Category: Personal

Among my duties here at the Mission is the composition of notes verbales, which are unsigned letters from one diplomatic mission or government to another. The actual content can usually be summed up in a sentence or two, but the note verbale is a peculiarly formal document, and I have to admit that I’ve developed a certain fondness for its elaborate charms.

A typical note verbal goes something like this:

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations presents its compliments to the Permanent Mission of the [Country] to the United Nations and has the honour to inform the latter that [something or other, usually involving mutual support in elections to various UN bodies].

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of [Country] to the United Nations the assurances of its highest consideration.

5 April 2005
New York

Note that the date and the “honour” are British. Note also that this lovey-dovey boilerplate gets sent back and forth between countries that don’t like each other much — although I have yet to send one to North Korea. But that, I suppose, is much of the point of the UN: it’s a place where all the different countries get their officials together to practice speaking to each other in a dignified manner. How effective this is at preventing conflict, I have no idea, but it’s kind of fun to write.

So how do you say “Wojtyla” anyway?

For those of us who get most of our news from textual sources rather than TV and radio, pronunciation can be a problem. How to name-drop people like Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or Cardinal Francis Arinze at parties?

Okay, so maybe you don’t go to the sorts of parties where this comes up. But in case you do, you’ll be glad to know about the Voice of America Pronunciation Guide (click on the short list to get the latest newsy names). Here’s a good example:

Karol Wojtyla (RealPlayer required)

The guide does tends toward the pedantic: the proper Russian pronunciation of “Mikhail Gorbachev” may be mihk-hah-EEL gahr-bah-CHAH-F (RealPlayer required), but unless you’re actually Russian, you’ll sound like a dork if you say it that way. Still, it’s a handy little tool, and where else can you go to find out how to say Tadeusz Mazowiecki?

Yesterday, Jenny and I went to the Asian Art Fair at the Seventh Regiment Armory at Park Avenue and 67th Street. The centerpiece of New York’s Asia Week (click on the link, then scroll down for an excellent slide show), the fair gathers some of the world’s leading dealers of Asian art, and it was fascinating to see these rare, privately held works, and to hear them discussed in a way that is totally different from what you overhear in museum shows. Instead of academic talk about origins and expression, there was much back-and-forth about provenance, price (people batted six- and seven-figure numbers about) and the thrill of the chase.

We were lucky enough to get our admission free simply by joining a tour offered by the Korea Society, which essentially consisted of visits to the three booths focusing on Korean art. It occurred to us that, at least for Americans, Jenny and I are pretty knowledgeable about Korean art: we’ve been to the major museums in Seoul and Kyeongju, to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and to the Metropolitan’s scant collection. The only major repository of Korean art that we haven’t visited is Japan. But there is relatively little surviving Korean art anywhere, and until recently, no Western museums focused much attention on Korean art. As such, many of the best objects remain in private collections.

Each of the three exhibitors offered unique pieces. Probably the most surprising was a small Koryo celadon sculpture of a monk (pictured above). Celadon sculptures are extremely unusual, and the material is of course prone to damage, so a complete, unbroken sculpture in celadon is almost miraculous. Another exhibitor had in her collection a number of high-quality paintings, including a beautiful portrait of a Joseon-era military official from the 18th century. The collection in any one of these three small booths beats the entire Metropolitan collection of Korean art (although the Met does boast some very old bronze pieces).

Other amazing works in the show included John Eskenazi’s superb collection of Gandharan and South Asian art, including Buddhist sculptures from the third through fifth centuries that clearly showed the Greek provenance of the classical image of the Buddha in lotus position with top-knot. There were also spectacular Japanese artifacts and a stunning array of Tang-period and earlier Chinese sculpture.

If you’re interested in Asian art and have a chance to go to the fair this year, do. If you can’t make it, plan to go next year.

Casual fans of Fiona Apple may wonder where she’s disappeared to. The last record, When the Pawn …, came out in 1999, and since then, there’s been, well, not a whole lot.

It turns out that there is, in fact, a new Fiona Apple album. It’s essentially finished and has been for some time, but Sony has decided that it doesn’t have commercial appeal ? there’s no single ? so they’re sitting on it.

But it turns out Fiona’s fan base is stronger and more loyal than perhaps Sony expected. There’s an online Free Fiona campaign, but more importantly, the album has been leaked, and now you can hear it for yourself:

Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

When I was in Korea in 2001 and 2002, I was impressed by the high quality of the subway system, which made the contrast of the bus system all the more striking. The buses were grotty, poorly designed, weirdly numbered and driven by psychopaths, and worse yet, there were no bus maps. They simply didn’t exist. (You can read my description of them here.)

Well, apparently all that has changed. My friend Graeme sent me a link to his Anyang Expats MSN group, where I was startled to see a post entitled Bus map: startled because as far as I had known, no such thing existed. Following the link, I discovered that there is in fact a fascinating online Seoul bus map (works only in Internet Explorer and requires an applet). When I tried it out, though, none of the bus route numbers matched the ones I remembered.

Then I stumbled across a post in a blog called The Beige Report explaining that Seoul has thoroughly upgraded its bus system. There are new blue buses, new route numbers, and, of course, a map.

Ah, progress! South Korea changes so fast that when I talk to someone who was there in 1997, it’s like he’s describing a different country. I suppose I, too, have an out-of-date picture of the place. And there’s only one way to fix that. I suppose I will have to go back.

So it looks like Akayev is toppled in Kyrgyzstan. It also looks like this might be another post-Soviet velvet revolution, like the ones in Ukraine and Georgia, where repressive dictators were overthrown by popular movements, largely without violence. Something remarkable seems to be happening in the post-Soviet world.

I haven’t been following this one too closely, but it strikes me as good news that the people of a Central Asian country are demanding democracy and rights. I am also tickled to see that one of my favorite place-names, Kyzyl-Kiya, has made the news.

Come on. Say it with me.

Kyzyl-Kiya.

There. Didn’t that improve your day? I thought so.

I’ve been meaning to mention the website of Ruben Fleischer, the director of some truly fine music videos. The site’s got plenty of them to watch, including M.I.A.’s “Galang” and some Dizzee Rascal tracks, as well as a fun little Electric Six number.

But the real standouts in this collection are the DJ Format videos, two of which feature the outstanding rapper Abdominal. His virtuosity on “Vicious Battle Raps” is matched by the bravura video, which consists of one extended shot. “The Hit Song” is the other Abdominal track. But start with “We Know Something You Don’t Know,” whose video features … well, just watch it.

Oh, and while you’re there, enjoy the fine, fine silliness that is Gold Chains’s “I Come from SF.”

Got a couple of new speeches up. Check them out, if that’s your thing.