Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Favourite posts from the 2nd quarter of 2008

I'm a little behind with this. It had completely slipped my mind for the past couple of months. Better late than never....


Pick of the Archive:
Favourite Posts, April-June 2008



1) STOP interfering with the Internet! - 2nd April

Some Free Advice for the Chinese government on the issue of censorship.


2) Intellectual Property - 101 - 5th April

A Chinese employer tries to make an unauthorised film of one of my presentations.


3) List of the Month - my next batch of ming pian - 6th April

How would I describe myself on a business card? Here are some possible options.


4) Haiku time once more - 11th April

One of my most romantic ones (and this post includes a gratuitous Classical footnote!).


5) SLOW Food - 11th April

It's official: my local McDonald's is the worst in the world - and I conclude that there is a fundamental incompatibility between 'Chinese culture' and the fast food concept.


6) My Fantasy Girlfriend - Lady Penelope - 12th April

I confess: my first-ever crush was on a fibreglass puppet!


7) Another sign of the times - 16th April

I deplore the Facebook fad, and what it is doing to our language.


8) Don't make a rod for your own back - 20th April

Rueful observations on the Chinese government's handling of the Tibetan issue, and the anti-foreigner demonstrations it orchestrated here in Beijing.


9) My brain is full - 27th April

One of the key reasons why I don't learn Chinese!


10) Bali & the ballerinas - an alliterative anecdote - 28th April

A story from my far-off youth.


11) List of the Month - why I love Tom Waits - 3rd May

A selection of my favourite lyrics from the great man.


12) A discussion point - 5th May

I try - and fail! - to initiate some debate about appropriate moral parameters for the use of real-life events in fiction (prompted by my reading of Mr Pip, a novel about a brutal civil war on a South Pacific island in the 1990s).


13) This week in the studio..... - 8th May

A particularly fine selection of risible script ineptitudes from my recording work.


14) Holding it all in..... for the Olympics - 17th May

I introduce my idea for a 'sound sculpture' project to be called The Big Spit - one of first and best of My Crazy 'Art' Ideas
.


15) A traffic incident - 24th May

Another illustration of how the Chinese really seem to have no sense of self-preservation in their behaviour on the roads.


16) Things I Miss.... - 26th May

Summer rain makes me suddenly very wistful.


17) I hate it when that happens..... - 31st May

Another little oddity of everyday life in China.


18) An end of the month treat - 31st May

One of my favourite Internet discoveries of the year: YouTuber 'Xspazzx' doing one of his brilliant late-night rock song mimes - here, to Queen's ultra-fast jazz-punk number Stone Cold Crazy.


19) Lest we forget - 4th June

Reflections on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.


20) A feeling down haiku - 6th June

I was in a bad mood-slump at the start of June; but such depressions often lead to better writing!


21) Great football moments - 7th June

I mark the beginning of the European Football Championships with a celebration of Gascoigne's fantastic goal against the Scots in '96, a YouTube 'Top 10' of other great goals from the tournament over the years, and, of course, the irresistibly jaunt football song Three Lions.


22) I HATE Beijing drivers - 9th June

A further observation on the crazy - homicidal - road behaviour we have to suffer here in the capital.


23) A sporting haiku - 13th June

Is football the greatest game in world? I think so, and attempt to explain why.


24) My Fantasy Girlfriend - Mrs Peel - 21st June

A hymn of praise to Emma Peel - the perfect woman (a pity she was a fictional character!).


25) The failure of taste - 23rd June

Possibly the worst poem in history - and it's Chinese.


26) A cunning plan - 25th June

I encounter a remarkable proposal for dealing with China's population problem..... by exporting it to Russia!


27) Chinese job applications - 27th June

Surely the most cringe-inducing example of 'Chinglish' I have ever come upon (not for the easily offended!).


28) Pelé - the "God" - 28th June

More football idolatry: an appreciation of the game's greatest player, including some YouTube clips of him in action.

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