tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-332115832024-03-07T05:45:41.781+00:00Round-The-World Barstool BluesMusings on life & love from the bars of the world....Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.comBlogger2620125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-38981301503708296142012-12-21T03:18:00.000+00:002012-12-21T03:18:00.201+00:00A farewell bon mot<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>"My whole life has been spent walking by the side of a bottomless chasm, jumping from stone to stone. Sometimes I try to leave my narrow path and join the swirling mainstream of life, but I always find myself drawn inexorably back towards the chasm's edge, and there I shall walk until the day I finally fall into the abyss."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Edvard Munch (1863-1944)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixtHe64MVzkMf6ntTPZ0wH3AbcbCloHgd7mLZlxogQDxdroG58qbMpB-GoZbs5yHWE8AyTDTFHFQOGxkoT7vmjJEs68NhyphenhyphenmXpifJd5cyvdLDq7-FWp6SHAoMxVtZFaBzf3HWPX/s1600/Munch+-+The+Scream+-+lithograph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixtHe64MVzkMf6ntTPZ0wH3AbcbCloHgd7mLZlxogQDxdroG58qbMpB-GoZbs5yHWE8AyTDTFHFQOGxkoT7vmjJEs68NhyphenhyphenmXpifJd5cyvdLDq7-FWp6SHAoMxVtZFaBzf3HWPX/s400/Munch+-+The+Scream+-+lithograph.png" width="282" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, I know <i>that</i> feeling.</span></div>
<br />
<br />Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-26097723648776824572012-12-21T02:28:00.000+00:002013-02-11T02:14:48.818+00:00A sup from the archives: my finest moments on The Barstool<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For any new readers who may stumble in here after <a href="http://froogville.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-end.html">I called 'last orders' on new posts</a>, this will be the place to start: a sampler of my very best posts from six years of blogging about booze and bars and Life's related complications.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/01/positive-feedback.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Positive feedback</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some ideas for China-themed computer games that can be played at the urinal (the Japanese have already developed the technology platform!).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/04/and-theyre-off.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And.... <i>they're off!</i></span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My evening's entertainment choices - viewed as<i> a horse race</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/01/three-month-rule.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Three Month Rule</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My key theory on romantic relationships (not that's it's ever done <i>me</i> much good, I must confess).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/01/hbh-219.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A 'Haiku Bar' haiku</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The relative merits of whisky, wine, and beer - summed up in seventeen syllables.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/09/improving-odds.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Improving the odds</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I recall the chat-up philosophy of a guy I used to know at university. I'm not sure that it would ever work, but it is an intriguing approach to the problem.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/02/similar-state-of-drunkenness.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A similar state of drunkenness</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I outline the secret of my success at trivia quizzes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/02/price-issue.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The price issue</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I complain that alcohol in Beijing is becoming seriously overpriced, prohibitively so.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/06/marjorie-daw.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Marjorie Daw</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A romantic reconnaissance by proxy - no good could ever come of it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/09/after-love.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After-love</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am sceptical about a suggestion that the Russians have a word for <b><i>the emotion you feel for a former lover</i></b>... but I reflect on the possible usefulness of such a concept.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/07/to-stag-or-not-to-stag.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To <i>stag</i>, or not to <i>stag</i></span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have some strong opinions on the issue of stag parties.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/10/fragments.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fragments</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some prime examples of the bizarre, surreal conversations that my friends and I seem to get into by SMS. <b>'Nanobots can knit!'</b> is <i>one of my favourite lines ever</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/03/weekly-bon-mot.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The taste of <i>baijiu</i></span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of my <i>'Weekly bons mots'</i>, on China's national drink.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/10/cynthia.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cynthia??</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am surprised to re-encounter an 'old flame' from my early days in Beijing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/05/sudden-outbreaks-of-piety.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sudden outbreaks of piety</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The strange story of my 'trick leg'.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/02/another-you-know-who-haiku-hbh-65.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The watched pot</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A heartsick haiku on the <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/09/masochism-pure-and-simple.html">most dispiriting</a> of the many abortive romances I've suffered in China.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2006/10/slightly-blurry-recollection-of-crete.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A slightly blurry recollection of Crete</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A favourite anecdote from what was probably my most bibulous holiday ever.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/04/fidelity-or-fatigue.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fidelity - or fatigue?</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I find myself comparing my relationships with bars to relationships with women (a metaphor I have <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/01/favourite-metaphor-revisited.html">returned to</a>).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/09/anniversary-game-for-you.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Your superpower, your nemesis?</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A fun reader participation thread, celebrating the blog's 5th anniversary.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2010/04/top-five-bar-promotion-ideas.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Unusual bar promotion ideas</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For some reason, this post regularly draws more search engine traffic than the rest of the blog combined.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2006/12/vomit-people.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Vomit People</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of my most shaming, but undeniably amusing, recollections of my time at university - culminating in an utterly brilliant punchline from a disgruntled service worker.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/03/hbh-276.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The spirit of adventure</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another of my haiku, this time on the curious appeal of the bar crawl.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/04/wingmanship.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wingmanship</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fighter pilot etiquette applied to helping out your buddies in the pursuit of women.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/01/bu-yao-tsingtao.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Bu yao</i> Tsingtao!</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I launch a quixotic campaign against Beijing's most commonplace - and <i>most awful </i>- beer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/06/in-hankou-without-watches.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Hankou, without watches</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of my favourite nights in China (but it happened a long, long time ago, in May 1994).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/10/hunting-of-snark.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hunting of the snark</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What I thought of the big parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC a few years ago. (I found it unexpectedly <i>hilarious</i>.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/01/s-latin-innit.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Classics corner</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I show off my Latin with a brief discussion of Virgil's <i><b>Aeneid</b></i>, and a poem of my own inspired by a famous episode in it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-concept.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ultimate concept for a Chinese bar</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The wittily contrarian A.A. Gill inspires me to see just how environmentally <i>unfriendly</i> I can be.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/04/gan-bei-surviving-baijiu-ritual.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Gan bei!</i> (Surviving the <i>baijiu</i> ritual)</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nearly 20 years of accumulated wisdom on the subject of how to deal with the competitive toasting that invariably breaks out during a Chinese banquet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2010/08/trajectory.html">Trajectory</a></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don my satirical cap to describe the typical life-cycle of a small bar in Beijing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2010/03/ask-coin.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ask THE COIN</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Time to reintroduce some liberating <i>randomness</i> into my life!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-sage-advice.html"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My parting advice to you</span></b></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Froog gets philosophical....</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-13883256168940828612012-12-21T02:16:00.000+00:002012-12-22T01:58:53.704+00:00Great Drinking Songs (41 &42)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I find something eerily nostalgic about the popular music of the 1930s and 1940s. The period of my parents' childhood was still dominating the national consciousness in the UK when I was a kid in the 1970s. I suppose I got my first introduction to the music hall comedy double act <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanagan_and_Allen">Flanagan and Allen</a> from the long-running BBC wartime comedy series </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dad%27s_Army">Dad's Army</a></b></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, about the ramshackle volunteer defence force of the Home Guard, which used their song </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfQwHb1pWPE">Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?</a></i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> as its theme music. I later discovered their </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Underneath The Arches</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and grew even fonder of that. It had been their signature song throughout most of their long career, written by Bud Flanagan in 1932. It really shouldn't be possible to write such a beautiful little song, such a cheery and upbeat song </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">about homelessness</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. And yet, underneath the jauntiness of the tune, the hopelessness is still there. It's always struck a particularly personal chord with me. Although I haven't often been forced to sleep rough, I have - and continue to - come unpleasantly close to it. I always feel that precariousness in my life. But I try to regard my straitened material circumstances with Stoic indifference, to find crumbs of comfort wherever I can. </span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Underneath the arches, we dream our dreams away."</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ggk8g_p-Thg" width="560"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that's just a quirky personal favourite of mine.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the final post, <b><i>the final song</i></b> in this series, there can only be one choice: Ol' Blue Eyes singing <i>My Way</i> - the perfect balance of maudlin nostalgia and defiant self-assertion, a timeless pub singalong. Take it away, Frank.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IXr59ZKaVTI" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I fear Francis Albert is just a bit too mellow for my last video posting. Nasty, demented, sad Sid Vicious tearing the song apart is rather more appropriate to the current air of millennial despair.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HD0eb0tDjIk" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">So long, everyone. </span></i>Thank you for reading (and commenting) over the years. And please continue to do so; I will still be monitoring the comments and replying, just not adding new posts after today (although I might sneak a few backdated ones in here and there - well, especially <b><i><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Music%20Week">here</a></i></b> and <b><i><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Farewell%20Tuesday">here</a></i></b> - so keep your eyes peeled!).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-38853275668618372392012-12-19T10:16:00.000+00:002012-12-31T01:18:16.848+00:00A more cynical 'bucket list': 10 things you probably will have done before you leave China<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My earlier <b><i><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-beijing-bucket-list-10-things-to.html">list of things to do before you leave Beijing</a></i></b> was mostly rather jolly and upbeat, wasn't it? Most out of keeping with my usual year-end curmudgeonliness and depression!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This selection might seem more <i>in character</i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">10 more-or-less <i>obligatory</i> expat rites of passage</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Spend several months in full-time Chinese studies, culminating in <i>an immersion experience</i> and a failed attempt to pass <a href="http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/hsk/105146.htm">the HSK</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Discover that you can learn all the Chinese you will ever need from taxi drivers</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Start dating a Chinese girlfriend/boyfriend, and find yourself railroaded into marriage in under a year</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Invest in a bar or restaurant</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Have your bar or restaurant stolen out from under you by your Chinese business partner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Divorce your Chinese spouse (who was probably your errant business partner, or one of their relatives)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Open a t-shirt shop (as being the only kind of business small enough for you to have a chance of being able to set it up <i>without</i> a Chinese partner/spouse)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Forget almost all the Chinese you ever knew, apart from the swear words (which provide most of your t-shirt slogans)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Make enough money to retire back in your homeland, but then find that revaluation of the renminbi has taken 30% off the value of your savings (and/or that <a href="http://froogville.blogspot.com/2012/12/an-ultimate-china-nightmare.html">the bank has frozen your account</a> because, as a foreigner, you have no truly valid form of ID in China)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Get yourself arrested on your last night in China for some minor drunken indiscretion such as spitting in public or urinating in public, and spend another big chunk of your savings bribing the police to release you</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-35235166793263341922012-12-19T08:10:00.000+00:002012-12-20T09:16:40.782+00:00The Beijing 'bucket list': 10 things to try before you die<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few weeks back, the Beijing edition of <i>City Weekend</i> magazine did a feature on 'Things you have to try before you leave Beijing' (<i>everybody</i> seems to be talking of leaving these days; although with many, perhaps, it is only talk). I found I had done quite a lot of them; and was quite happy not to have done the rest. (How do you fare? Check it out online, <a href="http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/mag-bj/cover/the-great-beijing-bucket-list-part-1/">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/mag-bj/cover/the-great-beijing-bucket-list-part-2/">Part 2</a>.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This seemed like a good theme for a 'farewell post' on here, so I thought I'd try to come up with a similar list of my own (with a heavy bias towards drink-related activities, naturally).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Froog's <i>Top Ten</i> Things To Do Before You Leave Beijing</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a rickshaw race</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I once managed to do with my erstwhile drinking companion The Tedster. It is damned difficult to persuade any of the rickshaw guys to play ball on this. I don't think they'd ever trust a <i>laowai</i> to cycle their precious vehicle themselves. And they can't be persuaded to go all that fast, even when offtered significant financial incentives for a 'win'. But still, we did once manage to find a pair of drivers who were game for it, and we had a race of sorts around Houhai, early in the morning before there were too many people around. This was about 8 years ago; the tourist throngs have grown much denser in that time. It just might not be practicable at all any more.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Startle passers-by with a bullhorn</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gosh, you used to be able to buy them all over the place; and they were ridiculously cheap - less than 30 <i>kuai</i>, I think. The Beijing government tried to ban their use prior to the Olympics (perhaps the one good thing to come out of the city's over-anxious pre-Games prettification campaign; they used to have a record facililty, so virtually all newspaper kiosks and quite a lot of other small shops would set them on endless repeat to advertise their wares - it could get very annoying). My Mancunian teaching colleague Mad Mike bought himself one, and we spent a very silly hour or so riding around the city in a taxi, hailing random cyclists and pedestrians in our bad but impressively amplified Chinese.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Drink all day</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just because <i>you can</i>, in this decadent expat community! I think my record setting performance was probably the day I christened <b>12 Square Metres</b>' adoption of 12-hour opening by <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/05/goals-objectives.html">drinking there from noon to something past midnight</a>... and then stopping in at the <b>Pool Bar</b> for another 4 hours or so <i>on the way home</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Set up a barbecue on the street</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Again, just because <i>you can</i> in this crazy country (sometimes, just sometimes, the lack of effective regulation is <i>beguiling</i>). The boys from <b>Ned's</b> bar on Nanluoguxiang used to do this pretty regularly, and <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/07/outbreaks-of-eccentricity-in-hutongs.html">my artist friend Stephanie</a> had a little 4th July cookout on an alley just off Bell Tower Square a couple of years ago.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dance in the rain</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The challenge with this one is that your opportunities are limited because rain is so infrequent here. And there's also the problem that when it does rain, the rain is so unpleasant - filled with sand and chemicals; causing instant floods and overflowing sewers - that you tend not to feel very jubilant about it. But I certainly have done this a few times here. The one I remember most fondly was in my early days here, outside my favourite drinking haunt of that time, the <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/04/adventure-bar.html">'Adventure Bar'</a>. I got so over-excited about it because I think it was in fact <i>the first rain</i> that I'd seen in Beijing; we didn't have a drop in the first 10 or 12 weeks I lived here. It soon turned into hail, but <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/05/singin-in-rain-adventure-bar-moment.html">I carried on dancing</a> anyway, channelling <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdxCx7GilbQ">the spirit of Gene Kelly</a>. Or perhaps <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3GqaQkhuYw">rather of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Go on a ridiculously excessive bar crawl</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm not really a fan of bar crawls, on the whole. I much prefer to find one place I'm comfortable in and spend the entire evening there. Three or four different bars is usually about the most I cover in one night, and that only happens because I've been to a music gig somewhere, or am coming back from working or shopping on the east side of town. However, I do like extreme physical challenges. And Beijing, with its handful of dense-packed nightlife areas, provides a rare opportunity to cram in 10 (or 20, or 30) different venues in quick succession. A few years ago, some friends of mine and I did <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/04/we-done-bugger.html">a crawl along the length of Nanluoguxiang</a> (back in the days when it had more bars than boutiques). I have hankered to try and do the same thing with Wudaoying Hutong; but there is no-one who would accompany me any more.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Go sledding on the frozen lakes at midnight</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I did with my best buddy The Choirboy five or six years ago on New Year's morning. We discovered some bicycle sleds that had been left unchained, and went for a mad, drunken race around Qianhai on them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stay up all night to go and watch the dawn flag-raising on Tiananmen Square</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now, I've <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/04/top-five-double-whammy-all-nighters-and.html">stayed up all night</a> here<i> far too many times</i>, but I've rarely had the stamina to combine it with an early morning stroll down to the Square afterwards. I think the last time was probably 4 or 5 years ago. I do recommend it, though, if the weather's nice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Shake Ai Weiwei's hand</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whatever you may think of his art, Ai Weiwei is one of the most important, most influential, most admirable figures in China today. Not many people have the courage to jeopardise their freedom and their physical safety by standing up to the Chinese government. Even fewer have used their wealth and privilege to try to give a voice to people and causes that might otherwise be overlooked. I am proud to have stood alongside Ai Weiwei at a demonstration in support of our mutual friend, the unjustly imprisoned artist <a href="http://froogville.blogspot.com/search/label/Wu%20Yuren">Wu Yuren</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Take over your favourite bar for a party</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, I've done this <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/10/top-five-birthdays-in-china.html">a number of times</a> on my birthday - for the last two or three years at my 'local', <b>12 Square Metres</b>, and once (perhaps the most alcoholic of all) at the old <b>Zoo Bar</b> on Houhai (cunningly renamed <b>Zoom Bar</b> a few years ago by combining the original sign with one that said 'M Bar'), which was a fun place for the short spell that Jackson Bai was running it. But the biggest and best was surely <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-birthday-to-me.html">the year that I hired <b>Salud</b></a> for the night, and got Big John and Zoe Wang and friends to play their Irish folk tunes for us. It was nearly 24 hours before I got home from that one!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And an extra one, just to give me something to continue to aim for....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Re-enact the 'Tank Man' incident with remote-controlled toy tanks</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This has been <a href="http://froogville.blogspot.com/2010/05/two-weeks-to-go.html">a pet scheme</a> of mine for ages. Of course, if I did do this, it would almost certainly be <i>the last thing I'd ever do in China</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, there you have it. And 10 of these 11 things I have in fact done already. So, I think I'm good to go; I can leave Beijing without any regrets. It's been fun - <i>occasionally</i> - but it's well past time for me to try somewhere new.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-23502315707986373832012-12-19T02:39:00.000+00:002012-12-20T07:04:05.044+00:00A farewell treat: more 'hoopy' basslines<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although I am hoping to still add a few more <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Top%20Fives">'Top Five'</a> music posts retroactively to my <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Music%20Week">'Music Week'</a></span> at the start of this month (my grandiose plans for that were much disrupted by my VPN and Internet connection going on the fritz), <i>this</i> will officially be my final music post before <b><i>the end of the world</i></b> on Friday. Well, OK, the penultimate music post; I've got one more lined up.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, we have a long planned conclusion to my <i><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Great%20Basslines"><b>Great Basslines</b></a></i> series, a further roundup of what I have come to call <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/06/another-top-five-basslines-getting.html">'hoopy' basslines</a>, where the playing is more varied and intricate, rather than just propelling the song along.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since this is the last entry in the series, I should perhaps apologise for some of my more egregious oversights in compiling it. I just haven't had time to consider jazz, for example. Or reggae, which is noted for its deceptively tricky lilting basslines. And, while I am aware that there are some outstanding exponents of the bass in the realms of funk and soul, these are not areas of music that I know very much of. I'm sure I probably could have had at least one 'Top Five' just of James Brown numbers, but I'm not famililar enough with his oeuvre (oh, go on, then - have a little blast of William 'Bootsy' Collins playing bass for him on <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N-NrucQcB8">Soul Power</a></i>, from a great live show in Zaire in 1974). Michael Jackson is perhaps an even more glaring omission: songs like <i>Billie Jean</i>, <i>Thriller</i>, <i>The Way You Make Me Feel</i> and <i>Smooth Criminal</i> are certainly amongst the strongest and most recognisable basslines recorded (apparently it was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Johnson_(bassist)">Louis Johnson</a> who played for him on the <i>Off The Wall </i>and <i>Thriller</i> albums, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_East">Nathan East</a> on <i>Bad</i> - although he is mysteriously not credited in Wikipedia entries on the individual songs). But, while I can't help but like such hooky songs, I never liked MJ; even before all the weirdness, the plastic surgery disasters and the paedophilia allegations, even when he was a little kid, there was something about him that just <i>creeped me out</i>. And that feeling got worse when he relaunched himself as an adult star; I never could stand that high-pitched voice, and his attempt to reinvent himself as a rock'n'roll bad boy - all that swagger and sneer, and the crotch-grabbing - struck me as ludicrous. So - sorry, Jackson fans, it has been a conscious prejudice of mine to leave him out of this series.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having got that out of the way, here we go....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Another Top Five 'Hoopy' Basslines</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5) This Is Not A Love Song</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We had Public Image Ltd in the first of these 'hoopy' selections as well, but you can't have too much of a good thing. I confess, though, I had thought this was still the great Jah Wobble playing. Music Mike pointed out in the comments below that he left the band after their third album, and this, from their fifth, actually has Louis Bernardi on bass. </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[The video for the album version is <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aumejrcEHs">here</a></b>.]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Gkgp6Vv8zXU" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Pusherman</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Joseph 'Lucky' Scott is widely considered to be one of the greatest of all bass players, and this Curtis Mayfield track (from his score for the 1972 blaxploitation classic, <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069332/">SuperFly</a></i>) may be his finest hour.<br />
<br /></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9OIy8Oe7uwU" width="560"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3) War Pigs</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We've had Black Sabbath in this series before as well, with <i>Paranoid</i> being one of the essential bass <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/03/another-top-five-basslines-chuggers.html">'chuggers'</a>. On this song, though, especially in the introductory section, Terry Butler isn't just the band's engine, but really gets to show off what a technically accomplished bass player he is. <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[This is a great live performance from 1970. You can listen to the album version instead <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZCyOWLrRTE">here</a></b>.]</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Trivia note:</b> There's an interesting coincidence here. Terry Butler is, of course, invariably known by his nickname 'Geezer'; and it just so happens that Jah Wobble chose <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Geezer-Music-Mayhem-Life/dp/1846687209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355889137&sr=8-1&keywords=memoirs+of+a+geezer">Memoirs Of A Geezer</a></i> as the title for his autobiography. And what a <i>great </i>title that is!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xtqy4DTHGqg" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) Taxman</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A special treat for <a href="http://booksandmusicandstuff.wordpress.com/">Music Mike</a>, who has been a regular comment-thread sparring partner of mine over the last year or so and was the <a href="http://booksandmusicandstuff.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/awesome-bass-lines/">main inspiration</a> for me getting started on this series... and is also perhaps <i>the world's biggest Beatles fan</i>, and thus regularly complains about my omission of Paul McCartney from this series so far. I've been delaying this post largely for the fun of antagonising him.<br />
<br /></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oyu5sFzWLk8" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And just to antagonise him some more, I kept Macca out of the top spot here. What do we have instead?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1) The Mayor of Simpleton</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've never been a particular fan of XTC, but they did produce some undeniably hooky tunes, and Colin Moulding's bass playing always commanded attention. A friend reintroduced me to this number a couple of years ago, and it has become a favourite.<br />
<br /></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5Da9sc6YDBo" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-14222792047551784262012-12-17T08:52:00.000+00:002012-12-29T08:25:32.454+00:00American bartenders<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have touched on this subject on here once or twice before (can't now discover <i>where</i>), but I wanted to return to it briefly before I retire this blog.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I <i>love</i> American bartenders - most of them, anyway, display an impressive level of technical competence, while working their tips effectively by projecting an upbeat and outgoing personality (without getting over-the-top about it), being friendly and helpful to strangers trying the bar for the first time. The stark contrast with <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/toronto-locals.html">Canadian bartenders</a> can help you appreciate these virtues even more keenly.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But one thing that always causes me some discomfort about American bartending culture is the way <i><b><span style="font-size: large;">they'll trim your tab</span></b></i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This goes far beyond merely comping you a drink every once in a while. That's an elementary piece of good customer relations, and something that any bar owner should happily acquiesce in. But I've frequently encountered American bartenders who will 'lose' 30% or 40% or even more of your bill at the end of the night. </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[I had one experience last summer where my bill was at least 70% less than it should have been; and it was only that much because the food I'd ordered had been put through a separate till, hence my over-friendly barman couldn't erase that sum.]</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, this is very gratifying on the financial level. And on an emotional one, too: it makes you feel very good that someone is being so generous to you - and that this implies a favourable judgement of your character or personality, that you have in some sense <i>earned</i> this discount by being 'a good customer'.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ethically, though, it makes me feel very awkward. You fear that in these more extreme discount cases it might be being done without the knowledge or approval of the bar owner, that you are in effect colluding with the bartender in <i>stealing</i> from the bar owner.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sometimes feel a bit embarrassed too that other customers may resent your getting such preferential treatment. If there were a fairly standard discount policy for customers who'd run up a good-sized tab, I'd feel much more comfortable with this - if, say, it were an unwritten rule of the bar that 'regulars' and big spenders </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">always</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> get 25% knocked off their tab. But when the bartenders seem to be just <i>making it up as they go along</i>, nobody quite knows where they stand: </span><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Am I being treated particularly generously? Or am I being stiffed, in comparison to that guy over there who didn't spend half as much as me?? And is the bar owner OK with this? Or is this bartender quitting tonight, and trying to rip the place off as much as possible??</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then there's the further practical difficulty of <b><i>deciding on an appropriate tip</i></b>. This is tricky enough, anyway, for an Englishman like me - unused to the idea of tipping bar staff. I often feel inclined to pay what I think the full tab should have been, just to ease my conscience about the possibility of having cheated the bar owner; but, of course, the 'theft' - if such it is - is going to happen anyway, with the mercurial bartender pocketing all the extra for him or herself. So, I have then over-tipped outrageously, failed to save myself any money, and indeed, you might say, ungratefully spurned the generous gesture being made to me. And possibly still condoned or facilitated a crime against the owner. Man, it's a minefield.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really feel I would be <i>happier</i> with <b><i>an accurately kept tab</i></b>. And a standard discount, or a couple of free drinks.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-75639360456599107382012-12-17T06:59:00.000+00:002016-12-15T02:45:34.852+00:00Let the revelry commence!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5x8W4ghy_mMRO5wfYsuzXzJa1JonNLZZhhS2R3BN8nmu7tOe3ZYzyzyk1OPXP42EB1MW5SstTVZC0vXszsNYyZupk9k9Qzusjy35vIa_7GYCmw_OvHhQ7FA-Ri2NVh_xw-mM/s1600/Saturnalia+-+large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5x8W4ghy_mMRO5wfYsuzXzJa1JonNLZZhhS2R3BN8nmu7tOe3ZYzyzyk1OPXP42EB1MW5SstTVZC0vXszsNYyZupk9k9Qzusjy35vIa_7GYCmw_OvHhQ7FA-Ri2NVh_xw-mM/s400/Saturnalia+-+large.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Today, December 17th, is the Roman feast day of the Saturnalia - their major midwinter holiday, and the beginning of a week or so of merriment (well, 3 or 5 days of continuous celebrations at various times, but a full 7 days at its best, taking it up to and beyond <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice">the solstice</a>). <i>Time to start whooping it up!</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've always liked the pagan festivals (defying the cruel dark of winter with ebullient merrymaking), much preferring them to the commercialized shmaltziness of the Christian holidays.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OK, this is actually <i><a href="http://www.bouguereau.org/La-Jeunesse-de-Bacchus-(The-Youth-of-Bacchus).html">La Jeunesse de Bacchus</a></i> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bouguereau">William-Adolphe Bouguereau</a>, a scene of riot from Greek legend rather than a Roman Saturnalia party; but you get the idea - Classical debauchery, yay!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-67937158251374416832012-12-17T04:04:00.000+00:002012-12-18T10:08:27.643+00:00Bloody, but unbowed!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have (sort of, <i>very nearly</i> - touch wood!) restored my computer to full operability.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has taken me more than three days of nail-biting, hair-tearing anguish, countless hours of rummaging around on online forums trying to find help.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had discovered that the built-in 'system recovery' feature in Windows was no good to me, because it had - for some obscure reason - only bothered to save a single 'recovery point' during the six months I've had the computer, and this was somehow corrupted, and so unusable.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The computer's manufacturer, Dell, has bundled a device of its own called SyncUp in with the default software. This is apparently supposed to back up all your data online. But this, too, has not been working properly; it always breaks down within a few minutes of startup, and never manages to record a complete system image for backup & recovery purposes.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, it looked like I was pretty thoroughly screwed. I had a computer that had developed fatal errors in its operating system, and I had no way to back it up.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or did I? Checking through the 'Safe Mode' startup options again (And god, is that difficult to access! If you don't hit F7 or F8 at exactly the right milisecond, the damn computer just attempts a Normal Startup and locks up again. I must have been through this 20 or more times - maddening!), I stumbled upon a rather inconspicuous additional tool which was seemingly going to allow me restore to my factory defaults from the onboard memory using Dell's Data Safe facility. Now, I wasn't happy about resorting to the 'nuclear option' of turning the clock back six months, and I wasn't confident that the onboard memory wouldn't be corrupted somehow... but I didn't seem to have any choice. And at least I was being offered the opportunity to backup all my data first (I would have been happier if I'd had the option to back it up on an offboard drive, but the interface seemed to be telling me that it would create a secure partition on my onboard hard drive for this). I thought I'd give it a go.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it worked! Oh frabjous day!!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, except that when I relaunched my computer, I had six months of Windows Updates to install, which rendered the thing useless for another dozen hours.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And when I was finally able to start using it again, I found that the Dell Data Safe program was unable to access the backup files it was supposed to have created in my emergency recovery folder. And, to add insult to injury, it seemed to be telling me that it couldn't perform a data restoration from such files unless I forked out $150 dollars for an upgrade! That is outright extortion. I was incensed.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My tour of the online forums this morning wasn't much help. I was led to several supposed freeware applications that promised to be able to access these .dsb files, but either they weren't so able, or they weren't really free. So, I wasted a lot of time installing and then uninstalling these recommended programs.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also thought - ah, foolish naivety! - that Dell programs ought to have a fair degree of compatibility with the basic Windows programs supplied with their machine; so, I was disappointed that Microsoft's 'backup & restore' facility was also unable to do anything with these dratted .dsb files. In fact, it appeared not to be working at all: it seemed to freeze when I hit the 'browse' button to search a drive for usable backup files. I scoured the online forums about this too, turned up a number of hopefully proffered solutions, found none of them did any good.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All I did learn from these vain investigations is that Dell Data Safe is widely perceived to be <i>completely fucking useless </i>(one user complained that he'd paid for the upgrade, and still found he was unable to access his backup files), very, very frequently creating these problems where people can't restore backed up files - often because the files haven't been compressed correctly and have become corrupted. I also learned that the Windows 7 'backup & recovery' feature is <i>even worse</i>, that it just about never works, and this is a known problem which Microsoft has done nothing to rectify in the last three years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh yes, and when I tried to contact Dell's Technical Support via online chat last night, I was told that they couldn't help me because they'd lost my product registration details. Not sure if this is to do with my computer resetting itself, and wiping any onboard stored data about me, or if Dell's customer database is on the fritz, but it looks as though my product records somehow defaulted to a previous state where they only had details for the retailer I bought it off, not for me. I didn't feel like going through the rigmarole of re-registering my product details at midnight. Indeed, it wasn't practicable - since all the product codes are in tiny writing, on a label which is on the underside of the computer (and <i>upside down</i>, if you try to look at it by simply tilting the keyboard forward - one of the most amazingly fucking stupid pieces of design I've ever come across!), you can't really get a look at them while you're using the computer (and I don't have any decent light in my study anyway, so was working just from the light of the screen!). I got in a grump and signed off.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I tried again this morning, I couldn't access the online chat facility at all. I was invited to try to e-mail my complaint/query instead, and was then told I couldn't even do that, because my detected location did not match the location I was "registered" in. <i>WTF??!!</i> I travel a lot. I'm almost always using a VPN, anyway. So, the detected location of my computer is probably not its actual location. And last night you told me I wasn't "registered" anyway! My apparent location has never been a problem in the past (I've had to contact the tech support like this a couple of times before). And how can a shift in my apparent location from Virginia (where I bought the damn thing) to California (where my current proxy is) invalidate my access to customer support? It's just INSANE. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am deeply, deeply pissed off with Dell right now. I am getting the impression from my survey of online complaints that their laptops are notoriously, disastrously unstable when running Windows 7. I fear I'm going to encounter these problems again and again. And I really don't expect a fairly expensive computer to conk out on me after less than six months of use. If I'd known in June what I know now, I never would have bought the thing. And I don't think I'm ever going to buy a Dell product again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But wait, it's not <i>ALL</i> gloom. I did manage to restore my computer eventually.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I discovered that hidden among the sub-folders in the 'Emergency Recovery' folder that had been created for me, there lurks a little .exe file that launches a 'Recovery Wizard' which allows you to restore all the other compressed files in the folder.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, <i>most </i>of them. Most of the program files seem to have fallen by the wayside somehow - which is a <span style="font-size: large;">HUGE</span> pain in the arse.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But at least my Operating System seems to be doing its thing normally again.<i> For now</i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, tomorrow, I might be able to do some blogging again. If I can be bothered. After all this hassle, I really just feel as if I want to <i>SLEEP</i> for the rest of the week.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-27653796511613151832012-12-17T02:38:00.000+00:002012-12-18T10:11:53.719+00:00A seasonal pun<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been consulting on a new boutique hotel here, to be called simply The Inn.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's going to have a number of bars and restaurants, including a Japanese-style whisky/cocktail lounge, styled with a teahouse vibe. I've suggested that they have occasional performances of traditional Japanese theatre forms like Noh, Kabuki, and Bunraku.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just so that we can call it... <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Noh Room @ <i>The Inn</i></b>.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm sorry. This is the kind of thing that teems through my head as I rise from my fever dreams. Not well at the moment.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-86083279842206639092012-12-17T00:10:00.000+00:002012-12-17T00:10:00.652+00:00Bon mot for the week<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>"I am so used to plunging into the unknown that any other surroundings and form of existence strike me as exotic and unsuitable for human beings."</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Werner Herzog (1942- )</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-50691968127406913952012-12-16T03:18:00.000+00:002012-12-26T01:14:50.624+00:00The Froog Bar Awards - 2012<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: arial;">This is it, my <b style="font-size: x-large;">sixth </b>(and final) <b><i><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Bar%20Awards"><span style="font-size: large;">annual review</span></a></i></b> of <span style="font-size: large;">the best and worst of Beijing's bar scene.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">I suppose I'm not really very well placed to comment on the scene in detail this time around, since I've been away from Beijing for at least a third of this year, and didn't go out very much while I was here. However, my <i>respect for tradition</i> compels me to maintain the custom of a year-end 'review' post that <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/12/froog-2007-bar-awards.html">I inaugurated in 2007</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As in previous years, my aim here is to provoke (and sometimes, godammit, yes, to <span style="font-size: large;"><i>offend</i></span>) as well as to enlighten, so please feel free to pitch in - and <i>bitch</i> in - down below in the comments if you have anything to add in regard to any of these opinions. I hope a few people at least will find this post (although burying it a few days back from <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/great-drinking-songs-41.html">the ostensible closedown date of the blog</a> on December 21st minimises its visibility, I know), and find it useful, or at any rate <i>interestingly provocative</i>.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Live Music Venue</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner: <b>VA Bar</b></span><br />
This place has grown on me over the last year or two. They impressed from the get-go with with their regular and eclectic lineup of shows, but compromised their appeal with inept/surly service and rather high prices. Prices have now been lowered, the attitude has improved, and the sound system remains about the best in town. Just about all of the best gigs I've been to in the last 18 months have been at <b>VA Bar</b> (although it now seems to be making a move to rebrand itself as <b>Vanguard Livehouse</b>).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runners-up: <b>Hot Cat Club, 2 Kolegas</b></span><br />
I love the grunginess of <b>Hot Cat</b>, and its throwback-to-the-good-old-days prices. I don't love its erratic scheduling and non-existent advertising. Much as I want to like this venue, I suppose I've only gone three or four times this year; and only when specifically invited by a friend, rather than looking in on spec, or because I've seen an interesting lineup advertised. I'm impressed by <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/03/renovations.html">the remodelling</a> at <b>2 Kolegas</b>, greatly improving their toilet facilities and their beer fridge capacity; but, unfortunately, as Beijing's taxi service has <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-taxi-rebellion.html">declined towards unusability</a>, the place is just too darned far away to entice me very often any more. Similarly with the old <b>What</b> bar, I'm very fond of it - but it's just a bit too much of a hike for me to go all that often. Old local favourites <b>Jianghu</b> and <b>Jiangjinjiu</b> were both rumoured to be closing this year, but have both survived; alas, they are both now too well-known for their own good, and uncomfortably packed out for most shows. How I miss their early days, when they were a music-lovers' 'secret'! I suppose my most conspicuous omission here is <b>Temple</b> which, while I find it a welcome addition to the scene, is not a place that I've been able to warm to. The sound system, the prices, the clientele, the general vibe - it's all just a little bit <i>off</i>, somehow. <span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[As I noted last year I always seem to overlook <b>East Shore</b> <b>Jazz Cafe</b> in this section, because I don't go that often, and it only does jazz; but it is very good. And I am going to make a point of getting in several visits before I depart Beijing.]</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Worst Live Music Venue</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner: <b>Yugong Yishan</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runner-up: <b>MAO Live House</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>MAO</b> is actually <i>the best venue</i> in town in terms of the regularity of its shows and the quality of the sound system. It just does nothing to make itself attractive to customers - the air-conditioning and the bar remain huge shortcomings there. <b>Yugong Yishan</b> continues to SUCK, for all of the reasons that <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/09/top-five-reasons-why-yugong-yishan.html">I catalogued here</a>. I can't recall if I've been there at all this year; I am doing my best to <b><i>boycott</i></b> it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Gig of the Year</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner:</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The intimate <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/03/half-plugged.html"><i><b>Beijing Beatles</b></i> gig</a> at tiny Nanluoguxiang bar <b>12 Square Metres</b> </span>in March<br />
Limited advertising and inclement weather threatened to scupper the event, but after anxious delays and an awkwardly slow start, these adverse circumstances actually helped to make it into a rather magical evening.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runner-up:</span> <span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Tulegur</i></b> at <b>Jianghu</b></span> (a couple of times)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">The artist formerly known as Gangzi has decided to start going by his real name (which could prove a mite confusing for people who bought his previous releases), but he continues to be in a different class from just about anyone else around: a superb musician, a great voice - spell-binding.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Worst Gig of the Year</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner: Day One of the IndieChina anniversary show at <b>Mako Live</b> </span>at the beginning of September</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'd never heard of IndieChina, but apparently it's a Chinese website that has built itself into quite an important fan forum over the past 7 or 8 years, mainly focusing on 'post-rock' - not a genre I have a lot of time for. However, their two-day celebration down in Shuangjing was one of the biggest events of the year, and the Friday lineup included some well spoken-of - and <i>non</i>-post-rock - bands. I'd only just got back to Beijing after nearly four months away, so I was quite excited about the potential of this one. Unfortunately, just about everything about the show sucked. The venue was uncomfortably over-full, and got very hot, as they didn't seem to want to crank the air-conditioning up. They ran out of cold beers within minutes of the start. And even <i><b>Omnipotent Youth Society</b></i>, one of my favourite Chinese bands, failed to thrill on this occasion - largely because of a lousy sound balance that wasn't giving enough prominence to their trademark interjections of soaring trumpet. This was particularly disappointing because enduring the three bands on ahead of them had been nothing less than painful. Openers <b><i>The Dyne</i></b> were a drums-and-guitar duo who played formless, self-indulgent instrumentals while staring fixedly at each other and completely ignoring the audience; they managed a few half-interesting moments - probably by accident - in the midst of 25 minutes of utter tedium. <b><i>Glow Curve</i></b>, well spoken of by some, were perhaps hampered by the bad sound setup, but appeared barely capable of playing their instruments. <b><i>Low Wormwood</i></b>, much lauded of late, and supposedly one of the most popular rock bands in China, appear to have attained that status by playing schmaltzy, derivative, crowd-pleasing folk-rock pap (I thought I remembered having seen them play a few times out at <b>13 Club</b> in Wudaokou several years ago, but if that was them, they were a completely different band then, much edgier and more experimental). They started with what sounded like a Chinese cover of REM's <i>Everybody Hurts</i>, followed that up with another bland and oddly familiar piece (guitar solo ripped off note-for-note from The Edge!), and then did the obligatory ska number. When they then went into a maudlin slow ballad, my friends and I left in search of <i>chuanr</i> and cheap beers outside for the rest of their set (and I was happy to notice that significant numbers of the young Chinese punters did too; this was predominantly a rock crowd, not your FM Lite types). Those cheap beers were the only consolation of the night.</div>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Bar Food</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winners: </span><b style="font-size: 21px;">Frost, Flamme</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runners-up: <b>Luga's</b></span>,<span style="font-size: 130%;"> <b>The Den</b></span>, <b style="font-size: 130%;">The Irish Volunteer</b>,<b style="font-size: 130%;"> Plan B</b><br />
<br />
2010 winner <b>Sand Pebbles</b> may finally be getting its act together again, I think; although service out of the kitchen is still slow, and the place has got a little too popular for its own good, it has seemed to be much improved on my last couple of visits - restoring it to the status of being about the best place in town for Mexican food (though I'm peeved they seem to have taken my favourite chicken dish off the menu). However, this revival has come too late - or I have discovered it too late (sorry, Ray) - for it to get back into a prize slot this year. I've dumped <b>First Floor</b> from a runners-up spot as well, because it's really a bit too expensive (other than on half-price Mondays), and the service continues to be terrible. The significant new arrival on the scene this year has been <b>Frost</b>, Jeff Powell's tiny bar on Xingfu Ercun. The burger is about the best in town (though I've heard some people gripe that it's a little on the small side), the side salad is more than generous, and the yellow pepper relish is superb. I'm less enthused about the hotdogs; the homemade brats are large and tasty, but tend to be a bit gristly, and to use a non-edible skin. There must be a fear that the Chinese staff are unlikely to be able to maintain the quality of service, now that Jeff is once again moving on to grander things. And the bar itself lacks charm: it's too pokey, and the drinks are too expensive for a hole-in-the-wall. Hanging out on the tables outside was an attractive option on warm evenings in early summer, but I imagine it's going to be dead for the next 4 or 5 months. The burgers down at new Shuangjing opening <b>Plan B</b> are pretty damned good - and good value - too. Otherwise, no change from last year.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Place <i>To Drink</i> While Eating</b></span></div>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winners: <b>Home Plate BBQ</b></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runner-up: <b>Traktirr</b>, <b>Biteapitta</b>,<b> 4 Corners</b></span><br />
<div align="justify">
<br />
Last year's winner <b><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/01/fodder.html">Fodder Factory</a></b> has, I'm told, relocated to less cosy premises, and bumped its prices up quite a bit - alas, alas. Ah well, it was always too far away to be more than a once or twice a year special adventure, anyway. I'm pleased to see that the original <b>Traktirr</b> has reopened (a much warmer vibe than its larger sister around the corner on Guijie, <b>Traktirr Pushkin</b>), and it easily takes the prize as my favourite Russian joint - as <b>White Knights</b>, sadly, continues to get stroppier and stroppier staff and stingier and stingier portions. <b>Biteapitta</b> is losing its place in my heart as well: the falafel - long a favourite of mine - has become ridiculously <i>salty</i>. It clings on to its place here because there are still plenty of things on the menu I like, and the draught beer is about the cheapest you can find in Sanlitun. I've heard some very good things about <b>4 Corners</b>, the revamp of the old <b>Orange Tree</b> bistro, but I haven't got around to checking it out myself yet.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Place To Go For A Cocktail</b></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner:<b> Flamme</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Runners-up: <b>Mai</b>, <b>MaoMaoChong</b>, <b>Más</b></span><br />
<div align="justify">
<br />
<b>Flamme</b>, for me, continues to be head-and-shoulders above the competition, thanks to Paul Mathew's superb recipes - although the loss of both Coco and Sophie from behind the bar there this year has been a blow. <b>Mai</b> and <b>MaoMaoChong</b> continue to be very welcome enhancements to my neighbourhood. And newcomer <b>Más</b> has some interesting original mixes too - although they don't taste very strong, and the place is severely lacking in ambience.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Best Place For Sitting Outside</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Winner: <b>Home Plate BBQ</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Runner-Up: <b>Alba</b></span><br />
<br />
No change from last year.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Worst Bar</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Winner: <b>The Stumble Inn</b></span><br />
No changes in this category, either. Food, prices, and service at the <b>Stumble</b> all continue to provoke regular complaints. And it's <i>upstairs in a mall</i>. I refuse to set foot in the place.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Runner-up: <b>Drei Kronen</b></span><br />
How does this <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">overpriced</span> Bavarian theme-park keep going?????<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Additional Runner-up: <b>BeerMania</b></span><br />
In the old days, it was unassuming, it had no delusions of grandeur. The original space was at least <i>cosy</i>, projected a sort of ramshackle charm. The new, vastly expanded venue has the ambience of a college cafeteria. The beer list is <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-five-cases-where-more-is-less.html">irrationally long</a>, and overpriced - and, of course, none of the staff knows how much anything costs!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 21px;">Worst New Bar</b></div>
<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Winner: </span><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Red House</span></b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I would have thought it was pretty much impossible to screw up a 'dive bar' - but this franchise extension into the city centre by the popular Wudaokou grot-hole is just <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/03/drinks-can-be-too-cheap.html"><i>dismal</i></a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div>
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 21px;"><b>Least Surprising Closure</b></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Winner: <b>Danger Doyle's</b></span></div>
<div>
The only surprise was that it had managed to limp on for - what? - <i>nearly three years</i>.<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>Most Sadly Missed Departures of the Year</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Winner: Mike and Lauren at<b> 12 Square Metres</b></span><br />
Their tenure as managers at my favourite bar was only planned to be temporary anyway, but they were abruptly, prematurely driven out by the absurd 'anti-foreigner crackdown' in Beijing this summer.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Runner-up: Chad Lager </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">-</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">ousted from </span><b><span style="font-size: large;">Fubar</span> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(at which <i>he</i> was really the only reason for visiting)</span><br />
I have a feeling <i><b>he'll be back</b></i> next year in some new venture...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Party of the Year</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Winner: </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">My leaving party in May</span><br />
I feel a bit guilty about nominating a small private event, but I just didn't go to any major public events this year. And this was <i>everything a leaving party should be</i> - including barely making it home, crashing out on the sofa instead of in my bed, and struggling to get my packing done in time for my flight. My friends and I ended up in <b>Amilal</b> until nearly 4am, after consuming many, many, many shot-glass servings of <i>mengjiu</i> at a leg o' lamb restaurant in the hutongs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Most Promising New Bar</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Winner: <b>Plan B</b></span><br />
Its tiny space, haphazard decor, and obscure location limit its prospects, but it's made the most of its meagre resources, establishing itself as a friendly and characterful little hangout for those lucky enough to live nearby - and it's an appealing enough oddity to entice us Gulou boys outside the Third Ringroad every once in a while.<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Runners-up:</span><span style="font-size: 21px;"> </span>None - lots of new openings this year, but <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-five-new-bar-openings-in-beijing.html">none of them quite cut the mustard</a> for me.<br />
<span style="font-size: 21px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: 130%;"><b>Barperson of the Year</b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Winner: Jane </span><span class="Apple-style-span">at</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Nearby The Tree</b></span><br />
The only bartender in town who still gives me liver-wreckingly generous free pours. (I actually had to ask her to <i>leave some room for the ice</i> the other day!) She laid on a very nice spread for a friend's wake in September as well.</div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #33ffff; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Bar of the Year</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Winner: <b>Modernista</b></span><br />
I don't <i>love</i> <b>Modernista</b>, myself. It's got a bit too much of a European vibe for me, the service isn't great, and it's an unfortunate size - just big enough to make you feel self-conscious if there aren't many people in, but too small to cope with the kind of crowds that it regularly attracts, rarely if ever attaining that happy medium of being buzzy but not cramped. But there's the thing - it is regularly drawing large numbers of people; far more, I would think, than any of the other recent openings (and it might well have claimed the prize as best newcomer too, since it only opened towards the end of November last year). And it's built up this following because the owners have made sterling efforts to create <i>and publicise</i> a packed programme of events. Whether it's swing dance classes, film shows, or mah jong evenings, there's almost always <i>something</i> going on at <b>Modernista</b>. Other bars could learn a lesson from that. And they deserve a lot of credit for their achievement.<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: arial;">There we have it. Any comments, queries, abuse??</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span></b></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />
</span></b></i><br />
<div align="justify">
</div>
</div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-14262936769968494922012-12-16T01:29:00.000+00:002013-04-29T08:26:43.181+00:00Great Drinking Songs (40)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't believe I hadn't posted this before. Could have sworn I did years ago. Ah well, better late than never.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's <i>The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)</i>; Tom Waits letting his hair down with one of his more humorous numbers - although the imagery is as clever as always (</span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">"the newspapers were fooling, and the ashtrays have retired"</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">): the greatest lyricist of our times, and also, as he demonstrates here, a comedy genius.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a marvellous 1977 performance from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernwood_Tonight">Fernwood Tonight</a></i>, a short-lived spoof of a talk show on a local TV station that starred Fred Willard and Martin Mull as an inept pair of presenters. These are two major comic talents, but Tom more than holds his own with them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-gwUtEEjZJ8" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can also listen to the original version of the song from his 1976 <i>Small Change</i> album <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUeKDtMV1gA">here</a> </b>(one of my very favourite albums of his, one that I played incessantly during my last year at university).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this is an inspired rambling riff on the number from a Dublin concert in about 1981, later released on the <i>Bounced Checks</i> anthology album.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MarFyC7618A" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I <i>love</i> Tom!</span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-76173551591513640792012-12-15T05:19:00.000+00:002012-12-27T01:21:50.004+00:00Holiday spirit<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In recent years I have found - with a vague sense of shame - that my favourite 'Christmas songs' are these two bad taste classics from the <i>South Park</i> Christmas special.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are Satan and Adolf getting festive down below.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mopbW85bpuc" width="420"></iframe></center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here's Mr Garrison displaying his cultural sensitivity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RRjaMrX7Db4" width="420"></iframe></center>
<center>
<br /></center>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-3682985552453994892012-12-15T02:52:00.000+00:002013-02-11T02:18:11.975+00:00The good, the bad, and the local<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hadn't expected to be doing <i>much</i> drinking when I was down in <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/hbh-311.html">Hong Kong</a> last month, but...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, it was my first time back there in 16-and-a-half years, so I had some catching up to do.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As on previous visits, though, I was severely unimpressed with most of the places around Central - wanky, overpriced bar-cum-restaurant joints catering to well-to-do CBD types on their way home from work. The place my journo buddy suggested for a Friday evening rendezvous was so spectacularly <i>awful</i>, I have expunged its name from my mind (and, curiously, I can find no trace of it online either: it <i>hides</i> in amongst the dozens of other similarly pricey and charmless venues in that area). The locally produced craft brew wasn't bad, and was one of the more reasonably priced things on the menu - but, even so, it produced convulsions in the wallet. (OK, part of the pain is psychological. When I visited in the '90s, the Hong Kong dollar was more or less at parity with the Renminbi, if not slightly more valuable; now it's slumped to barely 80% of the Renminbi, so price comparisons look even more startling until you remember to adjust for this.) They'd pissed me off within seconds of arrival, with their ineptly pushy staff and a cluttered menu that made it difficult to differentiate the prices for various items (some beers available on draught and in bottles, in different measures, and at regular and 'happy hour' tariffs; this degree of complexity wouldn't be a problem if you had all the information more clearly laid out!). I then got even more pissed off when I discovered that the 'happy hour' discount on most items was negligible - and immediately wiped out by an <i>inconspicuously advertise</i>d 'service charge'. If the drinks were wince-makingly expensive, the food was just ridiculous: something like 80 or 100 HKD for a plate of nachos?! When my friends eventually showed up, they paid a similarly exorbitant amount for a small and really rather nasty-looking pizza. I must get them to remind me of the name of this place, so that I can castigate it more fully - and avoid ever going back there (I now recall, with a shudder of loathing, that it was <b>The Hop House</b>).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alas, I don't hold out much hope of finding anywhere better. Hong Kong is just too frigging affluent to foster any bars of the sort that I would like.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The closest I'm likely to find is.... <b><a href="http://www.thebeerbay.com.hk/">The Beer Bay</a></b>! Yes, what a pleasant surprise this discovery was. A charming Anglophile called Annie (she did a Hospitality degree in England a few years back, and became an enthusiast for English ales) has set up a kiosk just opposite the exit of the Star Ferry Terminal in Central selling a wide variety of beers, bottles and draught (though only in plastic glasses, of course), from England and elsewhere, for barely half the price you'd pay in a lot of the proper bars nearby. Even more exciting to me, though, than the availabilty of affordable draught Boddington's down by the waterfront was the fact that Annie has also become a connoisseur of English pub snacks, and has gone to some trouble to source a range of munchies that you can't readily find even in Hong Kong, let alone around the rest of East Asia - Walker's Crisps, Poppadom Crisps, Pork Scratchings!! I'll definitely be going back there.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, since the journo buddy who was kindly putting me up lives out in Shek O (a cosy little commuter community in what was once a sleepy fishing village down in the south-east corner of the island), I was hanging out there most of the time. The village's <b><a href="http://www.urban-outdoors.com/bens-back-beach-bar-shek-o/">Back Beach Bar</a></b>, only a couple of minutes from my friend's house, has become a magnet for the island's less well-off expats. It's very barebones: a long hut acts as the serving area; there's nowhere to sit inside, but Ben the owner gets away with colonising a section of the adjacent seawall promenade to use as his terrace. There's no draught beer, and only two or three bottled options - but Brooklyn Lager at 20 HKD is quite a bargain for Hong Kong. There's no price list either, that I was able to discover; but a standard range of spirits and mixed drinks (and some decent wines) seem to be available from the little backroom, and again at very reasonable prices (I think a large gin & tonic was 25 or 30 HKD). Ben also has Walker's Crisps, too (that alone would make me think seriously about possibly relocating to Hong Kong). I wasn't impressed by the music selection (a few of the regulars forced their way behind the bar to adjust the playlist - but didn't seem to be able to improve things much), yet for once I think I can forgive that. It is a rare joy to be able to drink relatively cheaply, in the open air, with the sound of the surf breaking on the beach just a few yards away. And the place has a nice vibe of being a bit of a 'secret' for the locals. The tiny 'back beach' is somewhat obscure, compared to the main swimming beach a few hundred yards away on the other side of the peninsula. The bar is in fact barely sixty seconds from the main bus stop on the edge of the village, but those not<i> in the know</i> would struggle to find it among Shek O's claustrophobic and labyrinthine back-alleys.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was also pleased to find that the open-air Thai/Chinese restaurant in the middle of the village is <i>still there</i> - remarkably unchanged, it would seem, in nearly 20 years (it was <i>the first place</i> I ever drank in Hong Kong, in March 1994). I didn't find the Thai items on the menu particularly impressive, and the prices are a bit steep (28 HKD for a local beer, albeit in a big bottle, is pretty outrageous!); but it is a very mellow place to hang out and watch the world go by - and to wallow in nostalgic reminiscences of drinking there <i>when I was still young</i>....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-18047760286448389912012-12-15T02:51:00.000+00:002012-12-21T03:58:40.971+00:00A final 'unsuitable' role model - Fred Dibnah<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fred was an iconic figure for Brits of my generation, an ordinary bloke improbably catapulted to fame on national TV. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was a steeplejack from Lancashire, who made a particular speciality of demolishing Victorian factory chimneys. He complained that he didn't get much of this work, because he was much more expensive than standard demolition by dynamite, but he found a niche for himself because his more old-fashioned method - knocking a hole in the base of the structure and building a huge bonfire in it - could drop a chimney with pinpoint accuracy, and no risk of collateral blast damage if there were other buildings nearby. In very confined spaces where it was not practicable to topple a chimney at all, he would knock them down, as he said, "a brick at once", building a scaffold platform around the the top of the chimney and painstakingly knocking out one layer of bricks after another with a hammer.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was fascinating to watch him go about this work, partly for the vicarious thrill of being so far above the ground and the spectacular views this afforded. However, what was even more compelling was the absolute mastery of his trade that Fred displayed, and the evident passion that he felt for it. It helped that he was also an intelligent man, deeply knowledgeable about and respectful of the central role his area of the country had played in the Industrial Revolution. And his hobby was restoring vintage steam engines! That alone might have landed him a TV series, even if his day job hadn't involved working at such giddying heights. </span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[His own engine, the beauty below, recently <a href="http://www.cheffins.co.uk/news/dibnah8217s-engine-doubles-estimate-443-news">sold at auction for nearly a quarter of a million pounds</a>.]</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjml073s10G9N5-g8WAnTbJ1i2KXBVbA3l2oW1LVNCdkVwMeLhsmyvthyc7BQoDrujC2Hk8xIR8vEvaYG-_WE5Qv13mehdMjkpcIDAT5yEe7w-Sc5ElD-EysE-efHauTE3E0Zgd/s1600/Fred+Dibnah's+steam+engine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjml073s10G9N5-g8WAnTbJ1i2KXBVbA3l2oW1LVNCdkVwMeLhsmyvthyc7BQoDrujC2Hk8xIR8vEvaYG-_WE5Qv13mehdMjkpcIDAT5yEe7w-Sc5ElD-EysE-efHauTE3E0Zgd/s400/Fred+Dibnah's+steam+engine.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fred's almost childlike enthusiasm and his wry wit made him a natural for TV. A brief interview on local news had brought him to the attention of a documentary maker, who made him the subject of a 50-minute-long programme on the BBC in about 1978. That was such a success that a year or two later it was followed up with a six-part series. Others followed. And in his later years, he became a presenter, fronting several series on BBC2 about Britain's industrial history.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He was a bit of a stereotype of the northern working man - more than fond of a pint of beer, speaking with a broad Bolton accent, a flat cap permanently on his head as if welded there (and so impregnated with grime and grease from his beloved steam engine that he once joked it had a dangerously low flash point), he even kept a whippet, I think - but this too was rather engaging, because entirely unaffected. There was never any suspicion that he was playing to the cameras. This rollicking, genial man-child was <i>who he was</i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdT3zhBLW_PgiToCtbXcQT0AEpv344UCRnG8bPMY9yt3b1j5ojvljV9rR0QjFYISsX3ZfAlZSyCqzNCJ0U5PLIomGFZFjbKTT2e58VLU1b2N_jT73yyWIXM99YD3IrYQSeomC/s1600/Fred+enjoys+a+pint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdT3zhBLW_PgiToCtbXcQT0AEpv344UCRnG8bPMY9yt3b1j5ojvljV9rR0QjFYISsX3ZfAlZSyCqzNCJ0U5PLIomGFZFjbKTT2e58VLU1b2N_jT73yyWIXM99YD3IrYQSeomC/s320/Fred+enjoys+a+pint.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fred was possibly the most enviable man I've ever seen: supremely self-confident, utterly at ease with himself. His shows were a pure joy to experience, because he so obviously loved his job, and loved his life. That's not something we encounter often enough, on TV or anywhere else.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a clip from a tribute to Fred made after his death a few years ago, including the famous chimney toppling scene from the climax of that first documentary about him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FhpMiKds8lc" width="420"></iframe></center>
<br />
<br />Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-67626722737621050442012-12-15T02:18:00.001+00:002012-12-15T02:18:34.475+00:00The End Of The World comes early<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><font size="2">I have been planning for some months now to use the alleged 'Mayan Apocalypse' at the end of next week as a facetious pretext for closing down my two blogs - which I feel have been going on for </font><i style="font-size: 10pt;">quite long enough</i><font size="2"> now.</font><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">Alas, being on the road for most of November left with me with a huge backlog of posts I really wanted to write before the shutdown (hence the fitful incontinence of my writing here over the past two or three weeks since I got back). And I've been further frustrated in my efforts to get those posts out of the way by a succession of problems with my preferred VPN and my Internet connection. I am once more getting a little paranoid that perhaps I have been targetted for some special attention by the censors here in Beijing; everybody's been struggling to keep their VPNs working, but I haven't heard of anyone else getting their Net connection completely shut down.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">Then, yesterday morning, my computer - less than six months old - DIED. Yes, I suffered a return of the dreaded 'blue screen of death' - the first time I've experienced it with this laptop (though I'd had a few nasty encounters with it on my previous Dell, and it used to be a constant companion with the ancient IBM Thinkpad I'd been muddling along with before that).</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">Not even a conventional, familiar 'blue screen of death', either; darker blue, brighter screen. Maybe they've changed its appearance in the last year or so, but the creepy unfamiliarity of something once so familiar added to my anxieties.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">As did the fact that the screen appeared to be <i>frozen</i>; it was not creating 'dump files' - as it promises to do - and then shutting down automatically. It was just staring at me tauntingly, denying me access to any of my computer functions, and <i>not doing anything</i>. I couldn't even crash the computer using the power switch, so eventually, after about half an hour of this agonising limbo, I had to remove the battery.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">And then, of course, I couldn't reboot. The first several times I tried to do so, I was just getting a blank screen and an ominous silence; I couldn't even use the F keys to try to access the 'Safe Mode' start-up options.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">After going back to bed and crying for a couple of hours (amazing how this seems to work as therapy <i>for the computer</i> too!), the little bastard did deign to fire up again, but... oh dear me, limited functionality or what?! No Net connectivity. No access to most Windows functions. VERY SLOW operating speeds (3 or 4 hours to run a virus check!!!).</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">Eventually, I have managed to get a Net connection back via the 'Safe Mode with networking', but.... now my bloody VPN won't work again.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">And my 'System Restore' function is mysteriously broken. This is a <b><i>clusterfuck from hell</i></b>.</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;">In another two or three days, I would have cleared the backlog of planned posts, and tidied up a few outstanding work assignments, attended to the last of my social obligations, and finalised my travel plans over the imminent holiday period. In another two or three days, I might not have needed the bloody computer again for weeks. But having this spectacular meltdown assail me just <i>now</i> is several notches beyond merely 'inconvenient'. I suffer rages of despair; if I had a carpet, I'd chew on it. (I achieved some valuable catharsis yesterday by smashing the old Thinkpad - barely functional anymore anyway - into about a million pieces, as a proxy for my maddeningly misbehaving Dell Inspiron.)</div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div><font size="4">So, this is it. The forces of malign Fate have got the better of me. I accept defeat. <i>I'm done</i>.</font></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I may, perhaps, <i>one day</i> retroactively insert some of my planned final posts into the upcoming week (I've already written most of them, but omitted to 'schedule' them for automatic posting), but for now - </span><font size="4">IT'S OVER.</font></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>So long, farewell, adieu, adieu, adieu.</i></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div><div style="font-size: 10pt;"><br></div></td></tr></table>Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-38337831935462385532012-12-14T03:30:00.000+00:002013-04-29T08:26:25.521+00:00The BIG Question<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A frequent topic of speculation for me during my years of drinking in Beijing bars has been... </span><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Can you can make more money off Chinese or foreign customers?</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a question of vital importance for any bar owner or prospective bar owner.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although there is a broad spectrum of personality types and spending patterns in both demographics, my instinct would be that you can in general make<i> much more</i> off foreign punters.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The key exception that might skew the analysis a bit is your Chinese high-roller type who will order premium spirits (or wines, champagne) by the bottle, just to flaunt his wealth - and perhaps not even drink it all. However, this type of punter brings his own problems. They're often quite brash and obnoxious types, who will treat staff contemptuously, and perhaps annoy other customers with their loud and boorish conversation. And if they do drink heavily, they're quite likely to get dangerously <i>sloppy</i> - perhaps even start a fight, or throw up in the middle of the bar. And it's distressingly common for this sort of punter to 'forget' to settle their tab, or to quibble about it. You also have to bear in mind that they're perhaps treating quite a large group. You might be initially quite excited when someone orders a bottle of Chivas - but when you realise that means you're going to have a group of six or eight Chinese patrons hogging your best table all night, and that quite possibly <i>none of them are going to order anything else</i>, it really isn't such good news. Especially if they end up making an ugly scene.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most Chinese are still unfamiliar with Western bar culture, and not really all that receptive to it. They'll dabble in it because it's become a hip thing to do for students and young professionals. But most of these people have fairly little disposable income, and <i>a negligible tolerance for alcohol</i>. Moreover, they rarely seem to recognise any ethical constraints about being obliged to spend money in your bar. Venues like Starbucks and McDonald's have become hugely popular hangouts for the young because they usually leave you unmolested all day long, <i>never requiring you to buy anything</i>. This free-and-easy attitude in two of the most ubiquitous foreign franchise businesses here has perhaps encouraged young Chinese folks to believe that it is normal and acceptable to occupy space in a venue for hours at a time after making only one token purchase - or no purchase at all (and to use the bathroom without making a purchase, too!). It is quite common for one person in a couple, or only two or three people in a group, to buy a drink, and assume it is then all right for them to occupy a table indefinitely. This might not be all Chinese customers, or even the majority of them; but it is a common enough phenomenon to cause serious aggravation for a poor bar owner.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And even the good drinkers amongst the Chinese - enthusiasts of good beers, wines, or spirits; people who'll spend quite heavily, but without exceeding their physical tolerance - are rarely going to spend as much as your <i>average</i> Western drinker, I think. They haven't been doing it since their early teens, haven't built up such a prodigious appetite - or <i>the capacious gut</i> - for it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd guess that quite a large proportion of Chinese punters <i>will spend little or nothing</i>; and while there are a few who will improve the average substantially by spending in the high hundreds, the typical Chinese spend per head is probably a lot less than 100 rmb, perhaps not much better than 50 rmb. Almost all foreigners, even the modest drinkers and teetotallers, will order at least a couple of drinks... and then <i>leave</i> when they feel they've had enough, not stage a sit-in for hours. Heavier drinkers may well take up residence for much of the evening, spending steadily over an extended period. I pretty regularly spend 200 rmb, even on a fairly slow night, and sometimes go through twice that much. And I'm hardly a high-roller: I don't order cocktails or top-shelf whiskies very often. I'm just your typical enthusiastic pisshead. I suspect the average spend-per-head of a foreign bar punter here is well over 100 rmb... and perhaps, in some bars, over 200 rmb.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, it does seem there might be a powerful economic argument for favouring foreign customers over Chinese ones. I certainly think that (unless you're running a nightclub, which is a whole different ballgame) it must be very difficult to make a decent income from <i>a wholly Chinese clientele</i> (although exceptions prove the rule: <b>Reef</b> on Nanluoguxiang seems to be managing it).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But, of course, you can't very well take overt steps to exclude any particular group of punters. <b>Fubar</b>'s English-only drinks menu appeared to be sending some such message, that Chinese punters weren't particularly welcome, and it was not something I was comfortable with. (Although I have been notoriously - and <i>unashamedly!</i> - <a href="http://froogville.blogspot.com/search/label/Why%20I%20don%27t%20learn%20Chinese">lazy about learning much Chinese</a> myself, I think it is a bit rude to your host country not to offer service in Chinese as well as English if you're running a business here.) However, the only place I ever heard of trying to actively discourage Chinese punters was the Chinese-owned <b>No Name Bar</b> down by Houhai (and I suspect that was an exaggerated rumour, catching fire from the spark of one or two cases of particular customers being excluded).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can effectively target a Western or Chinese clientele by your decor (Chinese, for the most part, don't get the wooden bar vibe; Westerners, for the most part, are fairly indifferent to soft furnishings) or the facilities provided (cheesy Chinese folk-rock performers and/or a karaoke stage go down big with the local punters; as do dice and playing cards, so that they can lose themselves for hours in noisy and pointless but strangely addictive games, rather than having to make the effort to sustain a conversation). And the pricing - most young Chinese will be discouraged by higher prices (although a lot of us less affluent foreigners will be too!).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are some bars in Beijing - long established expat favourites like <b>The Den</b>, <b>Frank's Place</b>, <b>Eudora Station</b>, and the <b>Goose & Duck</b> (or some newer places in a similar vein, like <b>The Irish Volunteer</b>) - where the only Chinese people you'll usually see are WAGs or staff members. I've never felt very comfortable in places like this. Then again, <i>I can't stand</i> most of the bars on and around Nanluoguxiang these days: bars which prove strongly alluring to Chinese patrons tend to be deeply unappealing to me (it's not the Chinese patrons I mind, it's <i>the things Chinese patrons seem to like!</i>).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My favourite bars over the years have been ones that somehow managed to appeal to a good mix of foreign <i>and</i> Chinese punters: <b>Huxley's</b>, <b>Reef</b> (in its early days; it's rather lost its foreigner appeal now), <b>Pool Ba</b>r, <b>Salud</b>, and, of course, my best beloved <b>12 Square Metres</b>. I'm not quite sure what <i>the secret</i> is. I suspect it's something to do with being more Western than Chinese in style, but having a level of pricing reasonable enough not to drive away Chinese custom... and perhaps also with being sufficiently off the beaten track that their expat constituency just isn't large enough to establish an exclusive dominion. A bar in Sanlitun or Lido can easily establish itself - not necessarily by design, but by natural evolution - as essentially an 'expat only' kind of place; in my neighbourhood, it can't - and I'm grateful for that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-91507897995354516922012-12-14T01:20:00.000+00:002012-12-31T02:16:11.276+00:00Lost songs<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nearly a year ago, I <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/01/musical-youth.html">mentioned in passing</a> that I had once been<i> involved </i>(behind the scenes rather than onstage) with a school band called <b><i>Ded Lemming</i></b>. I wrote most of their lyrics; but, seeing as it is over 30 years ago, I have - perhaps <i>fortunately</i> in most cases - forgotten nearly all of them now. I can't even remember many of the titles or subjects.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only two of these songs still persist in my memory. One was inspired by a Classical reference (I specialised in Ancient Latin and Greek in the 6th Form, and at university - a quirk of my personal history which has come up on here before <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2006/10/advantages-of-classical-education.html">once</a> or <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/01/s-latin-innit.html">twice</a>). The celebrated Athenian playwright <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschylus">Aeschylus</a> died, according to legend, on a visit to one of the Greek colonies in Sicily in the 450s BC, when he was quite elderly. It is said that the eagles in those parts were especially fond of eating tortoises, and would break open their shells by carrying them high aloft and then dropping them on to round stones. Aeschylus's bald pate was apparently mistaken by an eagle for a suitable tortoise-cracking rock. Oh boy, I found that a compelling image, and I had long wanted to try to write something (I probably originally aspired to something far more serious and <i>poetic</i>!) about a great writer's brains being dashed out by - and mingled with - the squished innards of a tortoise. When my friends briefly formed this punk band, I found myself penning a jauntily manic number for them on this theme. I'm sure nobody but the handful of Classicists in the school had a clue what it was about; most people just thought it was an engaging nonsense song. The chorus (I don't think there was much to it <i>apart from the chorus</i>) went: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Never thought that I would wind up lying out here dead,</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lying in the baking sun - <i>with a tortoise in my head,</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Tortoise in my head, tortoise in my head, tortoise in my head!</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You think <i>that's</i> grotesque?! Well, that was as nothing to our 'greatest hit'. I created a sort of catalogue song which imagined a situation most of my mid-teen schoolmates were familiar with - being left at home alone for the first time by our somewhat mistrustful parents, and being given a long list of rules we shouldn't break (which, of course, we tended to find unduly provocative, and would often treat more as a list of <i>suggestions</i>). I think the idea started off as a fairly straight depiction of this parent-teenager confrontation, but then I started taking it in a wild and surreal direction. The verses had a two part structure, beginning with two lines from a nagging mother issuing prohibitions (our singer did a particularly good - vaguely feminine - anxious whine for this), and then another two of her bratty son sarcastically mimicking her with more bizarre examples of the creatively evil things he might get up to if left unsupervised (the singer did an even better mocking sneer for these bits). The distinction between these two parts became blurred, as the mother's anxieties escalated, and she began to imagine more and more terrible things that her son <i>might</i> do (and her son found it harder and harder to outdo her in his perverse responses). I wish I could summon this back from the void of oblivion; I have a feeling that it was one of <i>the best things I have ever written</i> - in any genre.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyhow, I remember the chorus (<i>very</i> catchy!):</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Be a good boy, Johnny. Now, see you behave.</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">And don't put kitty in the microwave.</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Don't put kitty in the microwave, don't put kitty in the microwave.</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
[After a while, we recorded the 'ting' of a microwave finishing its programme, and started using that to give the song an abrupt ending.]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-57558207193988512982012-12-14T00:38:00.000+00:002012-12-14T00:52:45.883+00:00HBH 315<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The gloomiest week,</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Time when everybody leaves,</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Loneliness envelops.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think airfares typically ramp up for a week or so after the mid-point of December, so this - the second week of the month - is traditionally when most expats quit Beijing for their Christmas break. It is miserable to be one of the few left behind. I think I'm going to treat myself to a holiday this year too; but maybe not until the flights get cheaper again on Christmas Day.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-85016478964153611142012-12-13T08:57:00.000+00:002012-12-13T16:57:55.635+00:00Great Love Songs (40)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think <i>The Wind Knows My Name</i> was my favourite of the Mark E. Nevin songs from the superb Fairground Attraction album <i>First Of A Million Kisses</i>. The theme of restlessness and inconstancy strikes a particular chord with me. I don't think that's been an issue in my love life. Well, not on <i>my</i> side, anyway. Well, not directly; I suppose that if one is unsettled in the rest of one's life, it makes it difficult to form stable and lasting relationships. It's hard for a nomad to make a nest-builder happy, and vice versa.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the great songs of farewell, anyway. And so this seems an especially appropriate choice, as I prepare to move on from this blog. And, hopefully, from Beijing. And maybe even from <i>drinking</i>. Really. Lots of changes happening in my life at the moment.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the lovely Eddi Reader singing <i>The Wind Knows My Name</i>. She might be the only singer to get three mentions in this series; I've posted on her previously <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/07/great-love-songs-8.html">here</a> and <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2008/03/great-drinking-songs-3.html">here</a>.</span> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[You can listen to the album version <b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81hiLSshao">here</a></b>.]</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lT8mQ6gxslc" width="420"></iframe></center>
<br />
<br />Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-16068288066009776332012-12-13T05:55:00.000+00:002013-04-29T08:27:02.771+00:00Great Drinking Songs (39)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mention of Chumbawamba <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/drinking-song-leftovers.html">last week</a> prompted me to play the whole of their <i>Tubthumping</i> album - one of the greatest, if not <i>the greatest</i> of the '90s - all the way through for the first time in quite a while, and I was bowled over by it afresh. It is amazingly good from beginning to end; the enormous titular hit was about the weakest thing on it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, <i>Scapegoat</i>, the track that ends the album, is my personal favourite. Not the best song (that's probably <i>Drip, Drip, Drip</i> or <i>Good Ship Lifestyle</i>), but it's got such energy about it, it's an irresistible singalong. And I tend to think of this as <span style="font-size: large;">my No. 1 'China song'</span> - rather too painfully apposite for a country in which buck-passing is a national pastime.</span> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[This looks like a fan video; a crude compilation of video clips, mostly of unfortunate mishaps. Mildly amusing. And at least it's a good quality sound recording. There don't seem to be any live performance videos of this.]</span></div>
<br />
<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mCt_uk9hHqA" width="420"></iframe></center>
<br />
<br />Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-63072616924541462552012-12-12T02:39:00.000+00:002012-12-31T09:30:51.107+00:00Recommended Posts, October-December 2012<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A selection of highlights from my last few months of despatches from <b>The Barstool</b>. This list might end up being a little longer than usual, because the approaching <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/great-drinking-songs-41.html">demise of the blog</a> prompted me to post quite prolifically, and to address a number of especially good topics that I'd somehow failed to get around to over the previous six years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Guided Tour - recommended posts from the 4th quarter of 2012</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>1) Blues Week</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I began October with a week of diverse musical posts, covering varieties of <i>the blues</i>: we had some <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/09/taking-it-easy.html">Motorhead</a> (a slowed down version of <i>The Ace of Spades</i>), <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/that-feeling-once-again.html">Cream</a>, <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/billy-got-blues-too.html">ZZ Top</a>, some early <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/peter-green-is-god.html">Fleetwood Mac</a>, <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/angus.html">AC/DC</a>, <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/jimmy-also-got-blues.html">Led Zeppelin</a> (some amazing footage of one of their first ever TV appearances), the astonishing blind singer <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-obscure-gem.html">Turley Richards</a>, and <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/farewell-to-blues.html">piano legend Otis Spann playing with the great guitarist Peter Green</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/hbh-305.html">The desire for oblivion</a> - 5th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/%27Haiku%20Bar%27%20haiku">weekly haiku</a> triggers one of my more serious posts, examining my lifelong history of depressive illness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
3) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/if-theyd-asked-me.html">If they'd asked me....</a> - 9th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I imagine what my responses might have been if <b><i>The Beijinger</i></b> magazine had invited <i>me</i> to participate in their new<i> 'A Drink With...' </i>series.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-carp.html">"The Carp"</a> - 11th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A reminiscence of a favourite restaurant during my first year in Beijing - and its horribly memorable <i>floorshow</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
5) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/hbh-306_12.html">Childhood holidays</a> - 12th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's amazing what the aroma of a single malt Scotch can evoke!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
6) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-top-five-guitar-riffs.html">A <i>Top Five</i> Guitar Riffs</a> - 13th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Does exactly what it says on the label. Of course, it's impossible to limit myself to <i>just five</i> once I get started on this topic - I imagine I'll be returning to it at least once or twice <b><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Music%20Week">here</a></b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
7) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/useful-words.html">Useful words</a> - 16th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I discover a couple of intriguing concepts from other languages... and wish that we had English equivalents for them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
8) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/stop-that.html"><i>Stop</i> that!</a> - 25th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Flirting is <i>BAD</i>, m'kay? At least according to the <b><i>Anti-Flirt Club</i></b> - a real (though short-lived) social campaign from the Prohibition Era in America.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
9) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/hbh-308.html">Drink and age</a> - 26th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The passing of another birthday makes me ponder on the spectre of the dreaded Mid-Life Crisis.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
10) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/drum-bass-top-five-rhythm-pairings.html">Drum & Bass: a <i>Top Five</i> rhythm pairing</a>s - 27th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Can you guess who my top pick was? Moon and Entwistle? Bonham and JPJ? <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">[Some more <i>Great Basslines</i> <b><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/another-top-five-basslines.html">here</a></b> and <b><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-farewell-treat-more-hoopy-basslines.html">here</a></b>.]</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
11) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/bon-mot-for-week_29.html">Possibly my favourite ever 'Weekly <i>Bon Mot</i>'</a> - 29th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not one of my own, alas; but very, very good.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
12) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-rule-of-custom.html">The Rule of Custom</a> - 30th October 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I a reminded of why you shouldn't go into restaurants that have no customers in them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
13) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/bon-mot-for-week_5.html">Bitter? Moi?</a> - 5th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is one of my own <i>bon mots</i> - combining my favourite subjects: women and drink.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
14) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-top-five-unusual-places-i-have-drunk.html">The <i>Top Five</i> Unusual Places I Have Drun</a>k - 7th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gosh, I have led an adventurous life! Well, <i>in my younger days</i>, anyway.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
15) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-monmouth-connection.html">The Monmouth connection</a> - 14th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reminiscences about how the place where I grew up influenced my burgeoning enthusiasm for music.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
16) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/hbh-311.html">A rare regret</a> - 16th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My return to Hong Kong after a <i>LONG</i> absence revives memories of a <i>not-quite-romance</i> from nearly 20 years ago... and prompts me to recount the story of how I once blagged my way into the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
17) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/bon-mot-for-week.html">Ginger ale <i>that knows someone</i>!</a> - 19th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Champagne - I am <i>not a fan</i>. And neither was Hawkeye.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
18) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/hbh-312.html">Bad behaviour</a> - 23rd November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I reflect on what it is about hotels that so incites people to <i>misbehave</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
19) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/bon-mot-for-week_26.html">"Don't think this has taught me a lesson."</a> - 26th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I allow myself a bit of a swoon over the inimitable Tallulah Bankhead.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
20) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-anonymity_27.html">On Anonymity</a> - 27th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I explain why I opted for anonymity in my blogging - and why I feel it would in general be a better course for anyone who's reviewing bars and restaurants.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
21) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/chinese-hotel-breakfasts.html">Chinese hotel breakfasts</a> - 29th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the most hilariously awful things in the world!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
22) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-kind-of-probe.html">What kind of <i>probe</i>?</a> - 30th November 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is not until I journey into remote south-west China that I discover that Beijing's local beer <i>is sponsoring the Chinese space programme</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
23) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/lost-songs.html">Lost songs</a> - 14th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Two fragments from my brief career as a lyricist for a punk rock band. (I was 17; forgive me!)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
24) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-big-question.html">The BIG Question</a> - 14th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I ponder the tricky question of whether a bar can make more money off Chinese or foreign custom, and whether it's possible to combine the two.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
25) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-final-unsuitable-role-model-fred.html">A final 'unsuitable role model': Fred Dibnah</a> - 15th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An affectionate tribute to the affable Bolton steeplejack who was one of the great stars of British television during my childhood - and one of the most admirable and enviable men I've ever encountered.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
26) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/american-bartenders.html">American bartenders</a> - 17th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I love 'em to bits, think they're<i> the best in the world</i>, but... their habit of randomly slashing people's bills at the end of the evening discombobulates me more than somewhat.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
27) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-beijing-bucket-list-10-things-to.html">A Beijing 'Bucket List': 10 things to try before you die</a> - 19th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I reflect on some of the more frivolous and fun experiences I've had during my decade of living in the Chinese capital.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
28) <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-more-cynical-bucket-list-10-things.html">A more cynical 'bucket list': the things you probably <i>will have done</i> before you leave China</a> - 19th December 2012</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barbed farewell satire on the rather-too-common expat experience in this country.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll also be <b>'cheating'</b> a bit - returning to the blog every once in a while to add further <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Great%20Songs">music posts</a></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Music%20Week">here</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and new <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Top%20Fives">'Top Five'</a> posts on other assorted topics</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Farewell%20Tuesday">here</a></span>. <b><i>So, keep your eyes peeled.</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-8595348469381032012-12-11T04:58:00.000+00:002019-01-06T11:53:18.719+00:00Top Five Dive Bars in Cambodia (my new favourite hangouts)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">15th NOVEMBER 2017</span></u></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A little over a year on from <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-five-bars-in-cambodia.html" target="_blank">my first post</a> about my new life in Cambodia, I find - <i>alas! </i>- that all the bars I celebrated in that are now closed, or.... well, considerably diminished in my regard for them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>Indo Bar</i></b>, a beguilingly English-pub-like little spot in the southern town of Kampot, may in fact have closed even before I put that post up; I discovered its recent demise on my next visit down there just a few weeks later (I was even more disappointed that its sister enterprise, the <b><i>Curry House</i></b>, had likewise closed, leaving the town without any really decent Indian food).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>Picasso</i></b> in Siem Reap I've been going off as well. Vivacious Aussie bar manager Sam was one of its main points of appeal, and she's moved on now. The cocktails there were never much good, really, although brutally effective; but now, alas, they seem to be tainted by the tide of fake booze that has broken over the city in the last year or two: the last few times I've drunk the spirits there, it's made me ill.... and there's only one thing that causes that, I'm afraid. Also, I've had a run of bad experiences with obnoxious punters there recently. So, it's dropped off my 'must visit' list, although I've been spending more and more time in Siem Reap this year. I still like its ambience, and the sociability of the place, but - there's not much that I actually want to drink there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have a similar problem with <b><i>Here Be Dragons</i></b> in Battambang, where I now live (the city, that is, not the bar!). It's still a very inviting little bar, but.... well, draft beer is almost never any good in this country (and I'm convinced they've switched over from the sort-of-OK Cambodia to the gassy pish of Anchor; that might be a false memory, but it contributes forcefully to my rising disenchantment with the place), so I used to drink mostly Beer Lao there - of which they had, for a time, both the stout and regular strong lager varieties, and their new premium offering, Beer Lao Gold, with its stimulating burst of hoppiness on the nose. There have been some problems with the distributor for these Lao brands, though, and I think they now only have the lager.... perhaps not even that. And no decent local beer either (no Cambodia in cans - why not??). And their novelty cocktails are invariably way too sweet for my taste. So, there's absolutely nothing for me to drink there any more..... um, except spirits, I suppose. In this less attractive drink environment, I find myself more and more pissed off by their too-high bar and uncomfortable, wonky bar stools - things which had previously been only mild irritations to me. I confess also that I'd had a major man-crush on Dave Howard, the brilliant young manager they had last year (my farewell binge with him in Phnom Penh just before he flew back to England was probably the most extreme session I've had in this country!). I like their new staff well enough, but there's just not the <i>magic</i> there was last year. (Also, of course, when I was just a visitor in this town, I always used to stay at <b><i>The Dragons</i></b>; so, it was by default my first and last stop every day. Now that it's no longer 'home' - nor even, most of the time, 'on the way home' - I don't have much incentive to drop in there.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And worst of all, Battambang's richest gem, the <b><i>Riverside Balcony Bar</i></b> - the loveliest venue in the whole country, though just a little bit too 'fancy' to be an habitual three-times-a-week type of haunt - has just been forced to close (and while I was out of town, dammit, at the end of October). The owner of the property had died suddenly a few months ago; so, there's probably now some sort of family dispute over what to do with the property (redevelop it, sell it, reclaim it as a family home, tout it as a commercial space again - but at a much higher rent??), and perhaps even some uncertainty as to who the new owner actually is. I had thought Frazer and Frankie, the charming young couple who've made this place into such a beloved institution in the town over the past two years, had another year on their lease; but it seems not. They'd got a bit bored with the place, and were looking to move on anyway. But they had been hoping to get an extension for at least one more year, so that they could sell the bar as a going concern; and that hasn't worked out - so, the place is suddenly derelict. <i>Unbearably sad.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At least dear old <b><i>Oh Neil's</i></b> (also in Kampot) is still there, and still as great as it ever was.... although it's gone through some rough patches in the last year or so (being without a kitchen for long periods, and giving up on daytime opening - factors which combined to rob us of Neil's 'breakfast roll', one of my very favourite guilty indulgences: an entire cooked breakfast somehow crammed inside a baguette!), and I gather it is unlikely to survive beyond the end of its current lease.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, <i>where have I been drinking</i> over this last year or so, as these early favourites faltered and fell?? These are my newer loves - all of them predictably <i>divey</i>!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Froog's New <i>Top Five</i> Favourite Bars in Cambodia</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5) <i>The Roadhouse Saloon</i> (Siem Reap)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or 'Anna's Place', as I like to think of it. The likeable Khmer landlady is coy as to how this bar came about, where the concept came from. It is such an authentic rendition of a classic American bar (subdued lighting, stone-topped bar, classic advertisements and b&w photos of dead rock stars on the walls) that I am inclined to think that there must have been a foreign partner involved at some point; but she won't be drawn on that, and appears to be in sole charge now. Her house special gin & tonic (a <i>huge</i> measure, with lots of lime juice, served in a brandy balloon) has become my favourite brain-bludgeoner this past year. Again, alas, as with so many of my original picks above, there's not much on offer in the way of beers - which stops this place being more than an occasional indulgence for me. Its other major drawbacks are irregular opening and a complete dearth of customers most of the time. While I have much enjoyed being able to introduce a couple of visiting friends to its charms in recent months, it has been completely deserted just about every other time I've looked in - which hasn't tempted me to stay. Perhaps I've just been unlucky; Anna assures me she's had a number of spectacular nights where large gaggles of visitors kept her up until the wee small hours. This, it seems, is her common excuse for not always opening very early, or at all - she's recovering from one of her <i>big nights</i> (exhausted? hungover? feeling that she's made her money for the week??). With a better clientele (it's got good potential, I think, as it enjoys a very prominent location - on the big roundabout at the start of 7 Makara Street, directly opposite the horrendous <b><i>Hard Rock <a class="_sEo iOrfYIXv3NXM-6WH35iSZ2V0 rllt__link" data-cid="12516385783346988836" data-rtid="iOrfYIXv3NXM" data-ved="0ahUKEwjg0pqVgNTXAhWFU7wKHe84CTQQyTMILzAA" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" jsaction="r.UQJvbqFUibg;" jsl="$x 2;" role="link" style="background-color: #fafafa; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-align: start; z-index: 2;" tabindex="0"></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a class="_sEo isN1ahQ2p07E-6WH35iSZ2V0 rllt__link" data-cid="11037034964607085837" data-rtid="isN1ahQ2p07E" data-ved="0ahUKEwjE_pmugNTXAhVEvLwKHX_-AD4QyTMIQzAC" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" jsaction="r.UQJvbqFUibg;" jsl="$x 2;" role="link" style="background: rgb(248, 248, 248); cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-align: start; z-index: 2;" tabindex="0"></a></span>Café</i></b>), and a more varied range of drinks, this could become my favourite bar in the country.... or at the northern end of it, anyway.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>4) <i>Mekong Crossing </i> (Kampong Cham)</b></span><br />
The <b><i>Mekong Crossing</i></b> is a barebones little guesthouse that I've often stayed at (well, two out of three times so far) in the quaint provincial capital of Kampong Cham. It's got a great corner location, right opposite the riverfront promenade, with some nice sidewalk seating (and also a narrow wraparound balcony on the first floor, which is scarcely used), and some of the keenest drinks prices I've found anywhere in the country. The food, unfortunately, is not up to much (I prefer the nearby <b><i>Moon River</i></b> for that). But they have a really friendly group of staff in there; and I've developed a huge affection for the place in just a few brief visits. (Indeed, Kampong Cham is rapidly becoming my favourite place in the country - largely because it has just about zero foreigners [only a handful of Western tourists at any given time, and it's fairly easy to ignore them; no resident expats that I've ever seen!]. Sometimes, I just get really fed up of the kind of Westerner that predominates here; and KC - just a few hours out of Phnom Penh on a bus - is an excellent place to get away from them.)<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>3) <i>Kampot Hilton</i> (Kampot)</b></span><br />
I don't <i>love</i> the name: the reminiscence with the 'Hanoi Hilton' doesn't conjure positive associations (nor, indeed, does any reminder of the ghastly Paris Hilton); I fear the Hilton Hotel chain might sue one day; and, well, it somehow just doesn't sound <i>like a bar</i> to me. But a bar it is, and a very good one. A very new one, too: only open two or three months at this point, I believe. It was always an appealing space, and a promising location (facing the small grassy square just inland from the 'Old Market' on the riverfront); but with its previous incarnation, a would-be New-Orleans-y bar called <b><i>NOLA</i></b>... well, that had its moments, but the tenant had got depressed by some bad experiences in her business and personal life, and had rather obviously given up interest in the venture.... It was slowly and painfully dying on its feet over the last year or two. Its revamp - under a boisterous Aussie biker couple, Jono and Ricky - is long overdue, and seems likely to prosper. The newcomers are putting a lot of effort into special events, including some kind of promotion involving cheap drinks or prize draws every night of the week (and putting on a rather awesome brunch buffet for Melbourne Cup Day while I was visiting recently). The major draw, though, is Ricky's pub grub, which is really very impressive (she apparently dumps a full Bloody Mary into every serving of her excellent chilli - which is an inspired innovation, to be sure, although I worry what it does to her profit margin!!). I was in there very nearly every night of a recent two-week stay: it's not often that happens with me.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2) <i>Elly's </i> (Phnom Penh)</span></b><br />
Just before I grew terminally disenchanted with Phnom Penh and quit at the beginning of this year, I had found myself becoming a bit of a regular at this newly opened bar down in the Russian Market district, at the far southern end of the city (I'd only go once or twice a week; but, given that it's nearly five miles away from where I lived, and I'd usually walk the whole way, there and back, it must have had quite <i>a draw</i> for me...!). It's a classic dive: dark, narrow, barebones, grungy.... <i>cheap</i>. But that's obviously a winning formula for many folks, not just me: this is the <i>only</i> bar I've found in the capital that has established an enthusiastic regular clientele (on Fridays, in particular, it would get pretty heaved out by shortly after 6pm). At first, it was a very Aussie bar (the owner appeared to be an amiable young bloke called Clinton, getting occasional help from his old dad, Don), and that was no bad thing: they do the <i>dive bar</i> well, the Aussies. But when Clinton moved on to richer pastures overseas (and Don also vanished back to Oz for quite a while) at the start of this year, the mysterious Elly - for whom the place had been named all along - stepped forward to take over (Don's Mrs, apparently: a feisty Filipina). The bar food menu (already good under Clinton, who had experience as a chef) underwent a dramatic makeover, going fully Filipino (there are a few other places in PP where you can sample this cuisine; but I doubt if they're anywhere near as good as this!): the occasional all-you-can-eat Pinoy Sunday brunches are particularly good (I'd often find myself the only white guy in the room, as the place had soon become a hub for the city's entire Filipino community during the daytime on the weekends - that's how good the food is!). There are, as ever, quite a few negative points: some of the 'regulars' are a bit obnoxious, all of them smoke an obscene amount, the music they play in there can be sometimes great but rather more often <i>absolutely bloody terrible</i> (I was unlucky enough to catch them on a Cambodian holiday the last time I visited: the usual 6pm crowd had been in all afternoon, chain-smoking, and getting especially obnoxious; they launched into a phase of cueing up electronic dance music on Youtube ['young' people - dontcha hate 'em??!!], which drove me from the bar in despair within minutes), and so on. Ah yes, and the place is <i>romantically disastered</i> for me: I had a brief but ultimately very unhappy affair with a gorgeous American woman I met in there just before Christmas last year. Yet still, despite <i>all that</i>, I am sure to go back there whenever I visit Phnom Penh....<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And in the top spot this time, my new 'second home'.....</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">1) <i>Ganesha</i> (Battambang)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This charming little family-run guesthouse operates out of a couple of colonial-era shophouses in the heart of the old quarter of central Battambang. The German owner is a bombastic but mostly lovable old eccentric (German food features heavily on the menu; and the potato dishes - wedges, potato cakes, mash - are the best you'll find anywhere in the country), and his lovely Cambodian wife is my favourite person in the city, one of the nicest people I've met anywhere. The staff are great, too. The booze prices are very keen, and there's a better range of beers available than anywhere else in town: drinkable Cambodia on draft, Klang in cans (tastes about as nondescript as any other Asian lager, but it's a satisfying 1% stronger - hence, my tipple of choice!), and also the handle-with-care Barrley Black (a new super-strong 'stout' from the Cambodia beer people: there's nothing at all nice about it, and it induces <i>hangovers-from-hell</i>, but... it's 8.5% alcohol for only a dollar a can!!). They have a pretty good pool table too (and the owner and his two teenage kids are formidable players), which is, <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2006/12/zen-art-of-playing-pool.html" target="_blank">of course</a>, a further insidious attraction for me. They've recently instituted a pool competition on Monday nights, which could become a fixture in my week (except that my mojo has gone walkabout this month; I'm now losing confidence that I'll even be able to give anyone a half-decent game, let alone win the damn tournament outright, before I head off on the road again in a few weeks). Nothing is perfect in this world: the bar is tiny (and often overrun with backpackers staying in the dorms upstairs), the only three stools available are uncomfortably tall,.... and they can't hook up the TV sound to play the commentary during big football games (<i>aaarrgghh!</i>). But despite these considerable demerits, <b><i>Ganesha</i></b> has wormed its way deep into my heart. If I'm going out drinking in Battambang (although I have <i>given up</i> for several extended periods since I moved here....), it's highly likely that this will be my main stop.... quite probably my only one.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33211583.post-51825640344533160072012-12-11T03:58:00.000+00:002017-11-23T05:20:49.521+00:00Top Five Bars in Cambodia<div style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span style="font-size: large;">12th AUGUST 2016</span></u><br />
<br />
Just a few days after I shuttered this blog, as I was in the midst of finalising my intended departure from China <i>for good</i>.... out of the blue I was offered quite an exciting new job, which kept me in China for another two-and-a-half years or so. At least it got me out of Beijing, moved me down to the Suzhou-Hangzhou-Shanghai area. I was completely <i>burnt out</i> on Beijing; but I was pretty much done on China too, and after having to endure another couple of years of the place, I was determined I had to leave and never come back.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During this rather fraught 'China extension', I had the good fortune to discover Cambodia for the first time. Well, I had long been interested in, fascinated by the country. And I had laid plans for an extended visit when I quit Beijing at the beginning of 2013 - but got deterred by the likely difficulty of travelling there around the time of the late King Sihanouk's funeral. In fact, I didn't manage to make my first trip there until Christmas 2014. I took to it at once, and returned twice more within the next few months..... and then relocated permanently to Phnom Penh towards the end of 2015.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
By August 2016, after considerable travels around the country, I am in a position to add a little<b> 'Best Bars in Cambodia'</b> roundup to my old drinking blog here (sneakily backdated into my <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/search/label/Farewell%20Tuesday" target="_blank">'Farewell Tuesday</a>').</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, it is a little sad that there are no Phnom Penh bars in this list. Perhaps I haven't researched my 'home turf' quite enough yet. I have in fact spent very nearly as much time 'on the road' visiting other parts of the country as I have 'at home' in PP. And I have for most of this past year been drinking only very moderately, or not at all - very different from my <i>wild</i> Beijing days of a few years ago! When I'm off 'on holiday', I let my hair down a little bit, sup a little more. While in PP, I spend much of my time hunkered down in my very pleasant apartment, and sometimes don't venture out from one week to the next. (Also, I worry that I may be something of a jinx: the two best beloved watering-holes of my early months here were both soon demised - one fatally losing its mojo after just a couple of months of near-<a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-makes-great-bar.html" target="_blank">perfect-bar-ness</a>, and its replacement in my drinking affections being suddenly demolished a scant three months after that! This city, alas, suffers many of the same woes of hasty, greedy, ill-conceived 'development' as Beijing. I have caught it on the cusp of momentous changes, and I fear that everything I now love about it is likely to be swept away in the next few years.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Moreover, the majority of Phnom Penh bars come up seriously lacking in one way or another. The city has an awful lot of bars, but most of them aren't really much good; and even the good ones are a long way short of great. (It's not quite so ill-served as Siem Reap, which is a very, very disappointing bar town; or the big coastal resort of Sihanoukville, which is the armpit of the world, surely the ugliest city in SE Asia... and has not a single decent bar.) There will probably be a <b>'<i>Top Five</i> Bars in Phnom Penh'</b> post appearing shortly, but for now.... here's my pick of <b><i>The Best</i></b> from <i>the rest</i> of Cambodia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">The <i>To</i><i>p Five</i> Bars in Cambodia</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5) <i>Picasso</i> (Siem Reap)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Picasso</b> is a challenge to find: very inconspicuous signage, not open during the daytime, hidden down a tiny back-alley (but parallel to and just yards away from the raucous awfulness that is the city's main 'Pub Street'). And it's a terrible name for a bar, a name that cries "twee bistro food" rather than "hardcore dive bar". But the latter is what it is, and thank god for it. I think it used to be more of a tapas type of place in its early days, but it has gradually evolved into the city's best drinking den. It's the decor that makes it: an arched faux brick ceiling gives it the grungy intimacy of a cellar bar (although it's actually at ground level). And it has a long, stone-topped U-shaped bar, almost a complete 'island'; it's the only one of its kind I've found in the country, and it is quite magical how it conduces to opening up casual conversations with other drinkers - whether next to you, or on the opposite side of the narrow room. The feisty young manager, an Aussie girl called Sam, also plays a big part in maintaining the friendly, chatty atmosphere of the place. Cheap drinks and a small but good offering of bar snacks - and an ongoing obsession with trying to set a new <a href="https://recordsetter.com/world-record/tallest-game-jenga/22257" target="_blank">Jenga world record</a> - complete its appeal. It's one of the most sociable bars in the country - and streets ahead of anything else in Siem Reap. Its all-evening 'happy hour' on Wednesdays is one of the country's great <i>drinking events </i>too, a rather dangerous attraction (it's not wise to schedule your bus out of Siem Reap on a Thursday!!).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4) <i>Indo Bar</i> (Kampot)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Again, a pretty terrible name, but... this unassuming little spot, on a quiet street a block or two in from the river, has managed to recreate the ambience of a traditional British pub - the only place I know in the country to have pulled this off (having the cheery young Brit owner behind the bar most of the time certainly helps; but there are a lot of other foreign-owned bars around, especially in this town, that dismally fail to conjure any particular atmosphere or character). The TV behind the bar is fairly small, but it makes it a good spot for watching football matches (well, it's pretty much the only option in town for this). And they offer a small but very good (and very generously portioned) selection of Indian set meals from the nearby <b><i>Curry House</i></b> (I think there's some shared ownership between the bar and the restaurant). My only gripe is that the bar itself is tiny, and you usually have to arrive pretty early in the evening if you're going to stake a claim to one of the handful of barstools. (This is a common problem with the footprint of the typical 'Chinese shop-house' property - long and narrow. If I were turning one of these spaces into a pub, I'd put the bar along the side wall, not at the end of the room.) <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">[Well, damn - </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">the jinx</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> strikes again! I returned to Kampot just after writing this post, and discovered that </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><i>Indo</i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> had closed down over the summer of 2016. </span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><i>Oh Neil's</i></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (see below), luckily, is still going strong. But Kampot becomes a much less compelling destination when its number of attractive boozers is reduced to ONE.]</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3) <i>The Riverside Balcony</i> (Battambang)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Does exactly what it says on the label! Not a <i>terrible</i> name, this time, though rather unimaginatively prosaic - but we're probably stuck with it now. I gather this place has been going for several years, was one of the first foreign bars to open in Battambang - but had got itself a bit of a bad reputation under the last owner. Since the end of 2015, it's been taken over by a young Scot and his Australian girlfriend, and they have completely revitalized it. It is a lovely, lovely space, a large covered terrace on the first floor of a traditional wooden stilt house, overlooking the small river in the bucolic southern fringes of Battambang. The only reason this doesn't make the top spot is that it's <i>a bit too fancy</i>: it feels more like a 'special occasion' kind of drinking destination, somewhere you'd go on a date rather than just for everyday tippling. The temptation to explore their interesting list of cocktails (and/or their very fine selection of single malt Scotches) threatens to make it a bit too expensive for a regular haunt, too. But there is no finer place in the whole country to slake the day's thirst while watching the dusk gently fall, and I make a point of dropping in at least once or twice whenever I'm passing through Battambang. (Their pizzas are also extremely good, and boast some unusual but very effective combinations of toppings.) I am amazed - and resentful! - that there is nothing like this, <i>nothing remotely as good </i>as this in the capital.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2) <i>Here Be Dragons</i> (Battambang)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">OK, this name is perhaps a bit too determinedly quirky, and it doesn't quite fit the traditional templates for bar-naming - but <i>it works</i>. It's actually a very apposite warning, given the hazards of repeated and prolonged drinking that beckon within: it is the <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2007/07/devils-triangle.html" target="_blank">'Bermuda Triangle'</a> of Battambang! On the quiet east bank of the river, just north of the Wat Sangke temple, <b><i>Here Be Dragons</i></b> is one of the country's most popular backpacker dorms. (My days of slumming it in ultra-cheap bunk beds are behind me; but, luckily, they have a few quite decent - and also very cheap - private rooms upstairs, so it has become my favoured place to stay in the city.) By some happy alchemy, the young Brit couple who own the place have managed to create such a welcoming atmosphere that many people who arrive anticipating just a couple of days' battery-recharging before they head on to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh or Thailand, end up.... staying rather longer.... sometimes indefinitely. Most of the bar staff are backpackers who couldn't bear to leave. That's how fabulous this bar is! And in addition to its lively - though mostly transient (and mostly very, very young) - population of guests, it's also established itself as the major social hub for much of the expat community there. It tops <b><i>Picasso</i></b> [above] as a sociable bar because it's super-lively almost every night of the week (not just Wednesdays) and you're likely to meet a broad mix of people, many of them long-term residents in the city (not just tourists). The food is - mostly - very good, and the menu's extremely varied; the prices are pretty cheap; and they put on a slew of special events (cheap cocktails all night every Friday, themed parties or live music events most Saturdays, the best trivia quiz in the country on Wednesdays). Ah yes, and <i>they don't really close</i>. Nominally, they do, at about 12.30. But the barmen usually like to have a few to unwind themselves after that; and if the owner's in, he'll often settle in for an all-night session. This is the only place in the country where I have found myself repeating my crazy Beijing lifestyle, staying up drinking until 2am or 3am for days in succession (I fear I don't have the stamina to do that at all regularly any more; but it is nice to be able to revisit that over-indulgence just once in a while). The only slight demerit (there's always <i>one</i>!) is that, owing, I believe, to some cock-up in Imperial-to-Metric conversion, the bar is absurdly <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2009/12/fubar.html" target="_blank">too high</a>; and the rickety rattan stools you are obliged to perch on if you want to be able to lean your elbows on it are ridiculously uncomfortable. I hope that one day they'll make enough money to rip it out, and replace it with one about 8" or 10" lower. It might then become <i>the perfect bar</i>.....</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But for now, I give the coveted top spot to.......</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">1) <i>Oh Neil's</i> (Kampot)</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yep, yet another<i> terrible</i> name - but a wonderful, wonderful bar. There are many other bars on the Kampot riverfront offering views of the often spectacular sunsets beyond the Elephant Hills on the far side of the river, but this is by far my favourite. The ambience is more thatched-roof tiki bar than Irish boozer, but in a tropical climate, this seems to work; in fact, this place seems to combine the best of Irish and Caribbean culture (as <a href="http://thebarprop.blogspot.com/2006/12/black-swan.html" target="_blank">my favourite bar back in Oxford</a> 25 years ago briefly did). Actually, the Irishness is confined to a few Irish whiskeys behind the bar, and a few Irish items on the menu (I was delighted to find colcannon here - for the first time in years! - but disappointed that the Irish stew, though heartily thick, is made with beef rather than mutton). The general feel of the place is more American, with background music - played at sensibly audible-but-not-obtrusive volumes - sourced from online radio stations specialising in blues and classic rock. Owner Neil seems a nice guy, and is usually on hand himself - in the evenings, at least - to make sure all is running smoothly; although there's never too much of a worry about that, as he has managed to find himself some unusually friendly and efficient Cambodian bar staff. And, unlike nearby <b><i>Indo</i></b> [above, in the No. 4 spot], the bar is along the side wall, affording plenty of barstool perches (even so, the place is so popular that it can be difficult to get a seat). Excellent food, excellent service, excellent music, keen prices, and a super view from the small outdoor seating area at the front - this is dangerously close to 'bar perfection'. The fly-in-the-ointment here is the clientele: mostly quite middle-aged, nearly all expat rather than tourist - not nearly as varied as in most of the other venues on this list. Moreover, Kampot expats can seem tiresomely smug and self-satisfied: they're often rather too pleased with themselves that they were able to retire early and set up a moderately successful business there, or just that they were among the first to 'discover' that Kampot was <i>the coolest spot</i> in the entire country. I've had a number of interesting conversations at <b><i>Oh Neil's</i></b>, but on the whole I prefer the company (largely NGO workers) at <b><i>Here Be Dragons</i></b>; it's a very tight call between those two, for me. <b><i>Oh Neil's</i></b> just edges it on the food... and the music... and the hint of Irishness (I'm such a Plastic Paddy!).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Frooghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06738623732860210935noreply@blogger.com11