Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Serbia News

I asked one of our local staff members for a good way to keep up with Serbian news, particularly politics. She recommended the following:



2. transitional justice
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/balkan-transitional-justice-homehttp://www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/balkan-transitional-justice-home

3. Serbian government website 

I will try to check them out over the weekend and report back. I'll also try to provide a history capsule  short enough for those of you for whom wikipedia is too detailed. That should be fun.

Postscript. In a follow up message, she also recommended the following:


News Media
1.
Transitional justice, region

3.
Blic daily 

B92 


PartnersCounterparts, Clients  
1.
Serbian Parliament


3.
Justice Ministry

4.
High Court Council  (not available in English)

5.
USAID

6.
European Commission Delegation in Serbia 


8.
OSCE





Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Day 1

First day in BG passed without incident, although it began unexpectedly.  Contemplating my high tech shower, I pushed every button several times, before I finally got it working. As I was washing my hair, the phone rang. Thinking that it was my colleague wanting to make breakfast arrangements, I ignored it, resolving to return his call in 5 minutes. But it kept ringing, so I jumped out to answer it.

Hello Sir, this is the Front Desk. You pulled the emergency cord three times, Is everything OK?

Sheepishly, I apologized, although, in retrospect, you would think that an alarm might have some markings to indicate that if you pull it, people are going to spring into action, I can't possibly have been the first person to have pulled the cord underneath the shower.








Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Big D is Leaving the House (But Not Really)

On Sunday, I am moving to Belgrade, Serbia for the rest of the year. I have accepted a position as the rather atavistically named Chief of Party of the United States Agency for International Development's Separation of Powers Project.

I was surprised to learn that the U.S. government is funding democracy and governance projects n Serbia, and no doubt there are many surprises ahead as I return to the Balkans fifteen years after my first such trip, to Macedonia. I suspect that much about Belgrade will seem vaguely familiar (green markets and red peppers, sweet coffee and strong brandy) but that even more will be strange and new.

I am going to try to shift the focus of my blogging to life abroad, and I hope to have the necessary sticktoitveness to do so acceptably. I certainly have lost momentum over the past few months; I'm not sure why. I have been busy with a couple of other projects, but the experience of blogging has not turned out to be as positively as I had hoped. It has been fun, though, nonetheless, and I'm grateful to G Lo, Bobby Digital, Pat, Joy, Worldwide and my dad for their comments. G Lo, especially, who has been far and away my most avid and complimentary reader.

When I started, I expected that the Gs would be more of a focus, but they are far more independent than previously, and their lives are now full of the closed bedroom doors and independent outings that do not suggest amusing or insightful blog entries so readily. Still, I'm proud of how they are turning out, and I don't want to suggest that I would want it any other way (except, perhaps at the dinner table); plus, you embarrass a teenage girl very easily, and at your peril, which makes for added complications as a blogger.

I'll keep writing from this site, even though Blograde and Acerbia seem to be available. Drop me a note if you have any questions or see anything interesting. It means a lot. Even if you can't figure out how to work the comments (I'm looking at you, mom), send me an email and I'll work it into the site.

The first thing I'll share is that the giant plastic tub I bought today is fairly comfortably within the 115 "linear inches" allowed by the Excess Baggage Policy of United Airlines. Since I'm not paying for the excess baggage, I did not actually check the policy until I got home (to see if there was a limit on the number of excess pieces I could check), and a frantic fumble with the measuring tape soon assured me that there was nothing to fear.

I'll be home for Christmas, as many have said before, and we'll see where we go from there. Sounds like a plan. Thanks for reading.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Going Upstreet

Back in the Seventies I spent chunks of a couple of summers with my grandmother in Gananoque, which has a population of about 5,000. Most mornings after breakfast, we would go "upstreet," which meant walking a couple of blocks up to King Street.

We would go to the post office (there was no home delivery at that time) and then maybe the Bank of Montreal, the hardware store, the baker (for apple tarts) or the drug store. Grandma would always chat with the merchants, and invariably, we would run into a few people on the street and stop to say hello; the essence of small town living.

Here in the CHill, we live about a twenty minute walk from Franklin Street (Presidents substitute for royalty in the US) and it's just a little too far to be part of my regular errands. We will walk up to a restaurant on occasion, and I do visit the post office once in a while, but it's not quite the same as the old days, a change that is neither entirely good nor bad.

Today was the last meeting of the BG's reading group and I decided to go upstreet after it was over. The school is on the western side of downtown, in Carrboro, so it's more like a 45 minute walk. After I finished at school, I stopped in at the garage to make service appointments for the cars, got a haircut and went to the post office. I resisted the temptation to stop off at the Krispy Kreme for Elevenses and made a mental note of the new Korean fusion barbeque place, which had a sign advertising "Gangnam Style Chicken."

Home by 10:30.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Oregano Surplus

The breakout stars of my garden have been the thyme, rosemary and oregano; not surprising given the provencal-like character of our weather.

No complaints, except that the oregano is threatening to take over the space, and I need to figure out a way to use pesto-like quantities, rather than the couple of tablespoons I put in spaghetti sauce.

I found, as one can for virtually any idea one thinks of as original, a promising recipe for oregano pesto, which called for 2 cups of leaves. Now we're cooking, I thought. I'll whip up a batch and everyone will love it, especially the BG, who is a pesto fiend. And I'll plant some more if need be.

Sadly it wasn't very good. The oregano has a strong taste that just didn't work. It was palatable thanks to copious quantities of cheese, oil and nuts but definitely not a repeat. BG suggests going half and half with the basil and oregano, but I am not optimistic.

Any ideas?

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Deep Sea Fiction

Between the Sunday Times, recommendations from friends, my regular blog reads and the new arrivals shelf at the library, I usually maintain at least one or two books on deck. When I've not had something to read in the past, I've grabbed one of the dusty titles that Worldwide is unwilling to part with off the shelf. That's how the Nabokov, Austen, Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Hemingway have made it on to my lists over the last couple of years.

But since I can't bring myself to read the Anne of Green Gables series (apologies to my native country), I think that I've finally exhausted my emergency stash. And after my last book, I need to give neuroscience a rest for awhile. So yesterday I decided that when looking for something to read, I would try to pick up a piece of fiction from the library by an author whose name starts with the letter A, and to see if I could work my way through the alphabet over the next year or two. It's always interesting to try something or someone you've always been meaning to read, but never have.

First up: One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis. Is Balzac next? Barrie? Bombeck? Stay tuned.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Big D is Jumpin'

A Slate article today about the untimely death of one of the members (Mack Daddy) of 90s hip hop group Kris Kross discusses the popularity of songs about jumping throughout our history, That seems like an invitation to share this playlist, which I made for the OG to celebrate February 29th last year.




Aztec Camera
Jump
Aretha Franklin
Jump
Kriss Kross
Jump
House of Pain
Jump Around
Pointer Sisters
Jump
Flo Rida (feat Nelly Furtado)
Jump
House of Pain
Jump Around
Count Basie
One O’Clock Jump
Brian Setzer Orchestra
Jump Jive and Wail
Harry Belafonte
Jump in the Line
Sugar Hill Gang
Jump On It
Jacksons
Jump for Joy
Jr. Walker and the All Stars
Monkey Jump
Koko Taylor
Jump for Joy
Cab  Calloway
Jumpin’ Jive
Fats Waller
The Joint is Jumpin’
Joe Jackson
Jumpin’ Jive

If you're a Spotify user, here's a link to the playlist.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

April Books



End ZoneGary Harkness is a football player and student at Logos College, West Texas. During a season of unprecedented success on the football field, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the threat of nuclear war. Both frightened and fascinated by the prospect, he listens to his team-mates discussing match tactics in much the same terms as military generals might contemplate global conflict. Offering a timely and topical look at human beings' obsession with conflict and confrontation, End Zone is a clever, playful and, above all, funny novel, which confirms DeLillo's status as one of the great American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and reaffirms the unerring incisive accuracy of his portrayal of the modern world.

Note
Part Semi-Tough, part Catch 22. Sometimes elliptical story of a smart New England boy playing football at a small college in Texas. Lots of worries about nuclear war, and much more philsophy from the seventies. Very much of its time.



Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived LifeAll of us lead two parallel lives: the one we are actively living, and the one we feel we should have had or might yet have. As hard as we try to exist in the moment, the unlived life is an inescapable presence, a shadow at our heels. And this itself can become the story of our lives: an elegy to unmet needs and sacrificed desires. We become haunted by the myth of our own potential, of what we have in ourselves to be or to do. And this can make of our lives a perpetual falling-short. 
     But what happens if we remove the idea of failure from the equation? With his flair for graceful paradox, the acclaimed psychoanalyst Adam Phillips suggests that if we accept frustration as a way of outlining what we really want, satisfaction suddenly becomes possible. To crave a life without frustration is to crave a life without the potential to identify and accomplish our desires. 
     In this elegant, compassionate, and absorbing book, Phillips draws deeply on his own clinical experience as well as on the works of Shakespeare and Freud, of D. W. Winnicott and William James, to suggest that frustration, not getting it, and and getting away with it are all chapters in our unlived lives—and may be essential to the one fully lived.
 

Note
Still not entirely sure what this was about—something about frustration, desire and conjecture interfering with the enjoyment of life. Tough sledding. Many quotes from Freud, and other deep thoughts that seemed profound by virtue of their impenetrability. Not recommended.



The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient WisdomIn his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world's philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn't kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives.

Note
Science is slowly proving what the artists and poets have known all along. Easy to read and agree with; seems a little cherry-picked, in retrospect.




Emergency sex and other desperate measures: a true story from Hell on EarthA new kind of war requires a new kind of war story. This scorching, devastatingly honest memoir is a first-of-its-kind confession of love, friendship, and betrayal of ideals from civilians who volunteered to be on the front lines.
In the early 1990s, three young people attracted to UN peacekeeping for very different reasons cross paths in Cambodia. Heidi, a new York social worker on the run from a marriage gone bust, is looking for an adventure. Andrew is a young doctor seeking to save lives. Ken is fresh from Harvard Law and full of idealism.
The UN organizes Cambodia's first democratic elections, and Phnom Penh is the scene of wild parties, as the international community celebrates the end of the Cold War. There the three become friends for life.
Propelled by success in Cambodia, the US and UN sponsor peacekeeping missions to Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia. Ken and Heidi find themselves together in Somalia. They dance on their rooftop to Jimi Hendrix while helicopters buzz overhead so close they feel the heat of the exhaust. "You're listening to 99.9 FM MogadishuRockin' the Dish," American Armed Forces Radio announces, "Keep your head down and the volume up."
But after the infamous Black Hawk Down incident when eighteen US Army Rangers were killed in a firefight with Somali militias, a chain reaction of violence breaks loose. As the trio's missions unravel, their bond tightens. Andrew is sent to Haiti, to Bosnia, and then Rwanda where he finds Ken, investigating the mass grave of genocide. Heidi's journey is unforgettablea rare woman in a man's world of conflict and war.
The three friends' voices mingle to paint an indelible picture'suffused with tenderness and unexpected humorof life, love, and death in the world's most dangerous places. By day they struggle to bring order out of chaos; by night they use revelry, sex, each otherdesperate measures from faith to flesh and everything in betweento find a human connection in a terrifying world. Graphic, lyrical, and astonishingly urgent, Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures is a celebration of the strength of the human spiritand of the gritty power of friendship to keep you alive.

Note
Honest, funny portrayal of development projects in crisis zones has you cheering for the three heroes and cursing the bureaucracies that pay the bills. Not for policy optimists. Hat Tip J Ho.


The Modern Library Writer's Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction“Make [your] characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.” —Kurt Vonnegut

“‘The cat sat on the mat’ is not the beginning of a story, but ‘the cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is.” —John Le Carré

Nothing is more inspiring for a beginning writer than listening to masters of the craft talk about the writing life. But if you can’t get Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Gabriel García Márquez together at the Algonquin, The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop gives you the next best thing. Stephen Koch, former chair of Columbia University’s graduate creative writing program, presents a unique guide to the craft of fiction. Along with his own lucid observations and commonsense techniques, he weaves together wisdom, advice, and inspiring commentary from some of our greatest writers. Taking you from the moment of inspiration (keep a notebook with you at all times), to writing a first draft (do it quickly! you can always revise later), to figuring out a plot (plot always serves the story, not vice versa), Koch is a benevolent mentor, glad to dispense sound advice when you need it most. The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop belongs on every writer’s shelf, to be picked up and pored over for those moments when the muse needs a little help finding her way.
 

Note
Very enjoyable look at the craft of writing, which is much different than I had always thought. Vomit on the page; clean it up.



Mike Lupica - 2007
Summer BallWhen you’re the smallest kid playing a big man’s game, the challenges never stop, especially when your name is Danny Walker. Leading your travel team to the national championship may seem like a dream come true, but for Danny, being at the top just means the competition tries that much harder to knock him off. Now Danny’s heading to Right Way basketball camp for the summer, and he knows that with the country’s best players in attendance, he’s going to need to take his game up a notch if he wants to match up. But it won’t be easy. Old rivals and new battles leave Danny wondering if he really does have what it takes to stand tall. 

Note
Sequel to Travel Team, not as good. Voices of the inner city kids not as resonant as the suburban characters the author surely knows better, and some of the coaches are crude stereotypes. But I read it quickly and enjoyed it nonetheless.



The GiverTwelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

Note
Dystopia is more Twilight Zone than Panem, and my interpretation of the ending (the sad one) was the opposite of what the author apparently intended. Who’s to blame for that?


EmmaThe most perfect of Jane Austen’s perfect novels begins with twenty-one-year-old Emma Woodhouse comfortably dominating the social order in the village of Highbury, convinced that she has both the understanding and the right to manage other people’s lives–for their own good, of course. Her well-meant interfering centers on the aloof Jane Fairfax, the dangerously attractive Frank Churchill, the foolish if appealing Harriet Smith, and the ambitious young vicar Mr. Elton–and ends with her complacency shattered, her mind awakened to some of life’s more intractable dilemmas, and her happiness assured.

Jane Austen’s comic imagination was so deft and beautifully fluent that she could use it to probe the deepest human ironies while setting before us a dazzling gallery of characters–some pretentious or ridiculous, some admirable and moving, all utterly true.

Note
Did not enjoy this. Too much fussing about social norms and proper behavior, and no crazy wife stashed in the attic. Beautifully written and full of keen insights about people but not my cup of tea.