Chapter 49

I read a chapter on the Norman conquest book in the morning. One of my absolute favorite historical characters makes his appearance: Harold Motherfucking Hardrada. An intimidating giant of a man (sources report he was seven feet tall, though it’s likely exaggerated), he lived a life filled with pure badassery, getting exiled out of Norway when he was fifteen, after getting wounded in a battle alongside his half-brother who wanted to reclaim the throne of Norway, and then spending time in the court of a distant Viking relative ruling present-day Ukraine. From there, he went to Constantinople, working as a mercenary for many years, which brought him to Sicily, Egypt, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, before going back to Norway, rich and with a fearsome reputation, winning the throne, and ruining Denmark’s shit in a series of crazy Viking-on-Viking sea battles. Then in 1066, just a few weeks before William’s invasion in the south, he brought an army to northern England but got defeated and killed. I hope they make a movie about him.

I listened to a lot of music today. First I caught the Metal Minded podcast, the boys reviewed four albums, one of them by Handsome Prick, a deathgrind outfit from Indiana. I liked their 2016 album, and when the livestream was over I listened to the new one and it was enjoyable as well, some tight modern death metal in the vein of Benighted but with a fun punk touch.

While the livestream was playing in the background, I compiled albums of Chinese heavy metal and put them on YouTube. Even though I listened to them countless times in the past, I still played two of them, the Underground NWOBHM Bands demo by Dinkumoil and the Sexy Big Butt EP by Tractor (a side-project from a Dinkumoil guy). They are both hella fun foot-tapping riff fests, too bad the vocalists are not up to par. It must have been quite hard to even put together a full band in China over 10 years ago when these were released, I tend to give some slack to bands from non-metal countries (without falling into the trap of the bigotry of low expectations). I also put together a little compilation of local bands I liked when I lived in the northern city of Jinan several years ago. All of these can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd8KGfOnqiqwlpVXylGh6yQ.

I listened to some more brutal stuff: Gatecreeper’s old-school death metal and Mass Extinction’s furious grindcore. Then I moved on to something a bit smoother with the positions 444 to 442 of the Top 500, occupied by Fiona Apple, David Bowie and The Weeknd. All three were okay but I haven’t got much to say about them.

In the afternoon, I took the dog out and he ate a dried up nugget of shit left by another four-legged resident of the area. I scolded him and brushed his teeth when we got home. I left soon after to go play badminton with two friends.

Along the way, I finished the podcast about La Vérendrye, a man nearly forgotten by history despite being one of the first Europeans to make it to the Rockies. Overall he didn’t play his cards very well. Despite being from noble lineage, he didn’t smooch with the other members of the French aristocracy, but wasn’t respected by his men either, who at times refused to follow him. His journeys to the west both had a commercial and exploratory goal to them, but he angered both the colonial administration and his financial backers who felt he was spending either too much or too little time trading beaver pelts/trying to find a road to the west. And he never managed to have the Algonquins and others truly see him as one of them, unlike many of his contemporaries, who learned their languages and went full-blown native.

My pals, a British BJJ training partner and his coworker from Montreal, haven’t played badminton much before but could hold their own. We played a few games in the quiet municipal gym, before it fills up at night. They’ve been in China for a while and can speak and read the language, we talked about the omnipresent propaganda banners, like those that lined up the walls of the gym. One said, paraphrasing, “If the people exercises, China is healthy”, one said “Do not forget why you show dedication, for the country’s prosperity and to bring happiness to the Chinese race” and the other was a list of the 12 Core Socialist Values.

Overall I don’t mind them, the message is more often than not a wholesome and positive one, even though of course the constant mention of the race (民族) feels a bit awkward for us and our multicultural upbringings. Patriotism is quite strong in China, unlike in the west where public displays of patriotism are seen as either ridiculous or problematic.

On the short ride home, the podcast finished, and alphabetically in my mp3 player, an album by Mgla came next. Mgla hails from Poland and is one of the most respected newer black metal bands, their albums are all absolutely great. I went to buy vegetables and I made a “leftover soup” when I got home. I browned some bacon, reserved it, added some chicken fat and oil from a sardine can to the bacon grease, fried some mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) then added garlic, all sorts of spices and herbs, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, canned lentils, and leftover broths. I simmered it while writing this entry.

We ate the soup, watching an episode of The Office. Then I did a bit more reading online, with a vaporwave playlist. I like vaporwave quite a lot, with its relaxing yet sinister aesthetics and subtle criticism of the modern world. I finished my day with a yoga session, a 30-minute sequence on my friend’s YouTube channel, and then some reading in bed. Namaste.