Archive for North Korea
horsy new year!
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags ⾺, Cambodia, China, Chinese zodiac, Fire Horse, horse, Japan, Lunar New Year, lunisolar calendar, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Year of the Horse on February 17, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the [end of the] chaos year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Agatha Christie, BBC Radio n4, Berlin, Black Plague, book reviews, California, Cambodia, COVID-19, crow, cuisine, Daniel Defoe, detective stories, fantasy, Frankenstein, horror, horror story, Indian food, Japan, Japanese cinema, Jotunheimen, Journal of the Plague Year, King Olaf, Kumano Kodō, Lancashire, Lenin, melodrama, North Korea, Norway, NSF, olive tree, restaurant, Russian invasion, Scandinavian Mountains, short stories, South Korea, Tokyo, Trondheim, Ukraine, Yatagarasu, Yorkshire on December 31, 2025 by xi'an 
Read the delightful Barrowbreck by Andrew M Hurley, a great collection of short stories is made coherent by its unity of place, a lost, dark, valley between Lancashire and Yorkshire. The stories unfold from the Bronze ages till a near and disastrous future. While the book is often presented as horror fiction, I rather see it as an exploration of an alternate reality, a fantasy just outside our own world. Not inducing dread or unease in the reader. The author demonstrates great skill in setting substantial characters and situations within a few pages, in translating the inner feelings of highly diverse people and, above all, in refraining from providing a definite conclusion to his stories. Some of them are striking enough to remain in my memories for a while!
Apart from an Indian-style vegetable six dishes feast, did not experiment much in the kitchen, in part due to my travelling one week out of two between November and December. But harvested and prepared my olives after collecting about 3 litters of them. (I also tasted a Banh Chhev (in Petit Cambodge, Paris but it failed short from my expectation, neither crispy nor sizzling. And cold.)
Watched As You Stood By, a Korean drama about domestic violence. And then Last Samurai Standing. Adapted from the novel of the same name written by Shogo Imamura. And the rather hilarious movie Good News, a South Korean disaster black comedy film playing a similar trick to Good bye Lenin. Gave up watching an unlucky series of terrible films and TV series. From the cheezy A Man on the Inside (which surely makes Agatha Christie cringe in her grave), to Ichikei’s Crow (a highly unrealistic sequence of near-judicial errors in a Tokyo tribunal, with the redeeming feature of a three-leg crow logo, Yatagarasu, also a guardian on the Kumanokodo), to the pretentious Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro (where over-prefect Victorian tableaux and crepuscular lighting games kill the scenario even before it is brought to life by Dr. Frankenstein’s steampunk apparatus, aka, the mélo chokes the drama!), to Troll 2, even worse than Troll, pulling on the very same strings as the first film, with the very same house eviscerated again by another strolling troll!, as well as a complete disregard for archaeological dig rules and with the ultimate lame resort to holy water! Catching a few views of the Jotunheimen peaks, though (which we hiked 35 years ago).
a journal of the dynamite year
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags Berck-sur-Mer, Black Plague, book reviews, COVID-19, cuisine, cyber security, Daniel Defoe, detective story, Dominique Picard, Fabienne Kabou, France Inter, Fred Vargas, gardening, Gérard de Nerval, homegrown, infanticide, Journal of the Plague Year, korean TV series, métro, mushrooms, North Korea, North Sea, Paris, Portobello mushrooms, RATP, Russian invasion, Sceaux, Thai cuisine, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ukraine, unilateral nuclear disarmament, Université Paris-Diderot, US’s Missile Defense Agency, wavelets on November 19, 2025 by xi'an Read another Fred Vargas novel, Sans feu ni lieu (The Accordionist), a 1997 detective story that is recycling the characters of Debout les morts! (The Three Evangelists). It took me a while to engage with the story since the dialogues are terribly artificial and dated. The resolution of the crime series is also terrible, with an absurd link to a poem by Gérard de Nerval posted in the Paris métro… Also read Orogénèse, a novel written by Dominique Picard—a French statistician at Paris Diderot, who worked on differential geometry and wavelets, and was an ICMS speaker in 2006—, about a reluctant (male) lawyer taking the case of a murderess who does not want to be defended. This book is inspired by the true story of Fabienne Kabou, who drowned her 15 month daughter on a North Sea beach in 2013. And presumably by the book written by her (female) lawyer. Immensely troubling story that is reflected by the style of the novel and the half-truths in the lawyer monologue, Orogénèse stays away from judging or explaining, by slowly exploring the surrounding of the infanticide. Impressive (in many senses).
Made an attempt at a “no-bun burger” using panned Portobello mushrooms—making a very rare appearance on my market stalls—that did not prove very practical as they could not hold much of the onion, avocado and salad contents. But tastier than the (button) Paris mushroom type. We also had an unusual series of take-outs from the local Thaï restaurant, out of solidarity with the long-time owners as their place was about to close and be demolished by the owner. Also made rhubarb compote with the last stems of the year, along with the very few apples that grew in our garden this year.
Watched part of the Korean drama A girl who sees smells (냄새를 보는 소녀). Which is unsurprisingly as terrible as the title suggests. Also watched House of Dynamite after listening to Kathryn Bigelow on the French National Public Radio (France Inter). While the message against [unstable and irreversible] nuclear terror “balance” and for immediate disarmament is necessary, esp. in the current atmosphere of unilateral military actions and of unhinged Supreme Leaders!, the film is terrible and unrealistic, even though The Guardian disagrees. Maybe because the decision chain appears to be less (rather than more) than the sum of the individual decisions. Maybe because of the accumulation of irrelevant actions in the face of the incoming missile. The (US) Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP) has provided a detailed analysis of the right and wrong of the scenario, the most obvious for me being the need to hit back at a potential originator (of the nuclear missile) before the missile strikes. (The US’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) also criticised the failed interception of the attacking missile as unrealistic but CACNP states that the probability of a hit is around 50% , at a cost of $53 billion for 44 interceptors!) That they fail to explicitly name this originator (as North Korea) may be due to fears of cyber attacks as in the earlier instance of The Interview. (The New York Time also enjoys the pace and tension of the movie, while providing a recollection of the best earlier movies acting on the same cliffhanger.)
a journal of the conquest, war, famine, and death year
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Austria, book review, books, Casa de Papel, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, dark fantasy, film review, Hallstatt, heist, izayaka, Journal of the Plague Year, Kherson, Korean cinema, North Korea, Patrick Dewdney, restaurant review, Rue Mouffetard, Russian invasion, Ukraine, Vladimir Mayakovski, Vladivostok on July 11, 2023 by xi'anRead Les chiens et la charrue (Le cycle de Syffe, tome 3 ) by Patrick K. Dewdney, which came out after a long hiatus (esp. when missing the parution in September 2021!). It thus proved hard to remember the complex structure of this universe, as well as the names of characters from the earlier volumes. But after one slow third of the book, including an endless river slog, the right pace set in and I read the remaining 400 pages quite quickly (the trip to Jeddah helped!), with a climactic ending, despite a few too many coincidences. Looking forward the next tome, next year maybe?! While still being stuck in the (disappointing) last tome of Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor, I read another Max Gladstone’s, Dead Country (The Craft War I), within a few days, despite some weaknesses in the style (heavy infodump disguised as teacher/pupil conversations) and in the story. Unsure I will pursue this series.
Had an enjoyable early dinner at Otto, a Rue Mouffetard izayaka. Despite some highlights of the menu being unavailable, the remaining dishes were worth the visit! (And the bet that there would be a table available on a warm Saturday evening.)
Watched Korean Money Heist, which, I am told, is the K clone of La Casa de Papel (I had not watched). Very light and requiring a high tolerance for unlikely so unlikely twists, but with very good actors who managed to keep the pace till the last episode. With a appearance supposedly of the martyr city of Kherson, even though it is actually Hallstatt, Austria. (Just why would a North Korean student read Mayakovski’s poems in a Latin language while in Vladivostok?!)
a journal of the plague, sword, and famine year [far North]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags book review, books, COVID-19, crab, Daniel Defoe, film review, flight, Inoue Yasushi, Journal of the Plague Year, kindle, Lapland, North Korea, pandemics, Russian invasion, South Korea, The Guardian, The New York Times, Toshirō Mifune, Ukraine, young adult books on April 12, 2023 by xi'anRead Le sabre des Takeda (Furin kazan, 風林火山) by Inoue Yasushi, a very interesting book set between Japanese history and feudal novel, with surgical descriptions of battles and psychological tensions. This book reminded me in some aspects of a novel of Yoshimura Akira on the earthquake of Kantô by its insistence on minutiae. Even though the style may be destabilizing, the central character, Yamamoto Kansuke, is fascinating. This is the first book by the author that I read, but I am now considering reading his Hunting Gun (as well as watching the 1969 movie with Mifune that was inspired from that book, if I can locate a copy). I also came across A Winter’s Promise, by Christelle Dabos. This is the first volume in The Mirror Visitor, which I bought in the airport in Milano. In English, despite the original being in French, which may help in distancing from the YA tone that sometimes permeates the style. An interesting creation nonetheless, hopefully keeping up till the fourth volume! As an aside, I found my Kindle inexplicably covered by condensation one evening, although this did not prevent it from working. Possibly correlated with my falling asleep while reading from it the night before.
Had great reindeer dishes in Lapland, as well as poorly cooked Arctic crab, despite magnificent specimen displayed in the aquarium of the restaurant. And made a trip back to the Ethiopian restaurant we visited for my 60th B party, this time without the excitement of having our laptops stolen and then retrieved. (Just as well since Tony Lelièvre was not part of the dinner party this time!)
Watched World War Z on a lazy Sunday night upon my return from Lapland, which I found appalling at many levels and unbearably US-centric (or just plainly racist). The scene where the zombies assail the West Bank separation wall is particularly shocking! I also watched Steel Rain, a South Korean manga turned into a movie about a fantasy coup in North Korea. Very fantasist and detached from reality, but still manageable.
