So, uh, how are we supposed to recognize each other? Should I bring a copy of Being and Time just to be on the safe side?
I'll be the stunningly handsome one.
I'll be the stunningly handsome one.
With this missive, Ben indicates that he plans to show up when all other attendees are already plastered.
Is it me, or is this blog running low on unprovoked insults lately?
I've been spending my unprovoked insults elsewhere lately.
I suppose there's no accounting for taste.
When it comes to insulting b-wo, all smack talked is prima facie provoked. So says I.
I'll be the sunburnt one. (A new low in the paleness front! Sunburnt on a cloudy 65 degree day while wearing sunscreen!)
Getting sunburnt through Bay Area fog is actually pretty common. Be careful!
I'm bummed that I can't be there tonight.
So, uh, how are we supposed to recognize each other?
There is an established protocol.
Though if you're the first one there, the established protocol may leave you feeling a bit silly.
I'll be the sunburnt one. (A new low in the paleness front! Sunburnt on a cloudy 65 degree day while wearing sunscreen!)
We must be kin or something.
Um, since I may very likely be the first one to arrive, since I will probably have to be the first one to leave, I will break protocol and merely be the one who looks like me.
What time are you planning on arriving, Saheli? I can get there anytime from 7 on.
The meetup did happen! Thanks to Josh and Saheli for coming out! I really enjoyed meeting both of you and I hope this means you will comment more. You will be sucked in yet!
Yeah, that was a blast. We need to recruit more west-coast commenters though, just so I don't always feel like the last one to the party.
WTF happened to w-lfs-n, though?
And last call is at 9 PM in this town? Really?
more west-coast commenters
SF is not the entire west coast.
Nah, last call came early 'cause we were in between the Financial District and Union Square. If we'd been in North Beach or the Mission, we'd have had longer.
SF is not the entire west coast.
Well, yeah, but my sense is that most of the commenters are back east, and so most of the commenting on the site goes on on east-coast hours. By the time I get around to reading through an entire thread, all the cock jokes I can come up with have already been made.
You're right about that, but being in California and having been in SF in February and March, I'm just annoyed that I couldn't make it.
You can count on Texas procrastinators!
You can count on Texas procrastinators!
To do what, not be on the east coast (the king of coasts, by the by)?
To be up late enough to comment with the Left Coasters.
By the way, can I tell you that I hate myself? I've totally become one of those people who compares everything to NYC. I don't know when or how this happened. I've always hated that person.
Also, the Chicago procrastinators. I seem to only look at this site in the wee hours, when everyone else is already asleep. Like now, when I am supposed to be writing a paper.
Stay long enough, Becks, and you can become one of those San Franciscans who compares everything to SF.
WTF happened to w-lfs-n, though?
Death in life.
26: I recommend just not telling people that you're doing that.
23, 27: I'm in the eastern time zone and am in the process of finishing studying for the exam I have at 9 AM tomorrow. Who's the procrastinator now?
I am writing an exam that I have to give at 11 am tomorrow and copy before then, though admittedly it's not going to take so long to copy. And since it's a take-home and there's a class I will still have to be conscious tomorrow. But overall, you win. (I shouldn't say that, because Texas has the biggest baddest proctrastinators.)
Oh, and there's another exam I have to give at 2 that I haven't started writing yet.
27: In the wee small hours of the morning
when the whole wide world is counting z's
you sit at the desk, and hit "refresh" once more
and never ever think of torts and fees
when your poor old brain won't learn its lessons
when your mind feels like it's stuck or clogged
in the wee small hours of the morning
that's the time for you to read Unfogged
you can become one of those San Franciscans who compares everything to SF
A world-class inferiority complex for a world-class city!
Pfft. Lubbock, Texas has a bigger inferiority complex than SF.
I think you might win on the facts in the current record.
But SF's inferiority complex is so sophisticated that Europeans prefer it to all other American city inferiority complexes.
San Francisco has a far superior Chinatown. It's actually, like, Chinese and not just a dumping ground for Prada handbag knockoffs.
38 - Yeah, I know. You can find some of the cool "weird, still writhing seafood for sale" markets and Chinese herb shops and some decent restaurants on some of the sidestreets but I give points to SF's Chinatown for having more of those places and putting them front and center.
I've never spent much time in SF Chinatown, but I find the contrast between the "Chinatown for show" area and the "Chinatown for people who want to do some produce and fish shopping from the sidewalks" area amusing.
I know you know, just sticking up for New York.
I appear to have diminished my (intra-city) moving/storage problems by breaking my coffee table.
The relevant leg has been wedged back under the body of the table, and the stuff that is currently on the table will be dealt with at a later date.
41: I recommend just not telling people that you're doing that.
Where's the shopping for produce and fish section?
Actually, my sister told me about some crazy store there when I was still questing for a heart to call my own, but I can't remember where she said it was. Alas the day!
Talkin' about Chinatown, obvs.
Though, really, there's a chinese market I can get to far more easily in Mountain View. Less fresh produce, probably, but alive fish.
I was going to hold off on commenting because I found 43 an aesthetically pleasing end to the thread, but now my dreams are dashed.
42: If your table is glass, be careful. A glass coffee table shattered on me (not in the literal sense of "on me") early this fall for similar reasons.
I don't remember the street name, but it's parallel to the street with the decorative gate. That's probably not all that helpful. A lot of people nowadays seem to get their Chinese foods from 99 Market so that area may look different now.
46: Thanks -- it's wood or wood-like substance. I was just pushing it with my foot and the leg buckled from right under it. So it might dump a bunch of stuff on the floor but it won't shatter in any dangerous way (and it's cheap, so I'm not too upset).
zzzzzz
How can S.F. have an inferiority complex? There can't be many other cities as celebrated as it is with such a small population.
Hey, thanks for the organization, Becks, and the ride, Josh! Much fun and explanation!
My understanding is that a good alternate Chinatown is Inner/outer sunset ares.
You get down Austin-way much, Wiener? Anyone else in the Unfoggedetariat in Texas? We should have a Texas Unfogged meet-up one of these days. I suppose I could travel to Lubbock if I absolutely had to, but, you know . . .
Also, I have to say that New York's Chinatown actually feels more like the China I knew and loved (and hated sometimes) than SF's Chinatown does.
Austin?!! I thought you lived in Scotland! Talk about way off...
Favorite Chinatown: Flushing! Lots happening there. But yeah, I like Manhattan's Chinatown better than SF too.
For some reason I am looking at my previous post and expanding SF to "science fiction" which makes for a weird assertion of preference and is obviously not what I meant.
TMK, I think you're thinking of NattarGcM. And I think he's from Scotland by in Oxford.
M/lls, not much (thought you were in Belgium, actually; and, you were in China?), but if I do I'll drop you a line. Or we could meet halfway in, um, Abilene? It would definitely make more sense for me to go to Austin than for you to come to Lubbock, but OTOH it's a pretty long drive.
It's all pretty confusing, so for the record:
I'm a Texas native, and grew up in Austin. And I generally keep it a big secret, especially here at Unfogged, but I was in China (Hong Kong for a summer, and then a year in a little town between Shanghai and Hangzhou, and then four years in Shanghai) between 1995 and 2000.
Then I was back in Austin for two years at UT Law School.
Then I was in Scotland (Edinburgh, to be precise) for the 2002-2003 school year, which is probably right about when I started reading and commenting on blogs.
After Scotland, I was in NYC until last summer, and then in Brussels for about three months. Belgium was great but (fairly spectacularly) didn't work out as planned, so now I'm back in Austin for the time being and maybe even for the duration. (As a sidenote, I just want to say that the New Belgium Brewery folks need to seriously work on their craft if they're actually trying to brew Belgian style beers.)
Hope that clears things up.
And yeah, Lubbock to Austin is a damn long drive.
Hmmmm, Abilene. Last I recall it was a dry township. But I think you can purchase beer/wine just outside the city limits, and then go drink it in a parking lot somewhere or smuggle it into a movie house. Sounds like it could lead to some good posting.
Any other Texas Unfoggedites out there?
all I know about Abilene: The Dead song (or is it a New Riders song?) "Loser" makes passing reference to it. There is also an Abilene, Kansas; but I'm pretty sure the Texas town was the one intended.
What happened with Belgium? Why aren't you back at the bakery in NYC? When the hell were you in China? What's the story, M/tch?
Right, I'd forgotten about the bakery, too. What happened with that?
Hey what bakery in NYC did you work at? Was it Amy's Bread?
and, you were in China?
Is this a joke? First comment.
Re a query upthread: SF Chinatown's untouristy street is Stockton, one block west of Grant Avenue, between the tunnel and Broadway. It's very busy with rude Chinese matrons demanding fresh fish and knocking around the produce stalls. I lived there for a while; early morning when deliveries come is quite a sight.
This comment is slightly out of date a I left SF a few years ago.
Hm. Well David Dodd at the UCSC music department thinks Robert Hunter was talking about Abilene, KS.
That makes 2 songs about Abilene, KS. The other is the
Western Song from the 50s. Women there don't treat ya mean...
It's actually, like, Chinese
I deal with a large population of Chinese people every day. I get oranges from them in the morning, and they come in to my office to have me fill out their checks and return addresses for them, because they have trouble writing their names in English. I am constantly dragging a translator into my office to interpret their complaints and wishes, and feel at a loss, really, when there isn't someone who speaks Chinese around. I wonder, sometimes, if I'm secretly living in China. So this is not really my picture of New York, that it is not, like, Chinese. But that may just be me.
Ah, Stockton sounds right, thanks.
idp -- Texas music historian Joe Sprecht thinks your song is about Abilene, TX.
I guess I always assumed it was KS because it was the terminus of the, was it Chisolm? trail, and the plain sense as I.A. Richards called it, of the song seems to indicate some such place. That and the fact that the KS Abilene was celebrated as the hometown of the President, even though I believe he'd been born in Texas. Imagine celebrating Midland today, for that reason.
Hey, cool, my band has a song about Abilene called, appropriately enough, "Abilene."
It's about the one in Texas.
61: is that a joke?
Um, yes?
Abilene. Last I recall it was a dry township.
So's Lubbock, at least as far as liquor purchases go; you have to go outside town to buy booze to take home. But we still have bars. Still, Abilene was kind of a joke suggestion, since I figure it is probably not so much fun.
Sorry about the Belgium thing not working out.
Is this a joke? First comment.
So apostropher, how come us good people can't link directly to comments, numbered comments, over at apostropher?
M&tch -- it can be done, you just need to know the trick.
Not Amy's, which is great (and has a great cookbook too, if you're into teh baking). I was at a wholesale bakery in Brooklyn called F/anciulla (the website is www.f/anciullafoods.com, without the slash of course). They make really good artisinal stuff, all handcrafted and from scratch, which makes it very expensive too. Mostly biscotti and panforte, as well as fancy crackers and cookies.
I left because I was moving to Belgium, but it was a good time to be moving on anyway, as the founder had just been made the general editor of R/achael R/ay's new magazine, and so was too busy to be involved in running the business anymore. She had come up with all the recipes herself and figured out how to scale them up for production, had been in the trenches and really knew her shit and worked incredibly hard and respected those who did likewise.
Her replacement was her brother, who had one of the most severe cases of Entitled Richboy Syndrome I've ever seen, and was an idiot to boot (I think he also suffered from Italian Mother's "Cult of the Male Child" Disorder too). His idea of managing was hanging around in the bakery poking around in things he knew absolutely nothing about and coming up with "smart" suggestions. It was like "The Office", but with less competence or self-awareness.
So I was glad to leave, and wouldn't want to go back to work there, besides which I didn't really have the money to move back to and live in NYC when Belgium fell through.
And as for Belgium, the missus ended up being really unhappy in the PhD program she had gotten the surprise all-expenses paid offer for, and she figured, rightly I think, that it was better for her to get out earlier than later. I think this also helped her realize that she was pretty unhappy with things in general, and we're separated at the moment, she back home in Athens, me in Austin, and we're not really sure what, if anything, comes next for us.
My that was long. As you can see, I'm really getting into this squatblogging thing.
M&tch -- it can be done, you just need to know the trick.
Well then do tell, Kid. Apparently even apo doesn't know this trick of yours.
I'm actually a little ambivalent about the numbering of comments, as their absence encourages quoting instead of using numbers to refer to comments upthread (e.g. "45 to 16"). I am on record as opposing this, and ogged, may peace be upon him, supports me.
On the other hand, numbers make it easier to know when a thread is approaching, for example, 1,000 comments.
I'm sorry to hear about your separation, M$tch.
Thanks bw and SCMT.
You're both banned.
even apo doesn't know this trick of yours
You just have to 'View source', then you can see the comment ID numbers.
we're separated at the moment
Eek. Sorry to hear 'bout that. I'm banned.
I should probably ban myself as well, for wanting to express sympathy. That really does stink.
Also, I have to say that New York's Chinatown actually feels more like the China I knew and loved (and hated sometimes) than SF's Chinatown does.
You know, I was trying to explain semi-indignation at everyone's dissing SF's Chinatown. I can't really argue with, ""it's not like China," and I finally realized, well, that's not the point. It's it's own thing. Of course NYC Chinatown is more like modern day China---its inhabitants are far more likely to hail directly from the PRC.
I mean, I have San Francisco Chinese-American friends who are fourth or fifth generation. Expecting their Chinatown--the Chinatown their elderly relatives live in, the Chinatown their great grandparents rebuilt after the fire/earthquake, the Chinatown of their parades and New Years celebrations,---to be like China is today is unreasonable. It's simply part of San Francisco. It's American really, and rightly so. Its touristiness is intrinsic to its history and tenacity as a community--that's how it managed not to get razed. We don't expect North Beach to be like Italy, or Harlem to be like West Africa, or Williamsburg to be like Hungary, do we? It would be weird to expect Fremont to be like Delhi. The China that fed into SF Chinatown doesn't really even exist anymore. So you can like it or dislike it for whatever other reasons--too hilly, too full of schlocky antique stores, not enough vegetarian food--but expecting it to be some kind of stand-in representative of China seems like setting it up for failure.
74 -- 78 gets it exactly right. And I too, am sorry to hear about your situation, and am banned. (Just as well since I'm leaving the office as we speak.)
Hey, I like SF's Chinatown. I just said the NYC one reminded me more of present-day (that is c. 2000) China, not that it was better. Put down that frying pan, er wok!
I've never been to Taiwan, but I know people who say that NYC CT is more like the Mainland, SF CT more like Taiwan, which makes sense as Taiwan didn't have the scouring of the Cultural Revolution and is in many ways more traditional than the PRC, while also being more modern technologically/financially/etc.
Also, thanks everyone, y'all are great.
Shit. I'm banned.
Can I be banned for prematurely expressing sympathy? Anyway, I express even more sympathy, and am banned anew.
And, O spirit of Becks, after a nice mostly 500-free period I am getting a ton today. Thought you might want to know.
Can I be banned for prematurely expressing sympathy?
My tactic was to not mention your premature expression to avoid embarassing you further.
But since you've gone ahead and brought it up again, I just want to reitereate to you that it's not that big a deal, Weiner, lots of guys have that problem.
Sorry to hear it, M+tch. I hope Austin is comfortable for the time being. And if there's ever a meetup in Texas, I'll do my best to make it there.
Thanks, 'smasher, and everyone else, for the condolences. Things will be okay, really. The Dude abides.
(And sorry Tia for hogging up the thread all serious-like and sending your rant elsewhere; teaching well is difficult, and a totally separate skill from knowing one's shit in one's field, but there's "not very good at teaching", and then there's "doesn't really care enough about teaching/students to even do a halfway decent job of it", and it sounds like your prof is decidely of the latter variety; my sympathies.)
Well, despite the unpleasantness, it's nice having you around again.
Sorry I'm late to this sentiment, but 89, for sure. (Take that, you anti-comment-numberer.)
See, it's true what they say. Suffering creates great art.
Oh damn. I missed the deadline again. Apo, there's some great art awaiting moderation in your In Box.
I, too, left some "great art" in your "in box", apo.
Some achieve greatness and have greatness thrust upon them.
Not that uncommon, really.