Dirt and more dirt

"Whatever a man like Hurstwood could be in Chicago, it is very evident that he would be but an inconspicuous drop in an ocean like New York.  In Chicago, whose population still ranged about 500,000, millionaires were not numerous.  The rich had not become so conspicuously rich as to drown all moderate incomes in obscurity.  The attention of the inhabitants was not so distracted by local celebrities in the dramatic, artistic, social, and religious fields as to shut the well-positioned man from view.  In Chicago the two roads to distinction were politics and trade.  In New York the roads were any one of a half-hundred, and each had been diligently pursued by hundreds, so that celebrities were numerous.  The sea was already full of whales.  A common fish must needs disappear wholly from view--remain unseen.  In other words, Hurstwood was nothing"--Sister Carrie

Last week we got the movable bin to remove the dirt from our cellar. (It's the same size as the one we used in the winter.) We've been filling it directly from the cellar--the pile in our back yard will come later.

The earlier dirt I'd been carrying directly from the back room to the back yard. But now we have a new system where it goes out through the basement, up the steps to the yard and then to the bin. (With the last part you have to carry it through the hot sun.) John digs up the dirt, Moira carries it up to the yard--along with Kathrine on the weekend--and I take it the rest of the way.  At our best, we've been moving it pretty quick:  it helps that I can often carry two buckets at once.

We've been doing this work in the morning hours, to avoid the hottest time of day.  So I've been waking up earlier than usual--I hope I can make a habit of it!  And I haven't had time for Sailor Moon or One Piece, but I'm still watching Dragon Ball Z. (In the story I'm now watching, Bulma, Kuririn and Gohan have taken a spaceship to the Dragon Ball planet!)

Today we finally moved the first load away, and got a new bin for a second one. We started loading this one too, but the weather was drizzly and we ended up stopping lest we get into an accident. (It made me appreciate the sunny weather earlier on.)

I've finished the book about Amsterdam, so now I can concentrate on finishing Sister Carrie.

AMSTERDAM: A HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST LIBERAL CITY

"The misfortune of the Hurstwood household was due to the fact that jealousy, having been born of love, did not perish with it.  Mrs. Hurstwood retained this in such form that subsequent influences could transform it into hate.  Hurstwood was still worthy, in a physical sense, of the affection his wife had once bestowed upon him, but in a social sense he fell short.  With his regard died his power to be attentive to her, and this, to a woman, is much greater than outright crime toward another.  Our self-love dictates our appreciation of the good or evil in another.  In Mrs. Hurstwood it discoloured the very hue of her husband's indifferent nature.  She saw design in deeds and phrases which sprung only from a faded appreciation of her presence"--Sister Carrie

I'm now reading Russell Shorto's Amsterdam:  A History of the World's Most Liberal City for my History Meetup.  It's an entertaining, well-written book! (Now I want to read Shorto's other books...) It's all about how 17th-century Amsterdam was the birthplace of modern liberal society, including the multinational corporation in the form of the Dutch East India Company.  Characters like Willem the Silent and Rembrandt are fascinating!

Sister Carrie is engrossing.  There's something that seems very modern about it--I can imagine the story happening in real life. (Someone said that Theodore Dreiser was a master of inarticulate characters!)

I'm now watching three anime shows concurrently!  One is Dragon Ball's sequel Dragon Ball Z.  It's started well with Son Goku dead and doing martial-arts training in the afterlife. (They're going to use the Dragon Ball wish to resurrect him when it's time for earthlings to fight the invaders from the Saiyan planet.) He has a young son Gohan whose fighting potential is so immense that former villain Piccolo (now a reluctant ally) has subjected him to boot camp in a land with dinosaurs rather than people.  Akira Toriyama has an incredible imagination!

I've also been watching the third year of One Piece set in the desert land of Arabasta. (Was Eiichiro Oda influenced by Frank Herbert's Dune?) And I've also been rewatching the first season with Moira, for the third time--it's that good!  I recently finished rewatching the third season of Sailor Moon. (Mimete was a villainess I actually felt sorry for--she had a life beyond villainy, for all the good it did her.) Now I'm watching the fourth season, but it isn't as good as the first three.  Aside from Rini's cute relationship with a winged unicorn, it's getting rather familiar. (I hear that the fifth season got really crazy!)

I've almost finished the Level 3 book of musical theory.

THE BLUE COLLAR TRAP

"A lovely home atmosphere is one of the flowers of the world, than which there is nothing more tender, nothing more delicate, nothing more calculated to make strong and just the natures cradled and nourished within it.  Those who have never experienced such a beneficent influence will not understand wherefore the tear springs glistening to the eyelids at some strange breath in lovely music.  The mystic chords which bind and thrill the heart of the nation, they will never know"--Sister Carrie

Today at archive.org I rewatched the 1972 NBC News White Paper documentary "The Blue Collar Trap." Back when I was ten, we saw it on American TV when we were visiting the USA.  Our visit came in the wake of Hurricane Agnes, at the time of the Watergate break-in. (When Mother heard about in in the news, she predicted it would prove important!) We were also in the Washington DC underground parking lot where Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein would soon meet Deep Throat...

Anyway, this documentary focused on four young men working at a Ford Pinto factory in California.  A couple of them had fought in Vietnam, one was a "hippie," and one went to this ecstatic church where people were dancing in the aisles. (I'd always imagined church services as quiet, restrained affairs...) They seldom voted on union matters, let alone in public elections.  One of them mentioned that when he was starting out the foreman advised him that instead of staying there he should go back to school and get a better job.  

Watching it today, I couldn't help considering that this was near the end of the "golden age" for the American working class; things have since got harder for them. Of course, this was a decade before Van Gordon Sauter dumbed down CBS News (giving anchorman Dan Rather a jersey to wear on air, etc.) and NBC and ABC followed suit, leaving them unlikely to produce reports this thoughtful again.

But what do I know about physical work?  Well, the last few days I've moved a huge amount of dirt to the back yard from our cellar, and I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my scalp!  I've been wearing gloves, but my hands are still getting sore in places. (A couple of times I've forgotten that I have to tie my shoes before putting my gloves on.) We have ten buckets, and my favourite four are relatively small, with handles.  Two others are small but don't have handles; three have handles but are larger; and my least favourite is large without a handle!  John's also using a jackhammer to break up these cement steps that used to be part of a cellar door, but led to nowhere after the room was built over them.

I've now started watching the anime sequel Dragon Ball Z.  It looks pretty good so far, with Goku dead and seeking martial-arts training in the after-world. (The others plan to use the seven dragon balls to bring him back.) His little son Gohan is undergoing a sort of manhood training alone in the wilderness to develop his immense fighting potential. All this is in preparation for fighting two Saiyan aliens who will arrive on Earth within a year in the hope of destroying it...  What an imagination Akira Toriyama has!

I've already finished Level 1 in the Royal Conservatory's Celebrate Theory series, and the other day Carolyn brought me 2 and 3. (At that Friday Zoom.com session, she and someone else are at level 4, and I should be caught up with them before long.)

The Cold War

"Naturally timid in all things that related to her own advancement, and especially so when without power or resource, her craving for pleasure was so strong that it was the one stay of her nature.  She would speak for that when silent on all else"--Sister Carrie

John's been renovating the sun room. (When he's finished, Father will have a downstairs shower!) Just now he's digging in the foundation to make it less mouse-friendly, with Moira and I toting the dirt and rocks to the back yard. There's now the sort of big, low space there where people would hide from the Nazis in a war movie.

I was thinking about the Cold War. Remember the ending of The Maltese Falcon?  Sam Spade hands Brigid over to the cops and they take her down the elevator (whose cage closes on her like prison bars), while Sam takes the stairs down.  Someone said the subtext is that they both go to hell, but Brigid goes there directly while Sam takes the longer route.

Anyway, I was thinking that applies to the post-1980s situation.  Russia went straight to hell in the early '90s with an economic downturn as severe as the Great Depression, while the US has finally reached hell this year.  The Cold War's real "winners," it's now clear, were the Chinese.  They not only reinvented communism, they've reinvented capitalism!

And Reagan didn't even end the Cold War, let alone winning it.  On the contrary, he turned it into something permanent that only needed a new enemy in the form of the Moslems.  His foreign policy decision with the greatest long-term importance was arguably reflagging the Kuwaiti oil tankers just to get in Iran's face and show that Washington was still regionally powerful in the wake of Iran-Contra. This was the first step on a road that led to the 1991 war with Iraq (which I for one consider to have been a contemptible exercise in "power without responsibility"), 9/11, and the ill-starred occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.  But I think I said that before...

Finally got my Cipralex and Robutrin prescriptions refilled.  I had to message my shrink and it was a bit complicated, so I went without for several days and my dreams got vivid again.

I just bought the Ebook of the first reprint of the manga version of Dragon Ball. (Just finished watching the first anime series--am I ready to take on Dragon Ball Z?)