Nothing But Words

If you had told me a few weeks ago that I’d be in a fashion show, I’d laugh. If you’d told me I’d be in an Asian fashion show, I’d say you were crazy.

But there I was on Saturday night, up on stage with Kai at Villanova. The Asian Students Association was putting on their annual Asian Expo, and the fashion show – “Asian Elegance” – was the opening event. Since Maria is one of the few Asian faculty members she is, almost by default, involved in events like these. My presence was only incidental: they really wanted Kai. In addition to being cute, he had a Japanese boy’s summer festival outfit to show off. He insisted on having Mommy or Daddy with him though. Maria doesn’t have any especially “Asian” outfits, but I have a men’s summer kimono that was made for me by Yuka’s mother (Yuka lives in Osaka Japan, and is a friend of Maria’s), so I got to go on stage with him. Click the image below to see the video! There’s a lot of ambient crowd noise, so you’ll need to turn up the volume if you want to hear what I’m saying.

Kai was a real trooper. He had a stomach flu the night before, and he was up all night. He was better in the morning, and even though he was tired, he wouldn’t take a nap. We were going to cancel our appearance, but Kai somehow still had some energy, and he wanted to go. We were supposed to be onstage at 6:30, but the show was delayed almost an hour. Kai was getting very sleepy, but he got jazzed up when he saw all the stage lights, and, as you can see, he did fine.

Watching events unfold in these days leading up to the elections in Iraq, I thought of political scientist Samuel Huntington, a Harvard professor who is “an old-fashioned Democrat…a dying breed: someone who combines liberal ideals with a deeply conservative understanding of history and foreign policy.” (Robert Kaplan, 11/19/01). In my political science days I read his book Political Order in Changing Societies, which influenced my understanding of democratization like no other. The book is now over 35 years old, but it’s as relevant as ever. In it, Huntington uses a series of case studies to explain why transitions to democracy are so difficult to pull off successfully.

One of his points is that you can’t equate democracy with elections: “The problem,” Huntington wrote, “is not to hold elections but to create organizations.” By that he meant functional organizations of government and civil society. Even if Iraq gets through its elections without major bloodshed, the biggest challenges are still to come.

A question that often turns up on comparative politics tests is “What societal conditions are necessary for democracy to succeed?” The opening sentence of Political Order in Changing Societies nails the most important aspect of the answer:

The most important political distinction among countries concerns not their form of government but their degree of government. The differences between democracy and dictatorship are less than the differences between those countries whose politics embodies consensus, community, legitimacy, organization, effectiveness, [and] stability, and those countries whose politics is deficient in these qualities.

Starting from this perspective, it becomes a lot easier to understand why a country like Japan – with little history of democracy – was able to successfully transition to it after World War II. Despite the devastion wrought by the war, the nation’s long-established sense of community and respect for civil institutions and authority remained. It also becomes easier to understand why a country like Iraq – which quite clearly lacks such qualities – will face overwhelming challenges in trying to rapidly create a functioning democracy.

I picked Japan as the counter-example because, like Iraq, its transition to democracy was brought at the point of a US gun. While the US has commited far fewer resources to post-war Iraq than it did to post-war Japan, and planned for the occupation far more poorly, what’s just as striking is the contrast between the two countries in regard to the qualities Huntington listed.

Politically, the Bush administration currently faces a true dilemma in Iraq. On the one hand, holding elections before violence is quelled and civil institutions are functioning is putting the cart before the horse. In modern times, countries which have made at least semi-successful transitions to democracy have either had a pre-existing familiarity with it (such as Estonia after the Cold War) or had a popular “benevolent dictator” who focused his energies on creating governmental institutions that inherited his legitimacy when he left the scene (such as Ataturk in Turkey).

On the other hand, installing a strongman (no matter how benevolent), after having just removed one, is not a viable political option for Bush. Add to that the administration’s pre-war predictions of an easy rebuilding process, and the media-driven requirement for Bush to demonstrate rapid progess in Iraq, and you end up with “…an aggressive White House communications strategy…to frame the risky Iraqi election – a critical test of [Bush's] assertion that the country is on the path to stability – in the best possible light. The goal, a Bush advisor said, was not only to lower expectations but to avoid any definition of success.” (New York Times, 1/27/05).

Bush’s domestic political need for a quick Iraqi transition to democracy has little overlap with what Iraq really needs: massive, long-term, disciplined, focused investment in the development of its economy and civil institutions (the consequence of Powell’s “Pottery Barn rule”). Without first meeting Iraq’s most basic needs for a functioning society, a democratic transition is an incredibly shaky proposition. Hence the self-contradicting goal of raising hopes while lowering expectations in Bush’s communication strategy.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration’s myopic decisions to date have narrowed the range of available strategies to paradoxical choices. Maintaining a US military presence in Iraq fans the flames of terrorism, and the resulting violence debilitates the democratic process. But without the US propping up the democratic process and dispersing concentrated elements of unrest (as in Fallujah), civil war becomes a very real possibility.

Saddam Hussein’s destruction of his country’s civil society, followed by his sudden removal and our bungling of the occupation, has left Iraq devoid of the political qualities Huntington listed as precursors to any well functioning and respected government, democratic or otherwise. They are not qualities that are quickly or easily replaced.

I didn’t have a measuring tape handy when I took this picture, so this represents my best estimate of the depth of the snowfall this past weekend (Kai said the snow made our table look like a giant birthday cake).

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This week I bring you a song by Ed’s Redeeming Qualities, one of my very favorite bands. Here are a couple descriptions of what they’re like:

Ed’s Redeeming Qualities describe themselves as “a charming folk trio,” but that description fails to mention their quirky humor, odd instruments, surreal lyrics, or disrespect for genre conventions. They can go from silly to sad to poignant to really weird, all in the same song!
- Dave Mattingly

When I was twelve, I remember finding a big box of old photographs and cards in the street waiting to be taken to the dump. I took the box home and went through the whole thing slowly, getting to know a couple generations of this family’s history. It was a more intimate look than I was ready for and I quickly brought the box back outside. Listening to Ed’s Redeeming Qualities records is something like getting a close look at someone else’s life, in that the details seem too precise not to be true…

The songs are a mix of those of [Carrie] Bradley, Dan Leone and former member Dom Leone, who died of cancer in 1989. His spirit is very much alive here, having penned five of the fourteen songs on the album which are sung, mostly, by newest member [and children's book author] Jonah Winter whose resonant baritone calls to mind Dom’s own voice. Besides singing, Winter brings a variety of instruments to the mix, including accordion, tin whistle, clarinet and mandolin. Combining all those with guitar, violin, various ukuleles and a home-made one string bass makes for quite a disparate overall sound.
- HiFi’s Review of At the Fish and Game Club

The band was together from ’88 – ’96 (not counting the occasional reunion shows since then). They only ever had two brushes with fame: The Breeders covered their song Driving on 9, and four of their songs are on the soundtrack to the coincidentally titled Ed’s Next Move.

I saw them perform live three times, and it was always a very personal experience. Even though the shows were in nightclubs, they made me feel as if I was in their living room, and that we had all been friends for years. You will find no artifice or pretention in their music; just simple, honest feelings. And plenty to make you laugh.

Dave Mattingly’s Unofficial Ed’s Redeeming Qualities home page is the best (and, I think, only) web site for them. Dave and I got in touch when I was working at Georgetown in ’96. At the time the only CD burner on campus was located next to my desk. Back then they were big, hard to use, very expensive machines. Blank discs were about $6 each, and our CD burner had a failure rate of about 20%. I had an original copy of the band’s cassette-only release Static and Weak Tea, and Dave had their early 45s and copies of their original demo tapes. He lent them to me so I could make digital copies and burn them onto CD. In those days I had time in my life for that sort of thing, so I probably have the world’s most complete Ed’s Redeeming Qualities collection – for whatever that’s worth

If you’d like to get an Ed’s album, the one you’re most likely to find is their final album, At the Fish and Game Club – I do not recommend it. It is dull and lifeless compared to their earlier releases. You probably won’t find their first two studio albums (as I don’t think they’re being made anymore), but you probably can find the live album Big Grapefruit Cleanup Job. It has some excellent tracks and is a good introduction to the band.

Update, May 13, 2009: For some reason this 4 year old post is still one of the most popular on my site. I switched to WordPress years ago, so the information below about Movable Type is no longer relevant. For spam protection in WordPress, I’ve found WP-reCAPTCHA (for comment spam), my own Deko Boko plugin (for contact form spam) and the Bad Behavior plugin to be an effective combination.

I just upgraded to Movable Type 3.15 due to a major email security flaw.

A few folks noticed last week that I added TypeKey registration as a requirement for posting comments. I did this because I was getting hundreds of spam comments daily (even though I have comment moderation turned on, I still had the chore of deleting them every day).

Pat W turned me on to some ways to counter spam comments without having to resort to the heavy-handedness of TypeKey. So I’ve removed the TypeKey registration requirement, and I’ve implemented what I think will prove to be an effective spam deterrent, but I’m not going to say what it is, lest the spammers are reading!

At least one spammer actually does pay attention to my blog. I know because he actually sent me a nasty email and posted a bunch of lewd stuff in my Big Country poll after I activated the TypeKey registration requirement (he didn’t identify himself as a comment spammer, but I could tell who it was because he used the same fake email account name that he used in his comment spam). How dare I deny him a place to post his spam!

As sometimes happens with home improvement projects, my current one is getting out of hand.

In two previous posts (here and here) I described the demolition of the interior walls I’m doing on our third floor. Here’s a description of the thinking that has caused this project to sprawl out of control:

Since I have the walls open, I’ll run new electrical lines (4 circuits: one for all the lights, one for Kai’s new room, one for our new room, and one for air conditioners).

And why not coax and cat5 too – two lines of each per room?

We can hardly call this a master bedroom if it doesn’t have a closet. I’ll build one.

The sink in the 3rd floor bathroom is really old and needs to be replaced. Installing the new sink we want will require some solder work on the copper pipes. Now’s the time to do it since the walls are open.

The stairwall leading up to the third floor is awfully dark and narrow. Since I’ve already removed its interior walls, I’ll completely remove the wall on one side of the lower half of the stairwell and open it up to the second floor hallway (so it’ll get some light and won’t feel so claustrophobic). Then I’ll install ballisters and a handrail so it’ll be safe.

There’s a low spot on the ceiling in that stairwell too, where I sometimes hit my head. I’ll see if I can modify the framing to raise it a couple inches.

Since I’m having a drywall crew come out to install the new walls, I ‘ll have them put in new ceilings in the bathroom and dining room too, as they’re in bad shape.

Since I’m going to have the bathroom ceiling open, I’ll put new electrical lines in there, and a ceiling vent fan too. That means installing vent pipe to the outside as well.

And we don’t really like that closet that’s behind the bathtub – I’ll demolish it and open up that area to the room. Y’know, the plaster on the closet walls is in bad shape. I’ll tear it all out and have new walls put in there too.

I’d like to have a ceiling light in the bedroom adjacent to the bathroom. With the bathroom ceiling open, I have access to snake the wires I’ll need to install it.

I may as well run new electrical lines for the light in the dining room ceiling while the ceiling is open.

I found some old water damage in the roof decking after I opened up the third floor ceiling (and a dead mouse, yeech!). The guys who installed our new roof last year really should have fixed that. I better get them out here to take care of it. And I don’t know why I didn’t have them put a new roof on the sunroom when they were here last time. It’s gutters are in bad shape too. I may as well have them take care of all that while they’re here.

I probably have about a month to go before I’m ready to have the drywall crew come out.

Below are some pictures of the bathroom ceiling demolition. I did this after I came back from Denver, but before Kai and Maria came back. I ended up working late into the night. When I removed the framing for the closet door, I was very proud of myself for having cut it out as one giant piece. The trouble was, between that and all the rubble that had accumulated on the floor, I had managed to barricade myself in the bathroom, as it was impossible to get the door open. It took some doing to finally get myself out.

It was late and I was tired, but I needed to take a shower before going to bed, as I was completey encased in plaster dust. As you can see in the picture, I cleared a tiny path through the rubble so I could get to the tub. I was smart and plugged the drain before starting the demolition, but somehow the plug came out and the drain was full of plaster rubble. I had to sit there with needlenose pliers, plucking bits of plaster out of the drain before I could finally take my shower and go to bed.

I finished the cleanup work the next day. You know you’ve gone too far with your weekend home improvement project when the cleanup requires a shovel.

I took this picture after I had already cleaned up all the lathe, so about
half the mess was already removed.

I’ll run new electrical lines through the ceiling, for new vanity lighting,
a wall outlet, and a ceiling vent fan/heater/light/nightlight unit.

The day after Halloween I posted a picture of Kai in the Samurai costume that Maria’s mother Michiko made for him, but it’s not the greatest picture. Michiko just sent us some pictures she took in mid-October, while Kai and Maria were visiting her in Denver. I’ve scanned them, and these are my two favorites:

This week I bring you Party Balloon, from the 1992 album Prison – a posthumuous release of spoken word tracks by poet Steven Jesse Bernstein, set to music by producer Steve Fisk.

I was introduced to this album by my friend Pete right after it came out. I thought it was one of the strangest, saddest, funniest, most compelling narratives I’d ever heard. And it still is. What follows is an excerpt from the Unappreciated Album of the Month review of Prison. It’s a great review, and while it gives you a good sense of the sadness and emotional harshness of the album, it doesn’t mention the humanity and humor you’ll also find while listening to it. I picked Party Balloon as the track to highlight from the album, as it emphasizes those aspects of Bernstein’s work.

Bernstein’s published and unpublished body of work has started to surface in bound volumes over the last 10 years, but his own spoken-word recordings, rare as they are, remain somehow more vital than what stands on the printed page. His stream-of-consciousness-inspired texts are volatile, emotional works with images that writhe and twitch and pull switchblades on the reader. Bernstein’s recordings of his own work, though, are even more vicious and affecting beasts. Aside from sparse appearances on comps like the infamous Sub Pop 200, the posthumously released Prison is the only real document of this, a nuanced gem of a spoken-word record that pairs the writer’s readings with the sound collages and arrangements of Seattle musician/producer Steve Fisk.

From first breath, Prison is a strange and upsetting little document. Instead of using guitar drones or other sounds with their own inherent or apparent narratives to back Bernstein, Fisk casts the writer’s words against manipulated music that calls to mind a much different time and place. The album-opening “No No Man (Part One),” the only track on the disc completed before Bernstein’s suicide, and “This Clouded Heart” use looping pieces that could have sold kitchen appliances on black-and-white TV in the 1950s. Warped with turntable lurching and cuts, the soundtrack only makes Bernstein’s words — first-person narratives that wander around images of lust, urban decay, and self-examination — all the darker and more disorienting.

The blog has been silent so far this week as Kai, Maria, and I have all been out of commission with the flu. Kai and I are better now, but Maria caught it after us, so she’s still fighting it.

Despite at least two attempts on my life by my mother-in-law, I managed to enjoy the holidays in Denver (her preferred method is slow-acting bacteriological poison, so I’m not sure if I’m out of the woods yet). The highlight of the trip for me was our day of skiing at Keystone. I hadn’t skied for at least 10 years, but it turns out it’s like riding a bike – aside from quickly getting out-of-shape-guy-in-his-30s sore legs, it was just like I remember. Going down the kiddie slope with Kai was fun too.

There’s more about the things we did in the photo captions.

I liked Denver. It is a clean, pleasant city. What I didn’t like was the sprawl surrounding the city. I thought Tyson’s Corner (outside Washington DC) was bad, but this is worse. There’s approximately 30 miles between Denver and Boulder, and that space seems like it’s one giant mall. In one mall I saw a Lowe’s and a Home Depot, and 5 minutes of driving later, I saw another Lowe’s and another Home Depot. It was like the roadside images were spooling by on a short, endless loop tape. I’m told that 30 mile stretch was mostly ranchland not too long ago.

Favorite Kai quote from the trip: Kai watched me weigh myself on the scale in the bathroom. Later on, he watched my mother-in-law weigh herself; she had left the door open, so we all heard him exclaim “that’s the same as Daddy weighs!”