Torrential rains in Sichuan province have caused flooding in several cities in recent days, leading thousands of militia and reserve troops to be dispatched to the hardest hit areas.
The rains actually began last week, with the worst of it coming down in the last few days. Exact numbers regarding loss of life and property aren't available yet, but the rains have given us two vivid image of the destruction.
Drop what you're doing and watch this, Beijingers. Mark Griffith, a photographer and videographer who used to live in Beijing, has just released the fruit of 15 months of work, "Beijing State of Mind," set to Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind. The project was the brainchild of Andrew Dougherty, an expat who'd lived off and on here for five years. Rapping alongside Princess Fortier (in the role of Alicia Keys), the duo take us on a trip from the Forbidden City to the hutongs to the Great Wall to The Place, and so many other places in between that make our Beijing experience what it is.
A young woman got into a fight with subway security last Friday at Beijing Subway’s Changping Line. According to the video description, the scuffle began when she refused to put her bag through the X-ray machine, reportedly saying, “My bag costs twenty-fucking-thousand bucks, can you afford to touch it?” She then began cursing the poor security guards, with her male companion joining in.
The Wall Street Journal has a follow-up to a Chinese state media article we linked to yesterday, in which a South Korean broadcaster, while trying to express relief that the two girls who died on Asiana flight 214 from Shanghai to San Francisco via Seoul were not Korean (as if nationality matters in these tragedies), used utterly regretful phrasing.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label hired director Joseph Kahn to create an ad, and they got one heck of a finished product, titled "Game Changer." It features Bruce Lee in Hong Kong. Well, CGI Bruce Lee, anyway. As Kahn explains on Vimeo:
It happens every year, but the algal bloom in the Yellow Sea near Qingdao, Shandong province has been historically large this year, according to the Guardian. "This year's incident has swathed 28,900 sq km (11,158 sq miles), twice as much as the previous biggest bloom in 2008," in fact, leading officials to use bulldozers to remove 7,335 tons of this green stuff from beaches.
Fred Hayes was plane-watching at San Francisco airport when Asiana Flight 214 came in much too low, and the video he captured is the only one so far that shows the plane's moment of impact with the ground. It skidded to a stop before bursting into flames while Hayes could only say, over and over, "Oh my God."
A woman jumped in front of a train at Guomao Subway Station on Line 1 in Beijing yesterday and lived to tell about it. When she emerged from between carriages, pulling herself onto the platform from the tracks, she cried over and over, "Impossible..."
The inaugural Color Punch party, organized by Street Kids and Let There Be House, happened on June 15 at Dos Kolegas, and we're still trying to fathom all that drunken gaiety amidst organized lechery. What profligate uncoiling, the body's gasconade against the screwed-up walls of youth. And afterwards, how many more spilled additional colors in a final exhortation of spirit?
