sushipanda

• @jennwong where’s the party? in reply to jennwong #
• Just finished gossiping about diabolical women w/ @fuzheado at #sxswsh #
• Just arrived at #sxswsh. Where are all the hipsters? #
• @christinelu can’t make #sxswsh tonight in case u wanna give my slot to someone else! Have fun! #
• Sochu at mokkos did me in tonight #
• @julieliu just grabbed lunch and a long chat with the supernature guys. their work is really amazing, but you knew that already. in reply to julieliu #
• @julieliu yeah but how many karaoke runs are included in those four days? in reply to julieliu #
• @shanghailaine your eye just can’t wait to party. feed the monster in reply to shanghailaine #
• Next review: Yamatoya on Guyang Lu. Melt in your mouth unagi and fried cod. Gubei sure has good asian food going for it #
• @cmar55 @peijinc listening to britney at home. So there in reply to cmar55 #
• Jon Stewart is gonna have a field day with this hilarious Jindal sketch. Wait, it’s a real speech? #nsotu #
• Wow, this Bobby Jindal infomercial makes me want to buy new gym equipment #nsotu #
• He’s still campaigning! Prez Barry, stop making shit smell like roses! #nsotu #
• These are serious times. But I can’t help chuckling whenever that clown Roland Burris shows up on my screen. #nsotu #
• C’mon Republicans, smile a little! Please? Just a little? #nsotu #
• Poor Justice Ginsburg, hope this sobering speech doesn’t force her to stand up and cheer too often #nsotu #
• Is it me or is that flag pin getting bigger and bigger everytime I see it? #nsotu #
• Obama smiling like he just walked into his own surprise birthday party. “Hey, how ya doin’?” #nsotu #
• First lady lookin’ fiiiiiiiine. #nsotu #
• @peijinc sweet, where can i subscribe to Nonexistent Life? in reply to peijinc #
• @cmar55 step back in! the gods are peeing! in reply to cmar55 #
• looks like i spoke too soon about Adium 1.3.3. MSN still as spotty as hell. #
• @thehumanaught When I say party it up Phelps-style, I’m counting on you to lead, buddy in reply to thehumanaught #
• just signed up for #sxswshanghai. Hoping to see the China geekeratti party it up Michael Phelps style! #
• it’s good to have MSN on Adium working again. Hope version 1.3.3 holds up #
• @shanghailaine i watched the first half on slingbox, but it was choppy as all hell, then switched to justin.tv. in reply to shanghailaine #
• JAI HO! #
• Oooh best montage yet! #
• Shout out to Mickey Rourke wins Sean Penn some major panda points #
• Damn it! Looks like another salad for me #
• If mickey wins I eat coco curry #
• @cmar55 oscar oscar. The world stops. in reply to cmar55 #
• @Twitterkins when Kate Winslet pops up and disrupts my panda fix, I get super annoyed. in reply to Twitterkins #
• Cate Blanchett is so talented! #
• Ooh ooh get to see Marion Cotillard again. She so fine #
• Coke, JC Penney and Hyundai sweeping the Oscar ad awards. #
• Queen Latifah has more talent in her left toe than a jonas brothers sandwich #
• Happy Japanese people are so adorable. #
• Jai Ho sounds like what people call out late at night on Tongren Lu: Lai, ho! #
• John legend filling in for Peter Gabriel, who’s pissed this is a medley. Just as well, he’s not a member of Colbert Nation. #
• Alicia Keys can make me lasagna any night of the week. #
• Slingbox in china blows donkey poo. Justin.tv much better! #
• @terencelau ok never mind, found it in reply to terencelau #
• @terencelau can’t seem to find the oscars broadcast on scannelsurfing. in reply to terencelau #
• I miss jon stewart. The musical is NOT back! #
• @julieliu agree although was a little fatigued by the non-stop dancing and merriment during the wedding party in reply to julieliu #
• anne hathaway is a goddess. seriously #
• eating oatmeal and watching the oscars on slingbox. really hope that WALL-E wins best picture. Oh wait… #
• Just finished The Reader in time for the Oscars. M-E-H #

Last week I sent my friend an e-mail asking her when she’s going to be coming back to Shanghai, as she is currently in Sydney to supervise post-production on a commercial. She wrote back: “Tomorrow…but I really don’t want to go back to that shitty city.”

I’m not sure what specifically drove her to refer to Shanghai as “that shitty city.” She may be going through some personal drama here involving multiple lovers and corrupt and horny political figures, but I’m going to take it to mean that she’s not looking forward to the crap weather. This is the photo I just took outside on the balcony of my bedroom:

The sad thing is, this drizzly, gray picture that you’re seeing represents the nicest it’s looked all week. And according to my little weather widget, it’ll be like this at least through next Wednesday. It’s a good thing I’m a giant mass of sunshine or everyone around me would be seriously depressed by this shitty city.

I was having dinner with my Japanese friend Chieko last night, who has been in Shanghai over two years. Every conversation has centered around food, since she’s made it a point to introduce me to authentic Japanese places. She seems to have very high standards for Japanese fare, eschewing most sashimi restaurants because she bemoans the quality of non-imported fish. She also made a face when I brought up the popular-with-expats Haiku, and said that Hakkenden (my recent favorite izakaya-yakitori place) was OK for slumming but not appropriate for entertaining guests. Eventually, we started talking about western restaurants, which is more my purview.

Chieko: “I just really haven’t had any western food that was so delicious it made me want to go back for more.”

Me: “Really? But there is a lot of variety!”

Chieko: “Yeah? I mean, I went to Laris. That was…OK.”

Me: “Wow, expensive.”

Chieko: “And City Diner! That place is not good.”

I blanched. Did she just lump City Diner in with Laris? As if “western” was a single, definable category of food that allowed for comparison between its members? And did she just give the understatement of the year by saying City Diner, which has turned into quite the abomination, is simply “not good?” Japanese people, they make me smile.

• @jennwong you can pay for ass but you can’t buy cool! in reply to jennwong #
• how the hell is my iTunes now playing Lucky Star? Damn, the crap on my computer is mind boggling #
• The Asian Songbird http://tinyurl.com/b6mrtd #
• James Iha, Taylor Hanson, Adam Schlesinger, and the drummer from Cheap Trick have formed a band. Am I still stoned? http://snurl.com/c9yqx #
• Wow, our logo for Shanghai Rush is now on @Shanghaiist. Surreal. http://tinyurl.com/czf6ts #
• walking back home in the rain listening to Andrew Bird made me sad. I am now going to listen to Girl Talk and try to cheer up. #
• holy wowser, @julieliu actually set up that intro with the supernature design guys! Looks like that to-do list is working, Julie! #
• there is nothing worse than eating bad kimchi. Well, maybe bad kimchi marinated in used adult diapers. Sorry for the imagery, guy! #
• @cmar55 that’s hella funny, i was chortling at work in reply to cmar55 #
• RT @jdickerson: After Burris revelations parliamentarians trying 2 determine whether as member of Clown party he can still caucus w/ Dems #
• @terencelau are you talking about the HK chain? They’re going to Shanghai? in reply to terencelau #
• @cmar55 you know how to torrent? I’m impressed. Which is rare. :p in reply to cmar55 #
• @cmar55 let me know if you find the DVD set out here. I’ve been looking and so far, no dice in reply to cmar55 #
• RT @THE_REAL_SHAQ: Kobe is the best, he told me to take the trophy hm for my sons, class act, thanks bro #
• has anyone been able to log into MSN using Adium at all the past few weeks? MSN Messenger not very cooperative these days. #
• @GarySoup Xin Wang is the 24 hour Canto restaurant on Changle Road. Packed to the brim at 3 am in the morning, ever night. in reply to GarySoup #
• Wine at Shanghaiist party. Noodles at Xin Wang. TV on the Radio on iPhone. Best. Valentine’s Day. Ever. #

This is so fucking cute that I wish we could just rent cute kids and pay by the hour to be cute so that we don’t have to get sick of them and deal with when they get all awkward and weird when they hit puberty.

I’ve been having some major problems accessing Wordpress lately, and thus have not been able to post anything for quite some time. Having an ISP in the States totally sucks. Republic Studios is having no problem whatsoever with its Hong Kong-based server. Too bad it’s expensive and I’m cheap.

So here are the things that all my loyal fans have missed during my bloggy absence the past two and a half weeks:

- I watched the Superbowl at Hooter’s.
- I laughed when I heard about latest porn movie entitled “Stimulus Package.”

Yup, that’s pretty much it. Sad, huh? It’s mainly because after gorging myself to the point of unrecognizable bloat before and during the Chinese New Year (Coco curry, anyone?), I came to the conclusion that I needed to get myself back into some semblance of health. After wracking my brain for about 3 seconds, I pinpointed the exact element that was causing me to feel utterly blobular and useless: the sweet sweet nectar of Dionysus. It was time to stop drinking.

Drinking is quite simply the raison d’etre for the slow-cooking destruction of my body. In Shanghai, being a teetotaler is nearly unheard of. Alcohol is the crux of almost every social activity. After having drowned in this boozy sea for over five years, I realized that it had come to define everything that I do.

There was a mad, vicious domino effect that it set off every time I went out to drink. Drinking led to smoking, and of course it led to more drinking, and then more smoking, and then suddenly it was 3 AM and empty bottles were clinking below my feet as I shuffled off to some late night snacking that usually involved a lot of fried foods and cheese. Five hours later and the world kept its pace while I moved slowly against it, wasting away what is supposed to be the prime of my life by simply using this time to recover from the night before. There were so many “night befores” that I’ve lost count. And stomach lining.

Anyway, I cut myself off, have started eating lighter and better (though that kimchi-only diet turned out to be slightly disastrous), and am going to the gym every other day. Sure, it’s only been about three weeks, but at least it’s a start and I’m already adjusting to my divorce from cheese.

Unfortunately, this decision has rendered me completely incapable of being interesting. I discovered this during a recent birthday party I attended, where everyone customarily toasted each other every few minutes, and I was left drinking tea and imagining life as a large and lumbering Galapagos turtle. Workdays that used to end with a nicotine-infused dizziness and hacking coughs now end with me being in bed at 11 pm, listening to National Public Radio and staring longingly at the Hooters that is below my apartment. This is no joke. I’ve exited a vicious cycle of physiological degradation and instead entered a vicious cycle of complete and utter boredom.

So yeah, that’s why you guys haven’t been missing much.

• 16 great “mindfuck movies.” Damn, makes me want to watch “Primer” again tonight. http://snurl.com/bsy9q #
• @nocas that is the most romantic plate of curry and rice that I have ever seen. *sniff sniff* in reply to nocas #
• @cmar55 and what makes today different than any other day? in reply to cmar55 #
• just got our new mac pro delivered today. It sure looks pretty sitting their in the corner. if @peijinc were here he’d make love to it. #
• clients are asking if we can animate a realistic looking blender that coughs and barfs. yes, the state of advertising in China #
• @jennwong twhirl is nicer looking and customizable in reply to jennwong #
• des lys lunch special is gooooooooood. #
• @cmar55 I see that you purchased a new toy: http://tinyurl.com/djrw2n. Welcome to the club, it’s very elite. #
• watching TV on the Radio on Colbert. Weirdly awesome. #
• @terencelau compatibility: HIGH. There ya go. in reply to terencelau #
• @terencelau given how eerily similar our backgrounds and food interests are, I’m expecting HIGH music compatibility. Username? in reply to terencelau #
• just added @julieliu on last. Anyone else want to friend me and see how awesome my musical tastes are? #
• so after two bottles of wine, some caster smokes, and a night’s sleep, nothing has changed: our clients are still imbeciles. #
• Love the cognitive dissonance from the NYT Pictures of the Day lede: “Fires in South Korea, China, and Australia; show dogs in New York” #
• alex rodriguez is such a doucebag #
• channel surfing and still nothing on TV related to #cctvfire. Official new agency Xinhua has it though: http://is.gd/iUN1 #
• “how do u put something like that out?”asks my non-tweeting buddy Joe. Good question #cctvfire #
• @sagebrennan *polite golf-clapping* #
• Just posted something brief about the fire on Shanghaiist: http://is.gd/iUDE #cctvfire #
• gotta love china mainstream journalism, just a glancing mention of Beijing CCTV fire on 东方卫视 #cctvfire #
• @cmar55 better than smelling like camel toe #
• @cmar55 are you ever planning on returning to the motherland? #
• more scrumptious yakitori with @julieiu at Hakkenden, slowly becoming my favorite izakaya type place in Shanghai #
• All the plants in my office are dying. I have no idea how to save them. Thinking of making a salad #
• @jennwong congrats. hope you had lots of tequila at your farewell party for Schmindows #
• @alexcg oh you’re talking about adobo. Been meaning to try that out. Thanks! #
• Baskets of beer and whiskey at karaoke last night and all I had was a coke zero. So sad #
• Beginning to realize jusy how boring a healthy, non-alcoholic lifestyle is in this crazy town. #
• @alexcg wow! Pray tell location and name? Sounds post-worthy in reply to alexcg #

• @lparsons dont buy any macs here in china, get them before you come!! #
• @jennwong 15″ macbook pro. you will never make a better purchase #
• the animator we were trying to hire decommitted, boo. now we’re scrambling for an awesome character animator in shanghai. help? #
• WTF! “Fresh off his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans”http://is.gd/iakx #
• Andrew Bynum out 8-12 weeks. FRACK! #
• looks like all my free proxy servers have been firewalled off. Does anyone know of one that still works? Mucho appreciation! #
• @jennwong did you by any chance just leave Wagas? #
• @jennwong i think pho king is better. but the NYC pizza next to it is pretty damn good! #
• @jennwong @terencelau try this place http://twurl.nl/7m37gu. Yes, I’m promoting my own shit #
• @cmar55 no, still doing carbs, more like a generally low calorie diet. It helps with Chace gone – don’t have to be drinking beer so much! #
• @yakobusan keep at it! On my fifth day right now. Been trying to quit for years. in reply to yakobusan #
• @terencelau oh yeah? Who do you know? Let’s get them all on twitted in reply to terencelau #
• @raykwong here ya go (ignore my friend on the left): http://twitpic.com/1ai0k #
• @raykwong only one other dude here when my buddy and I came. Sad, sad SB party in reply to raykwong #
• My Super Bowl experience at Hooter’s in shanghai: My Super Bowl experience at Hooter’s in shanghai: http://twitpic.com/1ahjb #
• @peijinc will be at Hooters if you’re interested. Won’t be drinking though: egg white omelette and fruit cup. ugh #
• looks like federer is toast. what is up with that double fault? #
• @lparsons spend as much time there as possible. Eat as much as possible. Pet as many pandas as possible. Chengdu is the best! #
• @singaporeano no, not moving there, but it sure was a fun trip! Make sure you eat plenty of street food before you come back! #

Holy shit, there’s going to be a class on “The Wire” at Cal! And even better, the instructor is one of my old film professors, the esteemed Linda Williams, who once gave a lecture comparing pornography to the American musical. My best thing that happened to me as a result of that lecture was going home and watching “Singin’ in the Rain” and mentally documenting each instance of the comparative “money shot.” She’s a great film theorist and professor, and if I was still in the Bay Area I would go back and just audit the course, since my thousands upon thousands of readers know how highly I regard “the best television show in history.”

UPDATE: I just checked my previous posts and it turns out I only wrote ONCE about “the best television show in history.” So, I guess my legions of fans wouldn’t know how highly I regard the show. They do now; it’s a staggering work of heartbreaking genius. And yes, that previous combination of “staggering” and “heartbreaking genius” is completely my own. I didn’t crib that from anyone. Not at all.

Here’s the course description. Glad to see my old department continues to explore cool shit:

Discerning critics and avid fans have agreed that the five-season run of Ed Burns and David Simon’s The Wire was “the best TV show ever broadcast in America”–not the most popular but the best. The 60 hours that comprise this episodic series have been aptly been compared to Dickens, Balzac, Dreiser and Greek Tragedy. These comparisons attempt to get at the richly textured complexity of the work, its depth, its bleak tapestry of an American city and its diverse social stratifications. Yet none of these comparisons quite nails what it is that made this the most compelling “show” on TV and better than many of the best movies. This class will explore these comparisons, analyze episodes from the first, third, fourth and fifth seasons and try to discover what was and is so great about The Wire. We will screen as much of the series as we can during our mandatory screening sessions and approach it through the following lenses: the other writing of David Simon, including his journalism, an exemplary Greek Tragedy, Dickens’ Bleak House and/or parts of Balzac’s Human Comedy. We will also consider the formal tradition of episodic television.

(via kottke)