Fall tiny letter
Getting creative in Mandarin Chinese
In 2018, #MeToo, the hashtag people around the world use to discuss sexual harassment, was blocked on social media in China.
Internet users in the country formed a new hashtag to keep raising awareness. They used the characters for rice (米, pronounced “mí”) and bunny (兔, pronounced “tù”).
They even used emoji to represent the phrase — a clever and more effective way to dodge the censors.
#🍚🐰
After the Tiananmen Square uprising, I imagined that China might move in the direction of democracy. Unfortunately, it went the other direction. And yet, it is an economic powerhouse. I feel for the people stuck living there, however. It's both sad and amazing how powerfully the government censors anything and everything in China. I'm impressed with the spirit of people who come up with clever linguistic workarounds like these.
How Chinese citizens use puns on Weibo to talk about #MeToo and zero-Covid without being censored - Rest of World
Chinese social media companies and users are locked in a never-ending battle between free speech and censorship.
Welcome to my cello house
The Architecture in Music series reinsides of pianos, flutes, violins and other instruments. I’m picturing a story of a family that lives inside a cello.
Keeping BART’s trains running…on Windows
If you’ve been to San Francisco, you may have ridden the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) lines. I haven't been a long time, mainly because the city is just too damn expensive, and secondly because I don't have any friends in the area. But I recall some good visits, and using BART’s ancient ticketing system— it's an oddity in a city that sits next to Silicon Valley. I remember thinking, couldn't they hire some of the smarty-pants from Palo Alto to modernize the system?
Per this article, BART mechanics and repair people must exercise maximum creativity to keep their retro-futuristic train cars working, while the automated train control systems run on Windows 98 + DOS (really old tech).
BART stations and trains have a certain iconic style, despite, or perhaps because of, their age.
How clever mechanics keep 50-year-old BART trains running: Windows 98, eBay, and scraps
Watching: Almost Fly
Almost Fly is set in Germany in the early 1990s. It follows four high school kids who become obsessed with hip hop after three of them sneak into a show at a US military base. The show is honest, lighthearted, and the humor translates well. It’s set in the “golden age of hip hop,” that is, before it became dominated by gangsta rap.
One of my greatest joys is seeing musical ideas come together, in almost any genre. Almost Fly spotlights this beautifully. The kids’ early attempt at rapping is hilarious, because they have no idea what to rap about, they are still learning the subculture, and they're pretty terrible at the start. The above trailer is mostly in German, but you don't need subtitles to understand the gist of the show. It's available on HBO.
RESPECT
I recently watched the Aretha Franklin biopic, which was excellent. I wouldn’t know just exactly how true it is to the real story, but it certainly doesn’t shy away from showing the dark sides of the various characters in her life, as well as the awful treatment she endured as a child and young adult.
As you know by now, one of my greatest joys is seeing musical arrangements come together. In this case, without giving away too much, for me the best scene is when Franklin brings a new song to her Muscle Shoals, Alabama session musicians, and it gradually takes shape under her musical direction. It’s amazing to see. Like many, I think, I was only familiar with Franklin’s hits, and unaware that her traditional Gospel album was her best selling ever.
Respect is streaming on Amazon Prime and likely elsewhere.
Go Paris!
Inside the New Plan to Make Paris ‘100% Cyclable’
The French capital is dramatically expanding its network of segregated bike lanes and more than tripling bicycle parking spots as part of a massive new investment.
I can't wait. I've never been to Paris, always wanted to go. Like almost everywhere else in Western Europe, it has gotten very expensive. But I love the idea of biking everywhere, especially in such a beautiful and historic city. My only concern is careless drivers.
Question for readers: are hand turn signals the same around the world? You know:
I know that sign language isn’t. There is International Sign Language, but countries have their own versions, i.e., ASL = American Sign Language. And we know that people drive on the “wrong” side of the road in the UK and Japan. I imagine that in some remote place, bicycle hand signals are weirdly different, like taking both hands off the handlebars and knitting your fingers behind your head means ‘I may be stopping soon to have a nosh.’
Note: City Lab used to be a separate website with great articles on building better cities. Then Bloomberg bought it, I believe, but they still continue to produce good work.
More at Bloomberg News on Paris’ cycling infrastructure
Portland quirk #3,234b
Every day here, I look for some quirky or unusual thing. I don't always find it, but when I do it's a nice little pleasure. I have no idea what's going on with the spelling here, but I can sympathize with anyone who wants control over the length of guitar solos.
Closing reflection
Game theorist Thomas Schelling famously suggested that if you are playing chicken with another driver, the best way to win — the best way to get the other driver to swerve out of the way first — is if before the game starts you very conspicuously unscrew your steering wheel and throw it out the window. Message to the other driver: I’d love to get out of the way, but I can’t control my car anymore. You better swerve!
— Quoted by Thomas Friedman, 10/1/22