Tag: myEasyLife

Pride Parade

上上周去参加了纽约的年度Pride游行。虽然经常被翻译成同性恋游行，但其实现在LGBT的范畴已经远大于同性恋了，更多的是支持性取向的自由选择。参加游行的人也远不止LGBT人士，很多非LGBT也会参加来表示支持。这游行在美国各大城市已经办了很多年，一般是六月份的某个周末。我之前围观过几次，这次参加倒是也很偶然。周五的时候听同事说NBCu有个游行的团，然后说到时候show up就可以了不会不让你参加的。于是周日早上我就跑去了。

十一点到了NBCu指定的集合地点，是个酒吧。周围都已经开始封路不让车进了，步行进去还没什么问题。街上满满的都是盛装打扮举着各种旗子牌子准备游行的人。酒吧里面倒是不挤，还有免费早饭吃。吃完之后就开始瞎聊天等着。有很多赞助的T shirt，还有临时的彩虹纹身贴，大家等着无聊基本都贴了一个。

等到十二点多，终于走出了酒吧跑到五大道游行路线的一个入口等着。游行路线是从36街开始沿着五大道向下走，到西村拐到Gay Street附近结束。因为有数以百计的组要入场，所以就要等很久……我们这组站在那儿足足等了两小时。。路边的店家又都关门连个洗手间都不好找，只能跑去游行路线旁边的简易洗手间排队。总之这段时间真的是把人都等蔫了。还好排在我们前面的是一组穿着羽毛衣服的某加勒比国家队伍，看着还挺养眼。。

到了两点半左右我们这组终于进场了。虽然NBCu有个花车我们是可以爬到车顶上去的，但是站了两小时之后我决定还是自己走几步活动活动。走起来的第一感觉就是围观群众真是多。。平时自己去围观的时候还不觉得，在游行队伍里一路走下去就觉得怎么就跑出来这么多人在热情围观。大约有一半看起来是怯怯的游客，还有一半比较热情的感觉更像本地人一些。各种爬上路标的，狂呼乱叫的，穿得很奔放的。。不过纽约的这个Pride Parade我几年前就发现其实穿得暴露程度并没有很夸张，女性很少有完全topless的，只是很多drag queen会穿得很华丽而已。比如我们队伍旁边一直有一个巨高巨瘦的黑丝黑人穿着轮滑在甩长辫子。。还有一个一路表演了n多次后空翻的小哥，都很吸引眼球。

游行一路走得都不快，还会走走停停。走到后来觉得这游行的路线真是好长。还好进入西村之后路边的群众变得更热烈起来了，有点到最后要冲线的感觉。最后走完的时候好像都五点钟了。平时半个来小时的路走了两个多小时。到终点我就拎了辆citibike去东村吃饭，穿过五大道的时候看见我们后面的队伍还在继续游行着呢。

总的来说去一次感受一下热情还是个挺不错的体验。如果能不用等那么久就好了。。

Sense8

A few weeks ago I noticed Sense8 season 2 was available on Netflix, several years after season 1. I was a bit curious because I watched one episode of season 1 before and didn’t continue. How come this show released the 2nd season so long after? So I picked up this show and watched through the two seasons. During my view of the show, Netflix announced they canceled this show, so no season 3. The cancellation wasn’t a surprise after I watch this show, which seems very expensive to produce: they have to take lots of scenes at multiple locations across different continents…

So when I started watching Sense8, I thought it was a sci-fi show. After a while, I realized this was an LGBT show. Then I found it was actually a soft porn. Eventually, I confirmed it was still mostly a pro-LGBT show. Some plots seem a bit obsessive with LGBT advocating and deviate from the main storyline.

I still recommend Sense8 because of its aesthetic value. All leading actresses/actors are amazingly good-looking. I mean all 8 of them! And the cinematography is also incredible. Just watch the 2-minute opening titles, and you should be able to feel it. It was definitely a pity that the show got canceled.

中国式综艺

最近几次回家似乎和爸妈一起看一些综艺节目变成了一个保留项目。这次看的有中国诗词/成语/谜语大会，还有神奇的“中国式相亲”。

在国内的电视剧普遍都烂到不太能看的状态下，综艺节目倒是特别的蓬勃发展。据说是因为法规限制电视剧插播广告于是投资都去做综艺节目了，可能有一定道理。印象里之前的综艺往往都是照搬国外的节目然后做点本地化，但这次看的这几个似乎都是原创为主了，稍微有点惊喜。

几个“大会”里面感觉制作水平最好的是诗词大会，另外两个也还可以，都是以竞赛的形式来介绍和传播中国文化。听专家讲一些典故之类还是很有意思，会想到每天这些忙碌的生活之外还有这些闲情逸致的东西，以及回忆起中国古代文化的美感。第一次见到诗词大会里面这种用“百人团”的方式来动态根据题目的难度得分的方式，挺新颖。

中国式相亲则是一个一看上去就超级奇葩的节目，也是一个践行了“婚姻是两个家庭的融合”理念的节目。五个家庭像评委一样评判轮番上台的“候选人”，一旦有三个家庭表示有兴趣便会“权利反转”变成候选人去在这三个家庭里面挑，整个这个规则就让人觉得很可怕很直接很草率当然也很有戏剧效果。。最奇葩的一点在于这五个家庭在台前说话的是父母，相亲者本人只能在后面通过电话间接表达一点意见，真正体现了中国式相亲是由父母发起的这一点。。还好最后做决定的时候还是相亲者自己的意见是最终决定，但仍然这整个的流程有各种让我感到恶寒的地方。

不过回过头来讲也不是这个节目发明了这个流程。正如他们所说这是在抽象和演绎现实生活中的中国式相亲，只是在反映生活。可以看到这个节目有时候在小心的保持中立客观，避免让观众觉得他们是在提倡“父母之命媒妁之言”这样的观点。然而在另一方面它并不掩饰对“两个家庭和睦是婚姻的前提”，“孝道”这些观点的支持，毕竟这些观点是这个节目的根本逻辑。诗词大会这样的节目提倡的也是中国古典文化以及其中包含的一些价值观。这种复古的思潮是否是中国人在物质丰富之后寻求精神寄托？抑或是国家宣传机器开始着力培养民族精神？也许对于中国美国这样的大国来说，全球化真的已经到了一个转折点，接下来面对的将是更多的隔离与竞争？

Silvercar

I’ve heard of the “all Audi A4” car rental service Silvercar for a while and always wanted to try it out. But its price in NYC is just not that competitive compared to other companies. One-day rental from its Manhattan/Brooklyn location is usually over 200$ and excluded from most promotions. On the recent travel to Las Vegas I finally gave it a try.

Overall the service was very good. There is a mobile app so I wondered if I would just unlock my car and go like some zipcar places. But actually there is a Silvercar shop at the location. The friendly staff there helped me situated in minutes.

The car itself was quite new and sleek. Audi definitely felt more powerful than most rental cars I was used to, as a result I probably drove a bit faster than usual during the 3-day rental, lol. The car is equipped with SIRIUS XM and heated seats, which are not often available in rental cars. Also a small USB car charger is provided as a nice little convenience, instead of being sold at the counter for 15 bucks… oh and the car has built-in WIFI!

However the experiences were not flawless, or as they advertised “car rental the way it should be”, mainly because the car is lack of 2 features: USB port and rear camera! Honestly I was supsurprised that the car had WIFI and LCD screen but no USB or rear camera, which are not rare from rental companies like AVIS anymore and I think they are very useful. In fact I often pick rental cars just by whether it has USB if I have several cars to choose from.

Other than that, there really isn’t much to complain. The return was easy and fast too. The location is not within LAS airport so a staff actually drove us to the terminal with our rental car, not by bus. The gas refill was 5$ convenience fee + 2.59$ per gallon while the usual gas price in town runs at 2.3~2.4$, pretty reasonable. Oh and the rental price was 39$ per day as a promotion. So in general I was pretty happy with the rental but next time I may just rent from Avis for USB port and rear camera… Avis is usually cheaper than Silvercar anyway.