ten things I like beginning with the letter...

[alonewiththemoon]

from suzycat .  If you want to play, comment here and I'll give you a letter!

She gave me the letter S:

1. Siouxsie Sioux.  That hardly needs explaining, but I will anyway.  For a long time I was rather set against liking Siouxsie and the Banshees because as a goth girl everybody assumed I would love her.  I am often pigheaded that way.  But then I started really listening, not to mention dancing, first to the Creatures and then to the Banshees and then her new solo album is something that has really resonated with me, so now I believe she is the cat's pyjamas and I probably do gothic belly dance more often to music she is involved with than any other artist.

2. Seals.  I fell in love with them in Alaska.  So bright and pretty and fluid with limpid eyes, and also tough and wolf-like with big teeth.

3. Souhair Zaki.  A classic Egyptian dancer with ever so precise hip work and the sweetest smile ever.

4.  Scimitars.  Specifically, my baladi scimitar from Kult of Athena.  Other scimitars might be bigger and fancier but I like this one just fine.

5. Saudade, or the experience thereof.  A perfectly balanced state of longing and joy, satisfaction and loss, crying because you are so happy, laughing because you are so sad.

6. Seti.  Speaking of saudade.  He's no longer here but he will always be one of my favorite things in the world.

7. Sushi.  yum yum yum!

8. Savasana.  The all too rare moments when my apartment and my neighborhood and my brain are all quiet and calm enough to enter true relaxation are precious.

9. Samba.  I don't think I'll ever be much good at it but it's fun and it pushes me to pick up my feet and move fast.

10.  Salon.com.  I read it pretty much every day.  It unabashedly comes from a particular ideological orientation but I think is also pretty fair in its reporting, and since the ideological orientation is copasetic with my own, it sits well with me.  The one shortcoming is the entertainment reporting, as I think most of their TV and movie critics are not that smart.  I like the guy who writes the independent film blog though.

Wow, the prettiest black and purple butterfly just landed in the tree outside my window!  I am thinking it is a black swallowtail, after googling.  Mine looked more purple where the photo looks blue, but that could have been its iridescence.  Pretty!

Comments

[sirendipity.livejournal.com]

Oh! I like this meme.

Can you give me a letter, please?

[alonewiththemoon]

Sure, you can have the letter N!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I'll play along... can I have a letter, please! =)

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter K!

[sittingstill.livejournal.com]

::sits up, begs for letter with pleading eyes::

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter E!

[fudjo.livejournal.com]

I never do these things...gimme a letter, please! :)

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter D!

[brigid.livejournal.com]

this is like scrabble, i'd like a letter please

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter P!

[fudjo.livejournal.com]

Alas, salon.com's articles on the Georgia-Russia conflict have been awful. :(

[alonewiththemoon]

I thought today's by Juan Cole was good, though it was really less about Russia and Georgia than it was about the US.

[fudjo.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting article, but I think it's presumptuous to think that Russia is acting the way it is because the US established a precedent. The reason for this conflict is very simple and basic: oil. NATO's courting of Georgia was far more than just a strategic threat. It was a very direct threat to Russia's economic interests, as it was an attempt to secure access to the oil wells and ports on the Black Sea and the pipeline running through Georgia. Russia acted in the manner it did because it would gain it control of these resources and because it knew it could get away with it. I find it very ironic (and journalistically negligent) that Salon of all sites didn't point this out.

[alonewiththemoon]

Huh, I know I read that argument somewhere--it must have been in the Globe's reporting, of all places.

I don't think Cole is saying exactly that Russia did what it did because we invaded Iraq first (arguably it's more analogous to the First Gulf War anyway), but I do think he's saying, and I would agree, that our invasion of Iraq has contributed to a global environment where invasion seems like an acceptable solution.

[fudjo.livejournal.com]

It's certainly easy to say, "Hey, Russia has some nerve! They're invading Georgia under false pretenses in order to gain oil and project military power!" The analogy made with the second US invasion of Iraq (or even the first, depending on how you view it) is certainly clear. However, I think the similarities end there. Russia is facing very direct strategic and (most importantly, in my opinion) economic threats from NATO and felt the need to act. One can point out that the US acted in a unilateral manner with respect to Iraq, but Russia is acting even more unilaterally - it didn't consult anyone, didn't engage in any diplomacy, didn't send inspectors, and is acting without any allies at all. I'm of the opinion that Russia would have acted in this manner even without any precedent set or any contribution to the global environment by the actions of the US.

Even if I don't agree with the article, I find it very surprising that the author completely fails to make the comparison between Iraq-US and Georgia-Russia with respect to oil. If there's a point to be made here, it's that military action will still be used for economic interests, despite how democratic and civilized a nation may be. I think Cole is too distracted by the thin veils of "nation building", "sovereignty", and "self-determination" - and a Salon writer should know better than that.

[anechoic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, can I have a letter?

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter G!

[shnells.livejournal.com]

this sounds too muppety to ignore.

hit me!

[alonewiththemoon]

You get the letter U!