3 New Albums: Portishead, Guillermo Klein, Immortal Technique

Portishead: Third

After an eleven year hiatus, nobody knew quite what to expect from one of Britain's founding trip-hop groups, the reclusive and highly influential Portishead. Third, while not as deeply groovy and immediate as 1994's debut smash Dummy, nor as richly textured and harmonically labyrinthine as 1997's self-titled record, is still a force to be reckoned with. The Bristol, UK, trio of Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons, and Adrian Utley have emerged from their creative coccoon (I would say "womb," but tact tells me not to put it in the same sentence as "Bristol" this week), reborn with vitality, freshness, and even a few of the old tricks. (Go here for samples - iTunes DRM files won't let me preview them here.)

While the first two records created a sonic environment akin to listening to your grandpa's scratchy, low key jazz records in a creepy basement, drawing heavily from hip-hop beat craft, Third is much more influenced by Radiohead and all the other electronic rock outfits of the intervening decade. Part of the band's new sound is reactionary: upset that their down-tempo grooves of the 90s have been co-opted into hipster-lounge chic for affluent urbanites, the new record tries to shake things up with startling electronic bleeps and blurps and Sonic Youthian noise. The opening cut, "Silence," with a harmonic form based entirely on minor thirds, is identifiably Portishead; but it's guitar driven, heavy, and actually fast. Gibbon's ghoulish voice lets the listener know that Portishead is to be taken seriously, thank you. Her melodies are bizarre, snaky, deceptive, unpredictable, totally unlike anything else in pop, and amazingly effective. But they are uncompromising and definitely not for the fans of the hipster rip-off legions. The song ends suddenly, without reason - I actually checked my iPod on first listen, thinking it had run out of batteries. No. "Silence" is an aggressive reclaiming of the ground that Portishead originally broke.

The band's blend of electronic manipulation, live drums and guitar, samples, and vulnerable, dessicated female vocals is a potent mix. "The Rip," one of Portishead's most lyrical little gems, is a great example of the band's new sound. It starts with acoustic guitar arpeggiations, naked voice, a gentle synth drone and a bassoon (!). Portishead's harmonies often move chromatically, and listening to it here makes you realize how rare this sort of thing is in pop, and how ravishing it can be to the ear (is Mr.Barrow a Wagner fan, I wonder?). About half-way through the song, the stripped down, bare, and human sound world gives way to the realm of machines, as a brassy analog synth takes over the guitar arpeggios and the drum groove enters. Landing on a long note, Gibbon's voice is electronically manipulated to hold as a drone over the groove, essentially becoming another electronic instrument in the mix. Portishead's cyborg soul is on full display.

Guillermo Klein and Los Guachos: Filtros

Quite possibly the most exciting new jazz release I've heard this summer, Argentine pianist-singer Guillermo Klein teams up with his 11-piece band (too big for a combo jazz sound, too small for a big band effect) for a collection of stunningly original music. Unlike many successful modern jazz groups that draw extensively from the energy and directness of rock, Los Guachos performs a fastidiously composed, intricate type of improvisational music that gives a nod to the world of classical music. Like his countryman Osvaldo Golijov, Klein is a chameleon that refuses to see boundaries and borders, preferring to view all music on a level field (there's a Pampas reference in there somewhere but it's not coming to me).

From the first second of the record, "Va Roman," we are hit with Klein's casual, amateurish voice (an acquired taste) over tidally pulsating piano chords. The groove, when it comes in (the masterful Jeff Ballard on drums is amazingly subtle here), is gentle, graceful, but deceptively complex as well (a large 12/4). A skilled orchestrator, Klein uses the ensemble to paint delicate colors behind the soloists; his sense as a writer for large ensemble is influenced by the superbly talented NY bandleader Maria Schneider (and indeed many bandmembers are the same here), but his periodic structures are simpler and more steady. His harmonic palette is positively dazzling; on "Yeso," later in the album, the listener is struck by what might be an Unpluggled Radiohead B-side.

The classical influence can be found in the forms and techniques underlying this superb collection. On "Miula," for instance, Klein uses an effect derived from the string quartets of mid-century American iconoclast Elliott Carter, "metric modulation." Simply put, this technique transforms a subdivision in one tempo (say, triplets) into the pulsation of a new independent tempo. When coordinated well, a groove can transform instantaneously into another seemingly unrelated tempo at the drop of a hat - it's jarring and seriously spicy (and underused, for that matter). In addition to classical techniques, Filtros takes on some beautiful 2oth century compositions (György Ligeti's "Hungarian Rock" and Olivier Messiaen's "Louange a l'eternite de Jesus"), adding the expressive freedom of jazz to an unexpected context. Pulling the European avant-garde, American jazz, and South American folk songs into his eclectic mix, Klein is truly a jazzer for the 21st century. I can't recommend this album strongly enough.

Immortal Technique: The 3rd World

For those of you who think that hip-hop has lost its will to speak truth to power in forceful and urgent terms, listen to Harlem-based MC Immortal Technique. I've followed the career of this underground rapper for a few years now, starting with the furious Revolutionary: Vol. 1 (2001), and I can say with all seriousness that his talent is unmatched in all of hip-hop. He is simply a phenomenon with no peer. The third volume of his "Revolutionary" series, The 3rd World, like its predecessors, is intense, thought-provoking, and will have you running to the computer to look up references with every other verse. This is pure Edu-tainment, as KRS-One formulated the idea: political, hard-hitting, muscular, but also fun.

Like Guillermo Klein, Immortal Technique is a product of different continents. Born in Peru but raised in Harlem, this half-black half-Hispanic rapper has a unique perspective in the traditionally binary world of hip-hop (black and white). He raps in English and Spanish, and his lyrics tend towards the far left: he takes on the topics of American economic imperialism in Latin America, the Iraq War, media failures, the Washington Consensus, CIA complicity in the international drug trade, and the War on Terrorism, all with remarkable humor, lacerating vitriol, and a refreshing clarity and coherence of ideas (this is no Rage Against the Machine!). To understand Immortal Technique's persona, imagine if Noam Chomsky grew up on the mean streets. Yet, while few teenagers would delve into leftist politics and contemporary events with much zeal if forced to read about it in the library, the format of hip-hop - true to its mid-80s, Public Enemy form - makes some pressing political commentary accessible to all who revel in phat beat-craft.

The producer here, DJ Green Lantern, is more slick and produced than his previous collaborators (vol.1, while brilliant, is low-fi and indie to the extreme). This has earned the album some criticism from hard-core, keep-it-to-the-streets type fans; personally, I could take it or leave it. It's not really the point anyway. To me, the real attraction of IT is his brilliant word-play and sense of social justice. In this sense, he is unmatched, although the new album falls short of the first two Revolutionary volumes in the number of epiphanic verbal fireworks. If it were produced by any other MC, I'd say the album was amazing; from IT, it is so-so. Moreover, this album loses its focus frequently, veering off into senseless cant and silly communist agitprop. It's an inconsistent collection, so I'd recommend Vol.1 to the IT newcomer.

Nonetheless, this is an artist to watch. If Immortal Technique ever gets as popular as Jay-Z (an impossibility), you can bet that the younger generation would be out there on the streets chanting down Babylon.

Dear America, This is my Blackberry Speaking

Let's talk for a minute about the motives of the news commentators who are leading the barrage against Palin. I haven't watched TV news for a while, but I flipped on CNN on Friday morning when the commentators were waiting for Palin and McCain to appear. Every time they said something positive about Palin, they countered it by saying, "But the Democrats will be sure to point out that [insert any number of the attacks that have risen against her]." At first, I thought this was just their attempt at being balanced and presenting both arguments.

Then one of the junior commentators said—in what I can't imagine was anything other than a revealing slip—"I have people from the Democratic campaign lighting up my blackberry with emails saying, 'Ask this! Ask this!'"

I know that campaigns try to play the media any way they can, but this is an alarming new byproduct of improved mobile technology. Reporters now have real-time scripts written for them by the campaign—right on their blackberrys! So let's not have any illusions. It's not "GOP spin" vs. "fair-and-balanced media" in this fight. Far from it.

Flashback

I think this post (and the excellent comments) by Zach is worth another look in light of our new potential vice-president.

Current GOP spin says that Bristol's pregnancy actually reinforces Palin's family values credentials because Bristol is having, not aborting, the baby. Having a child at seventeen is a courageous act. But let's take a broader view of this.

Palin's opinion on sex-ed is well known. I don't think we can expect the reality of her daughter's pregnancy to change her view, either. The trouble is, not every teenager who becomes pregnant gets to raise the child with her (soon-to-be) husband and with the financial support of being the governor's daughter. Lots of kids raise kids with no support at all. So Palin, it is great that your daughter Bristol is choosing to keep the kid and get married and all that, but when you force your policies on the rest of the country realize that a lot of kids will not be so lucky.

On this Episode of "The Old and the Restless"...

It's shaping up to be the best show this fall, filled with juicy plot twists, unexpected surprises, and personal sagas. Our heroine tries to get her sister's ex fired in an act of passionate family revenge. She chortles mirthfully when someone publicly calls an opponent a "bitch." She was a beauty pageant winner in high school. Her out-of-wedlock teenage daughter becomes pregnant.

No, this isn't a description of the latest soap opera; and it isn't a series of dramatic happenings from the trailer park down the road. Is is sad indeed that a major, completely viable US presidential candidacy has been reduced to such tawdry and utterly ridiculous news flashes over a VP pick. I know other writers here are preparing posts on Sarah Palin now, so I don't want to step on any toes, but I need to say a few words before the time peg passes. This is simply too spectacularly preposterous a choice to remain silent about.

The appeals of Sarah Palin are transparently obvious, politically calculating, and deeply cynical. She is a social conservative, an "ordinary American" (read: not from a top educational pedigree, socio-economic class, or the liberal and un-American coasts), a "reformer," and - perhaps most importantly in McCain's audacious and irresponsible reasoning - a woman.

But over the last three days, every potential plus (besides the sexual plumbing) of Palin to McCain ticket has been systematically dismantled by a few reporters with laptops. (Nevermind Obama's team of professional biography-divers.) She's a family values social conservative? Um, having your 17 year old daughter get pregnant out of wedlock doesn't seem very "valueful" to me. She's a reformer? It took less than 24 hours for it to be known that Palin supported the corrupt Ted Stevens political machine; she supported earmarks in her state; she supported the "bridge to nowhere." If this is a reformist background (indeed, these are all at the top of her list of credentials on Friday), then the maverick name truly has lost its meaning. Obama's too inexperienced for the job? Great, so let's counter with a newbie governor of a state with less than a million people whose previous job was as a the mayor of a town of under 10,000. In line after a 72 year old man with health problems, this isn't bold and courageous - this is stupid, impulsive, and completely irresponsible. It also demolishes McCain's most forceful argument against Obama - experience. (Although in an amazingly typical act of GOP spin doctoring, the word on the convention floor is that Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined. I kid you not.)

So we're left with the two X chromosomes. In perhaps the most foolish move of McCain's candidacy yet, he has gambled that women, upset with Obama and still fuming over the treatment of Hillary in the media, will flock to someone who shares their gonads. Palin herself played this up with reference to the "glass ceiling" in her exceptance speech. First of all, this claim is condescending in the extreme towards American women: multiple recent polls are showing that women aren't fooled by such a blatant appeal to their sisterhood (in fact, if anything this ploy is pushing women towards Obama - see polling data).

If Palin stays on the ticket - a number of commentators are already comparing her to
Thomas Eagleton, a hapless Democratic VP pick in 1972 who withdrew shortly after the general election campaigning began - then the McCain soap opera will devolve into even more of a farce. We've had three days with Sarah Palin, not even enough time to order a book on Amazon.com and get it in the mail, and look at the mess that's been dredged up already. If she stays on the scene, unless she's an exceptional campaigner and debater, she could really prove to be an albatross around McCain's neck. What's the old prescription for vice picks in the generals? "Do no harm." Palin has already harmed the McCain brand irrevocably.

I'm going to stop here. I've barely scratched the surface on this issue, so I hope you add your comments and other writers get their Palin posts out soon. Who knows, the show might not last too long.

Sympathy for the Cowboy

For the second straight year, despite the so-called "culture wars" raging, a significant plurality (about 70%) of Americans agree that George W. Bush is an abject failure. Democrats and Republicans alike are eager to see his backside come January, and McCain is doing everything possible to escape the "Bush-McCain" pairing. In this regard, NYT reported today that GOP officials expressed relief that Bush would not be giving his scheduled speech tomorrow night at the convention - he's too toxic for advisers to want him anywhere near the Maverick senator.

But, returning to a topic that Mark launched on the blog last month that resulted in a spirited discussion, can we really say that Bush did everything wrong and is responsible for all the problems we find ourselves in today? In last week's Newsweek, senior international editor and columnist Fareed Zakaria counters this argument with a cogent analysis of everything Bush actually got right during his presidency. In a very real way, knee-jerk anti-Bushism, especially in the last year, has covered up significant changes for the good in the president's policies. We can all agree that Bush is a lame duck and is leaving an America that occupies a dimished role in the world, a crisis of the rule of law (FISA, torture, habeas corpus, etc.), two Middle Eastern wars, an economic mess, few plans for climate change, and a host of other nasty realities. But, as Zakaria points out, much of today's criticism of Bush is really towards the Bush of his first term and a half. The Bush of today, sidelined and increasingly irrelevant, has moved further and further to the center on a variety of issues. His policies are returning to the world of sanity, but his poll numbers haven't received as much as a bump, blinded as the public is at this point by reflexive Bushaphobia. Of course, the 2008 general election race is the media star now, not Bush-bashing; in many ways, the upcoming 44th president, whoever he will be, has stolen the media limelight from the president (Jon Stewart's "Still President Bush") ever since the Iowa Causus, and arguably before. We've all moved on.

This blog tends towards the liberal side and we've certainly been no friend of George W. Bush, but it is only fair to outline some of the changes for the good in Bush's policy over the last couple years. Here are a few:

- The Surge: Although sceptics were slow to admit it, and it certainly isn't a slam dunk yet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue that this strategy isn't progressively improving the situation in Iraq. In the face of great political opposition, Bush made an unpopular decision that appears now to be leading in a positive direction. While he certainly doesn't deserve all the credit for the stabilization of Iraq (and, of course, his desperado idiocy started the whole conflict to begin with), he certainly deserves a nod.

- North Korea: Bush started his tenure in office with an "under no circumstances will we negotiate with evil North Korea" policy towards the hermit nation. Today, our stance towards Kim Jong-Il is positively Clintonian, with plenty of carrots and sticks instead of resounding and dangerous silence.

- Staff Shake-up: Remember the bad ol' days of Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Rove, and Wolfowitz? One by one, these extremists have left Bush's inner circle, and the staff pouring advise into the porch of the president's ear now are a far saner, more moderate lot (Gates, Mukasey, Paulson, etc.).

- Iraq Timeline: In yet another example of the political world catching up to the proscriptions of Barack Obama, Bush now thinks a withdrawl timeline is a responsible idea. (I'm glad Bush has finally come around to the un-Patriotic "cut and run" strategy.)

- Israel-Palestine: His first years in the presidency were "hands off" when it came to this perennial conflict. He's been much more involved in the past year, even organizing a conference for the stubborn leaders of that region in Annapolis.

- Iran: Again, he's come around to a more reasonable, centrist position that favors direction negotiation about the much-feared nuclear program. (Again, Obama was the bellwether there.)

- PEPFAR: This African humanitarian aid program is praised in most political quarters. Despite the preposterous and deadly insistence on "abstinence only" programs, PEPFAR has been instrumental in fighting diseases in the poorest continent. Last year's funding for the program, in fact, increased from $1 billion in the first two years to a remarkable $6 billion, prompting the NYT columnist Nick Kristof to remark: "George Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did." (I haven't fact-checked that claim.)

It really is hard to feel sympathy for Dubya. In fact, I'm still under the opinion that some of the things that have occurred under Bush's watch are impeachable offenses, but regardless; he should get some credit for turning things around. "Some" - I'm not saying "a lot," but it's only rational that his various policy about-faces are reflected in his polling numbers. Of course, it is certainly arguable that what happened in Bush's first six years are eternally damnable and nothing will get him off the hook now. Part of me certainly feels this way.

In closing, this week's New York Times Magazine features a long article on the final day's of Bush's presidency. The author, Peter Baker, chronicles a man who has become obsessed with his legacy, and for whom poor poll numbers have almost become a mark of courage and honor (doing what's right in the face of unpopularity). Bush's complete lack of self-reflection is troubling; but his total inability to make a dent in his basement-level popularity, despite sensible decisions, gives me - I never thought I'd say it -some level of sympathy for the poor guy. The end of the article outlines a series of public addresses and conferences the president recently attended that, despite his handlers' attempt to publicize "the new Bush," drew zero media attention. Whether it be in front of a White House conference on "freedom," featuring dissidents from around the world, or a conference on faith-based social service programs, nary a television camera is in sight. Even though the White House bills a speech as "major," nobody shows up.

The deep aloneness and complete irrelevance of the president right now is justified, but he should at least be acknowledged for his recent policy changes in the right direction. It is time we put the self-defeating Schadenfreude aside. Today, Bush is a pathetic sight, in the sense that he is couched in pathos. In many ways (against, justifiably), he's been rendered powerless, the political fangs he used to possess removed and safely stored in a formaldehyde jar for the examination of reporters, authors, critics, and the international community. But a defanged snake is a sad sight indeed, even if it did bite us once.

A Wetter and Windier Future?

Tropical Storm Fay, from my window on 8/18

Just as TS Fay sputters out over the gulf coast, having pounded the Florida peninsula with high winds and over a foot of rain last week, two new major tropical storm systems are developing in the Caribbean, raising the specter once again of punishing weather conditions in the gulf region. Violent weather is in no way foreign to the people of Florida and the gulf coast; indeed, people here have been dealing with powerful hurricanes ever since the area was settled. But is the increasing frequency of Atlantic hurricanes - and deadly storms worldwide, for that matter - simply a matter of chance, as some claim? As we brace for another battering down here while the GOP prepares to party in Minnesota next week, this is an important question to discuss.

The claim that hurricanes and related natural disasters are random and human-caused climate change has nothing to do with it is patently false. According to the National Climatic Data Center, the frequency and power of Atlantic hurricanes has increased dramatically over the past thirty years, with the middle of our present decade producing some of the most damaging disasters on record. During 2004 alone, for example, Florida was struck by 4 of the 10 most costly hurricanes in US history; in the same season, Japan was hit by 10 typhoons totaling $10 billion in loses. (For a thorough account of the damages brought about by recent hurricanes, read Lester Brown's eye-opening Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.) The vastness of the Katrina tragedy in 2005 is too well documented to warrant reiteration here. Due to the increasing risk of living along the gulf and in Florida, insurance premiums in the last three years have doubled, tripled, and in some particularly storm-prone areas even increased 10-fold, making it increasingly difficult to afford living and doing business here. In a recent survey, Florida ranked #1 in America for percentage of individuals considering leaving the state (1 in 5).

Yet, even as all credible climatic models suggest an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and their devastating economic toll, the administration and large parts of the Republican party continue to bury their proverbial heads in the sand. John McCain's recent fervent embrace of offshore drilling underscores this gross negligence. (More on this can be found in Ruxton's recent post on McCain's energy policies.) To slow this sort of extreme weather, we don't need more oil - we need radical new solutions. Obama's pledged $150 billion in energy initiatives certainly makes the possibility of a total energy overhaul more realistic.

The political dimensions of climate change and its role in heating the surface temperatures of oceans are highlighted by our present predicament with Gustav. Inconveniently for the GOP, the landfall of Gustav is predicted to coincide both with the three-year anniversary of Katrina and with the Republican convention in St. Paul. Just as the party faithfuls gather to salute their man (and his new running mate, the pro-Anwar-drilling Sarah Palin), residents of the same areas that were devastated by Katrina may very well be sitting in shelters listening in on the radio and trying to keep the ghosts of 2005 at bay (if they are lucky enough to be evacuated to shelters, that is). Hopefully, the irony of the moment will not be lost on them.

One wag recently said: "Today, we talk about weather when there is no other news; in the future, the weather will be the news." Unless our criminal neglect of climate change is addressed and real solutions are forged, I fear that this may be a prophetic warning.

Food Tastes Good

The aisles of my local beautifully disorganized used bookstore disgorged something truly fabulous and strange into my waiting hands a week ago. It's perhaps the oddest, and certainly the most amusing cookbook I've ever set my food-writing-loving eyes on. What is this culinary wonder, you ask? Well, my friends, it just so happens to be a collection of recipes sollicited from prominent indie rockers.

It's called (ahem) I LIKE FOOD, FOOD TASTES GOOD

It's fascinating to see what some of these bands cook and eat ... or don't. The highly predictable (Pork Loin with Poblano Chiles from the oh-so-Portland-trendy Decemberists or They Might Be Giants' "Countrypolitan," which involves pomegranate juice) trades twos with the "... what??"-inducing. Death Cab for Cutie's "Peanut Butter and Veggie Sausage Sandwiches" spring to mind. ("Shouldn't be tasty, but it is," says their singer.) And who on earth would have predicted that the Violent Femmes, in all their rough-around-the-edges glory, would be cooking wild boar ragú?

The dishes themselves are amusing enough, but the recipe instructions are frequently (though not always - it's like a treasure hunt) written in a sort of odd email vernacular that's half recipe, half manifesto, half insight into what famous-ish musicians do when they're not on stage. "the honey will not want to mate with the lime at first, but it will." "Make some jasmine rice, why don't you?" "When the lentils are officially finished cooking, put on side 1 of the Beatles' Revolver LP."

Devandra Barnhart, though, is the one who takes the cake ... or the fried bananas, as it were. His ingredients list for "my favorite recipe for AFRICANITAS RICAS you shall require!" includes "many bananas! two eggggs!! SOUR CREAM!!! HONEY!" And this instructions passage cracks me up:

"STIRRRR!!!!!! leave the bowl alone and go get another bowl, crush the graham crackers into a fine fine powder! like sand!
SIR
LAWRENCE
OF ARABIA!!!!!!!
put it in bowl number two!"

Not to be outdone, from Jonathan Richardson of the Early Day Miners (who, I'll admit, I've never heard of), a cocktail comprised of ice, sake, and root beer. Says its creator, "it's about half and half as far as drinkability." He calls it the Karate Kid, and I'm planning on taking his word for it (shudder), but if anyone else wants to take the challenge ...

Look out, Julia Child. The rockers are a-comin' for your tiara.

The face value of a John McCain energy policy

Yeah, right.

John McCain understands that, in this post-An Inconvenient Truth era, the environment and energy production must be addressed and used to win over as many voters as possible. Personally, I don't buy it. I used to work for a company that moved its headquarters to Arizona due to Arizona's light regulations on air pollutants, making it easier for the company to get their highly-inefficient vehicles fleet licensing for the lowest possible cost. Arizona is a state notorious for relaxing its environmental standards in effort to attract high-polluting businesses. A primary example is Arizona's shining contributions to the health of the Colorado River.

Take it for what you will, but John McCain has been an Arizona senator since 1982, almost the entire duration of my life. If he cared one iota about the environment he has had plenty of time to do something about it.

If you care about the environment, climate change, or sustainability, please research responsibly.

The Middle Kingdom at Middle Distance

My old friend Leon and I had come to Beijing on a pilgrimage: I was determined to stand on the Great Wall on my birthday. But while exploring this caught- between- past- and- future country, I found myself caught between other extremes. My own divide was between distance and detail, a problem of perspective that assaults me in any new place.

If I looked too closely, the sheer number of faces and smells and textures and motions and details, each worth exploring more fully, was overwhelming. My brain started to fizzle, watching a stream of people on bicycles passing and wondering about each one's family and ambitions and destination and history.

But if I mentally backed up too far, the thickness of all those layers of meaning made it hard to see individual humanity clearly. The people on bicycles became merely obstacles to dodge while attempting to cross the street, all the while wondering how many well-meaning tourists had met their demise that way.

I did make it to the Great Wall as promised. Two days early, in fact. After all that talk and thought, it was a bit strange to be there at last. We hear so much about the Great Wall of China—that famous thing about being able to see it from space, and the tales of its construction and defense all those centuries ago. (The part we visited was so impossibly steep that I couldn't help but wonder how many unfortunate Chinese soldiers had broken their legs or backs running around on it in the dark.) With the weight of all these stories surrounding it, the actual physical fact of the wall is a hard thing to get your mind around. From far off, the long pale line of it snaking over those dry, empty hills seemed too delicate a thing to have withstood all those years and all that history weighing down. Up close, it was merely stone and angles, strong and pedantic and weathered.

The importance of the place seemed to live in the middle distance, somewhere between its legend and the swarms of sneaker-clad tourists scrambling along it on that particular dusty, windy afternoon. For me, standing there was an acknowledgment of a dream realized, and one more entry for my list of traveler's bragging-rights. But it was also a symbolic place, where the lesson that China taught me was made suddenly clear.

Finding that observational middle distance is always a challenge for a traveler, and never more so than in the Middle Kingdom. Attempts at objectivity fail, and rightly so. All we can really do is compare the place we're discovering to the places we know, and discover something about both of them in the process. Carrying home the space between, that elusive middle distance, is as a good reason to go traveling as any I know.

I stood still for a long moment with those famous stones under my feet, watching a small dark-eyed girl and her brother playing tag between the lookout towers and feeling the wind move through my hair. Then Leon said, "Let's go get some dumplings." So we turned, and started the long climb back down.

Beijing Sights

To follow up on Blue-eyed Wonder's great Beijing "time peg" idea, I thought I'd put a few photos up from my trip to the city in June of 2005. Unfortunately I'm not going to have the time to write until after our Olympic time peg transpires, so I hope these images tell a story or two in my stead.