A Wanderer's Shadow

“No Road”

wanderersshadow — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:49:16 +0000

Since we agreed to let the road between us
Fall to disuse,
And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us,
And turned all time’s eroding agents loose,
Silence, and space, and strangers – our neglect
Has not had much effect.

Leaves drift unswept, perhaps; grass creeps unmown;
No other change.
So clear it stands, so little overgrown,
Walking that way tonight would not seem strange,
And still would be allowed. A little longer,
And time will be the stronger,

Drafting a world where no such road will run
From you to me;
To watch that world come up like a cold sun,
Rewarding others, is my liberty.
Not to prevent it is my will’s fulfilment.
Willing it, my ailment.

- Philip Larkin, 28 October 1950

Morning

wanderersshadow — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:15:37 +0000

Elbow – The Lonliness of a Tower Crane Driver

Julian Assange & Wikileaks.org

wanderersshadow — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:55:04 +0000

I’ve recently been looking into Wikileaks and Julian Assange, one of its founding members and its most prominent spokesperson. They recently leaked tens of thousands of documents concerning the war in Afghanistan – not to mention that prior footage of US soldiers gunning down civilians and Reuters journalists. I’ve yet to uncover anything that dissuades me from supporting Wikileaks whole-heartedly as an organization that’s able and willing to do what the mainstream media, especially in America, will not. Namely, to oppose secrecy and power and the cynical professional “journalists” who comprise the industry. Here’s a brief interview with Assange via TED, another brilliant source that has even been compared to an “online Ivy” of the internet:

Surfacing in the Far East

wanderersshadow — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:52:40 +0000

It’s been a while. The rest of the Guatemala adventure can be summed up as follows: another day in Monterrico, a few days in Santiago Atitlán, a stay at La Posada, seven hours fighting headwinds on a kayak en el Lago de Atitlán, a bizarre strip club/brothel in Guatemala City, and a swift flight home.

So I find myself, three months after Guatemala and Virginia, in a southern suburb of Seoul. Suji-gu. I haven’t formed a solid opinion yet about this place. But all my instincts tell me I need to leave Korea.

Hitchens and Death

wanderersshadow — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:29:37 +0000

Christopher Hitchens has without a doubt been one of the greatest intellectual influences in my life. So I am deeply sadened by the fairly recent diagnosis of his esophageal cancer, which has spread to his lymph nodes. I’ve been raised in a medical family – my mom is an oncology nurse, and administers the same drugs Hitchens now requires daily – so I’m aware that the odds are heavily against him surviving even five more years. Yet even when confronted imminently with what we all must confront eventually, Hitchens has managed to maintain his strength of mind and character that have drawn me to him and his work. Here’s a recent interview with Anderson Cooper:

Hitchens and Rushdie on Literature & Free Speech

wanderersshadow — Mon, 24 May 2010 05:18:33 +0000

Found a great talk from earlier this month by Hitchens and Rushdie. This was at the PEN World Voices Festival. The first 2 of 8 videos are Hitchens’ speech; Rushdie joins him from the middle of the third til the end of the talk. Great stuff from two brilliant minds on an always salient topic: free speech in a free society. Anyone who is familiar with the disgusting events surrounding Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses will know that these guys both talk the talk and walk the walk. Enjoy.

Guatemala (8)

wanderersshadow — Mon, 24 May 2010 04:45:58 +0000

The scenery was radically different. It was as if, while we sang and drank and played cards, the spirit of Dionysus emerged from the Pacific and erected a party on top of the sand. In front of Johnny’s, there were tents and fires and grilling and music. With music came dancing. The hostel bars up and down the beach were packed. It was true: Guatemalans made their way to Monterrico for the weekend and they came to get down.

Most of our group found a spot in the sand near Johnny’s to sit, talk, drink, and dance. Derek and I drank our 40′s while discussing women… his current predicament in Guatemala and the fairer sex in general. Meanwhile The Good Doctor, giggling with drink, was dancing salsa while Casper tried to keep up. My memory is blurred from this point on, a bit here and there, an image or scene, a run-in with the soccer players and my generous sharing of the rum.

And then I woke up to the tide coming in over my feet. How I ended up so close to the water, I have no idea (the water was about 60 feet out from Johnny’s, and the beach dropped abruptly a few feet in altitude close to the water due to erosion). What might otherwise be a disoriented awakening was meditative and peaceful, the rhythmic breaking of the wake easily overpowering the sound of what was left of the party.

I stood up, went into my pockets for a smoke, and found that my cigarettes, lighter, and the equivalent of about $7 had been removed. The most painless robbery ever. I shrugged it off as another consequence of heavy drinking and felt relieved that my head didn’t hurt, I was well-rested, and there were clearly people still awake behind me over the minor embankment on the beach.

The primary bar at Johnny’s was closed, but there was a smaller bar open near the border of Johnny’s and the neighboring bar. I got a new pack of smokes and was pleasantly surprised to see Alyssa and Kelly. I found out the time: 230am. Two hour nap, maybe? I was fresh and thirsty.

Guatemala (7)

wanderersshadow — Mon, 24 May 2010 03:56:01 +0000

We headed to a random bar on the main stretch of town, perpendicular to the beach: me, Alyssa, Kelly, Casper, Derek, Will, The Good Doctor, Robert, El Flaco, the dental student, a Canadian, and – eventually – both Dutch girls. The table was long and, since we were to begin with some card game that emphasized reading each others’ faces, I took a seat at the head of the table for the optimum view. This place apparently had the cheapest beers in town – a single Gallo for less than $2 – and the entire street side length of the building was open-air and exposed to passerbys.

Food. A few pollo fritos (sus favoritos) were ordered, and a bizarre and mutated game of Kings followed the first game, “Drug Dealer.” I’m honestly not one to suggest a drinking game…why play a game when you can just drink and talk…but I also won’t turn down a game. And Kings is a pretty common drinking game, with rules that for the most part stay constant. Or so I thought. Apparently Europeans (and Canadians) and this random dental student were used to entirely different sets of card-to-rule values.

One value we all know is the “make your own rule” card. At some point Derek or Casper made the rule that we all had to say “I love Holland” before drinking. Then someone made the rule that we had to sing instead of speak any and every utterance. So imagine: a table full of half-drunk foreigners, singing “I love Holland” before every sip and singing all night long – usually pseudo-operatically. I didn’t much mind singing “I love Holland” – there’s a lot to love about Holland – regardless of Robben’s part in eliminating Man Utd. from the Champion’s League (Bayern got what they deserved!)

There developed a group of about a dozen locals standing streetside of the bar, watching with glee and awe this strange spectacle. Must have lasted several hours. The sun set. And we then wandered down the street, found a store, and some of us picked up 40′s of beer and a handle of rum. We all headed to the beach and made our way back towards Johnny’s beachfront bar.

Night

wanderersshadow — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:48:38 +0000

Mingus et al. – Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Live at Montreux, 1975

Morning

wanderersshadow — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:39:33 +0000

Arturo Márquez – Danzón No. 2

Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Orchestra