a blog about soybean cake and other essential topics
As I type this, the sun is appearing over the Seattle area – or at least that I can see. It is a sight to be welcomed, especially since this is late May 2010.
But it rained Saturday. So, my family and I looked for one of the best places to visit when water drops to the ground – Snoqualmie Falls, which is about a 20-minute drive east of Seattle.
The water drops about 270 feet.
It might be easy to criticize many U.S. suburbs for lacking a central public square – where you can sit, people watch and enjoy the type of civic life that other cities offer.
But in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, there is one place that’s worth visiting – Crossroads Bellevue, a mall that offers a large, boisterous food court with plenty of offerings, a stage with live music and a great larger-than-normal chess board.
Yes, it is not a grand square that many European cities have and it’s not a central place such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
In December, I wrote about Edith Macefield, the late Seattle resident, and her refusal to take $1 million from a developer for her house. That prompted crews to build around that structure.
Her actions later sparked online chatter in China – about a homeowner in Seattle who said no to developers – because a Chengdu area woman ended her life when she was forced to move so developers could begin work.
As you can see in the video and story from The New York Times, the issue remains hot, especially among ordinary people who are being pushed from their homes.
In China, a “nail house” is one in which the owner refuses to leave and make way for development. Fair compensation for the property is often a sticking point.
Certainly, I appreciate The New York Times for covering this issue, especially since its journalists were detained, and for letting people embed the video on websites.
UPDATE: The Times was letting people embed this video after I first saw it. But the company has since removed the code from its website. I should add that my site is free of advertisements.
One of the best things about running my own blog is that I can post items of my choosing when I want.
My son’s quasi stick-figure drawing with a round head, spiky hair, dots for ears, big facial features and loopy feet is a prime example.
I was out of the house during the morning. Upon my return, my wife walked past me to hang our son’s great drawing.
I’m a parent – so I can say things like that. Needless to say, my wife and I are proud of his creativity.
His grandparents will be notified soon of what’s now hanging in our house. My son actually suggested that I post this on the blog.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve done something and realized that my wife and son had made food, cut grass or created a flying machine.
Anything that can make people stop and think about themselves, their surroundings and others nearby really can serve the public good.
Art, photography, architecture and even the news media can fill these societal niches – which hopefully will help us think in new, more broad ways.
So, I’m sure the sidewalk art video produced by Brian Stillman and posted on NYPost.com last week has produced page views as well as questions and thoughts.
A man lifts corn in December 1975 at a commune in Hubei province. Photo posted on tianya.cn.
With Guangxi's mountains serving as a backdrop, a race takes place in July 1978. Photo posted on tianya.cn.
It is Friday, right?
My thanks to Gil Asakawa for posting this on his blog, Nikkei View. He also gives his thoughts about Akebono, sumo wrestling and the clip.
Yes, I remember Akebono, the sumo champ who was born in Hawaii. He made it, um, big in Japan.
I admit that I owned albums (as a kid)Â by Journey. But I’ve never watched “Glee.”
Oh, yes. This video, in a way, reminds me of the fun exhibited in this trailer, which is part of the Chinatown Film Project in New York City. And Asakawa spotted the Akebono clip on Angry Asian Man.
UPDATE: The original video that I saw on Nikkei View has been removed by the YouTube user. I’ve posted the same video from another YouTube user. AsianCorrespondent.com gives context on the issue of Akebono, the former sumo champ who sings, if you’re interested.
For years, this was the typical view that ordinary people saw of Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing used by senior Chinese leaders. Google maps, especially the Earth view option, has changed that. Photo source: beijing2007.wordpress.com
So, do you remember the recent Google in China row?
The one earlier this year in which the Silicon Valley-based search and technology giant made global news with reports of hacked email accounts and possibly stolen code? The company – which questioned operating a filtered site in the rapidly-growing country – later decamped its mainland China search engine operations to Hong Kong.
Well, in an interesting twist, it looks like the California technology wizards have scored a point (or two) for transparency regarding Zhongnanhai, the compound near the Forbidden City that many in the senior Chinese leadership call home.
Art that engages can keep you there for hours.
Enter the International Fountain at the Seattle Center. It’s commonly referred to as the fountain near the Space Needle.
We visited on Thursday on a warm, sunny day – a nice break from the gray skies and cooler temperatures that showed up in early May.
I watched the water go up and down and people go back and forth.
So, I thought I’d experiment with stop motion images. What you see are two sets of photographs in the stop motion above.
© 2012 tofuwatch.com | brad@tofuwatch.com | Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
rss feed
