Absurdity, Allegory and China

Here’s a shot from late last week in Beijing when the air was somewhat clear, the man was somewhat short – though longer than the bed of his trike – and the Hyundai Elantra was max shiny. And the CCTV Bldg was the CCTV Bldg., since it’s hard for it to be anything else. (click [...]

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It has been awhile since I’ve blogged, though not because I’ve not wanted to. I just haven’t wanted too enough. Inertia is … addictive. The force that changed my direction was, as it has so often been, the CCTV HQ Building. On the evening of December 20, 2010, the folks at the CCTV Headquarters Building [...]

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I had written a long blog entry to go with these photos, explaining the National Holiday air quality issue, but I lost it. It happens. Though I’m not one who usually lets things go, there’s not much I can do about this one, so I’ve come to terms with the fact that it has been [...]

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In Amsterdam this past Monday evening, September 27th, there was a book launch of Koolhaas in Beijing, by Edzard Mik, the fifth book in a series of essays commissioned by Fonds BKVB / Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. The designer Marco Stout of Stout/Kramer, Rotterdam has introduced the book on their website. [...]

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Below are a few shots from this morning at Guomao, where the Dongsanhuan (East Third Ring Road) and Jianguomen Dajie entwine. It was another lovely, steamy, smoggy, summer morning in the capital city. It’s not always like this, though it is quite a lot. These photos are part of a larger set shot between 5:24 [...]

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The CCTV Building project has been rife with rumors since before the first hole was dug, and the latest one (via niubi at Twitter) was spotted on Weibao, a Chinese microblogging service. The rough translation (and I stress “rough”) is “Heard that my foolish masters’ big underpants scorched little brother [TVCC] must be demolished tomorrow, [...]

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I have just finished reading Googled by Ken Auletta, and I followed it up with James Fallows’ Atlantic Monthly piece, How to Save the News. A lot of good reading here, as well as a much deeper explanation of who and what Google is and what it appears they are doing, though it becomes a [...]

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Here are some photos of the CCTV in color, all taken in the late afternoon/early evening, April 23, 2010

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Photos of the continuing project. (click for bigger pic)

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(This post began as a comment in response to comments to my previous post, Civilized Chaoyang: What Was It Before?. It “grew” into this. I could post another photographic example of the Civilized Chaoyang Campaign, but I won’t. Even I’d consider that as “piling on.” The “new grads” alludes to one of the comments, by [...]

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