Reset

 

On Monday Morning March 23, commuters at Antwerp’s central rail station were introduced to the recording of Julie Andrews singing “Do Re Mi” as recorded for the 1965 film adaptation of the stage musical “The Sound of Music”. 200 dancers strategically placed in the crowd began to dance as a remix of the track came through. VTM adverts for its search for a new Maria. However, this is not an original. T-Mobile staged a similar flash mob inspired event in January 2009, “Life is for sharing“.

Tuscan Sun

.. (B)etween Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.

Flying Standby

I fly ona  tight schedule, usually fly out straight from work and fly in hours before I am due in my cube. The joy of catching an earlier flight (so I can run in the dawn in Beijing) or forsake a seat for complimentary upgrades or vouchers is infinite with adequate planning. This is not possible if I am flying in a group.

• Before you leave home, check the airline website for any earlier direct flights identical to yours (you cannot fly standby if you have an itinerary with more legs but you can standby on separate legs independently)
• If you find flights before yours that you could take, check online at Seatcounter if the flight is full. If you see more than a few red Os next to your flight, it’s not worth your time. Look carefully at your ticket as you need the booking code/class. Or call the airline.
• Inquire at check in if they can confirm a standby seat. This is increasingly difficult for domestic flights and you will be directed to the gate. This is also some incentive to get there early. You could also get an exit row.
• If you cannot confirm standby at the gate, give them your name and hold on. You cannot check in luggage in this case. They might call your name just before the jetway closes.
• Separate your reservation into single-person itineraries. This actually works.
• You’ll get bumped to the top of the standby list if you have elite status with an airline.
• Be prepared as oftentimes standby seats are the worst, next to fatties near the lav.
• You could be standby on any flight at any other time during the day OTHER than your own. Be careful if you opt for a later flight as if it is full, they have no obligation ot take you.
• An earlier flight is a gift but just do not count on it.

Weather Modification

Through a friend’s window in Beijing six months ago:

Earlier today:

Chinglish Error

The characters read “Dining Hall” but clearly nobody took the time to check if the English translation meant the same.

China Lodging

Beijing: Ascott Beijing Hotel. No. 108B Jiano GUo rd, Chaoyang Dist. (86-10) 6567-8100. $250

Chengdu: Shangri-La Hotel. 9 Binjiang Dong rd. 86-28-8888 9999. $150

Xi’an: Xi’an Hyatt Regency. Dong Da Street. 029-727 4334. $145

Shanghai: Eton Hotel. 535 Pudong Ave, Pudong New Area. 86-21-3878-9888. $202

All rooms were superior or suites, with club level or breakfast included.

Dark Knight

Oh yes. Midnight. Tonight.

Karaoke Night

Matt’s Back

If you’re wondering “Where in the Hell is Matt Harding“, you are not alone.

Re United

… and it feels so good.

I was meeting A and R after 25 and 28 years respectively. Would I recognize R at the BART terminus? Would A and I have anything in common to chat about? Had nothing changed? The answers were surprising, the memories were delicious and the growing up was irreversible. We had the loveliest dinner with my first tomatoes and strawberries of the season, sweeter both for the company they kept.

More reunions later this month, with alcohol fueled revelations and slippages sure to leave many of us a-hanging. The more we change, the more we remain the same. Nothing really changes.

Londontown Touring

Things to do in Londontown before 1000 (which is when most things open):

• browse at Daunt Books (83 Marylebone High St), opens at 0900
• sip at the Cafe in the Crypt at St Martin’s in the Field Church ( ), opens at 0800
• Latin Mass at the Farm Street church, 0800
• Southwark cathedral, opens 0800
• take a coffee at Monmouth by Borough Market – chat to vendors
• cross London Bridge and laugh at the poor commuters en route to work
• sleep in

Altered States

Mouse Print

Are you being screwed?

Forbidden Broadway

“Wickeder”

“More to See”

NYC Waterfalls

Hold Mayo

Wild Fire

Summer Arriveth

Here Comes the Sun

Morally Acceptable

Gay Marriage

As of today, gays are finally afforded equal marriage rights. While most of the population supports equal rights for gays in terms of housing, job opportunities, accommodation, protection under the law and the right to choose matching China at Nordstrom’s, the country is bisected on the concept of gay marriage. Why?

It was amazing to see the first (lesbian) couple to be wedded by HH Mayor Newsom. They’ve been together for more years than I have been alive: how can one doubt their commitment to each other? Smarties, they were legally protected in advance of dodgy legal proceedings as well. Would the legacy of gay marriage help or hinder such a couple? Probably not. Being married discourages (does not preclude) from promiscuous sex (and thus disease vectors), regardless of the gender. In Scandinavian countries, where gays have been wedding for years, the divorce rate has not changed significantly either.

Popular items of argument against gay marriage:

• US Federal law codifies marriage as between two (2) persons of opposite gender: US Federal law struck down a ban on interracial marriages on June 12, 1967. Pause for reaction. The law is dynamic. To love and to be loved back in return is purely chemical.
• Same gender couples are not the optimal environment to raise children: No published evidence. Known felons, convicts and child molesters have the right to procreate but gays should not be allowed to rear children. Studies from failed straight marriages and single parent families show poorer outcomes than those same sex parents who go to great effort to raise children who may or may not be biologically their own.
• Gay relationships are immoral. Not for Buddhists. In any case, the treaty of Tripoli (1791) indicates the Bible has no standing in American Law. Church, meet State. Wave.
• Marriages are for procreation and ensuring the continuation of the species. Impotent fathers and postmenopausal mothers should immediately divorce themselves. Marriage is about sharing and compromise. Procreation is simply biology.
• Same gender marriage threatens the institution of marriage: Have you met Britney Spears and read her the Defense of Marriage Act? I am not going to piss in the batter of your wedding cake so why this rabid interest in what others will do that really won’t affect you? If you are invited and do not support it, don’t go. You’ll probably miss the most fabulous wedding you never saw. Florists. Cake makers. Gucci. Waterford place settings. Enough said.
• Marriage is traditionally for straight people: Lame. Slavery was also a tradition.
• Same gender marriage is untried and experimental: Denmark since 1989.
• What’s next – bestiality? I love this one. How do you make the sudden jump to man fucks dog? The radical right  jumps all over this. One can only wonder what fuels their nightmares or fantasies.
• Granting gays the “right” to marry is a “special right”: If undenying basic civil rights makes it special, then so be it. However, everyone should have the right to (or not to) disconnect a loved one from the ventilator. Who better than your partner to execute your own deepest visceral wishes?
• Gay marriage is bad for the economy: are you kidding me?

Why people actually oppose it:

• I am just not comfortable with the idea: I am opposed to your wearing that belt with those shoes. But seriously, some people were uncomfortable sharing a water fountain or sending children to school by the same yellow bus. Comfort is not exclusionist and can never be.
• It offends my religion: if you’re a Mormon, then yes it does. And multiply marrying women offends my sensibility but I stand by your right to practise your religion
• Marriage is sacred: divorce is always an option, to both gay and straight couples. Additionally, freedom of religion also implies freedom from religion. Freedom is a founding principle
• Gay sex is unnatural and making love to another man betrays everything masculine: you really need to stop watching gays on telly and in the cinema. This harbours from a fear of rape and loss of control as a masculine entity. Fear not, most gays are probably not instinctively attracted to the curious cowerers.
• Thinking of gay sex is repulsive: why are you thinking of it? Believe it or not, most gays have so much more on their mind. Currently, the price of petrol is approximately $4.69 per gallon. And not even premium.
• The gays might recruit: would that it were that easy. Believe it or not, most gays were borne of straight marriage

Tony Awards

It is hot and I am wiped out from the flying and the touring. Extreme air-con, comfort food and a bottle of Bollinger cuvee ease me into the Tony Awards.

2001: A Lion King retrospective. WTF? Is this not 2008? What next, RENT redux?

2005: Whoopi as a witch from “Into the Woods” holding her breasts together. She should retire

2008: Fattie Rondi Reed wins supporting actres for August-Osage County. I support this only because it comes from Steppenwolf. Gratuitous shot of Laurie Metcalf, who has not aged well since Roseanne show days.

2012: Crybaby performance in a prison yard. It’s so Billy Joel flop musical.

2022: Laura Linney and her dimples. Raul Esparza snubbed again.

2026: Passing Strange number. Very odd – I so do not want to be watching this show.

2037: Why does John Lithgow overact all the time? Also, does every presenter need to remind us of his/her TONY win?

2041: Patti Lupone belting it out. So blah. So gay.

2052: Bunched offscreen (cheap seat) awards to truly enthused people

2057: Lin-Manuel Miranda faux-raps his acceptance speech. Remember the Mafia band that got an Oscar for best movie song?

2059: The gayest rendition of “There is Nothing Like a Dame” from the South Pacific revival.

2108: A funny bit with Whoopi as Mary Poppins. Still, not as funny as I used to remember her.

2113: Grease. Really?

2128: Why did Faith Prince eat all those muffins? I loved her in “Guys and Dolls”

2131: Painful number from Frankenstein

2140: Clips from plays. They don’t ever work.

2153: Mark Rylance wins for “Boeing Boeing”. I saw his understudy in Londontown who was riotously funny but I don’t get Mark’s humour at all.

2200: Deanna Duagan win’s for August: Osage County but with weird chemotherapy hair. This play will become a movie.

2204: A number from “In the Heights”. Odd.

2212: Tracy Letts thumbs his nose at the movies. Sweet.

2215: Mandy Patinkin is eclipsed by his beard as he delivers a proxy speech. Well. But is Sondheim sick?

2233: Lily Tomlin mocks Marisa Tomei’s sexy walk down to the podium. Cheyenne Jackson tries too hard to warble. Those thighs! The original RENT cas with very handsome Taye Diggs all dorked out and Liza lisping. I am falling asleep. Paolo Szot wins. He is so leading man-ly. Patti Lupone wins, then chastises the conductor.

 

 

 

Pilgrim Be

He who would valiant be

‘Gainst all disaster

Let him in constancy

Follow the Master

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent

To be a pilgrim. 

You Must Love Me

Then:

Now:

Battling Insomnia

• Have a doctor determine it is nothing serious
• Take a warm bath with Epsom salts an dbaking soda, a cup each
• Get a backrub or face/scalp massage with slow long strokes
• Listen to soft soothing music of nature (special CDs)
• Drink warm milk 15 minutes before, for the calcium
• Drink herbal tea infusions
• Eat a small bedtime snack
• Avoid caffeine, alcohol and tobacco
• Sleep in a well ventilated room
• Sleep on a firm bed
• Sleep on your back
• Get some physical exercise in the evneing time
• Sleep at the same time every night
• If you cannot sleep, get up
• Do not sleep in
• Get up earlier in the moring
• Reserve the bed for sleep only
• Avoid naps
• Forbid illuminated bedside clocks
• Count sheep
• Sleep with your head facing north
• Do not watch telly or read before bed
• Wiggle toes
• Rub your stomach
• Progressively relax from toes to tongue
• Breathe deeply
• Visualize something peaceful
• Think of something boring
• Imagine it is time to get up
• Quiet ears
• Do not think too much
• Sex – alone or with others
• Hot water bottle

So Lucky

Absolut Mexico

76

Now & forever.

NY Habitat

Sometimes you just set up an agency to fail with your pedestal of expectations.

Historically, I had a great experience renting a furnished flat in Londontown. Therefore, it only seemed natural to rent the property again for an identical period and an identical price, agreed to upon by me and the landlady upon my last departure. Regrettably, the GBP/US$ is not a fraction that is favorable to me and this means budget constraints. NY Habitat unilaterally decides to hike up the price by nearly a third. The landlady offers to bypass the agency (that is your only legal security blanket if she decides to renege and/or interval calamity ensues) but at a hiked up price. Lastly, the agency, not having heard back from me for over 24 hours, decides to remove that entire property from the equation and leaves a very disagreeable taste in my mouth.

In retrospect, I think I got very lucky last time. The quest doth continueth…

Life VISA

Did you get in on the VISA IPO? Life takes VISA.

London Dining

Some new restaurants (affordable) to try:

Al Waha (Lebanese): 75 Westbourne Grove. 020-7229-0806. Tube: Royal Oak, Bayswater

Amaya (South Indian cosmopolitan): Halkin Arcade, Motcomb St. 020-7823-116. Tube: Knightsbridge

Bar Shu (Sichuan): 28 Frith St. 020-7287-6688. Tube: Baker Street

Baltic (Polish): 74 Blackfriars Rd. 020-7928-1111. Tube: Southwark

Joint Ticket