anthony bourdain, beirut

Anthony Bourdain is in Beirut right now - there probably won't be a show.

It is indeed heartbreaking and horrifying what has happened to this lovely country — to spanking new, lovingly restored,resurgent Beirut in particular, in only a few days of sustained and seemingly senseless destruction. A few days ago, this was a place where people were bursting with pride for the relative tolerance, progressive attitudes, and lack of conflict between groups. I was standing with a group: a Sunni, a Christian, and a Shiite — by the Hariri memorial when the gunfire started and the Hezbollah people appeared driving through city center and honking their horns in “celebration” for the capture/kidnappings. The look of dismay and embarrasment on all three faces… and the grim look of resignation as they all– instantly– recognized what would inevitably come next… it’s something I will never forget.

jackie chan, drunk, and other topics of interest

My sister sent me the following links:

Youtube video of Jackie Chan interrupting some person's concert. (There are subtitles in Chinese, which helped a LOT for me, since I couldn't really make out what Jackie Chan and the other guy were actually saying. Oh, and turn the sound down, it's really loud.) The picture quality sucks because it was recorded with someone's cell phone.

Here's a link to the same Youtube video, with English subtitles. I have no idea where the translator got "brokebacked" from, nor where the correlation is in Cantonese or Mandarin. The part where some person yells out "You're really sympathetic" should have been translated as "That's so pitiful/sucks for you!" And the person didn't translate "nei lo mei" - on the other hand, I'm not sure what it means, either.

Jackie Chan's subsequent apology.

Oh, and I am going to China FOR SURE this year! My sisters are buying the tickets this Friday, from the travel agency in Chinatown. YAY! We got a really good deal, too - about $1000 total for the two week tour, including airfare, hotel, and food. The hotels will be four-stars and up - according to the travel agent lady, "four-star in China is way better than four-star in America - they really take care of you over there". One of my sisters was pretty adamant about modern plumbing. They mentioned that our village still does not have modern plumbing and that we'd have "to do it in buckets". I asked where we were supposed to empty them, but everyone was eating so no one answered me.

Saw Pirates of the Caribbean over the weekend. It was fun, and fricking long. I had the same problem with Superman Returns. Directors, you get paid to hire these people called editors - USE THEM. I seriously could have done without the savage cannibals scenes, and without noticing that all the people who conveniently die in various ways - falling to their deaths, getting eaten by a kraken, are all minorities.