Notices by simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Monday, 02-Mar-2026 13:48:29 JST 
simsa03
♪ Jessie Mae Hemphill, "Feelin' Good" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97QRSjZeyac
I don't listen much to blues. But when I do, it's Jessie Mae Hemphill. She played in the tradition of the (North Mississippi) Hill country blues.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Monday, 02-Mar-2026 13:46:36 JST
simsa03
♪ Blaze Foley, "You'll Get Yours Aplenty" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci6G8b-mdtI
Blaze Foley's songs breath calmness and through that an unpretentious vastness.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Monday, 02-Mar-2026 13:45:22 JST
simsa03
♪ Blaze Foley, "Election Day" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY51WuggR4E
Blaze Foley was a close friend of Townes Van Zandt. He was, like Dolly Parton (if you excuse the comparison), a master of the "small form": songs of 2 to 3 minutes length, perfect in their lyricism and musical "shape".
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Sunday, 01-Mar-2026 02:24:11 JST
simsa03
Perhaps I got it all wrong and Trump played Putin by publicly thwarting Ukraine, offering Putin milk and honey, and Putin, little brat that he is, reacted by going all in with Ukraine. And while Russia bleeds out in Ukraine it became too weak to prevent Trump's actions in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Feb-2026 16:12:44 JST
simsa03
Peter Dickinson, "Vladimir Putin is trapped in a war he cannot win but dare not end" https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/vladimir-putin-is-trapped-in-a-war-he-cannot-win-but-dare-not-end/
Good point: A peace deal that leaves Ukraine independent and places Kyiv eternally out of reach means Putin has lost the war as Kyiv sits at the heart of the Russian myth. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:24:34 JST
simsa03
♪ Pizzicato Five, "Peace Music" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bGBPCG0-eg
Honestly, I don't believe Pizzicato Five were human musicians at all. I think they were the first publicly performing AI, and they did so with such finesse. Bringing smiles and joy was their perfidious masterplan to take over the world.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:13:55 JST
simsa03
♪ United Future Organisation, "The Planet Plan" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppruJvMuAU
There are two Japanese bands I've been fond of since the late 1990s: Pizzicato Five and United Future Organisation. This song is taken from UFO's album "3rd Perspective" (1996).
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:06:46 JST
simsa03
♪ Dissidenten with Lem Chaheb, "Inshallah" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvqJ92IrlJc
This song, 10 years earlier than Natacha Atlas, from 1984. It's pulse and beat still unbeaten today.
(The Dissidenten, engl. "dissidents", were a spin-off of the German world music / jazz / experimnetal group Embryo)
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:02:36 JST
simsa03
♪ Natacha Atlas, "Yalla Chant" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=favGoTiJE-s
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:02:21 JST
simsa03
♪ Natacha Atlas, "Yalla Chant" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=favGoTiJE-s
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:01:09 JST
simsa03
♪ Natacha Atlas, "Diaspora" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5BGLTg_wXI
1995 was a magical year, with so many wonderful albums published. This is the title song of Natacha Atlas' album "Diaspora" from the same year. Sound floating in the air...
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 12:00:58 JST
simsa03
♪ Natacha Atlas, "Diaspora" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5BGLTg_wXI
1995 was a magical year, with so many wonderful albums published. This is the title song of Natacha Atlas' album "Diaspora" from the same year. Sound floating in the air...
!listening -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Tuesday, 24-Feb-2026 11:44:31 JST
simsa03
♪ 3 Mustaphas 3, "Yogurt Koydum Dolaba / Televizyon" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtUk6vkBlaI
The right tune to dance to at 3:42 am in your flat ...
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 13:41:55 JST
simsa03
The whole "What would I like to eat today?"-attitude is long gone. I plan in advance when to eat which of the few groceries and fruits I have, and when to cook what and how to divide the cooked food to last for several portions.
I usually don't prepare a dish by merely cooking either rice, potatoes, or beans as side dish. I mix them. Often I fetch a can of tomatoes, put garlic, onions, and some seasoning, into it, then red beans, and all with the rice or with the rice and potatoes.
To guard against nutritional deficiencies I regularly take extra vitamins and minerals, vitamin D, Omega 3 (both long-chain and short-chain fatty acids), Zinc, and a few others. Although expensive, in sum they help me to keep the food costs down.
As a treat I mix a teaspoon of baking cocoa with sugar, a little milk, and hot water. Way more delicious and far less costly than regular chocolate. In fact, since I do that, most chocolate taste bland and over-sugared.
I've given up on milk, butter, and other dairies. Sometimes a little piece of cheese to go with the bread I bake in the pan but nothing else.
What I do care about is the quality of the oil. I have four types of oil in my kitchen: rapeseed (frying), olive (on top of meals like pasta), sesame (for "oil pulling" in dental care), and linseed oil (for the short-chain fatty acids).
I managed to reduce my coffee intake by paying attention to start the day with drinking water (and the "oil pulling"). I used to make that mistake in the library at university and later on the job: Drinking coffee to quell my thirst. And then wondering why I got so nervous.
I had a whole month last year in which I managed to go by with only 40 € for food. Admittedly I had some stocks of coffee and oils, still, that was tough, and rationing food for two meals a day was, well, an interesting experience in externally induced intermittent fasting.
The long-term experience of little food on a basic level made me appreciate well-cooked food all the more. I recently was in a diner and had a meal for only about 12 €. I was blown away by the explosion of taste in my mouth and the joy that came with it. I almost cried. The chef saw me eating slowly, carefully, deliberately tasting, my breathing in relief. He offered me a drink on the house but I was too impolite and declined with thanks. "I'm sorry, Chef, you meant so well!"
Which reminds me of this story by WaiterRant from 2008 to which I keep returning: "Miracle Pizza" https://waiterrant.net/2008/03/438/ which is still the best story I know about the joy and gratitude when kindly offered food comes at the right moment and makes you feel human again. Read it.
In general I've experienced that gifted food tastes the best. In my kitchen I have no food waste, everything is eaten. I learnt to get better in cooking. But nothing beats when friends invite me for a meal or when they give me some food or staples to keep.
It reminds me of my late landlady a decade ago for whom in her last days I cooked some chicken broth to feed her with. She only ate two spoonful of it but it was clear that she felt nourished by the attentiveness, the gesture, not the carrier in itself.
Same today: It's the gift in the gifted food that nourishes me, not so much the food itself. And so, in the end, it seems that it's not the quality or abundance of the food that matters, but how much kindness and how much gratitude come with it. It is these that nourish us.
So give. And please: Do receive. Accept the gift that is offered to you. Because we lessen the person whose gift we decline.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 12:26:41 JST
simsa03
When I grow tired of eating my bowl of oatmeal, I watch a YT video of Japanese ramen or some other Japanese dishes. (Also watching presentations of Japanese restaurants is helpful.) The point is: I see deliciously prepared food while I eat my (sometimes boring) oatmeal. -
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 19-Feb-2026 14:27:24 JST
simsa03
♪ Georges I. Gurdjieff & Thomas de Hartmann, "Chant et danse sayyd" (piano: Danilo Lorenzini) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PUaHzPSv6U
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 19-Feb-2026 14:13:27 JST
simsa03
♪ Makmed the Miller, "A Sleepy Morning in Dragontown" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAiy8SiwkIE
This is just lovely. It tugs me nicely in my bed. Sleep well, you howling ghosts ...
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 19-Feb-2026 13:46:15 JST
simsa03
♪ Taraf De Haïdouks, "Rînd De Hore" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecK1fDFc9FA
From Romania. By one of the finest traditional Romani bands. One of my favourite songs.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 19-Feb-2026 13:37:05 JST
simsa03
♪ Mariam Elieshvili, "ჩვენ ახლა ერთურთს / Chven Axla Erturts" ("We Are Together Now") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYLUfmR8rU
Mariam Elieshvili is a pop singer in Georgia. Perhaps it was this performance at young age that brought her into the spotlight. Lovely.
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simsa03 (simsa03@gnusocial.jp)'s status on Thursday, 19-Feb-2026 13:36:06 JST
simsa03
♪ Mariam Elieshvili, "ჩვენ ახლა ერთურთს / Chven Axla Erturts" ("We Are Together Now") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYLUfmR8rU
Mariam Elieshvili is a pop singer in Georgia. Perhaps it was this performance of her at young age that brought her in to the spotlight.
!listening
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