Finishing up my Beijing photos (finally), here are a few shots of the gigantic new airport terminal that opened a few days prior to my trip: the drive-up approach, crazy large interior, and the red supports along the walls. It's impossible to convey the sheer size of this building in a photo.
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PBS is reviving "The Electric Company" and updating it for today's kids who are fed a diet of hip hop and "High School Musical." For me, the original show was notable for having an actual, honest to goodness Asian person in the cast, June Angela (with the amazingly long hair). In a DVD interview, she recalls that the casting call only went out for "black and white" children but her agent asked them to see her anyway. Angela stayed with "The Electric Company" through its entire run, the only one of the Short Circus kids to do so.
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Monday, May 12, 2008

The Seattle Times got rid of 125 staff members this past week through a combination of buyouts and layoffs. Among the writers who accepted a buyout deal was Melinda Bargreen who has been their classical music critic for 31 years. Her farewell was published on Sunday. The Times intends to keep the classical music beat staffed but hasn't figured out how yet.
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Seventh-inning stretch standard "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a waltz that starts with an octave jump. At 100 years old, it is third on America's most-sung songs list after "Happy Birthday" and the national anthem. It has been recorded by more than 400 musicians. You could argue that it's helped keep Cracker Jack alive after all these years. Jack Norworth wrote the song in 1908 and it was sung in movie theaters during reel changes. In the mid-1970s Chicago White Sox and then Cubs announcer Harry Caray popularized it as a singalong in the seventh inning and the tradition soon took hold in ballparks across the country.
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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Thoughts after returning to Disneyland after 27 years:

• Everything looks a lot shorter.
• The correct response to why the Autopia cars are still using smelly gasoline is not "because it would cost lot to change it" but "look at who is sponsoring it" (Chevron). (Honda sponsors the electric motors in Hong Kong Disneyland.)
• It's a little embarassing to almost get outgunned by a three-year-old at Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.
• There's nothing wrong with taking your kid's place if he gets to the front of the Minnie Mouse line and then refuses to get a photo taken with her.
• I don't care what anyone else says, the spinning teacups are awesome.

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Irvine Robbins grew up in Seattle and worked at his father's dairy in Tacoma, so the Seattle PI's obituary has the details on his local life. The co-founder of Baskin-Robbins was born in Winnipeg, and his family moved to the area when his uncle purchased an ice cream company on Capitol Hill. He had his bar mitzvah at Temple DeHirsch Sinai, was a yell leader at Stadium High School, and graduated from the University of Washington. When he opened his first ice cream store he defected to sunny California.
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The Nintendo Fan Network at Seattle Mariners' games lets fans with a DS Lite chat with other fans in the park, order food, check game scores and stats. Seattle PI reporter Jon Naito tried it out and gave it a lukewarm review as a "nice distraction from those inevitable ballpark lulls." Now free after its $5 pilot last season, the network lets you order only basic ballpark foods, and only before the seventh inning. A DS Lite can be rented for $10 if you don't have your own. (Nintendo is the owner of the Mariners.)
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Thursday, May 01, 2008

I'm taking a few days off from blogging to catch up on work and sleep, but I should be back next week with tales of adventures in L.A.
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