Midnight's Sighs

I like Salman Rushdie! Along with Umberto Eco and Thomas Pynchon (and perhaps Don Delillo and let's not forget Jhumpa Lahiri, S.R. Delany and Ursula Le Guin, and Ian McEwan ... ok this list might go on a bit ... ), he's probably one of the few living writers that I'm quite keen about. I'm actually reading The Moor's Last Sigh right now and it's fabulous. My Salman Rushdie moments include 1. explaining why I liked Midnight's Children to a tutor during NUS who liked to grill students about what they were reading "outside" the curriculum. 2. Finding a copy of the Satanic Verses in the French section of Kino. I guess it's ok to read banned books in French. and 3. actually liking The Ground Beneath Her Feet (as well as the U2 song of the same name that Rushdie penned) very much. 4. Of course, I've never had the chance to meet the man, though a friend who has managed to get in a question about his favorite book (if I remember the anecdote correctly) - which happens to be Haroun. I guess if one wanted to see what the whole fuss was about either Midnight's Children or The Moor's Last Sigh would be great representatives of Rushdie's strange blend of poetry, wit, wordplay, irreverence and abiding respect for history. For a fun read, there's Haroun. For a sense of how clever Rushdie can be with myths and intertextual referencing, there's The Ground Beneath Her Feet as well as Fury. There's lots of Rushdie that I haven't read - including his two most recent books - so there's lots for me to enjoy!

Anyway, despite the silliness of lists like these, I will say that I like some of the other people on the "Best of the Booker" shortlist. There was a time that I was really into Peter Carey, and I liked Pat Baker's WWI trilogy immensely. News like this always causes me to go hunt for stuff by these authors I haven't read! Another wonderful distraction!

LONDON (Reuters) - British author Salman Rushdie won the "Best of the Booker" prize on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.

"Midnight's Children" won the Booker Prize in 1981, and the Indian-born writer was hot favorite to take the award decided by the public from a shortlist of six in an online poll.

The 61-year-old, whose 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" outraged many Muslims and prompted death threats against him, also won the 25th anniversary Booker prize in 1993.

"I think it was an extraordinary shortlist and it was an honor to be on it," Rushdie said in a recorded message from the United States, where he is on a book tour.

His sons, Zafar and Milan, accepted a trophy in London on his behalf, and the author said it was apt that "my real children (are) accepting a prize for my imaginary children."

Milan, the youngest, added: "I'm really looking forward to reading it when I'm older. Well done Dad."

Victoria Glendinning, chair of the panel who drew up a shortlist, said the entries were dominated by themes of the end of empire and two world wars.

"These are the nettles we have been compelled to try and grasp," she told reporters.

But there was some criticism of the award, partly because the choice was narrowed to just six nominees.

"It's an artificial exercise, simply because the general public only got to pick from six of the previous winners," said Jonathan Ruppin, promotions manager at Foyles bookshop.

"Readers have not been able to vote for some of their most enduring favorites," he added, mentioning, among others, Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" and Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Remains of the Day."

ONLINE POLL

Around 8,000 people from around the world took part in the online poll, and Midnight's Children won 36 percent of votes.

At least half the voters were under 35, and the largest age group was 25-34, "a reflection of the ongoing interest in quality fiction amongst readers of all ages," organizers said.

Midnight's Children, an example of Rushdie's magical realist style, follows Saleem Sinai who is born on the stroke of midnight on the day of India's independence in 1947 and whose life loosely parallels the fortunes of his nascent country.

Some critics believe it is Rushdie's finest work, eclipsing subsequent novels including The Satanic Verses, for which he remains best known.

What was perceived to be the questioning of the tenets of Islam in The Satanic Verses led to book burnings and riots across the Muslim world culminating in a death edict against Rushdie by Iran's supreme religious leader.

The author was forced into hiding for nine years.

The other nominees included Nobel Prize winners J.M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer, both born in South Africa.

The full list comprised Rushdie, Pat Barker (The Ghost Road), Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda), Coetzee (Disgrace), J.G. Farrell (The Siege of Krishnapur) and Gordimer (The Conservationist).

Both Coetzee and Carey have won the Booker Prize twice.

The Booker rewards the best novel each year by a writer from Britain, Ireland or a Commonwealth country.

Recent Kitchen Exploits

Just messing around with the slideshow function in Picassa. So 1. I made quiche just so I could experiment more with pie-crusts. Making good pie crust has become the Holy Grail of my baking endeavors. This attempt wasn't great - too crumbly. 2. That's almost entirely homemade bruschetta. The bread was sliced and toasted from a homemade baguette, the basil and tomatoes were from the plants we've been nurturing since May. Now if only I could get a cow to fit on the balcony then we'd have homemade cheese as well ... but this was excellent smoked cheddar from the MSU Diary Store. 3. More bread - focus on the pan, not my strange "I'm-trying-to-look-pleased-with-my-efforts" semi-grin. Crusty dinner rolls this time, superb with any kind of stew!

"They're GREEN ... but chewy ..."

So, I decided to do something different after the moderate success of the fruit tart (which is still sitting in the fridge, tempting me to pack on the calories every time I open it ...) Edna likes chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, and I figured that to increase my chances of making something that she would find palatable (and thus not end up eating everything myself), I'd make those.
To add to the interest value of the project, I decided that I'd substitute butter with avocado. As every avid reader of SHAPE magazine knows, avocado is supposed to be a great substitute for butter -- and Edna reminded me. However, we didn't remember which issue actually had a recipe, and instead of flipping through a year's worth of magazine's, I decided, totally arbitrarily, that

1 Avocado = 1 stick of butter

So, the first instruction was something like "whip butter until creamed ..." and I'm like, ok, how does one do that with two somewhat mushy avocados? I ended up cutting them into small bits with my now trusty pastry cutter, and stirring them vigorously. Despite having religiously done bicep curls and miscellaneous arm moves for a while now, my forearms were getting tired with the whisk I was using (Someone should work out the Cook's Work Out). An amazing thing happened, however, after I added sugar and continued stirring vigorously: the mixture actually did become a little fluffy! Which was the very moment when I realized that I'd forgotten to buy the OATS from Meijer ... Thankfully, oats ARE a low-cost convenience food and I managed to walk out to a nearby gas-station and get a tub of good old Quaker Oats (who says gas-stations only stock junk food ....)

Anyway, the cookies are great, even if their odd shape illustrates how aesthetically challenged I am. As Edna put it, some of them are monstrously large - but at least now I can eat just one cookie and say that it was satisfying ... They don't taste too rich, because there isn't any butter in them and they're extremely moist and chewy. Of course, they are really quite green!

Getting Flaky?

Having recently finished a chapter of the dissertation, I decided to do something different for the next few days before starting up again. I ended up making a fruit tart today. I was pretty keyed up to do this - I even went out and got a pastry cutter to make sure that I wouldn't smear the butter. It turned out quite nicely, except that my inexperience with pie crusts meant that it definitely could have been much more flaky - I think I added too much water in trying to get the dough to "come together" cause I don't think I worked it too hard. But I've done my homework (by watching videos on crust making technique - though it's pretty unbelievable how these people get the dough to stay together with the tiny amounts of water they use ... ) and I'm going to try this again ... soon! And I'll make sure I do fancy edges the next time! Still, the tart IS really yummy - at least Edna thinks so!

The Riddle Song

Here's a great song that I've been singing for about a year. I first heard a Doc Watson version of the song and then a wonderful duet which featured Joan Baez and Pete Seeger. The simplicity and the riddle, question, and answer structure of the song makes it really charming. I guess it's also somewhat appropriate for me since 1. we're now living in Cherry Abundant Michigan and 2. my life's work is wrapped up in stories that normally have endings - if not always satisfactory ones - so it's nice to sing a song that turns that expectation on its head ...



I gave my love a cherry, that had no stone
I gave my love a chicken, that had no bone
I told my love a story, that had no end
And I gave my love a baby, with no crying.

How can there be a cherry, that has no stone?
How can there be a chicken that has no bone?
How can there be a story that has no end?
How can there be a baby with no crying?

A cherry when it's blooming, it has no stone.
A chicken when it's pipping, it has no bone.
The story of my love, it has no end.
And a baby when it's sleeping, there's no crying.

The Road To Boston

Here's a little tune called "On the Road to Boston", somewhat appropriate given the Celtics' remarkable come back last night. And yes, that's me and my banjo playing efforts.

"My" Guitar

Being fortunate enough to live in the hometown of Eldery Instruments, I've been paying regular visits to the store. I've fallen in love with a particular guitar and I now call it "my" guitar, even though there's not the slightest chance of me ever owning this particular gem.

It's a little parlor guitar made by two luthiers who are based in Vermont. Their company -- Froggy Bottom -- makes acoustic guitars that have won awards and are consistently heralded with much acclaim. This one's no exception.

What I really love about this guitar is how responsive it is in the bass and mid ranges for a small guitar. Playing a bigger body Taylor after trying out this guitar makes the Taylor sound thin and stiff in the lower range (and this was a decent 814). It's got an amazing resonance of bass for something of its size. I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that the guitar has a walnut body. Plus there are some cool (some people might think them cheesy) ornamental details on the instrument.

I've played this guitar about 4-5 times, and every time I go to Elderly to try out more guitars, this is the first and last one that I play. I even felt a little jealous yesterday when someone else had clearly played the guitar recently (tuned it to dropped D ... might be the same guy whose been playing all the Collings guitars which were all tuned to dropped D ... ) If there's one thing that is a 'shortcoming' on this particular guitar is that the neck meets the body at the 12th fret, which makes playing up the neck a little difficult.

This particular guy is on consignment at Elderly and I'll keep playing him until someone decides to take him home. I'll never have the moolah to buy him, even though at 5 000 bucks, it's about 2 000 dollars cheaper than placing an order with the Froggy Bottom guys.

Left: Cool biplane painting design on the heel cap. Froggy Bottom gets an artist to do individualized designs for each of their guitars.

Right: And the neat Froggy Bottom logo!

Colonialism, alive and well in Singapore

Our little island home in the sun doesn't get mentioned much in the NYT (and unless terrorist suspects escape with greater frequency, I doubt there'll be another mention soon). But tucked away in the Home and Lifestyle section, here's an article. I've put points of interest in red, and my brief rant follows the article.

In Singapore, a House Steeped in Tradition
By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP
SINGAPORE

As they planned their family’s move to Singapore from Rowayton, Conn., Jill and Andrew Pickering imagined living in one of the island’s traditional colonial-era homes, with their distinctive black-and-white exteriors and sprawling gardens.

“It is really a quintessential Singapore experience to live in one of those grand old houses surrounded by nature,” Mrs. Pickering said. “You can live in a condominium anywhere, but these houses are really unique.”

Wanting to “get the lay of the land” in this city-state, which has a population of 4.5 million, the couple started out in a centrally located condominium. But after five years, they thought it was time to begin the search for their dream home.

They had been looking for five months when Mr. Pickering, a senior executive at an international shipping company, was biking in one of the historic areas and noticed that renovations had just started on what looked like a long-abandoned house. He immediately called for an appointment to view it, and the family moved in two years ago.

“The house had been empty for six years and the first time we saw it, it was like ‘Jumanji,’ ” Mrs. Pickering recalled, referring to the Robin Williams film about jungle creatures running riot. “There were bats everywhere, all sorts of overgrown lichen and monitor lizards. It was all jungle.”

Despite the rent of 17,000 Singapore dollars ($12,470) a month, recently increased to 22,000 dollars ($16,140), the Pickerings were taken by the size of the living space: 7,200 square feet spread over a two-story main house and a small cottage. The couple and their two girls, Olivia, 18, and Lucy 14, sleep in the house, while their 15-year-old son Harry uses the cottage, which originally served as staff quarters.

Ku Swee Young, a real estate agent with Savills, says rental prices for high-end properties in Singapore have been increasing by an average of 20 percent a year in the last couple of years. Depending on location, a three- to five-bedroom luxury condominium unit rents for 16,000 dollars to 30,000 dollars ($11,730 to $21,990) a month, while houses can range from 7,000 dollars ($5,130) a month, for a two-story terrace house, to 45,000 dollars ($33,000), for a bungalow on a large lot.

The family’s main house, which dates from the early 1910s and sits on top of a small hill, is reached by a long private driveway that ends under a porte-cochère. The house, which is only one room deep, was designed along a linear plan, with rooms opening into one another through tall, graceful archways.

“These houses were designed so that direct sunlight would not come into the house to heat it up,” Mrs. Pickering said. “But because it’s only one room deep with windows on both sides, they’re actually quite bright. They’re very nicely designed and are ideal for entertaining.”

After a small entrance hall, visitors step into a 13-by-25-foot reception room that then leads to the living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen. At the end of the house, two smaller rooms serve as a studio for Mrs. Pickering, who is a decorative artist, and a bedroom for their live-in housekeeper.

While the wood floors and high ceilings are typical features of black-and-white houses, the Pickerings’ home includes some unusual features, like exposed red brickwork on the house’s upper facade and tall arched windows on the ground floor that open onto a large terrace with a swimming pool.

Upstairs, a large landing area serves as a family room; each of the three large bedrooms has a balcony, walk-in closet and bathroom. “Black-and-white houses usually have huge bedrooms, but they don’t have many,” Mrs. Pickering said. “I’d love to rebuild this house in another country, because I love its proportions and how it flows. But I would definitely reconfigure the upstairs to have more rooms.”

Mold and bugs are probably the house’s two biggest problems; there is a need to be vigilant about termites and cleaning up after the geckos, she said. “There’s also always something breaking. Because the lightening protection is not sufficient for the number of direct hits we get, we’ve gone through two computers, a hard drive and two TVs.”

The Pickerings’ is one of 33 black-and-white houses around the Mount Pleasant area; there are similar pockets elsewhere in the city. The houses are magnets for expatriates but unloved by Singaporeans, for whom they have sinister associations. “Some of the more senior taxi drivers don’t like to come here at night,” Mrs. Pickering said. “These houses were taken over by the high command of the Japanese military during the Second World War, and some Singaporeans believe they’re haunted.”

Family members have not felt any ghostly presence, but they have had plenty of encounters with unusual creatures: fruit bats, hungry monkeys looking for food in the kitchen, cobras slithering around the garden and even the occasional meterlong monitor lizard.

“When we first moved in, the gardener killed a snake as it was in the process of eating another one; it was, ‘Geez, two in one go, great!’ ” Mrs. Pickering said with a laugh, adding that her neighbor recently found a 4.5-meter (15-foot) python in her garden that took five men to get rid of.

Not all of the garden creatures are threatening, though. The sprawling 130,000-square-foot area, which is full of mature Tembusu and Albasia trees protected by a local heritage designation, is host to some beautiful birds. “We get exquisite kingfisher birds of the most gorgeous turquoise blue that come sitting on the railing of the swimming pool every single day,” Mrs. Pickering said.

“Singaporeans usually don’t like this type of home. They don’t like the jungle, the dark and the bugs. But at some point, I believe they will realize having nature like this is the ultimate luxury in this world.” [End of Story]

Classic colonial discourse: natives / locals don't value what is 'theirs', or are too caught up in superstition and fear to explore the wonders of their own home (CF Passage to India). But the piece obscures the fact that 1. Singaporeans aren't "into" colonial houses because they're just too damn expensive (22 000 bucks!) for any Singaporean to even get near! With a median household income of less than 4000 bucks, and a huge income gap causing more than 90% of Singaporean households to be below the 'average' income (see this), surely the material fact of the matter shouldn't be mystified by exotic stories about low-wage earning taxi drivers being afraid of the ghosts of Japanese soldiers and the people they murdered ...

, and 2. that the Pickerings are merely replicating colonial structures of economic oppression -- I'm assuming that they're in Singapore being paid big bucks for a job ("senior executive at an international shipping company") that a Singaporean could do, and probably does, for much less ...

Still, for a chance to see the interior of a house you'll never otherwise see --
click here

Higgledy Piggledy

Owing to a discussion early this morning about metrical forms, I was just perusing various wikipedia entries on the subject and came upon this: the "higgledy piggledy". It's an invented verse-form involving double dactyls. (A dactyl is simply a foot of verse that has one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones). Here are the conditions:

1. There are two stanzas. Each stanza is made up of four lines. Each of the first three lines must be double dactyls. The fourth line is a dactyl plus a single accented syllable.

2. The first line must be repetitive nonsense.

3. The second line of the poem MUST introduce the subject via a proper name.

4. One of the lines of the second stanza must contain a single word that is a double dactyl.

5. The final words of each stanza must rhyme.

Of course, I couldn't resist ... So here's my "higgledy piggledy" to my recent obsession: banjo playing ... (with fully annotated commentary of course ...)

Bum-ditty, Bum-ditty*
Gary the Quick-Fingered#
Frailed on his banjo all
Throughout the night.

Edna who loved him but
Hating the twinging twang
Unceremoniously*
Turned off the light.#

*The "bum-ditty" stroke is the basic stroke in clawhammer style banjo -- which is what I'm currently trying to play!
# I wish ...
* That's actually one of Edna's favorite words!
# Nothing of the sort has happened. Edna's been really supportive of my banjo playing!

I live near morons ...

One of the things I take pleasure doing is calling the police on my unruly neighbors. But I guess the police are always on top of things here in the land of stupid white kids partying when they should be studying. True to the reputation of MSU undergrads (Go State!) as moronic party freaks, there was a big party that turned into a riot over the weekend. The partying began at an apartment complex just off campus and the crowed swelled to about 4000.

Here's some video: