never mind the beetlejuice reference, but my whole life is a dark room. ok not really, but i do spend an awful lot of time butt-down on our ugly red hand-me-down futon in the living room, which is damned dark as rooms go. it's a rainy saturday afternoon and i'm taking stock of my sitch. not nearly as melodramatic as it sounds, fortunately. trevor just left for the bars to meet with one of his friends who has called at least 5 times since i arrived to hang out, and whom he has turned down each time. we agreed that it was time to show his face. ideally i would have been sunshine cheerleader and cried out, 'YES! that's exactly what i want to do, babe! let me go put on my face and grease up my hair so i can sit on my can in some rank-smelling dive spending $4 per beer to pour into my inert listless body!'
predictably, i instead opted to give him the silent treatment until he tried that tres annoying tactic of cheerfully suggesting wholesome activities i could engage in while he was racking up a bar tab. oh no. i told him not to bring up yoga in all of its sacredness just to assuage his guilt. if i felt like sulking, bored out of my mind, in a dark room, listening to gen y suicide-inducing grunge tracks while cruising dog-rescue sites, i will do just that. if i want to drive myself to cherry creek mall to inhale the smell of commerce (no, not in the morning, but you already knew i was heading towards that mallrats reference), then i will do that. if i felt like going and twisting myself into a pretzel, i would do that, as well, but i sure as hell don't need captain america to suggest that shit to me. i'm alone in a strange city where i know no one but the eternally reliant person i am directing my insults towards. i will be sulky if i fucking feel like it.
thankfully, trevor is acres more cool than i am - i just make up for it by being articulate and clever, and he overlooks the bitchy part, what a good deal - and feels guilty and bad for ditching me for a bar, which fulfills my goal of making him feel shitty for abandoning my ass on a rainy saturday, while i secretly distract him from my outrageous childishness by stating all of the above out loud. cleverly, of course. (it's really funny and somewhat sad and terrible how well this tactic works to detract from your less-than-perfect personality.) anyway, i send him on his way amidst promises of text messages from bar stools while hanging out with people who wear patagonia fleece and crocs. ok, ok, the patagonia fleece is just a guess, i've never met these people, but i know about the crocs for sure, and that's worse than the fleece. they sound very nice, but i'm just not in the mood to hide the horror in my eyes when i see their outfits.
i need some friends. i need them so badly that i am too emotionally immobilized to contact the friends that i do have. what a conundrum. anyway, all my lazy bitches over there spread across a couple of continents do is read my blog for updates, anyway. it's a one-way valve, this blogisphere. alright, i guess that's not fair. i do get comments now and then. those are nice. i'll stop feeling cynical and somewhat sorry for myself. i knew what i was getting myself into.
on another note, isn't it a BITCH that knowing what kind of shit you're headed towards does absolutely nothing to temper the shittiness level? shouldn't recognition count for something? all it really does is make me look out at the pine tree next to my window and think, 'for fuck's sake! this really does suck as much as i thought it would!' i wish i could be a habitual drinker or dope smoker to sort of complete the pathetic-ness of the picture, but i never really took to either very well. free-flow at launch parties is another thing altogether. drinks go down so much more nicely when you're in heels.
trevor and i mention every once in a while (translation: daily) what we miss about china. trevor, being the fob that he is, misses not only his friends, but china itself, its language and surroundings. (i know what you're thinking - what surroundings are those?) i don't miss stupid china at all, but i miss my friends. i miss having a group of people around me full of ideas and energy who always have something interesting up their sleeves. maybe new york is different, but where i'm from and where i currently am don't have that same dynamic. there is something about being a transplant and needing to get something out of being in a foreign place. the fuel of temporariness, i suppose.
otherwise, things are going well as expected. i actually am not being as much of a brat as i was today. i've been making some damn saucy dinners, too. and yet, i don't feel like the brat description is accurate, really. it's not horrible to me that i don't feel obligated to go out and be in some stank bar in the middle of the day for the sake of getting out of the house. i really don't begrudge trevor ditching my ass (i just like the ring of the phrase) to sit in a bar with croc-wearing friends. it's just that the reality of it is that i am essentially in a city with no friends and no family. the one person i do know is great and supportive and fair and sunshiney to the point of needing a xanax, but i require more than one person on earth to keep me stimulated and happy, and more than one location, and more than one task. it's just how shit be.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
halftime
kimchi ramen in an unfamiliar place restores faith in mankind. makes the scary and new a little less threatening. granted, colfax avenue's got nothing on the haight - or downtown oakland, for that matter - in terms of sketchiness, so i shouldn't be weirded. safe and benign is supposed to be good, right? is it wrong to feel reassured to see a crack ho wandering down the street? and double points if she's not white?
the apartment is working out - it's a building that was constructed in the 1920s, and some things are still original. like the kitchen sink. and the tile in the bathroom, which i actually like. i'm managed to cram my clothes into the bedroom closet plus half the hand-me-down wardobe, plus outerwear and sporting equipment in the front closet where trevor has his more modest accumulation of clothes. i bought shoe racks and a hamper at the container store. a mattress pad at bed bath + beyond. i am adjusting to being in the states, i think. slowly.
the co-habitation thing i am taking a day at a time. i think it's going well, never mind the nearly-lost house keys yesterday, and the door left open and unlocked while we were out. i have to get used to the fact that not everyone - ahem - is as obsessed with checking that the housekeys are still on their person as i am. and that the door is indeed not only closed, but locked. right? erm... right...
anyway, i've been watching more football than i've ever watched in my life, and beer has become a food group. sigh. i've only been here a week.
the apartment is working out - it's a building that was constructed in the 1920s, and some things are still original. like the kitchen sink. and the tile in the bathroom, which i actually like. i'm managed to cram my clothes into the bedroom closet plus half the hand-me-down wardobe, plus outerwear and sporting equipment in the front closet where trevor has his more modest accumulation of clothes. i bought shoe racks and a hamper at the container store. a mattress pad at bed bath + beyond. i am adjusting to being in the states, i think. slowly.
the co-habitation thing i am taking a day at a time. i think it's going well, never mind the nearly-lost house keys yesterday, and the door left open and unlocked while we were out. i have to get used to the fact that not everyone - ahem - is as obsessed with checking that the housekeys are still on their person as i am. and that the door is indeed not only closed, but locked. right? erm... right...
anyway, i've been watching more football than i've ever watched in my life, and beer has become a food group. sigh. i've only been here a week.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
up and at 'em
morning after super 8 motel in winnemucca, nv
salt flats approaching salt lake city, ut
mormon temple, salt lake city, ut
pretty fall colors driving through wyoming
well, we're here! setting up the place and such. tv still on the floor, but at least our bed is in place and we're getting there.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
countdown week
my food schedule for the remaining time, sent out last sunday:
monday:yaki closet
tuesday:marc's cooking
wednesday: issimo or tian jia
thursday: dingtaifeng or hotpot
friday: my ayi's house (anyone who wants to come is welcome... she ruvs people, but her place is the size of a coffee table)
saturday: par-tay! we are thinking spicy sichuan
sunday: jean georges bar menu
optional swaps or lunch dates:
jia jia tang bao
yang's sheng jian bao
southern barbarian
pane e vino
azul brunch
marc made us an amazing meal last night. we limped home holding our swollen stomachs. it was too good! we weren't worthy. we even started off with an appetizer, which was in addition to the award-winning cheeses and cured meats smuggled from home. when have you actually had a true appetizer not in a restaurant? one that included a seared scallop?
tonight is issimo. my first time; i'm quite excited. all of the cooler kids have been to issimo multiple times, but i am uninitiated. seriously, tho, it was dumb to kick off this week of eating with yang's sheng jian bao. six of them. they are no joke, and sherry went and bought chicken wings to top that off. and then i went to southern barbarian with the boys after muay thai that night, to get down on some yunnan fried goat cheese and more chicken wings. yes, because i am unabashed. that's how i roll, as jason would say.
i told jill last night that maybe i'd just order salad tonight, and she was like, yeah right. and i had to agree.
monday:
tuesday:
wednesday: issimo or tian jia
thursday: dingtaifeng or hotpot
friday: my ayi's house (anyone who wants to come is welcome... she ruvs people, but her place is the size of a coffee table)
saturday: par-tay! we are thinking spicy sichuan
sunday: jean georges bar menu
optional swaps or lunch dates:
jia jia tang bao
pane e vino
azul brunch
marc made us an amazing meal last night. we limped home holding our swollen stomachs. it was too good! we weren't worthy. we even started off with an appetizer, which was in addition to the award-winning cheeses and cured meats smuggled from home. when have you actually had a true appetizer not in a restaurant? one that included a seared scallop?
tonight is issimo. my first time; i'm quite excited. all of the cooler kids have been to issimo multiple times, but i am uninitiated. seriously, tho, it was dumb to kick off this week of eating with yang's sheng jian bao. six of them. they are no joke, and sherry went and bought chicken wings to top that off. and then i went to southern barbarian with the boys after muay thai that night, to get down on some yunnan fried goat cheese and more chicken wings. yes, because i am unabashed. that's how i roll, as jason would say.
i told jill last night that maybe i'd just order salad tonight, and she was like, yeah right. and i had to agree.
Monday, September 01, 2008
vermin
one of my favorite topics that i've touched on in the past posts is the gender divide; between trevor and myself, specifically. i write about it a lot because sometimes i'm incredulous about how eye-wash boys can be - as opposed to my every-single-iota detail focus, aka OCD - and other times it's just hilarious. trev roars with laughter when i start pointing out his more bizarre habits, which just makes me laugh, too. it's good he's so good natured about things, seriously, because there are a lot of habits and i am nickity pickity. and by gender divide, i am aware that i am generalizing - there are more than enough dudes who do NOT do as he does, and plenty of girls who are nothing like me. i refer more to our specific dynamic, but the 'trevor-carolyn' divide is too long to type.
so he gets the keys to our new place in the C-to-the-O tomorrow, and per our agreement based on my boxes of stuff, my particular tastes, my particular aesthetic, his particular lack of boxes, his particular disinterest, and his penchance to defer to me for the interior decor aspect of life, trev will be living without any dishes, glasses, flatware, linens, and very little furniture until i arrive in denver a month from now. he will sleep on a hand-me-down futon and watch a hand-me-down tv, but other than that the apartment will be empty. most people would find this unliveable, unbearable, sub-human, but you, ladies and gentleman, do not know trevor. in his words: "i'm like a cockroach, baby. i don't need anything to survive. i just exist."
truer words have not been spoken. an amazing talent for surviving on basically nothing, as long as he is relatively warm and there is food that is edible, this boy will survive. edible is also a negotiable term. as cyn puts it, "he can eat newspaper." he likes good food but tends to err on the side of cheap. it's of the deprive-now-for-later-benefits mentality. when i would fly up to beijing on weekends, he would frantically ask around for decent food spots from his more upper crusty friends (or i would arrive armed with places i wanted to see / experience / eat at) and he was always happy when i was happy. and now, the philosophy is much of the same - save money as much as possible until carolyn arrives with stuff and opinions. it sounds one-sided, i know, but if you know me and you know him... it makes sense. one of the things we like about one another is that we can do street stalls of ghetto dirty chinese, or martinis and steaks. he likes that i seek out nicer things and prettier, cooler spaces, but that i enjoy cheap hotpot or 2 am egg pancakes in front of parking lots. i like that he strikes a balance in me, lest i get too fancy or too wrapped up in materiality as i have the capacity for.
should i have saved this post for valentine's day?
so he gets the keys to our new place in the C-to-the-O tomorrow, and per our agreement based on my boxes of stuff, my particular tastes, my particular aesthetic, his particular lack of boxes, his particular disinterest, and his penchance to defer to me for the interior decor aspect of life, trev will be living without any dishes, glasses, flatware, linens, and very little furniture until i arrive in denver a month from now. he will sleep on a hand-me-down futon and watch a hand-me-down tv, but other than that the apartment will be empty. most people would find this unliveable, unbearable, sub-human, but you, ladies and gentleman, do not know trevor. in his words: "i'm like a cockroach, baby. i don't need anything to survive. i just exist."
truer words have not been spoken. an amazing talent for surviving on basically nothing, as long as he is relatively warm and there is food that is edible, this boy will survive. edible is also a negotiable term. as cyn puts it, "he can eat newspaper." he likes good food but tends to err on the side of cheap. it's of the deprive-now-for-later-benefits mentality. when i would fly up to beijing on weekends, he would frantically ask around for decent food spots from his more upper crusty friends (or i would arrive armed with places i wanted to see / experience / eat at) and he was always happy when i was happy. and now, the philosophy is much of the same - save money as much as possible until carolyn arrives with stuff and opinions. it sounds one-sided, i know, but if you know me and you know him... it makes sense. one of the things we like about one another is that we can do street stalls of ghetto dirty chinese, or martinis and steaks. he likes that i seek out nicer things and prettier, cooler spaces, but that i enjoy cheap hotpot or 2 am egg pancakes in front of parking lots. i like that he strikes a balance in me, lest i get too fancy or too wrapped up in materiality as i have the capacity for.
should i have saved this post for valentine's day?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
china's guy
this is cool:
http://tinyurl.com/3erplk
the cynic in me says that you can't piss off a consumer market of (potentially) upwards of 1 billion people, but i'm going to pretend nike / pingan et. al is feeling for him and the sentiment of his fans. yeah, i know, hearts and flowers shit is going to my head.
http://tinyurl.com/3erplk
the cynic in me says that you can't piss off a consumer market of (potentially) upwards of 1 billion people, but i'm going to pretend nike / pingan et. al is feeling for him and the sentiment of his fans. yeah, i know, hearts and flowers shit is going to my head.
i have left the building
and i'm all moved into jill's place. the last installation in project goin'-back-to-cali.
pretty happy with my digs here. my own room (i'm surrounded on all sides by a ridiculous amount of my shit - remind me to get rid of some) and my own bathroom. sweet! and even a proper shower that doesn't leak.
one more week of work and one week of play and i'm out!
pretty happy with my digs here. my own room (i'm surrounded on all sides by a ridiculous amount of my shit - remind me to get rid of some) and my own bathroom. sweet! and even a proper shower that doesn't leak.
one more week of work and one week of play and i'm out!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
hilarious
some of the best copy i've read in a while. oh yeah, and they sell products. all 2 of them:
http://www.helpineedhelp.com/bored/
http://www.helpineedhelp.com/bored/
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
my turn - VGT's the omnivore's 100
http://www.verygoodtaste.com/ is a food blog based in the UK, and co-author andrew wheeler created the 'omnivore's 100,' or a list of things that every omnivore should have tried at least once in his/her life. i am not only an omnivore, i am a foodie from the bay area, so i think my results are both decent and underwhelming for my creed. my friends will all score evenly or higher i would think. anyway, for those of you who want to participate, here are the instructions:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (i'm guessing alligator doesn't count?)
6. Black pudding (blood sausage and straight up blood count?)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (this one i am truly unsure about. chinese people eat everything.)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (highly unlikely... but you never know)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (i've had them separately... neither was too compelling)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (college and recent days, as well, sadly)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (does goat milk yogurt count?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer delicious
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (those belgians)
59. Poutine (nope, but sounds delicious)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (i'm pretty sure i have had some kaolin-based medications)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu (oh, china. thanks, steph!)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (for a future anniversary? trevor?)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (delicious. thanks, dinx)
100. Snake
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (i'm guessing alligator doesn't count?)
6. Black pudding (blood sausage and straight up blood count?)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (this one i am truly unsure about. chinese people eat everything.)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (highly unlikely... but you never know)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (i've had them separately... neither was too compelling)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O (college and recent days, as well, sadly)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (does goat milk yogurt count?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer delicious
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (those belgians)
59. Poutine (nope, but sounds delicious)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (i'm pretty sure i have had some kaolin-based medications)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
76. Baijiu (oh, china. thanks, steph!)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (for a future anniversary? trevor?)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (delicious. thanks, dinx)
100. Snake
Sunday, August 17, 2008
amazing amazingness
it's been one of those weekends where i don't even know where to begin. sherry and i flew up to beijing to meet steph- who has been up there for the past 10-ish days for work - marc, her bf who flew up a day earlier to meet her, and our friend viv who is up in beijing to see her mom and catch some olympics.
it was somewhat of a small miracle i ended up going, what with the budget constraints and then a late-arriving and fairly debilitating flu that hit me friday morning. at any rate, come 4 pm, sherry came and picked me up in a cab, we made our way to beijing with only a 2 hour delay on our flight. directly from the airport we went to mao live, one of the live music venues in beijing, where steph's work was throwing this fucking amazing show/party featuring seven awesome local punk bands (more on that below) and z trip out of new york. he spun a fat show. i danced my flu away:
v for vachina
i finally left everyone at about 2:30 am outside of a bar in a hutong district nearby because my extra-strength tylenol wore off and my fever was back with a vengeance. so much fun. i must have scared the shit out of my flu, because the next day i woke up chipper and ready to roll to our FIRST olympic event - athletics qualifying rounds. thanks to sherry and her superior planning skills, we procured these tix the day before for about half what the other scalpers were charging:
women's 400 meter
the torch
herzog & de meuron's bird nest, sherry admiring in foreground
after at least an hour of post-olympic giddy times,
steph in purple, marc in red
we headed to the legation quarter, which is a project that my company did some work for to see maison boulud, daniel boulud's newest restaurant. not only did we get to hang out with chef boulud himself, who toured us around the restaurant,
the red room, ready for al roker!
that's chef daniel boulud to marc's left
thanks to marc's contacts - marc is an amazing chef also - we also got to see the kitchen, chat with the chef de cuisine, brian reimer, and managed to invite ourselves back for drinks that night. stoked! we are all intense foodies, so this was an incredible honor as well as being just an incredible experience. i mean, look at that kitchen! it's spotless. there are glass tiles on the walls for god's sake. the building restorations are really mind blowing, and i work for two exceedingly talented and famous architects, so that's saying something.
and on... we then went to boxing (light and midweights):
prelims
which were cool, but after a while, suffice to say the crowd got bored enough to start singing 'the star spangled banner' during a match when neither opponent was american. our favorite fight was india vs. thai, because we were able to stretch the curry vs. curry joke the entire night.
we went to pick steph up from mao live again, and caught the most fucking amazing beijing band, queen sea big shark. steph has been insisting on their greatness for months now, but only last night did i realize how stupid i was being in not immediately dropping everything i am doing and following them around everywhere. they are an incredible show. i now insist you visit their myspace page and listen to their stuff. 'man on the moon' was what got me, being a girl and it being a ballad and all. in fact, it's constantly looping as i write this.
after that, we made our very late way back to maison boulud, where we caught the chef at the bar drinking a beer, the restaurant completely empty. the extremely kind man that he is to us so very imposing group of people, he had his bartender make us delectable martinis from lychee / raspberry / rose-infused vodka, then disappeared behind closed doors to reappear with plates and plates of food that he had chef brian reimer prepare. i'm talking foie gras, country pate, three types of bread, and a impromptu terrine made from the leftover suckling pig from al roker's birthday celebration held there earlier that evening. i wish i was kidding (no, i don't), but it was that intense of a day. we were beside ourselves with joy. it was about 1:30 am at that point and i hadn't eaten dinner, so i was especially grateful and ecstatic.
my martini, with a formed ice cube encapsulating a rose petal. awwwww
what a weekend.
it was somewhat of a small miracle i ended up going, what with the budget constraints and then a late-arriving and fairly debilitating flu that hit me friday morning. at any rate, come 4 pm, sherry came and picked me up in a cab, we made our way to beijing with only a 2 hour delay on our flight. directly from the airport we went to mao live, one of the live music venues in beijing, where steph's work was throwing this fucking amazing show/party featuring seven awesome local punk bands (more on that below) and z trip out of new york. he spun a fat show. i danced my flu away:
v for vachina
i finally left everyone at about 2:30 am outside of a bar in a hutong district nearby because my extra-strength tylenol wore off and my fever was back with a vengeance. so much fun. i must have scared the shit out of my flu, because the next day i woke up chipper and ready to roll to our FIRST olympic event - athletics qualifying rounds. thanks to sherry and her superior planning skills, we procured these tix the day before for about half what the other scalpers were charging:
women's 400 meter
the torch
herzog & de meuron's bird nest, sherry admiring in foreground
after at least an hour of post-olympic giddy times,
steph in purple, marc in red
we headed to the legation quarter, which is a project that my company did some work for to see maison boulud, daniel boulud's newest restaurant. not only did we get to hang out with chef boulud himself, who toured us around the restaurant,
the red room, ready for al roker!
that's chef daniel boulud to marc's left
thanks to marc's contacts - marc is an amazing chef also - we also got to see the kitchen, chat with the chef de cuisine, brian reimer, and managed to invite ourselves back for drinks that night. stoked! we are all intense foodies, so this was an incredible honor as well as being just an incredible experience. i mean, look at that kitchen! it's spotless. there are glass tiles on the walls for god's sake. the building restorations are really mind blowing, and i work for two exceedingly talented and famous architects, so that's saying something.
and on... we then went to boxing (light and midweights):
prelims
which were cool, but after a while, suffice to say the crowd got bored enough to start singing 'the star spangled banner' during a match when neither opponent was american. our favorite fight was india vs. thai, because we were able to stretch the curry vs. curry joke the entire night.
we went to pick steph up from mao live again, and caught the most fucking amazing beijing band, queen sea big shark. steph has been insisting on their greatness for months now, but only last night did i realize how stupid i was being in not immediately dropping everything i am doing and following them around everywhere. they are an incredible show. i now insist you visit their myspace page and listen to their stuff. 'man on the moon' was what got me, being a girl and it being a ballad and all. in fact, it's constantly looping as i write this.
after that, we made our very late way back to maison boulud, where we caught the chef at the bar drinking a beer, the restaurant completely empty. the extremely kind man that he is to us so very imposing group of people, he had his bartender make us delectable martinis from lychee / raspberry / rose-infused vodka, then disappeared behind closed doors to reappear with plates and plates of food that he had chef brian reimer prepare. i'm talking foie gras, country pate, three types of bread, and a impromptu terrine made from the leftover suckling pig from al roker's birthday celebration held there earlier that evening. i wish i was kidding (no, i don't), but it was that intense of a day. we were beside ourselves with joy. it was about 1:30 am at that point and i hadn't eaten dinner, so i was especially grateful and ecstatic.
my martini, with a formed ice cube encapsulating a rose petal. awwwww
what a weekend.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
3 showers a day. cold.
i'm feeling slightly disgusted with the media hype about the 5-ring circus. there are hella foreigners here! who the hell was talking shit about all the denied visas? wait, that was me. well, i should know better than to listen to the hype. although i guess trevor had a nightmare of a time getting his visa extended to a pathetic july 15. they must've kicked out all the dj types scraping by on F visas in between visits to hong kong every 30 days and replaced them with a shitload of smiling faces and happy families, because that's all i'm seeing on the street. i barely see chinese people. in a city of 17 million, that's saying something.
i finally watched american psycho. i never really wanted to see the movie, mostly because i'm a culture snob and prefer to read the book over seeing the movie while sticking my nose in the air, but also because christian bale weirds me out. i'll have to get over that when i go home and see batman, but meanwhile... i don't know if it was the msg-laden (leaving in a month! gotta bone up on msg before i leave!) dumplings we had for dinner, but that movie was making me feel dizzy and ill. and it wasn't nearly as nasty as the book.
who knows.
it's thundering like a mother outside and i hope the weather clears up for tomorrow's brunch 'n pool session. we've grabbed about 8 friends, rented a van, and are heading to le meridien on the outskirts of shanghai for the all-you-can eat brunch and pool usage.
i should start a new section for the shit i'm about to dive into (pun intended).
here we go.
ahem.
pools in china (where the fuck is the underline function?)
are either dirty or have about 100000000000000000000000000000 people in them. i am not fucking kidding you. see pic below of madhouse fake beach pool thing called dino beach in shanghai (totally ripped the photo from the sh municipal government page, sorry), aka hell on earth. therefore it stands to reason that any decent pool in shanghai is closely guarded by strict-ass, borderline ridonkulous regulations for entry. normally sherry and i circumvent the workout aspect of pool access by going to jill's place, which has a clean 50 m pool, usually fairly empty. still, we had to promise our first born children to gain access. but for the summer, all of us americans want that vegas pool party, strawberry daiquiri, my-flag-is-up, hawaiian tropics kind of pool thing. and we are sadly deprived.
so we hatched a plan, resourceful vitamin d-hungry alcoholic girls that we are. tomorrow we are going to le meridien, boondocks version (vs. the one centrally located), and will plunk down rmb 318 for free flow beer and wine (including sparkling, you know that got my ass on board) and all you can eat, which in shanghai usually includes beijing duck, foie gras, dim sum, and sashimi. plus you get all day access to an actual outdoor pool. i am not sure how the mosquito thing will work out, but i'm bringing my 7% deet. i suspect it will be super crowded and less than clean, but shit, don't know till you try, right?
*end rant*
jesus, my place is being blown to pieces. and now its pouring rain. this shit better clear up before we leave tomorrow.
i'm normally happy about getting a little bit of color, but i'm kinda eh about getting darker in my old age. is it the whitening products endlessly marketed in asia finally getting to me? doubtful. i went and became one of those people that burns a lot after my teenage years. it's the weirdest thing. the minute you go and stop swimming outdoors year round, you turn into a differently-complected person. my dad was kind enough to point out that i was 'really pale!' when he came a-visiting. thanks, dad. i would have felt strangely insulted about that in my younger day, but now it's kinda like, meh. i work inside all day. it happens.
Friday, August 08, 2008
lucky day triple 8!
see ruby's:
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/dining/dessert.htm
so today is the commencement of the summer games! the whole city (country, i dare to extend) is buzzing with excitement. most companies have given their employees half days off. true to the nature of my business, my company did not. hence i am writing this.
anyway, this is short one because i am sneaking out soon to run around the bund and sniff out the good parties for later tonight with sherry, but we had cake to celebrate the olympics (cheaper than letting your employees leave at 1 pm?) and it was the shit.
you have to be a fan of the chinese cake variety - super soft cake, cream, and either fruit or chestnut filling - ruby is your girl. i don't like cake, but chinese cakes remind me of birthdays when the only cake i would entertain would be chestnut-filled cakes topped with those ubiquitous but somehow tantalizing mandarin oranges. i love those.
anyways, i'm off to rage.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai/dining/dessert.htm
so today is the commencement of the summer games! the whole city (country, i dare to extend) is buzzing with excitement. most companies have given their employees half days off. true to the nature of my business, my company did not. hence i am writing this.
anyway, this is short one because i am sneaking out soon to run around the bund and sniff out the good parties for later tonight with sherry, but we had cake to celebrate the olympics (cheaper than letting your employees leave at 1 pm?) and it was the shit.
you have to be a fan of the chinese cake variety - super soft cake, cream, and either fruit or chestnut filling - ruby is your girl. i don't like cake, but chinese cakes remind me of birthdays when the only cake i would entertain would be chestnut-filled cakes topped with those ubiquitous but somehow tantalizing mandarin oranges. i love those.
anyways, i'm off to rage.
Monday, August 04, 2008
for lack of thai oil...
at saadiq's suggestion about thai oil for my purple, lumpy, swollen legs, i remembered these little bottles that came free with my economy-sized white flower oil that i love so much: hoe hin strain relief!
it doesn't smell 'horrid,' as i guess thai oil should, i hope that isn't indicative of its weaker healing powers. when chinese medicine is concerned, if it doesn't stink to high heaven, it's somewhat suspect in its effectiveness. it's making my leg tingle and feel warm, which i guess is better than nothing. it smells cinnamon-y.
i can also douse myself as i see fit since i'm not at the office and vulnerable to 'you smell like an old person' comments.
switzerland
trev sent around this short piece in response to western media outlets covering china for the olympics. he was crafting a mass email masterpiece to precede the head-nodding goodness of the piece itself, but decided that it spoke for itself and needed no introduction.
“Reporter Guidelines for Covering the Beijing Olympics. 1) On arrival, set the scene by saying a few nice things about the infrastructure—the high rises and the multilane highways, the interchanges. Developmenty sort of stuff. 2) Make an amusing, self-deprecating comment about your inability to speak or read the funny language they have in China. Play down the fact that you are dependent on a translator for quotes and newspaper reading. Never admit in print to getting story ideas or borrowing quotes from the China Daily. 3) Get story ideas and borrow quotes from the China Daily. Make sure you do this discreetly. For background only. 4) Now for reportage. After saying the nice things about the new buildings, get your translator to find a Beijing yam seller whose slum was knocked down to make way for the Olympic badminton hall. Do a few paras on him, and how all the money thrown at the Games is not helping the poor, and how terrible the huge income gap is. Make sure you write at least three times as much about the yam seller whose slum was pulled down as you do about all the new apartments, new metro lines, the growth in car ownership, the expanding health insurance and all the other good news about China that nobody in the west really wants to know about. 5) Say how horrible the air in Beijing is, even if it isn’t on the days you are there. Everybody says Beijing air is horrible, so play along. 6) The political bit. Interview a token party member, but reword him subtly to make it sound like he is just spouting the party line. Bend the translator’s words to fit—it’ll be rubbish English anyway. (Ditto in all quote treatment). Then find a good Chinese, one who is fluent in English, has lived in America or Britain, and is prodemocracy. Give them lots of space, let them sing. Martin Lee types, but preferably younger and female, for the mugshot. If you can get an interview with the Olympic artist, Ai-whatsisname, who is an anti-Commie quote machine, give him full throttle. Hopefully, he hasn’t been arrested yet.
Lastly, please remember: Chinese who love their country are called “nationalists.” Never use this word for Americans, French, Tibetans and other civilized peoples who love their country or territory. When demonstrators protest over Tibet they are acting in a heartfelt, spontaneous way, waving pretty flags you would be happy to see woven into your granny’s bedspread. When Chinese counter-demonstrate, they are always “bussed in,” the mood is “ugly”, and they are draped in intimidating red flags that can be made to look a bit Hitler Jugend-ish with the right kind of photo. (They probably did arrive in buses as this is the cheapest way of moving numbers of not-very-well-off people around, but you don’t need to prove the insinuation that the regime laid on the vehicles). Beijing is always a “regime,” by the way, and is not to be confused with western “governments.” (But: Hong Kong is an exception. Because it was under benign, enlightened British dictatorship for a long time, it cannot be a “regime.” “Regime” only applies to dictatorships in rubbish countries).That’s about it. Don’t be deceived by all that friendly smiling and optimism, that’s just a front. It’s your job, with your long days of experience of the Far East and your fluency in a language spoken by nearly 0.005% of the locals, to get under the radar and ferret out the truth. Did I mention how bad the air in Beijing is?”
http://time-blog.com/china_blog/2008/07/a_reporters_guide_to_covering.html?xid=rss-china
unfortunately, the author is unnamed, but it's pretty much A: what i'm seeing in the major papers i read online, and B: true from the perspective of us living here. i do realize that there is a back story behind my dvd store griping and other spoiled-expat behaviors. while there is undoubtedly a great deal of people who have been ousted from major cities or are being pressured from the government to take their small businesses elsewhere, it was a good reality check for me because we've also been seeing some good stuff go down. these include traffic guards at most intersections, lowering the likelihood that you will be mowed down either by a scooter, bicycle, or a car; government reinforcement of the haphazard air flight departure times on all airlines (it's common to sit on the tarmac for 3-4 hours); the awesome transportation changes that have gone down nearly overnight (beijing's T3 airport building, the high speed trains to neighboring cities, the underwhelming but convenient longest-bridge-in-the-world from shanghai to ningbo, and the upcoming bullet train between shanghai and beijing, the overall impressive list of buildings that have been erected in beijing like the CCTV tower and the egg / nest / water cube) and etc. some of these achievements cannot be attributed to the olympics alone, but almost certainly to the 1-2 punch of the olympics and the 2010 world expo in shanghai.
anyways, thanks trev for finding that.
p.s. pre-olympics we've also been able to view blogspot urls without any problems, too.
“Reporter Guidelines for Covering the Beijing Olympics. 1) On arrival, set the scene by saying a few nice things about the infrastructure—the high rises and the multilane highways, the interchanges. Developmenty sort of stuff. 2) Make an amusing, self-deprecating comment about your inability to speak or read the funny language they have in China. Play down the fact that you are dependent on a translator for quotes and newspaper reading. Never admit in print to getting story ideas or borrowing quotes from the China Daily. 3) Get story ideas and borrow quotes from the China Daily. Make sure you do this discreetly. For background only. 4) Now for reportage. After saying the nice things about the new buildings, get your translator to find a Beijing yam seller whose slum was knocked down to make way for the Olympic badminton hall. Do a few paras on him, and how all the money thrown at the Games is not helping the poor, and how terrible the huge income gap is. Make sure you write at least three times as much about the yam seller whose slum was pulled down as you do about all the new apartments, new metro lines, the growth in car ownership, the expanding health insurance and all the other good news about China that nobody in the west really wants to know about. 5) Say how horrible the air in Beijing is, even if it isn’t on the days you are there. Everybody says Beijing air is horrible, so play along. 6) The political bit. Interview a token party member, but reword him subtly to make it sound like he is just spouting the party line. Bend the translator’s words to fit—it’ll be rubbish English anyway. (Ditto in all quote treatment). Then find a good Chinese, one who is fluent in English, has lived in America or Britain, and is prodemocracy. Give them lots of space, let them sing. Martin Lee types, but preferably younger and female, for the mugshot. If you can get an interview with the Olympic artist, Ai-whatsisname, who is an anti-Commie quote machine, give him full throttle. Hopefully, he hasn’t been arrested yet.
Lastly, please remember: Chinese who love their country are called “nationalists.” Never use this word for Americans, French, Tibetans and other civilized peoples who love their country or territory. When demonstrators protest over Tibet they are acting in a heartfelt, spontaneous way, waving pretty flags you would be happy to see woven into your granny’s bedspread. When Chinese counter-demonstrate, they are always “bussed in,” the mood is “ugly”, and they are draped in intimidating red flags that can be made to look a bit Hitler Jugend-ish with the right kind of photo. (They probably did arrive in buses as this is the cheapest way of moving numbers of not-very-well-off people around, but you don’t need to prove the insinuation that the regime laid on the vehicles). Beijing is always a “regime,” by the way, and is not to be confused with western “governments.” (But: Hong Kong is an exception. Because it was under benign, enlightened British dictatorship for a long time, it cannot be a “regime.” “Regime” only applies to dictatorships in rubbish countries).That’s about it. Don’t be deceived by all that friendly smiling and optimism, that’s just a front. It’s your job, with your long days of experience of the Far East and your fluency in a language spoken by nearly 0.005% of the locals, to get under the radar and ferret out the truth. Did I mention how bad the air in Beijing is?”
http://time-blog.com/china_blog/2008/07/a_reporters_guide_to_covering.html?xid=rss-china
unfortunately, the author is unnamed, but it's pretty much A: what i'm seeing in the major papers i read online, and B: true from the perspective of us living here. i do realize that there is a back story behind my dvd store griping and other spoiled-expat behaviors. while there is undoubtedly a great deal of people who have been ousted from major cities or are being pressured from the government to take their small businesses elsewhere, it was a good reality check for me because we've also been seeing some good stuff go down. these include traffic guards at most intersections, lowering the likelihood that you will be mowed down either by a scooter, bicycle, or a car; government reinforcement of the haphazard air flight departure times on all airlines (it's common to sit on the tarmac for 3-4 hours); the awesome transportation changes that have gone down nearly overnight (beijing's T3 airport building, the high speed trains to neighboring cities, the underwhelming but convenient longest-bridge-in-the-world from shanghai to ningbo, and the upcoming bullet train between shanghai and beijing, the overall impressive list of buildings that have been erected in beijing like the CCTV tower and the egg / nest / water cube) and etc. some of these achievements cannot be attributed to the olympics alone, but almost certainly to the 1-2 punch of the olympics and the 2010 world expo in shanghai.
anyways, thanks trev for finding that.
p.s. pre-olympics we've also been able to view blogspot urls without any problems, too.
Friday, August 01, 2008
some amusing tidbits
from one of my favorite shanghai news blogs, the shanghaiist:
August 1, 2008
Whatever you do in Beijing, DO NOT wear white socks with black shoes
The Wall Street Journal reports that 4.3 million copies of "an etiquette book outlining rules on good manners and foreign customs, including rules about what not to wear" have been distributed to Beijing residents for use during the Olympics. A snippet: "No matter what, never wear too many colors...especially during formal occasions. When you wear [formal shoes], be sure to wear socks in good condition...socks should be a dark color -- never match black leather shoes with white socks. Older women should choose shoes with heels that aren't too high." Let that be a warning to you.
here's the link to the WSJ article. i found most amusing the guidelines of wearing 3 or less colors at one time. they need to add a sub-topic: only one detail per outfit. you can have ruching, tassels, paint splatter, acid wash, sequins, or drawstrings, but only ONE detail per outfit.
August 1, 2008
Whatever you do in Beijing, DO NOT wear white socks with black shoes
The Wall Street Journal reports that 4.3 million copies of "an etiquette book outlining rules on good manners and foreign customs, including rules about what not to wear" have been distributed to Beijing residents for use during the Olympics. A snippet: "No matter what, never wear too many colors...especially during formal occasions. When you wear [formal shoes], be sure to wear socks in good condition...socks should be a dark color -- never match black leather shoes with white socks. Older women should choose shoes with heels that aren't too high." Let that be a warning to you.
here's the link to the WSJ article. i found most amusing the guidelines of wearing 3 or less colors at one time. they need to add a sub-topic: only one detail per outfit. you can have ruching, tassels, paint splatter, acid wash, sequins, or drawstrings, but only ONE detail per outfit.
Monday, July 28, 2008
prickly like a cactus
this is the market street up the block from me. it's about a heartbeat away from my friend steph's place, too.
i was walking home from the bus one night when i stopped by to pick up some fruit from one of the stalls that actually stays open late, and noticed the joint was swarming with gray-uniformed officials. i mean, swarming. there were groups of 8-10 all over the place. then i noticed that not only were a disproportionate amount of stalls closed, quite a few had were boards nailed across them with some sort of official notices plastered across. a few of the stalls were being bricked over as i watched. it was some sort of freaky scene from a movie. poof! and things disappear here overnight.
so i wandered by last week and the market is a ghost town. there is one guy selling pork, another stall with seafood, and about 3 stalls with produce of some kind. this used to be the liveliest place in my hood (which is saying a lot - it's a congested area). and i'm not even the biggest wet market fan. i generally think they stink and are unhygienic, and people try to ride over your feet or your entire person with their scooters and bikes, making you want to beat them with the pig leg hanging in that unrefrigerated stall next to you, covered in flies. the occasional car is stupid enough to try and drive down the street, too. but i would be amiss if i didn't also point out that these marketplaces are the sole livelihood of a lot of people, not to mention where the neighborhood does its shopping. if it's not captivating, clean, and beautiful, it's at least functional and i'm sure more than a few people were dependent on its existence.
there's no doubt it's because of the 5-ring circus going down in the capital in august. facades are being erected over storefronts overnight, places are getting spiffed up or spit out or just plain closed the hell down. people are getting rolled on - with a quickness. at my friend jill's apartment complex (a nice one with lots of foreigners) the other morning as she was leaving for work, cops set up a checkpoint at her complex gates and were stopping all the visibly non-asian people from leaving and asking for their residence permits. this pink slip of tissue-like paper is the key to your existence here, apparently. mine is buried somewhere in my tv cabinet, i think (luckily i 'pass' and don't normally get harassed.) 48 hours after moving into a new residence, foreigners are required to register at their nearest police station, like child molesters. military state, this place. anyway, jill saw one foreign girl detained because she didn't have her paper on her since she'd crashed at her boyfriend's place. the police wouldn't let her go, saying that she has to register at the police station even for an overnight.
it's just silly is what it is.
lots of things are changing now. the dvd places aren't worth a damn (ok fine, i get it, but it's annoying), the regulations on mail are ludicrous, and the air in beijing is still filthy and making international headlines.
in other news... steph's company is throwing some big bash (or someone they know is throwing a big bash, or there's just a big bash in general) and will have her own apartment in beijing for a weekend during the olympics, so the girls are all planning on flying up there and joining the madness. i've been scared of being in beijing during the games, but i guess at this point i just do like the romans, grab my stupid pink paper, and join the throngs.
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