January 17, 2010
» Autechre – Bike (7:58) – 9.2MB mp3 @ 160kbps
Mark Jenkins via Arrested Motion
The mild weather in New York this weekend has been highly conducive to activities known as “getting out of the house,” especially with regard to my favored mode of transportation, biking. Since I returned to the NYC three weeks ago, I’ve taken to doing laps around Prospect Park for brief cardiovascular excursions, while my single-speed has taken me to various destinations around the boroughs—most recently to dim sum in Bay Ridge.
In retrospect, I regret not biking at all when I was in China. While the feasibility, practicality and efficiency of biking in Beijing were debatable—rentals were clunkers and I didn’t want to buy a bike for a two month stay—I grossly underestimated the ecstasy of cycling. At the most visceral level, I find it liberating: not only from the limits of bipedal locomotion, but also from traffic laws, which also become very fast and loose—to spite every other form of transportation—at cyclists’ own risk.
Apparently, free association also becomes very fast and loose at bloggers’ own risk:
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December 2, 2009
–My subway obsession continues… though I don’t believe that any of those stations could possibly be real. (DB)
–Steven Holl’s Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (top) is nearly finished. I’ve been meaning to check out his Linked Hybrid (bottom) in Beijing, but haven’t had the chance…
–I just discovered Sleevage, a blog that explores album artwork new and old. (The Animal Collective and Jay-Z entries are quite interesting and relevant as year-end list time is upon us.)
–PSFK has brought an interesting phenomenon to my attention: adman George Parker cites Starbucks’ unbranding experiment in his post on a resurgent (No Logo-esque) brand backlash (astute readers will note that I just read Naomi Klein’s manifesto). I followed the link to Bryant Simon’s essay on Reuters.com, which provides a nice rundown of Starbucks’ attempt to appropriate the local, indie coffeeshop aesthetic—i.e., the rejection of its corporate encroachment and supersaturation tactics. Very interesting.
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December 1, 2009
–Nike Sportswear NSW Holiday 2009 Collection. (The Chinese happen to love Nike, myself included… which is somewhat ironic because I just read Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Possibly the topic of a future post.) (HB via Starcow)
–Ministry of Sound × Transportation for London × New Year’s Eve (PSFK)
–Looks can be deceiving: Susan Boyle slays the charts (Daily Swarm)
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November 28, 2009
Subway Memorabilia & Collectibles! (Before there were memes, there was memorabilia…)
Goddamn that’s some good copywriting.
Other gems include globe lights and (perennial favorite) station signs, including my very own home base, Classon Ave… Fort Greene represent.
Of course, Billy’s Antiques at the corner of Houston and Elizabeth has been selling subway signs for as long as I can remember… but wouldn’t you rather directly contribute to the MTA’s coffers? Who knows, maybe selling their scraps is lucrative enough a revenue stream to obviate another fare hike.
November 15, 2009
or, I Assure You, BJBus.com is SFW
This is the second installment of my (admittedly verbose and highly parenthetical) chronicle of my time in Beijing:
First, a quick geography lesson: Beijing lies landlocked in the North China Plain, 150 km inland of the Bohai Sea. The city center is surrounded by a series of ring roads, loosely centered on the Forbidden City, such that the second ring road separates the dense city center from the outer districts, which stretch to the sixth circumscription.
My map of 北京. Wudaokou is in the upper left corner.
My home for these two months is in the heart of the 五道口 [Wudaokou] neighborhood in the 海淀区 [Haidian District], which constitutes the Northwest outer borough of the capital (top-leftmost marker on the Gmap). Wudaokou is regarded as Beijing’s prestigious university-town area, since two of China’s top universities are here, which means that 1.) I fall into the demographic of the local populace (though it’s less appropriate for my aging grandparents), and 2.) the requisite amenities and nightlife offerings are nearby… not to mention the profusion of foreigners enjoying the novelty and low cost of living here for a semester.
[I am still ambivalent about the 外国人, since I probably relate to them (even the Europeans and Australians) more than the native Chinese, but I have yet to warm up to my countrymen... whoever they may be. Either way, I play it cool.
That said, I have shamelessly been taking advantage of certain establishments that clearly find a non-Chinese audience: the (overpriced) coffeeshops and gym facilities. I'm not sure whether or not my patronage of these foreigner hotspots is a dead giveaway as to my nationality—that and the fact that I drink Americanos and smoke Camel Lights while perusing English websites and drafting blog entries on my MacBook. More on this in a forthcoming chapter.]
My only grievance about Wudaokou—a plaint about Beijing in general—is that it is relatively out-of-the-way (just outside the fourth ring road): it takes over an hour to get to work on the subway and at least half an hour to get downtown. With nearly 12 million residents in 4,000+ sq. km of metro area, Beijing is easily one of the largest cities in the Eastern Hemisphere (it is second to Shanghai for that title in China). Fellow New Yorkers, imagine Grand Street as one of the biggest cities in the world and you get the idea.
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