Jottings from the Granite Studio

As a native New Englander, I’ve been a Pats fan from way back. Yes, even when they were the “Patsies.” Now that they have become the New York Yankees of the NFL, I’ve come to realize how much fun it is to root for the dark side.
So when I heard from my buddy Froog that [...]

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And so a moment I thought I would never live to see has happened twice this decade…the Red Sox have won the World Series. Unfortunately with my teaching and my research schedule I had to watch most of the games on the Internet rebroadcast…except for game 4, for which Wu Ming spilled the beans over [...]

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It has been a busy week here. YJ is finally finished covering the 17th Party Congress (she claims to have won the office pool on the leadership selections). Personally, I’ll just be glad when we can get through breakfast and/or dinner without listening to CCTV news droning on with lists of names.
Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao….Wu [...]

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Bill Simmons’ annual NBA Draft Diary on ESPN.com had this to say about Yi Jianlian going to the Bucks:

I’m starting to come around on Yi — the thought of him shoveling out his car in minus-10 degree weather in January while fighting back tears and screaming, “Why????? Why?????” in Chinese is delightful for some reason. [...]

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Never mess with karma on the week of the Buddha’s birthday. The Boston Celtics openly tanked the last two months of the NBA season, convinced star Paul Pierce to go on an extended month-long vacation in which the Men in Green won only one game…all in the hopes of landing Ohio State man-child Greg Oden [...]

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In the wake of the China Bowl debacle comes news that the greatest rivalry in sports might be taking the show to Asia next spring.
The official website of the Boston Red Sox reports today:
“NEW YORK — The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, bitter rivals in the American League East, could be headed for [...]

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Sam over at The Useless Tree continues our conversation about the meaning of baseball in the context of ancient Chinese philosophy with a brilliant post about the “Dao of Manny.” Once again, Sam’s wonderful insights (almost) make me forget that he’s a Yankees fan. Let’s go Red Sox!….袜子都红/太阳升/波士顿出了一个大绿墙(城?) Okay…so I’ll leave the poetry for other [...]

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I saw this too late to include it in the Friday Happy Hour but it’s worth posting. In a fabulous profile of Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez in this week’s New Yorker, Ben McGrath quotes the man-child slugger as saying:
“I like to travel, man,” he said. “I been to Europe—you know, Spain. Dominican, Aruba, [...]

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Via Danwei comes a report that inclusion of the Cultural Revolution film “Though I am Gone” (我虽死去) has resulted in the cancellation of the Yunnan Film Festival. The film, available in 10 parts on YouTube, documents the horrific killing of Bian Zhongyun, the principlal of the Girls Middle School attached to Beijing Normal University. Her [...]

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SI is reporting that the NFL will announce on Monday that the game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks scheduled for this August in Beijing has been canceled.
Which genuinely sucks but at least makes my Chinese Tom Brady jersey an instant collectible.

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