Archive for the ‘Entertainment/Reviews’ Category
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Nothing To Envy: Fascinating book about North Korea
Living in China you can’t help but be exposed to whispers of the “old days” pre-reform. Whether it be the portraits of Mao in taxis and Tiananmen, the massive USSR-inspired government buildings, the general apathy most people over 40 have towards their job (well, actually, that might be universal).
The guidebooks give crash courses in it, many many novels have been written about it. When people repeat the catch-phrase, “China Rises”, communist marching and star-studded banners wave through the mind.
But China’s changed, it’s no longer the place it was in the 50s-70s. Not even close. It’s barely the place…
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ThruYou – so rad.
As the site says, “What you’re about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other words – what you see is what you hear.”
I’d like to add another “in other words”: It’s frigin’ awesome.
Be sure to check out the ThruYou site for more awesomeness.
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Get English-language books online in China
Further to my previous post about ordering groceries online here in Suzhou, I wanted to share this little tip for ordering English-language books online in China.
Mags has been using Joyo/Amazon.cn for months now to stock our shelves with every yoga book that exists – but only recently informed me that they have an “English Bookstore” section of imported books.
Now, unfortunately this wont help you if you are completely without a Chinese person (or fluent-in-Chinese laowai), as the ordering process is still all in 中文 – but that’s just a small matter of getting your Chinese wife/gf/friend/secretary/QQ…
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t 27 20
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‘Best Band in Beijing’ coming to Suzhou
Just got word that Woodie Alan, the band City Weekend calls the “Best Band in Beijing”, is coming to Suzhou for a one show performance on Friday night.
The show’s taking place at J&J Restaurant (No.5, Block 11, Horizon Resort II, SIP) and runs from 9 until 11. Tickets will set you back 60 RMB per 人, which seems a bit pricey to this laowai, but fits the swanky venue and up-scale expat crowd and that hangs around Horizon I suppose. Whether such a spot will fit the smokey jam-band blues of Woodie Alan has yet to be seen.…
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Whiteboard Tower Defense
There is simply nothing more fun than Whiteboard Tower Defense.
I’ve completed the easy (30 lvls) and normal (50 lvls) settings, with a high score of 6,653,139 – and I can’t wait to try the 50 hard levels.
If you’re short on ways to kill time, check it out.
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What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
The Costello hit that plays as the credits roll to “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” is pretty aptly answered in the latest doc(me)mentary by “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock.
As with his breakthrough film, “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” follows Spurlock’s personal journey to dig around an issue that has been ingrained in the collective consciousness of North Americans, but that very few people devote any real thought to.
Also like his first documentary, this film offers up all of Spurlock’s goofy animations, simplified explanations and common-man commentary – plus it’s got…
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They’re going to bring out their dragons…
I’ve been up to my elbows all week polishing up Lost Laowai in both design and features, and so haven’t had much chance to update on here.
However, it’s officially the weekend, and I’m in the mood for some Olympic-sized funnies:
The Beijing Olympics: Are They A Trap?
Every time she says that “Oh, they’re going to wait until it gets dark, and they’re going to bring out their dragons” I pee a little.
Even more hilarious is that some couChinesegh folks on the YouTube page seem to think that ONN = CNN and missed that this is…
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Good Video: Bono at NAACP Ceremony
Alright, this video is well-over a year old, but I just came across it at Biscuet.com, a site who’s author is joining the ranks at Lost Laowai (which is always looking for new writers).
I’ll let the video speak for itself:
Update
Not sure why, but I accidentally turned off comments when posting this yesterday. Whoops.
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l 12 20
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Now that’s a launch party
I’m not sure what our little “Venice of the East” did to encourage it, but in the last six months to a year Suzhou has gone from having virtually no English city/culture magazines to having no less than three – and with the official launch of that’s Suzhou last night, there’s little doubt the mags mean business.
When I arrived in Suzhou back in mid-2006, really the only thing on offer for hungry (and thirsty) literate expats was a couple Japanese magazines that threw in some rough English translations as an after-thought and What’s On Suzhou, an advertisement posing as…
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n 09 20
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Bill Moyers on Media Reform
I first learned of Bill Moyers while I was in school for journalism back in Canada. A classmate of mine lent me the book version of his rather famous interview series with Joseph Campbell entitled “The Power of Myth”.
In the years since I’ve watched a handful of his numerous interviews and I have to say that few people ask better questions than Bill Moyers. Not just of his interviewees, but of society at large.
At the recent NCMR, Moyers delivered a rather passionate and enlightening speech about the reforms so desperately needed in…
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Must see: Hacking Democracy
Just got finished watching Hacking Democracy, a documentary exposing the vulnerabilities and errors rampant in electronic voting machines.
For all its attempts to be shocking (a la Michael Moore), the film is a bit more subdued in its point – but all the better for it.
Hacking Democracy tells the story of essentially one lady, Bev Harris, who has made it her crusade to reveal to the world (or American voting public) how insecure and erroneous the use of electronic voting systems are – systems that count nearly 90% of votes cast in the US.
The film gives some…
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y 08 20
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Suzhou Bookworm’s East & West Music Fest
I swear, this town gets a little bit more livable every day.
I mean, we’ve got an Irish Pub that serves Guinness on tap, we’ve got one, two, three places that I can get a taco, we’ve a cafe/bookshop/lending library loaded to the rafters with English-language books, we’ve got an English-language movie cinema playing Iron Man, and now… well, now..
We’ve got a frigin’ MUSIC FESTIVAL!
This weekend, May 10-11, the aforementioned Bookworm is hosting the East & West Music Fest (has got a nice ring to it eh?). The event will host more…
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A little acceptance we could all learn from
My mom sent me the following in an e-mail, and I couldn’t help but wonder: If the three of them can get along without killing one another, what are the Tibetans, Hans and Uighurs doing wrong? (or the Christians, Jews and Muslims for that matter).
This is a video of a homeless man in Santa Barbara and his pets. They work State Street every week for donations. The animals are pretty well fed and are mellow. They are a family. The man who owns them rigged a harness up for his cat so she wouldn’t have to walk so much…
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Why jocks shouldn’t write politics or culture
Alright, I’ve shared my criticisms of Beijing getting the Olympics and how they have grossly failed to meet the standards to which they agreed upon when first winning the bid, but holy fuck, please tell me America that this this Bible-dribbling, fact-passing, jock-itch of a moron isn’t speaking for the rest of you.
From his recent article entitled ‘Fanning the flame of controversy‘:
“In less draconian concerns, the pollution is said to be horrific, the food untrustworthy and just recently the Chinese began installing that cutting-edge technology known as the “sit toilet” at some venues after discovering that
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Frozen Improv in Shanghai
Alright, this is way late, but was just too cool not to mention.
About a month ago in Shanghai a group inspired by Improv Everywhere created a “scene” in front of the Sofitel on Shanghai’s Nanjing Rd.
At a set time the group of random folks from a number of nationalities stopped and froze in place for five minutes, causing quite a crowd of onlookers to grow around them. Despite getting away with two “freezings”, the group was amicably told by police that technically they couldn’t continue as it was against Chinese law (?? – if freezing in place…
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English movie cinema in Suzhou
There were a few major adjustments I had to undergo when I moved to Suzhou from Dalian back in August 2006, namely: a lack of abundant Korean food, no Walmart, no slick light-rail mass transit, and no English-language movie theatres.
Well, it’s been a year and a half and I’m happy to report that this little garden down has caught up (or soon will in regards to the light rail) on all counts.
The one that I’m most thrilled about is that we’ve finally got a feckin’ movie cinema that plays more than dubiously dubbed duds. You see, I am…
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r 11 20
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The Geek Dinner – Network/Netplay
Hit “The City” last night for the inaugural Shanghai Geek Dinner, hosted by Christine of The China Business Network.
It was the first “networking” event I’ve ever been to, and gave me a chance to whore myself a bit as well as finally put a dent in the massive pile of business cards I have.
But more than the business of it all, the dinner was a fantastic opportunity to finally put flesh and blood to the digital avatars that make up a big chunk of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances here in China. People I’ve know in some…
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Bookworm Lit Fest Hits Suzhou
Suzhou’s newest hot spot is undeniably The Bookworm. Part café, part library, part restaurant, part bar and part bookshop; it’s not hard to see why the place has quickly become a refuge for many a Suzhou expat.
On top of its boatload of English-language books, the cozy two-storey canal-side venue now has the distinction of bringing to Suzhou some wonderful international literary talent.
Running from March 2nd to March 19th, the Suzhou Bookworm International Literary Festival is showcasing an impressive list of authors giving readings, and talking about their various works.
Some of the author’s making the…
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One more reason to hate China Telecom this Spring Festival
Ok, so I’ve got to pause a moment and reflect on this.
China Telecom, the only ISP in Suzhou that I know of, not only provides me with a connection that is about as slow and inconsistent as I am, and staffs their “technical” “service” department with dorks that have less education than my stairwell sweeper, but now, now they’re infecting that retardedly slow and censored connection with fucking ads!
Somewhat randomly as I’ve been browsing over the last couple days I’ve had the site I was attempting to get to be halted and was then confronted…
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