Whilst procrastinating from preparations for the show tonight (Cheeky Monkey Sketches, be there or well, miss out) I decided to finally create a non-spamming email newsletter program.

Just click on the picture, then submit your email address and name to be kept in the loop on all the future events (some of which we will make exclusive for members of this email list). Isn’t that exciting?

Ok, now back to detangling funky wigs and prepping for the show tonight

I hope to see everyone out on Thursday night!

Recently when auditioning for bit parts in Chinese movies and TV shows (yes, I’ve strayed back to that pitiful place) I’ve been asked for ‘professional pictures’ so instead of paying for headshots, I decided to do some more modeling

Here is me, as a Replicant, evidently (eat your heart out Darryl Hannah).

If you haven’t seen Bladerunner, you need to get on that, asap.

The page that took me waaaay too long to make can be seen here. I’d love to know what you think of it (as in, should I totally redo the format? which photos are your favorites?).

Please don’t be too critical of the scary-fierce Olympic poster, they had me jumping for two hours, and they had painted me brown (so I was very unhappy). But hey, I’ve done my part for the Beijing Olympics, so I feel good about that, or something.

Speaking of doing my part, I’ve got to run to meet with the other folks about the Cheeky Monkey Sketches project (and I can’t get my printer to work, eep, how to get the scripts to them?!). When will the government be adding in that 25th hour to the day again?

亲爱的网友们，我又有事情需要你们的建议。我想要写一个报纸或者杂志的栏目（因为随便写博客有一点没意思，我觉得有一个题目的话，有一个编辑，这会让我写作品写得更好）。我想和更多的人分享我的想法，特别是中国人。那样的话可以开始有更多的国际交流。我还想有人和我一起讨论一些社会现象。有更多的不同的想法对人民更好，对不对？我当然不觉的我是什么大使，什么高手，但是因为我有绿眼睛，我的观点常常是新鲜的（不一定是对的！）。那么，你们觉得我应该怎么办？有人能提供线索吗？

我无所谓是什么样的出版社（时尚杂志，新闻报纸，地方报纸，文学类月刊，都可以）。我的想法非常非常多，就像天上的星星，肯定能满足读者的好奇心理。我非常喜欢写东西，而且很勤快。

哦，对了。编辑们，你不用怕我不听话。我很懂，中国媒体不允许说一些东西。我不会乱说。我也不支持什么独立，什么抗议，什么分裂。:)

I recently met another S&M alum at a UNC alum event and proudly produced the international symbol of geekdom by putting my fist on my forehead with my pinky sticking out like a unicorn horn. Yes, thats just how cool I am

Then today, a friend from the state dept passed on this article to me (thanks Don!) which has NCSSM on the list. Admittedly, I think it should be number one, but I’ll write a longer essay about that later

For the meantime, here’s the article below…

The Nation’s Most Elite Public Schools
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 23, 2008; 6:13 AM

Each year when Newsweek publishes its list of America’s Top High Schools, I always know what question the largest number of e-mails will ask. To paraphrase, and somewhat soften, the usual language: “Where the devil is my nationally famous magnet school on your dumb list?”

The Newsweek list is based on the Challenge Index, my device for rating schools by their success in persuading students, particularly average students, to take college-level courses and exams. I exclude from the list those public schools with special enrollment systems that turn out to be so selective that the schools have few, or no, average students.

Many of the alumni of these fine institutions are unhappy about this, and I understand why. They worked hard to get into those high schools, worked hard to survive academically while they attended them, and think all that effort should be recognized. I think these schools get plenty of recognition already, but my sense of what readers know about them could be wrong. Indeed, if I walked up to the first 100 people I saw on the street and asked them what they knew about IMSA or T.J. or Stuyvesant or Whitney, I would probably get mostly blank stares.

We put the names of the 17 high-performing schools we excluded from the main Challenge Index list on newsweek.com’s Public Elites list. But I owe them more notice than that. Here they are below, with a few words on each that we included on the Web site, and some embellishments by me. Oh, and I have ranked them.

Why am I doing that? Ranking of schools at this level is obviously ridiculous, like declaring that the top four quarterbacks in history are Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Johnny Unitas and Tom Brady in that order. It is pure speculation. But it’s fun and helps me make a point about assessing such schools as these 17 very unusual inhabitants of the uppermost tier of the American secondary education system.

I am ranking them by one of the most common, and to me most annoying, measures of high school worth–average total reading and math SAT scores. Those test results are most closely tied to the income of the families that raise these fine students. There is something of that relationship at these schools too. But once you get this many bright students together, SAT becomes largely irrelevant, since they have all gone far beyond the 10th-grade reading comprehension and math puzzles that make up those exams. Notice, for instance, the surprises. Some very well-known elite schools have much lower average SATs than some others. Some selective high schools with terrific reputations, like Lowell in San Francisco, do not have high enough SAT averages to make the Public Elites list and so remain on the main list. It shows how little significance SAT numbers have.

I am still amazed that there are high schools whose average scores would be high enough to get any student who got that score, with a little luck, into the Ivy League. Our rule is if a non-traditional school’s average is 1300, or 29 or above on the ACT, it goes on the Public Elites list. We picked 1300 and 29 because those scores are just above the highest average scores of any regular enrollment public school in the country.

Here they are. They deserve more attention than they get, and certainly more attention than I give them. But they don’t really need it. People who care about high schools know all these names, and won’t forget them:

9. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, N.C. (SAT 1356): This school, established in 1980 in an abandoned hospital, started the small but interesting trend of state-created boarding schools drawing bright and ambitious high schoolers from all over the state.

[edit: I’ve deleted the other schools as the whole article appeared way too long in my blog and you can read about the rest of the amazing public schools in the original article]

For the past month, I’ve sacrificed my social life (and most of my work life) in the name of Choreography. This was technically the first time I’ve choreographed a show (I’ve done bits and pieces for shows before, but nothing like this). It was a great experiment and it was *super* fun to be dancing and using the body as a tool for acting and expression. Cheeky Monkey Theater will definitely be including more dance elements in our shows in the future (spoiler alert!)

Here are some pictures from the China Doll opening last night (Paul was a very happy camper, as you can tell in this picture with Lu Tian (aka: Yazi)). I had waaaay too much champagne and joined the girls up on one of the stages in my tiny red Armani dress (and there were a ton of photographers there to record this).

Speaking of photographers, a quick shout-out to the wonderful VIC who took these pictures for us

We’re still having to do lots of rehearsals to perfect the current dances, and I’ve just been told to arrange some pieces for the Lounge area as well, so lots of things to keep me uber-busy in the future. However, I *am* going to make more of a point to write more blog posts in this same uber-busy future (I’m not sure how successful this will be, but hey, its worth the try!)

最近有一个现象我觉得很有意思，有很多中国人抗议法国人。对一个像我这样的美国人来说，真有点儿幸灾乐祸，因为我天天看国际新闻里报道有什么国家抗议美国，那是一个多啊。一般我出去旅游的时候，我不承认我是美国人（因为大家讨厌我们的政府，但是美国的好处是：我也可以讨厌我们的政府）。我经常说我是加拿大人，大家都喜欢加拿大人。不只是我有这样的想法，你下次去欧洲看看周围的背包客，如果他们背包上有一个枫叶国旗图标，他们肯定是美国人。但是现在在中国，我可以很骄傲的说“是，我是美国人，我不是法国人！”:)

其实，我不太懂中国人为什么那么讨厌法国人。我朋友说是因为“他们扑灭了我们的奥运圣火”但是这个没有逻辑。不只是法国扑灭了，还有好多别的国家也这么做了。我觉得，有另外一个原因，也跟家乐福没关系。你想要知道是什么吗？

是因为我们全球的人都嫉妒法国人。他们一般长得不怎么漂亮，但是他们是最时尚的国度。你我，应该买品牌才能变成时髦的东西。我有一个法国朋友，她可以随便穿什么衣服，都特别好看，很性感，很时尚。连穿上大米包装袋都变特别好看。我们大家不明白怎么回事，但是就是这样。不明白也没办法。

。。。

我很热爱中国文化，历史，人民。我在北京住了六年多了，有一点觉得这是我的第二祖国。但是中国的一个很大的缺点就是很容易在心里恨另外一个人，一个其实与他们一点也不相关的人。我上个星期坐了一个出租车，刚刚下车的人是法国人，司机很直接问我，我是不是法国人，如果我是法国人他不会拉我。有一点恐怖。你看，我住在中国这么长时间了，但是如果另外几个美国人说中国的坏话，那么，中国人会恨我吗？

美国开始打伊拉克的时候，法国不同意，不支持我们，所以很多人抗议法国。但是没有人会针对某个特别的法国人。至少出租车不会有问题。其实，我们那年也有很多人拒绝喝法国葡萄酒，也把暑条的英文名字改了：法式暑条(french fries)变成自由暑条(freedom fries)。都特别可笑。

就像我开始说的那样，大家为什么容易和法国人起冲突？因为嫉妒。我们得花很多银子买品牌服装，不能多吃饭因为要减肥。。。但是法国人呢？什么都不在乎，然后他们还是最时髦的人们，依然光彩奕奕的，魅力四射。讨厌。

general book club blog

random blog (w/ links) entry about Pearl S Buck

and if anyone has any recommendations for good May holiday reads… please make a comment at the blog entry here: May Holidaze

这个周末又看了一遍我最喜欢的电影，英国广播公司经典爱情巨献《傲慢与偏见》。几乎是六个小时的天堂，我喜欢死了。当然，故事写的特别好，编剧也改的挺不错，但是最主要是演员出色。科林·菲尔什演的那么好，连邮局的女员工都追他。我希望以后可以跟这个人拍一个电影，最好会有一段床戏（不像色戒那种，更浪漫）。导演们，你们听到了没有？：）

你们熟不熟，Darcy是谁？他就是我们西方文化里的最浪漫的角色。你一说这个人物的名字，周围的女人都会酥倒。不只是因为他很帅，是因为他一看你，你会觉得他会看到你的心里，了解你的最隐秘的思想，以及你一生都不敢说出来的幻想。哎吆，我现在得休息一会儿。。。

你看过这个吗？如果你还没有，你应该快点找一个机会看看。而且你要小心，不要看最近拍的那些垃圾（我说的是凯拉·奈特利演的那版，太难看了！）。你要看那部1995年拍的BBC的。

中国的故事里有没有这样的男人？

对我来说，这样的故事只能在英国发生。因为英国人的阶级意识很强，但是他们更尊重爱情。虽然直到最后才有接吻的镜头，但整个故事都特别性感。你想，六个小时的性感，一个接吻都没有，这多引人期待！我要再看一遍

中文版：傲慢与偏见

the gift bag at these fashionista events tend to be rather disappointing (bottles of perfume). i wouldn’t mind a free bottle of perfume if I got to choose it, but still, I’d rather get a scarf, shoes, or even a purse (Prada? you listening here?)

i don’t know what it is about cheap champagne (again, I’m talking to you, Prada) but I find it incredibly frustrating, as it fills me with inspiration but also slows everything down to the point where I only want to sit and watch downloaded tv shows on tudou, despite the fact that I have stories itching to burn their way out of my fingers…

today, over all was a good day… I woke up this morning after a nightmare (a fictional ex-husband had stolen my child, a young boy with dark brown hair) which unsettled me, but I had a comedy sketch shoot at the Bird’s Nest later in the morning (a Lezaza production) to cheer me up. After which I interviewed Liu Hong (doing a review of her new book “Five Wives of the East Wind”) and enjoyed a fabulous lunch conversation with her at the Bridge Cafe (ex-Sculpting in Time) in Wudaokou. Ran into a friend at the cafe (hi Frank!) and then enjoyed my trip on the subway back into town… so much so that I took some footage and plan on doing a really brief video podcast (be forewarned!).

got to have a great talk with Sheng Liqun this afternoon (its so nice to have a friend to consult with about life decisions) and then went out to the prada show (thanks Sarah!) where I ran into some other old friends and made some new ones, too. zhou xun even showed up (eep, she’s skinny in person!). lovely purses and whatnot at the store, but missing my favorite handbag… (you know who you are).

walking out of the prada store, i walked past some migrant workers finishing up some construction for the new chanel shop… beijing is such an interesting/weird place. the dichotomy here blows the mind at times…

perhaps why i like it so much.

…

now, to finish my cup of rooibos tea and go to sleep. i need to buckle down for tomorrow. bonne nuit mes amis!