Some songs I’m listening to again recently.

I’ve been volunteering this summer at Food Gatherers’ Community Kitchen. Just chopping vegetables, making salads, that kind of thing. It’s been interesting, though I’d like to be more involved in organizing how the rescued ingredients are to be assembled together. There are a lot of freedom with salad-making, but more would be good also. Anyway, I like what I do there.

I like to eat. As my time in New Haven winds down, I thought I would make a conversion chart for people who like to eat, have lived in either Ann Arbor or New Haven, and are going to the other “city”. Thus, I present you a very opinionated rough conversion chart between food establishments in Ann Arbor and food establishments in New Haven.

Ann Arbor = New Haven

Cheap Eats
BTB = Tijuana Taco Company Burrito Carts
other burrito places = other burrito carts
Jerusalem Garden = Mamoun’s
Silvio’s = Romeo & Cesare
Cottage Inn = Yorkside Pizza
NYPD = Est Est Est
Noodles & Co = Ivy Noodle (DON’T GO!!!)

Fancy Eats
Zola = Zinc, Heirloom, Union League Cafe
Pacific Rim = Miya’s, Bentara
Bella Ciao ~= Ibiza (different nationalities)
Cafe Habana = Soul de Cuba
restaurants on Main St. = Hot Tomato’s (DON’T GO!!!)

Fat Eats
Fleetwood Diner = The Pantry

Asian
Shalimar, Madras Masala = Thali
Raja Rani, Mahek= Tandoor, Indian Palace, Royal India
Earthen Jar = Thali Too

Middle Kingdom = (no comparison)
TK Wu, Great Lakes = Great Wall
Lucky Kitchen, China Gate = China King, Hunan Cafe

Yamato = (no comparison)
Miki’s = Miso
other indistinguishable sushi places = other indistinguishable sushi places

Marnee Thai, Saigon Garden = Thai Taste, Thai Pan Asian, Bangkok Gardens
No Thai = York Street Noodle House

Coffee
Comet, Zingerman’s = Atticus
Ambrosia = Blue State
Espresso Royale = Koffee, Publick Cup
Starbucks = Starbucks

Drinks
Arbor Brewing Company, Grizzly Peak = Bar
Ashley’s = Prime 16
Red Hawk Grill = Anchor
Melange, Black Pearl, Vinology = Barcelona, Bespoke
La Dolce Vita = The Owl Shop
Conor O’Neill’s = The Playwright
8 Ball ~= Rudy’s (well, nothing really compares to 8 Ball)
Scorekeepers = Toad’s

Ice Cream
Stucchi’s = Ashley’s

Overrated Local Landmarks
Zingerman’s (qua sandwiches) = Pepe’s, Sally’s
Blimpy Burger = Louis’s Lunch

Suggestions, comments, and hate-mails are all welcome. I might update this from time to time.

When I am alive, my last name is Liao (廖). When I am dead, my last name becomes Chang (張).

The complete history is obviously much too long to recount, but the short version is this: The Liao family had only one female heir left, and to pass on the thread of life, they found a guy whose last name is Chang, and stipulated that the first child (male, obviously) will have the last name Liao and the rest will have the last name Chang. Unfortunately, the couple only had one child, hence the compromise. On the web, the best resource that I have seen is in the Chinese wikipedia entry 張廖家族. I also corrected some misinformation (and put in the correct ones), in the English wikipedia entry Chinese surname.

Following in Kai von Fintel’s footsteps, here is a guideline on how to cite me. I realize this is obviously ridiculous because I am unpublished and alive, but I thought I’d just throw it out there, in case one of those two things change. When I am alive, I’d like to be cited as

Liao, Shen-yi (20xx). “Blah blah blah,” Journal YY:zz-zz.

but after I die, I’d like to be cited as

Chang, Shen-yi (20xx). “Blah blah blah,” Journal YY:zz-zz. Originally published under the name ‘Shen-yi Liao’.

Thanks.

P.S. For completeness, here is some other important information about my lineage:
堂號: 張廖家廟 承祜堂
主祀: 六世天與公
座落: 西安街205巷

P.P.S. Note that the ‘y’ in ‘Shen-yi’ is not capitalized. That’s just the way it is.

The eagerly anticipated 2009 Philosophical Gourmet report has been released recently. For those who are unfamiliar, the gourmet is a ranking of anglophone philosophy departments. As usual, the rankings have been scrutinized and discussed endlessly on blogs and in real-life. But I want to examine one shortcoming that I think has not been noted:

The typeface used in the logo.

(old logo)

(new logo)

To the best of my approximation (with the help of Identifont and WhatTheFont), the old logo uses Alinea Sans Bold (see comment below) and the new logo uses Arial Narrow Bold. (The oldest logo seems to use Univers Bold.)

The question is, why the change? As anyone who lists Helvetica as one of their favorite movies on their facebook profile knows, Arial sucks. That, and the fact that the old logo was perfect serviceable, makes the change mysterious. Even on a first pass, I thought the old logo looked better. I especially liked R. So I think the Philosophical Gourmet has really taken a step back this year. Bummer!

I have an idea for a conceptual art piece. But a digression first…

Today I went to the Princeton Art Museum with my family. Not much new stuff since I last visited, but the Felix Candela exhibit was nice. I was at the help desk at some point and the person there was explaining the museum layout to me: “Upstairs, we have 19th Century impressionists, and behind that the Frank Gehry exhibit, next to that [...] and downstairs there are more archaeological things, like Chinese art.”

“Archaeological”?!?

The downstairs area is a mess. In the Japanese art section, for example, contemporary photographs were placed alongside prints from the Edo era without any apparent significance. Oh, and even an American artist who has a Japanese name got into that mix. The other sections for “archaeological” findings were arranged in a similar hodgepodge fashion.

To bring it all back, this episode reminded me of a conceptual art idea I had, inspired by a concept I saw at the Sydney Biennale. The concept, which ended up not happening, is to rearrange the whole NSW museum: placing the Renaissance paintings in Impressionist galleries, putting Picassos in Aboriginal galleries, and so on.

But why do just that? Here is my idea:

The major art museums of the world should collectively, for a week, do some rearranging. All the “western” art that typically garner most of their attention can be crammed, with disregard, into the small spaces previously reserved for the local underrepresented art. Put Andy Warhol’s Marilyn right next to Raphael’s Madonna. Label the early Renaissance attempts at perspective “folk art” and Friedman’s sculptures “archaeological”. Oh, but keep the name of the gallries–call it “Asian Art” or “Aboriginal Art” or something equally generic. The remaining periodically-divided galleries can then be used to house the local underrepresented art of the appropriate period. If the museum has nothing from that period, then simply leave the gallery empty.

So what do you say, dear museum directors?

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To be filled in…

P.S. to Pitchfork — Don’t forget this review.

Some recent news, I think, is really encouraging for Taiwan’s democratic model.

The former president Chen Shui-bian, who I supported for a long time, has been arrested on moneylaundering and embezzlement charges [see also NYT]. On the one hand, it is very sad to see someone who has symbolized Taiwan Consciousness movement to go down like this. On the other hand, it is really great to see that even powerful politicians are not shielded from the law. Compare: suppose that there were many inappropriate financian transactions under the Bush administration, do you think he would be prosecuted after he steps down? I hope Chen will receive a fair trial, and whatever the outcome, the fact that a legal procedure is taken is promising for the fledging democracy.

The other important issue recently is China’s delegates visiting Taiwan. Current president Ma Ying-jeou’s government has taken steps that are overaccomodating toward the Chinese delegation. Specifically, recently they granted protestors permission after a long petition process, but then moved the meeting that they are protesting to a different time. Many students and academics are rightfully now sitting-in to protest this suppression of democracy.

A sign that Taiwan Consciousness is alive and well, regardless of who is in power, is Ma’s latest approval rating: 22.6%. This quote from the article is telling: “To sum up, at least 50 to 60 percent of the public disapprove of how Ma is doing as president, believing that Ma has a serious problem of slanting toward China at the expense of Taiwan’s national sovereignty.”

For lighter fares, read My Mom is a Fob and My Dad is a Fob.

The website for 2008 WMU Graduate Conference, December 5-7, is now up.

The conference is open to papers in all areas. Submission deadline is October 15. This year, the speakers are John Doris and John Norton. I had a very positive experience at this conference last year.