And sometimes they let me speak!

Being a Management Officer is sometimes a two-sided sword.  Not only do people assume you're the help, but they also can't believe you know anything except how to run logistics or take abuse.  (Joke!)  Sadly this is something that we get all too often.  When I was applying for Deputy Chief of Mission jobs recently, the very first question asked every single time was, "So what do you think you know about Policy?"  Hey, it's a great question, and one that should be answered.  But looking at my CV, even though I haven't done a job in Policy, you might want to look at my education.  I did graduate from THE George Washington University with a BA in International Affairs, with a focus on International Politics and Latin America.  Just because I'm not in school any more doesn't mean I still don't find those things interesting, you know.  Heck, I wonder if they ask Political and Economic officers what they know about Management work, seeing as how I probably manage more people today than they have in their entire career.

Still, being a Management Officer is sometimes hard, because you get type-cast.  Here's a hint folks: If a Management Officer says he can do something other than Management, take him at his word. Management Officers are usually very results oriented and logical.  If there is an opportunity to do something outside of the Management Cone, they will do a cost benefit analysis in their heads.  They will weigh the pros and cons, and also play out the likelihood of success, and if it is yes, then they move forward.  That's one of the reasons why Management Officers stay in Management.  There is a tangible result in their jobs, which can be quantified.

Anyways, I say this because the Public Diplomacy Section just came out and asked for volunteers to speak at local High Schools on topics for Black History Month.  Since I am a theatre person myself (I killed as Lord Capulet in our High School's version of "Romeo and Juliette" and in the skits we did in College), and also quite a decent public speaker, I volunteered.  They don't give you a topic, you have to bring it yourself.  Now, I could have gone with numerous thoughts, but went with two topics that I'm fairly conversant with.

The first topic is "The integration of Little Rock's Central High School in 1957."  I know this one pretty well, for numerous reasons.  One of them is that I wrote a long essay on Brown v. Board of Education for International Baccalaureate.  Believe me, when you write 15,000 words on a topic, it tends to stick with you.  The second is that I was born in Arkansas, and this is something you just know about.  It's taught, and it's a part of history.  The third is that my family lived through that time.  And by lived through it my Great-Grandmother lived a block from Central High when this was going on, and two of my uncles were in the National Guard at that time.  Plus, my dad went there in 1961, so it was still fresh.  Needless to say, I will have trouble staying within my time limit parameters.

The second topic will definitely be fun, but I'm sure will raise some eyebrows when I walk through the door.  "The origins of Hip-Hop and its influence on American Society."  Yeah, the 37 year old white dude is going to talk about Rap, where it came from, and how it influenced American Society.  There are Foreign Service Officers here that want to go listen to this one.  I think it'll be awesome.  I'll have a slide show, and some music, and we'll have a great time.  Plus, it'll allow me to talk about something I know about that doesn't get discussed all the time.

The Hip-Hop talk happens next Friday, February 7, and the Central High school talk happens on February 11th.  I'll see if I can have them videoed, and I'll put them online.  I will definitely give you guys an idea on how it went, though.

Seriously though, if I'm the first person to introduce Afrika Bambaataa or Eric B and Rakim to these kids, that will be payment enough for me.

MILB: "Why'd you only call me when you're high?" by the Arctic Monkeys

The Arctic Monkeys came out in about 2006 from Sheffield.  As you may or may not know, Lovely English Lass is from there as well, so I found them very interesting.  Their first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was very good, with "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor" being the big hit, but "When The Sun Goes Down" was a better song.  Still, it had some fantastic songs, won the Mercury Prize, and they definitely sounded like they were from Yorkshire.  Heck, one of the songs was called "Mardy Bum" which is a complete Yorkshire-ism.  (Find your favorite Yorkshireman and ask him for a translation.  And then buy him a bottle of Henderson's Relish.  You'll be his best friend forever.  Take that Labour MP!)

Anyways, they've released some good albums since them, but in 2013 they released AM.  AM is without a doubt their Sgt. Pepper's.  This thing is just good.  Alex Turner decided to do his hair up like a 50s greaser and sound a little like John Lennon, but it works.  The music is fantastic and the lyrics are great.

"Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?" is the third released off the album, and I'm not sure why it wasn't the first.  This is an AMAZING song, and really puts you into the singer's head.  I know it reminded me of a few of my friends when we were all younger and had more hair and could stay out later than we should.

The song is about a guy who's gone out for a night of drinking, looked up and it's closing time.  He then starts calling and texting this girl he knows.  This is obviously something he does a lot: The dreaded drunk dial.  The girl doesn't answer his calls, and when he texts her, she replies with the title of the song.  Heck, I knew lots of guys that did that when I was in College and especially in London.  It's kind of a thing where you don't want to be alone.  A very sad thing to be sure, but it's one that many people today understand.

Anyways, the video for it really fits the song.  Now, lyrics are only as good as the melody that goes with it.  The melody for this song is absolutely fantastic.  It's rock, but not quite.  The song moves with a stutter and bass, sounding almost like a drunk walking.  It really puts you in the 3 am time, and makes you completely feel like you're watching this guy stumble along and try to text a girl to get her to see him.  (From "How I Met Your Mother": Nothing good ever comes after 2 am.  They're right, you know.)  Anyways, you get the feeling of a cold winter's night in Sheffield (Or any major city) and the darkness of a drunk trying to find a way either home or to someones house.  It really gets you there.  Mix it in with the lyrics, and you've got a song that should be on everyone's play list.

Do yourself a favor: listen to the song.  I guarantee you'll find it at least interesting.  It may even make you want to listen to the whole album, which is a good thing.  And it may make you discover a new band, and for that you'll thank me.

MILB: "Rockin in the Free World" by Neil Young with Pearl Jam

In 1993, I got to see one of the coolest performances of a song on television.  At the MTV Video Music Awards, Pearl Jam and Neil Young came on stage and played, "Rockin in the Free World" off Young's 1989 album, Freedom.  What happened was one of the coolest things you'll see on TV.

From the stories of what happened, Pearl Jam was asked to close the show.  They'd played "Rockin" at their MTv Unplugged show the year before, and thought it would be make a great closer.  Apparently they asked Young to play with them, and while they heard yes, they weren't sure he was coming until he walked in and plugged in.

Now the song is a great song, and an indictment of the then George H.W. Bush administration.  (It implicitly references President Bush 41's call for "a thousand points of light" and a "kindler gentler nation.")  It also talks about the issues of the ozone layer and taking care of the environment.  So, it was a head of its time.  Still, even if you take away the political message, this song definitely has a huge amount of rock to it.  The opening lick alone is enough to get the adrenaline going, and the guitar solo in the middle is fantastic.

Well then, let's talk about the actual performance.

This was during the time Pearl Jam was one of the biggest bands in the world.  Their rotating drummer problem landed with Dave Abbruzzese, who does a decent job of playing this song.  (Matt Cameron would have been awesome, but he was still with Soundgarden at that time, so no dice.)  Anyways, song starts off, with Neil doing his thing.   Gets right into the song, playing his guitar like only he can.  Meanwhile Eddie Vedder's just sitting their with his hair in his face bobbing his head up and down.  I can't tell you how awesome that looked in 1993.  Eddie Vedder was one of the coolest guys around back then, mainly because he didn't talk much, and when he did you had real trouble understanding what the hell he was saying.  Still, with Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament in the band, they had some real power going on.  The song, moves on with pace, and Eddie does a great job with his part.  Then, the guitar solos start.  Watching them jam together you know they're just enjoying themselves.  Heck, no one else could have been at that show and they probably would have done the same stuff during the solo.  Then, towards the end, it gets raucous.  They start smashing guitars, and Eddie takes his mic stand and starts smashing the stage with it.  As a 17 year old growing up in Florida, I really and truly wanted to be in that audience.

Pearl Jam and Neil Young remain pretty darn close to this day.  He pops up on occasion to perform with them, they recorded an album together, 1995's Mirror Ball, and  Eddie inducted Neil Young into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.  I think Young's activism may have rubbed off, as shortly after this, Pearl Jam took on Ticketmaster, which was a stupid move to do when you're the biggest band in the world.  But they did.  They came out the other side, and have celebrated playing together for more than 20 years.  I've never seen Pearl Jam in concert, but I have friends that have seen them numerous times.  (I did buy one of the bootleg CDs they sold of their concerts off their website back in the early 2000s.  It was in Washington, DC, a show in which a couple of my friends went to see.)  Still, when I think of this song, it takes me back to 1993.  I was young, and had no idea what I was headed into.  Do me a favor: go home, dig out your baggy shorts or jeans, put on a flannel, and pump this song loud.  It'll definitely put you in the right sort of mind.

Trip to England and Return

Sorry to have been MIA for a bit, but this has been an insane month, so I'm just now getting time to sit down and corral my thoughts.

About a month ago today, we landed in London, and then caught a plane to Manchester.  We were headed to Blackpool, where Lovely English Lass' mother and father, Ma and Pa Lass, own a hotel.  It was much colder than in SA, but we were happy to be there and looking forward to the adventure.

After getting the rental car, and driving from Manchester to Blackpool, with a stop at a services for the bathroom and a Starbucks (Which they don't have in SA) we sat down to rest at the hotel.

For a confession, I have to say that I very much feel at home in the UK.  When I moved to London it was the only place outside the US where I said I could definitely live.  (And then I went to Bruges, and said the same thing, but I digress...)

After a few days in Blackpool, we then drove to Bath to see family friend Bec and her lovely daughter Em who live in Bath in Southern England.  Bath is a city where LEL has decided that when we leave the nomadic lifestyle we currently enjoy, we'll probably settle there.  It's a lovely city, with great charm.  Not only does it have all the convenience of a big city, but has still kept its independent stores and vibe to it.  What a great place, and we loved our two days there.  It was nice to see Bec and Em, and to tour the Roman Baths, which we hadn't done yet, and just to see this very cool place.  While there I had a job interview via phone, which I still haven't heard about, but it was a great time.

We then returned to Blackpool for Christmas, and got to see LEL's older brother and his family, which was nice.  Crazy Little Man got to run around with his cousin, K, and Lovely Little Girl was happy talking to the guests of the hotel.  We also go to go to a place called Botany Bay, which is just about one of the strangest but awesome experiences you'll have at a shopping place.  It's located in an old Cotton Mill, and is very eclectic.  It's located near Wigan, so if you're in the area stop by.

Between Christmas and New Years we went to Edinburgh in Scotland.  None of us had ever been to Scotland, so this was a real treat.  Driving there was even better as we drove next to the River Tweed, and through many little villages.  Beautiful country, and I'll post pictures sometime soon.

I really liked Edinburgh.  However, the weather the first night was horrid. Cold and windy, we couldn't hardly do anything at the Christmas Market, so we had dinner and returned back to the hotel.  The next day was nicer, so after breakfast, we did the hop on hop off tour, which is really a great way to see a city.  We did the whole tour first, which didn't take that long, and then got off where we wanted to.  Stopped near Greyfriars Bobby's statue.  We also found a haberdashery, and LEL bought a very nice bonnet that made her look like a Bronte Heroine.  I bought a pair of cufflinks made from watch parts.  Later we bought the kids some tams (LLG's is Pink, natch, and CLM has Blue and Green.)  We also went to the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions, which the kids loved and we quite enjoyed as well.

We then returned to Blackpool for New Years.  Pa Lass' band was playing at the hotel for New Years, and everyone had a great time.  We then spent the next two days playing with our other nephew, Jumpy, and our niece, Gray.  Jumpy wasn't feeling well, but still seemed quite a lovely little guy.  Gray loved running around with CLM and LLG, and everyone was getting along.

Then, all too soon, it was time to fly back to SA.  Return the rental to Manchester, get a flight to London (eat at Wagamama's in Terminal 5, which I loved) and then catch a flight back to SA.  It's been very busy since we got back, and everyone has returned from holidays, so Jozi is once again a teeming metropolis.

There's a lot I didn't get to talk about, but it's time for work again, so off to the day job.  Hopefully this new year is a good one with exciting times, and a good onward for me and the family.