February music guide

Books.
Anthony Reynolds.  A Remarkable Life. This is a biography of one of the greats - artist, singer and songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen.

Magazines.
Uncut 163. December 2010. Features The Kinks, Springsteen, Dylan, etc. Has a free CD featuring Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson etal.

CDs.
Various Artists. Watchmen: Music from the Motion Picture. Some great music from Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Hendrix, Joplin Nina Simone, Philip Glass, etc.


John Williamson. Waltzing matilda - live. Includes some great Australian songs eg And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, Botany Bay and Waltzing Matilda.

Barb Jungr. No Regrets. Some classic songs by an English interpreter and chansonnière.

Tim McGraw. Greatest Hits Volumes 1,2 & 3.

The Courtyard Hounds. Court Yard Hounds is the debut album by the sister act duo or 2/3 Dixie Chicks.

DVD.
Stephen Hawking's Universe.
More books.
Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. The Grand Design and A Briefer History of Time. These books were noted in a previous blog.

Monthly reading guide (February 2011)

February reading guide.

Kazuo Ishiguro. The remains of the day and Nocturnes.
I did read “Remains” (very belatedly I know) but only one tale from Nocturnes.

Joyce Carol Oates. Black girl white girl and Sourland.
The former remained unread, and I only read one tale from the latter - Sourland.

Will Self. Cock and Bull.
This is about a woman with a cock, and a man with a c*nt. A very apt title. Enough said.

Scott Turow. Innocent.
The protagonists from an earlier Turow book "Presumed Innocent" are back pitting wits against each other, with Sabich again in the dock.

Salman Rushdie. Step across this line.
Great essays and writing mostly from Rushdie's years in hiding. This is my pick of the crop.

Allen Ginsberg and Eric Drooker. Illuminated poems.
Another book with pictures. Some graphic - and illuminating. Very.
 

Bill Bryson. Shakespeare. The Illustrated Edition.

I liked the pictures in this book. And I found out that there is really not much known about Shakespeare.

Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America.
175 years on from the first publication of this book, the modern world still looks to the democratic system in America as a model. They should just look at all the popular people power movements going on around the world (especially in the Middle East now), and fashion their democratic political systems to suit.
People power was of course started in the Philippines. Not in Edsa but in Bontoc.

In the 1970s and 80s, an Igorot lady from Mainit, Ina Petra Macli-ing spearheaded the opposition to the Chico River Dams (project initiated by Marcos) "...by forging solidarity with Kalinga and Bontoc leaders to prevent the displacement of the Igorots." In the early 1980s, these women resorted to traditional indigenous beliefs by disrobing and baring their breasts "to curse, shame and drive the prospectors away" (it is taboo or bad luck to see mothers and grandmothers unclothed).

It is from this action that "people power" originated.

Did I write somewhere that you learn stuff only from this blog?

Man of steel.

This is not about Superman. This is about the biggest clown in Australian politics who somehow occupied the lodge for  11 years. He had the last laugh I suppose. At great cost to Australia.

Mungo MacCallum. The Man Who Laughs.

Some Australian history, laced with shenanigans, and a twist of humour.

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. A Briefer History of Time.
From the authors of The Grand Design. This is a briefer version of “The brief history of time”. I do have the tendency to be redundant. I think I’ll fire myself.

David Suzuki. The Legacy.
A man with unquestionable credentials, and with a legacy to treasure is Suzook. He asks us to join together as a single species to respond to the problems we face. Read his books. He reinforces what we know: that change begins with each of us – with all of us, and to keep faith in the generosity, not of the affluent countries, but of mother earth.

Thomas Friedman. Hot Flat and Crowded.
Friedman argues that it is high time to face the challenge of global warming – with American leadership. Apparently others cannot meet the challenge or do not care. Apparently the country most afflicted with affluenza will lead us in a green revolution, to redemption. Friedman put forward some reasonable ways to save the Earth – act green. I can’t resist commenting on one of his “easy” ways: drive your hummer for only 5000 miles each year rather than 10,000 miles (8,000 kms rather than 16,000kms). What a wonderful suggestion.
A critic wrote about Friedman's "Green Fantasia." I'd read him (Bill McKibben) instead.

Here's more.
More crap fiction from Grisham, Deaver and Baldacci. You're better off with More Good News from David Suzuki and Holly Dressell or Brisbane - 150 stories from its first 150 years.

Resources in and about the Bontok language

Some online resources in and about the Bontok language

 Main headings:

• Primary texts
• Lexical resources
• Language descriptions
• Other resources about the language
  
  

Two of the documents in the list above are:

1. The First Grammar of the language spoken by the Bontoc Igorot. Seidenadel, Carl Wilhelm. 1909. and
2. A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language as spoken by the Bontok Igorots. Clapp, Walter Clayton. 1906

These documents are additions to: Documents on the Bontoc Igorot. In 2009 (I think) Lawrence Reid wrote a review entitled: Seidenadel's Grammar of Bontoc Igorot: One Hundred Years On. Dr Lawrence Reid invites comments to: reid@hawaii.edu

Bontoc June 1989

1. The First Grammar of the language spoken by the Bontoc Igorot (1909). by Seidenadel, Carl W.
The First Grammar of the language spoken by the Bontoc Igorot (1909)

Bontoc June 1989

2. A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language as spoken by the Bontok Igorots. Clapp, Walter Clayton. 1906

A Vocabulary of the Igorot Language as spoken by the Bontok Igorots (1906)

 

Bontoc, January 2008.

Go for a ride to mainit and back. Click on the video below.

 

Images of the Brisbane floods 2011

High water everywhere. This is Part 2 of the Brisbane floods. Read Part 1 here:
brisbane-queensland-flood-disaster-2011.


Prologue (01 February 2011):
Queensland is once again bracing for another natural disaster.
In the next 24 hours or so, North Queensland, centered on Cairns, will be hit by what is predicted as possibly the worst tropical storm ever. Experts are saying that Cyclone Yasi is comparable to Hurricane Katrina that hit the US in 2005. This superstorm looms just after the floods last month, the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.
Can it get worse?

But first-
With a measly 35,000 words this post has to be one of the longest blogs ever. This is a photoblog, and if a picture's worth a thousand words, and there's at least 35 photos here, you can do the maths :-).

Path of the flood. From Toowoomba to Brisbane is about 140km as the crow flies.




The orange balloons mark flooded areas.

The blue lines are the approximate centre threads of the rivers Lockyer, Stanley, Brisbane and Bremer (in Ipswich).



On the two days of the peak of the floods (13-14 January 2011), I voluntarily reported to the floodzones, albeit i was still officially on leave. At some stage in the future, I might be involved in delineating some of the extents of the floods.
During the floods, the authorities have been pleading with people to stay off the streets and away from the flooded areas. But the term 'rubbernecker' exists for good reason. Some people just have the desire to have a look.
Lest I be mistaken for a rubbernecker, and to look like an official, I took out my Maritime Security Identification Card (MSIC ID card issued for working in the Port of Brisbane).

Many graphic, striking, and unforgettable images have been shown on TV and news outlets and will stay imprinted in many people's memories for a long time. The photos below are not of the devastation - we've seen enough of those - rather to show the extents of the floods - how high and far and wide(vertically and laterally).

Under the Captain Cook bridge (Southeast Freeway)

Snagged under the Goodwill bridge. I did a bit of work for that bridge as well as Kurilpa bridge upstream.

Cars on a standstill on the Captain Cook, onlookers at the cliffs, and sailing debris.

'Jetty' in Bulimba.

Getting toes wet. They need a ferry to get to the ferry.

Showtime. It's a packed house on the Kangaroo Point cliffs.

Various media organisations have encamped there for days.

These boats are lucky they're well secured. Many others have floated past, to the sea.

High water on a sunny day. Very surreal.

Just on the river's edge in the CBD on the left (near the boats) is the Eagle street pier.

This precinct was among the first to go underwater.

There must be nothing compared to watching the river grow.

It's called 'Forceful Brisbane'. Quite apt.

Rubberneckers.

We call them UZIs in the Philippines. I hear there's an anti-usisero bill afoot there.

An onlooker. I like looking on too, sometimes. To the city highrise.

Brown mud stains on a high river bank in Indooroopilly show how high the floodwaters rose.

Another lamented ferry terminal.

Playgrounds are offlimits for now.

The days were fine during the height of the floods. It was so eerie.

Got that sign right.

Police have cordoned off all access to the parklands.

It was quiet there for awhile. Until Julia came to have a look-see.

Ms Gillard, the PM was there to do media interviews. And she brought along her security detail. A media scrum soon ensued. I could not even get close for a Prime ministerial hug and kiss - as you do.

This is not a lake. It's a flooded site in Newstead.

Gauging the depth of the floodwaters.

Click below to watch a slideshow of the photos (with music).