Photo by AFP/Getty Images

Washington DC will be the first US metropolis to implement a Europe-inspired, self-service, bicycle rental program. This week the city will flip the switch on a system of shared bicycles called SmartBike DC. Using much the same technology as the Paris’ Velib and Barcelona’s Bicing programs, commuters will be able to swipe a subscription card that allows them self-service access to bicycles available at multiple spots around the city. (At the time of this post there were 10 Bike Stations in the city plotted on a guide map with up to 10 bikes available at each station.) The annual fee for subscribing to the service? $40.

Well, what are you waiting for, DC? Go ride a bike!

TAGS: Current Events

Photos by China Mobile Staff

Part of a series of dispatches from the Olympics with our Beijing Correspondent Qing Qing Chen

The Perfect Spot
Making plans to watch the opening ceremony aka China’s “coming out” party is surprisingly not that different from planning the best New Year’s Eve party. In the end, you just end up home lazying around on your couch, or you spend the night walking around aimlessly wishing you had just been lazying around on your couch. I’d considered a couple “perfect” spots to watch the opening. There were the 26 cultural squares with projection screens set up around the city. But being a dot among thousands on a visit to Tiananmen Square made me have second thoughts. So we changed plans and made contact with friends who had reservations at a bar, but then our friend who could get us in was stuck outside fifth ring and coming into the middle of the city by car is an ordeal in Beijing traffic. Maybe it was to our fortune that we ended up crashing on a couch at another friend’s place who happened to live right by the Nest.

Continue reading »

TAGS: Current Events

Photo by [ENTER NAME]

So we’ve been following the story about the Spanish basketball team’s ad with their eyes pulled back in the what is associated in most parts of the world as a mockery of Asian people. The intensity of peoples’ reactions to this image is very interesting, but what has been more eye-opening is the vehement defense of the gesture by Spaniards around the world in blog postings and website comments.

“I think that this history is irreal ... racism? where? pleaaaaseeee, it’s an affectionate gesture.” -Raul de Lope

“Hello from Spain. This is so ridiculous. It’s not offensive at all the ad. It’s incredible that a country which obviously has a much more racist history like the US thinks we are racist because of such a thing. Your attitude reminds me of Al Qaeda’s reaction to Mahoma’s pictures published in a danish newspaper some years ago. Ridiculous.” - munafix

“Spain LOVES ALL CULTURES, and that’s true! this IS NOT RACISM! It’s only a friendly wink! That’s all! Come here and see it yourself!"- Manu

Almost to a person they imply that the gesture was not racist, and that it was done as a “hello,” a tipping of the proverbial hat, if you will.

I wanted to ask what you thought of the situation. Comment below, BUT let’s keep this articulate and not-offensive (pardon the pun).

TAGS: Current Events

Part of a series of dispatches from the Olympics with our Beijing Correspondent Qing Qing Chen

In a voice of a tour guide, my cab driver asks me, “so do you know what three anomalies (san da guai or literally “three big weirds") Beijing is known for these days?”

The Bird Nest

The Bird Legs

The Bird Egg

TAGS: Current Events

The first in a series of dispatches from the Olympics with our Beijing Correspondent Qing Qing Chen

I finally met up with Madi, a contributor to Theme, for a Rebuilding the Rights of Statues’ (Re-Tros) show live at Mao’s. I had just learned about the Drum Tower murder of an American from MSN before heading out, and by the time I came home, Russia was already at war. Mao Live House happens to be about a block from the Drum Tower, in the lively Gulou area /Houhai that’s home to restaurants, bars, shops, and the easy-stroll of Chinese, foreigners, and cabs stuck in traffic alike. Security wasn’t as hyper alert as I’d imagined. The only sense of anxiety I picked up was from a policeman whisking by on a moped. His furrowed brows and uneasy expression made me wonder what was going to happen to the security guards at the Drum Tower.

Madi was joined by a group of her friends at the restaurant. Amusingly enough, she tells me that she had just met most of them for the first time herself. The group was assembled from an online Douban (think a more personalized, enthusiastic, and sophisticated cross between Amazon reviews and a Facebook) group. Around the table was a group of photographers, critics, persons in the magazine industry, and as we sat and pounced on the topic of the opening ceremony, it was almost difficult to imagine Beijing as being “unsafe.” This city has always been square and straight and wide and patient.

Photo by Jase Lam

Yet beneath the calm, under the shroud of 5000 years of the mandate of heaven, of heavy-handed politics and legitimacy, stirs the fists and feathers of something wild. Perhaps this is why Beijing will always be the cultural capital of China, because great art is often born out of a time of unrest, and there’s nothing like rebelling at the foot of Tiananmen. Such is the tone of the Re-Tros show. Rock ‘n’ Roll is re-made in China in the fits and strums of three music intrigues. When the lights dim, the harrowing voice of lead vocal/guitarist Hua Dong explodes with bassist Liu Min’s yelps in a cry that teeters between nihilism and revolution. Together with Ma Hui, a virtual one-man army contained in drums, Re-Tros were really, truly some of the most beautiful performers I’ve seen.

Re-tros’s latest EP Cut Off! is available at Tag Team Records and for download on iTunes. Check out their controversial video for TV Show (Hang the Police)

TAGS: Current Events, Reviews, Music Reviews

Photo of LiNing by Phil Walter/Getty Images

NBC has made it tough for us in the US to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, live, as they happen - nothing is to be broadcast, even online, until the allotted time of 7:30pm (Eastern). Until then we have to be satisfied with text descriptions and several photo blogs by folks that are there. We’re all really excited to check this out - this morning there was a brief interview with Cai Guo-Qiang on NBC about his involvement with the ceremony, which was cool.

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Would love to hear feedback - to everyone who has checked out the opening ceremony, leave your comments below. There’s a limited edition Theme t-shirt for the funniest comment. 

TAGS: Current Events

Jet blues?

Tired of having a destination when you fly? Jetblue has an answer for you.

JetBlue Airways is setting up a trial of bag check and security systems at its new John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal, which opens in September.

The New York based airline is looking for 1,000 of its frequent flyers to show up at JFK on August 23 to check bags given to them by the airline, go through security and wait at the assigned gate for their “flight”. The prize for your labour? Giveaways, free parking and lunch. No, Really. Wonder how many folks are actually going to show?

Just recently there were several high profile bungled terminal launches - British Airways’ new Heathrow opening was one that comes immediately to mind. JetBlue has had a history of troubles at JFK - google Valentines and Jetblue when you get a chance. Uggh.

TAGS: Current Events

There’s a great piece by Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post about the Olympics which was posted yesterday. In the article Ms Jenkins talks about the commodification of the games and cites some great viewpoints that you might want to consider. You can read the full article here.

She summarizes her thoughts in the first paragraph: “You only have to breathe the air to understand that these Olympics aren’t about sport. They’re about corporate profit, a propaganda stage for the Chinese government, and the moral collapse of the Olympic movement, but the very last thing they’re about is excellence or the well-being of the athletes. The real interests, the real priorities, are in the air.”

In truth I’m not sure I wholeheartedly agree with all of her arguments, especially the one about the “government propaganda”. Sure, that holds true in part, but you need only to see what the Games did to Korea and Japan and to those countries’ collective cultural psyche to see the good in such a sporting occasion. That said, I enjoyed reading the article and I hope more folks will take different approaches to their Olympic coverage than the idol-worshipping international mass media will most certainly provide us in the coming weeks. 

TAGS: Current Events