John & Belle Have A Blog

Maybe He'll Pop Open Some Krug

Congratulations to Paul Krugman! I can only hope this causes his advice to be heeded more in the current crisis. Krugman's "metamorphosis"--if such it is-- has been an enduring strangeness of the Bush years. Either Bush's gross incompetence drove a centrist to become an out and proud liberal, or criticism of Bush's incompetence was frowned on so thoroughly in the years just following 2001 that straightforward critiques from a centrist were suddenly perceived as shrill liberal madness when set against the rest of the press.

How 'Bout That Stock Market, My Friends?

Speaking of burning money and song recommendations, have you listened to Steely Dan's "Black Friday" recently? It's a good song.

When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me

When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I'll guess I'll change my name

I think we all know who's to blame here: Barack Hussein I'ma-Destroy-Your-Markets-Bitchez Obama.

Just Got Paid Today/Got Me a Pocket Full of Change

The graphic illustrating Matt's post reminds me of something funny. Have you ever actually burned money before? There's a kind of sick fascination and thrill. I can recall my dad and I having the dicussion of whether there might not be $10 worth of entertainment in the burning of a $10 bill. You think of all the things you could buy and whether it's too late to snuff it out as it curls up into oblivion. I think I have even burned a $20 at some point, while wasted, but only to freak someone out. Wait, I'm not sure that makes it more rather than less comprehensible. See, I wanted them to think I was crazy! Anyway I believe I've just confessed to a crime, but hopefully the Fed is distracted elsewhere. In related news, there's a lot of great ZZ Top songs out there, and you should probably be listening to more of them: Neighbor, Neighbor; Old Man; The Balinese; Pan Am Highway Blues; She's a Heartbreaker...the list goes on and on.

What's The Lamella, Again?

A (rather small) set of studies has recently shown that the "talking cure"--traditional psychoanalysis--can help with some mental health problems. This seems...unsurprising. I underwent old-school analysis in Berkeley and it was very helpful. I used to have horrible, vivid nightmares almost every night, so awful that they would leave me feeling strange all day. I had it as a goal for my analysis to stop having nightmares, and I did. I have the occasional one nowadays, but only a few times a year, and I haven't had a real, hiding-from-serial-killers, squeezing-shards-of-glass-out-of-pustules, or raped-by-zombies nightmare in ages. I went three times a week and lay on a couch, just like in a New Yorker cartoon. My analyst was not they type who never said anything, though. She knew a tremendous amount about me and would offer advice where needed.

As with many therapy issues, I think the philosophical underpinnings of the thing may matter less than the skills of the individual; there are some people who would make a hash of simple cognitive therapy and others who could channel Lacan into something useful. This has limits, obviously, and the fact that some people were helpful as phrenologists (for surely some of them must have been) doesn't validate phrenology. I guess I am somewhat undecided about the merits of Freudianism per se: on the one hand, it worked for me; on the other, the proferred justifications seem very weak. And it's not as though I didn't end up in some serious mental trouble after analysis had been completed. Still there is something compelling about the process, and the requirement that the analyst have undergone the same wooly procedure. If it weren't so expensive I would reccommend it to everyone (thanks, Grandma!).

Nation of Whiners

OK, I expect a certain level of crazy from Dr. Helen, but I have to say this left my head spinning:

Is your head spinning from all the doom and gloom being blasted from the media and Congress day and night about impending financial disaster? Mine is, and frankly, I sometimes wonder how much of the financial picture is accurate and how much is manufactured in order to get a Democrat elected. One has to ponder about the timing of all of this bad news.

Why the crescendo of economic collapse right before the election? Why didn't the media and congress act just as concerned some time ago or wait until sometime after the election to go into crisis mode? [perhaps an actual crisis occurred at this time?--ed] The timing of the current financial crisis seems too planned and calculating to be just a coincidence. Polls show that people's number one concern right now is the economy and that for the most part, voters believe Democrats are somewhat more likely to help with the economy. Could it be that the liberal media and those in Congress, knowing that, is blaring the bad economic news from the rooftops in order to manipulate voters into voting for a Democrat? If so, it won't be the first time.

The Instapundit often likes to take a similar line: the economy is actually fine but people are being tricked into thinking it's not. I really don't understand what model of the human psyche we're meant to be working on here. If you're underwater on your ARM mortgage, you're going to feel stressed out; likewise, if you are worried about losing your job and have huge credit card bills. There's just no amount of evil MSM scheming that could plausibly negate your actual experience of local economic conditions, unless the TVs at the Instapundit home are tricked out with an array of virtual reality simulators and backed up with generous servings of psychoactive drugs. Which, if true, makes me want to go to Tennesee, because that sounds rad. But this, view, while silly, is as naught compared with the belief that George Bush, Ben Bernanke, and Henry Paulson are part of a scheme to elect Barack Obama. I mean, really.

I Love Renting

So, is sanity starting to return to the LA housing market? Umm, no.

Looking to get in the market when prices are still low? This is definitely the time to get a great deal! As soon as Congress approves the bank bailout (which will probably happen tomorrow) confidence will return to the real estate market and prices will probably start rising again. So what better time to become a home owner! And what better area than Highland Park, which has held up better than many areas in LA because it is going through such a thriving gentrification. Highland Park is "new" Silver Lake, after all.

Take this cute bungalow, for example? If this house were in West Hollywood or the Hollywood Hills, you would be paying $825,000 - not $525,000, and your view wouldn't be any better for this extra $300,000. This bungalow is not huge (about 650 sq. feet), but it feels very open and spacious because of the view and grounds. 2 bedrooms and one bath, hardwood floors, large backyard (perfect for dogs) and a 180 degree view to enjoy at the end of a long day. Located on a very quiet street too.

"Not huge"?! Then again, asking prices aren't selling prices, and given that the realtor is peddling insane bullshit about the bailout's likely effect on house prices, maybe this 650 sqf home in Highland Park will only go for $400,000? I guess I can only afford to move back and own a home in post-apocalypse California. Mid-apocalypse just isn't cutting it.

Price/rent ratios here in Singapore are, if anything, more out of wack than in LA. Gross rent multiplier for my home is over 400 for sure, i.e. purchase price would be more than 400 times monthly rent. Singapore is at the freezing up stage of the market now, with home sales down over the previous year but not much movement in prices. And yet forests of luxury condos rise around me in a slow-motion, glass-clad disaster. I sort of cruelly hope the people across the street run out of money before they can get started on the building proper, but I'm not holding my breath. The stage where they're driving pilings for the foundations is REALLY LOUD.

Kulfi Bar

Last night we had Thai at Spicy Thai Thai Restaurant again, and afterward we went to this great Indian ice cream place right across from Madras New Woodlands (a popular vegetarian place at 12/14 Upper Dickson Rd). Well, kulfi, rather. It's the Kulfi Bar, 15 Upper Dickson Road. Each serving of kulfi is individually frozen in either a metal cone or a little earthenware pot. If you order the pot you just eat it out of that, but if you get a flavor from one of the cones they take it out and slice it up for you, and then shower it with pistachios and cashews. Yumola. The front of the restaurant is all decorated with moving lights, including a row of disturbing strobe lights that seem to put you in danger of a seizure. The same place also sells Indian tchotchkes and offers "Qaballah Numerology" readings, and has a dentist's office upstairs, so it's one-stop shopping, basically. Next door there's a temple devoted to a god who has the head of a lion, not sure who that is...let's see, looks like Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu. Good stuff. Little India is the most lively neighborhood in Singapore and great fun to walk around in.

This piece should become a classic in American Jurisprudence

If you have some extra time on your hands, and you don't have anything better to do, such as cleaning the lint filter on the dryer, or using creme rinse as well as conditioner on your hair, you might read this anti-gay marriage "essay" at Townhall. It's so turgid, festooned out with gen-u-wine footnotes, and all in all so completely fails to address the point in any way, much less a convincing way...well, there's not much to be said about it. I mean, I'd "take it apart", but it's lying there disjoint like a supermarket fryer family pack, and we all know my predilection for trying to help these people out. I'd have the franken-chicken stitched together in no time and be waving the wings around with my own hands. Let it suffice to say that a) a consideration of the declaration of independence doesn't really do the needed work of enshrining "natural law" b) the concept of natural law invoked doesn't self-evidently preclude gay marriage and c) complaining at length about judicial activism in the course of an article intended to persuade citizens to express the popular will in a vote strikes me as...tone-deaf. (AS John points out, trying to reconceive Millian liberalism without tolerance is a fool's errand, and I would add that in this case someone very well suited to the job has taken it on.) Should the California electorate decide to explicitly allow gay marriage by declining to ban it when given the chance, I trust everyone will be mollified and consider gay marriage in California legitimate. Because when you support states' rights, and people support something with a popular vote, you...what? You mean that wasn't principled opposition to judicial activism, but rather strongly held views about the result independently of how it was enacted? Well, at least abortion rights are safe.

Paleocons: Sometimes Right

It's nice to see Bainbridge pushing back against the "over-solicitousness towards black and brown people destroyed Wall Street" meme. I was disturbed when I first saw this start to surface six or so months ago and time has not rendered it less odious. It's particularly annoying when you consider all the immigrants scammed by unscrupulous Spanish-speaking brokers in California.

Sarah Palin: Not The Sharpest Icepick on The Cocktail Tray, Bless Her

My inability to watch things that are embarrassing extends to the clips of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. The misunderstandings in Three's Company are as naught. I managed to watch the clip about why the bailout should be directed towards Wall street rather than main street, but only barely, with my nails pressing neat half-moon depressions in my palms all the while. There is no way I'm making it through that thing about Putin and I refuse to try. Sullivan notes someone saying it's like Ricky Gervais humor, and that's right. I thought Sullivan had really gone off the deep end for a while, and I still think he was too quick to get up in Palin's obstetric records, but I'm beginning to share his shock and alarm. It's just literally crazy for this woman to be in the position she's in.

Get Your Fixx

When I was little reading Asterix and Obelix comics I didn't understand why the druid was named "Getafix". My religion forbids embedding youtube links* but you could click this link and watch a really ridiculous 80s video for "One Thing Leads to Another". I have to say I kind of like this song.

At John's urging I listened to an "All Songs Considered" podcast from NPR on "The 80s--were they really that bad?" I believe you can download them all for free at iTunes. It was funny and definitely worth a listen, with deft deployment of evil riffage from "BUILT THIS CITY111! on rock and r--BUILT THIS CITY!" But curiously they didn't mention hip hop at all. I mean, I can see saying explicitly, "we're leaving this whole arena of music out due to time constraints" but just not to mention it? Weird.

*Who among us has not sinned, I ask? And they're too wide for my blog's text column, and it looks wonky when I rejigger it.

Spicy Thai Thai Restaurant

Tonight we ate at a really great Thai restaurant, which is now my new favorite, with "Young Neil", aka Neil Sinhababu (we call him that after the character in Scott Pilgrim). I can't find the exact address online anywhere, but it's called "Spicy Thai Thai Restaurant", and is right at the corner of Dickson Road and Jalan Besar in a pinkish building, with the tables in the alley. The glass noodle salad was almost too spicy (and this after my friend Cheu asked for it to be less so). Young Neil had an amazing dish of seafood in otah paste, served in a coconut, with the young coconut meat in long shavings in the paste. Otah paste seems to be the Thai version of what's in Singaporean otak--basically fish, dried shrimp, maybe candlenuts, and then the garlic etc. that would make up a normal chili paste, all pounded together. Singaporean otak is made into banana-leaf-wrapped packets and grilled, whereas this seemed to have been steamed in the coconut. Very unusual texture, with soft paste studded with bits of seafood and ribbons of translucent coconut meat. The other food was all great, too, with a pronounced fresh coconut flavor in the curry that tells you they made fresh coconut milk for it today. And it's hella cheap! Those of you in Singapore should go to this restaurant.

Moving Day!

Well, we moved all our stuff over today, or almost all. I felt bad for the guys getting those huge wooden dressers up the stairs, especially as they missed lunch somehow. I guess they got caught in the CBD somehow when I thought they were off for 'makan'. I tipped them well and gave them refreshing drinks but dag, that was some strenuous effort. By my lights they even moved--without busting it up I hasten to add--a chifforobe. When the movers left I celebrated by lying on the floor under the air conditioner with my eyes closed. Pictures to follow when I am able to sit back up. Honest toil is a bitch.

Going Blegging

Would it be possible to make a blog that looked pretty like design*sponge using existing blog platforms that were only slightly modified, or does it need to be a top to bottom custom job? I mean, having the pretty scanned items as borders, etc. I'd basically like to make a big collage, scan it, and have it come alive as a typepad blog--how unrealistic is this and does anyone have advice? Please, no comments on how I don't need another blog and can't even feed the blogs I have. This blog would be for business, so it's totally legit, and anyway John and I have religious beliefs that prevent us from using blog control. We're just ready to accept however many blogs God's going to bless our lives with.

Seamstresses' Guild

Sorry to be such a lame-ass blogger, internet people. I have been busy "IRL", as they say. Here's the view from my new studio, towards the back roof we share with the Seamstresses Guild Thai massage parlour denizens. They hang their laundry out back here.

Here's the view from the front, there's a backpacker hostel down across the street.

And this is the interior, in its former incarnation as institutional green with stripes, but we are in the process of painting it white.

Notice to everyone: when stuff is green with stripes, you need to use primer on it. Also, painting walls takes longer than you think it's going to.