Transamerica Pyramid

San Francisco's iconic skyscraper is best looked at through between its neighboring skyscrapers.

Hyatt Regent

The lobby of Hyatt Regent San Francisco is gorgeous, a typical example of modernism architecture during the '50s and '60s: the combination of straight concrete with plants interspersed. Eclipse, a round-shaped huge sculpture by Charles O Perry, matches with the atmosphere really well.

Modern Tea

An impressive cafe on Hayes Street (at Laguna Street). They take tea very, very seriously. Try to get a bar counter seat. As if they are serving a glass of cocktail, "tea bartenders" brew a wide variety of tea (from Assam, Darjeeling, Keemum to Japanese and Chinese green tea) in front of you. For each kind of tea, they have a different way of brewing: what tea pot to be used, the degree of temperature of hot water, the amount of tea leaf. For black tea, you need to brew with absolutely boiling water. They exactly do it. They also heat up tea pots and cups by generously using hot water in front of you as the bar counter table is fitted with a long narrow sink covered by a wooden lid with slits. Finally, they don't serve you a tea pot with tea leaf inside. They remove it so tea does not get too strong by the time you have the second and third cups of tea. Splendid. So splendid that I start up a conversation with a bartender (which is very unusual for me).

Tea drinkers are mistreated by way too many cafes around the world. Tea salons like Modern Tea should be more widely available.

Hayes Valley

It is true that Hayes Street between Laguna and Octavia Streets attracts edged boutiques and cafes alongside a contemporary art gallery and a Japanese sake shop, although furniture stores here do not keep up with the high standard of Stockholm. A short tree-lined boulevard in Octavia Street (between Hayes and Feel Streets) is pleasant on a sunny day.

St Mary's Cathedral

This is where liberal and hippy San Francisco meets Christianity. From outside the cathedral looks like a concert hall (see the photo below). Once you get inside the building, it's just mind-blowing to look up (see the photo above). I was tempted to believe in God.

SFMOMA

A very ugly building. So ugly it's not worth being taken picture of. It reminds me of the costume of a dancer in an anti-modernism film The Triadic Ballet by Oskar Schlemmer (like this), which means it makes you puke.

Contemporary Jewish Museum

A building I happened to encounter in San Francisco (On Yerba Buena Lane, off Market Street between Third and Fourth Streets). Log on to www.thecjm.org for detail.

And Beard Papa, a Japanese cream puff chain store, is located on the same street.

Cafe de la Presse

Following the 24 Hours section of Wallpaper* City Guide for San Francisco, I had breakfast at this French cafe in front of the China Town Gate (what an irony). Vanilla French toast with warm berries was beautiful. With a wide variety of international newspapers and magazines on offer (I took FT) and very pleasant waiters and waitresses, you can spend an intelligent but relaxed morning time here.

Saskia Leek @ Jack Hanley Gallery

The Center on Institutions and Governance at UC Berkeley invited me to present my work at their two-day workshop. As UC Berkeley is located near San Francisco, I take this opportunity to explore San Francisco after the workshop was over.

The first visit is Jack Hanley Gallery, recommended by Wallpaper* City Guide. The featured artist is Saskia Leek.

The first look gives me an impression that each picture draws a familiar object like a cat, a bunch of grapes, a plant, etc. The more I look at them, however, the more unfamiliar the pictures become. The sequence of impressions on a piece of contemporary art is usually the other way around. Very unfamiliar at first, but then you realize what it is about (or you never understand what it is about).

Now I head to Golden Gate Park.

Golden Gate Park

Tourists in San Francisco usually do not explore the western part of the city. Therefore I do.

Taking a bus to the west (pay 1.5 dollars in exact amount of cash, and you'll get a paper slip which allows you to take a bus again during the next 90 minutes) takes me to the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park. It is a loooong park. It takes more than two hours to walk from one end to the other. I only managed to walk over the eastern half. I encountered three memorable things.

First, pick-up drum jams on the Hippie Hill. There were about 10 people jamming with various kinds of drums. It sounded like each participant was hitting their drum on their own. As a whole, however, the drums sounded quite interesting. If I were a resident in San Francisco, I might be willing to join them.

Second, De Young Museum. (See the two pictures above.) Some hate it, but I love its building covered in perforated and textured copper, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The copper cover creates a very surreal impression of the building's appearance. With mist floating around the building, it looks as if it wasn't there. It looks like a mirage although it stands just in front of you. I never saw such a building before.

Finally, Stow Lake. Deep green water with Far Eastern plants like a narcissus made me forget where I was. Again mist floats over the water. The whole scenery looks like the one deep inland in China where a Chinese wizard hides himself from the world.



A caveat of this park is that many driveways crisscross the park, but that's the only thing that reminds you of where you are: car-infested America.

10th Anniversary: Part II

Dear hide-san,

Ten years on, what you invented in the Japanese pop music scene is now invading not only East Asia but also North America, Europe, and even Latin America. Thanks to this, I feel less lonely by living in the West. Growing up in Japan makes me feel very different from anyone I meet here in Europe. Now, however, I can share with some people here one thing I was passionate about during my adolescence and thus the one shaping my thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.

I thank you for this. You'll be remembered by many around the world. Rest in peace.

Masa

10th Anniversary: Part I

Dear Tomo-chan,

It's been 10 years since you left this world. I remember you and I, with some other college classmates of ours, were talking about our future. You said, "I'll take care of Japan. You take care of outside Japan." I'm not sure I realized what you said, but at least I manage to walk on the path that few other Japanese people follow. I hope you are happy with this.

I never forget you. I'll visit you in Tokyo soon. Until then, rest in peace.

With love,
Masa

Lund

I take a day trip to Lund, a university town in southern Sweden, to give a talk about how economists estimate the impact of climate change in front of meteorologists, hydrologists, biologists, and other non-economic scientists.

After the talk, I explore the town by following the Lund Tourist Office's walking tour route. Honestly speaking, I didn't expect anything from such a small city of 100,000 people. Lund, however, turns out to be quite pretty a city.

First, the cathedral (see the above picture), constructed around 1100, one of the oldest in Sweden. The light blue roofs match nicely in a modest way with white and black stones of the walls. The appearance from outside is rather attracting to me.

Then dotted across the northeastern part of the city are the cottages with walls of a distinct pattern: thick black grids on either white walls or red-brick walls. I've never seen such a pattern elsewhere.

And houses along the cobbled streets, especially on Adelgatan (see the photo below). They are very nicely coloured and do not intrude each other even though each has its own color. The color of walls nicely fits the color of window frames.

In addition, The Botanic Garden is likely to be pleasant during the summertime.

For dinner, I spot a nicely decorated restaurant serving seafoods in a Swedish style. At Klostergatans Fisk (Klostergatan 12), I have "3 flavors of Swedish herring with a small “Janssons frestelse”, boiled egg and cumin-cheese" for a starter. All of the three pickled herring taste very nice, especially the one with peppercorns and chopped onions. So does the Janssons frestelse, a Swedish speciality. And I manage to enjoy eating cumin-cheese even though I don't like cheese in general (unless it's melt).

For the main dish, I choose "Pan-fried monkfish with a grilled crayfish, orange flavored hollandaise and parmesan potato". Monkfish is amazingly juicy (it squirts when I try to slice it with a knife), and orange flavored hollandaise perfectly matches with the texture and taste of monkfish. The crayfish is good, too.

With a very pleasant waitress serving me, a glass of Chilean chardonnay Estampa, and a well-coordinated interior (light-blue candle glasses, black and light-blue abstract paintings covered blatantly with white paint on the walls, pitch-white table clothes, and brown chairs and aprons of waitresses), I have a fantastic dinner even though I am eating alone.

The Night of Destruction

The legendary Japanese rock group, X Japan, is back with another legendary gig in the Tokyo Dome today.

The opening song is The Last Song, literally the last song they played during their final concert at the Tokyo Dome 10 years ago. I believe it shivers every X Japan fan when vocalist Toshi starts singing with Yoshiki's piano. His departure from the group was the reason for their break-up a decade ago. He stopped being a rock vocalist and started taking a tour around the country to sing songs for those hurt mentally. His voice at this concert declares Toshi is back.

Drummer Yoshiki plays drums in public in Japan for the first time in ten years. As his drumming is physically too demanding, he collapsed quite a few times during the 1990s. Towards the end of X Japan's career, his doctors said he shouldn't play drums anymore.

Still, we are lucky enough to see him play drums (and destroy them) as before.

As an encore, they play Art of Life, a 29-minute long tune played live only twice in their concerts during the 1990s. During this performance, guitarist Hide, who died in 1998, is back on stage as a hologram. His death (officially diagnosed as a suicide, but no one believes it who knows him), was thought to make the reunion of X Japan impossible. But technology allows it to happen. X Japan is back with Hide on stage.

When the first movement of the tune (about 15 minute long) is over, drummer Yoshiki collapses. Which terminates the concert. He composed Art of Life as a piece reflecting his own life. Despite its length, the tune is very fast. Yoshiki needs to keep drumming super-quick as if it was self-destruction. Tonight it is indeed.

Intentionally or not, today's concert is aptly titled The Night of Destruction.

Ice

Kosmic Blue


Get Down, Get Down, Get Down


Moon Child


Slow Love


These are the songs I listened to many times during the 1990s. The guitarist of Ice, Kazuyuki Miyauchi, passed away at the age of 43 on 18 December, 2007 (which I learned just today). I hope his music will remain alive for ever. And I sincerely hope that his partner both in music and in life, Mayumi Kunioka (the vocalist of Ice, appearing in these videos), will soon overcome such a deep sadness.

And special thanks goes to Wingedlove, who uploaded these videos on Youtube.

See moroha5963's videos for more from Ice. Blue Moon, one of their latest pieces, is rather good.

Rest in peace, Miyauchi-san.

What lies behind China's success in poverty reduction (and perhaps a silent revolution in development economics)

A sporadic blog entry on development economics:

According to Martin Ravallion, Director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank, two-thirds of poverty reduction in China since 1981 took place in the 1980s, with 40 percent concentrated in the first three years. That was before foreign direct investment was encouraged. That was before international trade was opened up. That was before labor-intensive manufacturing sectors started growing.

The bulk of poverty reduction in China, therefore, should be attributed to agricultural productivity growth due to the introduction of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) around 1980. (The link between agricultural productivity growth and the HRS was established by Justin Lin, the new World Bank chief economist, in his paper published in AER in 1992.)

Mr Ravallion, in his working paper, mentions how Chinese political leadership pursues the promotion of economic development. They allow local governments to experiment new policies. If they succeed, such new policies are scaled up to the whole country. Interestingly, this sounds to me very similar to what Dani Rodrik and Esther Duflo advocate.

As is the case with all arguments on China's success in development, the biggest puzzle still remains. Why do top officials of the Chinese Communist Party have an incentive to promote development in a political system that cannot be called democracy in a standard way.

UPDATE (March 2, 2008): So it's not surprising that Justin Lin announces the trial-and-error approach to poverty reduction (HT: Dani Rodrik).

UPDATE 2 (March 2, 2008): Here's Justin Lin's view on development. Again it's not surprising given the Chinese path for poverty reduction described above.

Announcement

Added on August 17, 2008: I end up telling a lie to you...

I will stop updating Econoclasm.

As an assistant professor of economics, the number of things that distract me from publishing papers in academic journals of economics needs to be minimized. A trip back to Tokyo, and a great jazz performance in New Orleans, has invoked this kind of stoicism in my mind.

Occasionally, I may upload some photos especially when I make a trip. Also it may benefit myself to review development economics papers on this blog from time to time. But I cannot guarantee this.

I don't know how many of you read this blog, but thank you for your interest until today. I'll be back in six years time, after getting tenure as a professor of economics.

Royal Street in French Quarter at night

Nicholas Sanders Trio at Snug Harbor

Although I lack in sleep, am tired from interviewing job candidates for our Institute, and need to take a flight in the morning the following day, I insist on going to a jazz club before leaving New Orleans. After having dinner with my colleagues and being told that they go back to the hotel, I walk to Snug Harbor on my own.

Time Out says there are two best contemporary jazz clubs in the town. One of them appears to be closed down as its official website address takes me to a porn website. The other, Snug Harbor, looks very professional: the website says, "We are not a disco. Do not speak. Do not take photo during the performance."

After a 30-minute pleasant walk through Royal Street in the French Quarter from my hotel, I arrive at Snug Harbor. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor are all made of old wood, looking slightly decrepit but in a pleasant and stylish way. The street it faces seems to be a jazz club street: there are two more jazz clubs here. When I enter, on the left spreads a dinning space, on the right a bar space. The doorman tells me, "For the music, walk in the bar to the end." Paying 12 dollars, I enter the music room.

A little cozy space has a stage just enough for three pieces (piano, bass, and drums) with several tables on the ground floor and on the balcony. The capacity doesn't seem to exceed 100. I take a seat on the balcony from which I can see all the three pieces at one glance. Some youngsters are hanging around the piano on the stage for a while, apparently discussing which piano phrase is cool. They look reserved and devoted with their thin physique suggesting some sort of stoicism, very different from ordinary youngsters in the English-speaking countries.

The performance begins slightly after 10pm. After the introduction by the club owner(?), the pianist, the bassist, and the drummer walk up to the stage. They are among those youngsters hanging around on the stage before.

From the very first tune, the trio impresses me to the extreme. Each of them, especially the pianist and the drummer, is amazingly skillful for their age. The pianist's right and left hands sound like different two individuals. The drummer, when he plays solo, maintains the rhythm in each part of the solo, something I never experienced before for a drum solo. Each of them plays independently, claiming their own presence without sacrificing the others'. The balance between individualism and harmony is maintained at the level where only a very minor deviation by any of the three players destroys it. And the three deliver the sheer energy of youth. It's contemporary jazz. It's not easy to understand. It's abstract. But I do feel the harmony, the rhythm, and the melody. I never felt this way before when I listened to jazz.

The trio plays about 8 tunes. Not a single tune bores me. They even play a fantastic mellow tune in the middle. Although the trio's strength appears to be uplifting pieces of music, they are versatile. The only caveat to me is the bass. His sound often sinks between the two expressive sounds of the piano and the drums. But towards the end of the performance, the bassist stands on par with the other two.

The trio's name is Nicholas Sanders Trio: Nicholas Sanders on piano, Max Moran on bass, and Joe Dyson on drums. I really want a CD that records their live performance.

Just popping up at a jazz club on Sunday night takes me to such a high level of jazz performance in New Orleans. I'm awed by the town's ability to churn out great jazz talents almost a century after the beginning of jazz.

Review on Hilton New Orleans Riverside

Overall it's an unpleasant three-night stay at the hotel. My room (#4020) has: no kettle or coffee maker (but with ground coffee beans and tea bags), an alarm clock one hour ahead without any buttons for adjusting time (so I woke up one hour earlier than necessary), ants hiding beneath the alarm clock and strolling on the washing basin, a shower head fixed to the wall, a wireless Internet connection costing as much as 11.95 dollars per 24 hour. The only good thing is three mirrors surrounding the washing basin so I can easily look at the back of my head when I set my hair.

Restaurants downstairs are unpleasant, too. A breakfast buffet tastes horrible (bad coffee, bad bacon, bad smoked salmon, bad pan cake) except for spiced potato cubes sauteed with peppers and onions, but it still costs more than 20 dollars (including VAT and tips). A dinner and another breakfast at this same restaurant takes unnecessarily long before the waiter serves a light meal that I order, because I want to eat quickly. The hotel's cafe "proudly serves" Starbucks Coffee (that's what they put on the cup label).

The hotel effectively monopolizes eating and drinking options: we need to take an at least 10 minute walk to eat/drink outside the hotel. Plus the breakfast restaurant 10 minutes away is uninspiring (cheaper though).

For the sake of fairness, there are some good things. Checking out without queuing at the reception is a good thing. Another restaurant, Drago's, serves an excellent Crescent City Shrimp, grilled in rosemary-filled butter sauce.

I stay at the hotel for the business purpose (our Institute interviews newly-minted PhDs at the hotel from 10am on Friday till 1pm on Sunday). Ideally, then the hotel should provide excellent food options and comfy bed rooms. It spectacularly fails to do so. Even if I was in New Orleans for tourism, the location is not good at all as it takes at least 15 minute walk to the French Quater.

If you go to New Orleans, this Hilton hotel should certainly be out of question.