Jottings from the Granite Studio

Beijing-based artist, Granite Studio friend, and occasional anonymous commentator Helen Couchman has been winging around the world this past month promoting her new book Workers.  Last December, Helen snuck onto the construction site for the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube and offered to take the portraits of any worker who wished to have his [...]

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There’s a scene in the movie Animal House, where Dean Wormer informs the Delta Chis that the fraternity has been placed on “double secret probation.” I now know how that feels. There’s been a lot of talk in the pubs and online about what some have dubbed the “No Fun” Olympics.  Restaurants and bars are closed, [...]

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Walking from the office to the local xiaomaibu for my usual breakfast of champions (two diet cokes and a jianbing), I happened to bump into a Dutch fellow who inquired of me where he might find a market that sells bacon and eggs.  Eggs are easy.  Bacon in this part of Haidian? Not so much.  [...]

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