|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
TCHS 4O 2000 [4o's nonsense] alvinny [2] - csq - edchong jenming - joseph - law meepok - mingqi - pea pengkian [2] - qwergopot - woof xinghao - zhengyu HCJC 01S60 [understated sixzero] andy - edwin - jack jiaqi - peter - rex serena SAF 21SA khenghui - jiaming - jinrui [2] ritchie - vicknesh - zhenhao Others Lwei [2] - shaowei - website links - Alien Loves Predator BloggerSG Cute Overload! Cyanide and Happiness Daily Bunny Hamleto Hattrick Magic: The Gathering The Onion The Order of the Stick Perry Bible Fellowship PvP Online Soccernet Sluggy Freelance The Students' Sketchpad Talk Rock Talking Cock.com Tom the Dancing Bug Wikipedia Wulffmorgenthaler       |
|
bert's blog v1.21 Powered by glolg Programmed with Perl 5.6.1 on Apache/1.3.27 (Red Hat Linux) best viewed at 1024 x 768 resolution on Internet Explorer 6.0+ or Mozilla Firefox 1.5+ entry views: 190 today's page views: 226 (16 mobile) all-time page views: 3242824 most viewed entry: 18739 views most commented entry: 14 comments number of entries: 1214 page created Wed Apr 9, 2025 10:50:50 |
|
- tagcloud - academics [70] art [8] changelog [49] current events [36] cute stuff [12] gaming [11] music [8] outings [16] philosophy [10] poetry [4] programming [15] rants [5] reviews [8] sport [37] travel [19] work [3] miscellaneous [75] |
|
- category tags - academics art changelog current events cute stuff gaming miscellaneous music outings philosophy poetry programming rants reviews sport travel work tags in total: 386 |
| ||
|
TRUMP: About that... *Sincere advice: please do not challenge the GOD-EMPEROR on him not being able to achieve something. This has seldom turned out well for his opponents. Before we continue, a bookend on the Paris Accord hoo-hah. The implications of his latest divine move are slowly becoming clear - climate fashionistas-of-the-day (whose direct personal contributions to the cause remains approximately zero, because America should impose it) continue alternating between yelling impotently, and basking in the mainstream media's negative covfefe, blissedly - or wilfully - ignorant that the "climate consensus" was never what it seemed to begin with. Meanwhile, at the grown-ups' table, TRUMP's shock therapy has merely furthered the greater good, exactly as planned (recall when we predicted that he would engage Li'l Kim?): on one hand, we have states like California and Hawaii making their own pledges, exactly as they have always been entitled to do... by themselves (one can't help but recall Br'er Rabbit pleading not to be thrown into the briar patch, but hey, this is a guy that has won the primaries, and then the general election, spending far less than his opponents). Certainly, whether they will keep to these pledges when most of the political capital has been wrung from this cause, and the Next Popular Threat comes up, is another matter (unlike TRUMP) As for the billions and billions saved, one suspects that part of it will be funnelled towards research and mitigation, an area still overwhelmingly dominated by the United States despite what the anti-TRUMP Fake News might say, instead of getting paid out to other countries with next to no oversight on the money's usage. And, before opponents contend that TRUMP has no plans for the environment, consider the sheer sublimity of his vision: miles upon unbroken miles of beautiful solar panels, representing the pinnacle of green technology, laid out along some of the sunniest real estate that America has to offer:  The engineering marvel of the TRUMP century! (Source: youtube.com) And, sure as day follows night, you have mainstream media shills complaining that solar doesn't produce enough power to be worth it, and that it can't pay for itself (wait a bleeping minute, what happened to short-term-loss-for-long-term-good, and the headlong rush to give money away for the climate?!), which to me is a clear sign of blind and senseless hatred by people who really should know better. I for one won't be surprised when Mexico quietly gets their electricity grid hooked up when it comes to fruition, meaning that - wait for it - they actually did pay for the wall... Noo Yawk, Noo Yawk  Probably *the* fastest-growing new religion [N.B. Close-up of icon (original source)] [N.N.B. And the pantheon is expanding - in India, in China, everywhere] [N.N.N.B. While I don't often align with her views, Xiaxue has done right here] Singing of the GOD-EMPEROR's Aria non-mandatory, but encouraged; NO MAN ALIVE OR DEAD COMMANDS ME I ANSWER TO THE LORD! New York. Almost three years had passed since I last Okay, I realise that I haven't actually covered much of the U.S. trip despite several weeks being past. After some consideration, I'll go at it topically rather than chronologically, since it makes for a better read that way, IMHO. Booked One thing about America, uniform among the large cities I visited, or stopped over at - their titles are just cheaper than in Singapore, exchange rates accounted for. Take Grit, which I was considering purchasing - S$33 on OpenTrolley, S$15 on Amazon. Well, being a (more-)seasoned traveller, I made sure to capture the covers of the books that interested me, secure in the knowledge that I would almost-certainly be able to order a copy at minimal additional cost, from the comfort of home (sorry, local retailers, it just wasn't to be). Expect some reviews in the future... Sport As Culture Another thing about America, one gets the feeling that when it comes to sport, a significant number of them are truly fans. Case in point: I had occasion to get a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie (which saved me in more than one abrupt shower) when I stopped over in that city, and a Baltimore Orioles tee when visiting Camden Yards. Walking about with them on was somehow enough to attract occasional greeting shouts of "Go Eagles" and "Go Birds" respectively, with one of the latter being from a homeless guy slumming it out in a sleeping bag. To be honest, I had been sort of a casual follower of the Packers for American egghand, but I don't suppose adopting another team is gonna harm anyone... This is, I suppose, something that Singapore simply pales in contrast in, even considering the support of big foreign clubs in their glory years (United, Liverpool, Chelsea for soccer, the Chicago Bulls a couple of decades back) - there's simply no comparable sense of identity, of community and tradition (and pure whimsy), in our sporting scene; I suspect some marquee high school teams, and a few exceptions (Geylang International FC etc?) maintain a tiny core of die-hards, but that's about it (no thanks to the FAS either). Certainly nothing to compare with the legend that is "F**k you, I'm Millwall!", or the assorted Manchester United fans, in the aftermath of the latest [redacted] What Is Art? I had neglected to drop by some of the must-visits the last time I was in the Big Apple, and thus resolved to do so this time. Guggenheim. The Frick. The Met. Whitney (where I got free admission, thanks to a nice lady). Also, the National Art Museum, back in Washington D.C.. It was, again, hard not to be drawn by the difference between the old masters, and (post-)modern art (come to think of it, what will they call today's work, a century from now?). In stark terms, next to none of past masterpieces, whether Occidental or Oriental, could have been convincingly duplicated by the man on the street, even for more low-brow pop-art; as for contemporary pieces, well, sure, they keep saying it's harder than it looks, but still... But yes, the newer styles have their attractions too. At the Whitney Biennial, a few works caught my eye - there was Kessler's Evolution [in action], which explored mechanical visual feedback; Haiduk's SERVERS FOR .YU, which allows onsite-only access to the Frauenbank cooperative, implemented as - wait for it - an Ethereum DAO (eh; then again, it's up like 1700% over the past year, so what do I know). Sadly, I don't self-identify as female, so no participation, but them's the breaks. And then there was the large installation of Svenonius' Censorship Now!!, which was thought-provoking in its advocacy of guerilla censorship, justified by the general populace's love of trolling... Well, if this qualifies, then TRUMP must be considered the pioneer of a new genre, a new era, in art. Tying this back to what's going on back home, after the brief golden staircase affair, the next work to get wider public attention was a School of the Arts (SOTA) student's display of a few dozen paper airplanes, wedged into the crack between concrete floor slabs, each with the name of a departed (resigned or fired, not dead) teacher (this exodus seemingly at least partly due to good ole bureaucracy). Official reaction? Artwork removed due to lack of permission. And then the higher-ups wonder why other places are so vibrant and innovative (faster lah). This seems to have triggered Alfian Sa'at to go off on how SOTA students are abandoning the arts, but really, they have every right to do so. [To be continued...] Next: Maxican Standoff
|
|
||||||
 Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved. |
|||||||
