Beijing Boyce

All work and no vodka make for dull boys and girls. To brighten things up in Beijing, this blog is holding its first contest. Write a haiku about a Beijing bar, pub or club or about this city’s nightlife, and you could win winter-warming vodka from 42 Below.The writer of the best haiku, as determined by a panel of judges to be announced tomorrow, receives three bottles of vodka. There will be one bottle of 42 Below for each of the three runner-up writers.

I’ll publish the top 17 haiku - that’s how many syllables are in these poems - so even if you don’t win the vodka, you’ll still win some, uh, glory.

A few haiku examples (and yes, I’m not a poet, and I know it):

(1)

Bar bill hundreds high
Temperature nineties hot
Alfa eighties night

(2)

Parched, dusty, and bruised, I
Slake my workweek desert thirst
Q Bar martini

(3)

Standard Scot lad dates
Sweet local lass with dry wit
Chivas and green tea

Here are a few rules:
- The haiku should be about Beijing - a bar, a club or a lounge or the city’s nightlife scene
- The haiku should be in lines of five, seven and five syllables. For example:

Bar bill hun-dreds high (5)
Tem-per-a-ture nine-ties hot (7)
Al-fa eight-ies night (5)

- There is a limit of three haiku per writer
- Contestants must be in Beijing
- The deadline for submissions is noon on January 17. Winners will be announced on January 22.

Send your haikus to beijingboyce@yahoo.com. I will have have more details tomorrow.

(By the way, how did I get six bottles of 42 Below vodka? Last month, I sent out my 42nd Beijing Boyce newsletter and my mailing list includes Martin “Party Marty” Newell at 42 Below, with whom I’ve shared a few drinks and who asked me to be a judge in the Beijing qualifier of the 42 Below World Cocktail Cup last year (a decision I am sure he now regrets). He congratulated me on the newsletter, I thanked him and suggested he give me six bottles of vodka to help promote haiku in Beijing, and he agreed (another decision I’m sure he will regret). Plus, I’ve seen this vodka up at Q Bar, Centro, Aria, Song, and other places, and once watched Special K guzzle triple shots of the honey version. Hmm, the latter might be worth a haiku.)