In lieu of having anything to say ...

I'm not in a bloggy place today, so in lieu of writing much of anything I'm going to post some photos that would have been up here eons ago if I hadn't been so delinquent with the blogging for, um, years. They won't be anything new to anyone who's poked through my Facebook albums (so both of you, most likely) but hells, they should have been posted eons ago.

Anywhoo.... I thought I'd post a few shots from my trip to China in 2006.

So of course the first day, running on very little sleep, we were trucked out to the Great Wall. It is spectacular. And challenging, having very steep and very uneven steps. And very surreal to get a good way up and hear Hollerback Girl blasting from a tour bus in the parking lot.



This killed me, we were at this massive buddha monument, and there were rollerskate rentals outside. If my little hospital side-trip hadn't just proved my universal health care less than universal I would have been tempted to throw injury caution to the wind and give'r.



I think this was the same day. The thing I had the hardest time with was being so on the go that it was hard to get good shots in. This might have been from the bus. There was something about the little outpost that was a little sad and lonely.



We did some hella touristy king fu shows and such. The first one was pretty impressive, but I'd stop at one next time.









I could have spent days wandering the houtongs in Beijing. So much history and life and bustle and smells just careening around in these little alleys.



I loved this guy, totally rickety ass old cart - and he's all chilled out texting on a way more skookum phone that I had at the time. Or have now for that matter.



Apparently the mayor was going to be coming through just after us, and this policeman was keeping an eye out for ruffians.



The rickshaws are very pretty, but oh my god, I thought it was going to fall apart under me, like in some bad cartoon.



Dave got a shot about 2 seconds after me where this little bag of donuts turned into something from Pet Cemetery.



This was taken in Jinan, which possibly my favorite place on the trip. They have a fantastic public space / park which is surrounded by a moat with bridges connecting it to the surrounding roadways. This busker blew my mind. Shame about the pollution smog though.



At night the park is total action - and not in a skeevy way. Ballroom dancing, rollerskating - well utilized public space, and kids that don't look like they rot on their asses playing video games all night.





I'm blanking out on the names of the towns these were taken in. Sorry, just got in from wings and beer. West Lake maybe?







There are some curious food storage practices. Which might explain my little e-coli induced hospital detour. (Note, I did not eat any of the foods shown below).









This is my favorite shot of the trip.



And totally unrelated, but because I am totally charmed by Christopher Walken's Twitter (part of my Lainey addiction issue - she's like a gateway drug) the Daily Sound- Lucinda Williams' Something About What Happens When We Talk goes out to him. Because I love a man that Twits about Lucinda Williams. And I'm feeling a little like this song lately.