and a half after the fact and watched it until midnight. Thoughts:

  • How can the commentators have anything to say?! He crimed so obviously that elaboration is redundant.
  • And yet… they actually had much that was insightful to say.
  • Who else was in the conspiracy? That is a fascinating aspect.
  • Jesus Christ espionage?!?!?
  • Venue of Miami is a ballsy move. T’s home turf and Jack Smith went there instead of NYC/Washington. Ball-Sy. He is very confident of what he’s got.
  • There is no defense and his lawyers are clowns.
  • Sad day for our country because it suggests the presidency is a corruptible figurehead? Fuck you, it’s a happy day. Recently Claire McCaskill said of Pence’s, and those other asshole’s, rehabilitation tour: you don’t get a pass. Where were your morals when you were next to this corrupted man and you said nothing? Again: Fuck. You.
  • The defenses that his lawyers were presenting, at least in the press, were comical. “It’s not a crime because the documents were copies and not the originals.” I. Fucking. Love. That.
Yes, those are Biden Inauguration glasses.

We watched three or so hours of MSNBC and were not disappointed. I still have many questions about aspects that are not clear in my head, but it helps to get a basic framework of understanding. Side Note: Stephanie Rhule has more legal and incisive acumen than I knew. I may need to watch more of her.

The facial expressions of all involved were hilarious.

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The Ckab

There was a guy I worked with, just post-college at a call center, named Steve Baker. He had once taught English in some somewhat respectable university in California (I don’t remember), moved to Atlanta for some reason, lived on the streets in L5P, and then got this sweet-sweet-job making calls for a bank updating people’s insurance coverage records. The calls were legit, but we were still viewed suspiciously by those on the receiving end. He was intelligent and well-read, obviously, and the two of us and another co-worker, Bruce-something, had active discussions on literature, history, politics, all of that stuff. They were both maybe 10 years older or so. Post-call center Steve taught world lit at Moorehouse for a while and then we lost touch. I have very fond memories of him.

I still have the book he wrote and lo-fi self-published.

Continue reading The Ckab