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Momentum – I has it! More or less. Anyway, books, yo.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I’ve seen this book in the classics section for decades, and probably would have tried it sooner if I’d realised it was a ghost story. Okay, I didn’t look that closely, and you should never judge a book by its cover etc and so on, but honestly to me it looked like your average late-19th century novel, more Bronte sisters than Edgar Allan Poe. It was only maybe six years ago that I found out it was a ghost story, and it was only after watching The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix (and finding out afterwards it was based on this book) that I finally decided to give it a go.

As you may know, the narrative is framed as a manuscript written by a woman who served as a governess at Bly Manor for two young children, Miles and Flora. It’s all idyllic and wonderful until she starts seeing strange people wandering about, who resemble two former employees at Bly who the housekeeper, Mrs Grose, knows to be dead. The governess’ terror grows as she senses a connection between the ghosts and the children. But are the ghosts real? Or just in her head?

I must confess that this didn’t really work for me at all, for while the basic story is okay, it’s also liberally festooned, to the point of being encumbered, I dare say, with the sort of overblown emotional melodrama that is somewhat typical of Victorian-era fiction, which I’ve always found too cheesy to take seriously, the disagreeable effect of which is arguably exacerbated by James’ demonstrable penchant for writing really long and complex sentences, with lots and lots of commas, as if to jam as much information, both relevant and tangential, as possible into one complete, and grammatically correct, sentence, not unlike the one I’m writing now. Which is okay if you’re into that kind of thing. I am not.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I tried Octavia Butler once a long time ago with Mind of My Mind, and for whatever reason, it really didn’t click with me. But it wouldn’t be the first time I wasn’t ready for a particular book or author when I first tried them, and in recent years this book and its sequel Parable of the Talents have been getting namedropped as an increasingly relevant and prescient vision of dystopian America (i.e. the book – published in 1993 – is set in 2024 in an America that is splintering apart under the effects of climate change and an authoritarian Christian nationalist Presidency, where the police and fire depts are corrupt, and slavery has returned in the form of indentured servitude to corporations that are privatising cities). So when I came across this copy during my last trip stateside, I decided that was enough of a hook for me to try Butler again.

The story is the diary of Lauren Olamina, a teenage girl suffering from hyperempathy (the ability to literally experience the pain and suffering of others) who lives in a gated community near Los Angeles that is by no means wealthy, but has enough resources to be a target for the gangs, pyromaniac drug addicts and desperate homeless people outside. Disillusioned by the Biblical teachings of her Baptist pastor father, Lauren develops her own theological concept of God that she calls “Earthseed”, which she believes is humanity’s only hope for survival. Lauren also educates herself on how to survive in the wild, as she also believes her community will inevitably be overrun. Which it is, after which she heads north with a handful of survivors in hope of finding refuge and work.

To get the obvious out of the way, while I think the comparisons of Butler’s dystopian 2024 to real-life 2024 are somewhat overblown, her vision certainly seems a lot more plausible now than it probably did in 1993 – we may not be there yet, but we do seem to be headed in that direction. Which is why, as dystopian novels go, it’s one of the bleakest I’ve ever read, and yet one of the most powerful. As with most SF, it’s not really about prediction – it’s about how humans respond to the breakdown of society, the moral/ethical choices we’re forced to make to survive, and how much of our humanity we can retain in the process. In this regard, Parable of the Sower is brutally honest and mostly realistic. Anyway, I’m sold on the sequel and will be hunting down a copy of that.

(PS: I’m not big on trigger warnings, but if you like dogs, this may be an especially tough read for you.)

Lovecraft Country (Lovecraft Country, #1)

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven’t seen the TV series, but I have read Matt Ruff before (Bad Monkeys) and found him entertaining enough, and I have read some HP Lovecraft as well, so I figured this was worth a try. I also like the basic conceit here, which is to essentially write an episodic homage to Lovecraftian horror that also acknowledges Lovecraft’s notorious racism by setting the story in Jim Crow-era America and asking the question: which is scarier – tentacled horrors or being stopped by racist cops? Ask a white person and a black person in America, and you may well get two different answers.

The story focuses on the family of Atticus Turner, who returns to Chicago from the Korean War to find that his father Montrose has gone missing in Ardham, MA while investigating a family secret. Atticus goes to find him with sister Letitia and uncle George (publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide, a fictional version of the Green Book), which leads to an encounter with Caleb Braithwaite, an ambitious member of a secret sorcerer society called The Order of the Ancient Dawn, who manipulates the Turners throughout the book. Along the way the various members of the Turner family encounter a haunted house, a gateway to parallel universes, cursed books and devil dolls. And of course, plenty of racists.

Ruff’s writing is accessible and reasonably well paced, and makes the most of his universe by using an episodic structure to support a broader story arc (indeed, he originally conceived Lovecraft Country as a TV series). And while the horror stuff is good, it’s the parallels with racism that make it more interesting, as well as the fact that Atticus and George are science-fiction fans who have also read Lovecraft, which gives them something of an edge in navigating the supernatural landscape. And while the climax seemed a bit far-fetched, it does deliver a satisfying ending. There’s a sequel, and it’s in the to-read pile, so there you go.

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Are you ready for the country,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Danzig, "Mother"

Yes, it was like five weeks ago, but I’ve been busy. And anyway, it feels like everyone moved on from it pretty quickly – which may either be a comment on how blasé we’ve become about shootings in America (happens every day, and anyway only one person was killed and it wasn’t Trump), or the fact that the news media got distracted by the drama over whether Biden would or wouldn’t drop out.

Also, maybe it’s because I’m unplugged from the 24/7 media circus, but I’ve heard very little about how the investigation is going in terms of just what motivated Thomas Matthew Crooks. Politics? Instagram likes? Impressing Jodie Foster?

Any of these are possible, but in the interim, a lot of people have been filling that vacuum with all kinds of movie-plot conspiracy theories around. Is Thomas Matthew Crooks the new Lee Harvey Oswald? Did Trump do a Bob Roberts? I don’t know, and neither do you. Maybe we will someday.

Anyway, blog:

1. To get the obvious out of the way, I’m glad it failed – partly because I do think murder is wrong, and partly because I shudder to think what the MAGA cult would do in response to honour their glorious martyr.

2. A lot has been said about Trump’s fist-pump – it “proves” the shooting was staged by Trump, it shows that Trump is made of tougher stuff than you thought yada yada.

Well, (1) no, and (2) to me, it looked more like Trump’s media-savvy instinct kicking in. He may not have even been aware he was doing it. Either way, it’s obviously made for great optics that feeds perfectly into the authoritarian strongman image Trump is basically running on. It also inevitably contrasted with Biden’s debate fumble and alleged “frail” age issues, although – like the debate – it didn’t seem move the needle much poll-wise, and of course now it’s a non-issue with Biden out of the picture, much to Trump’s obvious disappointment.

3. The other interesting detail is the minor yet important fact that we don’t really know for sure whether Trump was hit by a bullet or debris created by the bullet’s impact on something. Obviously something hit him, but as Josh Marshall at TPM pointed out, we’ve never seen an official medical report stating what caused his injury (Ronny Jackson arguably doesn’t count), and his now-unbandaged ear looks pretty good for something that was hit with an AR-15 round.

As Marshall has said, the questions surrounding this do not undermine the seriousness of the fact that someone tried to kill Trump, but they do matter in the sense that Trump is going around telling everyone he took a bullet for democracy – which, again, is designed to feed his strongman schtick – when it’s possible he actually didn’t.

4. The GOP were clearly hoping to milk this for all its worth and use it as gasoline to throw on their trash-fire narrative that Biden and the Democrats are murderous criminal thugs out to take over America. Which is kind of ironic given that SCOTUS just ruled that a President could order his rival assassinated and never go to jail for it. But hey ho.

Anyway, that line doesn't seem to have made much difference outside of the cult. Moreover, as far as I’m concerned, the GOP’s claims that Biden incited Crooks by calling Trump a fascist hold no water with me. I will not be lectured on the dangers of inflammatory political rhetoric by a party that has increasingly thrived on it since the mid-90s. And anyway, the stuff Biden and the Demos have said about Trump is mild compared to things Trump and the MAGA cult say daily. (See: North Carolina Lt Gov Mark Robinson saying in a church that “some people need killing” – he says he meant WW2 Nazis and “evil people”, but he was also pretty clear that he includes liberals in that group.)

Hit and miss,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Voice of the Beehive, "Trust Me"

Man, this election cycle is off the freaking hook, isn’t it?

So much so that I think I’ll espouse my opinions grouped by party. I shall do the Demos first.

1. Biden is out, and Kamala is effectively in. And, you know, good.

And also, wow. As I posted before, it was always up to Biden and Biden alone to step aside, and I didn’t really expect that he would. And I have to say I respect him for it.

And also also, while I personally didn’t think Biden needed replacing in terms of winnability, I’m happy to vote for Harris – who, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, was one of my top 3 choices in 2020 (Biden, I must say, was not).

2. Some are complaining that it’s not democratic – “What about all the people who voted for Biden in the primaries?”

Well, first of all, this is how the DNC system has worked for decades. Delegates have the flexibility to change their minds as circumstances warrant – this being one of them.

Also, the people who voted for Biden were voting for an incumbent who was running virtually unopposed, which is incredibly normal. Biden seemed fine then – he seems less fine now, and might get worse as the election goes on, in which case I would think you’d want the flexibility to switch horses before it’s too late.

Which is why the answer to the Big Question – “Who do we replace him with?” – really had to be Harris. As I’ve also said before – and as Josh Marshall at TPM points out far more eloquently – a Thunderdome convention would be risky, messy and a much harder sell to everyone who voted for what was essentially a renewal of the Biden-Harris package that also comes with the presumption that, should Biden (for example, and God forbid) die or otherwise be unable to continue, Harris would take the wheel. That’s a relatively easy pitch in a unique situation like this, as opposed to giving every other POTUS hopeful a last-minute shot, which IMO would be a far more egregious middle finger to primary voters. And as Marshall notes, about the only people calling for a contested convention are news columnists who want a good fight.

3. That said, I think another reason Biden waited as long as he did is probably down to his simply being an elderly man coming to terms with the fact that he’s finally getting too old for this s***. I’ve dealt with a number of elderly people, including my mom, and sometimes the decline is slow, sometimes it’s rapid, but either way it’s hard for them to accept that once it starts. It’s also difficult for friends and family to accept it too sometimes.

And I’m sure Biden felt slighted by what he saw is his closest allies starting to turn on him, whether their intentions were noble, practical or opportunistic. I mean, Biden wouldn't be the first octogenarian to resent both his declining health and his closest family and friends essentially saying "Look Pops, we love you and you did great but you're no use to us anymore", even if they're right, and even if he knows deep down that they are.

4. John Scalzi makes the interesting (and possibly correct) observation that at least some of this has been strategic on the part of the DNC – which is to say, at some point their initial panic over Biden’s debate performance and subsequent desire to convince him to drop out transformed into an actual strategy to manage the transition with two particular goals: (1) make a plausible case for handing off to Harris after the primaries to ensure the handover was executed as legitimately as possible, and (2) completely throw Team Trump off their game.

I think he’s on to something here. Considering that Harris raised hundreds of millions and secured all the delegates she needs to get the nomination within the first 48 hours of the news, it’s possible that a lot of that groundwork was laid before Biden announced he was stepping aside.

Either that or it was a huge gamble that luckily paid off. But political parties aren’t known for Hail Mary plays unless they’re desperate. So I think it’s more likely that the DNC probably did some planning and legwork here.

As for the goal of catching Team Trump by surprise, between Trump’s tweets and Stephen Miller’s meltdown on live television, well, yes, mischief managed.

5. The GOP freakout over this is, I have to admit, kind of delicious. And while some are posturing about the democratic fairness of it all, I don’t think they really care about that. I for one will certainly not sit here and be lectured about democratic processes and fairness by a party whose current candidate is a convicted felon who literally tried to overthrow the last election because he couldn’t accept the fact that he lost.

Anyway, I think they’re mainly panicking because they thought they were going to walk all over Sleepy Joe Biden and now they’ve got an actual fight on their hands.

I mean, look at some of the wild ideas they’re throwing out there. It’s a Kamala Koup to overthrow Biden! Let’s impeach Harris! Biden must resign! We’ll sue the DNC to put Biden back on the ballot!

The first one is silly (and possibly projection of some kind). The second and third ones are even sillier, and I have no idea what they think either action would accomplish that benefits them in any way.

As for the lawsuit, well, good luck with that, since Biden wasn’t on the ballot anyway, and the DNC literally did nothing illegal or unfair. On the other hand, as Ian Millhiser at Vox notes, the one thing going in the GOP’s favour is that it’s very likely to get the suit in front of a pro-Trump federal judge who may well do them a solid, and inevitably end up before the Supremes, and we all know about them by now.

6. As for Harris’ potential running mate, I don’t really mind who she picks as long as it’s someone reasonably sensible who also won’t poison the well. That said, I think would be hilarious if she picked Biden, if only to see Trump and the MAGA Party just lose their flipping minds. I’m not saying I actually want her to do that, or that she should. I’m just saying it would be funny. At first, anyway.

7. Now, of course, assuming the DNC convention goes off without a hitch and Harris' nomination becomes official, she has to go out there and win – and that includes withstanding the vile shitstorm of hate coming from Team Trump. I think she can withstand it just fine. A lot can and will happen between now and November, but at the moment, her chances look promising. If nothing else the switch to Harris has energised the base, which is good – and also gives further credence to the notion that that dropping Biden was a good idea.

(I'm not sure how Biden feels about that. But you don’t stay in this business 40 years without developing a thick skin, so I think he’ll be okay.)

8. Meanwhile, Harris’ greatest ally is probably Trump and his new sidekick JD Vance coming up with stuff like “She can’t be President because she’s never given birth” (which makes no sense at all) and then run with it to pitch ideas like “People with biological kids should get more votes than people who don’t” (which makes even less sense).

More on that in due course.

Kamala ye faithful,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Andre Williams/The Sadies, "I Gotta Get Shorty Outta Jail"

Well, on the bright side, this completes my classroom reading assignments for the academic year, so I might be able to pick up the pace with books that don’t require as much brainpower to read. As opposed to:

The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives by Gale A. Yee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is another textbook assigned to a class on the Old Testament I’ve been taking for the past academic year, but hey it counts, right? As the title implies, it’s essentially a short collection of essays that provide an overview to the basics of feminist and intersections perspectives. The introduction provides an overview of the field of feminist theology itself, while the four essays are essentially pro tips for freshman feminist theology students looking at specific sections of the OT (Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, the prophets, etc), highlighting kinds of issues raised by feminist interpretations of the text, starting points for further study, etc.

If, like me, you know next to nothing about feminist theology, even as a brief overview, there’s lots to chew on, given the obvious patriarchal perspective of the OT’s writers and editors, to say nothing of the patriarchal and highly sexist culture of ancient Israel and the Levant itself. Obviously, what readers make of it will depend greatly on their opinions about feminism in general (favorable or otherwise), their feelings about interpretations of Scripture that depart from established orthodoxy, and their tolerance for dry, intellectual academic prose. (I mean, it IS an academic textbook for university-level studies, meaning the target audience is students taking a class that covers this topic.)

So, my rating is more of a reflection of the fact that, as someone who has only ever encountered feminist theology in passing, I learned things I didn’t know before. So there you go.

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Women of the world take over,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Chet Atkins, "Man of Mystery"

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Supreme Court has ruled that Donald J Trump has limited immunity from prosecution for stuff he did while he was President. I’ve been too busy to write anything about it, but I got minute now, and you’re all just dying to know what I think, so here you go:

1. Actually, I don’t have much to say about it that Radley Balko hasn’t already said here. His dissection is very long but worth your time to really appreciate what just happened and why it’s probably even worse than you may have heard.

The main takeaway worth highlighting is the uselessness of Chief Roberts’ ruling that immunity only applies to “official acts” related to exercising “core constitutional powers”:

“The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law.”

The problem, Balko notes, is that in practice, the line between official and unofficial acts is so fuzzy that there might as well not be a line at all. And Roberts’ ruling pretty much ensures that by giving no guidelines on how to do that, and also making it illegal to consider the president’s motives:

As both Sotomayor and Jackson point out, the majority has created this distinction between “official” and “unofficial” acts out of thin air, then made it impossible to distinguish one from the other. A president can come up with an “official” reason for just about any crime — from accepting bribes, to arresting journalists and critics, to targeted assassinations. Then — I guess we just take his word for it.

2. Also, as Josh Marshall at TPM correctly points out, this is a big deal because the official acts of presidents are exactly the sort of thing you don’t want to give presidents immunity for – no one cares if the President steals a toaster, but we do care if he orders the military to assassinate a rival, or jails journalists, or orders prisoners to be tortured.

Marshall also agrees that the distinction between official and unofficial acts is meaningless:

… even though this is clearly not blanket or absolute immunity that it’s close enough that with good lawyering you’re all but there.

3. Of course the Republicans are crowing about this, although don’t yet seem to have figured out that President Biden – and any Democrat POTUS that follows him – now has the exact same immunity powers – which hasn’t stopped them from calling Biden be arrested for treason, but then logic and consistency has never really been a thing in MAGA World.

And anyway, it may not matter to them because they figure this election is for keeps – once Trump is back in and Project 2025 is implemented, they hope to fix it do no Democrat ever wins the White House ever again. Problem solved.

4. Which is the other big issue, of course – Project 2025 is nothing short of a declaration of cultural war by the MAGA party against the liberal scourge they fear so much and a permanent takeover of conservative rule with democratic processes preserved largely as window dressing (see: Hungary, Hong Kong, etc). And while most of it could probably be accomplished through technically legal means, whatever legal constraints exist will not be an issue as long as Trump declares them official acts.

Kevin Roberts has famously declared that Project 2025 is “a second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” And while maybe he thinks he’s saying that there won’t be any violence unless the left starts it, what it sounds like to me is: “Just roll over and accept this – don’t make us force it on you because we will.” Either way, he knows now that using violence to enforce this is on the table. And there’s a significant chunk of the MAGA cult that is very much looking forward to dishing it out.

5. It’s hard to believe the SCOTUS majority is blissfully unaware of all this (Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas certainly aren’t), although maybe some of them are kidding themselves that the institutions will still hold, and you can always just vote Trump out. But Chief Roberts seems more worried about a vicious cycle of endless prosecutions of presidents than holding them accountable for actual crimes, which suggests at best that his priorities are at odds with reality.

6. Anyway, all of this is basically the latest chapter of an ongoing debate whether any US president can ever realistically be held accountable for any crimes they commit while in office, and whether impeachment is a sufficient solution. As we’ve seen, it’s not.

I’ve posted about that before, and all I can really add to it is that the SCOTUS decision on immunity pretty much seals the deal – Presidents can crime as much as they want as long as they make them look like official acts. And I continue to believe we need to really think long and hard about whether that’s the kind of country we want to live in, and if so, why.

Crime time,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: X, "The Have Nots"

It’s the 4th of July. Which is a holiday in America. And if I were DJing your BBQ party, this is what you’d be hearing.

Which is why no one invites me to DJ their BBQ parties. Even so, I stand by this playlist.

POSTSCRIPT: I’m a little late getting this ready. But then really when you think about it, we should be singing songs of freedom year round instead of once a year, shouldn’t we?

True sounds of liberty,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

And so:

A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible by John J. Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the textbook for a class I’m taking on the Old Testament, so I’m not sure how to rate it fairly, but it counts towards my Reading Challenge – not least because I was reading this when I could have been reading other books in the To Read pile – so here we are. Anyway, as the title suggests, it’s a short overview of every book in the Hebrew Bible, to include some key writings from the Apocrypha. The overview includes the historical background and context for each book, who wrote and edited what, and what various theologians and scholars have said about them in terms of historical accuracy (or lack thereof), spiritual meaning, literary value and truthiness.

So in that sense, it’s been very educational. I do like history, and it’s interesting to see how many of these stories parallel myths and legends from nearby cultures, and how Hebrew theology was shaped over time. If nothing else, it shows how the Hebrew Bible was edited and cobbled together over the centuries, which explains why a lot of it is repetitive and inconsistent from a strictly narrative point of view. There is also some basic commentary about the nastier parts of the OT (you know, genocide, misogyny, etc) and how they don’t read well in 2024. Anyway, I came away with a far better understanding of the OT and how it relates to the New Testament.

The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking The Meaning of Jesus' Crucifixion by Tom Wright

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve never read Tom Wright (a.k.a. N.T. Wright) before, apart from a weeklong daily meditation on The Lord’s Prayer, which I found interesting. But anyway, he comes highly recommended in the circles I currently cavort in. I was gifted this book by a good friend of mine, and the title alone made it look like something that could get me stopped by the police if I read it in public here in Hong Kong, so I couldn’t really ask for a better starting point. To be clear, it’s not that kind of revolution – although, near the end of the book, Wright almost makes it sound like it is, in a way. In any case, the “revolution” he has in mind is the revolution of love that began with Jesus’ death on the cross. More than that, though, Wright is also essentially calling for a revolution in the Christian church in how we think about the true meaning of the cross, what actually happened, how it changed everything and why it’s so important – because, in his view, mainstream Christianity has gotten it horribly wrong.

It's a complex argument to sum up in a paragraph, but in essence, Wright argues that the standard atonement theology we’ve all grown up with (i.e. Christ died for our sins so we could all go to Heaven) is a gross distortion of how the original Christians understood what happened when Jesus was crucified. Wright pushes back against the “penal substitution” theory that seems to portray Jesus’ death as pacifying an angry God to save us – which doesn’t fit well with the belief that Jesus also fully embodied God’s love for us and wants us to do likewise. Wright goes through the gospels, Paul’s writings and key parts of the Old Testament in massive detail to explain how the Church needs to rethink what sin actually is, and how the cross freed us from it, which he believes can radically change how the Church engages with the world in a positive way.

I’m drastically oversimplifying it, but that’s the basic gist. And the fact that it took me a few months to get through it speaks both to the fascinating ideas Wright throws in here and the detailed complexity of his argument. Which is amazing, since this is one of Wright’s general audience books, rather than his academic theology books. I don’t have the theological knowledge to critique his theology here (and plenty of people have done that online), but I do think he's on the right track. For me, it mainly goes a bit off the rails at the end when he starts suggesting how the modern Church can actively live out our intended vocation as image bearers of God’s love, which makes a few assumptions I don’t agree with and could, despite Wright’s best intentions, very easily be as abused as the atonement theology Wright wants to correct. If nothing else, it’s livened up my Bible study class, which is always a good thing, as is anything that makes the orthodoxy rethink its assumptions. Bring on the revolution, then.

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Talkin’ ‘bout a revolution,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pacific Coffee
Current Music: Ambient cafe soundtrack

Not to bang on about the Great Biden-Trump Debate Freakout, but one thing I noticed in my Twitter feed during the debate was that a lot of people complained that even Trump’s more blatant lies went unchallenged by both Biden and the moderators.

Fair point, though I’ll add that I think this is probably due to a couple of things:

(1) I suspect part of that is because we’ve normalized the idea that politicians lie or exaggerate about most stuff anyway, so moderators figire there’s no point in fact-checking them live – let ‘em talk and do the fact checks later.

(2) As someone who has moderated panel discussions (albeit not political ones), I would note that from a pure moderation standpoint, it’s actually hard to fact-check people to their face in real time during a live debate, not least because of the dangers of falling down enough rabbit holes that it ends up throwing the entire event off track. This is especially a problem with people like Trump who seem incapable of saying anything remotely true, potentially creating infinite rabbit holes.

(Apparently there’s an actual rhetorical strategy called the “Gish gallop” that is essentially a form of gaslighting by overwhelming your debate opponent with a firehose of nonsense so that they are unable to respond – though it’s also likely that this isn’t a deliberate strategy on Trump’s part so much as him just doing what comes naturally, but the result is similar.)

Anyway, given Trump’s general tendency to spout whatever pops into his head and the general deluge of disinformation swamping social media, it’s probably time for broadcast media and moderators to figure out a way to plausibly fact-check politicians in real time.

People like Daniel Dale do a pretty good job of this on Twitter, but that’s a separate medium that viewers have to actively check. Post-game fact-checks are fine, but also arguably too little too late for a lot of people. For viewers who are only seeing the debate coverage on TV, it would be good to figure out how to integrate that capability onscreen – like a fact-check ticker or something.

That said, the other challenge is the trustworthiness of the fact-checkers – I imagine the “facts” offered by, say, Newsmax and Fox would be quite different from those offered by CNN, etc. And then you’ll get into the whole thing where everyone says that “this media network is biased because they fact-checked my candidate more than the other one”.

So it’s not so simple, is what I’m saying.

Who checks the fact-checkers,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pacific Coffee
Current Music: R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me"

As you probably know, Joe Biden and Donald Trump held their first debate of 2024. And everyone is freaking out about it, so I thought I’d better post something, mainly to organize my own thoughts in my head. So:

1. No I didn’t watch it. I rarely watch live debates anymore – partly because I’m in the wrong time zone, but mainly because (1) it’s rare that any candidate says anything of substance that I haven’t heard them say before, and (2) in this case, I already know who is getting my vote – and it’s not the pathological liar who has been convicted of one felony (so far) and literally whipped a mob into trying to overturn the 2020 election results by force. So the highlights reel is usually enough for me.

2. Based on that, I’ll be the first to admit Biden had a bad night, whether it was the cold medication or whatever. That said, I don’t think it justifies either the crowing on the right or the freakout on the left. I certainly don’t agree with the hot takes that Biden lost the debate because he wasn’t as loud and energetic as Trump – which is a silly way to declare the winner of a debate. I’ve actually seen some Demos say “Yes, Trump lied his ass off and made little sense, but he did it with confidence and energy.” Well, okay, but if you think that’s what makes him seem more presidential, then I don’t really know what to tell you.

3. Perhaps understandably, part of the freakout is that it plays into the GOP’s whole “Biden’s too old” meme (despite Trump being just a few years younger and obviously in far worse health, but okay), so now we’re back to the “replace Biden” meme, backed by (1) Demos who are afraid he can’t beat Trump in what’s looking like another close election and (2) hardcore liberals who viscerally hate Biden for his Israel/Gaza policy and have threatened to vote for Trump just to hold Biden accountable unless he drops out.

4. Anyone who knows about how party politics and US elections work will tell you that’s not likely to happen. Biden has won all the primaries and most of the delegates that go with them, and a brokered convention will be too messy and risky. Also, no one seems to agree on the answer to the most important question: replace Biden with who, exactly? Apart from Kamala Harris, there are a few other names being thrown about (none of which are RFK Jr, thankfully). But the fact of the matter is that of the bunch, Biden is the only one with a proven track record of beating Trump in a general election. Throwing that away for someone else over one bad debate performance would be a major gamble. So unless Biden dies or willingly steps down – and there’s currently no reason to believe that he’ll do either – we’re probably stuck with him.

5. This where a lot of people will complain about the party system and DNC mechanisms and the electoral college and whatnot, and that’s fine, but that’s a whole separate set of problems that has no bearing on who gets to be the Demo nominee for 2024, because it’s way too late for that. That’s a discussion for 2028 and beyond, and it’s worth having now, but, well, see above.

6. The bigger question of course is what all this means for November. As the saying goes, five months is a long time in politics, so even if the debate moves the needle in Trump’s favor, Biden has the time and opportunity to turn that around. Meanwhile, we’ve already seen a couple of post-debate talks where Biden was already back on form, and one of the first post-debate polls suggests that Biden’s debate performance didn’t hurt him. So Demos can probably stop panicking now.

7. However, we’re still looking at a close race that Biden can still lose. And honestly, while I’m not officially calling the election for Trump yet, I have to say, my gut feeling is that he is going to pull this off. Again. And this time with the full backing of the GOP, which is now his party. Trump won in 2016 despite all conventional political wisdom saying it was impossible AND losing the pop vote. There’s no reason to assume he can’t do it again – especially if the far left really can’t bring themselves to vote for Biden and go with Trump, RFK Jr or a blank protest vote.

8. The nihilist in me can’t help thinking that if a slim majority of people is willing to vote for Trump despite being a blithering pathological liar and a wannabe dictator who has been convicted of one felony (so far) and literally whipped a mob etc etc etc – even if the reason is that Biden is too old or whatever – maybe democracy should die?

9. Okay, not really. But for me, there’s no mystery here. We know what a Trump presidency looks like, and that was when the GOP wasn’t fully onboard and things like Project 2025 were just a gleam in Kevin Roberts’ eye. We also know what a Biden presidency looks like, and at least on paper, it’s been reasonably good more often than not and relatively sane compared to the previous admin. Which is why it’s inexplicable to me that people outside of the MAGA party would want to put Trump back in charge.

10. But as I’ve said elsewhere, people vote for all kinds of personal, idiosyncratic reasons, and in the current reality schism, I don’t know what can be done to change that, especially since a complex problem usually requires an even more complex solution. All I can say for now is that if Trump does win, and if we somehow survive his second term, we might want to think long and hard about how we got here and what we should do about it.

I’m not going to debate you Jerry,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pacific Coffee
Current Music: Warren Zevon, "Splendid Isolation"

Well, thank goodness for class reading assignments, eh?

Healing Our Broken Humanity: Practices for Revitalizing the Church and Renewing the World by Grace Ji-Sun Kim

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like a lot of people on Goodreads (apparently), I read this as part of an assignment for a class that is deep-diving on the Old Testament within the context of a multicultural framework. In that sense, this book is appropriate as it is, at heart, a manifesto urging the Christian church to embrace multiculturalism so that it can better become an positive force in healing the world’s broken humanity. It’s also a direct critique of the church – specifically, the American church – in not only failing to tackle the biggest symptoms of our broken humanity (racism, sexism, white privilege, social injustice, etc) but also being part of the problem.

The basic thesis of the book is that the church can become a positive force for good – not by seizing political power, but by moral example and conviction based on Jesus’ description of the kingdom of God. But in order to do that, it must first lament its shortcomings, repent of its failures and complicity in injustice, relinquish all political and socioeconomic power, restore jutice where it has been denied, extend hospitality to all, reinforce agency for those who have been denied it, and reconcile relationships at all levels of society. The book calls for the church to be reimagined as the “new humanity” that, ideally, resembles the kingdom described by Jesus in the Beatitudes. Phew!

I personally don’t disagree with any of that, but there are a couple of problems here. One is that Kim and Hill jam so many ideas in under 200 pages that a lot of the necessary nuance to process a lot of this is buried in the text. More problematic is that Kim and Hill cite examples of injustices that embody issues that have been radically politicized in recent years –especially issues such as immigration, BLM and #MeToo that arose during the first Trump administration. This makes it difficult to read this through an apolitical lens. It’s not their fault these issues are heavily politicized now, and certainly all of their examples can be criticized solely in terms of the values that Jesus taught. But the book paradoxically falls into the same trap by seeming to pretend the political lens that readers will inevitably bring to the discussion is irrelevant. This might be technically true, yet many conservative Christians will inevitably associate the arguments here with liberal talking points they’ve been encouraged to hate, which arguably undermines the book’s own call for inclusiveness.

That said, again, I do agree with the basic thesis and the authors’ prescription for moving forward. It sounds impossible in this age of toxic polarized politics, but you gotta start somewhere. If nothing else, the exercises and practices recommended at the end of each chapter are as good a starting point as any. Anyway, it’s interesting and ambitious, but it’s a book that requires a very open mind, politically speaking. I’m all for speaking uncomfortable truths to people who need to hear them, but I also think it’s important to read the room and understand how to best get your message across.

The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is Grahame Greene’s final novel, and it’s a bit of a headscratcher, though not necessarily in a bad way. The story is narrated by Victor Baxter, who starts the story by recalling how, when he was 12, a man calling himself The Captain arrived at his school and claimed he was now Victor’s guardian, having won him from his father in a game of backgammon. Victor – who is bullied at school, and whose only living relations are an overbearing aunt and a father he calls “The Devil” – accepts this new arrangement without question, especially as The Captain removes him from the school to stay with him and his lover Liza in a basement flat in Camden. Right away, Victor – renamed Jim by his new guardian – realizes that The Captain is a shady character and a con artist at the very least.

The first part of the book is Jim’s recollection of his childhood, which is spent mostly in the flat with Liza, as The Captain is away most of the time, possibly engaging in criminal activity to raise money to take care of Liza. In the second part, it’s ten years later and Jim is a reporter who has drifted away from Liza, though he stays in touch. The Captain, now in Panama, sends her a large cheque and invites her and Jim to come to Panama to stay with him. Liza doesn’t go for reasons I won’t give away, but Jim does and discovers what The Captain is up to, which has attracted the attention of both the Panamanian authorities and the CIA, and Jim finds himself caught in the middle.

It sounds more adventurous than it actually is. The criminal and espionage angles are really just backdrops to explore the relationship between Jim, The Captain and Liza. Jim struggles to understand whether The Captain and Liza are in love or not, in part because he’s an emotionally detached person who doesn’t really understand what love is himself. Much of the enigmas surrounding The Captain are left vaguely explained, if only because it’s told from Jim’s POV. Which might be frustrating when it comes to the adventure bits, but you can’t say it’s unrealistic – we often go through life never finding out the answers to certain mysteries, etc. And it does lend itself to a darkly humorous epilogue that reminded me of the end of the Coen Bros’ Burn After Reading. Anyway, it’s not Greene’s best work, but it’s strangely compelling.

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O captain my captain,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Dennis Coffey, "Gimme That Funk"

It’s Labor Day in most of the world. The one that’s actually about workers’ rights, not the one about barbeque.

And you know there’s going to be a playlist for that, right?

Right.

PRODUCTION NOTE: The text in the cover art means “Lying Flat” (a.k.a. “Tang Ping”). It was a big meme in mainland China around 2021 among young graduates who really saw no opportunities and no future in terms of careers in China, and saw no appeal in the rat race they were expected to enter.

“Tang ping”, then, means choosing to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" via a low-desire, more indifferent attitude towards life. It’s said to be somewhat equivalent to the Great Resignation movement in Western culture around the same time.

To be clear, it doesn’t mean being lazy or not wanting to work. It means rejecting societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve in favor of a more practical lifestyle that prioritises simplicity and psychological well-being over economic materialism.

The playlist isn’t really about that specifically, but I did include some songs that explore those themes, and put it in the general context of the challenge of lying flat in an exploitative work culture. I also found it interesting that artists like Neil Innes and The Fugs were singing about the same basic idea decades ago.

Or is that too intellectual?

Anyway, it’s two hours of music for your Labor Day activities. Or whatever you plan to be doing today.

What are we standing for,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

Well, not that fast, maybe.

Death with Interruptions by José Saramago

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve never read Jose Saramago before, and I’ve been told more than once that if I dig Gabriel Garcia Marquez (which I do), I should read Saramago. Somehow I’ve never got around to it until now, when I came across a cheap copy of this 2005 novel, which is fairly late in his career, so I don’t know if it’s the best place to start. But it’s a place to start. And it’s a pretty good hook: in an unnamed country, one day people just stop dying. Which may sound like good news – until you realize that this has consequences.

On the one hand, people with terminal illnesses stay on the brink of death permanently. Secondly, you now have a growing elderly population problem. This also means hospitals and nursing homes are now overloaded. Meanwhile, the undertakers and insurance companies are in big trouble, and the Catholic Church has an existential crisis on its hands (i.e. how do people get to Heaven now, and does the Resurrection mean anything if there is no longer death, which is a prerequisite?). You get the idea.

Saramago spends the first two thirds of the book focused on this, as well as why death has decided to stop killing people, and – once she realizes this isn’t going as she planned – she devises a solution that makes things worse (and yes, the gender and lowercase ‘d’ are intentional). The last third features death taking the form of a human woman to find out why a cellist who is scheduled to die is still very much alive. My main complaint is that – unless the Kindle version is badly formatted – Saramago is one of those authors who writes really long paragraphs whilst ignoring the conventions of proper punctuation. Which makes it a chore to read, even once you get the hang of it. Anyway, It’s quite surreal and strangely amusing. Will explore Saramago further.

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Millions now living will never die,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Ambient thunderstorm

You may have heard there’s a total solar eclipse scheduled for Monday.

And for those of you in the US and Mexico who will actually be able to see at least some of it, you’ll naturally need a music playlist while you’re staring at the sun.

Lucky for you, the internet is awash with them. And of course, most of them have the same obvious song choices.
And then there’s mine.

Actually, a few of these do appear on other playlists, although in a few cases I used the same song but a different artist, or a different version of the song by the same artist.

Anyway, I was spoiled for choice – this was compiled from a pool of 100 songs. So if you’re thinking, “Hey, you forgot xxxxxxxxxxxx,” well, you might be right, but there’s a good chance it was on my shortlist.

PRODUCTION NOTE 1: Yes, I didn’t include Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” – mainly because I never thought it worked as a standalone song. To me, it’s really just an extension of “Brain Damage”, and that song doesn’t fit on a playlist with an eclipse theme.

PRODUCTION NOTE 2: The Hurra Torpedo song might require a little context.

This is it.

Watch on YouTube

Going dark,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

Or as fast as I need to, and that’s fast enough, really.

Solar Lottery by Dick, Philip K. (August 14, 2012) Paperback

Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is Philip K Dick’s first novel, published in 1955, and it’s obvious from the start he was already thinking in terms of Big Concepts about control. Set in 2203, the story’s premise centres around the idea that the solar system is governed on a Minimax system of statistics and percentages, and people are employed by swearing loyalty to organizations based on their status classifications. The leader – whose title for some reason is Quizmaster – is chosen from the populace by random draw. Meanwhile, largely for entertainment purposes, another person is chosen at random to assassinate the Quizmaster, and they get the job if they succeed. So in essence, you’re Quizmaster for as long as you can stay alive, or until a new one is selected at random.

That’s the basic setting for a plot in which idealistic biochemist Ted Bentley loses his job and, tired of the corporate system, decides to swear loyalty to the current Quizmaster Reese Verrick – only to discover that Verrick knew he has just been replaced by a new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright. Bentley resents the deception but is stuck helping Verrick’s team game the system to have their own assassin chosen to take out Cartwright. As it happens, their assassin has a secret advantage to defeat the army of telepaths whose job it is to protect the Quizmaster. Bentley has to decide whose side he’s really on – and how to survive the consequences of his decision.

As PKD novels go, this is pretty good in terms of the ideas he explores and the schemes by different players to manipulate what is supposed to be a random system, even though a lot goes underexplained, and the dialogue is typically clunky. The story is also saddled with a subplot involving the Preston Society, a cult (which Cartwright is a member of) that follows the writings of the late John Preston and sends a ship to find a legendary lost planet he claimed exists – which is interesting but seems superfluous to the main storyline. The highlight is the assassin plot, which is actually quite inventive, and the eventual resolution to the feud between Bentley, Verrick and Cartwright. PKD would go on to write better and worse novels, so in terms of quality, this sits fairly comfortably in the middle range of his output.

Psychedelic-40 by Louis Charbonneau

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading Louis Charbonneau, after No Place on Earth, which was flawed but alright. Published in 1965 and set in 1993, this novel’s jacket blurb describes it as a “frighteningly prophetic novel of the USA under the rule of irresponsible, power-mad politicos”. Which, it turns out, is nowhere close to accurate. But it IS about a powerful (and legal) drug syndicate that traffics PSI-40, a drug that gives most people transcendental serenity, but for some people (namely, the “Specials” who run the Syndicate), it gives them superior psionic powers, including the ability to read and control minds.

Syndicate agent Jon Rand is a Sensitive – someone who gets limited (but not Special-grade) psionic powers from PSI-40 – who is sent on a mission to find and kill Kemp Johnson, an outlaw Special believed to be in Baja working with an anti-Syndicate group trying to stop distribution of PSI-40. Rand goes to Baja (which has been transformed into a tropical resort paradise by cheap salt-water conversion technology) and immediately someone tries to kill him. Is Johnson already onto him? Or is someone inside the Syndicate setting him up?

Plotwise, it almost reads like a James Bond novel, except there’s only one love interest, the mysterious Taina Erickson, who isn’t everything she seems, etc. I get the feeling Charbonneau was riffing off the panic over the growing popularity of LSD in American counterculture at the time, and imagining a future where LSD was used to control people and make America a nation of blissed-out dopers. Not exactly prophetic, but not a bad guess, considering this came out ten years before the CIA’s MKUltra programme became public knowledge. Like No Place on Earth, Charbonneau invests more effort in action than world-building to the novel’s detriment, but as pulp action yarns go, it’s pretty decent.

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Camping on acid,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Pylon Reenactment Society, "Magnet Factory"

No, truly, I am. See?

The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Continuing my exploration of the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, this 1980 novel gets compared to C.S. Lewis' Narnia and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, though the only similarity I can see is average young people finding access to a parallel world where time behaves differently. In this case, the parallel world is the idyllic woodland of Tembreabrezi, where it is always twilight and people live simple, peaceful lives. Or at least they did. But fear has gripped the land, and the people of Mountain Town find the paths are closing and they cannot leave.

The story kicks off with Hugh Rogers, a grocery clerk who lives with his mom and accidentally stumbles across a gateway to Tembreabrezi. After discovering that a day in Tembreabrezi is a minute here, he starts making frequent camping trips at the 'beginning place' by a river, feeling more at home there than in the real world. Inevitably, he meets Irena, a girl who has been coming to Tembreabrezi for years, and sees Hugh as an unwelcome interloper. But to her annoyance, the people of Mountain Town believe he may be the key to helping Tembreabrezi overcome its mysterious fear.

To be honest, I didn’t really connect with this one. I felt that Tembreabrezi was too underdeveloped as both a location and as a conceptual sanctuary for Hugh and Irena. Similarly, the eventual reveal of the source of the fear felt underwhelming. I’m told that it’s all meant to be Jungian metaphors and symbols – i.e. Tembreabrezi is more of a state of mind than a physical place, and Le Guin deliberately doesn’t explain anything so that you can puzzle over it. Well, okay, and I don’t think that authors have to spell everything out for you or get into the kind of hyperdetailed worldbuilding you get with Tolkien or George RR Martin, say. But if that’s what Le Guin was going for here, it was lost on a simple rube like me, for which I take full responsibility.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading Becky Chambers after starting with her solarpunk novella A Psalm for the Wild-Built. This is her debut novel that, somewhat famously, she funded via Kickstarter and self-published, after which it got the attention of book publishers. It’s ostensibly a space opera set in the Galactic Commons, following the adventures of the crew of the Wayfarer, a galactic tunneling ship whose job is to create wormhole pathways enabling the various members of the GC to zip around space more quickly.

The story starts off with Rosemary Harper, a resident of Mars who joins the Wayfarer as a clerk, just as the ship gets a really big job – building a wormhole to connect Central Space with a distant planet now controlled by an unpredictable alien race called the Toremi whose clans are constantly embroiled in civil wars. Rosemary has a secret she doesn’t want anyone to learn. However, her plotline is just one of several, as just about everyone else in the crew (including the ship’s AI) gets a subplot, often having to do with personal relationships or family secrets. In fact, the book is mainly about that, rather than the actual job they’ve just accepted (which doesn’t even happen until around 200 pages into the story).

Indeed, Chambers spends most of the book building up the characters and their respective alien cultures, and exploring issues like alien sex, gender fluidity and multiculturalism that a universe populated by alien races would likely exhibit, and which most space operas tend to sidestep – so, points for that. On the downside, Chambers also populates the Wayfarer with characters that (with one exception) get along really well and are very kind-hearted, supportive and understanding of each other’s problems. Which is nice, I guess, but maybe a little too emo for me. Chambers took a similar charming, cosy approach to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, but that worked better for me – maybe because I find it more believable between two main characters rather than nine. I will say the final act is pure page-turning adrenaline and worth the price of admission, even if we have to take the long way to get to it. But then maybe that’s the point?

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Take the long way home,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: Wanda Jackson, "Good Girl Down"

Which may or may not be true. But it certainly feels that way. At least on social media.

Either way, perhaps this playlist is the one you need to get through Valentine’s Day this year.

METHODOLOGY: More or less the usual, except that this year I wanted to bookend everything with the two competing love songs from the movie Bedazzled (the original movie with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, not the remake with Brendan Fraser and Liz Hurley).

Is it love,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

The Lunar New Year starts tomorrow.

It’s the Year of the Dragon, you know.

You know what that means. Oh yes.

And can I just say how hard it is to put together a 2-hour playlist about dragons that isn’t 90% metal, 49% of which is DragonForce? Just so you know how much work went into this thing.

Playing with fire,

This is dF

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

And here we go again.

Not exactly off to a flying start, but then I lowered my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year to just 23 books, so I’m actually ahead of the count here. Anyway.

Theology: A Very Short Introduction by David F. Ford

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this for a class, but like I say, I got a Reading Challenge to complete, so I’m counting it. As the title says, this is a very short introduction to the field of theology for students who are considering studying in that field. As Ford notes early on, theology is essentially asking questions about God, with perhaps a key question being: “Which God?”, as theology can be about any deity, not just the Judeo-Christian God. That said, Ford focuses on that God partly to save space (this is, after all, meant to be a short intro), and partly because that’s his particular field of expertise. But many of the points he makes and questions he raises can also be applied to other religions.

Ford starts off by briefly explaining the current state of religious and academic theology, moves on to examples of theological thinking about select key issues (the nature of God, worship, ethics, evil, salvation and the role of Jesus in all this), and then looks at the types of texts and sources that can feed into those (to include traditions, historical accounts and experience) and the importance of prioritising wisdom over knowledge. He wraps up with some thoughts on what the big theological issues might be in the next millennium (this being first published in 1999).

Anyway, while I can’t say I plan to study theology any time soon, the book definitely gave me a clear understanding of what theology is, why it matters, the kinds of questions it asks, and the different approaches for attempting to answer them. Strangely, perhaps the most encouraging point I got from the book is that most if not all of those questions will never be answered definitively or quickly – as our understanding of the texts evolves, our thinking evolves with them, so that there are always new angles to dig out and new questions to ask. And there will always be disagreement on the answers. There's something liberating in that – it removes a lot of the pressure we often feel in these matters to have all the answers.

The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Debut book from Hong Kong journalist Karen Cheung that’s both a memoir about growing up in post-Handover Hong Kong, and about Hong Kong itself. Cheung states that she didn’t set out to write a book about Hong Kong, but rather her relationship with it as someone who grew up ambivalent about the city until Beijing made increasingly drastic moves to change it into something else.

Note that Cheung warns readers that this may not be the book they’re expecting to read – which is to say, it’s not about politics, or a journalistic account of the pro-democracy protests and the subsequent crackdown. It’s a personal story that explains what it’s been like for young people to grow up mostly after the 1997 handover – not just in terms of political development, but the city’s hypercapitalist pressure cooker environment where housing is expensive, space is precious, and the city’s old neighbourhoods and subcultures are being swallowed up by property tycoons with cosy govt ties. “Everywhere we look in Hong Kong, we’re confronted with the impossibilities of trying to make a home in a city where the game is rigged,” she writes.

Cheung talks about her highly dysfunctional family and how, as a working-class kid who went to an international school with mostly wealthy expats, she never felt connected to the city until she discovered its underground art/music counterculture in the old industrial estates in Kwun Tong, and also realized that the promise from Beijing of HK autonomy for 50 years was being broken before her eyes. Cheung’s experience with severe depression particularly resonates at a time when, less than two years after the book’s publication, statistics show HK’s mental health problem is getting worse, with insufficient resources to help people who can’t afford private counselling (most people, in other words).

In essence, Cheung describes the sociopolitical and economic conditions that helped produce the Umbrella and ELAB protests movements that millions of people supported then and now. If nothing else, it’s a corrective (and welcome) antidote to the current (and false) govt narrative that the protests were an insurrection plot masterminded by a newspaper publisher colluding with foreign governments.

It's a very immersive, edifying and sometimes moving read. The section on HK’s underground music scene alone is worth the price of admission, but there’s just so much more here to explore and chew on. Or maybe I’m just saying that because I’ve live here almost 28 years – in fact, for the entire period covered in the book – and that I know pretty much all of the neighbourhoods and events that Cheung is referencing? Maybe. It may have given me an advantage, as Cheung tends to jump back and forth along her personal timeline – I can follow it fine, but people who know little about HK may have to work harder to keep up.

So, it’s worth repeating Cheung’s note that this may not be the HK book you were expecting. If you don’t know anything about HK going in, you may find yourself a bit lost at first, and Cheung didn’t write this to “explain” HK to you. Indeed, Cheung is adamant to point out that she does not represent any unified voice of HK, not least because she's writing in English, a colonial language that doesn’t adequately capture HK culture, which is rooted in Cantonese. She also advises us to be wary of anyone who claims to represent the authentic Hong Kong – the city is too multifaceted and complex for that. Which is really the point – it’s what makes HK simultaneously frustrating and fascinating, and why most of us who live here are enamoured of it, despite all its flaws.

The book captures this well. Indeed, the book itself is so multi-layered that I found it impossible to do my usual three-paragraph review. And I’m still not doing it justice. Just read it, why don’tcha?

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Long gone in Hong Kong,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: TST
Current Music: The Raveonettes, "Gone Forever"

There’s a new TV show on Amazon starring Nicole Kidman called Expats, created by Lulu Wang and based on a novel, which is – as the title implies – about wealthy expats. Specifically, American expats in Hong Kong, where I also happen to live as an expat – although in my case, I’m a poor expat rather than a wealthy one, so the first thing I should say is that anything you see in the show is like no life I have ever lived, here or anywhere else.

Many of the HK scenes were actually filmed here on location, and if you haven’t heard, it caused a big stir here because the scenes were shot in the thick of the COVID pandemic when HK had serious restrictions in place (masks at all times, only four people allowed to eat together in restaurants which must close after 6pm, etc), the most stringent of which were immigration rules under which people entering HK had to be quarantined in a hotel for anywhere from one to three weeks, depending on what country they departed from.

Kidman and the film crew were all given exemptions to all of this, which did not sit well with those of us whose lives had been impacted by rules that made increasingly less sense as the pandemic continued. It didn’t help that for some outdoor scenes, where Kidman is walking around a street market in Mong Kok, the film crew reportedly decorated the street with lanterns, bird cages and other things – supposedly to make it look more “Chinese”.

Anyway, a lot of people were annoyed by this and promised to boycott the show when it came out. I am not boycotting the show, mainly because (1) I don’t subscribe to Amazon’s streaming service and (2) the premise of Expats doesn’t interest me, regardless of its setting. Put simply, I can’t legitimately claim to boycott a show I wouldn’t have watched in the first place.

(Update [added Jan 27, 2:44pm): Also, it seems Amazon isn’t making the show available in HK, for reasons that are currently unclear, but I think we can guess. Developing ...)

So I haven’t watched it – but I’ve read some of the reviews, which have been mixed. And this one from Linda Holmes at NPR is quite interesting, as she notes that a big problem with the show is that it seems totally disinterested with the fact that it is set in a city at a time of significant political upheaval and change.

The show doesn’t really engage with any of this apart from one episode that has a protest scene, but according to Holmes, it’s done in a very non-specific way that doesn’t say anything about why protests are happening. It’s a backdrop, and barely a plot device as far as the main characters are concerned. And it’s never revisited again.

There’s been speculation that this was an intentional choice in order to avoid displeasing the HK govt and Beijing. We don’t know. But I think all of this raises a good question in terms of writing:

Does a story HAVE to have something to say about its setting?

I don’t think so. The setting doesn’t have to BE the story. You don’t have to set a story in, say, Barcelona, and be obliged to explore the issue of Catalan independence. Ergo, I don’t think Expats is obliged to say anything meaningful about the pro-democracy movement or Beijing’s encroachment thereon, etc. And as some have noted, a show about rich self-obsessed expats being oblivious to the realities around them is at least realistic.

However, based on the reviews, it sounds like Wang squandered both the premise (rich oblivious expats with problems) and the setting (HK during a time of political turmoil). She made a rich-people-with-problems drama that could have been set anywhere and uses HK-specific issues at most as shallow plot devices.

Again, I don’t think Wang is obligated to tell a story where the developments in HK are more central to the story arc, or to make some kind of social commentary. But I do think it’s a lost opportunity. There’s so much you could do with a story about rich expats living in a city undergoing profound changes. But it sounds like the only reason the show is set in HK is because the original novel was (and from I’ve heard, the novel itself took a similar approach).

That might be fine for Wang and her (presumably) US audience, but for those of us who live here it’s yet another example of HK being used as a generic backdrop for Western cinema, mostly for aesthetic reasons (urban canyons, Blade Runner neon, etc).

And, you know, it’s nice y’all think our city looks cool (I agree!), but we’re more than a pretty face. So forgive us if we’re not impressed.

And yeah, breezing in here during COVID and decorating Fa Yuen Street to make it look more “Chinese” didn’t help.

In the city,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Pacific Coffee
Current Music: Ambient cafe soundtrack

Another year, another Best Albums list. Flippy doo!!!

Commentary track regarding this year’s haul:

1. As usual, my tastes tend to lean in favor of bands and artists that have been around at least 20 years, or sound like bands from 40-50 years ago. Probably because I am old and decrepit and set in my ways.

2. I picked 15 as a round number, though I would say 12 of these really knocked me out, while the rest were good but standard.

3. It may be extra work, but I’m probably going to make the Singles and EPs categories a regular thing, since a lot of bands these days are releasing them in lieu of albums, or as stopgaps. For now, I’m just including singles that don’t have an LP to go with them.

4. I’ve finally decided to abandon the official ranking system – partly because it’s too much work (I mean, this thing is over 4,000 word long as it is), and partly because honestly, I’ve gotten to a stage where I’ve got 15 albums I enjoyed listening to, and does it really matter which ones are better than others? And anyway I may change my mind in a few years. If that don’t suit you, that’s a drag. Feel free to DM me for a refund.

dEFROG’S TOP 15 ALBUMS OF 2023

Algiers

Shook (Matador)

4^th album from Atlanta band that’s a departure from the previous batch in that it features a lot more collaboration with other artists, the biggest names of which include Zack de la Rocha, billy woods and Samuel T. Herring. Otherwise it’s the same glorious genre-blending state-of-the-planet address that sounds like no other band I can name, only from a community rather than leader Franklin James Fisher. A little long, but it’s probably their best album since their debut.

Bunny X

Love Minus 80 (Aztec Records)

I’m not sure that there was demand for an Italo disco revival, but Bunny X gave us one anyway, and it sounds great. This is the second LP from duo Abigail Gordon and Mary Hanley, and it’s top-loaded with synths that conjure images of icy neon sci-fi landscapes and songs that are either SF themes disguised as love songs or vice versa (with titles referencing William Gibson, Will McIntosh and Joe Halderman).

Death Valley Girls

Islands In The Sky (Suicide Squeeze Records)

Fourth LP from an LA band whose first three albums I have somehow never heard, so this is my first time listening to them, which means I can’t tell you how it compares to their previous stuff. What I can say is that it’s a fairly exhilarating mix of 60s psychedelia and garage rock with messages of love, self-care and healing. We need a little more of that. Anyway, it may be derivative but in a good way. And I’ll also add that single “Magic Powers” practically does Ladytron better than Ladytron.

Fatoumata Diawara

London Ko (3éme Bureau/Wagram Music)

Third studio album from Malian singer-songwriter guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, who continues her direction of blending traditional Wassoulou music with western groove. This one features guest slots from Damon Albarn, Angie Stone, M.anifest and Roberto Fonseca, among others. A lot of people made a big deal of Jesse Ware making the year’s best dance record, but I’d much rather dance to this.

Juliana Hatfield

Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (American Laundromat)

The third in Hatfield’s series of tribute LPs in which she tackles the repertoire of bands she grew up with. After Olivia Newton-John and The Police, it’s ELO’s turn, which perhaps was inevitable since her ONJ album included a cover of “Xanadu”. And once again it mainly works, not least because of the quality of the songs in question. Also, Hatfield’s knack for stripping down a song to its essence comes in handy here, as trying to replicate Jeff Lynne’s densely layered arrangements would be a tall order for anyone who isn’t Jeff Lynne. Also, credit for picking some deep cuts as well as the hits.

The Hives

The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons (Disque Hives)

The Hives return after 11 years off with album no. 6, which they allegedly recorded after their fictional songwriter/svengali Randy Fitzsimmons died and they discovered a bunch of new songs in his coffin. Which is a very Hives thing for them to say. And on the one hand, it’s more of the same, but on the other hand, I’d kind of be disappointed if it wasn’t.

Missing Persons

Hollywood Lie (Cleopatra Records)

Technically this is Missing Persons’ 6^th album, but it’s the first since 1986’s Color In Your Life to feature a full band (as opposed to Dale Bozzio + 1), and the first since then to feature all new original songs. And it absolutely slaps. Missing Persons always struggled to live up to their excellent debut album, and while their two follow-ups aren’t as bad as people remember, they couldn’t match or duplicate the hype surrounding the first one. The same goes for this one, but it comes a lot closer than the previous two.

Liela Moss

Internal Working Model (Bella Union)

I know Leila Moss from her main band The Duke Spirit, but I didn’t know she’d done some solo albums as well. This is her third one, and it sounds nothing like The Duke Spirit while simultaneously showcasing why Moss’ voice was always the key to their sound. This has a similar dynamic in that the music is good but standard electronic pop, but it’s Moss’ creative vocal arrangements that elevates it to another level.

Nanowar of Steel

Dislike To False Metal (Napalm Records)

8^th album from the best parody metal band on the planet. If you prefer metal songs about zombie discos, dandruff, vegan pirates, immodium, metal boomer trolls, the 1994 World Cup, and hunting a Chupacabra that’s also a metaphor for COVID-19 (performed as epic flamenco metal), this is what you need.

Iggy Pop

Every Loser (Gold Tooth/Atlantic)

19^th album for Iggy Pop, who continues to display no intention whatsoever of growing old gracefully, bless him. This is the loudest thing he’s done in a while, and even in ballad mode, his gravelly baritone speaks volumes (it also makes for one of the funniest fake adverts ever recorded). Some songs do feel as though Iggy is trying to live up to his own proto-punk reputation. On the other hand, only Iggy could get away with it.

Rodrigo y Gabriela

In Between Thoughts … A New World (ATO Records)

Sixth album from duo that pioneered metal-inspired flamenco, and this time they’ve come up with an album inspired by non-dualism. As you do. Their guitar chops are as excellent as ever, but accompaniment by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra adds some extra emotional heft to the music.

Shonen Knife

Our Best Place (Tomato Head)

This is Shonen Knife’s 22^nd studio album in their 42-year (and counting) history. And sure, it’s more of the same – pop-punk songs about food (vegetable curry, taquitos, Baumkuchen), animals and positive thinking. But then maybe we need more of that in this increasingly demented world, so why not? This one also includes a new English-language version of one of their older songs, “Girl’s Rock”.

Sparks

The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (Island)

The Sparks Brothers carry on with album no. 25, and it’s an improvement over 2020’s A Steady Drip Drip Drip, which I felt was good but ran too long and had more filler than the average Sparks LP. Most people didn’t agree with me, but hey ho. This one works better for me in terms of songwriting quality and humor.

The Van Pelt

Artisans and Merchants (La Castanya)

The Van Pelt are an NYC post-rock band that was active from 1993 to 1997, then disbanded. After reuniting for a few shows in 2009, this year they released their first album of all new songs in 26 years. I missed them completely the first time round, so I have no real point of reference for it beyond the album itself. But I really enjoyed this, at least partly for the dreamy guitar tones.

Voice of Baceprot

Retas (12WIRED)

Debut album from Indonesian all-girl metal band that essentially collects every single they’ve put out since 2018, plus a few new tracks and a live version of “God Allow Me (Please) To Play Music” with a female vocal choir. It all adds up to a gloriously ferocious and noisy whole that rocks harder than most metal bands out there.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Emma Anderson

Pearlies (Sonic Cathedral)

Debut solo album from Emma Anderson, formerly of shoegaze legends Lush. Some of these songs were written during Lush’s 2016 reunion tour, and when the band broke up again rather than continue, Anderson decided to go solo with them. It’s not Lush Mk II, with Anderson going for a more electronic rather than guitar-based style, yet it sounds like Lush without sounding like Lush, if you see what I’m saying. So if nothing else it illustrates how essential Anderson was to Lush’s sound. And if this is as close as we’re going to get to a new Lush album, I’ll take it.

Kristin Hersh

Clear Pond Road (Fire Records)

11^th solo album from Kristin Hersh, in which she kind of circles back to her first solo album, 1994’s Hips and Makers, which was an all-acoustic affair. So is this, apart from a couple of tracks, and while this doesn’t quite live up to that, Hersh has long since stopped wanting to prove herself to anyone. What really makes it work for me (like a lot of her records) are the vocal and instrumental textures she adds to the songs. Sometimes it really is how you play ‘em that makes the difference.

Ladytron

Time's Arrow (Cooking Vinyl)

Seventh LP from Liverpool synth band that still trades in glossy synth landscapes with icy vocals from Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo. This time their sound is not as heavy and dense as their previous LP, but otherwise it’s more of the same – almost literally, as many songs sound so hypnotically similar that you have to pay attention to tell when one ends and another begins. But when you listen to then separated from each other, there’s a lot to like here, if you give it a chance.

Pretenders

Relentless (Parlophone)

12^th album from Chrissie Hynde and crew – which does not include drummer Martin Chambers, who returned for previous LP Hate For Sale. It makes a difference, despite Hynde still collaborating with guitarist James Walbourne – this one feels like more filler than killer to me. Yet the killer stuff is quite good, and it’s grown on me since first listen. And frankly Hynde’s voice remains as wonderful to listen to as it did on the first Pretenders LP 40+ years ago, so it seems churlish to complain.

MOST DISORIENTING ALBUM

Zulu

A New Tomorrow (Flatspot Records)

Debut LP from LA band that juxtaposes powerviolence with classic soul, reggae, hip-hop and spoken-word poetry. The result is an multi-faceted album with jarring, provocative tonal shifts that aims to expand the discourse on the black experience in America. It’s not for everyone, and for me personally the powerviolence sections will limit how often I listen to this, but it’s an incredible thought-provoking experience.

MOST PECULIAR ALBUM

Pere Ubu

Trouble On Big Beat Street (Cherry Red)

19^th album from Pere Ubu, whose previous LP The Long Goodbye turns out not to be their final album after all. This one is supposedly inspired by Van Dyke Parks and every song is the first take. Dave Thomas’ atonal warble and the band’s discordant improv is an acquired taste, but it’s worth checking out for “Worried Man Blues”, which opens with Thomas ordering food from a Popeye’s in Clarksdale, MI, where Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Zimmerman and Alan Lomax are employees. They also cover The Osmonds’ “Craxy Horses” as only Pere Ubu can.

LONGEST ALBUM

Dolly Parton

Rockstar (Butterfly Records)

Dolly finally does her rock album, and of course she doesn’t just do a simple bunch of rock standards, but offers up two original songs plus 28 covers with big-name guest stars, most of which are the artists who sang the original songs. And on the one hand, it proves Dolly can pretty much sing any genre and collaborate with anyone. On the other hand, at 2 hours and 20 minutes, it’s probably a little too much Dolly. Personally I’d rather she did a rock album of all-new songs.

BEST ALBUM BY SOMEONE I KNOW

Richard Michael John Hall

A Belly Full of Light (GCA Records)

Hall actually released two albums this year, though the second one came out just before I started making this list, so I haven’t had time to sit down with it. Hall’s previous album saw him shift from psychedelic-influenced guitars to the more relatively straightforward alt-rock sound he started with. This one starts off in the same vein, then about halfway through brings his psychedelic tendencies back to the fore, which is where things really get interesting. Something for everyone, then.

BEST REISSUE

The Replacements

Tim (Let It Bleed Edition) (Rhino/Sire)
I remember there being so much hype around Tim, and the disappointment of ‘Mats fans who heard Tommy Erdelyi’s mix and thought “What is this crap?” Having never heard the ‘Mats before, I thought it sounded fine at the time and still do. But while Tim may not have been broke, Ed Stasium certainly fixed it. The remix does give the record a lot more punch, and in some places it sounds like a totally different album (for example, I can actually hear what Chris Mars is doing on “Dose Of Thunder”).

BEST EPs

Los Bitchos

Pah! (City Slang)
In which my new favorite band of 2022 covers “Tequila” and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s “Trapdoor” in their psychedelic cumbia style.

The Budos Band

Frontier's Edge (Diamond West Records)
Third EP for one of my favorite Daptone bands, who are now on Diamond West (co-founded by leader Jared Tankel). More creepy cinematic Afro-soul instrumentals? Yes please.

Micky Dolenz

Dolenz Sings REM (7a Records)
Just like it says, and the only thing more surprising than the arrival of this EP is the fact that it’s actually quite good, even if the choice of songs is a little obvious.

Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen Sings Larry Norman (Groenland Records)
Nina Hagen’s latest LP Unity was a mixed bag for me, but I liked this EP, in which she covers two tracks by Jesus-rock legend Larry Norman: “Rock The Flock” and “UFO” – which is a very Nina Hagen thing to do, really.

BEST SINGLES

Klangphonics

“Shapes In The Spray” (ALAULA Music)

Germany’s Klangphonics are something of a novelty in that they’re a techno band that play actual instruments live, rather than relying mostly on loops. It’s good techno-trance either way. They released several songs in 2023 – this was the best of the lot for me.

“Cooler Than Mars” (L7 Music)

It’s nice to have L7 back, especially when they’re mocking certain billionaires who want to move to Mars. I hope there’s an album to follow.

my little airport

“駱駝 (Camel)” (n/a)

Hong Kong’s favorite underground twee-pop band return with this single about sadness, centred on the allegedly true story of a rich man who rode a camel up to the top of The Peak. You don’t get that from Ed Sheehan, do you?

Loudon Wainwright III

“Just Like Buster Keaton” (StorySound Records)

In which Wainwright records an old song by George Gerdes and Marc Johnson (two of his contemporaries in the early folk scene) that has never been recorded or released until now. Worth it just for the imagery of Jesus and Buster Keaton in a friendly pie fight.

BEST TRACKS FROM NOT SO GREAT ALBUMS

The Cleaners From Venus

“The Beautiful Stoned” (Mr Mule)

This was the lead-off single for The Cleaners From Venus’s comeback album K7, and it’s so psychedelically wonderful that the rest of the album failed to live up to it for me. It’s happened to you too, probably.

Girlschool

“Barmy Army” (Silver Lining Music)

I love Girlschool, but their new LP WTForty-Five? didn’t quite work for me, mainly because I just don’t think the world needs anymore metal songs about partying or asking us if we’re ready to rock and roll, no matter how on-brand it may be. But some tracks are really great, and I just adore this thank-you letter to their fans. You’re welcome, Girlschool!

THE PLAYLIST

Wanna sample the above? Look what I made for you!

Same time next year,

This is dF

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Tung Chung
Current Music: See above

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