We’re not lacking for news, but I figured an open thread would provide a good respite while El Jefe mends. My younger son is an unbelievable coder. He’s also a metal head who often plays poker with a Richmond-based metal band. Sunday, he introduced me to a metal band that truly moved me.The Hu is a Mongolian heavy metal band using traditional Mongolian musical instruments and throat singing in their art. Enjoy.
Story from personal life helps with explaining the general structure of the thinking of that particular story teller. That knowledge allows the overall communication to become faster and more efficient.
Posted by: Peteschmell | 15 October 2019 at 01:37 AM
For me personally the highlight of this year has been the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to......
The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. "
The awarding of the peacec prize to past president B.Obama has come full circle.What a fantastic outcome.Hopefully this will usher in the possibility of peace in the middle east.Obama's visit to Ethiopia,his address to the oau,the first for a us president,his meeting with an elderly woman called Gifty
https://www.feedthefuture.gov/article/subsistence-to-surplus-how-gifty-went-from-barely-making-ends-meet-to-meeting-president-obama/
These important events are threads in a larger tapestry and will bring about change in the future
Posted by: anon | 15 October 2019 at 03:40 AM
Music is the way to bridge the gap between generations. Thank you for posting this. I'm sending a link to each of my sons.
My older son was of the Iron Maiden generation. I think he'll be the one who likes this more.
I was trying to teach a small class of ninth graders, mostly boys, who were considered to be "remedial." Of course I knew that in that particular district where I was teaching, the administration divided students by "advanced" (meaning the children of the wealthier people and the ones who ran the district, the city council, etc., and the "average," who were the children of average, tax-paying middle class parents, and the "remedial," who were from the poorer classes with single mothers, dead-beat dads, etc.
Their means of dividing had nothing to do with academic ability. Never, never, let your children or grandchildren be caught up in a school system like that.
Anyway, I thought those "remedial" ninth grade boys might really like Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner." I was reading it with them, when finally one of them perked up and claimed it was written by Iron Maiden. I promised them that if they stayed with me and finished reading, I would let them play the Iron Maiden version.
If you look at Iron Maiden's logo, it is really an image of "The Nightmare Life in Death," from Coleridge's poem. And later I listened to more of their music closely and discovered that they used many classic English poems as inspiration for the music.
My younger son was from the more angst ridden Nirvana generation. I then had to learn to like that sort of music; and I began to like it also.
Thank you for posting.
Posted by: Diana C | 15 October 2019 at 09:15 AM
Thanks Diana for the poetry link. I'll have to root through some old youtube versions of Iron Maiden to see if I can ID the various poets. Did they ever put John Donne to music?
As for throat singing? It has to be a bit more pleasant than watching Sean Spicer dancing with the stars.
Posted by: JP Billen | 15 October 2019 at 09:53 AM
Good choice! an openly pro-Nazi Mongolian band... ever heard of the Hitler pictures in cafes there?
Just sayin'
Posted by: anonymous | 15 October 2019 at 09:57 AM
Anyone interested in Mongolian history, culture, arts, battle equipment, and really amazing yurts, among a multitude of other finely portrayed details, will probably enjoy the made-for-TV series called Marco Polo. Interesting and entertaining 1-hour segments were made for 2 years for a total of about 25 episodes. I find it extremely well crafted / authentic feel, amazing attention to details of every aspect, and well filmed & acted, and accurate. Lots of Mongolian heavy metal and other variations of their unique vocal sounds. Exotic and wonderfully made, highly recommended! (Viewer Warning: Possibly too visually stimulating for recent eye surgery.)
Posted by: Stan | 15 October 2019 at 10:24 AM
Godwin's law violated in just 5 comments.
Posted by: CK | 15 October 2019 at 10:58 AM
TTG, have you seen this article re pending changes to the qual course for Army SF? Comments, good or bad?
https://www.stripes.com/news/army/big-changes-to-grueling-special-forces-course-draw-scrutiny-1.602933
Posted by: Leith | 15 October 2019 at 11:13 AM
You might like this. Bull catching and mustering with chopper, buggies and bikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xogzeJD6cGg
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | 15 October 2019 at 11:18 AM
Struck by the role of Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin and the recent Project Veritas confirmation of what has long been obvious at CNN.
One man Zucker, like Ortrud, solely with a vengeful personal vendetta will use everything in the power of his media empire to bring down another man, in this case Trump.
Plus c'est la change, plus c'est la meme chose. Art imitating life; life imitating art.
Posted by: Factotum | 15 October 2019 at 11:24 AM
Godwin’s law ...
Posted by: Dabbler | 15 October 2019 at 11:24 AM
Done comes from the Metaphysical period of poetry during the Restoration in England. His meditation that contains the popular phrase "for whom the bell tolls" would, I think be hard to put to music. Most metaphysical poems, which were usually quite short--the one I recall just from memory right now was a simple comparison of his love and himself as being part of a compass, with his love being the point of the compass and he bing the part that circles around. (I'm talking of course about the compasses we used in geometry class.) So, yes, that idea might make a good love song.
Iron Maiden were taking from the Romantic period of Coleridge and Wordsworth.
Actually several of Iron Maiden's songs were also based on other Romantic Period poems.
When Simon and Garfunkel were popular, I noticed that some of their songs were obviously taken from many of the poems that were featured in Ninth Grade literature text books. They must have been in school at one point and studying from those texts. Think about the song "Richard Cory" with is almost word for word in places based on the poem.
Posted by: Diana C | 15 October 2019 at 11:27 AM
A kick of a movie about the Beatles music - "Yesterday", if you have not yet seen it.
A few moments to ponder - is the Beatles music lost to new generations to the point of not even existing? What would our lives be like had they not arrived on the music scene. Was their popular appeal powerful only in contrast to the popular music that preceded them. Or does it stand alone as important music on its own, regardless of contrast or context .
Posted by: Factotum | 15 October 2019 at 11:27 AM
Godwin’s law INVOKED... Sorry
Posted by: Dabbler | 15 October 2019 at 11:32 AM
To be precise, you probably should have written, "in just the fifth" comment. I was a little disconcerted that you might have felt I was referring to Hitler somehow.
Posted by: Diana C | 15 October 2019 at 11:32 AM
Apologies to you, Anonymous (aren't they always) was the invoker/violator.
And HU, specifically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD1gDSao1eA is the most popular download from Amazon. Watch it with the closed captions on.
Posted by: CK | 15 October 2019 at 11:41 AM
I'd prefer to just enjoy them - but here is a variety of opinions from people in the region on the band.
3 million people with a large territory next to a crowded nation of a billion people are likely to have some strong feelings about preserving their culture.
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Mongolian-folk-rock-band-The-HU-actually-nationalist-or-is-it-mocking-nationalists
Posted by: Terry | 15 October 2019 at 12:07 PM
Leith, SF training has changed a lot over the years. I'm sure my course was very different from Colonel Lang's. It's also human nature to claim things were a lot tougher back in my day. All old timers do this. The real question is quality being sacrificed for quantity. The gist of this article seems to be that some training is being transferred to post-graduation when the new SF troops are in their teams. This is not a new approach. Our advisors always told us our real training will begin once we arrived in our teams. And they were right. Time and experience is what develops an SF soldier. Language training was not a graduation requirement when I went through. Once I was on my team in the 10th, we went through Polish language training as a team at Fort Devens. The same was true of a lot of skill training like winter, alpine and urban guerrilla operations. It would be silly to try to move skill training like that to Fort Bragg as a prerequisite for graduation.
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 October 2019 at 12:11 PM
Leith, that response is from me, TTG, not Colonel Lang. I just forgot to switch over to my account before I posted it.
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 October 2019 at 12:12 PM
Richard Feynman would be proud. Floreat Tuva.
Posted by: Stephanie | 15 October 2019 at 12:25 PM
Also - this photo essay on Tsagaan Khass is interesting. I didn't find any outright links to The Hu -
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/07/a-mongolian-neo-nazi-environmentalist-walks-into-a-lingerie-store-in-ulan-bator/100547/
Posted by: Terry | 15 October 2019 at 12:27 PM
https://youtu.be/scc0ZnZ4AN8
Listen to the music.
Posted by: Stephanie | 15 October 2019 at 12:30 PM
TTG,
Here's something for your musical pleasure. Best listened too five miles offshore as you put the lines in the water or in the cool evening breeze at sunset with a cold beer and friends waiting for the fish to fry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcrWm9s_Cjk
Posted by: Fred | 15 October 2019 at 12:38 PM
Diana,
I like Donne's metaphors. And who could not admire a former soldier & ladies man turned priest and poet? I would have thought that some of the lyrics in his "Batter My Heart" would work well in rock music:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44106/holy-sonnets-batter-my-heart-three-persond-god
But it might be slammed banned from the Westminster pulpit?
Posted by: JP Billen | 15 October 2019 at 12:56 PM
Thanks
Enjoyed the Hu and habe added to spotify
A Moari band while more standard instruments has a interesting video https://youtu.be/5kwIkF6LFDc
Posted by: Sbin | 15 October 2019 at 01:19 PM