Oh, Behave!

China is getting ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They want everything to go right, to show off how well China has gotten things together. And as part of that, the government is teaching Beijingers how to behave. Specifically, they are teaching them to avoid public habits that are disgusting to many foreigners. You know, littering. Spitting on the sidewalks. Chewing with their mouths open. Whizzing against walls. And public displays of nosepicking.

Reminds me of when we first arrived in Beijing, at its old airport. The guy who was supposed to pick us up had been caught in traffic, so we were waiting in the crowded arrivals area, watching the scene. We saw one young woman, the very model of modern China. She was tall, had on a very chic grey business suit with a short skirt. Toting an expensive brief case. She had perfect long hair. She was talking on a cell phone (which in China in 1996 was WAY ahead of the game).

And she had one finger up her nose. To the third knuckle. Digging for gold. I swear she could have had her finger come out of her eye socket, she was in so far. I watched it with horrified fascination, the way we watch a train wreck or the early weeks of American Idol. But apart from us, NOBODY else noticed. Because it was just a normal sight, like seeing an American sipping from his Starbucks cup on the streets.

So China, good luck with that campaign!

What a Waste!

Usually wouldn't care if I saw a review for a TV show that concludes with a sentence like this: Shows like "John From Cincinnati" are why the good Lord made remote-control clickers. Bad reviews are kind of a relief - I don't feel like it's something else I should try to see.

But this time it makes me very sad and angry. Why? Because David Milch turned his attention to "John from Cincinnati," "Deadwood" ended prematurely. And "Deadwood" may well be the best damn TV drama that I've ever seen (and yes, I've seen "The Sopranos"). Such a waste. Sounds like you should skip the Cincinnati show. I'd recommend renting "Deadwood" instead -- but beware, the language is pretty damn foul, just what you'd expect from a rough-and-tumble mining town like Deadwood, Dakota Territory, circa 1876...

Soccer Violence in Europe. England Not Involved.

All you that equate "violent soccer fan" with "English soccer fan" are being too simplistic. This weekend a fan tried to punch a referee for awarding a penalty against his team. The fan (and the team) is DANISH. England was playing hundreds of miles away...

Happy Birthday Sargent Pepper!

I was going to title this "It was 40 years ago today" but Daniel Levitin beat me to it. His article about the impact of the Beatles, including Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released 1 June 1967, is an interesting read.

It reminds me of a story. Back in 1994 or so I attended an international conference in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek's airport didn't have much fuel, so I and other attendees actually flew into and out of the airport in Almaty, Kazakstan. (I flew there from Frankfurt on a Lufthansa DC-10, stuck in the middle seat in the center row of five seats with two drunken Central Asians on the left and two drunken Central Asians on the right. Not my best flight ever... )

The Kyrgyz conference organizers piled us onto a bus after the conference to take us back to Almaty and eventually, civilization. We were all in a good mood on the road to Almaty, a trip that lasted about 3 hours. Soon, the booze was flowing and the singing began. One Canadian guy with a good strong voice led us American/English/Canadian types in a round of "What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor." A couple of Russians sang some folk songs. A guy from Georgia (the one in the Caucasus, not the one that Sherman marched through) sang a song solo. So did a Finnish guy.

Then we hit the Beatles catologue. One wit (I think it was the Canadian dude) started us off with "Back in the USSR." A very appropriate song as we drove along a rural highway in one fragment of the former Soviet empire. We sang "Yesterday" and other upbeat Beatles tunes -- and EVERYBODY on the bus knew these songs, even the Georgian and Russians and the one Japanese dude who didn't even speak much English. If we had been young and cute kids instead of a bunch of semi-drunken men (mostly) bundled up against a Central Asian February night, it would have been a real "It's A Small World" moment.

As Levitin said in his piece, these Beatles songs will likely still be sung on Sgt Pepper's 100th birthday, although by then few may realize that they were first performed by four guys from Liverpool called Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr.