Will Buckingham | 白忠修

An excellent piece on the virtues of sad sandwiches by Misato Okaneya.

"Boterham demands no love or effort, and keeps the day going. I feel there is absolute trust in a boterham, not necessarily because it is excellent, but because it is simple and unpretentious."

#Sandwiches #SadLunch

https://www.leidenanthropologyblog.nl/articles/why-do-the-dutch-never-get-tired-of-everyday-sandwiches-the-boterham

After years of refining and further refining a book proposal, and agonising over the market—an abstraction entirely beyond my comprehension—I've started from scratch, putting words to paper, writing what I want to write. And I've no idea how it's going to go, but there's life there, and fun, and a sense of something real.

#writing

Pingtung cycle path. Some cute gods, and some very musical vegetables.

#Taiwan #cycling

As far as I understand it, this is not the question. #Taiwan

We're galloping into the lunar new year here in Taiwan, so here's Ludwig Wittgenstein, wishing you a very happy year of the horse. 馬上成功！

#NewYear #Wittgenstein #philosophy #Taiwan

It has been such a delight this afternoon, hanging out in the 小陽 (Little Sun) bookshop here in #Pingtung, in the south of #Taiwan.

https://www.willbuckingham.com/a-little-sun/

I went to an industrial chemical (化工) wholesale shop yesterday to get some boric acid, to mix up an anti-ant potion. And—oh my!—the things you can get on the open market in #Taiwan. Vast sacks and jars of potent things. It's a mad scientist's dream.

Now I'm going to retire to my lab with a dead cat, and some random stuff I picked up from the shelves for a few NTD, to see if—through the practice of my subtle and profane arts—I can re-animate the lifeless clay....

Taiwanese friends tell us that one household’s ancestors are another household’s ghosts. We just bought this picture of some ghosts from a junk shop. We take full responsibility for whatever happens next. #Taiwan #ghosts

Finished reading this on the train today, and it's a fun and interesting book. I have a soft spot for Zhuangzi's happy fish, and so this was up my street. It's also open access, putting the "free" into "free and easy wandering" (逍遙遊)

#philosophy #zhuangzi

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111568171/html

Some heavy-duty theological content in this mural spotted in Pingtung, Taiwan.

(Fall and redemption. Genesis meets Chris de Burgh...)

#Taiwan #WallArt #religion #Pingtung

This was the loveliest way to spend a Friday early evening, listening to Hug Muzik / 曾立馨 performing their amazing Bossa Nova / Taiwanese pak-koán 北管 mash-ups in Xishi. Met lots of good folks, caught up with some old friends, then Youbiked back to Pingtung along the bike path under the railway line.

#Taiwan #Music

Had a dream last night that Nick Cave popped in to borrow a duster. I offered him a J-Cloth, but he regretfully declined, saying he wanted a proper duster or nothing at all.

50% of teaching is moving furniture. 30% is show business. 20% is content.

#teaching