National Slayer Day!!!

In honor of National Slayer Day yesterday, I sent this email:

Hey Everybody,

I just wanted to take a few minutes of everyone’s time to point out how PD a missed huge opportunity to spread American culture today.  As most, nay, all of you know, it is International Slayer Day, a day set aside to honor the true kings of Thrash Metal from the 80s.  However, in what I am sure is a tragic oversight, I see nothing in the PD calendar which will honor our most visible proponents of bombast and awesome riffage.  Don’t get me wrong, I can totally understand how, with our busy schedules, one might forget such a momentous occasion.  Unfortunately, it is too late to commemorate today as it should be, however I do have some handy suggestions for next year:

1)      During times of mourning we have the flag at half-mast.  Thus, since International Slayer Day is a day of grand celebration, it follows that we should have the flag at double-mast.  I am pretty sure FM could work something out.

2)      Problem: we hardly every use the loudspeaker; solution: blast Reign in Blood from the loudspeaker at incredible volumes during the workday. 

3)      Hang out in Camaros in the parking lot all day…

Any other suggestions are welcome.  I think we can all agree that if we start planning now, International Slayer Day will be a huge success next year.

Yours in rock,

Colin

The email was (I am hoping it is obvious) supposed to be facetious.  A lighthearted response to the overt seriousness of an Embassy.  30 minutes later, my wife and head of the Public Diplomacy section sent me this reply:

Colin,

Seriously.  This is like Robert, a trained plumber, getting upset we did nothing for international toilet day.  While we’ve missed the train on this event,  you’re still invited to discuss metal music in great length with Villa Washington English Club members before we leave.  In fact, I think it would be a missed opportunity not to do so since they will likely not find anyone with this knowledge in Brazzaville for years to come.

Shayna

I have long claimed that diplomacy is the death of humor...above is the truth.

N.B.  Shayna was actually kidding around, but I have recieved emails about equally trivial things a la Shayna's email.

Housekeeping items

Ok, so just in case anyone noticed, I took down my last blog post.  I thought it was pretty good as a written diatribe, summing up my frustrations nicely.  But, due to the fact that I am almost done with Brazzaville and searching for a job, I decided that my screed, as good as it felt, was probably for a limited time only.  That said, it felt good to vent some of my frustrations about the role I am expected to fill as an Eligible Family Member to a foreign service officer. 

In other news, I hope to be seeing everyone soon stateside.  I can't wait to spend some quality time with all my friends I haven't seen over the past couple years. 

Finally, the Beastie Boys have a new album.  I bought it last week from Amazon and, truthfully, it was mainly for nostalgia.  However, the damn thing hasn't left the CD player in my car since then.  I'm not suggesting it is Paul's Boutique, or even Check Your Head, but it will do in a pinch.

Ok, not much else to report here.  Still working on some stuff to post...will probably take far longer than it should.  But I promise that there will be something in the next few weeks.

Yo MTV Blogs!!!

So, my blog is back!!!!  Pretty soon we will have another Desert Island Disc (Coil's Horse Rotorvator), a post on Basketball and Death in the Congo, documentation of the fact that I jumped into the water with Great White Sharks during my trip to South Africa...maybe a curse filled rant about the Twins and how they are underperforming (all depends on next week), other stuff...

So, my four followers, stay tuned!

Desert Island Discs, Part 1

Ok, I know that it has been far too long since I have updated my blog.  It has been, needless to say, a busy few months, with a trip to Europe/South Africa and changes in my job, along with all the rewards and hassles that go hand-in-hand with living in Brazzaville.  That said, I have been thinking lately that blogging and writing in general are a great therapeutic diversion, especially here, where I tend to waste far too much time wandering the internet in search of bizarre music.

And, speaking of bizarre music, I decided to christen the rebirth of the blog with a run-down of two of my “desert island discs,” one which I will post today, the other later in the week.  In essence, these are albums that I would hope to have on my person in the dreaded, hypothetical what if I get stuck on a desert island scenario.  Of course, I would also want a boat in said scenario, allowing me to escape the dreaded, hypothetical desert Island.  But I digress…

High on Fire, Surrounded by Thieves

If ever there was a true desert island disc for me, this is it.  Since I bought it in the summer of 2002, I have listened to it weekly.  It came with me to Togo, to Congo, and I recently purchased it on vinyl.  If you have ever ridden in my car, I guarantee I have rocked this, because in my humble opinion, it is the rare record that sounds awesome on a cheap car stereo.  It is the apotheosis of why I like extreme music, an artistic statement that manages to be both pummeling and hypnotic.  It is a groove monster, unlike so much modern metal, locking into a riff and acting like a crazed, half-satanic reincarnation of James Brown circa 1971, with bass, drums, and guitar achieving a propulsive, perpetual motion thrash.

I guess a little background is in order, especially since those who read this blog are probably not the perma-heshers who know High on Fire intimately.  High on Fire came together after the break-up of the legendary Bay Area band Sleep.  Sleep was a power trio composed of Matt Pike, Al Cisernos, and Chris Hakius who specialized in music that sounded like Black Sabbath might have if Tony Iommi had a penchant for meditation and the drones of Indian music.  Sleep were especially interesting, considering the fact that they came on the scene during the heyday of Grindcore and Death Metal, signing to Earache despite the fact that Sleep’s hypnotic Sabbath-worship could not have been further from the spastic blasting of Morbid Angel or Napalm Death.  Though a welcome contrast to the hyper-fast grind coming out at that time (not that I don’t like Death and Grind…I love them; but man cannot live on bread alone), Sleep was short-lived, breaking up after a brief stint on a major label.  The cause of the break up was the fact that their last album, known alternatively as Jerusalem or Dopesmoker (an incredibly stupid name, even by the standards of metal, a genre that is either over intellectual, or completely dense), was a 60 minute long track that was rejected outright by the record company for being un-commercial.  The subsequent strain resulted in the band breaking up.

In the wake of Sleep, Matt Pike forged on, forming High on Fire.  The first HOF release, The Art of Self Defense, was another slab of sludgy rock, hewing very close to the formula that Sleep had established.  However, the band really found their sound on their second release, Surrounded by Thieves.  On that release, Pike and his crew broke away from the hypnagogic dirges of Sabbath, moving into a mid-tempo thrashy groove that has characterized the band’s sound since.  Essentially, the reason why I love this album so much is that HOF combined the low-end boogie of early metal with the mechanical precision of thrash.  The result is riffs which are monumental in their single-mindedness; they are designed to bludgeon you with a fierce groove.  You know the Nietzsche quote, “If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”  Well, this album is like that, a long player of guitar tone and single minded rhythmic purpose that becomes vertiginous in its tenacity. 

 

Songs like “Eyes and Teeth,” beginning with a nearly subsonic bass, eventually exploding into guitar and tribal drums, set the mood for the album.  Matt Pike’s guitar solos are brutal and to the point.  Des Kensel makes his drum kit sound like the approach of barbarian hordes.  All the while, songs fly by in whiplash fashion, evoking the mythical (ok, completely goofy) beasts that their titles reference; “Speedwolf” sounds just like a song named Speedwolf should sound—fast and razor sharp.  “The Yeti” lumbers onto the scene like an angry, awakened thing out of a winter cave.  The high point of the album, for me at least, is “The Thraft of Canaan,” where the band takes a breath and settles into a mid-paced brawl with their instruments.  The song opens with a feedback laden guitar before deciding to crush you like Dolph Lundgren against the Italian Stallion.  Overall, the album plays like a unified whole, each song supported by the two that surround it, becoming an immersive experience.

 

So, despite all the hyperbole listed above, what are some possible cons?  Well, the production is a bit of a love it or hate it deal.  Billy Anderson’s production is a sludgy, opaque affair.  Personally, I think that murk adds to the psychedelic sound, making the three piece sound like a lava stream rolling over your village.  That said, some will find the fact that individual instruments sometimes get lost in the sound off-putting.  Also, on a continuum spanning between Britney Spears and Cannibal Corpse, High on Fire certainly hews towards the latter end of the spectrum; though those who dig stuff like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, or Black Sabbath, may find many things to appreciate about the work, it certainly isn’t for those whose tastes are more saccharine.  Still, the next time I am trapped on a desert island, you know what I will be doing: hanging out with Yetis and Speedwolves, while fashioning a catapult out of coconut trees.  Really, not a bad way to waste a day or two.

Who is following me from Mali?

According to my stats, I am getting quite a few hits from Mali.  Just curious who is checking up on me from West Africa.

In other news, Blake Dirksen, the author of the Moderately Educated Physicist, is going to have an online debate with me in a few days (when I finally finish composing my argument about the deficit and debt in America) at which time we will post out debate to our respective blogs.  I am hoping this can turn into a regular thing, since Blake and I do this sort of thing all the time in America (usually while watching college football and debating the merits of the BCS).  Anywho...I promise it will be done in a few days (maybe even tonight, if I can get my act together).

Saturdays...

So, this is an entirely inconsequential post, but the great thing about Saturdays in the Congo is that I can sit here, read Bret Easton Ellis, and listen to music without any external distractions.  I feel, that for all of the things that make Congo difficult, the fact that I can essentially choose what to do with my weekends and not have any exterior distractions is a definite plus.  In essence, this is one of the great freedoms of living in the developing world; your free time is your own.  For example, while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, I read more books in two years than I had in four years of college, including things like Anna Karenina and War and Peace which I wouldn't have tackled otherwise.  I also had long conversations about things ranging from the banal to esoteric and never had to worry if I was going to miss some obligation.

Of course, that isn't to say that I don't miss some of the distractions of the American experience, such as beers at the bar with friends, last-minute baseball games, concerts, and the occasional movie.  These things are all great, and if a shopping mall decided to open in Brazzaville with a movie theater, I would be the first in line.  That said, the simple pleasures of a book and some music courtesy of iTunes should not be scoffed at.

Difficult decisions

And now, on to something slightly more substantive. Last Thursday, I was invited to the oral section of the Foreign Service test. Normally, I would be ecstatic. But, I find myself in the odd position of having something I have planned for within reach and, at the same time, feeling incredibly conflicted about it. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, having seen the Department of State from the proverbial trenches, I have some reservations. It certainly isn’t a job you can back into, since it demands a degree of dedication which few other jobs match (I don’t mean to disparage doctors, lawyers, or anyone other career, who certainly dedicate huge amounts of time to their career, but few ask that you relocate to the other side of the world). Furthermore, there is a certain elitist vibe in the State Department (though not in the Embassy I currently work, where everyone is down-to-earth) which tends to chafe my Midwestern sensibilities. Of course, both of those concerns are relatively minor, due to the fact that my wife is already a FSO with the Department of State and, by and large, I am going to run into these minor annoyances regardless of whether I pass the test.

My second concern is far less about the reservations I have about the milieu surrounding the State Department abroad and more about the job itself. When I signed up for the Foreign Service Officer Test, I was asked which cone I would prefer (In the Foreign Service, there are 5 cones: consular, economic, political, management and public diplomacy). At the time, I was starting my job at the Embassy in Brazzaville, and found the work I was doing in Management to be rewarding. Thus, I chose the management cone. However, since I took the test, I have gained a much more realistic perspective on the management cone and though I still enjoy portions of my job, I have come to the realization that there are many parts of my job which I do not enjoy and, frankly, for which I am ill-suited. Now, I know what every reader of this blog (roughly 3 people) is thinking: welcome to real life, jackass. Don’t get me wrong, I agree completely. Every job has its upsides and downsides, why should I expect anything different? Honestly, I don’t. But, I still think that it is fair to ask; at what point do the negatives of a job outweigh the positive aspects? Though I don’t want to go into the gory details of my issues with my job (because, at the end of the day, my concerns are mine alone) I do think that I may have reached the tipping point where the negatives may have begun to outweigh the positives.  The things that I do like, however, namely working in international work and having close contact with local staff, are available throughout the foreign service, so I know that my concerns are not with the organization as a whole.  Some of the concerns I have may also be relevant only at this embassy, and I may end up finding a great deal of satisfaction from management work.

I think these questions and concerns are especially pertinent since, were I to pass the Foreign Service Test, I would have something resembling a career in the management cone. Of course, I could always decide that it wasn’t for me, but with my wife continuing to work as a Foreign Service Officer, I am not sure that burning bridges with my most likely employer by opting out after one tour of duty would be a smart move. However, my other options have their downsides as well. My first option would be to attempt to find jobs in international development at each subsequent post. While this would likely give me a wide breadth of job opportunities, it would be problematic due to the fact that I would essentially be starting over with each move and the possibility that my wife could be stationed somewhere like Paris, where international development does not exist. I could also apply for USAID Foreign Service jobs, which would be great due to the fact that I would have a government job focusing on development work, and that the US government would try to place my wife and me together. At this point, this is the most attractive option on the table. Despite this, if I were to take this path, my wife and I would likely spend a great deal of time apart, due to the fact that officer postings for Department of State and USAID do not match up (2 years vs. 4 years). Also, there are currently no job openings with USAID, though I have been assured they will open soon. My final option is to take the Foreign Service Test again, in a different cone (likely econ or political, which match up with my education). I will probably also pursue this, but will have to wait until I am eligible to take the test again (roughly June).

Ultimately, I will take the orals in November, because it will be good practice and I don’t want to eliminate the management option entirely. Honestly, it is a notoriously difficult test, so I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if I don’t pass and my concerns become a moot point. But I will also have to make some tough decisions about my next career step, especially due to the fact that my wife will be going to Pakistan next, a place I will not be allowed to go due to security concerns, unless I find a job at the Embassy in some capacity. I also know that simply being a househusband will not work for me, and that I want to begin a career in the international realm sooner rather than later. So, faithful readers, what say you? If you were in a position where you may have an opportunity in a field that you had genuine doubts about, but your other options were either unclear or logistically difficult for your family, what choice would you make?