Japanese trains are so civil they are reduced to warning people that the music from their headphones might be too loud. And don’t bump people with your rucksack. Oh to have their problems!
I intend to head back within a year after having been inspired to do so by your own visit and experience there. You've actually spent more time in Tokyo itself than I have even though I've spent 15 months living in Japan and translate the language for a living.
By rights you should take your rucksack off entirely on a train so as to maximize space, though many Japanese instead turn it around and wear it next to their chests, like a baby-carrier. I instead put mine on the floor between my legs, though this runs the risk of you getting separated from it when things get REALLY crowded. Even keeping hold of the strap is no guarantee it won't get lost in a tangle of legs. Putting the rucksack on the floor also runs the risk of dirtying the bottom of it, something the Japanese cannot abide.
I've also noticed a lot of older people conducting calls on loudspeaker on public transport etc. I was recently having lunch at a quiet restaurant in Covent Garden for a friend's birthday. An Australian couple, probably in their 60s, were on a video call with their daughter at the table next to us. When we asked them to turn it down, they did so, but the man started loudly complaining about how rude we were and was noticeably agitated and angry.
Not sure if it's just a general phone addiction phenomenon - see also people refusing to turn their phones off in theatres "because I'm expecting an important message!".
Accidentally, Stolypin has been touted as a paragon of “Russian modernization” under Putin, although I doubt that the Kremlin had any real understanding of Stolypin’s work. It was just part of an effort to come up with some sort of ideological justification for the regime, which resulted in a weird and amorphous hybrid of disparate ideas.
Madeleine Grant's article in the Telegraph makes me so pleased that I rarely have to use public transport, where you are captive for long periods of time to every sociopath around. Even people (men generally) driving by with their music blaring annoys me and that lasts only a few seconds. But as Madeleine pointed out, this is often a show of dominance, or almost as bad, an indication that this individual can't imagine that not everyone likes gangster rap. Yet I have some sympathy with this. As a teenager I just couldn't imagine how anyone could NOT like Elvis Costello. And truth be told, I still can't.
Ha ha. I'm still a fan of his earlier music but not a fan of his more recent stuff (i.e. last 25 years). The only thing I never much liked about him was his helium voice, as though he were squeezing it through a very small opening. Everything else: the interesting though obscure lyrics, perhaps interesting BECAUSE they were obscure, the nice tunes which were often written with the piano in mind, and of course his band the Attractions. All, I thought, were great. At a time when The Clash were writing juvenile political stuff, rock ballads from both sides of the Atlantic abounded and Punks were writing songs with only three chords in them, Costello was writing more complicated music and using phrases that my very uncool dad might have used: 'they'll give you something to cry about', 'he'll soon put paid to that', 'left to my own devices' etc. I liked all of that.
Stolypin possessed greatness. But his policy of transferring public land to private ownership was bitterly divisive.
Split the peasantry down the middle, and you have a grievance waiting to be exploited - as the Communists skilfully did when they collectivised agriculture.
The Stolypin policy was also social darwinism - however desperate the situation in Tsarist Russia, it was never going to achieve peace and progress by throwing the Weak to the Wolves, which was what the policy effectively did.
Free enterprise must always be balanced by solidarity and compassion.
I took a college class on Wagner. We listened to many parts of the operas ... that is, "music dramas" ... on vinyl records, and the professor, an old German man, conducted an imaginary cast and orchestra as the music played. In those days ... 1986-ish ... we could just study the music without constant emphasis on how horrible the ideology was.
Surely the root of the problem is that music infests our society. What once was something rare and beautiful is now not even commonplace it is constant . Why do I need to hear christmas carols when shopping? Or hear loud music from the 2000s in a working class pub in West London?
I don't think music was "rare". Every settlement had a tavern where there was singing and maybe a piano or fiddler. Churches featured singing and music. Many families, at least those with some means, might have an instrument or two at hand in the home and someone able to play them. Music boxes and the like came into vogue as soon as the gearing technology was available. People sang, or hummed or whistled as they did chores.
It seems to me that our society encourages people to escape from their sense of sense and music (the simpler the better) helps with that. As does phone use etc.
Japanese trains are so civil they are reduced to warning people that the music from their headphones might be too loud. And don’t bump people with your rucksack. Oh to have their problems!
I occasionally listen to the jingles of the Tokyo subway just to remind me of the place.
I intend to head back within a year after having been inspired to do so by your own visit and experience there. You've actually spent more time in Tokyo itself than I have even though I've spent 15 months living in Japan and translate the language for a living.
By rights you should take your rucksack off entirely on a train so as to maximize space, though many Japanese instead turn it around and wear it next to their chests, like a baby-carrier. I instead put mine on the floor between my legs, though this runs the risk of you getting separated from it when things get REALLY crowded. Even keeping hold of the strap is no guarantee it won't get lost in a tangle of legs. Putting the rucksack on the floor also runs the risk of dirtying the bottom of it, something the Japanese cannot abide.
I've also noticed a lot of older people conducting calls on loudspeaker on public transport etc. I was recently having lunch at a quiet restaurant in Covent Garden for a friend's birthday. An Australian couple, probably in their 60s, were on a video call with their daughter at the table next to us. When we asked them to turn it down, they did so, but the man started loudly complaining about how rude we were and was noticeably agitated and angry.
Not sure if it's just a general phone addiction phenomenon - see also people refusing to turn their phones off in theatres "because I'm expecting an important message!".
People going out of a church to answer a call is what I find baffling
Well, at least they aren't answering in the church.
Why?
Why do I find it baffling? Mass is about an hour. Wait for an hour
A decent Protestant service takes up the entire morning. But I take your point.
Accidentally, Stolypin has been touted as a paragon of “Russian modernization” under Putin, although I doubt that the Kremlin had any real understanding of Stolypin’s work. It was just part of an effort to come up with some sort of ideological justification for the regime, which resulted in a weird and amorphous hybrid of disparate ideas.
Madeleine Grant's article in the Telegraph makes me so pleased that I rarely have to use public transport, where you are captive for long periods of time to every sociopath around. Even people (men generally) driving by with their music blaring annoys me and that lasts only a few seconds. But as Madeleine pointed out, this is often a show of dominance, or almost as bad, an indication that this individual can't imagine that not everyone likes gangster rap. Yet I have some sympathy with this. As a teenager I just couldn't imagine how anyone could NOT like Elvis Costello. And truth be told, I still can't.
I thought you were a former Costello fan? Or do you still think his aim is true?
Ha ha. I'm still a fan of his earlier music but not a fan of his more recent stuff (i.e. last 25 years). The only thing I never much liked about him was his helium voice, as though he were squeezing it through a very small opening. Everything else: the interesting though obscure lyrics, perhaps interesting BECAUSE they were obscure, the nice tunes which were often written with the piano in mind, and of course his band the Attractions. All, I thought, were great. At a time when The Clash were writing juvenile political stuff, rock ballads from both sides of the Atlantic abounded and Punks were writing songs with only three chords in them, Costello was writing more complicated music and using phrases that my very uncool dad might have used: 'they'll give you something to cry about', 'he'll soon put paid to that', 'left to my own devices' etc. I liked all of that.
If you do manage to acquire that Templar castle, I trust that loyal subscribers are at least afforded the ancient rights of hospitality.
of course!
Stolypin possessed greatness. But his policy of transferring public land to private ownership was bitterly divisive.
Split the peasantry down the middle, and you have a grievance waiting to be exploited - as the Communists skilfully did when they collectivised agriculture.
The Stolypin policy was also social darwinism - however desperate the situation in Tsarist Russia, it was never going to achieve peace and progress by throwing the Weak to the Wolves, which was what the policy effectively did.
Free enterprise must always be balanced by solidarity and compassion.
I took a college class on Wagner. We listened to many parts of the operas ... that is, "music dramas" ... on vinyl records, and the professor, an old German man, conducted an imaginary cast and orchestra as the music played. In those days ... 1986-ish ... we could just study the music without constant emphasis on how horrible the ideology was.
The whole Citizens’ Assembly rubbish has been tried in Ireland. It’s merely a way for politicians to avoid responsibility.
Surely the root of the problem is that music infests our society. What once was something rare and beautiful is now not even commonplace it is constant . Why do I need to hear christmas carols when shopping? Or hear loud music from the 2000s in a working class pub in West London?
I don't think music was "rare". Every settlement had a tavern where there was singing and maybe a piano or fiddler. Churches featured singing and music. Many families, at least those with some means, might have an instrument or two at hand in the home and someone able to play them. Music boxes and the like came into vogue as soon as the gearing technology was available. People sang, or hummed or whistled as they did chores.
It seems to me that our society encourages people to escape from their sense of sense and music (the simpler the better) helps with that. As does phone use etc.