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Double Take
I think I can remember fairly clearly, well at least a bit, no actually through a high-school haze (probably more like junior high actually), the embarrassing visit of Bush I to Asia. It is probably one of the first things that I even remember with a political tint. (At least it provides a backdrop that makes it near impossible for the current visit to be worse, haha.) Well, it's unlikely that Bush II will get food poisoning or bird flu, whatever happened. Apparently the recent visit to the 'other' Americas was already bad enough. The Asia fun has begun "among Japan's greatest cultural treasures" (from NYTimes online).
I couldn't resist one quote that preceded the current Asia trip. Reminiscing during an interview about a visit to China while Bush the elder was US liaison there, Jr. said: "Everybody was on bicycles. . . . I rode all over the place in Beijing, which was fascinating." (So observant, culturally sensitive.) He then recalled "how odd people thought I looked." (Some things never change. Was it the smirk or the sneer?) I'm sure he's going to love the Japanese court music, certainly among Japan's cultural treasures. (It put my students to sleep last year, even though I played the videos with Bill Malm's 'light' commentary.)
I couldn't resist one quote that preceded the current Asia trip. Reminiscing during an interview about a visit to China while Bush the elder was US liaison there, Jr. said: "Everybody was on bicycles. . . . I rode all over the place in Beijing, which was fascinating." (So observant, culturally sensitive.) He then recalled "how odd people thought I looked." (Some things never change. Was it the smirk or the sneer?) I'm sure he's going to love the Japanese court music, certainly among Japan's cultural treasures. (It put my students to sleep last year, even though I played the videos with Bill Malm's 'light' commentary.)
Posted 15 November 2005 at 19:22.
A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.
Comments:
Perhaps Our Leader will get a chance to hear some Korean p'ansori (I hope I am remembering the spelling of that properly). It was really good for annoying my friends with when I was at Santa Cruz. There was the time when they decided to barricade me into my room, I think with a large mattress (Mark Ryan will remember if he happens to read this) and the Korean music did have an interesting effect on everyone.
4:02 PM, November 16, 2005
Ah, that would be good. Certainly another cultural treasure.
11:39 PM, November 16, 2005
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