Goodbye.Down one to many times. Good luck.
Archive for February, 2007
I shot this video last year when our house wasn’t completely finished. If you are wondering what Chuxiong is like, or even Yunnan, then this video can take you in a little deeper.
For clarification, when I’m talking about “check your facts, bro, Mr. SF Gate” — it is in reference to this San Francisco Chronicle article where Kathleen E. McLaughlin writes about how bad the Chinese workers have it in Shenzhen, China, building iPods with a monthly salary of a mere $80 USD per month. It turns out her article addresses the farmers in western China, and admittedly, her “facts” are correct.
I was simply pointing out that there are many other people in China who have it much worse, and don’t have the benefits provided by those factories in the bigger cities (specifically, discounted rent and canteen.)
In the video you can see someone cleaning and sweeping the sidwalks of this rich community in China, Yi Ren Gu Zhen, and she makes 300-400 RMB a month (roughtly $40 USD).
While I don’t agree with the current trend of US companies exploiting the cheap labor of Chinese citizens (which is seemingly condoned by the Chinese government), it’s a fact of life here. It’s an opportunity. It’s more money than picking carrots.
A lot of the people who work in those “sweat shop” factories come from the “nong cun”, or rural areas of China. They migrate to the eastern populated cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen and take jobs where they can make 2-4x what they can make on the farms. Some send the money back home, some don’t.
WATCH MOVIEWhy take it to Touchless down the street for $1.25 USD? It takes 30-40 minutes every time! Welcome to Bob’s Carwash.
If you watch it twice, notice how the water on the ground evaporates because of the time-compressed video at 1600% (just pick a spot on the left, say, and watch the water slowly evaporate.)
| Title | Bob’s Carwash in under 15 mins |
| Video | 800 kbps, 2-pass VBR |
| Audio | 80 AAC, mono |
| Dimenions | 700×360, preserve aspect ratio (crop) |
| Format | Flash Video |
| File Size | 5.3mb |
| Length | 0:49 (FCP compression time= 3-4 mins) |
| Sound? | Yes, light music soundtrack |
| Rated | G (All audiences / work-friendly) |
| Notes | Sped up 1600% |
Check it out here: Superbass 2
You’ve all heard it. I just pulled it out last night and said, Damn, that’s a good album. Christian McBride is all over the place, Ray Brown swings harder than ever. I saw him once at the Stanford Jazz Workshop about 12 years ago, and he came dressed in a light blue suit with a matching light blue fedora, and showed up about 30 minutes late. He told us that time was the most important element in jazz and bass playing.
He went on to describe how when he was a kid, when ever the “latest” album would come out, he and his friends would compete to see who could learn all the bass lines first. If someone didn’t know a particular line from an album, they would lock them out in the cold and tell them to come back when they got it.
Inspiring speaker, and phenomenal player. Check out the album, listen to the harmonies on “Summertime” and check out the the strumming on “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.”
ENLARGEA sunrise over a fogged-in valley between two mountain ranges in Yunnan, China.
WATCH VIDEO(That’s “Eh Jia”). GPS Coordinates: 24°30′27.96″N, 101°11′15.24″E - if you whip that into Google Earth you can see the that mountain range runs deep into Vietnam.
Video notes: 6 megs, 1 minute, Flash video, no sound
All this for less that $0.30 USD. It’s like going to Whole Foods. We have tomatoes, broccoli, red peppers, and cucumber. Lunch.