The Shilin Night Market is one of the night markets in Taipei, Taiwan. A night market in an area where streets have been closed off and it is full of food stalls, merchant stands, activities for children and young couples. They are very social places where friends and families can gather to talk, eat, browse, and get some night air.
The markets are very pleasant. I've been to several, including the one pictured above, and always enjoyed myself at them. Then again, aside from my home, Taiwan is probably my favorite spot on the Earth. Many fond memories of the place. Hopefully the CCP will be thwarted from screwing it up like they do everywhere they get their hands on.
Karl Hagemeister
(1848-1933) was a German landscape artist. In the 1880s he spent time in Paris
where he absorbed impressionistic influences. The play of light and form became more
pronounced in his work, and he developed a richer and vibrant color palette. He was
well known and regarded in his day. The German hyper-inflation after WWI
financially ruined him and he retreated to a more private and eventually less
productive phase before his death.
This is a review of the 2017 Chinese action/comedy/propaganda film
China Salesman. I don't
know if you can find it online, I bought the stupid thing for this post (I
need to work on my money management skills). There will be spoilers in this
review.
It stars Dongxue Li as a salesman for a Chinese telecom company which is
bidding for a contract to sell superior Chinese 3G telephone equipment to an
African country. Opposing him is an Eeeeevil Western telephone company that's
trying to win the bid so they can tank the country's phone network, thereby
restarting a civil war so's they can sell arms to both sides. Diabolical
Westerners, hiding their illicit arms trade behind a telephone company!
If battling phone companies seems like an odd premise, bear in mind that this
was made around the time that Huawei's reputation
was swirling down the drain, so much of the nonsense in this film is just
touting the wonders of Chinese 3G technology compared to the junk the
Westerners put out.
The producers of the film also planned an international release and so, to
bolster its overseas box office, they cast two huge Hollywood action stars --
Steven Seagal and Mike Tyson. OK, maybe 'huge Hollywood action stars' is an
exaggeration, although in Seagal's case, considering his ample girth, huge
certainly fits.
Ms Ling and the China Salesman, who can't afford a radio phone to
call their headquarters, whine about not being taken seriously
We are introduced to the China Salesman and his assistant Ruan Ling as they
are riding into the capital city on camels. Driving past in a fancy car are
Susanna, the blonde woman who is running the bidding, and Michael, the
salesman for the Eeeeevil Western phone/weapons dealing company. That seems
like a bit of a conflict of interest to me, but what do I know? Susanna and
Michael, from the comfort of their air-conditioned car, smirk at the two
Chinese yahoos on their camels.
Later, while the Westerners settle into luxurious accommodations, the China Salesman and his sidekick open up their old regional office in the Capital. It
is dusty and pretty run down looking. At one point the China Salesman even
complains to Ling that they don't have a radio phone to call their
headquarters in China. Wait, this movie is promoting the wonders of Chinese 3G
telephony, and these two boobs can't even call their headquarters?
We then cut to a bar ran by Steven Seagal. It's kind of like Rick's bar in
Casablanca, but instead of Humphrey Bogart you get Seagal waddling around.
He's tasting some hootch from a barrel, declares it to be good and hands over
crates of guns he's trading for the booze. Now, I'm not an international arms
dealer, but it strikes me that Seagal got the short end of the stick trading
of all those automatic weapons for only a few gallons of whiskey.
Then, who should happen to walk in but Mike Tyson. His backstory is that he is
a fearsome African Chieftan. However, unfortunately for him his entire tribe
was massacred and exterminated. His big ambition is to reconstitute his tribe.
How he plans on doing that when they're all dead is a mystery - I guess he's
just an optimist.
Tyson, Seagal, and Seagal's stunt double duke it out (image from
Film Threat)
Since there are two high alpha action stars in the same bar a fight is
inevitable. One problem is Seagal is in his 'beached whale' phase so all he
can do is sit and wave his arms around as he does some fearsome chair-fu.
Meanwhile, Tyson wants nothing to do with that, he just wants to run around
punching people. To solve the problem of providing a mobile Seagal for the fight they hired the world's skinniest stunt double to do the duty. The three of them bust up the place, crashing through walls and demolishing all props in sight.
When the required amount of promotional video has been filmed, the fight ends with a Tyson victory. Seagal, his contract completed, thankfully largely disappears from the show. Tyson continues as a minor character with an amusingly absurd faux-African accent that changes from scene to scene.
The movie's plot is pretty much of a mess. It stitches together over-the-top action sequences while pumping the superiority of Huawei telephones, whining about the lack of respect for China, blathering about the incomprehensible civil war, displaying supposed African culture, and revealing devious Westerners. My favorite Tyson appearance was at one of the innumerable, technobabble infused telephony negotiation sessions. Tyson crashes through the front door in an armored personnel carrier and touches off a massive gunfight. Way to negotiate Mike.
Who needs guns when you have a Chinese flag?
Another ridiculous scene is when the China Salesman needs to get to the south to repair a vital telephone relay tower. However, there is only one mountain pass they can use to get there, and currently that pass is being blocked by the two warring rebel factions who are engaged in a massive firefight. Trying to solve this conundrum, the China Salesman thinks for a bit and then gets a brainstorm. He breaks out a gigantic Chinese flag, mounts it on the back of his truck and starts to drive through the pass. Hilariously the rebels all stop fighting and instead stand up and start shouting "Its China!", "China good!", "Yea for China!" so the China Salesman can make it through the pass. Yea, that sounds plausible.
Would I recommend you watch it? If you can get it for free the plot is preposterous, and it is stuffed full of ludicrously transparent propaganda. Still, it is a hoot and entertaining in a crappy B-movie sort of a way.
This is a video of the daily operations of a ferry boat in Bangladesh. It is newer than most ferries in the region, but it is still rather Spartan looking. The river traffic looks insane,
These some of the works of Léon Lhermitte (18844-1925) a French artist
who worked in pastels. He primarily created rural scenes. He was well known in
his day and Vincent van Gogh was an admirer of his artwork.
This video shows a pumper truck commonly used by firefighters. It explains the layout of its pumps, water tank, equipment, hoses, ladders and the cab. From the comments to the video a lot of firefighters seemed impressed by how well he described the truck and its loadout.
On this 4th of July weekend, we have a small sampling of paintings of the Statue of Liberty. It was a gift from the people of France and is a monument to freedom and democracy. It is also a symbol of the promise of American opportunity to the immigrants entering via New York harbor.
My grandparents all immigrated to the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century. They must have seen it, and I'm sure it moved them, but they never mentioned it. They did mention Ellis Island, but to them it was all just a transition from the Old World they had left behind for their new home in the States. The future called.
With July 4th closing in hotdogs, one of the holiday's staples, can't be far off. The above video tours America to find famous regional hotdogs. They are, as long as you don't spend too much time pondering how hotdogs are made, a delicious looking group.
Below is a video showing how to grill hotdogs. From the viewpoint of the cooking complexity scale grilling a hotdog is basically one step away from boiling water, but I suppose to some it is a new culinary adventure, So, in case you need a tutorial, here it is below.
