why do some of the best songs have the most tragic album covers

(Source: Spotify)

gulou:

Peter Hessler: Strange Stones — Conversation at ChinaFile

Watch live online on Tuesday, May 21st at 6:30 pm (EST) at ChinaFile.

“ChinaFile Presents: Peter Hessler, author of the recently published Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, a collection of essays and writing on China and the United States over the past decade. He will be in discussion with author Michael Meyer and Susan Jakes, Editor of ChinaFile.

Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Hessler’s best reportage from The New Yorker over the past decade. During this time, Hessler lived in both Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions. This unusual perspective distinguishes Strange Stones, which showcases Hessler’s unmatched range as a storyteller. “Wild Flavor” invites readers along on a taste test between two rat restaurants in South China. One story profiles Yao Ming, basketball star and China’s most beloved export, another David Spindler, an obsessive and passionate historian of the Great Wall. In “Dr. Don,” Hessler writes movingly about a small-town pharmacist and his relationship with the people he serves. While Hessler’s subjects and locations vary, subtle but deeply important thematic links bind these pieces — the strength of local traditions, the surprising overlap between apparently opposing cultures, the powerful lessons drawn from individuals who straddle different worlds.”

For more information, see ChinaFile or AsiaSociety.org

one of my favorite writers on china, and one of the first i read

bbook:

When it comes to matters of love, it’s often platonic devotion that proves the most intimate and carries the most weight in one’s life. It’s the love stories of friendship, the decades-spanning, unbreakable connection to someone that stays around as lovers come and go. Yes, romantic love is an all-encompassing illness of the heart, but without a best friend to guide you, life becomes less tolerable. Cinema has long been awash in tales of romantic love, of course, but it’s rare to see a tale of love between two female best friends, especially one that genuinely shows what it is like to have that kind of soul mate, without whom everything else would be askew. But with Noah Baumbach’s latest film, Frances Ha, we see one woman’s journey of self-discovery, ignited by a fractured friendship.

Greta Gerwig & Mickey Sumner on Exploring Female Friendship in Noah Baumbach’s ‘Frances Ha’

Found in the stacks

Relaxing for a change having dinner and reading in the park behind my apartment

The trailer for Jia Zhangke’s film A Touch of Sin, premiering at Cannes soon.  Notable words in the trailer include “Based on true events” (like certain murders that were never solved and that high-speed rail crash), which is amazing considering China’s film censorship.

gulou:

Rebuilding the Fengtongzhai Honey Cooperative — Funding Campaign

The project:

On April 20^th, 2013, a devastating earthquake struck rural Sichuan Province near the city Ya’an. One of the two hardest hit counties was Baoxing County, home of the Fengtongzhai Honey Cooperative. Our project goal is to crowdfund the money for 100 beehives to rebuild and expand the honey cooperative. This project will help the community start down the path to recovery, while preserving the local ecosystem that is crucial to the giant panda.

How to Help: See the funding campaign page here for more information.

Via The Sinocism China Newsletter

This is relevant to basically all my interests…  

stewardssons:

A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, 

this is pm my response to neo-realists btw

(via thestudyofmettle)