Melt Banana and Tool

Went to see the heavy metal band Tool last night. And I fell asleep, even through all the noise.

I'm not a fan, but Husband is. I enjoy music and concerts and thought that even if I'm not really a fan, I could still enjoy it. After all, we went to see Disturbed, again, I'm not a fan, but at least their stage show was interesting. But Tool? Nope.

What I didn't enjoy:
1. The 4 band members were pretty static. They stayed in one place and didn't move around. The drummer of course, stays behind the set. The lead singer stood on the platform next to the drummer, in the shadows. The guitarist and bassist stood out front, in the spot light, but didn't really move. Actually, one (bassist or guitarist, couldn't tell) sat down and both of them had their backs to the audience, and faced the drummer instead. What kind of show is that? Were were supposed to watch the videos on the 4 screens behind them instead? Boring.
2. Air, a la Grateful Dead. The Dead will have these long, long jams that don't seem to have any rhyme or reason. If you're stoned, they're great to "dance" to. But if you're not, then it's excruciating. It seemed that most of the Tool show was them doing heavy metal electronica jams, standing in one place. I hate those jams. Boring.
3. The roadies wore knee-length white lab coats, so you could see them moving around. Usually, roadies wear black to be inconspicuous. And then the roadies mostly wore shorts, so there were bare legs below the lab coats. What the hell was that?
4. Didn't recognize any of the songs they played, despite the fact that we listened to Tool on the way to the venue, and I've heard their stuff on the radio. At the end, Husband mentioned that they didn't play their big song "The Pot."

The times I did open my eyes, I could see 6 or 8 people at a time walking out. We sat at the top row, right next to the stairs, so people walking past me could see that I was asleep. I so did nto fit in, wearing work appropriate pencil skirt and twinset in red and cream, and not the black goth/heavy metal wear that most other fans had on.

What I did enjoy was the opening band, Melt Banana, a 4-piece band from Japan. The lead singer and bassist were women, the guitarist and drummer men. We didn't understand anything they said, other than "Thank you," "We're so glad to be opening for Tool," and "We're Tool fans too" when the audience started chanting for Tool. At the end, some people in the audience actually booed Melt Banana. How rude. For crying out loud, I didn't enjoy Tool, but I didn't boo them.

Husband said he enjoyed about 50% of Melt Banana, and mostly did not enjoy the wall of sound stuff they did. Little did we know, that's what the Tool show would be like.

When we arrived at the concert venue, there was a guy on loud speaker saying that we couldn't bring any bags in, no cameras, had to empty our pockets, and get into different lines, by gender, for the pat down. Well, I had not prepared for this. I was going to just bring in my purse, like I do for other concernts. I scrounged around my purse for something small to put my ID, money, ticket, and most importantly, lipstick and eyedrops. I ended up using my camera bag to hold those things. Clearly, I could not bring in my knitting, -- spikes and studs were not allowed, I'm going to guess knitting needles, even bamboo, would not be allowed. Which is too bad, because then I could have done some knitting, not napping. However, I'm sure Husband would prefer me napping instead of knitting.

So, it's a first! A heavy metal concert put me to sleep.

Craft In America -- PBS series

Starting tonight, PBS will show a three part series about Craft in America http://www.pbs.org/craftinamerica/tv_series.html

I'm really looking forward to it because I love to make things with my hands, be it through gardening, pottery, knitting, and quilting, though quilting's on the back burner for some time now. I have a quilt top that I'm hand piecing. I call it my five year project and no matter what year it is, I think of it as year 2. Which means I have 3 more years in which to finish the project. Gotta love those movable deadlines.

It's summer and so begins art festival season. Over the Memorial Day weekend, Husband and I went to the Decatur Arts Festival and picked up three pieces: a metal fish, a woodblock print, and a painting. We had a great time.

This coming weekend is the Virginia-Highland festival and we'll be there too. My favorite local yarn shop, Knitch, is in Vi-Hi, so I may have to stop in.

Someone need a hat?

Well, the beret is a little too big for me. I've got 2 inches of brim done and started increasing and then found out it's too big. I thought about frogging it, but had 3 more skeins of the Manos on it's way, so put it aside for now.

The good news is that my big box o' Manos yarn should be on my doorstep tonight. I could go home and continue the never ending yard work. The front of our house is obscured by overgrown azaleas and holly bushes. Husband and I have cut them down to about 6 inches tall. This is called renewing. The roots are still there, so new growth will come back in a few weeks.

But in the meantime, I look like I lost a fight with several cats. Hauling away the holly branches is tricky business and I have scratches all over my arms and legs.

But tonight, I will sit on the back patio in the 80 degree heat, knit wool hats, and read Brother One's original fiction. The funny part is he based the main character on the little girl in that phone commercial who texts her BFF Jill too much.

Dress Shopping

Yesterday I went dress shopping and one place I went was Ann Taylor. I had seen this dress on their website. This is what it looks like on the model.

This is what it looks like on me:

Hm. Somehow not the same. I did not get it.

A sad end to what has been a rather stressful couple of days.

To make myself feel better, I started knitting a beret with Manos del Uruguay in the Bramble colorway.

You can't really tell, but there are reds, burgundies, greys, light greens, and white/cream in it. Really lovely. I'm ribbing in the round right now and it doesn't look like much so no picture.

Yes, it's practically summer here in Atlanta, but it's such great yarn. It doesn't make up for the major disappointment I had earlier this week, but it did make me feel a bit better. Even if a major undertaking falls apart, and I have visual proof that fashion designers hate women who are not tall and skinny, I can still make things that are beautiful and useful.

Kosovo Independence, Pat Buchanan, and Roger Waters

Just as I am writing for work about a Kosovo roundtable I attended, NPR is doing a 2 part series on Kosovo independence. Here's the link. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10259437 and the article is pasted at the bottom of this post.

If Kosovo becomes independent, some of the Serbian towns are thinking of seceding from Kosovo to join Serbia . Can you imagine if all the Chinatowns in the US decided to secede and join China ? or Los Angeles and San Antonio wanted to secede and join Mexico ?

As I reflected on the Belgrade trip, I contrasted what we heard there, with the xenophobia we hear in the immigration debate in the US . In both countries, the conservatives are fearful of the change in society because they see their dominance, power and personal economic and mental comfort zone slipping away. And so they talk about the "good old days." In Serbia , the good old days were 500 years ago, in the US they're 50 years ago.

Yesterday Pat Buchanan and Sean Hannity were talking about how 50 years ago everyone ate the same food, watched the same shows, wore the same clothes and everything was fine. Now people want multiculturalism and they celebrate different holidays like Cinco de Mayo! (Pat, Pat, Pat, don't get all riled up. The only reason people celebrate Cinco de Mayo is so they can get drink, like St. Patrick's Day. And Americans used to hate the Irish too.) Hannity wasn't even alive 50 years ago, but thinks it was better then.

Well, these two white guys miss the "good old days" because it was good for them (no offense to the white guys reading this. I love you white guys. I even married one.) but not so much for the rest of us.

And as a child of immigrants, I can tell you that acculturation and assimilation does happen, and it takes time, generally the process of raising the second generation. The immigrant generation know that life will be hard for themselves, especially if they don't speak English. They know that. And people want to learn English, there's a waiting list for English classes.

They do it because they know life will be better for their children, the second generation, who do become fully Americanized, complete with bad eating habits, lower educational achievement, and propensity to talk back. Or was that just me?

Given that the US has a history of absorbing new peoples and new cultures, albeit painfully, it boggles my mind that the Balkans want to just keep splitting and splitting and splitting and yet Serbia wants to join the EU, a supranational organization.

And finally, last night I went to see the Roger Waters (formerly of Pink Floyd) concert. If you know anything about him, you know that he was heavily heavily influenced by WWII and is very anti-war. In concert, he played "The Wall" while showing pictures of the Berlin Wall, the razor wires surrounding refugee camps, the US-Mexico wall, etc. And he flew out a big pink pig, from the "Animals" album cover, with slogans such as Impeach Bush Now, All Religions Divide Us, Habeas Corpus Matters, Torture is Wrong, and the Amnesty International logo. He got boos and cheers. Great, great show.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pressure Mounts on Kosovo Independence
by Emily Harris
Morning Edition, May 22, 2007 ¡¤ This is the first piece in a two-part series.

The final chapter soon may be written in the bloody Balkan wars that ripped apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s and re-wrote the map of southern Europe .
The United Nations Security Council is discussing a proposal to set the province of Kosovo clearly on the path to independence from Serbia .
The United States strongly backs an independent Kosovo, insisting that is the only way to bring stability to the region. But Russia , also a key player in the process, adamantly insists Kosovo stay a part of Serbia .
Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku is not ruling out simply declaring independence, but only if the European Union and the United States agree to recognize and support the new country.
Western officials say they don't want the U.N. process to stall to the point Kosovo would declare independence.
Meanwhile, Kosovo Albanians have already started working on a constitution. No ethnic Serbs are involved in the process, but members of the ethnic Albanian political parties that are a part of the process say it's very informal.
American and European politicians say anything short of independence could lead to violence, as the frustrated Albanians in Kosovo are determined to be free from Belgrade .
World
Q&A: The State of Kosovo
NPR.org, May 18, 2007 ¡¤ The United Nations Security Council is discussing a proposal to set the province of Kosovo clearly on the path to independence from Serbia . Here's some background on the situation:
Where is Kosovo?
Kosovo is in southern Europe . It is a landlocked area a bit smaller than Connecticut ¡ª north of Macedonia , east of Albania , south of Serbia , and west of Bulgaria . It's at nearly the same latitude as the "ankle" of Italy .
What is Kosovo's legal status?
Kosovo is technically still a part of Serbia , which was the dominant republic in the former Yugoslavia . But since 1999, Kosovo has been run by a U.N. mission and protected by NATO troops. When Yugoslavia existed as a country, Kosovo was ¡ª for part of that time ¡ª an autonomous area within Serbia . The U.N. Security Council is currently considering a new resolution that would lead to Kosovo becoming an independent country.
What led to the current situation?
In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia in order to stop what the organization called a "campaign of terror" against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, carried out by the then Yugoslav military and irregular Serb paramilitary groups. At the end of the bombing, the Security Council approved Resolution 1244, which gave a U.N. mission the responsibility to administer Kosovo, while developing elements of a local provisional government, until a final political solution could be arranged for Kosovo.
The antagonism between Serbs and Albanians has roots that date back to the Middle Ages. These tensions have flared into violence in varying degrees since then, including in the years just prior to the 1999 bombing.
Why has it not been resolved until now?
There was no deadline to resolve Kosovo's legal status in the Security Council resolution that set up the U.N.-run government there. Several issues have come up in the past that delayed it. There were doubts that the provisional local government was ready, for various reasons, to take on the responsibility of governing ¡ª particularly in terms of ensuring the rights of Serbs in Kosovo. (A "multi-ethnic" Kosovo has been the stated aim of the United Nations and the other key group involved in Kosovo's fate ¨C the so-called "Contact Group," which is made up of the United States , United Kingdom , Germany , France , Italy and Russia .)
Now the United States and many European nations are pushing hard for the United Nations to spell out Kosovo's future by the end of June. The countries back a proposal, put together by a U.N.-appointed envoy, which would lead to Kosovo's independence. Russia is resisting this option, which is making a resolution more difficult than Western diplomats had anticipated.
What is the proposal for Kosovo that is backed by the United States ?
It's called the Ahtisaari plan. The plan is named after the U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland , who attempted for more than a year to negotiate a settlement between the Serbian government and the Kosovo provisional government. The two sides have opposite end goals: Kosovo refuses to be in any way a part of Serbia again, and Serbia refuses to accept Kosovo as an independent country. Ahtisaari put together his own recommendations, which have become the basis for the proposal in front of the Security Council now.
The Ahtisaari plan sets up local authorities in Kosovo to take on significantly more power and responsibility than they have under the U.N. mission. European Union oversight would replace that of the United Nations and would be less sweeping. Ahtisaari's proposal would allow Kosovo its own security force, flag and the right to apply for membership in international organizations. It doesn't use the word "independence" in referring to Kosovo's future, but does builds in a review of the situation. It is, however, expected that "supervised" independence would be followed fairly rapidly by full independence for Kosovo.
What parts of the proposal does Russia object to and why?
Russia's major public objection is that the United Nations doesn't have the right to carve up sovereign states and warns this will set a bad precedent. Moscow refers frequently to U.N .Security Council resolution 1244, which mentions the U.N. "commitment" to the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Yugoslavia . In addition, Moscow backs Serbia in saying that Serbs in Kosovo have not, and cannot be, adequately protected, and says further talks should be held between Serbia and Kosovo.
The United States and the Kosovo government reject the idea of more talks, and the U.N. envoy says the possibilities for discussion are exhausted. The United States also argues Kosovo is a unique case and should not be seen as setting a precedent for other independent minded or "breakaway" regions around the world. The situation in Kosovo is being watched closely by people elsewhere around the world who have been seeking their own states, including the Kurds in northern Iraq and the Basques in Spain . A number of such conflicts directly involve Russia , including in Chechnya , Transdniestr, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Why is this important to the United States ?
The United States got involved militarily against the Serbs in Kosovo in 1999 after sitting out similarly horrible wars in Bosnia and Croatia . The U.S.-led NATO bombardment set the stage for U.N. governance of Kosovo ¡ª and for the current question of its future status. In the U.S. view, the only possible path to stability in the Balkans region is for Kosovo to become independent
What are the chances of more violence in this area?
It is unclear. U.S. officials are openly warning of an increased potential for violence if Kosovo's status is not resolved soon. Ethnic Albanians are impatient for independence and, if it is delayed, it's possible that fringe elements, perhaps former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, could take out their frustrations either on the U.N. government there ¡ª there have been some attacks on U.N. cars recently ¡ª or perhaps on Serbs. Some Albanian politicians in Kosovo disagree, arguing that more violence would only hurt Kosovo's efforts at winning independence, so violence would only be orchestrated by people or groups which would prefer Kosovo not become independent. Serbs, meanwhile, say they fear "show-who's-boss" attacks if Kosovo is set on a path toward independence, or being targeted if the independence plan is delayed.

The Politics of Eurovision

I am just now writing about the Serbian part of my European trip and the fact that Serbia won this contest and that the other countries of the former Yugoslavia voted for Serbia, despite the ethnic cleansing campaign by the Serbs, compels me to post this.

The Politics of Eurovision
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/opinion/22watts.html
By DUNCAN J. WATTS Published: May 22, 2007Oxford, England

ONE of the unexpected pleasures of spending a sabbatical in Britain has been the chance to watch the Eurovision Song Contest, held the Saturday before last in Helsinki. For those not familiar with this quirkiest of European traditions (which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary), the contest involves 42 “European” countries — Israel and Turkey are included, for example — each of which submits a song to be sung by a band of that nationality.

The rules governing the contest are a little strange, and so is the singing, which appears to emphasize camp over more conventional notions of quality. Britain’s entrant, Scooch, put on a saucy, flight-attendant-inspired act that would have made Abba (the 1974 winner) proud, while Verka Serduchka, a Ukrainian drag queen, came out looking like a silver-foil version of Mrs. Doubtfire. The Greeks, meanwhile, were doing their best Ricky Martin, Belarus looked fresh out of a James Bond trailer and Hungary apparently had ditched the whole Euro thing and opted for what sounded suspiciously like country.

In short, it’s a great show, but the best part is the voting, which is done “American Idol”-style via text messaging. Anyone can vote as many times as he likes, the one restriction being that he can’t vote for his own country. The votes are tallied nationally, and breathless representatives call in the results to Helsinki, allocating 12 points to their country’s top choice, 10 to second place, 8 to third, and so on down to 1 point for 10th.

Now, I don’t know much about contemporary music, but as they say, I know what I like. And watching the 24 acts in the final (a preliminary round removes the other 18), I felt Sweden and Britain were clear standouts, given the silliness of the whole thing. I also had the overwhelming feeling that the Serbian entry, a turgid ballad called “Molitva,” or “Prayer,” didn’t stand a chance.

So imagine my surprise when Serbia not only won, but crushed the opposition, beating second-place Ukraine (yes, the drag queen) by 268 points to 235. Britain, with a paltry 19 points, narrowly edged out Ireland to avoid last place; and Sweden scraped together a meager 51 points, coming in 18th out of 24. What was going on? Two words that were shouted across the British dailies the next day: “Bloc Voting.”

I had heard about this practice, of course, whereby geographical and cultural neighbors tend to vote for each other, and nobody votes for Britain (well, except for Malta). But it was startling to see just how flagrant it was. The Scandinavians all voted for one another; Lithuania gave 10 points to Latvia (whose entry, bizarrely, sang in Italian); former Warsaw Pact countries voted for Russia; and almost nobody voted for Britain (surprisingly, Ireland did — and, of course, Malta).

But Serbia was the overwhelming beneficiary of the system, receiving the top score of 12 points from every other member of the former Yugoslavia — Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia — suggesting that memories of war and ethnic cleansing can be set aside with surprising ease when it comes to the serious business of winning a singing contest. It’s hard to say whether the 60 points that the former Yugoslavia effectively gave to itself altered the final result, but an enterprising Irishman suggested that if all the Irish counties were allowed to secede, they would be unstoppable.

Does it matter? Probably not. It’s just a game, after all, and the outrageous bias in the voting is as entertaining as the songs themselves. But it does offer an unexpected glimpse of how ordinary Europeans perceive one another. More than anything, it seems, blood is thicker than water, and not just in the Balkans. That Germany gave 12 points to Turkey, for example, probably reflects the large number of Turks living in Germany more than it does a German predilection for scantily clad dancers (of which there were plenty of choices).

But it was also obvious how little love Eastern Europe feels for the West. Although the “big four” — Britain, France, Germany and Spain (Italy does not participate) — basically pay for the contest, none of them made it into the top 16; and Turkey, which you might have expected to be playing nice, given its pending European Union membership application, awarded not a single point to any big four or Scandinavian nation.

This pointed rejection of Western Europe might even be seen as a poignant metaphor for contemporary Europe as a whole. The large, industrialized nations magnanimously invite their poorer but more numerous eastern cousins to join their party, and offer to pay the bill, only to discover themselves locked out in the garden while their new friends complain about the quality of the liquor and the arrogance of the hosts.

The hosts, meanwhile, can’t get along either — the big four collectively awarded one another a grand total of just 12 points. So although it was more than a little odd that the countries that actually tried to help in Bosnia are substantially less popular there than the country that instigated ethnic cleansing, it was equally odd that the Balkans, of all places, was effectively handing the western countries a lesson in cooperation.

The annual chance to score yourself in the eyes of your fellow Europeans might not be a bad thing, however: the Serbs and their neighbors are now going through an outpouring of pride and brotherly love. It’s hard not to think that’s somehow more useful than crowning the successor to Abba. Last week in Britain, meanwhile, for all the cries of foul play, there was a hint of — I wouldn’t say soul-searching — but perhaps head-scratching over what might be done to reverse the tide of resentment from traditional allies and newly minted European states alike. If nothing else, that seems like a good conversation to start.

Now, apparently, NBC has the rights to bring a version of Eurovision to the United States, with all 50 states competing. I hope they do it, but only if they keep the same voting system. It may not tell us much about the music we produce or like; but in a patchwork quilt of a country, with red versus blue states, North versus South, East Coast versus West Coast, the Midwest versus everyone — and who-knows-what going on in Texas — it may tell us a lot about what we really think of one another.

Duncan J. Watts is a professor of sociology at Columbia.

WIPs

This weekend I was inspired to photograph my current projects:


Sister's Bicolor Cables cardigan, from Interweave Knits, in Cascade 220, not the recommended yarn.
The body is knit from the bottom up, in one piece up to the underarm. Then I finished the back.












Here are the sleeves. You can see that they are almost done, and then I decide to count the stitches and find that one has 10 more stitches on the needle than the other. I knit them both at the same time, from opposite ends of the same ball of yarn, precisely to make sure they match. And yet they don't. Another weekend of letting them sit.

This baby blanket is almost done, but here's a picture anyway. The yarn is Cascade Sierra in navy, light blue, pink, and white. The yarn in held double and that's how I got the tweedy look. Size J crochet hook. General pattern is 2 rows of double crochet of the solid colors and 4 rows of the mixed colors. There will be 2 rows of white on the sides to finish.

Husband's afghan: Cascade 220 in black and medium blue, held double, size 10 US needle. There will be alternating strips of black and blue, with a black border. Very similar to the baby blanket pattern, no? Very easy to make? Yes.

Here's a close up of each strip, knit in basket weave stitch. Each block of the basket weave is 5 stitches wide and 6 rows tall.

Last WIP, another baby blanket. Center is Mountain Colors Barefoot in Mystic Lake colorway, double crocheted. Don't remember what hook I used, but may be size F. It was started last year to be a scarf but now it will be a blanket. The other yarn shows is Knit Picks Essential Solid in burgundy, navy, and dark green. Currently log cabining one inch of the burgundy in garter stitch. When that's done, I'll switch back to double crochet. Much faster that way.