Cup of Cha
This is China

One of the great things about living in Beijing is the wacky things that happen and the opportunities that come your way. The other day a friend rang and asked if I would be interested in attending the “Qinghai International Mountain Documentary Film Festival” - for free, care of the Qinghai government.
After an extended, two-second [...]

Continue reading “A Very Chinese Film Festival” »

One of the oddest things about Beijing is its bizarre scale. You can’t walk anywhere. One block is about a kilometer long. Housing complexes expand over dozens of acres. Coming from Brooklyn, where anything you want is a five-minute walk, Beijing is bizarro world.
And one of the cornerstones of Beijing’s madness is the lack of [...]

Continue reading “No Roads Lead to Starbucks” »

Eager to see a hard-hitting interview with Sarah Palin, I decided to watch FOX News’ Sean Hannity grill her. A little way into it I heard a line that was bizarrely familiar. Talking about what critics have said about her, Governor Palin said:
The shots that perhaps our campaign is taking are nothing—it’s nothing compared to [...]

Continue reading “Palin Stealing from the Clintons?” »

I have long suspected that the post-convention McCain bump in the polls would not last since. Now there is strong evidence that virtually the entirely based on a jump upon enthusiasm among hard-core GOPers and that, to paraphrase John McCain, the fundamentals of the Obama campaign are quite strong.
The NYTimes and CBS conducted a poll [...]

Continue reading “Internals Strong for Obama” »

For better or for worse, the old Beijing–June old, not Ming old–is slowing reappearing.
While the bizarre ban on outdoor seating was only fully enforced for a week or two, it now appears to be completely gone.
A friend informed me that DVD stores are now fully stocked again. He also said prices went up 25%, presumably [...]

Continue reading “Old Beijing Coming Back” »

I know. I’m biased. I bike. I live by a subway. I like to breathe clean air. So call me selfish, but these Olympic traffic restrictions should remain in place–indefinitely. The two that I’m referring to are the odd/even licenses and the ban on the filthy trucks that normally swarm the city at nights.
While it’s [...]

Continue reading “Keep Those Traffic Restrictions!” »

Not sure how The Daily Show finds this stuff, but this is a pretty poignant sequence. Special thanks to Pop [and Sis] of Cha for the link:

Continue reading “The GOP on Inexperience and Female Candidates” »

John McCain is a maverick! How can I tell? Well, aside from the fact that he tells people he picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential choice. No one had thought of the half-term Alaskan governor. So he’s a maverick! (Although picking Joe Lieberman, something he thought was the best choice, and in the process [...]

Continue reading “Palin Shows Dangers of “Mavericks”” »