So for those new to this blog I am originally from Quincy but now live in Red China. I went to college in savannah, georgia and since then lived in LA, San Fran, Atlanta, and Chicago. I haven't really lived in quincy since.... except for a few sketchy winters when i was unemployed and lived in my uncles basement or on my cousins couch and even then I spent most of my time at Loon mountain in N.H. snowboarding.
Its funny I have to live all the way across the world in a communist country to get back to my roots. I tend to notice my accent slips back out more e than it used to . The other things is back in the states when ever people asked me where i was form i just said boston because it was easier. Here in beijing i get called out for saying boston but really being from quincy. The thing is here in the 'Jing most of the white people can be generalized divided into two categories, GROUP A (which i belong to) are the people who just ended up up here for lack of a better idea and then once they got here realized the fact that life is really easy and beers come in giant bottles that only cost like 14cents and never left . then there is GROUP B and these are the rich preppy overachievers who are here claiming their rightful place in the world working for global financial institutions. The thing is I forget a lot of these people went to business school in the boston area. They ask where i am from I say boston and they respond they went to harvard, BU ,brown, or wellesly for girls... whatever and then they dig further and ask what part then i say quincy and this is the part where they frown and excuse themselves ( this is also usually where i am busted for being somewhere i wasn't invited like a fancy function with an open bar like a journalists thing or even college alumni event )
Even the chinamen have been calling me out on not really being from Boston. They know cause just about every chinamen has a relative in either quincy or malden or a smartass kid who goes to college in boston.
Now when asked I just say quincy and wear it like a badge of honor. Screw those preppy fucks. i even met one girl here in beijing who had a sister in quincy and told me that her sister even had her bachelorette party there and went to flannigans????? (uhmm yeah )
Another funny story is when i was working at disney I was sharing and office with this guy with a funny accent then after a couple of weeks he kept referencing suprisingly familiar thing and saying them in familiar ways like going down the cape and talking about dunkin dounuts and stuff like that. It dawned on me he was from new england. I asked where he was from and he said Boston I said me too. Then there was the "what part of boston" showdown. He said worcester I said Quincy. I win. Maybe quincy isn't officially boston but in quincy we still have the T and can see the john hancock building! He doubted me due to lack of an accent and proceeded to quiz me on random things like kings castle land, candle pin bowling, carvel ice cream, the new england aquarium, d'angelos steak and cheese pockets, old sturbridge village for weeks until he was satisfied.
anyways I found this online test to be sure...
1. You get wicked mad when people pronounce it quin-ceecheck.2. your entire family lives in quincy and you have no desire to ever leave
check. i can actually narrow this down to everyone lives in houghs neck
3. you can't walk down the street without seeing a couple legends
check. um actually cant go to thanksgiving or xmas dinner without seeing one
4. you know there are only two places to be on the 3rd of julycheck. actually other than edgewater drive not sure what the other place is???5. you think all the rich kids live in squantum and you know all the projects are in g-towncheck. oh I have intimate first hand knowledge of the projects in G-town6. you love how everyone claims to originally be from dorchester
uhm times are changing i guess when i was a kid everyone was from southie and wore white hoodies with shamrocks to prove it.
7. you know the same people have been hanging out at alumni for 20 yearscheck.8. you go to the thanksgiving game every year and actually care who winsI live in china now and don't go but I have gone and chanted north eat shit before9. you know Quincy is number two for underage drinking and couldn’t be prouderdidn't know but not at all surprised.10. you love how people from Scituate Cohasset and Hingham think its so ghetto and it only makes you proudercheck.11. you know if youre a tobin phelan or bellotti you can get out of any kind of troublecheck.12. you took swimming lessons at either the y or lincoln hancock and learned how to sail at blacks creekcheck. lincoln hancock but i from G-town and sailing was never really an option.13. you know the people swimming in wollaston beach are from dorchester because anyone from here would know never to go in itcheck.14. you know deedees and ups and downs are the sketchiest bars around but will probably gocheck. I was in ups and downs last time i ws home for xmas15. you are familiar with Squantum, Wollaston, Merrymount, Houghs Neck, Montclair, North Quincy, West Quincy, Beechwood, The Pointcheck. why is g-town not listed?16. you know the first dunkin donuts was in quincy and youre pretty sure it’s the one on southern arterycheck. sea street now has one so need to go that far.17. you think the part of quincy across the highway is like another world
Actually i always thought that was randolph or canton or something and never put 2 and 2 together until reading this. anything beyond the southern artery was another world when your from g-town.
18. you have never been to a historical sight unless it was for a fieldtrip in elementary schoolcheck. and never will again after going to those creepy tombs in the basement of that big granite chuch in quincy center bu the T station.19. you know to never to go to quincy hospital if you're seriously injuredcheck. i would rather go to a chinese hospital.20. you grew up on bud light and cheap vodka and spent all of your weekends at the mount, rock, marina, white rock, the quarries, piney, or the golf coursecheck. i felt nostalgic when i saw the quarries in gone baby gone.21. you lived for half day tuesdays when you were in elementary schoolcheck.22. you hear that wollaston beach is just as clean or maybe cleaner than nantasket but you drive 40 minutes to go there anywayscheck. i always wondered why no one actually went to wollaston beach other than to get fried clams at the clam box.
This is the main square in Kashgar. I was hanging out in this square everyday reading "farewell to arms" and drinking pomegranite juice. This is one of the most amazing spots on earth.
This is another shot of a Rickshaw wallah on the streets of dhaka the capital of bangladesh. I took a variety of photos. at this point tin the trip i was just about out of film and shot a lot of this using slide old expired slide film. Looking back I really wanted to do these in color because the rickshaws themselves were so colorful but I think the B&W photos came out a lot stronger. I like this one because it captures the street life of dhaka but I wish that guy in the brown shirt wasnt there because the darknesss would have framed the rickshaw wallah. next time i go to dhaka i will shoot more B&W film
I took this randomly a few months back. this is a common sight all over china. The woman is complaining about being wronged by the government. I find it interesting how people with no real hope of winning the find still express it through these signs. Chinese signs and posters have been used for purposes like this for thousands of years. The character is so much more powerfull than the ish language.
For those who don't know Roxies's was founded in bangladesh and this is the original location.
