Last weekend I was introduced to comedian Tim Minchin by my friend Nicki. Thanks to her I’ve spent the last few days firmly entrenching myself in the Tim Minchin fanclub, watching damn near all his videos on Youtube, as well as his “Ready For This?” DVD last night.

Minchin’s act is a combination of comedic songs (he’s an impressive pianist), regular standup and poems. There are so many great bits that had me in tears, including “If I didn’t have you” (which was the video that first sold me on him) and “Fuck the poor“. But his beat poem “Storm” was particularly clever, and the animated short film that was created for it makes it even better.

My favourite part (emphasis mine):

“You’re so sure of your position
But you’re just closed-minded
I think you’ll find
Your faith in Science and Tests
Is just as blind
As the faith of any fundamentalist”

“Hm that’s a good point, let me think for a bit
Oh wait, my mistake, it’s absolute bullshit.
Science adjusts its beliefs based on what’s observed
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved.
If you show me
That, say, homeopathy works,
Then I will change my mind
I’ll spin on a fucking dime
I’ll be embarrassed as hell,
But I will run through the streets yelling
It’s a miracle! Take physics and bin it!
Water has memory!
And while it’s memory of a long lost drop of onion juice is Infinite
It somehow forgets all the poo it’s had in it!

You can check out Tim doing the bit live here. I’ve got two other Minchin items queued up for as soon as I find time to watch: 2007′s “So Live”, and also a documentary that was made about Tim called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nerd”.

If you like comedy, particularly clever comedy, be sure to check him out. You can also check out my newly created list of atheist comedians for more godless jokers. I’m always on the hunt for others, so please share your favs in the comments.

If you’re outside of China, I’m sure if you just search YouTube for “atomic tom iphone” you’ll find this video.

The Poem: HOW TO BE ALONE by Tanya Davis

If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.

We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.

There’s also the gym. If you’re shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).

And there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there’s prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you’re hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.

The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they — like you — will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You’re no less intriguing a person when you’re eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching…because, they’re probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there’re always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might’ve never happened had you not been there by yourself

Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.

You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one’s in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.

Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school’s groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you’re happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.

It’s okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be releived, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.

And it doesn’t mean you’re not connected, that communitie’s not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn’t get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.

you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it
If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

As seen on Wooster Collective, h/t to Ric.

Key take-aways:

• Gamers have spent 5.93 million years (collectively) playing WoW and solving its problems.
• By 21, the average kid in a country with a strong gaming culture will have spent 10,000 hours playing games (read Outliers for why that’s key)
• Gaming creates “Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals” that trust others, work collaboratively on epic problems and don’t quit easily.

Jane gets +20 Billiance, and an added skill bonus of +10 Awesomeness

(h/t Chris Brogan)

Apologies to any in-China folks for having to turn your VPN on, but trust me, it’s worth it.

• That’s not a dude
• West Virginia Represent!
• No, you’re not mistaken, that is a trailer park
• I’m surprised trailer parks have Internet access too.
• Jiu jitsu appears to be highly accommodating to the heftier among us.

h/t Unreasonable Faith

Cheers to Ben for loaning it to me. Eye opening and mouth closing. If you live in a country that doesn’t have Blockbuster or Netflicks, I’ve heard it’s also available via torrent download.

Date:
Saturday 29nd May – 7.30 pm

Title:
Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a People

An internationally published freelance photographer and travel writer, Tom has traveled extensively throughout all 33 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions before publishing ‘CHINA: Portrait of a People,’ the most comprehensive collection of imagery of contemporary China ever published by a single author. Tonight he shares his experiences through the Middle Kingdom and India, seeking out photo opportunities and human experiences.

Note: tickets might be required — I’m not sure. Check with the Bookworm

Tom and I have crossed digital paths a number of times over the last several years, and I’ve yet to meet him. When Tom e-mailed to say he would be in town, I was hoping to get out and fix that this weekend, but that “all about the baby” bit carries much past these dusty pages of HTML.

So, if you see Tom tomorrow, please let him know I sent you and give him my best. Also, if you’ve seen his book, be sure to let me know what you thought.

I’ll be doing a proper review soon on Lost Laowai (it’s about 2 years past due — but coincides well with its June 16th Amazon availability), but I think its fantastic. The thing is massive. For a preview of some of the photography, head over to Tom’s photostream on Flickr.

The guidebooks give crash courses in it, many many novels have been written about it. When people repeat the catch-phrase, “China Rises”, communist marching and star-studded banners wave through the mind.

But China’s changed, it’s no longer the place it was in the 50s-70s. Not even close. It’s barely the place it was last week. North Korea, on the other hand, is virtually the same as it was when it was founded. Still a hereditary communist power (sweet irony) with a government clinging to the old ways with white-knuckles and a big gun. Still brashly refusing to go any way but its own, no matter how many people have to starve.

The West may lay criticisms on China and the lack of freedoms here, some of which are definitely not unqualified, but when you compare it to its tiny northeastern neighbour, you can’t help be see the stark contrast of how far this big beautiful country has come. If China’s the showcase for a country pulling itself out of a bad decision made 60 years ago, and a terrible system before that, the DPRK is the polar opposite.

Getting a clear picture of North Korea is a challenge though. It’s isolation and self-imposed segregation make it an island in a otherwise globalized world. I’m fortunate to have had a peak at North Korea living in China’s north east, and visiting the border with the DPRK. But I hope one day I’ll be able to actually go there and see it all for myself (even if it’s just the sanitized foreigner version in Pyongyang).

With that said, you can imagine the interest I had in a new project that came my way not long ago — designing the Web site for a new book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. The book is written by Barbara Demick, who some may know as the Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

www.NothingToEnvy.com - designed by The Humanaught

I’ll let the design speak for itself, but here’s a bit more on the book:

In NOTHING TO ENVY, Demick follows the lives of six people: a couple of teenaged lovers courting in secret, an idealistic woman doctor, a homeless boy, a model factory worker who loves Kim Il Sung more than her own family and her rebellious daughter.

Demick spent six years painstakakingly reconstructing life in a city off-limits to outsiders through interviews with defectors, smuggled photographs and videos. The book spans the chaotic years that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, the devastating effects of a famine that killed an estimated twenty percent of the population, and an increase in illegal defections.

While many books focus on the North Korean nuclear threat, NOTHING TO ENVY is one of the few that dwells on what everyday life is like for ordinary citizens. With remarkable detail, Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime in the world today. She gives a portrait as vivid as walking oneself through the darkened streets of North Korea.

I just finished reading it and cannot recommend it enough to anyone with even just a passing interest in North Korea. If you’ve ever read Wild Swans (and I suggest you do), you’ll find some similarities, as both books tell their stories through the eyes of real people who lived through harrowing ordeals. Both explore what it is to live in a country where your thoughts are moulded into believing the omnipotence of a man and a system that are long-past failure.

For China-watchers, the book also shows the obstacle-strewn Chinese road that many DPRK defectors travel through to get out of a country that treats them like trash but wont let them go.

Truly a fascinating book.

Here’s the song that kicked it all off:

Be sure to check out Playing For Change‘s Web site. They’ve got a bunch more episodes.