April dispatches
Daniel Day-Lewis on Gaza circa 2005, the emotional pull of Band of Brothers Iranian food in Bushwick, the joys of drinking anything but beer at a dive bar, and Steph Curry's burden
What I’m Reading
NYC Has Tried AI Weapons Scanners Before. The Result: Tons of False Positives
Eric Adams, purveyor of crime doomerism, has a solution for crime on New York City subways: AI-trained scanners that detect weapons. Unsurprisingly, Adams’ expensive plan is riddled with flaws. The most notable of these is that the AI tech in question has been implemented at a Bronx hospital with false positive rates that would lead to millions of false positives a day on the subway. You can only imagine how badly this could end — imagine NYPD officers goosed up with the fear of a positive result on a weapons scanner, a million times a day. Another notable flaw: the CEO of the AI company in question, Jacobi, told investors recently that, "subways in particular are not a place that we think is a good use-case for us."
Palestinian American doctor walks out of Biden meeting in protest
CNN’s report on a Palestinian doctor’s walkout during a Ramadan meeting with Joe Biden at the White House further illustrates Biden’s indifference towards Palestinian suffering.
Democrats fear Netanyahu may have undermined Biden’s image among voters
I’ve been linking to a lot of Politico articles despite my dislike of their analysis because I think their stories offer valuable insights from people in the walls of power in DC. This headline is quite funny to me. In it, Joe Biden has no agency, despite his decision to “bear hug” Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to prevent bad outcomes in the Middle East. In this framing, Biden is at the whims of Bibi’s decisions, which is somewhat true, but not in the way that ths article frames it. What is funny and sad is that the Biden administration has been dog-walked by Netanyahu and while people inside the White House seem to vaguely connect Biden’s deference towards Israel and Biden’s unpopularity, there doesn’t seem to be any deeper introspection about why Netanyahu benefits from Biden bending over backwards to appease him. Much like cops and their batshit union operators, Israel will bully the US (and Democrats) into supporting it unconditionally and cry foul at the slightest suggestion of oversight or consequence for bad actions/war crimes. Much like cops and their batshit union operators, the Israel will not stop bullying Democrats into unconditional support of their interests, even when the Democrats bend over backward to appease cops/Israeli government officials who would still stuff a Democrat into a locker and vocally prefer Republican rule. The Biden White House does not understand that Benjamin Netanyahu has benefited politically from Biden’s bear hug. Biden losing the votes of those who are opposed to his Israel policy makes a Trump victory more likely and a Trump victory would lead to a proudly Islamaphobic and bloodthirsty support of Israeli actions by the White House, rather than the Biden admin’s’ aw-shucks’ing support and frequent transfers of weapons to Israel.
Gen Z for Straight Jesus: The Christian Nationalist Recruiters of CA Will be Saved.
Southern California has long been a hotbed of right-wing extremism. This long-form piece on Left Coast Right Watch delves into the world of Gen Z Christian Nationalism in the region and is worth a read to better understand the skinny-jeaned White Jesus Freaks who are changing the world for the worse.
Cease-Fire, Get Hostages, Leave Gaza, Rethink Everything
Thomas Friedman is a centrist clown whose observational powers are as good as his analysis is bad and reliant on poorly thought-out metaphors. Friedman is as good a barometer as you’ll find on the emotional state of respectable political elites in the US, which makes it notable that he used his op-ed column in The New York Times to implore Israel to pull out of Gaza and let an emaciated Hamas rule Gaza, rather than continue to genocide the Gazan people.
Coffee: Your morning cup is about to change in a big way, whether you're ready or not.
I spent much of a semester in college learning about Mexico’s coffee trade and the fickle environmental conditions needed to grow coffee. In doing so, I also learned of the doom and gloom regarding climate change and coffee trade. This article in Slate is not the first time I’ve read something about a future without coffee, but this is the first article I’ve read that highlights potential coffee alternatives. Turns out, there’s a coffee shop in midtown Manhattan that is the only one in the world that sells a coffee-adjacent product of date seeds infused with a marinade that the company claims has similar chemical properties to coffee beans themselves. I might actually venture willingly into midtown just to see how bleak a future with coffee could be.
In 2005, Daniel Day-Lewis traveled to and spent a chunk of time in Gaza. Upon his return, the legendary actor published a harrowing and visceral article about the Gazans who were traumatized by Israeli rule and cruelty and the psychologists who treated these Gazans. Daniel Day-Lewis’ visit was nearly 20 years ago, but in his words, you will hear obvious foreshadowing of present-day history. In his words: “This is a state of apartheid. It's taken me less than a week to lose impartiality. In doing so, I may as well be throwing stones at tanks.”
What it takes to lose in the NBA
I’m surprised to link, for the third article in a row, to an emotionally astute piece published by ESPN. This article focuses on the failings of the Washington Wizards, the NBA’s second-worst team, with a particular emphasis on the trials and tribulations of former Warrior, Jordan Poole. The Wizards’ organization seems to have a holistic and very well thought-out program for player development, but this hasn’t translated to success on the court. This all begs the article’s overarching question: can success occur without winning? When Jordan Poole was a rookie with the Warriors, I was intrigued by his skill level, even when his shots wouldn’t fall. During his second and junior third, he exceeded my most wild expectations, which made it all the more jarring to see him flail in his fourth season. This article paints Poole in a sympathetic light — he is seems to recognize that his previous fame with the Warriors, combined with the stain of losing, puts every one of his decisions under a microscope.
How Khruangbin’s Sound Became the New Mood Music
A few nights ago, I found myself in a conversation comparing Khruangbin to Vulfpeck. Although their music isn’t terribly similar, both bands share(d) a ubiquitousness as inoffensive and inescapable in bars, retail stores, and parties. I did come away from this article more interested in the band than I thought I would be. Their backstory is genuinely interesting. Their influences are broad. Their work ethic is admirable. I’m still not sure, however, if that adds up to me wanting to seek out their music.
What I’m Watching
Last week, I started and then proceeded to binge HBO’s Band of Brothers. I watched this show as a child, but I don’t think I processed it much. It’s been nice to watch this show as an adult with a deeper understanding of pain and sacrifice and bravery, but I have been unnerved by the show’s ability to induce a feeling in me that seems to resemble patriotism. I digress. Band of Brothers would be worth watching even if it ended after two episodes, if only for the acting of David Schwimmer, the literal Ross from Friends.
The episode that really moved me was “Bastogne,” which was set in the episode’s namesake, a Belgian town that featured prominently in the infamous Battle of the Bulge. This episode focuses on Eugene Roe, the medic for the army’s 101st Airborne Division. Roe is a quiet and confident medic from Louisiana with Creole descendants. Prior to the Battle of the Bulge, the 101st is surrounded by German troops in brutally cold, snowy conditions. The “Bastogne” episode is notable for the absence of continuous violence — the 101st gets shot at periodically with terrible consequences, but the viewer keeps waiting for things to really get out of hand.
Each time a 101st troop gets wounded, Roe attends to them with quick, calm confidence. The ‘ panic typically subsides some in the presence of Roe, who then takes the wounded troops into the town of Bastogne, where they are attended to at a church by Belgian nurses. When Roe rides into town on an Army jeep, he sees piles of bodies, burnt-out buildings, and what can only really be described as snowy Hell. Later in the episode, the town of Bastogne is bombarded and Roe rides back to find a wasteland, as well as the headscarf of a Belgian nurse he’d befriended.
Each time Roe made his way back into town, I thought of Gaza and what its people have gone through in the last six months. In the decimated buildings of a snow-capped Belgian town, I saw a coastal paradise gleefully reduced to rubble by a fascist right-wing government in Israel. In Bastogne, I saw Allied troops fight back against evil, but Gaza has few, if any allies willing to stand up to Israel. When Roe encountered the fiery remains of Bastogne’s makeshift church/hospital, I thought of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which was the final hospital standing in Gaza prior to Israel’s assault upon it. I also thought of the days in October when Israel, the US, and Hamas each accused each other of bombing a hospital in Gaza and the horror I felt that day, not knowing that some months later, Israel would attack all of Gaza’s hospitals and do so proudly.
I read an article in Mondowiess about the Israeli attack on Al-Shifa, which Mondoweiess frames as a massacre. I’ve linked to the article, which details alleged war crimes on par with anything you’d hear about in Poland or Rwanda, here. Descriptions of war crimes aside, what caught my attention was that the article does not shy away from admitting that many of Israel’s victims at Al-Shifa were non-combatant political and civil workers for Hamas and PIJ (Palestine Islamic Jihad).
Any Gazan’s association with Hamas or PIJ is enough for Israel to condemn them to death, regardless of non-combatant distinction. Such is the logic of Israel’s war, which is rather similar to the US’ purposely vague description of non-state-aligned “terrorists” as “enemy combatants” during the War on Terror. Some may equate any political member of Hamas or PIJ to German civilians in the Nazi party. I reject that comparison. Instead, I offer up a more recent one: Iraqi Baathists after the US invasion of Iraq.
The Bush administration painted former Iraqi dictator, Sadaam Hussein, as a man of unspeakable evil. By that logic, any supporter of Saddam’s secular, pan-Arab Baath party, was party to that evil. Taken to its most foolish extreme, the Bush administration engaged in “de-Baathification” of Iraq after overthrowing Sadaam. Anyone who supported Sadaam’s party was effectively barred from civic society and were unable to find work in the post-invasion government.
Iraqis who were victims of the Bush administration de-Baathification were, predictably, quite upset with the US tne politicians and fragile governments in Iraq it propped up post-invasion. Many of these former Baathists and Iraqi military members took part in counterinsurgency against the US or joined ISIS. Such are the potential consequences of barring a group of people from civic life. A reader may protest — would I have wanted Nazis or former Confederates to access the halls of power after their defeat? No. But I reject sloppy comparisons of non-combatant Hamas and PIJ members to Nazis.
Benjamin Netanyahu personally supported Qatari financial aid towards Hamas in part, to weaken their West Bank counterpart, the Palestinian Authority. Given that Hamas and PIJ are the only viable political parties in Gaza, one who wishes to participate in civic and political life has few other places to turn to as the PA, which is financially beholden to Israel, hasn’t operated in Gaza in nearly 20 years. But per Israel’s logic, someone who chose to engage in political and civic life in Gaza in the only way that was viable to do so, even if they chose to not engage militarily, is condemnable to execution via association. You can imagine where this leads a few years down the line, should Gaza continue to exist as a Palestinian land in any meaningful way — what will the surviving Hamas or PIJ political members find politically appealing after Israel commits genocide upon them?
What I’m Listening To
I got into LA space rock band, Failure, about 19 months ago as I drove through the high desert of Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree. I go back to Failure now and then and am always struck by the immensity of their sound. This past week, I’ve listened a lot to their song, “Heliotropic.”
This song is built around a bass line. That bass line repeats for almost the entirety of the song’s 6 minutes, save for a bridge of about 30 seconds. Because that bridge incorporates the song’s only change of bass line, it hits that much harder.
A few things I like about this song:
The bass distortion
It’s thick and it cuts through the mix with a percussiveness that makes each certain notes jump at the listener.
The synth ambience
In the first minute or so of the song, a long, droning note swirls underneath the bass line and the first, exploratory hits of the drums. That drone sits underneath the mix for the rest of the song in such a way that it exists more as a presence than it does sound. If you could compare two versions of this song, one with synths and one without, you’d notice a gaping absence in the version without.
The mild distortion of the guitars
In my previous post, I sang the praises of low and medium-gain distortion on guitar. Failure exemplifies this ethos. Their guitars hit hard because they are mixed such that the bass and drums do the heavy lifting of hefty frequency, the guitars occupy the upper midrange frequencies that cut through without oversaturating into a buzzing mess. The guitars on this song occupy space with well-mixed and subtle modulation and reverbs that give the guitars horizontal space in the mix.
What I’m Eating
The two significant meals I’ve had since my last post were at Eyval and Win Son.
Each time I’ve gone to Eyval, the menu has been different enough to offer both familiar favorites and novel experiences. Eyval is the sister restaurant of Sofreh, a highly-regarded Iranian restaurant in Prospect Heights. From my understanding, Sofreh’s focus is entrees whereas Eyval emphasizes sharable food. I’ve gone to Eyval three times now. The first time, I went with a party of four. The second time, I went with my vegetarian mother, whose appetite pales in comparison to my gluttonous ambition. This time, we had a party of five and really got to make our way through a significant amount of the menu.
After three visits to Eyval, I’ve settled on a few essentials:
Barbari bread
This flatbread is fluffy, tears easily and evenly, and is generously portioned with black cumin seeds. For a part of 3-6, I’d get two orders of this bread to scarpetta the remains of your other dishes.
Whipped feta
Served in a disc, topped with mint, radishes, dill, and walnuts, this cheese is soft, briney, and not at all sour. The whipped feta is a natural pair with the barbari bread. Each time I’ve been to Eyval, the feta gets consumed in a blink of an eye. I’d recommend getting two orders of the feta, even if doing so dampens your appetite for bigger plates.
Mushroom kabob
When I came to Eyval with my mom, this was her entree. We got the mushroom kabob again with my six-top and I am surprised to report that I preferred it to the octopus kabob and most of the other meats we ordered. The mushroom kabob consists of trumpet mushrooms, pickled mushrooms, and lentils in a fenugreek cream. The cream is generously seasoned and it was a joy to dip the mushrooms into.
Eyval’s borani bread and whipped feta spread
My visit to Win Son, a popular Taiwanese restaurant in East Williamsburg, was less eventful and far more spontaneous. In order of Ramadan, the table shied away from haram meats. Instead, we got a tofu dish as our main that was fine, but hardly memorable. What did stick out, however, was the fried chicken won tons, which were served on firewood bean paste butter with scallions. In future visits, I may be happy to get two or three orders of those dumplings and supplement them with a few other apps.
I would be remiss to finish his section without shouting out the bulgogi burger at the bar where I work, Gair. The bulgogi burger is hearty and seasoned with a complex mix of herbs and sauces that recall allspice, peppers, and umami flavors that pair very well with the crunch of the white cabbage and kimchi.
What I’m Drinking
In this past year, I’ve determined that I don’t really enjoy consuming beer, save for the occasional sour or well-poured Guinness. I work at a cocktail bar and have developed a taste for rum, tequila, mezcal, and gin-based cocktails, but such pleasures are expensive both financially and physically. I’ve settled on a few low-ABV drinks that can serve the spiritual purpose that beer does. My recent dive bar fave is a campari soda. Campari is bitter enough and has just enough sugary content to dilute well, especially when someone gives me a lemon (not lime!) wedge.
Another recent low-ABV fave, Mr. Melo’s Staten Island Iced Tea. This draft cocktail combines 8 different amaros (fernet, cynar, sweet vermouth, and Montenegro, among others) and soaks them in lemon peels overnight with a proprietary amount of Coca-Cola. The Staten Island Iced Tea is a perfect balance of bitter, sweet, and zesty flavors and because it’s low ABV, you can crush a few in a night without paying the Iron Price.
What I’m Thinking
The NBA playoffs loom. This is a bad thing for my sanity. My beloved Golden State Warriors are almost certainly locked into the 9th or 10th seed of the NBA’s Play-In tournament. In order to continue into the real playoffs, the Warriors would need to win two games in a row before facing off with either the 1st or 2nd seed in the brutal Western Conference. This is less than ideal.
As I’ve laid out over at The Mercury News’ Fast Break Warriors blog, I believe the Warriors are uniquely and poorly suited for the Play-In tournament because of Steve Kerr’s cautious instincts in single-game scenarios and because of the high-variance wackiness that can occur if a team or specific player gets hot from deep.
The Warriors botched a very good chance to push themselves into the conversation for the 7th or 8th seed last night when the New Orleans Pelicans went on a nuclear run of three-point shooting in the second quarter of an eventual loss. The Pelicans’ three-point shooting got increasingly absurd as the quarter went on, but initially, it was fueled by careless live-ball turnovers by the aging Warriors’ legends, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.
Steph Curry turned his ankle in the waning minutes of the loss to the Pelicans, but when it seemed like all hope was lost, Curry put the team on his back and scored or assisted on the majority of the Warriors’ final possessions of the game. I do not believe that this Warriors’ core, as many casual observers posit, is cooked. I’ve seen Steph Curry turn back the sands of time many times this season, but the reality is that he should not — at age 36 — be asked to carry such a huge burden night after night. That Curry has had to be the Warriors’ most consistent and only consistently credible shot creator at his advanced age is unfair to Curry and any insinuation that the Warriors’ struggles this year have anything to do with Steph, rather than the burden forced upon him, is shallow analysis.
What I’m Doing
In less than three weeks, I’m going to Norway for a friend’s bachelor party. This will be only my second time in Europe. For the time being, I don’t have any shows coming up, but recording sessions for my band, Kela, are getting scheduled for this summer. Right now our biggest concern is finding the right room to get the lively room I want for a drum sound that can ring out and has the harmonic depth to cut through the walls of guitars I plan on recording.