Empire Falls

We watched the HBO series Empire Falls. What an outstanding cast! Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, ... I loved the book, and I can understand why people didn't like the movie that much: it certainly was not as good as the book. But still, it was fun watching some great actors work together.

City Bakery

Yum; we had lunch at a restaurant called The City Bakery. Excellent food, although their web site is annoying. Apparently they are quite green, too, which is a bonus. Their prices are certainly not cheap, but the food quality is quite high! Definitely worth visiting.

Value vs. growth

An interesting article aboutmutual fund risk! The theory is that value companies are exposed to more risk of bankruptcy (no surprise there), which is more "dangerous" (presumably insufficiently compensated-for) than growth companies. So investors should not just invest in value companies (which is not too much of a surprise).

Tre Dici

We had a dinner at a small Italian restaurant called Tre Dici. Really good food, although both of us felt that the food was slightly salty. Then again, we've been eating less and less salt, so maybe the saltiness is normal for restaurant fare (it's certainly consistent with our experience that restaurants tend to oversalt their food). The service was OK, with some attitude. Overall, pretty good, but it's not a destination restaurant.

Mmm....gelato

We wandered by L'Arte del Gelato in the West Village. Quite good, albeit a little pricey. For the quality, it was worth it, but I certainly wouldn't make eating here a habit!

More Yolato

We walked by a Yolato store near where we live. Pretty good dessert, and relatively nonfat.

Live Free Or Die Hard

Yippi-kay-yay! John McClane is back in Live Free Or Die Hard. It is definitely worth watching, and on a big screen. For summer entertainment, it is wonderful stuff, especially if you're a fan of the original Die Hard. Go out and see this movie; now!

It was fun to see Timothy Olyphant as the bad guy (he plays the sheriff in Deadwood) and Justin Long as the hacker kid (he is "Mac" on the Apple TV ads).

Nobu

We splurged and went to Nobu for dinner. Outstanding food, and although it was quite pricey, it felt worth it. The only minor issues I had were:

• the restaurant was too noisy: all the surfaces seemed to reflect sound


• the service was OK, but not great for the price

Overall, worth a meal, though! Don't make a habit of it, or it will break your finances...

Idi Amin

We watched The Last King of Scotland. Forest Whitaker was outrageously good as Idi Amin: and the script really let him show off his ability to portrary the many sides of a charismatic megalomaniac. We were really confused (in a good way) by the movie, in that we thought that it sounded like a true story: it did a really good job of weaving real history into the plot.

Gillian Anderson looked nothing like her character in the X-Files! This movie is definitely worth watching, although there are some really hard-to-watch scenes.

Banana Leaf

We ate a South Indian restaurant called Banana Leaf. Not a lot of food for the money, but it was tasty. We had aloo chaat, which was very good; tandoori chicken, which was excellent, fish mouli, which was acceptable, and peshwari naan, which was very good. Overall, worth eating at!

Hanami

We ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Hanami. Pretty good food: we had the tempura udon and a dinner box. Very good, although not superb; I would go back, given that the prices were pretty reasonable.

Markets

Economic markets, that is. John McMillan's book Reinventing the Bazaar covers a lot of the modern economic theory (albeit in a practical manner) about markets. I like his statement that "liberals" oppose the free market and some of the best ideas about how to help poor people, and "conservatives" love the free market so much that they love ideas that would destroy proper market functioning. McMillan keeps coming back to the idea that markets depend on proper government regulation in order to function best: his best example of this is the comparison between Russian shock therapy in the 1990's and China's unprecedented growth during the same time period.

I enjoyed his description of the Tsukiji fish auction in Japan, where $25M of fresh fish is auctioned every morning. My friend Mike Epstein has said that it is quite a sight!

Mayrose

We had lunch at a restaurant called Mayrose. Pretty good food: not top-of-the-line, but given their very reasonable prices, I'm not complaining. They served a good solid breakfast with a variety of choices on the menu; I'm sure we'll be going back.

Galaxy Diner

After theater we went to the Galaxy Diner for some dessert. Pretty good, although it's hard to screw up smoothies!

Grey Gardens

We saw Grey Gardens, the Tony-award winner about the relatives of Jackie O who lived in squalor in a huge mansion in the Hamptons. Although it had some outrageously funny lines, it made me tremendously uncomfortable: the two main characters were neurotic beyond belief (were it not for the fact that they were based on real people). The music was beautiful but not memorable, and the performances were fantastic. We definitely have to watch the documentary Grey Gardens, on which this musical is based!

Saigon 48

We ate dinner at a small semi-Vietnamese restaurant in the theater district, Saigon 48. Pretty reasonably priced, but its menu was more pan-Asian (we had pad thai and Singapore curry noodles). The food was (like most restaurants) overly salty and heavily weighted with meat.

Opera in the subway

We were riding the W train, and a young woman with a powerful voice came into our car and started singing an aria (too bad my opera knowledge is that strong). It was an impressive display of talent! It reminded me of an article about Joshua Bell in the Washington Post.

The Places in Between

I just read Rory Stewart's first book, The Places in Between. What a nut, although an admirable one. He actually walked across Afghanistan from west to east---during the winter, and soon after the fall of the Taliban. Mr. Stewart clearly has no real sense of fear, which was also evident in his second book, The Prince of the Marshes. The writing is not spectacular, but it does make for a compelling read.

Afghan food

While on a trip to Boston, I ate dinner at Helmand, a pretty good Afghan restaurant. The aushak was great, as was the mantwo. Definitely worth a visit, if you like Afghan food!

MIT food

While in Boston I had lunch at Mary Chung (warning: not much of a web site) with dessert at Toscanini's. I realized that I can't be objective about some of the restaurants I used to eat at all of the time: all that I can say
about Mary Chung's is that eating there brought back fond memories, even though they are in a different location than when I was an undergraduate at MIT.

The Paradox of Choice

I read through The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwarz. It talks about how we humans do poorly with too many choices, as we appear to be driven by regret or the anticipation of regret. For example, too many choices can lead to paralysis, possibly due to the fact that the sum of the opportunity costs goes up with the number of choices. Overall, this book covers a lot of the same material that is covered in Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. The latter was more entertaining; the former more analytical. Of course, as both authors discuss, memories are hardly reliable, so I could be wrong in this comparison!

Central Park in the summer

Central Park is such a joyous place in the summer. Lots of people having fun, enjoying the sun; what else could one ask for?

More of The Bloodless Revolution

I took out The Bloodless Revolution by Tristam Stuart again from the library, and got over halfway through it before I had to return it again. It is a fascinating book; I never realized how much religious belief (in particular, about what Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden) played such a large role in the history of vegetarianism. In addition, the encounter with Hinduism fed into the vegetarian arguments that occurred in the 17th century. All in all, a fantastic read about a period of history that I know very little about: it even sheds light on Isaac Newton and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The Astronaut Farmer

On a flight from CA to NY I watched Billy Bob Thornton in a movie called The Astronaut Farmer. I was torn: the movie was both enjoyable and utterly sentimental (in a bad way). In addition, it was totally implausible, and was a little too overtly political. Nonetheless, not a bad movie to watch on a plane. It had a pretty big-name cast---including Virginia Madsen, Bruce Willis, JK Simmons (JJ Jameson in the Spiderman movies)---as well as some lesser lights who were entertaining---Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce Dern, and Jon Gries.

The script would have been better if the story had been set in some a 1950's setting: in a modern-day setting, it was just too implausible.

Al Jazeera

There was an interesting interview on Fresh Air with Josh Rushing. Mr. Rushing was the Marine representative interviewed in the movie Control Room, which was about Al Jazeera's coverage of Iraq. After he left the Marines, he became a correspondent for Al Jazeera. Pretty cool!

Breach

I watched Breach on an airplane trip. It was pretty good: good cast, decent plot (even though it was highly predictable, especially since it was based on a real-life events). Certainly a good airplane movie: I'm not sure I would have paid money to see it in a theater, though.

Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond was an entertaining film: and boy, Leonardo DiCaprio was really good. He deserved the Oscar nomination that he got last year, although I actually liked the character he played in The Departed better.

Casino Royale

We watched the new Bond film that came out last year, Casino Royale. It was well-written and well-acted, mostly; the writing became pretty slow and meandering near the end, and as a result was somewhat predictable. After all, why have a long peaceful interlude in a Bond film? Very enjoyable to watch, though: Daniel Craig was excellent.

Vacation in Vermont

We're taking a hopefully well-deserved vacation in Western Massachusetts and Vermont for a few days. I'm using the Google "My Maps" feature to jot down notes about the trip as we go; of course, every hotel/B&B these days provides free WiFi, so this makes it easy! Follow our route here. We saw one outstanding museum on the first day: the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.

Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction was an amusing movie, although not as funny as I thought it might be. But Will Farrell did a good job, and it was hilarious to see Dustin Hoffmann tell him that he had to die for the sake of Emma Thompson's book. Maggie Gyllenhaal was delightful!

Climate change

It's amusing how people are still denying the serious climate changes that are occurring across the world. The NY Times has an interesting article on how climate change is destroying a town in Alaska.

Lost

ABC's Lost had a 2-hour season finale that was outstanding. Lots of plot lines revealed, a big flip in story-telling, changes for everyone on the island, what more could one ask for? This season, Lost was the opposite of Heroes: Lost had a relatively slow, boring season with a fantastic finish, whereas Heroes had an interesting season (mostly because of the variety of characters they had to introduce) with a disappointing finish.

Bond investing

The Only Guide to a Winning Bond Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Preserves Wealth Today by Larry Swedroe has a decent overview of the bond markets for lay investors. I skimmed through it quickly: it doesn't actually provide a real "strategy": just the information necessary to formulate a strategy. So the book could be considered a necessary but not sufficient condition towards developing a reasonable strategy for investing in bonds.

Heroes

NBC's Heroes had one of the lamer season finales that I have seen in a while. Overall, the season was interesting, but I was severely disappointed by the finale. The writing was just lame: lots of loose ends tied up too quickly with poor justification.

Dim sum

We ate dim sum at a restaurant called Jing Fong, in Chinatown. It was very good quality (although not the very best dim sum we've ever had), and very well-priced. Highly recommended!

Babel

We watched Babel on DVD. Interesting film, although it was kind of depressing. I'm not sure why it got so much buzz last year.

Whitney at Altria

We went to see the Whitney Museum at Altria, which is a small (almost tiny) installation space near Grand Central Station. There was an exhibit of Matthew Brannon's art.

The Bloodless Revolution

I got through a few chapters of The Bloodless Revolution, which is a fascinating history of vegetarianism in Western European culture. Unfortunately, the book is quite dry and long, and I wasn't able to finish it before I had to return it to the library. I'll have to take it out again and continue reading...

Rome

We finished the first season of Rome. Great TV, although we've been watching it on DVD (via Netflix). So it almost feels like a bunch of short movies.

Monet @ Wildenstein

We saw an exhibition of Monet paintings at the Wildenstein Gallery at 64th Street. It was an astonishing collection of works that are mostly held privately. One startling work was a painting titled A Palm Tree in Bordighera. Overall, a must-see art event!

Momofuku

We went to Momofuku Ssam Bar, a very interesting Korean restaurant. Their signature dish is a ssam, which is a Korean burrito. Yummy food!

Age-Defying Fitness

I've been reading parts of Age-Defying Fitness, by Marilyn Moffat and Carole B. Lewis. It is an excellent book about staying physically fit and healthy while getting older. The book describes many low-impact exercises to improve balance, strength, flexibility, posture, and endurance.

Shake Shack

We had lunch at the Shake Shack, a venerable institution in Madison Square Park. I order a "Shroom Burger", which I assumed was a burger with mushrooms, but turned out to a vegetarian entree: grilled mushroom. Still, quite good!

Yolato

We had dessert at a place called Yolato, at their location in the West Village. They make something that is a cross between frozen yogurt and gelato. It was quite good, but I still prefer "real" gelato.

Dani

We ate at Dani, 333 Hudson Street. Fantastic Italian food, and not exorbitantly priced (although certainly not cheap). We had the wild salmon special, which had 4 dishes prepared with different kinds of wild salmon. Wow, wild salmon is so much better than the farmed stuff!

Volver

We watched Volver, a film by Almodovar. He is surely obsessed by female relationships! Volver is a beautiful movie, and definitely worth watching. And who would have thought that Penelope Cruz could be so great?

Hangawi

We ate at a Korean vegetarian restaurant called Hangawi. Excellent food, although not cheap.

Kung Fu Hustle

I wasn't in a great mood last night, so I watched Kung Fu Hustle. I had seen it a while back, but it's still quite funny; it put me in a better mood. The first time I saw it was in Cantonese with English subtitles; this time I watched it with English dubbing and subtitles. Interestingly, the subtitles differed from the dubbing, and the dubbing was funnier: if the dubbing was a literal translation, the original had some very clever lines.

John McPhee: The Headmaster

I quickly read through John McPhee's book The Headmaster. Fascinating portrait of an old-zchool headmaster, Frank Boyden. I bet very few people like him exist anymore.

Most of the interesting parts of the book appeared in the John McPhee Reader, which is one reason this book was so quick to read. Although McPhee's writing is wonderfully elegant, I find his subjects (fascinating and quirky people) more compelling than the writing itself. Although maybe that is because his writing lets the quirkiness shine through...

Thank God You're Here

I caught a few minutes of the show Thank God You're Here, which was pretty funny. Of course, the concept was premiered in Australia, and NBC has just "borrowed" the idea for the show. How non-creative.

Justice denied?

The NY Times has an editorial that raises some disturbing follow-up questions to the problems going on at the DOJ. Apparently some of the non-fired US attorneys may have been pushing cases just for the sake of damaging Democratic candidates; very scary.

Bolivian Baroque

CBS Sunday Morning had an interesting piece about Bolivian Baroque. (The article is a bit older, but is the only link I could find.) Apparently the Indian cultures in Bolivia produced a large number of Baroque compositions (all anonymous) that were discovered several years ago by a priest. Fascinating!

Variability

I read an interesting article on variability The Most Dangerous Equation that was published in American Scientist. It discusses the fact that variability in measurement decreases with the square root of the sample size (which is pretty slow), and then gives examples of real-world implications of this fact. For example, Prof. Wainer discusses how small schools maybe come out "better" in most studies because their variability is higher: not only are they among the best schools, they are also among the worst.

Crazy money advice

Robert Kiyosaki has an interesting post here about money. Unfortunately, most of his "advice" doesn't make sense. And his math doesn't either: he estimates that $25000 in 40 years will be equivalent to $250 today. What kind of inflation rate gives a 100-fold decrease in purchasing power in 40 years? Even a 10-percent rate of inflation would only give a 45-fold decrease in purchasing power.

Protect yourself and reduce junk mail

Optoutprescreen.com is a web site set up by the 3 credit bureaus that lets you permanently opt out of pre-approved credit offers. Highly recommended!

For reference, here is a useful fact sheet about how to get rid of paper junk mail.

And the blind shall see...

There's an interesting article about Matthew Dowd's public admission that George W. Bush's administrator is inept. It sure is hard for us humans to admit our mistakes, isn't it?

Gingrich: how sad

Newt Gingrich has done a great job of rehabilitating his image over the last few years (almost Nixonian). But now he comes out and shows his true colors...

Food problems

I've been reading an apocalyptic book titled The End of Food, by Thomas F. Pawlick. It opens with the most startling information, which is that the nutritional value of most foods has been dropping over the last half-century. The theory underlying this set of facts is that industrial production of food seeks to maximize production, which leads to examples such as overuse of fertilizers (which makes the soil less rich) and grain-fed cows (which leads to lower-quality beef).

Overall, the book presents some interesting information, but I found it a little too over the top. It is somewhat unsurprising that "mass-produced" food is low quality: it will always be the case that the highest-quality food costs much more than many people can afford. I agree with the author that it is very short-sighted of our civilization to misuse natural resources in the way that we do, but all of these implicit decisions are driven by increasing populations.

Future selves

NPR's Weekend Edition had a piece on futureme.org, which is a site where you can leave messages for your future self. Fascinating idea!

Deadwood Season 2

We finished the second season of Deadwood. What a great series! All of the characters are fascinating, and almost all of them live in that ambiguous zone between good and evil. Powers Boothe's character (Cy Tolliver) is probably the only truly despicable character; it's interesting that he is playing an evil character on 24 this season as well.

Without having done a careful analysis, it feels like this season was mostly centered around Al Swearengen: the end of the season finishes with a shot of him. The first season felt like it was more about Seth Bullock.

Time Warner Center

We grabbed lunch at Bouchon Bakery. Excellent sandwiches, although pretty pricey. It's a good thing we don't get a chance to go there too often.

We then went shopping at Whole Foods. Always an experience, and usually hard on the checkbook...

MOMA

We went to MOMA to see a few of the exhibitions. One of them was Comic Abstraction. A really funny work is called "Waiting for Jerry" by Juan Munoz: it consists of an small, dark, empty room with a backlit mouse hole: cartoon music is piped into the room.

We also saw through the Jeff Wall retrospective, and the exhibition on Armando Reveron. There were some fascinating paintings in each exhibition, although we weren't overwhelmed by anything in particular.

One of our favorite paintings at MOMA is Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World":

 

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Flushed

Flushed , by W. Hodding Carter, is an amusing book. It talks a lot about the author's personal fascination/experiences with plumbing. The funniest anecdote was when Carter tried to manufacture his own lead pipes.

One minor note: this book would have been more interesting if there had been pictures of how different types of toilet work.

Sunflower

We watched a Chinese movie called Sunflower, which was set during the period 1976-1999 in Beijing. (1976 was the year that Chairman Mao died.) The primary plot driver is the conflict between a father and his son. The movie was well done, but kind of depressing and very predictable, and the ending was very unrealistic. I found the movie more interesting because it really demonstrates the economic, social, and physical changes that China has been through in the last 30 years.

Max Brenner

We stopped by Max Brenner, a chocolate store combined with a restaurant of some sort. (I didn't look at the menu.) Pretty good chocolate, but Vere produces higher-quality stuff.

Food Politics

I've slowly been reading Food Politics by Marion Nestle. It's a great analysis of how the food industry has an excessive influence on our government's food policies. The book is worth reading, if depressing. I've had to return it twice to the library already, because I couldn't finish it in 3 weeks; maybe next time I take it out I'll be able to finish it.

Borat

We watched Borat, which was both appallingly rude and ridiculously funny. The scenes in New York City were absolutely hilarious, especially on the 4-5-6 train. I didn't think it was as outstanding as some reviewers, but I'm glad I watched it. I can see why it is amazing comedy: "reality" comedy, I guess.

The extras on the DVD were almost funnier than the movie: in particular, the appearances that Borat made on Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show.

no waste?

Zero waste: can we achieve it? This article made me wonder how right some economists are that the market will solve problems. Maybe they are right, but the time scale could be wrong for certain kinds of problems.

For example, it could be that we need the doomsayers to move the population to act; they could be the impulse function in reaction to the recognition of a problem (say, global warming). In that metaphor, government and the media act as delay functions. The problem is that if the time needed to act is longer than the delay imposed by the delay function...

John McPhee

I've been reading the John McPhee Reader, which is a collection of excerpts from a variety of his works. He's a fascinating journalist, and I enjoyed reading his writing. It is very dense, though, and he uses technical jargon freely, without defining it (it's up to you to whether this is desirable).

I really enjoyed the excerpts from A Roomful of Hovings. Unfortunately, the NY Public Library doesn't have this book! Some of the other excerpts didn't grab me as much: in particular, I found the story about Monopoly from A Sense of Place fairly awkward in its structure.

Lima's Taste

We seem to have been eating out a lot recently. We went to Lima's Taste, a Peruvian restaurant in the West Village. The ceviche was great (I'm tempted to say outstanding, but I'm afraid I don't have the experience to be an accurate judge of that), but the fried yucca was apparently not so good. Then again, who likes fried yucca? The food was reasonably priced.

Talk Radio

We saw Talk Radio with Liev Schreiber in the starring role. It was the last day that the show was in previews. Liev was fantastic, although there were a few weak moments in the first few minutes of the play.

Hurricanes and NYC

Here's a web site worth looking at if you live in New York City: the city's hurricance preparedness map.

Pongsri

We ate at Pongsri, a Thai restaurant at 165 W 23rd Street. Pretty good Thai food, although we've tended to avoid Thai food for the past few years. Very good service, above average food, average pricing.

Billy's Bakery

Grabbed some dessert at Billy's Bakery last night; it was pretty tasty! Apparently it is pretty well known; I (being a relatively new New Yorker) just learned about it.

Grand Sichuan, redux

I went to the 9th Avenue location for Grand Sichuan. Great food, as always, and very spicy! Good service, and pretty inexpensive for the quality and quantity of food.

Undercover Economist

I read through the Undercover Economist, which is a wonderfully written exposition of why capitalism works: because, as the author says, it reveals "the truth". Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think it is too optimistic about how economics can solve all of our problems:

• It is all well and good to say that externality pricing reduces the effects of the externality, but how politically easy is it to impose such prices? As we've seen in NY, it is extremely difficult.
• The book claims that as the standard of living in China has increase, that large-particle pollution has gone down. That may be true, but when I was just in China I felt like the pollution was stifling.
• The book claims that there is correlation/causation between protectionist policies and intensive farming. I'm not sure I believe that, and the book did not provide a compelling argument as to why that might be the case.

Liars and crooks

This is an interesting interview with two financial crooks. There are lessons to be learned.

49 Up

We watched 49 Up, the latest movie in the series that started with 7 Up. We skipped some of the movies in the middle; I feel like we should go back and watch them. These movies are fantastic pictures of human lives; I just feel sad that some of the characters have declined to participate as they get older. I can understand that each of them would want his/her privacy, but having one's life and thoughts recorded for posterity on film is a great honor.

Purity of Blood

I quickly read through the sequel to Captain Alatriste, Purity of Blood. Overall, I thought that the book is a better book to read on vacation than in my somewhat limited free time. I also thought that the first book was better, since the lack of plot development, the extended descriptions, and the slow pace seemed better suited to the first book in a series.

I did enjoy the depth of portrayal of 17th-century Spain, although I am not in a position the historical accuracy of the extended ruminations on Spain's downfall. However, for fiction I tend to prefer books with more interesting plots or with better character development. Well, I guess you can't expect everything from a novel.

Deadwood

We finished watching the first season of HBO's Deadwood. It is really well done, and quite a pleasure to watch. The casting and writing is quite a pleasure; the characters are all quite interesting and multidimensional.

Inside China

We saw an interesting show on TV called Inside China. The episode we saw talked about a photographer visiting Beijing, and about the 798 building, which is an artists' colony in Beijing.

John Singer Sargent

We literally ran across a show of Sargent's works in Venice at Adelson Galleries called Sargent's Venice. (As we were leaving the Met, we just happened to walk by this gallery.) They had some wonderful watercolors and oils (I was more impressed by the watercolors), most of which came from private collections.

Met talk: Italian Renaissance and the Kremlin

William Brumfield gave a talk at the Met about the influence of Italian Renaissance architects on the construction of the Kremlin. It was quite entertaining, and we learned about the history of Moscow.

The West invades China

Materialism invades China! Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that capitalism has won...

 

What could be less Western than Ikea?

 

And look at this: the shopping channel in China, which is selling toy pigs (2007 is the Year of the Pig)!

Veronica

I finished Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill, on the plane back from China. It is a searing novel, although it ends happily. Its intensity reminded me of The Things They Carried (which is another novel that I read while traveling). I don't know how Ms. Gaitskill accomplished it, but the novel switches back and forth between times seamlessly: there are only a few places where a paragraph's point in time is ambiguous.

Terra cotta soldiers

While in Xi'an, we visited the famous terra-cotta soldiers that were created for the Qin emperor's tomb. Amazing! It was a little disappointing when we learned that all of the items had been reassembled and refired; for some reason I thought that they had been carefully dug out of the ground.

Lucky numbers

Can you tell that this elevator panel is in China? The 13th floor is missing, as is traditional in Western buildings. Note that 4, 14, and 24 are also missing. The number 4 is unlucky because it sounds like the Chinese character for "dead".

Beijing/Los Angeles

After spending some time in Beijing, I decided that LA and BJ should be sister cities. They share many important characteristics of modern cities: traffic, sprawl, and smog. The first two are linked, of course, and contribute significantly to the third.
One noticeable change in China since the first time I went (in 2001) is that the number of cars has increased dramatically. In 2001, bicycles still outnumbered cars in Beijing. In 2007, cars vastly outnumber bicycles.

How different is China?

This shot was taken out of a window in the same building as the Red Gate Gallery. Can you tell that it is in China? I can't.

Red Gate Gallery

I visited a modern art gallery called the Red Gate Gallery. It is next to the Ming City Wall Site Park, inside the building shown in the picture. My favorite painting in the gallery was the one below, Silk Road by Zheng Xuewu.

Chairman Mao

Inside the same building as the Red Gate Gallery were some interesting historical items that depict various periods in Beijing's history. This calligraphy is a wonderful piece of work, and demonstrates the power of Chairman Mao's personality. Too bad I can't read Chinese!

Ming City Wall Site Park

This photo is of a pretty little city park that contains the last remnants of the Beijing city wall. Chairman Mao ordered the entire wall torn down, and this is the last remaining piece, unfortunately; otherwise, it would be a wonderful tourist attraction today! Note the Marriott's odd architecture in the background.

Turing

While on vacation in China, I read Turing, by Christos Papadimitriou. The author is a computer science professor at Berkeley (whose theory textbooks are widely used), and this book is really a novel for programmers. Overall, it was an interesting read: it does a good job of explaining the many levels of software and hardware that comprise a computer system. As a novel, I was not so convinced: it tried to hard to be learned, the love story was unconvincing, and the basic mystery of how the Turing AI was created was not discussed.

Vere Chocolate

I bought some chocolate from Vere for Valentine's Day (before leaving for China, of course). They manufacture some wonderful chocolates: not too sweet, like most standard chocolates!

Captain Alatriste

I finished reading Captain Alatriste, by Arturo Perez-Reverte, while on vacation. It was an enjoyable and fast read: very reminiscent of Dumas' novels about the Three Musketeers. I would have like to have read this book in the original Spanish (if I could read Spanish, that is).
Highly recommended light reading!

Animal Liberation

I finished Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer while on a plane to China. The book presents a compelling argument as to why we should not eat animals. Although it is not the primary reason I am eating more vegetarian, it certainly lends philosophical support. I have found it difficult to entirely give up meat, especially when we were on vacation in China. I suppose that the primary reason for this is that our society has evolved to use meat as a means of displaying wealth, since meat used to be relatively rare. As a result, large celebratory meals often have a fair amount of meat. Since we were in China for Chinese New Year, we had several such meals!

Emotional Intelligence

I've been reading parts of Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence.
Wikipedia has an interesting discussion about this topic. Overall, it talks about a lot of commonsense stuff, but maybe that's easy to see in hindsight. Some of the claims in the book about how society was deteriorating seem completely overblown: the book implies that a lack of emotional intelligence was responsible for many societal ills.

Company

We saw Company, which is a great musical. It should win lots of awards! Each member of the cast sings and plays at least one instrument, modulo the lead and one other character. The music and songs were good (some were memorable), but they weren't extraordinary. Some of the actors were amazing, though. The singer who played the lead role (Bobby), Raul Esparza, has a wonderful voice. The singer who played the oldest female role (Joanne), Barbara Walsh, was simply stunning.

Nutrition information

Here's a useful table that summarizes how much information various restaurant chains provide online about their meals. Very interesting: I wouldn't have thought, for example, that Chipotle would do such a poor job.

Pan's Labyrinth

We watched Pan's Labyrinth, which was a beautiful film. I still can't figure out whether it was more of a fairy tale or more of a war movie. Of course, we Americans can't relate to the Spanish Civil War in the same way that Spaniards would, so such speculation is probably fruitless.