One cup of coffee contains four calories Lest you add milk, in which case it's sixteen, And while dietitians say to be lean Means cutting back on confectioneries I fail to see the connection as a sun Of my choosing ascends to its high rim While the birches and banyans become limned In the layers of conscience -- until the dun Of evening comes and only coffee remains, Brewed blackness as my sun tromps home not too late. What is it with our obsession with weight, Image? and that stress! our self-imposed bane? I prefer simpler things, at sunrise and set; One cup of coffee contains happiness.
As Chinese players and coaches prepared for the nightcap of Thursday night's games in Ankara, Turkey, they first turned their attention to another, more pivotal contest: Ivory Coast vs. Puerto Rico.
The situation was simple, in a twisted, roundabout way: if Ivory Coast, 0-4, beat Puerto Rico, 1-3, the two teams would be in a three-way tie with China, at which point point differential in games between these three teams would decide who advances to the round of 16 and which two are eliminated.
So No. 1: Ivory Coast has to win.
But for China to advance, it gets a bit trickier. Which brings us to No. 2: Ivory Coast has to win by at least 11 but not more than 5. If they beat Puerto Rico too badly, then Ivory Coast and not China goes through. If, however, they don't win by enough, Puerto Rico is through.
But wait, there's more.
Because FIBA's third-tier tiebreaker is points allowed, China can afford to TIE the Ivory Coast in point-differential IF Ivory Coast allows Puerto Rico to score at least 71 points. I hope you're still following.
So No. 3, if Puerto Rico scores at least 71, Ivory Coast has to win by at least 12 BUT NOT MORE THAN 6.
We're going to confuse you just a little more now. According to this FIBA article, Ivory Coast needed to win by at least 12 -- and not MORE THAN 12:
On Thursday, the last day of pool play, it was a three by Puerto Rico that put China through.
With Puerto Rico being upset and knocked out of the tournament by Ivory Coast, David Huertas buried a shot from the arc at the buzzer to leave the Africans with an 88-79 victory.
Since China, Puerto Rico and Ivory Coast each had one win, goal differential was used a tie-breaker to determine fourth place.
Had Huertas missed, Ivory Coast would have had the best goal differential in the games between Puerto Rico, China and the African team.
I think that's incorrect, though, because no other media outlet -- including Chinese broadcasters -- made note of this "miracle three." You'd think they would, right? I mean, a story like this has an obvious lead, which no savvy news or sports editor would dare bury.
But that's tangential. Watch the fourth quarter of the Ivory Coast and Puerto Rico game and listen to the CCTV-5 commentators as they try to explain the situation to viewers.
With 2:41 left in the game, an and-one puts Ivory Coast up by 9. A little later, after a Puerto Rico turnover, the commentator points out that Puerto Rico may be rushing things a bit.
At the 1:56 mark, commentators wonder out loud what it'll take for Team China to advance on its own merits next time. They are openly questioning, in a roundabout way, whether China deserves to go to the round of 16. (They don't yet know China is about to lose to 47 to Turkey.)
At the 1:25 mark, after Ivory Coast extends its lead to 10, the commentator chuckles, "Don't win by too much."
The commentators are having a good time with this scenario -- watching it reminds me of the thrills of betting against the spread. But not too much is at stake here: before the game, everyone had more or less counted China out, not least of which is because Puerto Rico, at No. 10, is ranked 31 spots above Ivory Coast in the FIBA standings (China is No. 9, by the way).
With less than 20 seconds remaining in the game, Ivory Coast dunks it to go ahead by 12. Shock! Puerto Rico comes back and makes a three-pointer (was it important??? Depends if you believe that FIBA article) with one second left to make it 88-79.
The breakdown between the three teams:
China beat Ivory Coast 83-73 Puerto Rico beat China 84-76 Ivory Coast beat Puerto Rico 88-79
If that three hadn't gone in, Ivory Coast's point differential would have been +2 as well, with a points allowed of 159 (still more than China, which is why I think the the last-second three didn't matter).
Or is points SCORED the tiebreaker after point differential? If that were the case, Puerto Rico's late three would have been the difference.
Who knows. What's for sure is that China is into the elimination rounds and play at 11 pm against Lithuania, the Group D winner. We think we know who's going to win this one, but crazier things have happened in basketball.
Watching Russia vs. China currently at the FIBA World Basketball championships on CCTV-5. The announcers, as they have all tournament, are in full cheerleading mode. I don't blame them, necessarily, as I want Team China to win as well, but here are some of the things they've said already that would make non-China fans balk:
Russian throws soft pass: "Intercept the ball!"
Commentator 1: "That's a foul. Commentator 2: "No worries, just stop them (on defense)."
As ball is in air from Russia: "Get the rebound!" The shot goes in.
I've lost count how many times they've said aiya as Russia makes a good play or China misses a shot.
Considering how much China's now falling behind by, the commentating just makes the situation tenser.
Beijing Today calls them "radio exercises" because the moves are done to music that is broadcast over public radio. If you've biked around Guijie near Dongzhimen, you've probably seen it: entire kitchen staffs of fancy restaurants outside doing collective exercises. Or if you've worked in a Chinese office, perhaps you've partaken in these exercises as well (they're awful). Here's what it looks like:
China Daily's Metro Beijing section editorialized on this last month in such ridiculous terms that I almost left a comment. (Essentially: forced collective exercising relieves boredom; I think that was the crux of the column.) I can't find the editorial now, despite spending way too much time just now navigating its search function. Here's a news article instead.
POSTSCRIPT: China Daily's editorials were never good by any definition of the word, but now that they have METRO Beijing columnists "working" as well, the entire op-ed section is now just a complete and utter embarrassment. Here's someone writing about rain -- about average for an editorial. There are better and there are worse, but I can't stand linking to anything else.
I got a tip this evening about a building on fire near Sanyuanqiao. After a bit of internal deliberating, I decided to hop on my bike and check it out.
Alas, firefighters work quick in Beijing, as I saw these firetrucks departing the scene before I got there:
And not a trace of smoke. So I went to Lady's Street instead, for no particular reason:
My one-month vacation from this blog turned into two months, but so it goes sometimes that it takes longer than expected to sort out vagaries. A quick sum-up of the last 60 days: started full-time as a copyeditor at a news organization; won a beach tournament in Dalian a week after the oil rig explosion; cruised the Yangtze for a few days; got sick; bought ticket, just last night, to New York and Kansas City for National Day holiday.
I see myself speaking with friends at a Manhattan bar. In my time abroad, I've gained valuable insight into why I left in the first place. I loved drinking in New York after work, but I kept thinking there was something more. My antipathy for offices may be an expression of my restlessness, an inward rumbling that's the subconscious answer to the call of a world changing at frightening and exhilarating speeds. I didn't want to drink at my barstool and watch from my laptop as American got passed on the circular track of history.
And yet -- and yet! -- even if my motives for living abroad were accurate, what of the results? Have I merely chosen a different setting to defer adulthood -- instead of playing in Frisbee tournaments in Boston, playing in Singapore? Am I any closer to finding some great illuminating truth or, as ambition would have it, doing something greater?
There are more of these questions, and the answer to them all is maybe, or flat-out nos parading as maybes. I am a year, perhaps less, away from an existential crisis. By the day the questions creep up a bit more in my conscience, biding their time, waiting for audience.
A picture from the Yangtze -- notice the discoloration at the base of the mountain, and how that's a sign that summertime is low-water time:
With eight days left in my three-year Apple Care, I took my computer into the Sanlitun Apple Store and asked them to replace a battery and fan. As a result, no CPU for the time being (but how am I writing this blog post? Conundrum).
In a week or two I'll post some backdated photos from Chengdu, etc., but I think I'm going to take the month of July off, for various reasons. I've already been mailing in my work at the Beijing Ultimate blog for the past month or two.
This sort of cross-linking may be frowned upon, but Shanghai Open is the most competitive Ultimate Frisbee tournament in China, and it was this past weekend, so... there. Hook and lined. China Ultimate blog / Beijing Ultimate blog.
I'm in Shanghai again, this time for a Frisbee tournament (speaking of Ultimate Frisbee...), but while in town I took time to check out the Expo. Below, some pictures:
Among the best explanations I've heard regarding why it's great for expats to live in Beijing is one I'll attribute to Associated Press reporter Anita Chang, who said that this city, unlike, say, New York, is full of people with diverse interests. Whereas in some places seem to breed cliques, the environment here, for whatever reason, engenders a type of well-rounded individual. Or you can say well-rounded individuals tend to thrive here. Opportunities abound.
Part of the reason I've been so busy as late is because I, along with my friend Jim, have been hosting trivia night at Souk Lounge on Tuesdays. I know, I can't believe it either. This would have happened in absolutely no other city, but here I am, one of a dozen or so hosts of trivia in Beijing. It's a fascinating subculture that I'd love to explore in greater detail in the future, but for now, many of my free hours (those that don't go to Ultimate Frisbee, etc.) are devoted to coming up with questions in the categories of Images, Current Events and Beijing Life, Music, Geography, History, Literature, Potpourri and Sports. Jim and I are about to embark on our third week as hosts, and it's going to be better than ever.
Anyway, please come check out trivia on Tuesday at Souk Lounge if you get a chance. Starts at 8 pm, but Jim and I will be there eating dinner and hanging out beforehand, so say hi if you can.
We've branded our quiz EVERYBODY GETS LAID* -- Tuesdays are the new Friday at Souk Lounge. Yeah, there's a reason for that...
Music Round, of course, is a staple in every trivia night. Here are our song choices for May 18 and May 25.
Entry backdated on June 1, 2:57 am; pictures taken on May 25, around noon
If you ever needed proof that Beijing has lovely parks, look no further than the local gems that foreigners and tourists tend to overlook: Jingshan Park, for instance, located across from the better-known Beihai Park (entrance prices: 5 kuai for the former, 20 for the latter). If one only had three or five days in Beijing, it's a no-brainer that you'd see the Forbidden City, Great Wall, maybe Temple of Heaven or Summer Palace, maybe Sanlitun or Nanluoguxiang if you were young, maybe one of the art districts... Jingshan Park, for many reasons, would not make it on the docket. But look at what you'd miss:
Entrance
No wonder the people above take so many pictures amid the flowers...
First, City Weekend redesigned its website. It was a long time coming, but it still looks like a cheap travel/tour website as opposed to a place for locals to get meaningful information. Not surprisingly, most of the listings under "events" are just glorified ads for travel companies advertising for "Tibet Travel Discount" and "Miao Lusheng Festival Tour."
Second, this ad on the Beijinger caught my eye:
Upon closer inspection...
Yes, that says pornSFW.com. Whether the images on that site are actually SFW -- safe for work -- depends entirely on where you work.
The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Eivind Aadland, performed three really solid pieces last night at the Century Theater near Liangmaqiao. (You can read my interview with Aadland on the Beijinger here.) When it was all done, the audience gave the TSO a stirring ovation, so Aadland came back and had the orchestra play an encore of the famous Chinese folk song Mo Li Hua, which got the crowd to clap again.
They came out for a second encore, a song that I didn't recognize. All told, a great night.
