the people of Burma
In 1986 I was admitted to the country of Burma with a one-week tourist visa. I quickly teamed up with three other travellers, and we enjoyed an astonishing whirlwind week. This was way back when Burma was called Burma by everyone, before thousands of marchers for democracy were killed in the streets in 1988. This was before tourist restrictions on photography so I was lucky to be allowed to take them freely.
There were very few cars in Burma, and these were all decades old and therefore delightful to the tourist. I also liked the ornamental luggage rack on this one. After taking the picture, I helped these guys push-start it.
Free Burma
lost and forgotten, like sunsets vanished
“He had expected somehow that Washington would be a scene of great international excitement with diplomats, ambassadors, foreign generals rushing by with eager entourages towards some indistinct place in the city blazing with light, all a-murmur with rumors, great preparations, mighty pronouncements. But it was just a lot of soldiers and sailors and Marines passing in the dusk, and sad girls strolling, and birds singing in the park, and trolleys clanging mournfully across the lowering darkness, and the lights coming on. Something was lost and forgotten, like sunsets vanished, and old names and dust, and the remembrance of history books, Civil War songs, and brown daguerreotype portraits of dead families.”
—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.
the letter Q
Thanks to the rebranding of QVS, the cable shopping channel that no one has ever admitted to watching, let alone using, the letter Q is in the news! Here are a few things I learned this week:
“‘Q’ might be a rare letter in the English language (and even rarer in most Germanic languages), but its unusual nature makes it popular with marketers.
The US trademark database reveals 1,971 records with the letter ‘Q’ on its own, in every conceivable category, from clothing and consumer goods to piezoelectric crystals to food products.”
—NameWire, “the product naming blog.”
“In fact, there are 603 US trademarks either pending or already registered for products and services named ‘Q,’ without any embellishment.
And in the past few years, ‘Q’ has actually become a popular substitute for ‘K.’ This is partly to make names seem more hip and partly to make them easier to trademark.”
—NameWire, “the product naming blog.”“Q is a sexy, cool letter. It’s much better than an L or an A, which are tough to brand.”
—Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer for QVC, at Advertising Age.
“We’d really like to own the 17th letter of the alphabet.”
—Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer for QVC, at The New York Times.
Is this what it has come to? Am I the only one disturbed by this? We can’t let them take, uh . . . any more of OUR letters!
so far gone!
“And then they lay back with their arms as pillows and looked up at the milky stars and talked.
‘You look at those things long enough and you’re knocked out,’ said Buddy, staring astonishedly at the stars. ‘They’re so far off, you know’’
‘What do you expect!’
‘I mean they’re so far, so far gone! Deep! You look up there long enough and it’s just like looking into a big hole, you’re afraid you’ll fall in it—like when you drink too much.’”
—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.
stomping, rollicking, scintillating, solid, hot, strains
“As I write you the stomping, rollicking, scintillating, solid, hot, strains of Guy Iturbi Ignacz Lombardo are filling the air. To say his occarino and glackenspiel sections have improved is an understatement.”
—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.
vintage American album cover art
From Japan, an amazing collection of vintage American album cover art. And it’s all clickable.
Burma (Myanmar), 1989
a thousand red flambeaux
“‘Yow!’
The boy’s ‘Yow!’ echoes across the field like the sound of a horn. They build a snowman and riddle it with snowballs, and now dusk is coming and March sky is mad and lowering with angry, purple clouds. In a moment the sun is going to break through and flame in all the windows of Galloway, the mill windows will be a thousand red flambeaux, something will slant across the skies and over the river.
‘Yow!’”
—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.
a big black dance
“The streetlamp at the corner-store sways shadows in a big black dance, the store sign swings and creaks in the wind, leaves fly, apples thud to the ground in the orchards, the stars are blazing in the somber sky—everything is raw, smoky, and terrific.”
—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.