Author: Josh Philip Ross

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[korean cuisine]


“Heaven knows, I have eaten a lot of unusual things, but I found these little fellas terrifying.” That is food writer Stefan Gates’s take on Beondegi (번데기), or boiled silkworm larvae, a popular Korean snack. The photo and comment are part of his “search for the ultimate edible challenge,” as documented by the BBC. Other Korean culinary delights include sea slugs and dried frog tea.

It’s features like these that make me envy those friends of mine who have become obsessed with Italy or France. Of all the countries in the world to snare my passions, why did it have to be the one that thinks larvae are a tasty treat for the kiddies?

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[the best hotel in india]

When we were in India in 2002-2003, our favorite hotel was one we didn’t even stay at: Killa Bhawan. Located in the honey-hued fort walls of the historic Thar Desert city of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, the hotel was run by an affable Brahmin who was wise enough to see the value of inviting non-guests up to his extraordinary terrace for chai and conversation. We were given a look at the gorgeous interiors, put together in conjunction with a French designer, then ushered up to comfortable wicker chairs on the crenellated curve of the fort wall, where we drank in the views along with the sweet spiced tea.

India was an enervating and difficult place to travel, but Jenny and I could see heading back to Jaisalmer simply to while away our days at the Killa Bhawan. More even than its stunning location, what so impressed us about the Killa Bhawan was its immaculate, lush sense of style. Its color schemes — Rajasthani oranges, pinks, greens and reds against tan sandstone and dark wood — became a kind of shorthand for all that we found most compelling about Rajasthani style. Alas, the tight spaces of New York apartments are more suited to the clean lines and simple elegance of East Asia, while its more northerly light works better against the muted shades of those temperate countries than with the bright juxtapositions of the Indian desert. But one day I do hope to decorate a home, or part of a home, in the style of Killa Bhawan. And in the meantime, you’ll notice that the look of this blog owes a bit to the color and feel of that remarkable hotel.

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[bombs in israel]

Northern Israel is under attack, and this includes the town of Safed, where my brother is living with a family friend. He tells me he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a blast about three blocks away. He’s now in the hills out beyond the city, which are hopefully less of a target than the city center. But with bombs raining down and the violence escalating, it’s a scary situation. Hopefully he’ll get himself to Jerusalem soon, out of range of the rockets, where he can stay with friends. For the moment though, he seems to be stuck. I’m chatting with him now.

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[chingis!]

When Ghengis Khan died, his legacy was so powerful — and so disputed — that his family homeland was closed to all outsiders and remained closed until after the fall of the Soviet Union nearly 800 years later. This and other fascinating and bizarre facts about history’s most prolific conqueror can be found in Jack Weatherford’s engrossing if somewhat undercritical biography, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. And what better time to learn about this astonishing figure, who really did reshape the political landscape from Manchuria to Central Europe, than now, as the Mongolians celebrate his octocentennial?

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[personal achievements]

Today at the gym, I made it for the first time through 20 full minutes on the treadmill. For those of you who jog regularly, this may not seem like much of an achievement, but I have always had a tough time with jogging, ever since I was first forced into it by the venerable Mr. Starn of the Terra Linda High School Physical Education Department. My father has never liked jogging either, claiming it beat up his knees. Once I’d had my knee surgery, that was pretty much it: I now had a ready excuse for ruling out jogging as a form of exercise.

But it was never quite true. Jogging sometimes leaves my knees a little sore, but the pain is primarily in the muscles. Specifically, five minutes of jogging would leave my tibialis anterior screaming for mercy. And the thing with muscle pain, as opposed to joint pain, is that you can overcome it through regular exercise and strengthening. Jogging was never impossible, just uncomfortable because it worked muscles that were weak.

I have now reached an age at which my Adonislike physique will no longer maintain itself without my active intervention. To slow the inevitable decline, I go to the gym, except sometimes I don’t, which is why I want to take up jogging. For all those times when work is too busy or I’m too lazy and I don’t get to the gym often enough during the week, I’d like a cardiovascular option for the weekend, and I’d rather not spend a fortune on an elliptical machine that will dominate whichever of our two rooms we put it in.

As such, I’ve been hammering away at the treadmill for maybe six weeks now, gradually increasing my strength and endurance. I think our week of intensive hiking in Acadia National Park may have put me over the top, and now, at long last, I can jog.

Mr. Starn would be proud.

*

Yesterday I had another sort of personal breakthrough. Ever since I got an MP3 player several months ago, I’ve had a bit of a pocket problem. I carry my wallet in my left front pocket, while the right front is dedicated to my cellphone, keys and a handkerchief. There’s just too much junk in the left pocket for the MP3 player, so it goes in the right pocket, but that gets me tangled up whenever I reach for my wallet to get out my Metrocard or buy something. And I hate carrying things in my back pockets, so that was never a good option.

But yesterday I made a discovery. It turns out I have another pocket, and it’s right on the front of my shirt! So now I’ve begun carrying my MP3 player in there, and all is right with the world. Genius! I should have myself bronzed.

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[a frustrating dream]

Do you ever have the kind of stress dream where you’re trying to get something done, like get to the airport or finish your homework, but you’re thwarted by an endless array of niggling obstacles? Well, this morning I was having a dream like that, and the goal I couldn’t quite reach was to get to bed and go to sleep. How annoying is that?

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[weekly world music 13: songs for the dear leader]

Song of General KIM IL SUNG | Don’t Ask My Name | Children’s Music 1 (Music Gallery of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)

애국가 (Aegukga) (National Anthem of the Republic of Korea)

Been hankering for creepy marches and disturbing paeans to terrifying totalitarian dictators? Your search is over!

In honor of North Korea’s recent erectile dysfunction, here are a few tracks from the DPRK’s charming Music Gallery, as filled with joy as everything produced in the jolly North. My Korean isn’t good enough to understand most of the lyrics, and I’m not about to go wandering around the South Korean UN Mission in search of someone to translate North Korean propaganda ditties, so unfortunately I can’t tell you exactly what these tunes are about. I did catch the children singing “김정일 ... 우리 아버지” (Kim Jong-il … uri abeoji, or Kim Jong-il … our father) at one point, but you knew that was in there somewhere.

In the interest of fairness, I’ve also included the national anthem of the Republic of Korea, whose title translates to The Patriotic Song — you may recall hearing it following some short-track skating event in the Winter Olympics. It’s better than the North Korean stuff, although I find it disappointing that so many Asian countries have gone for poignant yet rousing anthems in the European classical tradition. Like, wouldn’t it be cooler if the national anthem of Indonesia was the Kecak, or if India’s was a raga that took 45 minutes? If Nepal can have its wacky flag, shouldn’t someone have a truly bizarre national anthem?

Oh, and if you happen to be wondering why a “weekly” feature appears as sporadically as Weekly World Music, let’s just say that I’m on summer schedule, and also that I’m sorta lazy. I’ll try to keep up with it every week, but some weeks it’ll slide. Life is full of broken promises.

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[a change at gitmo?]

According to the New York Times, the Pentagon today has decided to apply the Geneva Conventions to all detainees worldwide.

If this is actually what happens, or even if it becomes officially the standard by which detentions are expected to be conducted, it would be an enormous shift in executive policy and a welcome rollback of one of the worst moral and strategic failures of the Bush administration.

The article itself, however, is less than clearcut on the administration’s policy change. The announcement of the new approach is attributed only to “a senior defense official.” Beyond that, the article is mostly a murky discussion of the recent Hamdi v. Rumsfeld decision and potential Congressional responses to it. (The BBC’s breaking news report is much sparer.)

Unfortunately, I’m not sure even the Geneva Conventions ban either rendition or secret prisons.

As an odd little side note, the Geneva Conventions prescribe payment for all prisoners, set at rates of Swiss francs per month that made some kind of sense when the Conventions were first signed. That means that each detainee below the rank of sergeant — which presumably all of them are, in the present case — is entitled to 8 Swiss francs, or roughly $6.50, per month. The real question, of course, is whether we make the pay retroactive so that detainees can collect the $350-odd that’s coming to them.

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[forza italia, carroll gardens style]

The Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, where I live, is one of Brooklyn’s old Italian neighborhoods. Al Capone was married at the church up the street, and there’s a social club just a couple blocks from my building where old men still hang around and argue in Italian.

So you can imagine that yesterday was a big day for the locals. Occasional correspondent Robert Ooghe came through with the pics.

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[new beck record coming]

Guero came out just last year, but it turns out Beck is already nearly finished with a new album — a Nigel Godrich production, like Mutations and Sea Change, but also supposedly a hip-hop record, whatever that might mean coming from Beck. In any case, if the album comes out in the fall, as promised, it’ll be the quickest turnaround between records since Midnite Vultures followed hard on the heels of the supposedly unofficial Mutations. Even better, there’s enough material in the can for several albums, which means more may be on the way, at least in the form of a flurry of B-sides.