Shanghai Sherry

Blogger Blocked- Post from Alt Sites!

2008-08-15T15:38:00.001+08:00

Olympic Day @ Glamour
Originally uploaded by sherryworld

So I'm posting from Flickr. Take that biatch! :)

Olympic ceremony pomp and circumstances was preceded by an inebriation prefunk party at Glamour Bar. Shanghai was fairly quiet save for the occassional laowai party such as the one we almost witnessed but didn't. Instead we found ourselves with grub from Thai House at Scott's pad with about a dozen or so of our fellow comrades.

Leading up to the days of the Olympic festivities, certain websites were mysteriously unaccessible, such as blogger.com and other free speech harbinging sites. Today, Carolyn and I are off to BJ for some good times with Chinkling and friends to test the limits of debaucherism. In the meantime, excercise your fiber optic acrobats and post your blogs from alternative sites!

this doesn't happen often

2008-08-01T12:59:00.001+08:00

photoshop blue
Originally uploaded by sherryworld

Blue skies were spotted from the office window today. Headed out for a stroll...

Something in the Water

2008-07-30T19:33:00.003+08:00

Multiple violent stabbings have plagued Shanghai in the last month leading up to the Olympics. Hmmm... correlation maybe? Them crazies!

http://twurl.nl/he3y81
http://twurl.nl/b45dj5
http://twurl.nl/f0i3tl
http://twurl.nl/p87fjp

Ming Dynasty Architecture

2008-07-28T18:29:00.001+08:00

Xitang, China
Originally uploaded by sherryworld

This picture does not do it justice, but this is one of the most beautiful entrances I've seen in a while.

China's Dirty Watertowns

2008-07-28T18:12:00.001+08:00

Xitang, China
Originally uploaded by sherryworld

Xitang is 90 minutes from Shanghai by bus in the county of Jiashan. Was wack we had to pay an entrance fee into the town as the gov't has completely deemed it an "historic town" but still worth the trip for breathtaking undisturbed Ming dynasty architecture.

Ms. Cleo

2008-05-27T00:40:00.004+08:00

Steph aka Aunt Jamaima aka Ms. Cleo aka Tanya Stevens. Just show her your tea leaves.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Sean Tucker.

Chinglish

2008-05-09T17:54:00.002+08:00

Vivian spotted this sign somewhere. High-larious.

Says she:
"Besides being hilarious, this is a good example to me of how the process of learning Chinese loves to smack you around. These are five very simple characters that even a beginning student knows, but how does one translate them into "When you are getting off with your lover"? Fortunately my trusty Pleco dictionary comes to the rescue and explains that "花前月下" is a 4-character phrase (I would say 成语 but not sure if it is one) meaning "an ideal setting for amorous dalliance". Ahhh. Actually now it makes perfect sense."

Today's Chinese Lesson

2008-05-08T18:30:00.003+08:00

Work provides erratic but useful Chinese lessons. Here's what I learned:

非常:
feichang often

抑扬顿挫:
yiyangduncuo proverb signifying lyrical

商务:
shangwu business

合资企业:
heziqiye joint venture

成语:
chengyu proverb

创意:
cuongyi creative

发展:
fazhan develop

市场营销部:
shichangyingxiaobu marketing department

跨国公司:
kuaguogongsi multinational company

非同一班:
feitongyiban proverb signifying unique

知名度:
zhimingdu visibility

表现:
biaoxian performance

The Coolest Cup Ever

2008-05-08T07:03:00.000+08:00

Maxim Velkovsky designed this cup I drank out of last year at Pierre Gagnier's restaurant in Tokyo. It is modeled after a plastic cup but made out of glass- ghetto fab indeed!

Lungjuice Preservation

2008-05-08T01:06:00.004+08:00

Clearly you can appreciate the carbon neutrality of this LED screen that is built as a part of Bejing's insane modernity leap. Designed by architects Simone Giostra & Partners, it stores solar energy by day and uses by night. However, note the crisp blue sky in the background- an obvious Photoshop endeavor as we all know that BJ has skies a beautiful shade of gray during daylight hours.

Badass Speakers

2008-05-07T20:48:00.004+08:00

They're from last year but these Maharishi x B&W Speakers are still effing hot:

And these are no longer available, but just putting them up for visual pleasure:

Tricks on Wheels

2008-05-02T20:57:00.003+08:00

Asia X Games

Pretty Decent Chinese-English Translators

2008-05-01T15:38:00.003+08:00

For those moments like now where you just can't figure out "run" in pinyin to save your !?!@?#!@$% life.

Adsotran
Chinesepod
Google Translate

Day 8

2008-04-30T16:43:00.001+08:00

No Cheeseburger Will Be Chomped Here

2008-04-27T23:55:00.008+08:00

Five days ago I convinced (actually, I think tricked would be a better word) Carolyn to go on a detox cleanse with me. Meaning, no meat, dairy products, refined foods, alcohol... IOW rabbit food. Coming up on day 6 of the diet and its been a learning experience for us both. Day 2-3 consisted of pounding headaches, prolly a result of caffeine/alcohol/MSG withdrawals. Energy levels at an all time low. In terms of sourcing stuff we can eat, being extreme-vegan in Shanghai has us finding ourselves pretty stuck. The upside to all this food curbing is that it forces us to really examine the bulk of the junk we've been subjecting our bodies to: ramen, xiaolong, ramen, alcohol, baozi, baozi, xiaolong.

So, we buckled down and placed an order with American Gardens, an organic produce distributor that delivers to your door with next day service. And I'm glad that we did. I'm even slightly impressed that Carolyn almost didn't flinch when we watched Sarah and Jill scarf down steaks, omelettes and french toast at El Fresh. Despite being invited to four bbqs in the past two days, I think we did quite well. For our Sunday stroll today we hopped down to Kommune on our bikes as a detour from our veggie and fruit escapade and ordered a salad, smoothie and beet pulp. All I need to do now is survive the remaining five days.

Cornered Fakes Will Try All Sorts of Tricks

2008-03-02T18:59:00.001+08:00

One day, I will plant many trees so that I may guiltlessly race the shit out of one of these.

The Bedrock of Americanism and the Notion of Change

2008-02-26T12:33:00.009+08:00

The New Rupublic consistently churns out poignant articles on the political atmosphere, and this one by John B. Judis offers a refreshing new variation on Obama and the phenomenon of change.

Judis cleverly lays out an America whose history is laced with a continuous appetite for not-being-the-same. He calls on the intellectual pimps of our past populace, summoning the echoes of change that have reverberated over and over in our brief but colorful history: "Change is the law of life," he quotes JFK. "And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."

Our nation is ingrained in the nature of Adam, he states- that is, the biblical Adam, who is said to have lived unburdened by what came before him. He goes on soliciting words from Ralph Waldo Emerson, describing politics as a clash between "the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, " and that "Conservatism stands on man's confessed limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitude." It is our nation's inevitable tendency to gravitate towards change, along with Obama's diverse cultural background and deviant political pedigree, that have compelled our country's voters to yield widespread support to our beloved Obama.

Here in Shanghai, the air of political enthusiasm is as exciting as a basket of stale fries. We aren't pounded by the scandalous ho-hum folks back home get pulverized by on a daily basis. Between the Great FireWall of China, the crappy ass internet connection, and the in-and-out status of my jacked CNN, I've managed to scrap together bits and pieces together from the internet ether to compose my voter identity. Youtube takes up a chunk of the information pie, along with TNR and the nytimes, while rogue bloggers and fellow expatriate shangmongers gobble up the remaining slices. While news outlets continue to shape my political attitude, its interesting how I too have been swept up by the recent Obamania rage.

I was going to vote for the Hills. Really, I was. She possesses an armory of political preparedness that will blast any obstacle out the way quickly and swiftly. She's the one to "go in and get the job done," and has the resume that screams "I am ready." She is THE pragmatic solution. But, what's the use of pragmatism if the shoe don't fit? The question really is, who's going to take home the cake against Them? By historical standards, I still live in a misogynistic world. Yay-sayers of our Bill of Rights gave suffrage to the Black Man with the 13th before they thought about passing it to their own White women some 55 years later. And, as Thucydides would likely point out, history tends to repeat itself, with Obama more likely to get a break before Hills. Another point to make is how Hillary's candidacy seems to be driven almost entirely on pure ambition- the woman spent her whole life prepping herself for the role of commander-in-chief. And though her merits and accomplishments roll off her brag sheet with flying colors, there's something to be said about blind ambition vs. recognizing the need for change.

So, I made the switcheroo. Last minute, might I add. Ultimately, I'm just glad the choices for the Democratic candidacy are thank-god-fully promising and exciting, and I have this creepy premonition that the elusive freak-of-nature called Hope looms somewhere close. I wish I could support my decision with the same illustrious skills that Judis pounded out, but alas I'm just a statistic for another fickle voter. So what's the final kicker that confirms my bid for Obama? Homeskillet follows me on twitter.

Inspiration..

2008-02-14T07:16:00.003+08:00

for the next tattoo?

Suzhou River Song

2008-01-07T14:18:00.001+08:00

Do the World a Favor

2007-12-20T01:28:00.000+08:00

...and go X-nay on the emsgay this holiday season. That is, the rubies and jade, to be exact. The world watched as Burmese monks were brutally abused by the Myanmar government. Read how your purchase of rubies and jade from Burma directly keep the Burmese junta afloat in this article by TNR.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a93db2c3-1e8c-48ff-8dc1-97a1c56d226f

Sustainable Design Sightings

2007-12-19T00:07:00.001+08:00

Today I stumbled upon what claims to be "China's first neutral carbon hotel" on the way back from lunch.

Ironically both foreign owners approved of naming the establishment urbn hotel, subjecting the joint to a Chinese fallacy which even the government itself is calling an end to: engrish.

Set in an old factory warehouse, the inconspicuous cloister slumbers in a serene courtyard setting with large deciduous trees lining the south fence. The reception area wall is completely decked with vintage luggage bags precariously stacked one upon the other. We wrangled a tour using our canto skills, and the manager brought us up to two rooms in the four story construction. The interior of the rooms themselves has a modernistic space-efficient design with a very Zaha Hadid circa 5 years ago feel to it: continuous angles stretching throughout the 11 foot ceiling rooms. Their brochure claims to use local and recycled materials- totally believable considering how much rebuilding Shanghai is experiencing right now. They also boast sustainable design solutions in the building process, like passive solar louvers and rain water retention basins. Not quite the points solar technology would redeem, but its a start. On the flipside, a closer look at the craftsmanship exposes the little-things-that-count detail that slipped by the architect. A wonderful sunken lounge area pimped out the room we inspected, but stepping down to the area was an effort: the staircase to the area was substantially too high; slopping up and down took major effort. The untreated wood around the bathroom sink area is a nice antique touch, but in a year's time the material will be rotted out due to Shanghai's humid weather. Recommendation: treat the wood with some eco-happy goo. As for the step, cut two 5-inch steps with a tread deep enough to accomodate bigass feet and folks in a state of drunken stupor.

To sum up, hats off to this duo for stepping up the game in what otherwise seems to be an anti-green rat race (after all, its still about the bottom line). Hopefully the QC on the service will be as revolutionary as their green design building.

Winter Solstice

2007-12-18T02:16:00.001+08:00

Felix suggests I go to Germany for this event this winter solstice holiday, but despite an allergic reaction to delirious Shanghainese cab drivers I am looking forward to spending Fake-mas 2.0 here in the Changa Chang Club. Plus I have a temporary aversion to all-things French (Germany touches France) and Burpy Woman is coming to town.

My Carbon Footprint

2007-12-14T16:08:00.000+08:00

Wow, flying really added tonnage to my embarassing 16.199 annual output.

What's your Carbon Footprint?

The La-ku-ne-su Monsta

2007-10-02T18:47:00.000+08:00

Lochness, China edition. Like I said, we've got knock off everythings here, even mythical sea monsters.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070909/od_afp/chinanatureanimal

Do Not Watch This Video

2007-09-28T01:14:00.000+08:00

Do not watch this video if you are easily offended by nudity, sex, and the abnormal