Beijing part 2

After a few lines, and several minutes being jostled by other visitors to the Forbidden City, we finally made it inside.

It's really, really big with 9,999 rooms (one shy of the number for divinity and perfection), and was home to the emperors of China from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. There are various courtyards, rooms for the emperor, the empress, the emperor's concubines, family, servants, etc etc etc. Many of the smaller rooms have been converted into museum exhibits for various artifacts (porcelain, jade, musical instruments), but the larger central rooms, those used by the emperor, empress, and concubines, have been preserved. However, it's difficult to see most of these rooms for any length of time because 1) most of them are not very well lit, but mostly 2) everyone else wants to see them too, and there are a lot of people to see them. But because the palace is so big (wikipedia has it listed as 720,000 square meters, which is roughly 178 acres), it doesn't feel too, too crowded walking from section to section. It's only when they're something of particular interest/historical significance does the jostling crowd appear.

Beijing part 1

Alright, so I'm home and and I've been slow to get any kind of meaningful post online, there are a few reasons for this:

1. My unpardonable and heinous irresponsibility when it comes to updating my blog this year. I have maybe a handful of posts written in the last 6 months.
My bad.

2. STUPID DARN CAMERA CABLE! I can't find the cord to connect my camera to the computer. Hence no pictures, hence no fun. Luckily my mom's got pictures, I'll just borrow and make due.

3. A lot of other not-interesting excuses.

So! With that out of the way, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Beijing!
After hours and hours and hours and hours on a plane, my mom and I made it to the Beijing airport. Actually for the 13 hours in the air, the flight wasn't all that bad. We took ANA (also called Nippon, as ANA stands for All Nippon Airways), a Japanese airline. There was really good Japanese airplane food, a good selection of in-flight movies (I watched Rain Man for the first time), and a brief layover in the Tokyo airport. Both the Beijing airport and the Tokyo airports were very nice and not too crowded. The international terminal of the Beijing airport was particularly nice, still spruced up from the Olympics with statues of people sitting on chairs doing the sorts of things people would do, except that the statue-people were silver-colored and had no faces. It was very neat.We arrived in Beijing at night, so we went straight from the airport to the hotel, by coach bus, and quickly to bed. Thankfully, the beds were gloriously comfortable so despite the 15 hour time difference, I didn't have the slightest bit of trouble sleeping through the night. We stayed at the Westin Beijing Financial Street, which is, you guessed it, right in the heart of Beijing's financial district. Financial Street is essentially China's Wall Street, although I don't know that I would have guessed just from driving around, but at that point, I didn't know China very well. Or really at all. I can't say that after only two weeks I know China all that well, it's too darn big and complicated (for an introduction to China, I recommend Rob Gifford's China Road, which I'm still working on). But I digress.
So we woke up bright and early the next morning and met up with our tour guide Jack, a Beijing native, who would be with us for the duration of the trip. Altogether, the tour group we were with consisted of something like 150 people, but we were broken down into groups of around 28 (at least that's how many were in our group). The smaller group each had a Chinese guide (with an American name) who would stay with us the whole way. So we were in Jack's group. Jack is in his mid-forties, is married with a teenage son, and has been a tour guide for a while, although I never did ask how long. He works for two weeks straight with a tour group then has two weeks at home before another two weeks with another tour group. So two weeks on, two weeks off; not a bad gig if you like traveling. Not that I would want to be in his shoes, I imagine he goes the same places on most tours and doesn't actually get to see them most of the time because he's tending to all the behind-the-scenes stuff, travel arrangements, emergencies, and whatnot.

Anyway, Beijing. First stop, Tienanmen Square.

Association: What I saw:
Yes, the framing is nothing special, so how about this one:
At this point you might be thinking, oh my, either Shannon can't take a photo to save her life or it was overcast and foggy, in which case, she shouldn't be held responsible for the general blandness of colors represented. To this I would respond: well, I don't have the photography skills of a genius, but I can take a better picture than a Chinese monkey (more on those later). However, it's a little difficult to capture the essence of a square, because it's purpose is to be a lot of openness. That aside, it's neither overcast, nor foggy, it's all smog. The grayness of the sky, the reduced visibility, the blander color palate; yes, Beijing tried to clean it up for the Olympics, they went so far as to basically shut the city down for a month. But whether they cleaned it up then or not, it's certainly smoggy now. Part of this is pollution from factories, and I heard part of it too is the city's geography/topography; the air just hangs there and doesn't move. It's a little rough on the lungs, and I'd argue, a little tough on the soul too, but I've been spoiled with sunshine for most of my life (granted it's overcast today in California, June gloom).

My mom and I wandered the square taking pictures of various buildings while listening to their associations with Chairman Mao and the Communist Party. Tienanmen Square is also home to Mao's tomb which has visitors from the Chinese countryside lined up around the block waiting to see it. While China is becoming a hybrid between communism and capitalism, and while most westerners (and even a growing number of Chinese) have a less-than-rosy view of Mao, he still has a 70% approval rating among the Chinese.

I'm going to stop here for now, although we went on to the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace that first full day in Beijing. I'm going to hunt again for that camera cord...

dug a hole to China

When I was a kid, every time I went to the beach the routine was more or less the same: apply sunscreen, dip my toes in the ocean, reapply sunscreen, and find a sand crab or two, go back in the ocean. This would go on for a while, but this was not the point of going to the beach. It was only the beginning of the day. While I splashed in the water with other kids, avoided imaginary (and once in a while, real) jellyfish and sharks, and tried not to get sunburned, there was always something extra in the back of my mind, the goal of each and every childhood trip to the beach: I was determined, once and for all, to dig a hole to China.

I don't know who the amused adult was who encouraged me to believe that this notion was true, but for longer than I cared to admit, I was sure it was possible. With the help of a few friends, we would dig and dig and dig. Sand covered our bodies, we took breaks to make miniature sand castles and eat carrots from those little plastic containers with the ranch dressing, but after a while, it was back to the whole. This time we would make it to China. Sometimes we had to build safety walls of sand so that the water would not rush in and destroy our hard work. Sometimes we were dragged away from our pit by tired parents. And one in a while, we would work until we couldn't work anymore and, yes, I'll admit it, gave up.

But ladies and gentlemen, I would like to openly declare that my dream has been realized... sort of.

Ok, so I didn't dig a hole, I took a plane, but nevertheless, I have arrived in China!

more later.

A quotation from a fictional French shepherd

I was reading a translation of the prologue to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's opera Médéé for my French class, Lire Versailles, and I while I was annoyed by the constant (but fashionable and necessary for the time) over-glorification of Louis XIV, I was intrigued by a line given by a shepherd:

In the prime of life,

If you are not flighty,

Tender hearts

Taste but little joy.

The ardour of constant passion

Soon begins to wane.

Do you want happy loves?

Then you must ever change.

In the prime of life,

If you are not flighty,

Tender hearts

Taste but little joy.

It's pretty, in French and English, and it certainly seems true, especially if tender hearts in the prime of life are those that beget those fleeting middle school and high school romances. What about when we're just a little older? When was the prime of life then? 17? 23? What is it now?

for the record

no more thesis

not that i finished

i dropped it at the beginning of this semester

hopeless failure or clever second-semester senior?

i'll let the court of life decide

subkirke

Subkirke, as it turns out, was fantastic. It's a church that lends itself to concerts (literally lends itself) so you sit in a pew and listen to a band play at the front of the church where, on an average Sunday, a service might be held. It's an unusual experience to be sure, and one that might offend a few particularly orthodox individuals, but it seemed pretty inoffensive and the pews were well-padded. It was a little odd to be seated in tidy rows in an almost-really-intimate setting, but the novelty of it was A+. I got there a late and didn't take any pictures, so I can't really share much more than this for now, but I hope they have another super awesome concert soon!

did i say squared? i meant cubed

because I also went to the library Saturday night...

...after failing at life (i.e. failing to get to a concert that was only a few miles away)

yeah, so google gives really bad directions around South Bend

as a result, we completely missed the concert at Subkirke, a brand spankin' new music venue in town because we turned every which way but left (the directions gave us a series of rights which put us on a 1-mile freeway that threatened to lead out of South Bend altogether, all we needed to do was make a left; and yes, there's a freeway in South Bend that lasts almost exactly one mile)

but Subkirke looks like it's gonna be awesome, hopefully i'll find out Thursday 

fingers crossed

speaking of the thesis...

When I chose Woody Allen as the subject of my thesis, I didn't know he was such a sex symbol.

Apparently he was. 

Go figure.

hipness squared

So guess who got to be the super cool kid who went to the library on a Friday night?! 

You guessed it...

me.

To spice up my academic expedition, I walked around the 5th floor of the library like a pirate. I found my copy of Discontented Discourses,  gave a quick nod to the grad students who were in the lobby, and made my way back to my room. 

At the least there's a big upside to writing a film studies thesis, namely that when I can't stand the pages and pages academic analysis anymore, I can pop in a movie. 

It's not such a bad gig.

another reason not to club baby seals: Animal Collective says so

I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I think it's really cute that Animal Collective has taken such a strong stance against clubbing baby seals. Part of it's certainly because many celebrities take up causes for the sake of taking up a cause; bottom line, it's good PR. On one hand, I'm not terribly opposed to this because it often brings attention to good causes. Of course, on the other hand, it's frequently an act of band-wangonism and therefore not always sincere and informed advocacy. I took particular issue with the Rock the Vote campaign simply because the message boiled down to: "hey you! you're young, you like celebrities; if celebrities tell you to vote, you'll totally do it!" 

Another part is probably because the members of Animal Collective aren't out-and-out celebrities, at least not red-carpet-walking, tabloid-making celebrities. Instead, they're just a couple of guys who make really good music that a lot of people listen to. They seem well-informed and sincere. Plus, baby seals? That's pretty cute. 

http://iguessimfloating.blogspot.com/2009/10/news-animal-collective-save-animals.html

cookies! beer! FOOTBALL!!!*

I'd be curious to know if there's been a statistically significant increase in the number of heart attacks in Michiana during this particular college football season. If so, it's certainly thanks to Notre Dame's insistence on bringing every single game this season (the only exception being the season opener against Nevada) down to the last few terribly dramatic minutes. 

I have my fair-weather tendencies when it comes to football in general. Los Angeles has no team, so I'll follow the Chargers when they're doing well. I enjoy a good Super Bowl here and there, even if my fondness of the game is often exceeded by my fondness for the commercials (and from time to time, the half-time show). But I do like Notre Dame football and I do go to the home games. I've even been to an away game (ND@USC, 2006, we really just don't need to talk about the second half of that game, but it was a good overall experience). That being said, last season was a bit of a snoozer and a bit of a heartache (with the GRAND EXCEPTION of the Michigan game where all the forces of Mother Nature came together for a great game followed by some fantastic quad-sliding. On the subject, I would like to formally apologize to the staff of North Dining Hall for entering the dining hall soaking wet, I hope you understand). 

But this season, oh man, this season you'd have to be crazy to even think of leaving a game early for a quick nap or to avoid the lines at candle light dinner. I'll admit I don't know everything about football, when I won Madden against my brother it was only because my play-calling was so creative and random that it was impossible to strategize against. However, at the same time I've never had any patience for the drunk girls who, even after three and half seasons of college football, still don't know the difference between a touchdown and a touchback. The point is, I know enough to follow the game. And these are games to follow. 

So while we may not be back to the glory days, we're sure as heck doing a lot better than we were. At least this time around, the games are exciting, even if they are too close. And more than anything, we're winning this season! 

Except that we didn't beat USC. We came close, but ultimately we lost. Campus was quiet, more depressed than I'd seen it in a while. We came so, so close. We were down to the very last second. I wish the final score could have reflected just how close we were, practically sitting on the goal line with one second on the clock, a second that we had to fight for. And in an instant it was all over, but we weren't the victors. There really isn't much else to say on the issue. I wanted to win. We all wanted to win. But we didn't. However, I'm not the only one who is still proud that the game was as close as it was. USC is a formidable opponent and even in defeat, we still took them down a peg.

Football is an odd sport if you think about it too hard, but it's interesting. I like college football because I actually know some of the guys on the field. We're not besties, but they're friends of friends, guys I go to class with, people I talk to and eat with and party with. It means something to cheer them on and support them, it's part of the community that's such a central part of the the identity of our school. 

I'm waxing poetic a bit, and I don't really mean to, but I started this post because I didn't know how to deal with Saturday's loss, so I just put a few thoughts on the page to see where they would take me.  I took a pretty sentimental turn in a post that was only meant to say, golly gee, it's been a wild ride this season, and oh boy, I've loved every minute of it. Football isn't the be all and end all for me, but it's a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I've gone to every home game. I've almost lost my voice several times, I've made some friends, and I've gotten sick from the wind and the rain, but there's something vaguely primal about creating in-group, out-group distinctions and using them as a reason to scream and jump around for a few hours. There's also something to be learned in dramatic structure, how the game itself tells a story. It's a story of war, it's a story of life, of wins and losses and good things like that. I'll stop myself before I get any farther into sentimental rambling. But this season has been a series of awesome stories, of victory snatched from the clutches of defeat and defeat where there was so much hope. A little part of me wants to go reread the Trojan War now, but I'll spare myself. 

*the title of this post came from watching a Michigan game with some friends where it was decided that Jimmy Clausen probably keeps Keebler cookies in his fanny pack, if this isn't true, I don't want to know

spotlight: more than this provincial life

Man oh man, it's mangela, and she's got a blog, and it's got comics, and it's awesome.

so shout out to my good friend mangela, I miss you my dear:

More Than This Provincial Life

the internet, because the more i have to do, the less i get done

As each day passes, I am one step closer to my latest foe, the Graduate Record Examination. Each morning and each night I vow to lock myself away from the world and dig deep into the depths of academic prose, GRE prep books, and various papers, abstracts, and theses. However, with each passing day I am reminded that I am not a super-intelligent alien robot. This repeated realization still chokes me up. Moreover, not only am I human, I am an easily distractible human.

And it was a beautiful day outside. 

So I took a walk. And then I fed some geese. And then I took a nap. And then I checked my email. And then I was completely overwhelmed by the internet and got lost somewhere between lastfm and tumblr. It happens.

You call it procrastination, I call it a mental health day (and I don't think I'm the only one who would call it that).

Start around 2:20

the triumphant return of TURQUOISE LOVE

August didn't get any blog love; but hey August, don't lose heart, you win some you lose some. 

If too little love is a problem in any arena, I've got just the solution: Turquoise Love!

That famed, that legendary, that ever so slightly infamous internet radio show born on a wintry night after a Cloud Cult concert in northern Indiana nearly two years ago...

IT'S BACK!

Turquoise Love will be making it's triumphant return in full glory this semester. The four original DJs will be reunited on the air waves for the first time in over a year, and it promises to be nothing less than magical.

TURQUOISE LOVE

FRIDAYS 12pm-1pm EST

wvfi.nd.edu

Featuring DJs:

"Win a Date with" Danny McRae

Michelle "The Indie Asian Sensation" Nguyen

Stephanie "Big Gunz" Jazmines

Shannon "Rock 'n' Roll" Mathers

Kids* on the west coast - wake up Friday mornings to the latest, the greatest, and the most absurdly fun that music has to offer

Kids on the east coast - witty banter and silly musings for your turquoise lunch?

Kids in the midwest - call in and win a date with Danny McRae! you're close enough to take us up on the offer!

Kids abroad - party at all hours!!!

*it should be noted that term "kids" and similar and related terms here-in does not imply an 18 and under crowd, but is instead used in a more generalized and colloquial sense to evoke this relative hipness and youth of those people attracted by all things Turquoise Love, it should also be noted that the term is not meant to alienate other listeners, as all are young and hip when they partake of Turquoise Love, especially Danny's mom, my favorite listener

So tune in, turn it up, and IM requests to: wvfiradio

Tired of waiting? Check out the website in the mean time:

Turquoise Love

Cleveland Revisited

Way back in the month of July, I had planned a blog post so epic, it would have put Homer to shame; an expose of modern day life on the mean streets of Cleveland/a celebration of a love for all things Cleveland.  This tear-jerking heart-warmer was going to be posted just in time for Cleveland's 213th birthday on July 22, 2009. Sadly, life got in the way, the report from the Cleveland front never arrived, and my once beautiful dream was in shambles.

And so, for that, I apologize.

However, dear reader, know that I have been using my Cleveland calendar for many months now and I couldn't be happier. For the month of August I had a lovely view of the North Point Tower from East Ninth Street at Lakeside Avenue. September now brings me changing leaves in the Cleveland Botanical Garden in the University Circle area, appropriate as I am now back at my own university for a senior year. My calendar is nice and full and resides happily in my dorm room next to a post card of a wax statue of Abe Lincoln and family from Springfield, Illinois, another midwestern town which is close to my heart despite the small detail that I've never been.

And while it has been a while and the blog and I lost touch briefly, I never stopped caring; I'm here for you blog, I'm right here. 

the greater Silverlake area

Silverlake is the land of hipsters, to be sure.  Bordered by Echo Park and Los Feliz, it's kinda near Dodger Stadium, surprisingly close to Downtown, and also a neighborhood with a heavy immigrant influence, particularly from Mexico.  It's a diverse neighborhood, and for the most part not a flashy one.  It's also one I'm growing fonder and fonder of.  Not just because it's Hipsterville, U.S.A. (although this does mean there are some funky awesome little boutiques and some good people watching), but it's home to Beck (ok, not making a good non-hipster case yet), my favorite glasses shop, a fun and very legit weekly market, and it's got great street names.  

I'm not really where exactly on the Los Feliz-Silverlake-Echo Park map the following places lie, but most of them are in Silverlake, if not close by.

That said, here are some of my new favorite places.

1. Gogosha Optique - run by a wonderful eyewear guru named Julia, the frames are pricey but creative, interesting, and hard if not impossible to find anywhere else.  Their claim to fame, you walk in and instantly the sales clerk will find about a dozen frames that look good on you, but the two of you will work together to find the best match.

2. Little Dom's - while sometime I think they're called Major Dom's or they ought to serve Asian fusion, Little Dom's is in fact a good ol' fashion American restaurant with an old Hollywood glamour and a well-preserved charm.  Not only that, the food is excellent.  You can order a bowl of fruit as a side, but instead of your run of the mill cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, etc, they serve an eclectic and ever-changing mix of the best that's in season.  When I went, the fruit bowl included fresh fig, apricot, and plum, among other things.  

3. The Silverlake Farmer's Market - A good ol' fashion farmers market chock full of  fresh produce and home made crafts, but with a twist, meaning avocado crepes and pure cane juice, handmade notebooks made from recycled paper (so recycled that there's still writing on the other side) made by Tyler Bender, and an organic coffee stand that serves a drink called "Global Warming" (Cafecito Organico).  Granted, most of these vendors are also at the larger Hollywood Farmers Market, but I like Silverlake because it's smaller and more laid back (this may or may not be related to the pervasive smell of marijuana that lingers in the air).

4. The Echo - okay, so this one's definitely in Echo Park, not too far from the park itself, but its in the general region and it's a great concert venue.  Small, but not too small, there's seating against the wall if you get too tired of standing, but they keep a pretty solid lineup running through there, so during concerts there isn't much need to sit.  

spotlight on Cleveland

The rumors are true, today's spotlight city is none other than Cleveland, Ohio.

However, contrary to popular belief, I am not actually in Cleveland at the present time.

So then why Cleveland? Let me explain:

Having recently come into possession of a 2009 Cleveland calendar, I thought today was as good a day as any to hang my 99 cent calendar above my desk.  I opened it to July and lo and behold, a bright shiny picture of the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum.  So maybe Billy is missing an S at the end of his name, small potatoes, we're totally related!  (...maybe)  

But why did I hang a 2009 calendar in July?

The calendar was a gag gift from one of my uncles to my dad for my dad's birthday which was in May.  My dad was both puzzled and unamused by the gift so after trying to pass it off to a cousin or two, the calendar fell into my possession and, as an enthusiast of the esoteric, I kept it.  Then it sat around for about a month at which point I rediscovered it and, as calendars are always handy, I hung it up.  This morning.

Coincidence #1 - I opened a random calendar at a random time to find the steamship of a man who will surely prove to be my long lost uncle.

Calendar in place, I went about my business.  A few hours later I got a call from a friend who just so happened to be en route to Cleveland himself. (Coincidence #2)  He is neither a resident, nor, at the time that we spoke, a fan of Ohio (pro - it's hillier than Indiana or Illinois, con - there are not enough rest stops on the highway; Ohio lost this round), but was on his way to see a friend.  We decided that should I fail at life, the next logical course of action would be to fly to Cleveland, paint an S on the Steamship William G. Mather Maritime Museum and claim ownership.  

Cleveland will be none the wiser.  

I've named this particular friend as my traveling correspondent and he's promised me an exposé on Cleveland, but in the meantime, I leave you with these:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907953
http://www.collegehumor.com/Video:1909669

lacma

Today I went to LACMA with my internship. It was wonderful, quick, but wonderful.

The most wonderful? Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe, naturally ;)

Also, just saw this film, like it a lot, mostly for the conversation:

reference material

for all of your future Venn Diagram Day celebrations, refer to the following:

Suggestions 

Happy 4th of July*

Today is a day to celebrate.  But contrary to popular belief it is not just a day to celebrate America's independence from those rascally British (I love you Great Britain, I really do), it is also a day to celebrate Venn diagrams, those overlapping circles of joy and organization.  It is a young holiday and an obscure one to be sure, but every year it grows in popularity as people across the nation (and certainly soon, across the world) celebrate the beauty of a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets (thank you wikipedia).  And so, in honor of Venn Diagram Day, I humbly present my own Venn diagram for the occasion:

Please note that Lewis Carroll was indeed correctly placed in the "Venn diagrams" circle.  

But beware, dear reader, there have been unofficial attempts to celebrate Venn Diagram Day at other times in the year.  While the most logical celebrations might be August 4th or April 4th (the birth and death dates of John Venn respectively), no recognized celebration of Venn Diagram Day has ever occurred on either of these dates.  

2002 is the earliest known reference to Venn Diagram Day:

Exhibit A

Later, in 2006 a celebration of Venn diagrams took place sometime around November 16th:

Exhibit B

Exhibit C 

However, if you read the comments attached to Exhibit B, there is a brief explanation:

It actually started with a simple post from seasecret (the post is locked, otherwise I'd link to it) that simply said "I would like to see some Venn diagrams on my friends page." And we all took the bait. 

Nevertheless, the official celebration of Venn Diagram Day is July 4th and has been so for a number of years.  

So happy Independence Day, happy Venn Diagram Day, happy 4th of July*!

*I've been informed recently that July 4th may also be Venereal Disease Day, but I can neither confirm nor deny the legitimacy of this claim.