To keep in sync with brother-blog Froogville, where I've just added a similar rundown, here are some of the highlights from The Barstool earlier this year.
Guided Tour - recommended posts from the 2nd quarter of 2012
1) Great Drinking Songs (32) - 8th April 2012
Harry McClintock's hobo song Big Rock Candy Mountains, which I remembered fondly but dimly from my distant childhood, and was happy to rediscover a few years ago when the Coen brothers used it in the soundtrack to their Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
2) A Top Five Double Whammy - all-nighters and succumbing to slumber - 13th April 2012
As I near the date for my (possibly final) departure from China, I reflect on some good times past and list those Beijing bars where I have seen the sun come up.... and/or fallen asleep.
3) Great Love Songs (31) - 14th April 2012
Hoarse-voiced Norwegian dynamo Ida Maria's infectious shoutalong I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked.
4) Cocktails in the afternoon! - 17th April 2012
A private tasting at MaoMaoChong introduces me to some interesting new drink recipes.
5) Rearranging the deckchairs on the RMS Topicality - 19th April 2012
In the week of the centenary of the loss of the Titanic, I find myself reflecting on a number of metaphors inspired by the disaster - and their disastrous significance for me.
6) Haiku Bar Haiku 282 - 20th April 2012
I suffer a case of End of the World blues.
7) Top Five Things We Miss From JK's Playlist - 21st April 2012
My favourite bar owner had been back in Oz for 6 months, and down at the bar I found I was starting to miss some of the classic slices of cheese that used to come up particularly often on his iTunes playlist.
8) Bon mot for the week - 23rd April 2012
A particularly good one, from Friedrich Nietzsche.
9) Haiku Bar Haiku 283 - 27th April 2012
Some thoughts on the shortcomings of 'happy hours'.
10) An extreme 'Unsuitable Role Model' - 28th April 2012
Perhaps the most unsavoury entrant ever in this series: blathering Glaswegian drunk Rab C. Nesbitt - a fabulous comic creation by writer Ian Pattison and actor Gregor Fisher.
11) Seasonal drinking - 1st May 2012
Some cocktail ideas for May Day.
12) The beauty of statistics - 3rd May 2012
Where is the highest concentration of bars - per capita, or per square mile - in America? Someone can show you.
13) Memories of the SARS summer - 8th May 2012
A long overdue post on my (mostly rather joyous!) recollections of my first summer in Beijing.
14) A Japanese lesson [Great Love Songs (32)] - 12th May 2012
Reminiscences of my long affection for Queen, and a video of their anthemic singalong (Japanese chorus and all!) Teo Torriatte.
15) The price issue (AGAIN) - 15th May 2012
A follow-up to this post from a little over a year earlier, decrying the outrageous overcharging we are increasingly being asked to accept in Beijing's bars.
16) Haiku Bar Haiku 286 - 18th May 2012
On the brink of saying goodbye, I reflect on the handful of bars here that have inspired something like love in me.
17) Junk food heaven! - 19th May 2012
I find myself looking forward to some unhealthy eating 'treats' when I get back to the UK.
18) Taking my leave - 23rd May 2012
To mark my departure from Beijing after nearly 10 years, I could think of nothing more appropriate than The Wailing Jennys' beautiful a cappella version of The Parting Glass.
19) Generic expat bars, and why I hate them - 29th May 2012
A particularly undistinguished new bar opening in the (expat-frequented) Lido area of north-east Beijing leads me into an analysis of what invariably seems to be done badly about this sort of place, and why I could quite happily live without any of them.
20) Caipirinha! - 31st May 2012
I celebrate being back in the old country by having cocktails at home - oh, the decadence!
21) Haiku Bar Haiku 288 - 1st June 2012
The delights of the traditional British 'lock in'.
22) A song for the Euros - 9th June 2012
I celebrate the kick-off of the European Football Championships by posting a video of Neil Innes' One Thing On Your Mind, a great C&W pastiche about the eternal incompatibility of the sexes. (This post became my discussion thread for chatting about the tournament.)
23) Does Nanluoguxiang have a future? - 11th June 2012
NO. I predict the inevitable implosion of Beijing's most overhyped, overcrowded bar & shopping street. A great pity - it used to be my favourite place in the city.
24) A decade of change:
Part 1 - 12th June 2012
Part 2 - 14th June 2012
Part 3 - 19th June 2012
This three-part series on the evolution of the Beijing bar scene during my ten years living here has already been given permanent links in the sidebar.
25) Another Top Five basslines: getting 'hoopy' - 16th June 2012
Another entrant in my new-ish series on great bass playing, this time focusing on bass parts that are a little more sinuous and sophisticated than my previous roundups of 'hooks' and 'chuggers'.
26) Last call - 30th June 2012
Semisonic's Closing Time and Tom Waits's I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You: two great songs about the poignancy of the bar's closing at the end of the evening - and the danger of romantic entanglements forming at the bar!
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