Somehow, Cleveland has survived, with her gray banner unfurled -- the banner of Archangelsk and Detroit, of Kharkov and Liverpool -- the banner of men and women who would settle the most ignominious parts of the earth, and there, with the hubris born neither of faith nor ideology but biology and longing, bring into the world their whimpering replacements.
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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
The Apostropher has totally been coming through with great posts recently. Today he links to a post from Avi Abrams of Dark Roasted Blend, about the Yemeni island of Socotra, which Abrams deems "the most alien-looking place on earth."
It is weird-looking, alright, and dazzling. Approximately 230 species live on this island which are found nowhere else on earth. Take a look at the post, it features tons of pictures of bizarre flora and of the people of Socotra, plus some magnificent mainland Yemeni architecture.
More about Socotra -- the island's name derives from the Sanskrit dvipa sukhadhara, "island of bliss" -- at the American Institute for Yemeni Studies.
The first post has gone up at History Time -- Teozar, who is currently reading Peter Thompson's The Battle for Singapore, waxes incredulous at Percival's methods of defending against the Japanese onslaught. Nicely drawn!
The posts there are going to be approximately one per day, at least for the first little while -- a nice staid pace.
posted morning of September 7th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about History Time
OK, I spent a little time at the library -- fun! I felt like I was back in high school writing a research paper! (But in a good way.) (And no, I haven't really done much of that since high school -- this might be a mark against me -- oh well.) The two books I found were from 1970 and 1977, and confirmed with some variations the version of events in The Passionate War -- so my plan is solid to write about this version of events with a caveat up top, and to list Preston's book in the "Further reading" list.
The Revolution and Civil War in Spain, Pierre Broué and Emile Témine, 1970. tr. Tony White.
The Spanish Civil War, Hugh Thomas, 1977.
I think I've got enough stuff for a nice juicy narrative post.
I'm starting to write a brief note about the capture of Seville in July 1936, which is one of the first incidents in The Passionate War that really captured my attention. The plan is to post the note on History Time this coming Wednesday.
So far the main source documents I've found are The Passionate War and the Wikipædia entry on General Queipo de Llano, which unfortunately contradicts the book -- it says the narrative offered in the book "has achieved almost mythical status" but is refuted in recent research by Paul Preston -- presumably in his 1996 book, A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War.
So, hm. I don't have access to that book right now, though it looks like a good one to check out. I think I will swing by the library this afternoon and take a look at a few more books. Probably my task for Wednesday will be to write up the mythical account -- which is after all what seized my imagination in the first place -- and to make note of Preston's writing and how I may have it all wrong.
posted afternoon of September 6th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Readings
At the Apostropher's blog this morning, I found this breathtaking video.
Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei perform "Hand in Hand"
Strange but I haven't been able to find out much more about Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei searching on the internet, besides that they did this dance. YouTube features two interviews with them on Chinese TV, both of course in Chinese and not translated. No English-language documentary information about them, although the video is hugely popular -- it is all over the net.
Intrepid cartoonist of historical events Kate Beaton has started an LJ community dedicated to history postings. This looks like it will be a great thing!
(Also, I notice it's Kate's birthday in a couple days. So: Happy Birthday, Kate!)
Sylvia and I were taking Pixie out for a walk this evening and we decided to head down to the park. (Well "we decided" is not exactly how it happened; more like, Sylvia says "When we get home can I play ToonTown?" and I seek a diversion by saying "Let's go down to the park.") She found a cast-off tennis ball and was practicing throwing it overhand.
This was really interesting for me to watch -- I don't really have any memory of trying to master a physical motion, at least not until I was much older. My childhood was singularly unathletic and, well, pretty much uncoordinated. Sylvia seemed to be paying a lot of attention to how to move her arm to throw the ball properly. She asked me to throw it so she could see how to do it -- and it seems pretty effortless to me at this point to throw a ball overhand, though I never worked at it. Maybe Sylvia will get a better arm than I have, by being interested in the mechanism of it.
On the way home from the park Sylvia said "Look at that sunset!" And it was indeed a breathtakingly beautiful one -- the darkening sky mostly blue to the west except for a small bank of cirrus clouds shadowed charcoal-grey; and in front of that a tiny wisp of cirrus glowing hot pink in the dying rays of the sun. (Meanwhile to the east, storm clouds are rolling in -- we're supposed to get a ton of rain tonight and tomorrow.)
posted evening of September 5th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Sylvia
The school bus was on time today! Even early -- we were walking to the bus stop and saw it pulling away. Fortunately it was headed in our direction, and the driver pulled over to let Sylvia in.
I had a sort of nice, neighborhood-y feeling as I walked back home, and driving out of the neighborhood to work -- saw a lot of people I know bringing their kids out to the school bus.
I worked up a fiddle part for "Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms" to play at the jam tonight, and I must say it was pretty successful. I kept it fairly simple, everybody stayed with the beat and it sounded nice -- and my singing was as good as it ever gets. A couple of people complimented me on it later on.
The jam leader tonight was Barbara Lamb -- it was really great to get a chance to hear her music. She did some far out stuff like setting up rhythm tracks by overdubbing lots of different clapping patterns and rattles just before she started playing, and playing duets with herself through a delay box. She's playing a house concert in Rockaway on Saturday, I hope we can make it out there.
posted evening of September 4th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
Today is Sylvia's first day of third grade! She's starting at a new school. We're all going out together now to walk down to the bus stop...
Aargh... Well the bus was 45 minutes late. But Sylvia's in school! And we met some neighbors whose son is starting kindergarten, who seem like nice people.
