Some lyrics

May 28, 2005

Just because, here’s what Billy Bragg wrote about The Internationale on his 1990 cd: The Internationale ~ Eugène Pottier wrote the original lyrics of the Internationale after the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871. This was set to music by Pierre Degeyter, a textile worker from Lille who composed the tune for his factory […]

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Siberian Frog à la mode: no, it’s not 28C

May 27, 2005

It’s a cop-out to write about the weather, particularly after such a paucity of postings. However, lately the weather is …noteworthy — as is how it’s reported. I don’t know what they’re saying on the radio (no time to listen) or tv (don’t have one), but the internet weather reports are dead-wrong. Here in Victoria […]

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Inundate

May 23, 2005

Strange, how we’re flung all over the globe, yet attend to the forces of nature and of capital. I saw a news article about two Belgian brothers, filmmakers, who managed to win the Palme d’Or for a second time in seven years — no small feat. They are Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, profiled here, who […]

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Freedom Tower

May 21, 2005

What’s That Donald playing at? In early 2003, Daniel Libeskind won the commission to redesign the World Trade Center. His winning proposal consisted of an inspirational design that clearly responded in a sophisticated and deeply felt way to the needs both of the citizens as well as the commercial demands of the city. Then, things […]

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No id needed

May 17, 2005

Whew, no time to write anything again — apologies to people who left comments recently, but I’ll get to responses …soon. I think. Sort of like I’ll get around to organising my photos on Flickr, and/or updating them with more developments on recent development projects. Those photos of the building site with the pink cones […]

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Time to think

May 15, 2005

When I was a graduate student at UBC, I had a friend who decided to work on a Canadian topic for his master’s thesis. One of the department’s faculty advised against that choice, noting, “You are burying yourself in a very shallow grave.” Well, well. That’s what our faculty thought, and I’ll never forget the […]

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Photos…

May 10, 2005

For Mother’s Day I got a “pro” account at Flickr, which means I can indulge in uploading a million photos that “document” some of the ubiquitous development projects happening in Victoria. I’ll tag them all with “urban development,” although some will be more “residential” than “urban” — many projects are downtown, but others are on […]

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Very stinky progress traps

May 6, 2005

We’re doomed as a species, I sometimes think. A few days ago I heard Bill Gates (that Bill, the one of Microsoft) on the radio. He was admonishing Americans to ramp up high school math and science skills because right now, the Chinese are outpacing Americans in those areas. He said that for every computer […]

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Recyclables

May 1, 2005

I’ll never figure out how mental associations work. No one wanted to cook today, it was Sunday, it was Labour Day, and I was tired from playing farmer: I had dug in dirt, planting a black bamboo someone sold me for a song, and putting in tomato plants someone gave me when they were tiny […]

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Sophie, Choices, and the Ratz

April 28, 2005

I’m coming to this topic late, but that doesn’t take away from its acuity: This entry by Billmon of Whisky Bar is the best montage yet on the new Pope. The Good German. Trust me — I’m a historian (used to be, anyway). Billmon has it right.

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