31 de maig del 2007
It's time for some kimchee
I'm celebrating Korea Week©!
Not really. I just watched a movie about North Korea's Mass Games that was utterly fascinating. It's called "A State of Mind" and it focuses on two young gymnists as they compete to perform in the show. The Mass Games, by the way, are where you see all those incredible images of thousands and thousands of people doing sychronized things to create some sort of gigantic propoganda image. But the documentary shows a lot of ordinary life in the DPRK. Something that's interesting is how genuine the people (granted, most are children...) are when they talk about their devotion to Kim Il Sung (the Father) and Kim Jong Il (the General). It makes sense, if you know almost nothing of the outside world. That country is seriously traumatized by the memory of the Korean War- some of their fears of an American attack seem justified.
In less than twenty years, there will be almost no one left, probably, who remembers a time before the DPRK and all of its propaganda. Isn't that wierd to think about?
Then:
Tonight I went for a walk and found the brand-new Korean War memorial at MacArthur Park, which was paid for almost entirely, it seems, by Little Rock's Korean sister city and Samsung Corporation. It was a nice foil to the previous night's film. Just across the DMZ is a nation that is all about some US imperialism, and they speak the same language, have the same pre-1940s cultural history, etc...
6 de maig del 2007
A bunch of random things
1. I correctly predicted- in February- the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy. It came to me in a dream.
2. Among other things, I dreamt last night that involved the fate of Haley Barbour- the governor of Mississippi. I'm actually afraid to post what that involved for fear of questioning by some dumb federal agency, but ask me sometime if you're curious. It's not all that interesting but it is noteworthy considering I had all those other scary airplane dreams a while back.
3. Check out this totally awesome Mitt Romney quotation, which comes only a week or so after his declaration that Battleship Earth was his favorite book:
4। Benji mentioned the book The Nine Nations of North America in a comment on my last post (which you should look at, if you haven't already). It was written by Joel Garrau and published in 1981, and it explores pretty much the same idea, but he divides all of North America as such:
I think he makes one huge (but somewhat understandable, given the date of publication of the book): the Empty Quarter. I think that's a huge and contrite way to deal with a region that is far more culturally, politically and economically diverse than most people are willing to give it credit for. He probably can't be totally faulted for not having the forsight to predict the demographic effects of California vomiting its population across the region, but I still think that it's based on a very dated idea of the West being dominated by the extraction industries; it sits out there on his map like some sort of colony for the rest of the real states to mess with.* Extraction still play a huge part, but the tourism/retirement/real estate industries seem to be playing a much bigger role. I also think it's crucial that he left the Mormon homeland in there, because that's an area that's clearly culturally distinct from the rest of the region, though not economically all that much different.
Plus, west Texas and Wisconsin in the same region? I think don't like the map is that I'm much more interested in cultural areas, whereas his map is much more focused on just economic links.
I also wanted to share a related map that I found at Fake is the New Real:
It's a division of the US into proposed new electoral college districts. I like that Nevada et al are known as "Loving Hands".
5. While we're on the subject of maps, here's one of roadless areas of the US. The more red a county is, the smaller "roadless volume"or percentage of land without roads:
6. Connie Chung. Remember when she got Newt Gingrich's mom to say that Hilary was a "bitch"?
*Well, it was just that for most of the 20th century, but the last 25 years have seen such a population upswing for the interior west that I think it's important to start recognizing it as a population center and political power base in its own right.
2. Among other things, I dreamt last night that involved the fate of Haley Barbour- the governor of Mississippi. I'm actually afraid to post what that involved for fear of questioning by some dumb federal agency, but ask me sometime if you're curious. It's not all that interesting but it is noteworthy considering I had all those other scary airplane dreams a while back.
3. Check out this totally awesome Mitt Romney quotation, which comes only a week or so after his declaration that Battleship Earth was his favorite book:
"There is no work more important to America's future than the work that is done within the four walls of the American home...(i)t seems that Europe leads Americans in this way of thinking...France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."
At least the fascists weren't shallow or anti-family.
4। Benji mentioned the book The Nine Nations of North America in a comment on my last post (which you should look at, if you haven't already). It was written by Joel Garrau and published in 1981, and it explores pretty much the same idea, but he divides all of North America as such:
I think he makes one huge (but somewhat understandable, given the date of publication of the book): the Empty Quarter. I think that's a huge and contrite way to deal with a region that is far more culturally, politically and economically diverse than most people are willing to give it credit for. He probably can't be totally faulted for not having the forsight to predict the demographic effects of California vomiting its population across the region, but I still think that it's based on a very dated idea of the West being dominated by the extraction industries; it sits out there on his map like some sort of colony for the rest of the real states to mess with.* Extraction still play a huge part, but the tourism/retirement/real estate industries seem to be playing a much bigger role. I also think it's crucial that he left the Mormon homeland in there, because that's an area that's clearly culturally distinct from the rest of the region, though not economically all that much different.
Plus, west Texas and Wisconsin in the same region? I think don't like the map is that I'm much more interested in cultural areas, whereas his map is much more focused on just economic links.
I also wanted to share a related map that I found at Fake is the New Real:
It's a division of the US into proposed new electoral college districts. I like that Nevada et al are known as "Loving Hands".5. While we're on the subject of maps, here's one of roadless areas of the US. The more red a county is, the smaller "roadless volume"or percentage of land without roads:
6. Connie Chung. Remember when she got Newt Gingrich's mom to say that Hilary was a "bitch"?
*Well, it was just that for most of the 20th century, but the last 25 years have seen such a population upswing for the interior west that I think it's important to start recognizing it as a population center and political power base in its own right.
5 de maig del 2007
Proposal
I've created a map that reorganizes the USA around my percieved cultural regions.
In this new USA, there are only 17 states. Except for the New England states, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, all states have been divided in some way.
The new state of Deseret probably has the strongest cultural cohesion. It was tricky to do the Midwest, since I'm not very familiar with that region. For example: where does St. Louis fit in? It's certainly not in the same cultural category as Kansas City, but is it more influenced by Midwestern or Southern culture? I considered puttin it in Delta but I decided it was much more of a Louisville- and to have Houston and St. Louis in the same category would be a little ridiculous.
Arizona is another state I'm not totally sure of. Southern California would probably be distinct enough to merit its own state, but then again, Orange County and San Diego seem like they would have a lot in common with Las Vegas and Phoenix. It would probably be better to roughly divide down the middle, making a different state out of most of the old New Mexico, down through the Big Bend region, and encompassing most of eastern Arizona, including Tucson.
So here's an updated map:
I can think of no real reason why this would be a good idea, but it's kind of fun to play with. It would probably actually be a total disaster to add the other collapsing rust belt economies to Michigan, and the clump all the impoverished Mississippi delta regions together, not to mention adding all of Nevada and Idaho's Mormons to Utah.
Suggestions?
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