Here’s one that might come as a no-brainer to folks like us…the travel-obsessed, that is. An Australian study recently revealed that people see travel as a good way to overcome boredom. The study, which surveyed more than 1700 Australians, found that most people want more out of life and 83 per cent are actually bored with their daily routine. Yes, I hear you, all join me in a chorus of “Duh!”. But if this is the case, then why do so few people seem to travel much? This was an Australian survey and the Aussies are known for taking extraordinarily long trips around the world (most likely because it is so costly to leave so you make the most of it when you do leave), but the scarcity of a vibrant travel bug in Americans is also a pronounced problem. Less than half of us have passports (though this is changing) and most of us get just two weeks off each year. That is criminal. It seems to me like we’d all be a lot happier and a lot less bored if we traveled more. Again, say it with me: Duh!
Parkour in the New Yorker
For those of you who, like me, anticipate with frothy-mouthed enthusiasm the arrival of the annual “Journeys” issue of the New Yorker, this year’s recent issue was a bit of a disappointment, eh? There was Pankaj Mishra’s travel tale about the new railroad from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet – the highest train ride in the world – which, I have to tell you, I found kind of boring.
Patricia Marx’s piece on luggage had a few clever moments, and might have appealed to me if I had any interest in designer luggage, but alas, I’m afraid it just didn’t do it for me.
There was one piece, however, which I really enjoyed and I recommend you read. And thankfully Remnick and Company finally made the foray into the 21st century and have most of their content online. This piece by
Alec Wilkinson on the “sport” of Parkour, was fascinating. I thought I knew a little bit about the sport, which is really more of a very physical activity and basically involves running around and jumping over and off things. If you happened to catch the most recent Bond, Casino Royale, you saw Parkour at the very beginning. Cool stuff. Well, Wilkinson’s piece takes a look at the invention of Parkour and introduces us not only to its inventor, a Frenchman named David Belle, but also to some of the American pioneers of Parkour who live in Boulder.
I would guess that this is just the beginning of much greater popularization of Parkour and is as fine an intro to it as you’re going to find.
Serving up Opera in Dive Bars in New York
It’s a rare opportunity to hear opera, one that is often very expensive and, for the masses, usually inaccessible; it’s tough to part with $100 per seat to watch some fat lady sing in German.
In fact, the only time I’ve ever been to an opera was in Prague where I saw Carmen for only a few dollars (and for the record, it was a skinny woman singing in Czech).
Fifteen years ago, however, I used to visit a Los Angeles restaurant called Sarnos. Sarnos was an Italian joint near Los Feliz that was frequented by opera aficionados. Every night, diners would stand up throughout dinner and start belting out operatic solos, sometimes accompanied by a nearby piano. This open-mike opera gig was a great scene but one that was doomed from the start. I’m not sure how long the restaurant lasted but it has now been closed for a long time.
And so it was with great pleasure that I just learned of a similar venture in Brooklyn that is bringing opera to the masses in a far more down-to-earth venue: a dive bar.
Freddy’s Bar offers up a monthly opera night called Opera on Tap in which customers can kick back with a beer and take in an ensemble of opera singers doing their thing. For the price of a beer, one can indulge in the fine arts (and for the price of 5 or 6 beers, one might even begin understanding Italian). Goodbye pricey Met, hello dive bar!
Inspired by the success, Opera on Tap has moved on to at least two other bars in New York. So if you happen to be visiting this May, you can catch Opera on Tap at The Parkside Lounge on May 2nd, Freddy’s Bar on May 10th, and the Galapagos Art Space on May 20th. The theme for the month of May is Dysfunctional Relationships in Opera. Better order up a lot of drinks to get through this one!
For a preview of what to expect, click here.
A Canadian In Beijing: Two-Wheeled Matrimony
I’ve been here for three weeks and I’m pretty sure that yesterday was my first “bad day.” Okay, perhaps “bad” is the wrong word for it. I’d have to say that what started as a good day became a low day, a sad day, a frustrating and annoying day. . . a day when I wished I were home and not here. . . for just an hour, perhaps. I could have even found solace in twenty minutes. (They need to invent that transporter device from Star Trek already!)
The air was thick with a mixture of pollution and desert dust and there was a cool wind. Beijing was crying for rain but the tears wouldn’t come from the sky. Wind cut through my clothes as I went to fetch my new bike (second-hand – thanks Sarah! – but new to me) so that I could take it out on our honeymoon ride.
I am very happy to have a bike. It gives me a chance to explore the far reaches of my neighbourhood and have more freedom time-wise than walking gives. Yesterday, I decided to seek out the “Lotus in Moonlight Vegetarian Restaurant” that I was told about by one of my Chinese friends. He even drew me a map and it seemed easy enough to understand. I got on my bike and pedalled in the direction of food. My bike and I were getting along beautifully.
I got to the area where the restaurant was supposed to be and this is when my day started to twist and turn. Sometimes I think that people here get a kick out of misdirecting the foreigner. I’ve been cynical enough to wonder this because it’s not the first time that I’ve been pointed the wrong way by a local and have had to re-trace my steps. My language skills can’t be that bad!
This happened three times. It took me a half an hour of navigating several office building parking lots and busy side streets before I was confident that I had the right building. Why was I confident? Because I had asked three different people. I was tired of trusting solitary answers. I started to approach asking directions with skepticism rather than trust. That was probably the place where my day descended: my attitude.
I locked up my bike and I headed inside. (I have since learned that all the bikes are locked here, but often only with this back lock, which is so subtle that I hadn’t noticed it before. I also use a second front lock, as per Sarah’s suggestion.)
This was both a shopping mall and an office building and it was hard to identify where the shopping began and where the offices ended. Escalators brought me up to the third floor where I was greeted by gaudy wrapped pillars and sparsely designed shopping counters selling a variety of specialty items.
The restaurant was one of the corner suites on this floor. It was beautiful and spacious with wide-open windows that overlooked more courtyards to yet more buildings. The chairs were plush and throne-like and the menu was a hardcover book that looked more like a coffee table book of photography than it did a restaurant menu.
The prices reflected the décor.
Unfortunately, the service did not.
It seems to me that I was disturbing the waitress by being there, even though I was one of only two customers. She spoke so quickly that I couldn’t understand her. When I asked her kindly if she would please repeat what she had said more slowly, she actually sped up her speech instead.
Despite this mean-spirited move, I was still able to gather that no food was available as it was between lunch and dinner (about 3:00pm). I then tried to order just a cup of tea, but then certain beverages were also not available and I couldn’t ascertain why they weren’t and why they were. All in all, everything the waitress said seemed to be unclear and slurred. She rolled her eyes with annoyance when I said I didn’t understand. Even her body language conveyed annoyance. After “dealing” with me, she went across the room and complained to her friends and fellow workers who then all turned and stared at me at the same moment.
What was bothering her so much? Was it my presence during an ‘off’ time’? My lack of proficient Chinese language skills? My affluence in being able to walk into that restaurant at all? (And c’mon, I’m a musician and I had already gathered that I’d only be able to afford some tea and some soup there). Or was it my ragged appearance?
Or maybe she was having a terrible day too and she decided that this “laowai” was an easy target for her bad mood. Really, there’s no telling what the reasons were, there’s just the response to manage; and mine was one of dejection and frustration.
I ordered an overpriced juice – 20 kuai – and I drank it, looked out the window for about five minutes, and then I left. I felt mistreated and ripped off at the same time, not to mention still hungry and therefore more irritable.
I was undoing the locks on my bike outside when a man approached me and asked me for money. He gestured to the row of bikes and I quickly remembered that sometimes you have to pay to park your bike in this city. Seeing as this was more of a business district, it made sense that someone was responsible for the bikes outside. It’s safer that way, especially considering the fact that bike theft is rampant in Beijing.
I asked him how much and he said “wu” or “five” and I was aghast. “Five kuai!” I said in Chinese, “that’s way too expensive!” This was the wrong time to overcharge me for something, considering the trouble I’d just had with bad directions coupled with that terrible restaurant experience! My tone was defensive and sharp and I narrowed my eyes at him expecting a fight in my third language.
He looked at me blankly, paused, and then slowly held up a five mao note.
My stony defenses crumbled like a sand castle. I felt so sheepish. Five mao and Five kuai are very different – it’s the difference between $0.07 and $0.73 Canadian. I apologized immediately and handed him my five mao. He thanked me and I said “bu keqi” which is the respectful way of saying you’re welcome and it means, literally, “don’t be so polite” or “no politeness [needed].” I mean, after all, I wasn’t polite to him and so why should he be polite to me? I hoped he heard both the literal and the conventional meanings.
So, I had yet another big lesson about carrying forward negative energy. I took on the waitress’s negative energy and then passed it on to the parking attendant. I can only hope that it stopped there.
Just before hopping on my bike and heading home to some groceries in my fridge, I heard some music that was being pumped out of a nearby outdoor stage. It was Air Supply: All out of Love. I have a big love-on for Air Supply. They’re cheesy and wonderful – lush harmonies and reverb on the drums that goes for days. I know all the words. Total 80’s nostalgia.
I got on my bike and rode the whole way back to my dorm room (about fifteen minutes) singing this song at full volume, not caring who heard and who didn’t.
And I felt better.
“I’m all out of love / What am I without you? / I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong.”
I sang it to my bike.
We’re gonna stay married.
World Literature Week: NYPL LIVE & PEN Festival
The New York Public Library seems to have declared April as International Travel Writing Month. The list of events and offerings related to the world of travel literature continues to grow. Following on the heels of the recent Jan Morris event, the NYPL LIVE lecture series will go truly global this week. Here’s a quick rundown:
Today, at 7 PM, Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World, will appear at the South Court Auditorium of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Julia is a poet, essayist and fiction writer who spent part of her childhood in the Dominican Republic and now runs a sustainable farming project and literacy center in the mountains of her native country.
Then on Sunday, April 29, in conjunction with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, there will be a full day of travel-inspired talk hosted by the library, beginning with Voyage & Voyeur: Travel and Travel Writing at noon. Scheduled to appear are Alain de Botton, Ma Jiam and Illija Trojanow, discussing language and travel writing. Finally, at 2 PM, a special tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski, the talented Polish journalist and travel writer who died earlier this year.
The PEN Festival brings to town a whole host of other writers (like Pico Iyer and Susan Orlean) who will appear at lectures and workshops throughout the week, focusing thoughts around the festival’s theme of Home & Away. Feel free to send a postcard and share your own views too.