I am the Johnny Drama of blogging
And so are 289 other people
Yep, I’m a B-list blogger, which means I might get invited to the major Bloggywood parties — but only because my younger more attractive brother happens to be an A-lister, a rising star in the cutthroat world of blogging celebrity. And if a hot blogger groupie flirts with me, it’s because she wants to get into my brother’s pants, not mine. Every now and again I’ll score a part in a Movie of the Week (read: Boing Boing link) but I’m always one f*ck-up away from the online equivalent of reality television (which I guess would be this.) Maybe I’ll get “spotted” when I go out, mostly by guys — no, always by guys … most of them drunk — some of whom might buy me a shot of Sambuca. (Thanks, Pat!) But, mostly, hardly anybody knows who the hell I am. I’m a B-list blogger for chrissakes. And if people think they do know me, they often get it wrong. Way wrong (or, at least, that is the story I’m sticking to). Take this Shanghai forum poster, for example:
After a quick look I concluded I somehow do not fit in this site’s target audience. By the way who is this Dan Washburn guy? I heard this name before. Is he the CEO of a major automaker in China who got fired for massive fraud (I know the story was release to the media in a different way)?
If you haven’t seen the excellent HBO series Entourage, much of this post likely made little sense to you. But really, why haven’t you seen Entourage? And no, living in China is not a good excuse.
Related:
B-List Zen
08.25.2005, 11:44 PM · Internet, Observations · Comments (4)
The best hummus in Shanghai
BEST OF SHANGHAI: ‘One man’s opinion’
I “studied” for a semester in Athens, Greece. Course load included Greek Culture, Greek Language, Creative Writing: Poetry and something called the Philosophy of Love and Sex, taught by a gay man who wore leather pants and a purple scarf and drove to class on a Harley. Our earliest class was at 2 pm. All classes were pass/fail. And, for some reason, the school provided us with ample spending money. That, my friends, is a recipe for disaster. I gained 15 pounds that spring, despite playing shooting guard for the school basketball team. (Granted, we only practiced twice a week and most practices were interrupted by several cigarette breaks.) Copious amounts of beer and wine likely played a factor in the weight gain, but most of it can be attributed to the Greek food. It’s easy to fall in love with. I’m hoping the arrival of Mediterranean Sandwich and Coffee Bar to the neighborhood (it used to be way out in some place called Hongqiao) doesn’t equal another 15 pounds.
08.12.2005, 9:30 PM · Best of Shanghai, Food · Comments (3)
From Haoyi Village to the New York Daily News
My friend Liu Yi, who I profiled during the Shanxi Province leg of my 2004 trip through China, was featured in an article entitled “America, meet your rivals” in the August 9, 2005 edition of the New York Daily News. Here is Yi’s part of the story:
Liu Yi, 25Studying to be a professor
In Liu Yi’s hometown of Haoyi in central China, virtually all teenagers go to work in factories, construction, coal mines or the family farm. So there’s not much point in dreaming of becoming a college professor.
In fact, since the 1949 Communist takeover of the country, only 100 people from Haoyi have gone to college, Liu said.
But Liu said his parents insisted he stick with his studies. He traveled 1,000 miles west (sic) to the relative luxury of Shanghai University (although undergrad dorm rooms don’t have heat, hot water or air conditioning).
With a newly awarded master’s degree in history, Liu will now pursue a Ph.D., which should eventually land him a job as a professor. He’ll likely earn $4,500 a year.
Liu celebrated his degree with beers and a feast at a restaurant crowded with students. The six-course meal for four, including spicy greenfish soup and fried tofu with sweet and sour sauce, came to a mere $17.
Liu took 30 seconds to search for the right words, in English, to describe what life might have been like if his family hadn’t sacrificed for his education.
“If not, you are a farmer in the countryside. You get a very bad life. I can’t enjoy that,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “I’m not a good farmer.”
The story is part of a five-day series by Daily News Deputy National Editor Scott Wenger, to whom I intoduced Yi while Wenger was in Shanghai last month. I also helped Wenger hook up with a translator — my friend Johnson Zhang — and if any of you have stumbled upon this page in search information on how to find a professional Shanghai-based English-speaking translator (I think they use the term “fixer” in the biz), contact me and I can put you in touch with Johnson. Many people who meet him, foreigner and Chinese, assume Johnson is American. His English is that good … and he’s never stepped foot outside of China.
By the way, the “founder of the Shanghai Diaries Web site” was quoted in the New York Daily News on Sunday and Monday. What a windbag!
08.11.2005, 5:07 PM · Diary, Shanxi · Comments (1)
Shanghai Diaries featured in TIME magazine
It seems that when you neglect your blog for most of the month of July, major magazines take notice … and reward you for it. TIME magazine, in its Europe and Asia editions for August 8, ran a story titled “Web of Knowledge: Some of the most informative travel guides are now online,” by Graham Holliday, who writes a column called “Time Traveler.” Here’s an excerpt:
Planning a trip and need a heads-up on the hidden quarters and cool hangouts that the average visitor doesn’t get to hear about? Then leave your guidebook at home and instead let a growing army of travel bloggers show you the way. Traditional travel books often can’t compete with the vast breadth of information on the Internet — or a dedicated blogger’s constantly updated insights into his home turf or topic. So whether you’re after the best burger in Brooklyn or the hottest hotel in Berlin, simply log on. There’s a blogger waiting to help.Our favorites:
SHANGHAIDIARIES.COM This stylish blog is the work of American journalist Dan Washburn, who moved to China in 2002. Alongside Shanghai restaurant reviews and city listings, you’ll find hundreds of articles, pictures and short videos. And if that isn’t enough coverage of China’s most dynamic city, Washburn also edits online city guide shanghaiist.com.
Other sites featured in the story are Notes From The Road, Vagablogging, Derelict London and Gridskipper.
While I’m bragging, Shanghaiist, my other online project, has been getting a fair amount of international attention, as well. You can read all about that here. And, in case you didn’t already know, the real brains behind both of these operations is Frank — he’s going to own the internet one day.
Links:
Story in TIME Asia
Story in TIME Europe
UPDATE: I am quoted, somewhat randomly, in Sunday’s New York Daily News. Rumor has it I will also be making make an appearance in Monday’s paper. And my friend Liu Yi should be featured in Wednesday’s Daily News.
08.05.2005, 11:59 PM · Featured, Site News · Comments (3)
My dad, Billy Baldwin and Al Bevilacqua
WARNING: Excessive name-dropping follows
On Sunday — the same day I toured Shanghai’s Sex Expo — my dad, David E. Washburn, turned 67. He was also inducted into the Massapequa High School Hall of Fame on Sunday, in Long Island, New York, 49 years after he was a member of MHS’s first-ever graduating class. I’m still not clear what one must do to enter the Hall — it’s not just about sports, although my dad was quite the sports star in high school — but if any school requires a Hall of Fame, it is Massapequa. That place has produced more than its share of notable names. Here’s a rundown: Jerry Seinfeld, all of the Baldwin brothers, Steve Guttenberg (set to appear on Veronica Mars this fall), Peggy Noonan, Ron Kovic, Brian Setzer, Brian Baldinger, Timothy Van Patten (he’s directed episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and The Wire … but he’ll always be “Salami” from The White Shadow to me) and, yes, Joey Buttafuoco and Jessica Hahn. Can we just go ahead and call that the cast of Surreal Life 6? I’ve thought and thought and thought, but I can’t come up with one famous person who graduated from Bloomsburg High School, my alma mater, and that place has been around for a lot more than 49 years. My college produced a girl who went on to appear on Survivor. Does that count?
Billy Baldwin — excuse me, William — appeared at the Hall of Fame ceremony because his mom, also a 2005 inductee, was unable to attend. My dad knew the Baldwins’ father, Alexander Baldwin, who was a social studies teacher at Massapequa. William hasn’t appeared in a movie with a name I recognize since the 1995 stinker Fair Game with Cindy Crawford. But don’t call him “Guttenberg” just yet. He’s getting great buzz for his portrayal of a hippie tennis pro in this fall’s The Squid and the Whale, a Sundance favorite written and directed by regular Wes Anderson collaborator Noah Baumbach, the man behind one of my favorite movies, Kicking and Screaming. Baldwin also has been tapped to star in a new series called Pros and Cons, created by J.J. Abrams of Alias and Lost fame. Talk about six degrees of Massapequa High School.
Anyway, as much as the Sexual Love Magic Ball amused me, I wish I could have been in Massapequa on Sunday (even though Chynna Phillips-Baldwin didn’t make the trip). Congratulations, dad. And happy birthday.
(Oh, and who is the other guy in the photo? The one on the left? None other than former Massapequa wrestling coach Al Bevilacqua, who was immortalized in the Seinfeld episode “The Race.”)
08.05.2005, 1:24 AM · Diary · Comments (4)
This post is not suitable for all audiences
You haven’t truly “done Shanghai” until you’ve watched a frail 80-something-year-old Chinese man lean on his cane and inspect the brown-skinned selection of CyberHUSTLERs — a “throbbing, vibrating Cyberskin vagina and anus” — at the China International Adult Toys and Reproductive Health Exhibition at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center in Hongqiao. Because it felt like something that had to be done, I headed to the Sex Expo on Sunday, the final day of its three-day run in Shanghai. The convention was starting to wind down, and some booths had already been vacated, but I still had enough time to peruse what I assume to be the usual assortment of rubber body parts, pills, lingerie, whips, chains and frightening inflatable females. And really, once you’ve seen one She Shell Mini Clit Climaxer, Vibrating Anal Probe or Cock Cage with a Tickler Top, you’ve seen them all.
As expected, there were plenty of amusing signs and packages, like the naughty candy maker promoting its “forever lickable forms, the peckers and the nipples” and the woman on the cover of a Vibrating Vagina box who pleads, “Intromit me!!!”
08.03.2005, 7:25 PM · Observations, Photos, Video