Life’s a...well, you know

Last night I got to attend my first Olympic competition session. RR had two Beach Volleyball tickets, and invited me along. Beach Volleyball – why not?

We rode our bikes to Chaoyang Park, which took maybe a half hour. When we saw the huge mess of taxis outside the park entrance we were glad we chose to pedal there.

As you can see, they’ve tarted up the entrance to Chaoyang Park.
Some of the guys hanging around there offered to either buy our extra tickets or sell us some. You go through a security check here, though they do not check your ticket at this point.
Inside they’ve got an amusement and concession area set up with a giant screen showing various Olympic events. Some soft drink company sponsors this, but I don’t remember which one. For ¥10 you can ride the shuttle to the competition area, which is a good idea, since it’s a long distance from the south gate. One American woman was complaining loudly about having to pay “ten bucks” to get a ride, apparently forgetting that it’s the equivalent of $1.50. She was welcome to walk – we took the shuttle.

Once you get off the shuttle you get to the real security check:
Once again you go through a metal detector, and when it screeches they give you a quick pass around with a wand – yes it was the belt buckle. They have you open your bag and confiscate any food, beverage or weapons.

It’s still a bit of a walk further to the actual venue. There are a lot of little concession stands.
They have Coke, Sprite, bottled water, orange drink and bottled sweet tea; for beer you can get Budweiser, Tsingtao, or Yanjing; food is limited to popcorn and various packaged products like pastries and sausages. “Sandwich/hot dog/pizza” was listed on the menus, but all the stands had them marked NOT AVAILABLE. We grabbed a couple large Tsingtaos and went in.

Inside, the first match was already underway.
USA vs. Germany women. Note that the event was completely sold out. That’s what the press release said, so it has to be true.

Here is Team USA serving:
There were a couple of sections filled with young people in identical shirts.
I’m guessing they might have been the recipients of the ¥5 student tickets.

One of the fun things about Beach Volleyball is the DJ. It’s a bit like the way they play little bits of music during the lulls in action at an American baseball game.

Another fun thing about Beach Volleyball is the dance squad, the Beach Girls. They come out and do routines during timeouts and such, like when the sand gets raked.
This is the Olympics, remember? Serious athletic competition and all. I think TV ratings worldwide would be higher if other sports besides Beach Volleyball had Beach Girls. Athletics (track and field) could especially benefit from the extra action, with all the gaps between events.

Here’s Germany serving to the USA.
Note how the player not serving is using hand signals to suggest a strategy to the server.

The USA won the match, which made this group happy.
As the Beach Girls came out for another routine, joined by a giant Nini...
...some fans started coming in for the next match.
Second on the bill was Australia vs. Georgia.
Georgia has just scored a point here. Australia had to work for it, but eventually pulled out the win.

In between that match and the next, the Beach Girls and Nini were joined by Huanhuan and Yingying while the Brazilian and Russian teams tried to warm up.
The two MC’s (one Chinese, one foreign) came out with the Girls to explain some of the crowd participation elements of Beach Volleyball.
Here... ...you can see that the Brazilian penchant for athletes going by single names is not limited to football.

While they looked a little shaky at first, Brazil managed to get the win.
All in all, it was a fun evening.
As the Girls went through another routine...
...RR and I headed for the exit. Which turned out to be much more difficult than it might seem.
There were lots of signs telling you how to get in, but nothing telling you how to get back to the park’s south gate. We picked a direction, and found ourselves going out the east gate, unable to get back in, so we had to walk around a large part of the park’s perimeter. It’s a really huge park, so it took us a long time to get back to where we parked the bikes.
I remember a few months ago, when it was announced that restaurants inside venue perimeters would be closed during the Games, that some bloggers commented that this was a scheme to funnel more money to the official concessionaires. I think I can safely state that other reasons were behind that (security, of course), because when it comes to food inside Olympic venues, it sucks big time. The only choices are small prepackaged snacks of the kind you can buy at 7-11, and none of them are filling or particularly appetizing. It’s kind of pathetic that one of the world’s great events can’t even bring itself up to the level of an ordinary rock music festival in this respect. McDonald’s, one of the major international Olympic sponsors, had no presence at all, and while Coke signs were everywhere, it was all just decoration. Moral of the story: Make sure you eat before you go to your event.

Okay, enough ranting.

Eventually I’ll get around to writing about the Opening Ceremonies. No, I didn’t see them in person, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Mao’s other house

It’s been a while since I wrote about a local music show, mainly because I haven’t been to many. I caught a Hedgehog acoustic show at the Stone Boat a few weeks ago, but haven’t posted anything about it. Maybe I’ll get to that eventually. Last night I headed off to the MAO LiveHouse for a multi-band bill that looked pretty promising.

When I came in the door, the girl taking money pointed out a little sign. It said there was no re-entry to the club once you left, though you would be welcome to purchase another ticket to come back in. Cute. I paid my ¥50 and stayed in.
I never definitively caught a mention of a name, but I think this is Fire Balloon. I’ll post a correction if I’m wrong. As you can see, they are typical of Beijing bands in one way: it’s a three-piece with a female member. (edit - It is indeed Fire Balloon, 火气球.)
The lead singer and guitarist, aside from a rather crazy hairstyle, is quite good at his instrument. He doesn’t play a lot of solos, but when he does, they’re worth listening to, with an interesting tendency to work into unexpected notes. His singing is of a mumbly, indistinct style that reminds me a bit of Joyside.
The bassist contributes backing vocals, and her bass playing is excellent. Whether using her fingers or a pick, she is really good, with quick, imaginative lines and solid rhythm. If they have a weak link, it’s the drummer, who is pretty steady in the main but awkward sometimes on his fills. I searched the net for information but came up with very little, just mentions of their name on other bands’ sites.
Next up was SKO, who fit in with the kind of pop punk you hear from Green Day, Good Charlotte and the like. Not the most original music, but well written and very well played.
The lead singer is (from the sound of his accent when he spoke English) an American. He mostly spoke Chinese, however, and seemed quite fluent. Their lyrics were in both languages.
The main thing I noticed is that they are extremely precise in their playing in spite of the rowdy nature of the style. They also have a knack for coming up with sing-along choruses that are very catchy.

Next was a band called Perdel, and they’ve got a very different take on rock than any of the other local bands I’ve seen.
Their set started with a drum solo. Not a long or indulgent one, mind you, and he started out standing up.
Then the bass player walked out and joined in, playing a Rickenbacker-style Fernandez bass.
Keyboards next, with a burbling rhythmic sequence that he altered by fiddling with the knobs on a beat-up old Korg. I have a weakness for knob-twiddling keyboards, so this pleased me very much.
Continuing the progression, the lead guitarist was next. He’s quite good, with a style that mixes good melodies with outside touches.
Finally the lead singer and rhythm guitarist came out and the build-up worked into a song.
They had quite a lot of fans in the audience, cheering and singing along, including a group of girls next to me. This one took video of pretty much the whole show. Stylistically, they’re maybe a bit more poppish and melodic than most Beijing bands, and the keyboards give them a bit lighter edge, though they are nowhere near wimpy. Once again, lyrics in both English and Chinese.
When they finished their last song, there was a drawing when slips of paper with names were pulled out of a box. The winners came up on stage and took over the band’s instruments. The guy in the middle with the guitar was actually able to play a bit, and he sang part of a song while the others mostly just stood there.
The headliner of the evening was Subs, whom I have written about before.
They were pretty much the same as previous shows I’ve seen. This band gets tons of press here (comparatively speaking – it’s not like any Chinese rock gets mainstream notice here), and I guess I can see why, but I find Kang Mao's constant throat-rending screaming a bit much. When she makes an effort to sing, she reminds me a little of Lene Lovich or Pauline Murray, but there’s very little room for that in the full-on assault of angst-ridden noise.
After she screamed her last song, she left the stage to the band and headed for the mosh pit.
And that was a night at MAO’s house (the live one, not the dead one). The venue gets a thumbs up in almost every respect. Good size stage, good lighting system, decent sound, working air conditioners, reasonable drink prices, room for both dancing and avoiding dancers. All for $7, plus $4 for a gin and tonic.

Walking in BJ

I walk around the city a lot.

I could probably have counted the number of times I had ridden in a taxi on my fingers before I came here, but since then it’s probably averaged almost once per day. Not that I take a taxi every day, but there are plenty of days with multiple rides to make up for the days with none. Given how cheap they are here, that’s not really a problem financially like it might be in New York, for example. But I’m just really tired of taxis.

I got myself a Beijing transportation card which is good on subways and buses, and I use both of those to get most places. But for shorter trips, say a half hour or less, I just walk. Like they say, ru xiang sui su. That’s the Chinese equivalent of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

And I usually have my camera with me. Won’t you join me? (Why do I feel like Mr. Rogers all of a sudden?)
The trees here at Season Park are in bloom.
On the way to the office, I pass a shopping mall where lots of people just hang out, with or without their dogs.
I pass by the Dongzhimen Transit Center, still under construction. I don’t know why it’s so massive. Three subway lines cross underneath it, and about a hundred bus routes, but I have no idea what it will look like when complete.
Across the Second Ring Road from the Transit Center is this big office building, which I’ve photographed before, back when it was less complete:
That's from November 2006.
A little further along I pass through Nanguan Park, where the pond is half-filled. Notice the Fuwa standing on the water.
Even on a weekday morning there’s a fair amount of activity in the park. The guy with a music stand under the tree is playing a harmonica into a little portable amplifier and a few people are dancing to his music.
Continuing along towards the office, I encounter this deconstruction site. I ate at this restaurant only last week.
Here’s my building, with one of the newer tenants visible. Finally, decent coffee nearby. Obviously, this company is trying to emulate a certain Seattle-based multinational coffee company.

Then a day at work.

I’ve been pretty busy lately, so I sometimes go to a nearby restaurant called Beijing Pastry and Congee for take away.
Here are three filled pastries called xianbing, two with spiced ground beef and one with chopped vegetables, and a cold vegetable dish called haidai made of seaweed cut in strips with carrots, peppers and a lot of garlic.
That’s the bill. It comes to ¥10, about $1.45.
After work, I head for the subway station, where I see a new advertising campaign has taken over. In case you can’t make it out from the picture, the slogan is: Protecting Intellectual Property Rights And Promoting Innovation Development. It’s sponsored by the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China. Note to all foreign businesses: your IP is safe here now.
I get off at a stop across town and walk into a neighborhood. Dozens of vendors, mostly fruit and veg, are set up on the sidewalk along the little street, and the gathered shoppers made it pretty difficult for cars to get by.

I hear a little peeping noise and look to see what’s making it.
I’m not sure if the chicks are supposed to be pets or livestock or sale goods, but for the moment they’re Free Range Chicks. I don’t hang around to see if they ever make it back into the box.
The guy on the left is welding something on the sidewalk. The woman on the right is washing some vegetables for dinner.

I meet up with a coworker in this neighborhood. And speaking of dinner, we go to a fairly nice place.
That’s supposed to be half a barbequed duck, but it’s kinda small for a half bird, and seems to be missing some parts you would expect, but it tastes pretty good. The restaurant is having a special: for every ¥19 you spend, you get a free 600ml beer. As you can see, we qualify for three. In case you don’t know your metric system, those are big beers, about the size of two twelve ounce bottles each. We end up only drinking two – one of them is still in my fridge. They don’t complain when I carry it out.

To be honest, this is a composite day, consisting of events and pictures from about three different days in the past week. But I think it gives an accurate picture of my life here, straddling the expat world and the local culture. Tune in next time, when I'll condense all the seasons into one week and a decade into a month.