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a-froger-epic · 4 years ago

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Okay, leading on from this post about Freddie and how he may have thought of himself and his cultural/ethnic background, especially @ineffableidiots99‘s additions, I had some thoughts and I’m going to get a bit personal.

Like Freddie, I was born in a foreign country (Lithuania - my family is Russian), grew up in a foreign country (Germany) and then moved to England when I was 20. Now I’m in Madrid, but that’s a whole different story.

Let me pre-empt this by saying that I don’t claim to know how Freddie felt about any of this.

All I’m going to do is talk about myself a little. When I was little, it was very apparent to me that we were not *from here*. From when I could first understand anything, it was ingrained in me that I am Russian, and we are in a foreign country. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was just a fact.

When I was five, we moved to Germany. After half a year, I stopped speaking Russian entirely. My mother always continued to speak it to me, but I simply refused. I wanted to fit in and be just like all the other kids so badly. I didn’t want to be a foreigner anymore when I started school. (The first-grade teacher who really had it in for me because, in hindsight, I guess she didn’t love immigrants, didn’t help.) I didn’t speak Russian for ten years, between the ages of 5 and 15. I had a German-sounding nickname for my Russian name (and I still do... Ana. Hi, I’m Anastasia, actually, but you wouldn’t pronounce it the Russian way, so I’m more comfortable being called something you can pronounce). However, in my teens, something happened. a disconnect that I had always felt between the culture I was growing up in and the culture I came from started to intensify. I felt really, really out of place. I started to resent Germany, I really didn’t want to be there anymore, and don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful country, but I had this overwhelming feeling of being in the wrong place.

When I was 15, I went to the UK on a student exchange. And I fell in love. Somehow, the mentality I encountered there was a middle ground between the Russian mentality I had in me and the German mentality I had grown up with. It was a perfect fit.

I moved to London when I was 20 and I decided, at that moment, to adopt England as my home. Because you know what? As an uprooted child who has never lived in their actual home country, you get to do that. You have to do that, to decide where you actually fit in, in the world. And I strongly felt that I fit into English culture, I vibed with it. Once my English was good enough, I started lying to people. I would tell them I had moved to England as a teen, that my father was British, that I’d grown up speaking English. I insisted I was definitely not German. At that point I couldn’t bear to call myself German, even though over the years I’ve had to admit that a lot of German culture rubbed off on me, and accept it, too.

Now, I mostly like to call myself European (with a Russian soul). But it has been 15 years and all this time I have been living exclusively in an English circle of friends and acquaintances, even here in Spain. I have no German or Russian friends irl. I have exclusively English expat friends (and some American friends, and a few Spanish friends, since, you know, I’m in Spain). My children are growing up speaking English as a mother tongue, fully convinced they’re “English” (even though they are half Russian, half Greek, born in Spain, with German passports). I hope I didn’t bore you. All of this is quite interesting to me.

And yes, it does inform how I theorise about what Freddie might have felt about himself and why he referred to himself this way or that. Why he lied about coming to England sooner than he did, why he felt such a connection with London.

It’s fascinating to think about.

#musings on belonging #cultural backgrounds #Freddie related

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yourmoansareasymphony · 3 years ago

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My wife thinks I’m out of line but I really don’t think I’m the asshole here. I get so fucking pissed off by native English-speakers who come to Finland (typically) to work in the service industry, restaurants, cafes etc. and these cunts will not learn a word of Finnish and everyone thinks it’s totally okay. These fucking pieces of shit won’t even bother to ask if their customers are fine being served in English, they just assume that Finns will switch to English whenever. Which they do, I mean Finns speak English and they’re not difficult like me so they just start speaking English and essentially bow to these British/American/Aussie wankers. Stop doing that.

I learned Finnish with my low intelligence so it can be fucking done. They live here for years and years and never learn because they think they don’t have to. They use their English-language privilege and Finnish people as a crutch. Like fuck I’m losing it. If I get one more Chris from Perth asking me what I’d like to drink without first asking me if I’m comfortable speaking English I’m gonna punch them in the fucking mouth. And if one more Chris from Perth insists that hE’s aN eXpAt and not an immigrant – because he’s a racist who doesn’t want to be associated with people of colour – I’m gonna throw them in the Cholera basin. I was so wild with rage today that I pretended like I didn’t speak English and ended up pointing at the menu because I wanted to make Chris’s day miserable because I hate him and his kind.

I’m absolutely not bashing immigrants with genuine learning difficulties and I’m not saying that Finnish is an easy language to learn but these cunts don’t even bother to try and that’s the issue. They’re white and they speak English as their first language and therefore obviously everyone in a non-English speaking country should just shut up and kneel. If an immigrant from Iraq doesn’t learn Finnish in 5 years even when they take classes and try their best Finns will lose their shit but Americans and these others twats get away with it every day.

I have to behave for now because I’m applying for citizenship soon and I can’t be caught punching anyone in the mouth. But as soon as I’ve got my citizenship and my shiny passport and if I cross paths with a Chris it’s right to jail, right away.

#words #not words #screams

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furthernotes · 5 years ago

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On Spaces and Lines (Or the Things That Connect and Separate)

In her essay A Hero is A Disaster: Stereotypes Versus Strength in Numbers, Rebecca Solnit talks of our preoccupation with lone victors that often leads us to make light of the potency of collective action. She writes of her friend, legal expert and author Dahlia Lithwick, who was laying groundwork for a book on women lawyers who have argued and won civil rights cases against the Trump administration in the past two years. Her goal was to diffuse the spotlight from famed individuals—such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, about whom many advised her to write instead—and onto lesser known lawyers. Elsewhere in the book, in City of Women, Solnit writes of the names which we give to our built environment: The rivers, roads, statues and colleges named after prominent, often white men; generals and captains whose shadows drape over their armies. One essay over, in Monumental Change and the Power of Names, she writes of the demolition and renaming of such monuments; changes that have shifted narratives and righted histories. She declares: “Statues and names are not in themselves human rights or equal access or a substitute for them. But they are crucial parts of the built environment, ones that tell us who matters and who will be remembered.”

I live in a quaint old neighbourhood in Singapore known as the Cambridge Estate. The vicinity is made up of roads named after idyllic English counties: Kent, Dorset, Durham, Norfolk, Northumberland; all a few minutes of walk away from the Farrer Park subzone—named after Roland John Farrer, who presided over the Singapore Municipal Commission, a body tasked to oversee local urban affairs and development under the British colonial rule. My block, an old building owned by the Housing Development Board, along with the streets that surround it, have seen some construction and renovation work in the past months. As Singapore went into lockdown at the start of April (which they prefer to call Circuit Breaker, God knows why, I’d say it’s some kind of a performative attempt at benevolence), most of the work have ceased. The roadwork at the intersection of Dorset and Kent, however, continued up until a week back. I eyed the workers, many of them migrants, from behind my mask as I crossed the street. They toiled away under the blistering sun, and I was reminded that elsewhere, on the outskirts of the city, the outbreak has reached the foreign workers’ dormitories; making prisons out of their rooms.

***

“Singapore Seemed to Have Coronavirus Under Control, Until Cases Doubled,” read a headline on the New York Times. When the city was first hit by the pandemic, its efficiency in controlling the spread was lauded as a model response. Now, its cases total to over 8,000, the highest number reported number in Southeast Asia. The number of infections climbed rapidly as the virus reached numerous foreign workers’ dormitories across the state—housing about 300,000 people—which are notoriously overcrowded and ill-equipped. The pandemic has gone on long enough, I think, for all of us to recognise that its effects have carved our social divides deeper than ever before. “The outbreak doesn’t discriminate, but its effects do,” is a sentiment that has been widely spread across social media and news outlets, inviting incisive criticisms on an array of issues, from capitalist policies to eco-activism and celebrity culture. A dominant theme, however, runs through their veins: the far-reaching power of privilege; and how it pervades even the smallest units of our lives. As “social distancing” and “stay home” were made law, it became clear that space is a luxury few share—at least, fewer than we thought. Instructions such as “stay home” and its varieties, writes Jason DeParle for the New York Times, assumes the existence of a safe, stable and controlled environment. DeParle notes that inmates, detained immigrants, homeless families and, I would add, victims of domestic abuse, are some of the discrete groups facing a dilemma amidst such instructions. He asserts: “What they share may be little beyond poverty and one of its overlooked costs: the perils of proximity.”

Close quarter is the very calamity confronting Singapore’s foreign workers community during this outbreak. Contagion hit a record high on 20 April, with over 1,426 confirmed cases, a vast majority of which coming from numerous dormitories across the state. Since early last week, active testing has been carried out since in the dormitories—which might explain the figures—but the City had been glaringly unprepared, which made for a peculiar sight. Immediately, I found myself questioning its renowned vigilance and extraordinary prescience; qualities that I often contrast with my hometown of Jakarta and its outrageously lethargic response to the pandemic. But the dorms had always been “ticking time-bombs”, Sophie Chew writes on Rice Media, and the City had turned a deaf ear to forewarnings from activists and NGOs that went back as far as February. The dorms are overcrowded, she reports: a single dorm can house over 10,000, and up to 20 people are pushed into a space the size of a four-room flat. A resident of S11 Dormitory located in Punggol, one of the first to be gazetted as an isolation site, says he shares the same shower facilities as about 150 others. The dorms are unlivable, Chew says; detailing that they are “notoriously filthy”, and some workers told The Straits Times that toilets were not regularly disinfected. This condition makes the concept of safe distancing “laughable”, writes the NGO Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) on their website. To Chew, it is clear that Singapore’s “celebrated, ‘gold standard’ response had a citizenship blind spot.”

The blatant ignorance to the livelihood of the migrant populace is inexcusable, but it is hardly a shock for anyone from the outside looking in. The racial divide is patent; and—in the case of foreign workers—the tension is heightened by a system that enables the production of precarity and abets exploitation (Chuanfei Chin from the National University of Singapore wrote a concise paper detailing the network complicit in producing the social vulnerabilities experienced by temporary foreign workers, which you can read here). Yet, when news outlets started reporting on the crisis, they had been either clinical or deeply prejudiced, and the comment section only compounds the horror. These have not only mapped public opinion, but also reiterated the value that is given to the lives of foreign workers, and delineate further their standing in the Singapore society. The lines on this map are both psychological and structural: Yong Han Poh, writing for the Southeast Asia Globe, reminds us that their dormitories are built in isolated areas far from the public view. They are, quite literally, segregated from the wider population. The kind of treatment we afford them, the lines we draw, brings to my mind a passage from Solnit’s essay Crossing Over, where she talks of territories and migration: “The idea of illegal immigrants arises from the idea of the nation as a body whose purity is defiled by foreign bodies, and of its borders as something that can and should be sealed.” The concept, when taken in a literal manner, is eerily familiar: Almost immediately after the outbreak reached the dormitories, Facebook comments became unbearable, with an alarming number of people pointing fingers at the foreign workers’ habits and personal hygiene; insinuating that the contagion rates has more to do with their insanitary culture than the ill-equipped and overcrowded dorms (of course, they would not be the first to be at the receiving end of such narrative, which has shifted throughout history to serve the interests of those in power. Pan Jie at Rice Media offers a succinct chronicle of this.) Solnit calls this the “fantasy of safety”, where “self and the other are distinct and the other can be successfully repelled.” We are seeing, right now, that fantasy wielded by those with power; one they enforce out of suspicion and out of fear of losing security and authority. But all who have been subjugated, too, understand and yearn for this fantasy: To be liberated from the constant invasion of freedom and autonomy.

Image courtesy of Sumita Thiagarajan via Facebook. Taken on Keppel Island.

It is critical to examine, Rebecca Solnit writes, who is meant by “we” in any given place. One way to do this is by looking at the lines drawn by the semantics of names and categories. The term “migrant” has come under scrutiny in recent years: What separates the group—defined as “a person who moves from one place to another, especially in order to find work or better living conditions”—from expats, for instance, could be only a matter of nationality and skin colour. As Indonesian author Intan Paramaditha states in her essay on LitHub: “We can read the map, but the map has read us first.” Further in her essay, she continues to say that these categories determines how one experiences mobility, whether one would “encounter bridges or barriers, hospitality or displacement.” Making the distinction even more severe are neoliberal policies that have turned lives into pawns and commodities and made decent livelihood a due owed and never paid (while “errant employers” is often cited as the reason for foreign workers’ exploitation and abuse, research have shown that the legal framework protecting them, while comprehensive, is flawed). This points to the central criticism against the term “worker”, which, as Yong writes in her essay, reduces them to factors of production and labour units. Recently, online platform Dear.sg, which describes themselves as a “media conglomerate steeped in culture and grounded in locality”, befouled this already murky waters: With an article titled We Need Foreign Workers More Than They Need Us—a headline that might deceive one into thinking it’s an innocent op-ed designed to galvanise empathy by tugging at one’s guilty conscience—they concluded that migrant workers are valuable because they are essential to our material needs. “Construction sites might have to be abandoned for a while and projects will take a longer time to be completed,” it says in one passage. It then implores its readers to “think of your Build-To-Order flats…the new airport terminal, street repairs and maintenance…”, and reminds them that now, “we have to wait even longer.” What is meant by “we” had never been so grossly exclusionary. The article has narrowed migrant workers into tools of prosperity, and never once suggested that they be a beneficiary (they have received a number of backlash on Instagram, and as of yesterday they are still actively deleting comments). At the end, under a heading that says Modern Slavery Or Not (sans question mark), they ask if we should start ringing the alarm on exploitation of cheap labour. Does all this leads to the so-called modern slavery, it asks, grammatical error intact. “Maybe,” it answers, aloof. “Forced contracts and bonds, who knows.”

Evidently, this pandemic is not “the great equaliser”. If anything, it has magnified privilege and heightened insecurities. Solnit offers us hope in what she calls “public love”: collective action; a sense of meaning and purpose that belongs to a community. She refers to the 1960 earthquake of San Francisco, and outlines a shared sentiment of loss among the people, that is “if I lose my home, I’m cast out among those who remain comfortable, but if we all lose our homes in the earthquake, we’re in this together.” Perhaps the nature of this pandemic bears little resemblance to a natural disaster, but we experience collective loss all the same: Much of our freedom and flexibility—to work, travel, or to socialise—have been suspended for the foreseeable future. But they are losses felt more profoundly by vulnerable groups, and let it not be forgotten that they were cast out before any disaster—the precarity of their livelihood a disaster in its own right—and they bear distress many of us are precluded from. These inequalities have been laid bare in the weeks following the outbreak in dormitories, and there had been no shortage of care from the ground: Comedian and YouTuber Preeti Nair ran a fundraising campaign to aid two NGOs, TWC2 and HealthServe, in meeting the urgent needs of migrant workers that have been put under quarantine. As of 21 April, they have raised over S$316,000—more than triple their original goal of S$100,000. There are spreadsheets detailing efforts of different organisations and how we can contribute (Yong included one at the end of her essay, and a local community library, Wares, published a Mutual Aid and Community Solidarity spreadsheet). Many Singaporeans who are able and secure have donated their Solidarity Payment to non-profit organisations working with vulnerable groups. Corporations, too, have started partnering NGOs to raise funds and distribute masks at affected dormitories. It’s not just in Singapore: Worldwide, the pandemic has fostered record numbers of philanthropic donations and vast networks of mutual aid—a new map, if you will, with unmarked territories and nameless seas. There is a growing recognition of mutual dependence, a survey by the New York Times shows, and while there is no guarantee that the shift in moral perspectives will last beyond the crisis, there is hope in knowing that we are re-examining—if not redrafting—the map that we were given.

Yet I still find evidence of a divide: I have heard more and more that we need not need to worry; most of the cases are from the dorms, I hear, there are less in the community, I hear, directly from the official WhatsApp updates, and I recognise once more the gulf that has yet to be bridged. Between the lines, I find the seeds of amnesia, which—Solnit writes in her essay Long Distance—holds us “vulnerable to experiencing the present as inevitable, unchangeable, or just inexplicable.” She talks then of the term “shifting baselines”, coined by marine biologist Daniel Pauly, and stresses the importance of a baseline; a stable point from which we can measure systemic transformation before it was dramatically altered. This pandemic, one can hope, will alter how dormitories are managed and equipped for the better. Beyond this pandemic, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said in a statement in early April, “there’s no question” that standards in foreign worker dormitories should be raised, and appealed for increased cooperation from employers. Meanwhile, measures taken to manage this crisis—particularly with the issue of overcrowding and hygiene—have been widely criticised; prompting authorities to move residents of the dormitories to vacant Housing Board flats, military camps and floating hotels to reduce crowding. The Prime Minister further addressed these measures in a live address to the nation yesterday—in which he also announced the 4-week extension of the Circuit Breaker—promising stricter safe distancing measures, increased on-site medical resources, closer monitoring of older workers, and distribution of pre-dawn and break fast meals for Muslim workers who will start fasting on Friday. “The clusters in the dorms have remained largely contained,” he says, and pledges their best effort to keep it that way. When this crisis is over, I tell myself, we must not forget the baseline of their predicament, or be too quick to acquit those in power from any wrongdoing—if only to preserve a benchmark of assessment. Without a recollection of the past, Solnit warns us, change becomes imperceptible, and we might slip to “…mistake today’s peculiarities for eternal verities.” Nevertheless, the Prime Minister sounded assured. He even wore a blue shirt—that must have meant something. I, for one, am hopeful, as I always try to be. There’s still much reason to be.

***

I stopped at the traffic light at the intersection of Dorset and Kent. I glanced at the street sign, green as they’ll ever be. Solnit writes: “Pity the land that thinks it needs a hero, or doesn’t know it has lots and what they look like.” Indeed, we do not know it. I wondered then if the crisp white paint will ever spell a different name. For all the transformations construction workers have made to our built environment, will there ever be a monument in their name, like the kind we have bestowed our tycoons and presidents and—oh God, I groaned as I realised this—counties of former occupants? In a few weeks’ time, this intersection will be vacant once more; the deafening drill and temporary fences suddenly vanishing from sight. Their mark will go undetectable and nameless; swallowed whole by the scorching sun and the picturesque imagination of the Dorset and Kent of another continent. The light turned green. As I crossed the street, I remember Solnit saying that the truest lines on this map are only those between land and water. “The other lines on the map are arbitrary,” she says, they have changed many times and will change again. One can hope.

Whose Story Is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters, Rebecca Solnit, 2019.

POSTSCRIPT

As I am finishing this essay, I wonder how big of a role I play in this equation, and if I tip the scale further towards inequality. I realise how small we all are; how powerless we might all be without the aid of top-down political action. I am not under the delusion that individual responsibility counts a great deal in this narrative (David Wallace-Wells calls accusations of personal responsibility a “weaponised red herring”), but I also refuse to trivialise the weight of our own actions (the great Gloria Steinem reminds us that “a movement is only people moving”). This being so, you will find below some spreadsheets and relevant, verified fundraising campaigns where you can extend your care. Every dollar counts, and every hand have the power to soothe.

Fundraising Campaigns

Preetipls x UTOPIA for Migrant Workers NGOs

Support migrant workers through Covid-19 and beyond, a campaign by Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME)

Vulnerable Women’s Fund by AWARE

Donate Your Solidarity Payment. Funds will be channelled to Boys’ Town, Hagar Singapore, Singapore Red Cross, AWARE and HOME

Entrepreneur First supports The Food Bank - Feed the City #Covid-19. Funds will be channelled to the Food Bank. You can also donate food to Food Bank Boxes available island-wide.

Spreadsheets

Mutual Aid and Community Solidarity – Coordination by Wares Infoshop Library

COVID-19 | Needs in the migrant community as included in Yong Han Poh’s essay

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namelessandfamous · 5 years ago

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The 2010s

THE 2010s

Ahh, the 2010s. The decade that I became a full fledged adult in. I experienced the highs, the lows, the mids, the joy, the pain, the riches, the squalor and everything in between. I lived in five different states, five different cities. I traveled the nation multiple times around. I jumped jobs, locations, identities like any fledgling twentysomething that possess the gravitas to explore.

Outside of my being, the world experienced a lot. We experienced two terms of Obama only to enter the Trump era during the final three years of the decade. We lost many a legend—Prince being the one that hit me hardest—and gained a few more. Activism reached a visibility not seen since the 1960s—from Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter. Mass murders became a regular occurrence as overall crime rose all across the nation. Global warming made for both Los Angeles and New York to share similar temperatures in December despite being on the opposite side of the seaboard.

And, musically …

Things shifted so much that they remained the same. Record sales reached a record low yet the record industry began to rebound with the rise of streaming. An entire century’s worth of music is only nanoseconds away for a small monthly fee. The decade saw the rise (and sometimes fall) of dubstep, “alternative R&B”, cloud rap, mumble rap, trap beats (which punctuated almost a majority of popular songs regardless of genres throughout the past ten years), etc. Adele sold the most records than anyone else despite pop getting more and more EDM-influenced by the minute, Drake was easily the most popular rapper as rap became increasingly non-rap in its sound, R&B continued to thrive outside of the mainstream, rock increasingly became a genre of the past and well, everything else remained the same.

Yet, in my headphones, these ten albums provided the aural narration for various times and places and mental explorations and live experiences throughout this past decade. While I listened to hundreds of albums—and liked just as many—these ten stood out the most to me even if my individual interest in a few has dissipated beyond the time that they spoke to me the most. These ten albums remind me that despite the roller coasters of emotions, thoughts, experiences and mindsets I’ve experienced these past ten years, the 2010s was a good decade, overall. Here are my 10 of the ‘10s:

1. D’ANGELO, Black Messiah (RCA, 2014)

Arriving on the scene when the nation was in tatters after the rash of police brutality targeting black men around the country (which was never a rare occurrence, mind you, but that’s another screed for another day ….) and the Black Lives Matter movement was in full bloom in the mainstream media, D’Angelo re-appeared some 14 years after his last album, the landmark Voodoo. This re-appearance feel right on time even if it was almost a decade and a half late in an increasingly ADHD world. That it spoke to a nation’s frustration as well as its joy despite such an extended wait was almost miraculous and made claim to it’s title claim. Even more miraculous is just how much the music resonates as much as D’s storied past. A D’Angelo album is almost as mythic as the man but like any myth, neither fails to be magical. So magical that Messiah resulted in many album-long reactions by artists that spanned various genres and commercial statuses.

2. KAYTRANADA, 99.9% (XL, 2016)

Released just months before the end of the Obama administration, 99.9%, the full length debut by Montreal maestro Kaytranada treated the pre-election tension in the air—then placing Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton as contenders to replace the nation’s first black president—like the perfect atmosphere for a party. A decidedly Pan-African dance party, at that. Kaytranda, born Louis Celestin, is an obvious student of black music that spans decades, genres and continents. The son of Haitian immigrants, Kay knows the power of rhythm like any Caribbean expat does. This rhythm powers an one hour long song cycle that never lets up despite many variations in groove and voice (Kay gives the floor to a multitude of vocalists which include everyone from Anderson .Paak and Phonte to Syd of The Internet and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagona to rappers Goldlink and Vic Mensa to even 2000s British pop/R&B superstar Craig David). The sheer joy here—peaking with the late-album, Gal Costa-powered “Lite Spots”—is palpable and it’s groove unstoppable. And it will surely remain so for many years to come.

3. INC., No World (4AD, 2013)

The Brothers Aged—Daniel and Andrew-- created a quixotic, otherworldly mood piece in their debut No World. The juxtaposition between D’Angelo and especially Maxwell’s largely carnal “neo soul” velvet and the post-punk atmosphere that colored many a classic on the label that released the album made for an intriguing listen. What stands out most about No World is its subtlety. This is a work that requires several listens before it entirely sinks in. And when it sinks in, it completely submerges.

4. JESSIE WARE, Devotion (PMR, 2012)

A merger of soignée “diva” vocals, distinctively British tastefulness, dance music rhythms and commitment to low-key R&B of decades past made Devotion a promising prospect even before its spring 2012 release. Jessie Ware had already built a name for herself via cameos on records by fellow forward thinking Brits SBTRKT, The Joker and Sampha but on Devotion that name became emboldened and placed in caps. A set that’s gossamer (the precise Aaliyah channeling on its opening title track; the lush and almost folksy closer “Something Inside”), earnest (the single “Wildest Moments”), funky (“Sweet Talk”, the Little Dragon-esque “110%”) and stately (the single “Running” which piqued my interest in the first place from its blatant nods to Sade’s “Cherry Pie” and so much sophisti-pop of the same era and origin). Devotion turned out to be such a masterwork that its author has yet to match its range and breadth with a couple more follow-ups that were increasingly pop-orientated and plainer in sound. Regardless of Ware’s musical trajectory, Devotion still stands as one of the best debuts that the 2010s birthed.

5. KENDRICK LAMAR, Good Kid mAAd City (Aftermath/Interscope, 2012)/ To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath/Interscope, 2015)

Kendrick Lamar. The rapper that almost tracked my entry into adulthood and became one of the biggest rap stars in the world by decades end. In a way, Kendrick almost seemed like a kindred spirit. He and I are both young black men from coastal city-suburbs, born the same year (almost exactly six months apart, in fact), introverted, always exploring even if we don’t like what we find. While Section .80 introduced me into me—and many, many others—into the fantastical world of Mr. Duckworth, it was his 2012 major label debut Good Kid mAAd City that showed the world his actual palate. An incredibly well-curated and extremely accessible release, Good Kid tells the story of really, Lamar’s public persona: a good kid in a mAAd city escapes the turmoil around him—narrowly—when he finds a higher power. In his case, that higher power that provided peace of mind was music. If Good Kid showed the world who mainstream rap’s next auteur was, To Pimp a Butterfly showed us all just how much he was capable of. Arguably, the rap album of the decade, Butterfly was a work of extreme vision. It’s 79 minutes packed with rage, depression, remembrance, questioning, soul and resolve all stoked by Lamar’s new found widespread adulation—sparked by his recent rap fame—and his realization of where his black skin placed him in society. Butterfly’s adventurous yet vaunted sprawl could characterize itself as a wild theater of the mind of one of the last gifted pop-rappers we’ve seen. It could also stand as the Magnus opus that is hard to follow up. Lamar’s subsequent work achieved even more commercial success than Good Kid and Butterfly—both of which debuted at the top of the US pop charts and earned platinum status in a climate where such an award had become extremely rare—as well as continued critical adoration but failed to compel as much as its predecessors. This rather swift creative peak wasn’t relegated to Lamar, however, but also applied to many others that emerged as exciting young forces in music—Drake, J. Cole, Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Big K.R.I.T. , Miguel, Toro y Moi, etc.—at the dawn of the decades but seemed creatively tapped just a few short later despite wildly increased commercial profiles. Still, both Good Kid and Butterfly’s mark on the game is permanent.

6. TORO Y MOI, Anything in Return (Carpark, 2013)

Chazwick Bundwick began as an insanely talented hipster recording warm yet self conscious “chillwave” under the name Toro y Moi during the beginning of the decade. Then Anything in Return, his third album, was released and Bundwick was no lomger a cutesy indie poster boy but a distinct artist in his own right. A swooning, often sensual set of midtempo grooves with hooks that stick like gum, Anything in Return is millennial angst with a sweet aftertaste. Inspired by a failed relationship, While Bundwick’s melancholy is audible, the music’s sexy optimistic is what makes it so hard to shake. Toro’s following releases were all less interesting than the last even if at least a couple tried to follow Anything’s template. Yet, the bar set by Anything may have proven hard for Toro to reach even if the bar for its sheer enjoyment will likely never too high.

7. SOLANGE, A Seat at the Table (Columbia, 2016)

On the night of November 8, 2016, I stood downstairs of a LA Fitness in the San Fernando Valley, California and watched with several others on the television screens above as Donald Trump was in a landslide of a lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton as the 45th President of the United States of America. Amongst all of us that stood there, there was a multitude of emotions and reactions. Mine was one of sheer rage, if not astonishment. Prior to this night, I had been living in Glendale, a predominately Armenian-American enclave to the east of Hollywood. The lack of fellow black faces was assuaged by three aural black girl manifestos—Jamila Woods’ debut Heavn, Esperanza Spalding’s Emily D+Evolution and most strikingly, Solange’s third release A Seat the Table. Yet, on this night that the country was beginning a steep decline that it couldn’t retract for another quarter-decade, A Seat the Table acted as an elixir yet again. An album of mood—mainly rage and frustration—that was dictated by tone—delicate, airy, proudly feminine and definitely defined by its culture-Black with a capital AND bolded B, Seat played a feminine yang to the aforementioned Black Messiah (the album that undoubtedly inspired its creation) and Butterfly’s more masculine yin. It was the album that summed up a collective mood of a people even if it was markedly personal. The political has always been personal and vice versa and Solange knew this. A huge turning point for both Ms. Knowles’ career—it launched her as a must-hear artist spanning genres and scenes instead of being just you-know-who’s little sister that also sung—and really, many other artists in its wake.

8. THE INTERNET, Ego Death (Columbia, 2015)

The Internet began as a likeable but painfully tentative—and youthful-- answer to the “future soul” of LA of the past decade heralded by the likes of trailblazers like J*Davey, Sa-Ra Creative Partners and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Members of the Odd Future collective, The Internet brought a sense of sophistication to the otherwise “bratty”, then under-25 crew. On each follow-up, The Internet grew away from Odd Future’s “shock” image and into their own as a legit force in modern live band soul. By the time of Ego Death, The Internet were no longer just a legit force but now arguably one of the best bands of their generation. Ego Death is a magnus opus and easily the best album to ever come out of the Odd Future camp (only Channel Orange can match it but it can be argued if Ocean was ever an actual member of the crew). Sleek, sexy, clever, thoughtful and distinctively LA (dizzy, balmy, calm), Ego Death is the sound of a band not only finding its wings but soaring. Syd’s supple soprano is fully realized now whereas it was still in development a couple albums ever before. Now fleshed out into a five-member band, the grooves are all vivid—the bass warm and sometimes rumbling, the guitar prickly, the keys always sweet—and the songs—which were just loose groove sketches before—all fully formed. Ego Death’s peaks with the dreamy “Girl”, co-produced with Kaytranada, and proved to be a career highlight for both acts (and made for my personal favorite song of the decade). Yet, despite “Girl”’’s awestruckness, Ego Death never falters. And even if ego dies, its appeal will not.

9. THE WEEKND, House of Balloons (self released, 2011)

I still remember listening to “What You Need” on some music blog back in late 2010 in my college dorm. It’s sinewy sexed up R&B groove and lyrical promises to “knock your boot off” were nothing new but it’s approach was. There was something alien about it and sinister. Very sinister. It was almost like hearing the aural equivalent of a Jodeci video directed by David Lynch. It was sensual but dark. Little was known about the artist that recorded “Need” when I first started to listening to the song. All we were given was the name The Weeknd and a blurry gray picture of an obscured face. Soon enough, “What You Need” was given a home via release entitled House of Balloons which was self released and available for free download. And The Weeknd was given a face via an Ethiopian-Canadian singer from Toronto named Abel Tesfaye. And both House of Balloons and The Weekend were given a distinct aesthetic; an aesthetic that would inform and influence popular music for the entire decade.

Listening to House of Balloons nearly a decade later is an interesting experience. Back in the days when I downloaded Balloons on its day of release, it’s sound was incredibly fresh. The noirish, downtempo grooves, Tesfaye’s slightly off-key falsetto, naked references to Oxycontin, drugged out debauchery, empty sex and fatal heartbreak, indie rock samples and unrelenting vibe-over-song structure was all so, well, new. It didn’t take long for The Weeknd to be labeled as the vanguard of something called “Alternative R&B” alongside LA-based auteurs Frank Ocean and Miguel.

Yet, nearly a decade later, Balloons sounds almost like parody. Tesfaye’s vocals seem almost amateur-ish. The lyrics can feel almost like bad fan-fiction. Its low-slung, vibey atmospheres almost generic. Yet, this reappraisal just speaks to just how massive Balloons’ influence was on mainstream R&B and hip hop. What was new in 2011 had become commonplace a decade later. In other words, House of Balloons set the template for what followed on the charts (alongside the entire oeuvre of another fellow Toronto native who went from teen TV star to the rap superstar of the decade). Even if its follow-ups—released months apart—were stronger and more realized. Even if a sanitized and often altered version of these songs were re-released upon The Weeknd signing to a major label conglomerate within a year of his first three efforts’ self releases and packaged as Trilogy (the alterations were largely due to sample clearance issues). Even if The Weeknd became a shell of himself artistically after Balloons—and its two follow-ups Thursday and Echoes of Silence, respectively--while becoming one of the biggest male pop stars in the world by the middle of the decade. Despite whatever occurred in its aftermath, House of Balloons will always remain a document in time of when the new became the standard. And Abel Tesfaye was an exciting force in music, regardless of how brief.

10. KHRUANGBIN, Como Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans, 2018)

By 2018, I finally caught up with the world and entered into the world of streamimg after having my umpteenth iPod Classic clash. Tired of spending $340 every 1.5 to 2 years because of glitch Apple software, I reluctantly decided to let my android become my new source of sound. I signed up for a premium membership on Spotify (no plug!) for $9.99 and pressed play. One feature on Spotify that I grew to anticipate was the Discover Weekly playlist which collected thirty songs that almogriths decided I’d like based on listening history. I was both startled and delighted by how accurate the selections were. While I was already familiar with a large percentage of the songs compiled, I made several wonderful discoveries. The one that stands out amongst the rest is a lazy but endless little funk groove called “Evan Finds the Third Room”. There was something very “exotic” about “Evan” yet familiar. It evoked a lot of things—early ‘80s Lower East Side NYC post-punk, early ‘70s garage funk, Jamaican dub—but sounded like nothing specific. And that is the magic of Como Todo El Mundo, Khruangbin’s--a Texan trio comprised of bassist Laura Lee, guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald Johnson—sophomore album. It is music that conjures up a slew of vibes that you’ve heard before but nothing in particular. In other words, it like nothing that you’ve heard before. For instance, the closer (and standout) “Friday Morning” sounds vaguely like what Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day” would sound like if it were on a hell of an acid trip. That the trio created such a wonderful psychedelic musical carpet ride that remains funky and irresistible throughout its duration with few words is even incredible. With Como, there is no need for any psychedelic substance your body when the music here already bends your mind and soothes your spirits so vividly.

10 That Almost Made the 10 of the ‘10s:

Frank Ocean, Channel Orange (Def Jam, 2012)

Jose James, Blackmagic (Brownswood, 2010)

Erykah Badu, New Amerykah: Return of the Anhk (Universal Motown, 2010)

JMSN, JMSN (White Room, 2014)

Dam-Funk, Invite the Light (Stones Thow, 2015)

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Pinata (Madlib Invasion, 2014)

Little Dragon, Ritual Union (Peacefrog, 2011) OR Nabuma Rubberband (Loma Vista, 2014)

Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes (Warp, 2012)

Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note, 2012)

YG, My Krazy Life (Def Jam, 2014)

#2010s #d'angelo #kaytranada #inc #jessie ware #kendrick lamar #toro y moi #solange #the internet #the weeknd #khrunagbin

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zxcerjnvxrh · 5 years ago

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sherlock on the block rambling! character details!!

the majority of it takes place during the summer in the Neighborhood because summer for children is a) magical b) everlasting and c) delightful in a way adults can’t enjoy anymore

facts about The Neighborhood:

it’s located in northeastern usa

it’s home to a lot of expats, immigrants, and locals alike

sherlock holmes, age 8: described by many as a genius, and by her family as infuriating, sherlock is a precocious 3rd grader who would rather solve (small scale) crimes than sit in a classroom all day. despite her brilliance, or rather because of it, she’s often bored by things other kids her age take delight in. in fact, she’s never quite connected to anyone her age, until joan watson moves into the neighborhood a few doors down...

family: 16 year old brother, mycroft holmes, who hates his name and prefers mike. barbara holmes, 43, an american interior designer/realtor who lived in london directly after her undergrad graduation (where she met her late husband) john holmes, deceased, a british journalist who died when sherlock was still a toddler.

joan “joanie” watson, age 8: joan is a resourceful and peculiar kid; she’s rarely seen without her trusty knapsack that somehow has everything she could ever need it in. she’s also incredibly contemplative, and bit blunt, and very good at puzzles. she wants to be a doctor, like both of her parents, and has determined that the earlier she starts the better, so don’t be alarmed if she pulls out an anatomy textbook from her sack. it’s happened before, and there’s no doubt that it will continue to happen for the foreseeable future

family: she’s an only child; emma watson, 36, is a british surgeon who grew up in manchester. harry watson, 37, is an american military doctor -- interestingly they met while emma was studying in california and harry was stationed nearby. they married in the states but move often due to harry’s frequent relocations. most recently, they’ve rented a house in the cul-de-sac neighborhood of the holmes’, and joan spends her birthday wishes hoping that they will stick around for a while.

it goes without saying that all these characters are black

barbara holmes: african american, her family is from georgia

john holmes: welsh, had somali roots but he was like 2 generations removed

emma watson: english, born and raised in manchester, her father is indian and her mother is english as well

harry watson: he was born in the DR and moved to connecticut when he was 5, (his spanish is rusty but his parents won’t let him forget it entirely)

there are other sherlock characters that will appear, adjusted obviously to fit the times

the extent of crimes holmes and watson solve are things like “the murder of susie’s stuffed bunny, who was found beheaded by the playground 2 hours ago” or “someone stole tom’s red wagon but he takes that wagon everywhere so where it could it be?”

#GOD this is just. a word vomit.#ive decided that sherlock doesnt have a certified crush on joan #but i do like to think that theyre soulmates #that special breed of soulmate that finds each other when theyre still kids #the thing idk about is whether or not joan will move away from the neighborhood quickly or after like 4 years #itd be kinda cute to have them reunite as teenagers and click together all over again #im soft i love these weird kids #the strangeness and loveliness of girlhood!! and female friendships!!!#sherlock on the block

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djseaward · 6 years ago

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expat thoughts on the bake off finale

a bake-off post! in case you still aren't sure what i'm nattering on about, i've been baking along this autumn to the show, the great british bake off (series 9) which just had the finale this week. as i know this series will hit the states several months later, i just want to say: i will mention the winner of this series sometime in the post (spoiler alert!), so if that matters to you, go ahead and skip to my bakes (below) or click out. but something has been rattling around in the old craw about this year's bakers that i just felt like i had to comment on.

i found the finale deeply touching this year, especially all of the scenes with rahul, giving viewers even more background and depth to his story. rahul is one of the three finalists -- he moved to britain eight years before to study for a doctorate degree. rahul is sort of the eeyore of this year's bakers. or maybe more of the piglet. but the point is, he happens to be an extremely endearing and likable person even though he admits the one word to describe him is "depressing", he can't at all handle the judgement, and seems to have a low opinion of his own abilities.

in this week's finale episode, we learn more about his background. we already know that he skypes with his parents back in india every day, but this episode, the contestants get talking about who will be there to support them at the finale garden party that occurs each season. kim joy's partner is coming, ruby's large family will be there, and then we meet rahul's two closest friends-- a couple in sheffield. he thinks of them as family, and it is touching to see how they've supported him in his expat journey to the united kingdom.

see, rahul is an expat. or immigrant; i'm not exactly sure as i don't personally know his intentions with how long he plans to remain in the UK (shorter term or indefinitely), but either case, he finds himself in his eighth year in his new country. his friends, the aforementioned sheffield couple, admit that they encouraged him to get into baking as a way to learn about his adopted culture. and now, here he is, one of the top three (if not the best) amateur baker (of traditional western baked goods!) in britain. can you even imagine the kind of talent and intuition that would take? it is incredible.

rahul says, during one challenge to the camera:

"nobody brought me [to the UK]. i came here myself, because i wanted to."

later, when rahul's name is called as the the winner, my heart just swelled with pride. the camera pans to his sheffield friends, looking at each other wide-eyed. his family, his parents in india weren't present at the party, but he had these sweet friends supporting him. from one expat to another, this entire episode was incredibly touching. rahul made a new life in this country halfway around the world and such sweet friends are supporting him, like family, in this huge success. i couldn’t help but relate it to my own experience -- having such wonderful people supporting us here in our own choice to move to a new country, no family around. it is friends like this that make everything worth it.

rahul holds the glass cake stand as he poses for the cameras and his hands won't stop shaking. "i've never won anything before." he calls his mum and tells her the result.

later after the series, we see that his parents in india finally visit rahul in the UK for the first time. he is shown sitting on the couch with them and his glass cake stand trophy; serving them a british cake in the kitchen. i just lost it. it must have meant so much to him to have his parents realize how important this competition was to him, to britain, to all the viewers around the world. it must be hard to have a child move around the world "because they wanted to". it can be also very difficult for one person, unsponsored, to make it in a new country. and now, rahul is introducing his parents the flavors of britain. it was a beautiful moment.

what an ultimate measure of success! on an expat level, i felt very much for the contestants this year.

now, i can talk about two bakes!

vegan week (week 7) was a breeze for me. i've been cooking vegan recipes for almost a decade and feel pretty confident about it... if i had to give one type of food i am good at cooking, it would be "asian" and vegan. i decided to opt for the signature challenge of the savory tart, which gave me a little problem because even though the vegan category doesn't scare me off, i've never blind-baked a tart before and i couldn't think of anything heat resistant enough to put in it to keep the shell from caving in a bit, which of course, it did.

in the end, i made a roasted red pepper and walnut tart with a coconut oil-based sage spelt crust. the filling was quite delicious and great for a tart -- i think the crust, however, i would choose to make with whole-wheat flour in the future instead of the spelt flour. still, it was full of autumnal flavor. roasted red pepper is almost always a win!

danish week (week 8) was exciting for me, and i was happy to bake my first ever loaf of danish rye, which came out quite nicely. i had to bake it much longer than directed to get the dense middle to finally cook, but i really enjoyed snacking on it throughout the week. it also made me appreciate all the rye bread that we have around here, whether i like it or not. i still prefer the more fluffier american-style bread but now i feel like i can finally eat rye without grimacing inside.

for my two smorrebrod (open-faced sandwiches) that were required in this signature challenge, i made a salmon and medium-boiled egg and spring onion on delicious homemade remoulade, and a "beet tartine" with giant capers (not shown). as the loaf wasn’t very tall, the slices are thin (but good).

the last challenge which i will be tackling this weekend: the world of french patisserie for the semi-final challenge. i can't recall having made french patisserie before, so i'm looking forward at finally trying my hand at it.

have you been watching the show this season? what did you think? curious if any fellow expats had similar feels as i did.

(photo source 1 & 2)

#gbbo #bakeoffbakealong #expatlife

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shaunstoffer · 6 years ago

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I left the school I worked at in Vietnam to start a new journey backpacking Japan, visiting my family in Singapore, and to live and teach in Taiwan. I didn’t dislike Vietnam but couldn’t get past some of the cons that made me not want to extend my stay past my fifteen months of living in Ho Chi Minh City.

Some of the things I do and don’t miss about living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam:

The corruption: My temporary residence card was a piece of crap to begin with. It cost me well over $100 and was simply a cheap quality business card that had my photo laid on top and laminated. The seal was uneven and already breaking after just a few weeks in my wallet. So, I tried to double laminate it like a stubborn fool only for it to get bizarrely stuck in the laminator and come out looking like this. As a result, I tried several different ways to leave Vietnam from trying to purchase an exit visa, paying a bribe, and hiring a man who specialized in immigration issues such as this. In the end, the only method that worked was ironically getting help from a friend’s, whose dog I was fostering, cousin who worked for immigration. He simply met me at the airport, talked to immigration for maybe one minute, and waved me through hundreds of people queued in immigration and security. Literally he instructed me to go to the staff lines, which were empty, while hundreds of people waited in the regular lines. Each employee would look at me confused, I’d point to him, he’d give a thumbs up and a nod, and they would wave me through without a second thought. It was the most impressive thing I’ve seen in a long time.The pollution: My neighborhood in district seven was among the cleanest in Ho Chi Minh City, which isn’t saying much frankly, but I still never got used to waking up and seeing smog that would conceal the sky. I ended up getting a Vietnam “cough”, something a lot of expats initially develop from the exposure to pollution and are left with no choice but to either get used to it or leave. I was missing fresh clean air and nature more than I ever imagined to the point that every holiday I took I would go somewhere with mountains or beaches or both. Fresh air is something I’ll never take for granted again. The flooding: There’s nothing more comical than watching a horde of people with their feet on the panhandles of their bikes, going a kilometer an hour, and doing everything in their power not to come to a complete stop as that would cause them to have to put their leg, sometimes thigh deep or more, in the dirty flood waters that have nowhere to go due to the poor sewage system which is regularly clogged by locals uncaringly sweeping their into the drains. It was also unpleasant to be driving to work or the gym and experience a mild drizzle turn into a full on flash flood within five minutes. Many people wear heavy raincoats while driving, as umbrellas aren’t rational, even when walking due to the strong winds. However, people typically still bring an extra outfit in their bag or wear shorts and flip flops to avoid being stuck in wet clothes the entire day.

My students:My neighborhood, Phu My Hung:An unfortunate quick stop to Singapore: I reluctantly took a trip to see my mom and her side of the family in Singapore for my birthday prior to going on a three week holiday to Japan. I was fighting a serious case of homesickness and had contemplated going back home for my holiday instead of Japan. However, after spending three days with my family I couldn’t wait to say goodbye and move on to the next adventure. Aside from a nice birthday dinner and some much appreciated birthday gifts, I was all but forgotten. No one wanted to go out to eat, I ended up getting sick again, and every conversation went to gossiping about people or questioning my every life action. “What are you going to do after you’re done teaching?” “How are you qualified to teach social studies?” “What’s this? Why are you growing a beard?” “If you don’t like it you can go eat somewhere else!” It’s been a long time since I’ve been around people who made me feel so alone and small and I attribute my coldness and lack of trust to my undesired experiences and interactions with a fair amount of my family. To them it’s normal, to me it’s something I would never tolerate from any other persons. I chalk it up to different cultures but also to a lack of understanding from both sides of my family. I’ve never been understood and people can seldom relate to me, I ultimately think it attests for a lot of my loner mentality and lack of emotions.

Fair warning Singapore is a fun place but definitely strict when it comes to drugs. If you want a party beyond alcohol, don’t come to Singapore or try your luck in Geylang.The view from my grandmother’s apartment in Braddell Place.Six different currencies I’ve managed to collect overtime. Thai baht, US dollars, Japanese yen, Malaysian ringgit, Singaporean dollars, and Vietnamese dong. (From left to right, top to bottom.)Osaka Food Market: The seafood market was easily the best and my favorite out of the three I visited in Japan. Some of my favorites of the foods I tried were Kobe beefsteak, raw sea urchins, and fresh fire-roasted scallops.

Osaka’s Streets: Osaka is absurdly clean and people follow every traffic rule there is. No one j-walks, no one loiters, and everybody is helpful and courteous despite the language barrier. In Japanese culture it is rude to stare and common courtesy is expected such as holding the door out for someone, allowing someone in a hurry to pass you by, and to greet and thank customers and patrons habitually. That being said, a lot of Japanese will still see foreigners as outsiders, especially if they do not speak Japanese. Meaning just because they are polite to you does not necessarily mean they care or want to know about you.

My regular traditional Japanese Food: Sushi and dumplings.A Guilty Pleasure: I go to a McDonalds in every country I visit because it’s always a little different from the menu to the seating. Japanese McDonalds have bacon lettuce burgers, teriyaki chicken fillets, and double beef and egg burgers for example.Vending Machines: Vending machines are sprawled out everywhere, literally every block has one. From soda to coffee to beer and even ice cream. There are very few things, especially beverages that you can’t find in vending machines in Japan.

Trains: Japan has a lot of conveniences such as toilets and breastfeeding rooms everywhere for the self-explanatory. Trains are definitely one of those conveniences offering different trains like local, sub-express, and limited express. The system is a bit confusing but there are some conveinces to help you such as maps posted every where, machine for route finders and fare adjustments, and there is almost always a tenant who speaks reasonable English at every ticketing queue.

My first experience on the train in Osaka I followed Google maps which took me on an unnecessarily longer route. I showed the ticket tenant my ticket and asked if my directions were accurate. He literally gave me my money back, bought a new, cheaper ticket, and walked me to the right line, stop, and told me when and where to get off. I had never been so thankful or respectful of someone’s courtesy and helpfulness.

7th Eleven: These are everywhere as well in Japan and offer some of the freshest meals as well ass an exceptional variety of beverages.

Toilets: Something I have to admit I miss about Japan is the toilets. The seats automatically lift up and down and there is always a set of buttons that allow you to control music, clean the toilet for you, a bidet with adjustable buttons for the spray strength and temperature. It became one of those weird things where you actually looked forward to using the toilet.

Traditional housing in Japan: Oddities: For whatever reason Japanese people love Spam, they literally have flavors I didn’t even know existed. Nightlife: Osaka has a thriving nightlife from strip clubs to highball bars to British pubs. People in Osaka are generally more open and friendly towards expats whereas many Japanese can be particularly cold to foreigners. For example, many foreigners who have tattoos are not allowed into saunas, gyms, and springs unless they find a way to cover them up. Also, many foreigners are politely unwelcome at restaurants or bars simply because they are foreigners as well as aren’t fluent in Japanese. They’ll be politely told we are closed or full.

I experienced all these things in a variety of way such as being told at a hookah bar in Kyoto that they were full, until they saw my Japanese girlfriend and magically two seats became available. I also booked a hotel in Tokyo with a Taiwanese girl who spoke Japanese and laughed when a sign posted read:

The famous Glico Running Man:

Highballs & Sake: Highballs, which are basically tall cocktails comprised of liquor, normally whiskey and a lot of club soda. At first, this drink seemed unappealing to me as I prefer whiskey on the rocks or neat, but overtime they grew on me and I ended up having numerous highballs over my time in Japan.

Sake, on the other hand, is something to be either taken as a shot or sipped and enjoyed. A general rule of thumb is that quality sake is served cold where has lower tiers are served warm. I had the pleasure of trying a variety at various bars and have to admit I became a fan of aged Suntory whiskeys.

To politely cheers in Japan you should either pour your sake bottle or be holding your sake glass with two hands to receive your sake. You should also cheers lower than the person you are cheering with.

Japan isn’t cheap to eat or drink out at and one should expect to spend around 600-700 (around $6) for a standard beer at a bar.

Hookah in Japan: I fell in love with smoking Japanese shisha in Japan because it was something cheaper, social, and I wouldn’t be comatose in bed the next day. I also happened to Casanova my way into charming a female employee who gave me quite the hook up.Traditional Japanese Eateries: What I loved about the neighborhood, Tennoji, that I stayed at in Osaka was the variety of traditional eateries a short walk down the street form my hostel. The language barrier was difficult at first as I didn’t learn how to say useful phrases such as, “one please” “thank you” or “excuse me” until after a week of practicing in Japan. I relied on Google translate, pointing at pictures, and the dumb luck of having an occasional English speaking server or chef.

Osaka Castle: Is it touristy? Yes. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

Nature and weather during summer’s June: All over fellow travel blogs and travel websites I heard that June was the worst month to visit Japan due to the lack of blooming cherry blossoms and the unfortunate rainy season. However, of the three weeks I spent in various cities in Japan it only rained, and mildly at that, a fraction of the time. There was no flooding, no heavy rain, and no thunder or lightning. A simple umbrella and you can get around no problem. As far as nature goes, there is a bit of a lack of variety in color but there are still plenty of flowers and everything is very green and pleasant to see nonetheless. Many flowers won’t be in bloom but nature is still worth visiting in parks and gardens for sure.

Survival Japanese: Simplified for English pronunciation.

One = Itchy

Yes = Hi

Cheers – Comb pie

Please – Own knee guy she mas

Thank You – are we got toe go zi mas

Excuse Me/Sorry = Sue me ma send

No Problem = Moan die nai

Story Time: My last night in Osaka I spent the day in the slums run by the Yakuza. I walk into the first restaurant I see without any foreigners and the server tells me, “only Japanese menu.” I reply “mondai nai (no problem),” and the cook comes out to take my order but instead asks me about my cauliflower ears. I explain I’m a semi-retired fighter on holiday.

We start taking about fighting and I show him old videos of me and some of my old training partners killing it right now. They start bringing up old Japanese Pride fights and ask me to send them one of my old fight pics. They print two copies out and get me to sign them and they tape one on the wall and tell me they are going to put the other up in a nearby bar. It turns into a small group of the staff but we are all vibing.

I ask them if there are any Yakuza bars nearby I should be wary of and they laugh. They tell me you’re really close to one and I go seriously? The cook pulls up his shirt to show a full back piece of Shiva and I’m like oh shit. He explains he’s lower tier but not to worry, if you respect us we’ll respect you. I offer to buy them a round of drinks and they starts cheersing me and return the favor by giving me a free meal.

We keep talking and they literally say we’re going to close the restaurant down and take you to a local bar. Being me, I reluctantly say let’s go. They literally close the place down and we go to a Yakuza bar that’s something like a speakeasy where, go figure, is the second picture hung up. The bartender’s and other patrons go what are you doing bringing this foreigner here? They go don’t worry he’s with us, he’s cool. They warn me the boss isn’t in tonight but if he decides to show up you have to leave, it’s not personal but you aren’t one of us. I tell them I understand and we start eating and drinking but then a random member stands up and slaps me in the face – twice. I stand up and square up like what the hell? They all start laughing and say we wanted to see how you would react then say don’t worry, we all like you now because you didn’t back down, it shows you have pride like us. We go shot for shot, drink for drink ALL NIGHT. Eventually, I leave and they ask for a way to contact me to keep in touch, I right down my number and bid them farewell.

Never a dull moment. This is my version of Bert’s “I Am The Machine!”

Osaka I left the school I worked at in Vietnam to start a new journey backpacking Japan, visiting my family in Singapore, and to live and teach in Taiwan.

#Asia #Backpacking #Japan #Osaka #Survival Japanese #Travel #World Travel

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bbcbreakingnews · 4 years ago

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UK woman is shamed by her boyfriend for her Milo tin opening technique

A British woman’s bizarre technique of opening up a tin of Milo has gone viral.

The expat used a can opener to remove the entire top of the tin instead of prying open the lid with a spoon and slicing the aluminium sheet.

Her Australian boyfriend posted a photo of the opened tin to Reddit and jokingly slammed his partner, prompting hilarious responses from hundreds of Aussies.

‘Brits should never be left around food unsupervised,’ one Reddit user wrote.

The expat used a can opener to remove the entire top of the tin instead of prying open the lid with a spoon and slicing the aluminium sheet

The woman’s Australian boyfriend posted a photo of the opened tin to Reddit, prompting hilarious responses from hundreds of Aussies

‘Throw the whole girlfriend out,’ said another.

‘This is so bizarre, they have nesquik and hot chocolate tins with the same design in the UK, how have they never encountered this sort of design before?’ another comment read.

Some even jovially called for the woman to be deported from the country.

‘Don’t let immigration know, or else your partner may get deported,’ one user commented.

‘Surely this is grounds for deportation,’ said another.

The post has garnered more than 8,000 likes and 600 comments since it was uploaded on Sunday morning.

Some Reddit users even jovially called for the woman to be deported from the country

The post UK woman is shamed by her boyfriend for her Milo tin opening technique appeared first on BBC BREAKING NEWS.

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rob-burton-stuff · 7 years ago

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We are the Laowais

By Dr Rob Burton

What then is freedom?

The power to live as one wishes. Marcus Tulles Cicero

Marcus hits the nail on the head concerning my experience of living in China. It's one of those strange contradictions we love about the Middle Kingdom that for all the bad stuff we read about Communism the reality for us expats is somewhat different.

We have the freedom to be who we want to be. Didn't like yourself back home? Hell, you can make up your own biography and tell the story of your life to every other barfly you meet. You can be the man or woman you really want to be. We are anonymous; no one knows who you are or where you came from. And to be frank no one cares – most friendships are here today - gone tomorrow, sort of affairs. Most of us in China have an edited past we trot out in conversations. Things we don't want our newfound pals to find out about us. Those things that set us on the road to China - and keep us here. Failed marriages, failed businesses, failed careers, failed personalities. We can then impress our newfound best buddies with the tales of our travelling - fiction or non-fiction - who cares? If it's a good story its worth repeating. Let me tell you about the wonderful times I have had wandering around lonely as a cloud through S.E. Asia with only bar girls as company. Or the great money I was making in Korea. Or that time in Cambodia when... recounted a hundred times to the similar faces, in similar bars all doing similar things to maintain our sanities.

There are many other freedoms. The UK has one of the largest totals of CCTV cameras in the world. The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) estimates there are between 4-5.9 million cameras. In the UK I am constantly being surveilled. This is for my own safety I am informed. In China I can go about my legal business without being filmed and analysed. This is a joy. There’s a weightlessness that goes along with this freedom – it can make one feel a little giddy. The positive side of CCTV in China is all the road junctions are monitored and in the event of an accident there will be film. But still I remain giddy - the iron cage of rationality has not imprisoned me yet.

At work, I am not being constantly micro managed. I get on with my teaching with little interference. We all know our classroom practice gets fed back to the managers and parents through the spies in the classroom. I have never found out who my classroom snake in the grass is but whoever it is they seem happy enough with what I do. So I enjoy my work and get to be creative and feel I am helping my students get to the foreign universities they dream about.

The consequence of the freedoms I enjoy in China is a lack of stress in my day-to-day life. I can do what I want, go where I want to without having to constantly look over my shoulder or worry that my 'performance' targets are not being met. For me that is a massive plus in my life. That ‘freedom’ does not give me the right to break Chinese law though. Let me quote my namesake Robert Burton (1621) here – ‘When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done.’ Many foreigners ignore this maxim parading about as if the laws of the country do not relate to them. For instance, our local police come to the campus (where I live) once a month to check up on us. They are friendly and chatty, they do not want to enter my apartment, they are just checking everything is okay. A British colleague told me I should refuse their visits as it was a 'bloody cheek' and this would never happen 'back home'. I think he has been away from the UK for too long and is out of touch with what is happening in the world.

Other expats work illegally, drive motor vehicles illegally, take and sell drugs, despite the very severe penalties should they get caught doing so. It's like they live in a bubble of 1st world privilege that saturates a colonial mentality evidenced by the way the use racist language to speak about their friends and colleagues - 'chinks, slopes, chinky, japs, gooks and other racialised ethnic slurs.

China is not without its idiosyncrasies. Many of the things expats hate are things that are culturally different to the ways we think things should get done. As a sociologist I am more patient, understanding we can get too ethnocentric about the way life is lived here. One thing that irritates even me, Dr Laid Back, is that last minute management thing when they call, 'Oh Dr Rob there’s a meeting tomorrow do you have a PPT for it?' 'What? You just this moment told me, how can I possibly have a PPT ready?' - 'Oh Sorry.' Or your phone rings at 7:48am 'Dr Rob, you have a class, where are you?' 'I'm in bed, my first class is this afternoon.' 'No Dr Rob we changed your timetable, you have a class now. Class A Room 3.' 'But no one told me.' - ' Oh Sorry.'

Yet the Chinese teachers suffer the same problems, for less money, I am told it’s a management thing whereby they expect employees to jump to their slightest whim to show commitment to the employer. I still don't get it though and it’s annoying.

This forments within many expats a resentment that allows them to witter on about 'Oh we didn't do it like this in my last school' or just ignore last minute requests from the people who pay them. It's as if we are so much better and worth more than our Chinese teacher colleagues who have little say in how their employer treats them. It annoys me that some expat 'teachers' (I am using the word 'teacher' advisedly here because some people I have met in schools are plainly not teachers) think they can swan up to class, fill their 45 minutes with something or other they might have put together at the last minute, and swan off down to the local bar for another evening of telling each other the same stories they have told each other a hundred times.

That attitude breeds an arrogance (not far removed from the racism mentioned above) where we can blame the Chinese for all the things that go wrong with our easy life. How often do we hear - 'Oh the bloody Chinese, they haven't got a bloody clue, bloody idiots.' I will admit I have fallen into the same trap myself – it’s so easy to push the blame somewhere else, mindlessly disregarding that this is their country and their systems. We are the visitors; we are the aliens, the immigrants, and the refugees if you will. It is WE who are different - not them. We are the Laowais.

This is my sixth year here and I am not yet tired of the Middle Kingdom. I will be here for many years, my adventure is not ending - I will continue to live as I wish.

Happy New Year.

Dr Rob Burton

#freedom #essay #china #tefl #eslteacher #efl #amwriting #amediting #writers on tumblr #writer #my writing

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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All Hi Fly Flights Now Single-Use Plastic Free

Hi Fly, a leading wet-lease carrier, has worked hard to replace any single-use plastic items on board with more environmentally friendly options. This includes bamboo cutlery, cups, spoons, and salt and pepper shakers, while packaging for bedding, dishes, individual butter pots, soft drink bottles and toothbrushes have been replaced with compostable alternatives crafted from recycled material. The company operated its first ever 'plastic-free' trial flight when it took passengers on a Boxing Day trip from the carrier's base in Lisbon to Natal, Brazil, on an Airbus A340 in December 2018. This was quickly followed with three further 'plastic-free' test flights in addition to a series of 12 reduced plastic journeys.

These flight tests determined that every commercial passenger long haul flight that takes to the air with no single-use plastic items on board prevents around 350 kg of single-use, virtually indestructible plastic from poisoning our environment. When scaling this up to take account of Hi Fly’s global operations, then the difference becomes significant. Hi Fly President, Paulo Mirpuri, said, “We pledged at the time of our historic Hi Fly test flights, without any single-use plastic items on board that we would make Hi Fly the world’s first ‘plastic-free’ airline within 12 months. We knew that if we worked hard to overcome the problems that it was 100% possible. More importantly, in our hearts, we knew it was much more than that. We knew that this was a necessary move for the future of our planet. We are excited and we are proud, but we were never in doubt.” “Over 100,000 flights take off each day around the world and, last year, commercial aircraft carried nearly four billion passengers. This number is expected to double again in less than 20 years. So, the potential to make a difference here is clear,” added Mr. Mirpuri. “We take our commitment very seriously." Hi Fly is an EASA and IOSA certified and FAA approved carrier that operates a large fleet of Airbus aircraft, Airbus A320, A330, A340 and A380 families, exclusively available for wet lease worldwide. Wet Lease - the supply of aircraft and crew, maintenance and insurance - is Hi Fly’s core business. See also: Waste, Single-Use Plastic and Climate Change - Interview with WWF. See latest Travel News, Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: Hi Fly, Plastic, Waste, Sustainable. Headlines: Aviation: Stable Passenger Demand Growth in November CWT Appoints Dale Eastlund as VP Supply Chain Partners Dassault Falcon to Hold M&O Seminars in 8 Cities Around the World Expat in Phuket Donates Two SV14 Dinghies to Disabled Sailing Thailand Bangkok to Host Asia Destination Film Forum on 30 January Wizz Air Becomes First in Europe to Deploy SITAOnAir's ACARS Over IP Service Airbus to Increase Aircraft Production in USA Sanlorenzo Appoints Simpson Marine as Distributor for Bluegame Yachts in Asia Thailand Travel Mart (TTM+) 2020 - Exclusive Interview with Chiravadee Khunsub of TAT Global Air Freight Demand Down 1.1% in November 2019; APAC Down 3.7% IHG Expands Thailand Portfolio with Holiday Inn and Suites Siracha Laemchabang Asia Pacific Airlines Flew 30.3 Million Int. Passengers in November 2019 SilkAir to Cease Flights to Kolkata, India Biman Bangladesh Airlines Launches Flights to Manchester, England EmbraerX and Elroy Air to Collaborate on Unmanned Air Cargo FCM Strengthens Innovation Programme with Shep Investment Artotel Appoints Yulia Maria as Group Director of Marketing Communications Japan, Singapore, S. Korea and Germany Have World's Most Powerful Passports Yangon Int. Airport Implements SITA's Airport Management Solution Air France to Launch Twice-Daily Flights Between Paris-Orly and Munich, Germany ANA to Enhance Service at Airports in Japan with Portable Translators Yvette Thomas-Henry Appointed GM of Four Seasons Resort Nevis Hahn Air Enters 2020 with 40 New Partner Airlines CWTSatoTravel Partners US Military's Spouse Employment Programme My Emirates Pass Gives Passengers Special Discounts in UAE Visitors to Singapore Must Now Register Unmanned Aircraft India's Vistara Airline Appoints APG as Online GSA in France BOC Aviation Orders 20 Airbus A320neos China Airlines to Launch Direct Flights to Chiang Mai, Thailand Green Light for Vietnam Airlines to Expand Codeshare Agreement with Delta All Hi Fly Flights Now Single-Use Plastic Free Air India Renews Distribution Agreement with Amadeus Mandy Goh Joins St. Regis Langkawi as Executive Chef Spirit Airlines Signs Purchase Agreement for 100 Airbus A320neo Aircraft Hamad Int. Airport Served Record 38,786,422 Pax in 2019 British Airways Starts Offsetting Carbon Emissions on All Flights Within UK Marriott Opens Second JW on Hainan Island, China Airbus Partners Aston Martin for Special Edition Helicopter Dassault Aviation Appoints Charles Wemaëre as VP Worldwide Spares Boeing Appoints Niel Golightly as SVP of Communications Jayson Goldstein Joins Four Seasons Boston as F&B Director Vietjet Takes Delivery of Two More Airbus Aircraft Two Executive Appointments at Bombardier Aviation Air India No Longer Available on Sabre GDS Thailand Targets Tourism Revenue of 3.18 Trillion Baht in 2020 Pictures from Ascot United vs Banstead Athletic on 4 Jan 2020 Gen Z - Airbnb's Fastest Growing Market for Experiences in Asia Pacific Air Canada Takes Delivery of First Airbus A220-300 AirAsia Launches Flights Between Kuala Lumpur and Dalat, Vietnam Cebu Pacific Orders 15 Airbus Aircraft, Including Up To 10 A321XLRs American Airlines and Royal Air Maroc to Codeshare New Immigration Requirements to Help Solomon Islands Fight Measles Vietjet Launches Danang - Singapore Flights American Express GBT Forecasts Stable Air Prices in 2020 Etihad and Kuwait Airways to Codeshare PAG and Inmark Purchase Grand Hyatt Seoul British Airways and Iberia Achieve IATA NDC @Scale Certification Air Caraïbes Takes Delivery of First A350-1000 Aman Signs Fourth Resort in Japan Hamilton to Host HSBC New Zealand Sevens 25-26 January 2020 Thales' New Touchscreen Cockpit Displays Now Available on Airbus A350s Mongolian Airlines to Expand Network with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner British Airways to Trial AI-Powered Robots at London Heathrow Dusit Thani Resort Opens in Shuangyue Bay, China Six Senses Signs First Hotel in UK Mandarin Oriental to Take Over Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi Cebu Pacific Offering Passengers Roaming WiFi Kits Air France Orders 60 Airbus A220-300 Aircraft Sindhorn Midtown Hotel in Bangkok Appoints Jee Hoong Tan as GM British Airways to Launch LHR Flights to Portland, USA Braathens Takes Delivery of First of Five New ATR 72-600s Cebu Pacific Joins IATA Thailand: Airbnb Adds Saraburi to Beyond Big Cities Campaign New International Rugby Sevens Competition to be Launched in February Sindhorn Midtown Hotel in Bangkok Appoints Nicha Ruenthip as DOSM Qatar Airways to Launch Flights to Santorini and Dubrovnik British Airways Signs Joint Business Agreement with China Southern Air Canada Rouge Completes In-Flight Wi-Fi Installation Saab Wins Order for Digital Air Traffic Towers in Netherlands Whitbread Secures Fourth Premier Inn Hotel in Dublin, Ireland Amman to Host CAPA Middle East & Africa Aviation Summit 2020 Boeing to Suspend Production of 737 MAX Cathay Pacific's Inbound Hong Kong Traffic Down 46% in November Singapore Airlines to Launch Flights to Brussels, Belgium Wego Signs Retailing Agreement with ATPCO GTR Opens Air Cargo Hub at KLIA Air Cargo Terminal 1 Bombardier Uses SAF to Deliver Challenger 350 to Latitude 33 Aviation Swiss-Belhotel Signs First Hotel in Malaysia Czech Air Force Orders Two More Airbus C295 Aircraft New Boeing-Built Satellite to Orbit Over Asia Pacific Third Four Points by Sheraton Hotel Opens in Malaysia Hong Kong Airport Reports Further Drop in Pax, Cargo and Flights Air Canada Launches Flights Between Vancouver and Auckland, New Zealand Andaz Macau Appoints Chikako Shimizu as GM Cathay Pacific to Take Over Air New Zealand's Auckland-Hong Kong Service Four Seasons Opens Second Luxury Resort in Megeve, France Ireland's Department of Defence Orders Two Airbus C295 Aircraft Best Western Plus Opens in Nairobi, Kenya Qatar Airways Launches Flights to Gaborone, Botswana Korean Air to Revamp SkyPass Frequent Flyer Program Embraer E175-E2 Performs Maiden Flight Charlie Sullivan Joins CWT's Air Distribution Team Marriott Opens Third Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, China Radisson Blu Opens Resort in Cam Ranh, Vietnam Qantas Chooses Airbus A350-1000 for Ultra Long-Haul Flights Executive Appointments at Banyan Tree BA to Launch LHR Flights to Six New European Destinations in 2020 Korean Air to Revamp SkyPass Frequent Flyer Program Embraer E175-E2 Performs Maiden Flight Charlie Sullivan Joins CWT's Air Distribution Team Marriott Opens Third Sheraton Hotel in Beijing, China Radisson Blu Opens Resort in Cam Ranh, Vietnam Qantas Chooses Airbus A350-1000 for Ultra Long-Haul Flights Executive Appointments at Banyan Tree BA to Launch LHR Flights to Six New European Destinations in 2020 How Technology is Shaping Airports of the Future FCM and Flight Centre Achieve NDC Level 4 Certification Dusit Rebrands Luxury Resort in Philippines Emirates Launches Flights to Mexico via Barcelona Air Canada's First Airbus A220-300 Completes Maiden Flight FAA Certifies ExecuJet MRO Malaysia to Work on Dassault Jets AirAsia Launches Snap Air France-KLM Orders 10 A350-900 Aircraft Bundeswehr Takes Delivery of First Airbus H145 SAR Helicopter Drew Crawley to Join American Express Global Business Travel as CCO Cape Town 7s 2019 to Take Place 13-15 December Congo Airways to Replace Dash 8-400s with Embraer E175 Aircraft Ascent Solutions Installs Two E-Gates at NAIA 2 Departures Michel Poussau Appointed GM of Rugby World Cup 2023 Wetherspoon to Invest £200 Million Developing New Pubs and Hotels IATA Asks EU to Support Sustainable Aviation Fuel Transition Boeing Delivers First Modified MV-22 Osprey to United States Marine Corps Marriott Signs Six Hotels in India Accor to Rebrand Hotel in Queensland, Australia MHG Signs Two Hotels in Doha, Qatar Vietjet Launches Flights to New Delhi from Hanoi and Saigon SKY Signs Purchase Agreement for 10 Airbus A321XLRs British Airways Trials 3D Printing SAS' First A350 to Enter Long-Haul Service on 28 January Air Italy and Oman Air Sign Codeshare Agreement ACH and Aston Martin to Unveil 'New Creation' in January Qantas Signs FFP Agreement with Air France - KLM Group Malaysia Airlines Launches Shuttle Fares on Flights Between KL and Singapore Accor to Open 125-Room Mercure Hotel in Canberra in January Openings Push Australia's Hotel Inventory to Over 300,000 Rooms Alban Dutemple Appointed Cluster GM of Two Hotels in Bahrain Air New Zealand Trials Edible Coffee Cups Manchester Airport Unveils Details of £1 Billion Transformation South Africa Beat New Zealand to Win Dubai Sevens Aviation: RPKs Up 3.4% in October 2019 China Airlines to Launch Flights Between Taipei and Cebu, Philippines Seaplanes in Thailand? Interview with Dennis Keller, CBO of Siam Seaplane Seven HD Videos from IATA Airline Industry Retailing Symposium 2019 in Bangkok Vietnam Airlines Signs EngineWise Service Agreement with Pratt & Whitney Future of Airline Distribution and NDC - Interview with Yanik Hoyles, IATA Cambodia Airways Interview with Lucian Hsing, Commercial Director HD Videos and Interviews Podcasts from HD Video Interviews Travel Trade Shows in 2019, 2020 and 2021 High-Res Picture Galleries Travel News Asia - Latest Travel Industry News Read the full article

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