July 2008 Archives

this ny times article is fascinating, sad, and ridiculous nearly all at the same time. in beijings efforts to "beautify" the city before the fast coming olympics, its begun to either brick away or hide some of the elements of the city its deemed "fucking ugly", as in the local markets and some of the older mom-and-pop restaurants near or along the main venues. ill admit to never having been much of a fan of china (aka mainland)...this having to do with their government pointing really big missiles at my home country and all...but ive wanted to visit it at some time in my life. apparently tho, by the time i get there, it probably wont really be very chinese. or to be more precise, it wont be what i thought china would be (historical, cultural, etc) as opposed to what its becoming (soul-less, culture-less, a big mall, fucking ugly...) since they have little to no concept of historical preservation. i really wouldnt be surprised if one day they decided to just convert the forbidden city into a giant mall. there are numerous similar side markets and small and simple restaurants that look like (and probably are) someones living room throughout taiwan too...but there its part of the social fabric and what makes it fun. and i would hope if they were put in a similar situation, they'd choose to preserve that aspect rather than white wash it like beijing is doing. but whether they did or didnt, at the very least i hope they arent as dick about it as china has been.

“I don’t really want to oppose the government,” she said, breaking into tears. “For those of us who have lived through the Cultural Revolution, this life is like heaven.”

The city has bullied her to leave. One night last year, a bulldozer slammed into the building. Neighbors are paid to keep watch over her, and they notify the police when she has guests. Ms. Sun said officials pressed her doctor into refusing to give her care.

seriously...dick.

> beijing hides "ugly", replaces with stupid (via ny times)

look at that...suburban lethargy overwhelmed me again, draining all desire to post. but i saw this coming, and jotted down notes anyhoo. rewinding what i think is 2 weeks...thursday drinkies at brass monkey with g+r, steph, kyoko, and dano. itd been a while since we'd been to brass monkey, probably since we had moved offices at my old job from the meat packing district to the west village. damn that place got big, and not in a figurative sense...they added a second floor and what looked like a roof deck. cripes. i crashed at g+r's too because we were out late, and i wanted to "practice" the commute from my soon-to-be new home to work. shit, its faster than getting their from alphabet city! thats just wrong...

my friday plans with di got postponed to saturday brunch...oops. so satty morning i met up at essex with di and her roomie and had a yum brunch, then roamed around the lower east side.

the following wednesday i had din at dieci with m, thursday with marisol at...some italian place in hells kitchen (cant remember name, but it was yum). then sunday was a semi-bai bai dinner for sally at luzzu's and then after-din ice cream from alphabet scoop. sallys still around and all, but will be heading back to the boonies (aka: ithaca) for grad school in august. boo-urns.

thursday was foodies with steph at blue ribbon, where i had some fancy fried-chicken...yum yum. and friday i met up with g+r for some sushi action at hasaki. chef's omakase...damn that was some good sashimi. and shit, if andrew zimmerns going to be oohing all over the (baby-poop-looking) sea urchin, ill give it a try too. i have to admit, it was mighty damn tasty.

k thats all my brain can remember at this point. whatever. its almost august eh...august is going to be one crazy month. on the to-do list...sis' berfday coming up, cribbs is coming up to visit from texas (word!), mins wedding that same weekend, alice and lysha are coming to visit from amsterdam (omg!), then a certain someone is having a massive turning-30 blowout, then closing on my new apartment (finally!). hoo-wee...fucking a.

huh, its been a while since ive posted anything about movies eh? ah well, the times...they are a'changin'. but ive been waiting for the watchmen to come out for sometime now, both because its an excellent graphic novel and its directed by 300's zack snyder. and hey now theres a new trailer, yay! the graphic novel by alan moore was one of the first to take seriously the idea of superheroes in everyday life (even if most of them werent "superheroes" per se, just vigilantes in costumes). and the trailer itself looks pretty sweet.

addendum
haha...i thought that smashing pumpkins song sounded familiar, but not quite. it was apparently written 10 years ago for the batman and robin soundtrack. bat nipples lolz! actually, the version used in the trailer is the remix of "the end is the beginning is the end", called "the beginning is the end is the beginning". anyway, er...thought that was funny. moving on...

> watchmen trailer

"it has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said hélène samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. naturally, everyone wants it."

...she's talking about a burger, btw. from the ny times article on burgers invading france. its a fucking burger, woman! a burger!

oh and ill post soon...i swear.

the myths are confirmed...women are confusing! and one of probably two hundred reasons why im still flying solo is explained further. its an interesting read for the most part...except the last line "i may be betraying my fellow men by admitting this, but we like a challenge." which is a load of shit...

> she's just not that into you (via cnn)

ugh...suburban lethargy overwhelming me. much love to those that live in suburbs, but hell...how do you do it? even as im writing this, i feel the need to...not...write this. because id rather be doing nothing. it doesnt help either that this house is hot as balls. yes we have central air. but do we use it? of course not...that would make sense. so it continues....ugh.

i think im just going to go straight down a bullet-point list. because at this point in time, ive already let the posts linger too long. and most, if not all the details are lost anyhoo save for what i jotted down. waaay back when was din and drinks at chinatown brasserie with steph, jj, kyoko, and co. saturday i packed, sunday i made the move back to joisey. monday was dororo with sara at the nyaff (weird shit). tuesday was ippudo with jess. the rest of the week was interspersed with picking up loose shit at the apartment and going out (and subsequently delaying having to go back home). memory gets hazy at this point because i didnt bother with notes. aisa, her bf ted, and plusan were in nyc visiting...we met up satty for some roaming, then din at oh taisho. sunday was wall*e with sean, anna, and sally...damn what a good movie. monday i met up with plusan again to take her to delta grill...yum. the rest of the weeks hazy again. then friday was some nyc roaming, with wanted thrown in there, along with some moma with sean and anna, followed by a spankin' bbq on i4's rooftop for the fourth of july. word. ill put up pictures at some later date...