Monday, December 23, 2024
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Act of Valor--based on real experiences--suicide vests, jihadis--movie on Amazon Prime
made with real life Navy Seals on leave--not revealing real names
List at end of Fallen--since 9/11 and the time movie was made.
Violence,bombs, hand grenades, death.
Blake Lively breakthrough movie + South By Southwest Music, Movie Fest, Austin, TX.
South by Southwest Music, Movie Fest--Austin, TX.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_by_Southwest
What is Interactive Media--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_media
Elvis and Annabelle, written and directed by Will Geiger, was Blake Lively's break through movie in 2007 --and premiered at South by Southwest Music Fest in Austin, TX. which is worth looking into. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_and_Anabelle Really good movie--Elvis and Annabelle--Blake Lively and Max Minghella-- On Amazon Prime-- It reminds me of a short story by John Steinbeck, who grew chrysanthemums, but the story I am thinking of has sweet peas. Can't say more as it might spoil your movie experience. kmk 12-21-2024
Powerful entertainment agency WME (William Morris Endeavor) drops Justin Baldoni as Blake Lively sues for sexual harrassment on set of It Ends with Us. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/justin-baldoni-dropped-wme-blake-lively-files-sues-sexual-harassment-1236092355/ end
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Elvis and Annabelle, written and directed by Will Geiger, was Blake Lively's break through movie in 2007
--and premiered at South by Southwest Music Fest in Austin, TX.
which is worth looking into.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_and_Anabelle
Really good movie--Elvis and Annabelle--Blake Lively and Max Minghella--
On Amazon Prime--
It reminds me of a short story by John Steinbeck, who grew chrysanthemums, but the story I am thinking of has sweet peas.
Can't say more as it might spoil your movie experience.
kmk
12-21-2024
Blake Lively sues co-star Baldoni with sexual harrassmen on set of It Ends with US.
I still have not read the book--waiting for price to fall.
https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/blake-lively-sues-ends-us-134710634.html
Upgraded is a good movie on Amazon Prime with high end art, art auctions in NY and London
and characters who are colored.
Very nice.
Of course you have to buy Prime membership and again
I have no business connection whatsoever with Amazon.
This movie is at least one I can remember.
Kyi May Kaung
12-21-2024
Books about the Battle of Kohima
AI Overview
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If you're looking for novels or memoirs based on the Battle of Kohima, one notable option is "The Trees Are All Young On Garrison Hill" by Gordon Graham which is a memoir detailing his personal experience fighting in the battle as a soldier in the Cameron Highlanders, offering a unique perspective on the harsh realities of jungle warfare in the region;.
Other relevant titles to consider:
"His Majesty's Headhunters: The Siege of Kohima That Shaped World History" by Mmhonlumo Kikon:
This book focuses on the Naga perspective of the battle, highlighting the role of local fighters against the Japanese.
"Road of Bones: The Siege of Kohima 1944" by Fergal Keane:
A title that likely explores the harsh conditions and heavy casualties experienced during the battle.
Key points about the Battle of Kohima:
Considered a pivotal moment in World War II, where British and Indian forces successfully defended against a Japanese offensive in the Kohima region of India. The battle was characterized by intense fighting in mountainous terrain with high casualties on both sides. The Naga people of the region played a significant role in supporting the Allied forces.
You see, in latest fiction I invented a Welsh man--and so I need a few phrases.
Stay tuned.
I can't say more except his grandfather died at Battle of Kohima.
Tongue twisting language--
AI Overview
Here are some Welsh terms of endearment:
Cariad: A popular term of endearment that means "love" or "darling". It can be used in many contexts, including romantic and familial.
Fy nghariad: Translates to "my love".
Anwyl: Means "dear". For example, "Helô, fy annwyl" means "Hello, my dear".
Fy nghalon: Means "my heart". For example, "Fy nghalon, dw i'n dy garu di" means "My heart, I love you".
Buwch goch gota: A term of endearment for children that literally translates to "a little red cow" but is more commonly used to mean "ladybird".
Another Welsh word that has multiple meanings is "cwtch", which can mean "cuddle" or "embrace", but can also mean "love", "warmth", or "affection". It can also refer to a safe place to store th
Royal Welsh (Welch) Fusiliers in Burma WWII
AI Overview
The Royal Welch Fusiliers were a British Army regiment that fought in Burma during World War II as part of the 36th Infantry Division's 29th Infantry Brigade:
1939
The 1st Battalion disembarked in Cherbourg, France and fought in France and Belgium before being evacuated from Dunkirk.
1944
The Royal Welch Fusiliers defended Kohima and were involved in the capture of Pintha. They used paddy fields for cover as they approached Japanese positions around Pinbaw.
1945
Fusilier Evans of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers used his No. 18 wireless set on the Shwebo Plain.
The Royal Welch Fusiliers were founded in 1689 and were part of the Prince of Wales's Division. The regiment's history includes:
1702: Designated a fusilier regiment and became the Welch Regiment of Fusiliers.
1713: The prefix "Royal" was added.
1714: George I named it the Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welsh Fusiliers.
1751: Became the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers).
THE BRITISH ARMY IN BURMA 1944 | Imperial War Museums
Imperial War Museums
In World War Two - Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum
The War saw 1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, disembarking at Cherbourg, France on 24th September 1939, then fighting in short...
Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum
Royal Welch Fusiliers - Wikipedia
The Royal Welch Fusiliers (Welsh: Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, and part of the ...
Wikipedia
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Generative AI is experimental.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Nicholas Spark's Dear John--A Special Forces soldier, a girl from down South--
on Amazon Prime, but a real tear jerker.
VOA--Myanmar may be holding Thai fishermen as leverage--
https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-military-appears-to-be-using-thai-fisherman-as-leverage-experts-say-/7908345.html
Zachary Abuza: Myanmar junta with its Neanderthalish ways--
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Horses--snow white mare drops jet black colt--
https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/gorgeous-snow-white-mare-gives-203300688.htmlMaybe the father was Black.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
From New Yorker--Erasure of Islam from Rumi's Poetry--
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi#:~:text=He%20is%20typically%20referred%20to%20as%20a,is%20less%20frequently%20described%20as%20a%20Muslim.
This seems to blame the translater, Coleman Barks.
But I don't read Farsi so how would I know Rumi/ except in Engish
Barks' translations are beautiful
Nor does WS Merwin read Eskimo
Nor Sanskrit
But he's translated both
ko ko thett would call it myanmar hmuu pyu
Burmanized
like changing one's clothes? Hair? Hygeine
practices?
People place too much weight on religion
Before religion and
nineteenth century
nations
we were homo sapiens and
had a shared ancestor, apes and mice
I'm getting tired.
There was this model couple I thought
Of very upper middle class birth
who would be my model Muslim-Buddhist couple/in a new novel
he was Buddhist though Indo-Burman
she said she was Sufi
Ko Chit Suu (changed name) said
You know Sufi and Rumi--don't you Aunty?
I said Yes, I do
I always thought
Sufi is very close to Buddhism.
She said stiffly
Since I've never been a Buddhist
I don't know
Fast forward 2 years.
They broke apart--after all that
She was locked in her room, by her father and her uncle
They called The Taliban--for ten years, and more to come--
But it doesn't fit here so--next post.
Kyi May Kaung
12-18-2024
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Reuters--junta intimidates food scarcity researchers and blocks aid--this too it has done since 1960s and 70s--when Ni Ni Myint, 3rd and 5th wife of NW--took US Cyclone supplies
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/famine-data-myanmar/
Poppy Macpherson et al--incld Wa Lone in Toronto--
Glad to know Wa Lone managed to make it out of Myanmar, where he was imprisoned in so-called "transition period."
The prize winning Reuters photographer of Rohingya (not Burmese) died during US--Afghanistan withdrawal--
So many stories waiting to be told, or too briefly told.
km
In such a situation, Myanmar thugs would probably go to Moscow, Dubai and Shanghai, China.
anyway,enough about dicatators for today.
Image--Roman crazy-Caligula.
Read I Claudius--by Robert Graves--also excellent TV series.
Monday, December 16, 2024
Looks like the end--junta abducting/conscripting young men--30,000 so far
We don't know number of casualities or deaths or defections--it's a tragedy of humongous proportions and the West does nothing.
China plays both sides and has been eyeing Burma for decades.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/yangon-mandalay-deserted-after-dark-as-myanmar-junta-hunts-for-conscripts.html
It's really sad.
More holiday movies
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=431bf9fa61e459f9&sxsrf=ADLYWIIzkuhJjQd5DMCQiKIv4lxl-3d3oQ:1734328856810&q=Free+Hallmark+Romantic+Comedy+Movies+on+youtube&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUgby7zquKAxVnFFkFHQO1KxQQ1QJ6BAhSEAE&biw=799&bih=391&dpr=2.4#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:822c69a1,vid:y0iQ4Bwn7q4,st:0
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Excerpt from Harvard Divinity School Paper--Death of the Buddha's Mother, Maya--
We will never know if Maya bled during or after her delivery. But what we can suspect is that Maya, like Tendzin, was partly blamed for her own death. The local midwives and doctors in Ladakh blamed Tendzin for refusing to stay at the clinic, even as they failed to admit their mistaken diagnosis. The silence around maternal deaths and their accompanying errors has ramifications in the United States as well as in India, something I became acutely aware of after my experience of a nearly missed diagnosis of leaking amniotic fluid. The United States currently has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the industrialized world and more than half of all maternal deaths are preventable errors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet we do not have complete review of every maternal death,as occurs in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, for instance. --
https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/the-death-of-the-buddhas-mother/comment-page-1/?unapproved=1218&moderation-hash=98af9775776b8818b2af1b7c0547f43f#comment-1218
Karen/Kayin people's names--
AI Overview
Learn more
The Karen people do not have surnames, and instead use honorifics and kinship terms to address each other:
Honorifics
For example, "Saw" is placed before the names of Skaw Karen men, and "Naw" is placed before the names of Skaw Karen women.
Kinship terms
For example, "Poo" is for grandfather, "Pee" is for grandmother, "Tee" is for uncle, "Moogar" is for aunt, "Par" is for father, "Mo" is for mother, "Jaw" is for older brother, "Noh" is for sister, "Day Kwar" is for younger brother, "Day" is for younger sister, "Po doh Kwar" is for nephew, "Po doh Moo" is for niece, "Po Kwar" is for son, "Po Moo" is for daughter, "Le Kwar" is for grandson, and "Le Moo" is for granddaughter.
The Karen naming system can be confusing for people in the United States, where people are identified by last names. When Karen refugees arrive in the United States, their names are sometimes broken up by syllable, with the final part serving as the last name.
Language & Customs - Karen Organization of Minnesota
Traditionally, Karen people do not have surnames, which may cause confusion. Instead, terms of kinship are generally used to addre...
Karen Organization of Minnesota
Karen Culture Presentation •Introduction - Ramsey County
Name. • Karen people traditionally have only one name; they do not. have last names. Women do not change their name when they marr...
Ramsey County
Karen - EthnoMed
The Karen are addressed by given names. Traditionally, they do not have family names. This causes confusion with the system in the...
EthnoMed
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The Razor's Edge--1946 version--much much better--more true to the book.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=The+Razor%27s+Edge+mivie#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4ca89aa8,vid:60cBH5O_AjE,st:0
Good dialog, good conflict.
Larry younger, played by very good looking Tyrone Power.
Bill Murray was too old and too cynical and a bit thuggish.
I much prefer this one.
The fashions and the manner of the times makes Larry especially look older and more polished
whereas he never really fit into society.
Yes, a remake with Larry always looking a little disheveled and non-comformist--for e.g. his clothes were worn and he lived very simply--he needed a shave and a haircut and needed a cleanup before he was presentable--and he was always a bit uncomfortable-- and liked to leave and arrive abruptly, always canny about his address and phone number.
He was a loner.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Version 2--The Razor's Edge--1984, based on the novel by Somerset Maugham--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clfnw8cfYbQ
Larry in this version played by Bill Murray, who also co-wrote the screenplay, does not fit the image of a saintly man from the novel; also many elements changed, including the elimination of the writer character, Somerset Maungham himself, who was the outsider narrator in the novel.
Plus Larry was a pilot in WW I, not a foot soldier in trench warfare, and the Tibetan element is completely new.
I watched this immediately after I read the novel, and even I found it hard to follow--BIll Murray in truncating it (the farm episodes and the trek through Germany completely cut out) made it extremely choppy and hard to follow. Sophie not given enough space
Larry at 30 was not a virgin as Isabel insisted. Larry had had what could only be called casual sex or convenient sex on his spiritual search.
A 3rd version should be made --as a long TV series--That would give space for each important character's stories--someone with money should work on it--like Julian Fellowes--(Downtown Abbey).
blockquote>I read The Razor's Edge when I was a pre-teen of 11 or 12.-- I did get Larry's Search --and I remember the alchohol scene--but I missed many details
such as the Radziwells in Warsaw, where I went in 1968, 69.
My sister and I were walking on a cold, snowy and icy street when the Polish tutor pointed out the Radziwell house to my sister, who at the time was still unmarried--I was and already had 2 children.
Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee married Count Radziwell and so was known as Lee Radziwell.
I was very young at 11 and 12, and lots of stuff I read passed over my head, like War abd Peace and The Brothers Karamazov, but I did get some things.
kmk
12-14-2024
In America it's the fashion to take writing courses such as the ones at Iowa Writers' Center, where I have
never been, I took courses closer to home and even those I have stopped for years now--due to the expense and I didn't want to go out at night on the subway and deserted streets anymore.
The 3-4 writing groups I helped to form fell apart when we could not keep up the "submit one chapter every week" rule we set ourselves, I because I traveled to SE Asia with work every 2 months between 2002 and 2010--
It's rude to say it, but you learn to write by reading.
My American classmates did not get it and few wrote well.
But I have been reading and writing since the time I was 10 to 12, though at that time I had little to write about, I hadn't lived enough, and then it got too traumatic.
Anyway, you will find some of it in my fiction and/or poetry--but you will always need to guess what really happened and which one of my characters is me--
Also, I like to write as a man, and the female characters are not all me--but who cares.
<They are just who they say they are.
DH Lawrence-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence
When you read Sons and Lovers today, it does not seem so wild.
I bought a collection of Lawrence's stories in a bookstore on Pirates' Alley in New Orleans.
Women do not fare well in his stories, and seem to go wild overseas--
In The Woman who Rode Away, a restless and sex-starved woman rides away to a remote Mexican village and gets gang raped.
Sons and Lovers is sad--his father a coal miner--one brother brought to bankruptcy by a flirtatious girl who wanted the latest fashions and squandered his money.
Very sad scene of his father washing the coal dust from his body in the evening after he came up from the mine.
Special post--Tennessee William's The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone--sordid--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fShaskBS_yA
It seems different from what I read--
But Tennessee Williams had several stories, not very kind to his female characters.
The Night of the Iguana-
Suddenly last Summer-with Liz Taylor.
The Glass Menagerie.
I'll get back to you with a Tennessee Williams wiki.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Buddhism--what are the 5 aggregates--
AI Overview
Learn more
In Buddhism, the five aggregates, also known as khandha, are the five elements that make up a person's physical and mental existence:
Form (rūpa): The body and the material objects that surround us, including the earth, air, fire, and water
Feeling (vedanā): Sensations or feelings
Perception (saññā): The perception of sensory objects
Mental formations (saṅkhārā): Mental formations
Consciousness (viññāṇa): The consciousness of the other three mental accumulations
Buddhism and the Five Aggregates - New Acropolis Ireland
Buddhism teaches that all people are in constant states of change throughout their lives, and that each of the five aggregates is fluid and ever-changing. The five aggregates are the basis for the concept of "self-grasping," which is the ego or true knowledge of the self.
From Tathagata wiki--
In the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta, an ascetic named Vaccha questions the Buddha on a variety of metaphysical issues. When Vaccha asks about the status of a tathagata after death, the Buddha asks him in which direction a fire goes when it has gone out. Vaccha replies that the question "does not fit the case ... For the fire that depended on fuel ... when that fuel has all gone, and it can get no other, being thus without nutriment, it is said to be extinct." The Buddha then explains: "In exactly the same way ..., all form by which one could predicate the existence of the saint, all that form has been abandoned, uprooted, pulled out of the ground like a palmyra-tree, and become non-existent and not liable to spring up again in the future. The saint ... who has been released from what is styled form is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable, like the mighty ocean."[9]: 225 The same is then said of the other aggregates. A variety of similar passages make it clear that the metaphor "gone out, he cannot be defined" (atthangato so na pamanam eti) refers equally to liberation in life.[10]: 91, 95 In the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta itself, it is clear that the Buddha is the subject of the metaphor, and the Buddha has already "uprooted" or "annihilated" the five aggregates.[10]: 95
Buddha Vajrapani (Heracles/Hercules) Greek influence.
AI overview--how to find a literary agent--
AI Overview
Learn more
Here are some literary agents who may accept Asian writers:
Marly Rusoff: An agent for new and debut authors at Marly Rusoff & Associates
Jenny Bent: An agent at The Bent Agency
Susan Golomb: An agent at Writers House
Dorian Karchmar: An agent at William Morris Endeavor
Daniel Lazar: An agent at Writers House
Bill Clegg: An agent at The Clegg Agency
Kim Lionetti: An agent at Bookends with over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry
You can also try these resources to find a literary agent:
Writers Market: A hardcopy book or online resource at www.writersmarket.com
Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents: A helpful resource
AgentQuery: An online source to cross-check information
Query Tracker: An online source to cross-check information Here are some tips for finding a literary agent: The chance of getting an agent is roughly 1 in 1,000, but you can apply to more than one agent.
Youcan query agents in another country if the market there is better for your book. Literary agents typically take a 15% commission on published work, but this percentage can be higher for translations and foreign rights sales. Best Literary Agents 2024-2025 | All Genres Top Book Agents Best Literary Agents for New Writers | 25 Top Book Agents for First-Time Authors and Debut Authors * Marly Rusoff (Marly Rusoff & literaryagencies.com
Excerpts fr Belt and Road wiki--
The initial focus has been infrastructure investment, education, construction materials, railway and highway, automobile, real estate, power grid, and iron and steel.[22] Already, some estimates list the Belt and Road Initiative as one of the largest infrastructure and investment projects in history, covering more than 68 countries, including 65% of the world's population and 40% of the global gross domestic product as of 2017.[23][24] The project builds on the old trade routes that once connected China to the west, Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta's routes in the north and the maritime expedition routes of Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He in the south. The Belt and Road Initiative now refers to the entire geographical area of the historic "Silk Road" trade route, which has been continuously used in antiquity.[25]
Military implications
The BRI has been viewed as part of a strategy to lessen the effect of choke points such as the Strait of Malacca in the event of a military conflict and to blunt the U.S. island chain strategy.[50][51][52][53] A 2023 study by AidData of the College of William & Mary determined that overseas port locations subject to significant BRI investment raise questions of dual military and civilian use and may be favorable for future naval bases.[54][55]
Writing in 2023, David H. Shinn and academic Joshua Eisenman state that through the BRI, China seeks to strengthen its position and diminish American military influence, but that China's BRI activity is likely not a prelude to American-style military bases or American-style global military presence.
. . .
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