Yuletide
Well, I finally got round to buying CK a necklace thingy for Christmas this morning. I am now suffering from gigantic Buyer's Remorse, agonising over whether it's any good and if I should have got something else.
Well, it's too late now. Anyway, her birthday's in January, so I don't have to wait long before making up for my poor decision-making abilities if need be.
Tuesday, December 20
Monday, December 5
Blinding irony of the week
Chinese observers: Kazakh elections fair.
Yes, the People's Republic of China has sent observers for the Kazakhstan presidential election. Being a nation massively familiar with how to run elections, of course.
Chinese observers: Kazakh elections fair.
Yes, the People's Republic of China has sent observers for the Kazakhstan presidential election. Being a nation massively familiar with how to run elections, of course.
Tuesday, November 29
Darkness Descends
We had no electricity in the flat last night, and for once it wasn't because we hadn't topped up the meter in time. No, instead Paul had recharged the card in the morning and tried to use it when he got back from work later on. It didn't work and no one was in the wuye office by then, so when I got home, we were on one unit of power and trying not to turn things on.
As it turned out, there was just enough battery power left in my laptop to watch Toy Story 2 (better than I expected), and then we sat with notebooks, illuminated by a single guttering candle and attempted to write humorous author bios for the forthcoming gou-rou.com book. Yes, what is bound to be this year's top Christmas gift.
Paul was down at the office trying to get them to sort out the card, with mixed success, when I left for the office this morning. He ended up having to wait for the engineer to come over from a neigbouring building site (must be installing the meters) but we now apparently have power. This return to modern living has unhappily coincided with the automated messages telling us our phone is about to be cut off.
Anyway, tonight I was not planning on doing the pub quiz, but it is apparently Roberto's last week in town, so I shall just have to go and economise. We'd better win now - Roberto gets rather competitive about this whole thing and will be very disappointed if we fail to make our hat trick. I feel we should maybe have thrown a quiz or two in the last fortnight to set the bar lower for ourselves.
We had no electricity in the flat last night, and for once it wasn't because we hadn't topped up the meter in time. No, instead Paul had recharged the card in the morning and tried to use it when he got back from work later on. It didn't work and no one was in the wuye office by then, so when I got home, we were on one unit of power and trying not to turn things on.
As it turned out, there was just enough battery power left in my laptop to watch Toy Story 2 (better than I expected), and then we sat with notebooks, illuminated by a single guttering candle and attempted to write humorous author bios for the forthcoming gou-rou.com book. Yes, what is bound to be this year's top Christmas gift.
Paul was down at the office trying to get them to sort out the card, with mixed success, when I left for the office this morning. He ended up having to wait for the engineer to come over from a neigbouring building site (must be installing the meters) but we now apparently have power. This return to modern living has unhappily coincided with the automated messages telling us our phone is about to be cut off.
Anyway, tonight I was not planning on doing the pub quiz, but it is apparently Roberto's last week in town, so I shall just have to go and economise. We'd better win now - Roberto gets rather competitive about this whole thing and will be very disappointed if we fail to make our hat trick. I feel we should maybe have thrown a quiz or two in the last fortnight to set the bar lower for ourselves.
Monday, November 28
Myspace Fun
Hooray, a newish band website type thing, with better MP3s than before. It's all very lo-fi. Seriously, two of the three tracks were recorded live(ish). Turns out studio recording in a hurry is much harder than just playing live.
Why now? Well, I needed something to do while half the band are away. Though I suppose writing new songs might have been more useful.
The worrying thing is that, having no kit of my own, I haven't played the drums in about a month. That's far, far too out of practice.
Hooray, a newish band website type thing, with better MP3s than before. It's all very lo-fi. Seriously, two of the three tracks were recorded live(ish). Turns out studio recording in a hurry is much harder than just playing live.
Why now? Well, I needed something to do while half the band are away. Though I suppose writing new songs might have been more useful.
The worrying thing is that, having no kit of my own, I haven't played the drums in about a month. That's far, far too out of practice.
Wednesday, November 23
Birthday Fun
My little brother turned 21 yesterday. I had planned to go home and surprise him on the day but that just didn't happen. Instead he'll have to make do with a phone call and a DVD of the HPLHS silent movie version of The Call of Cthulhu.
Making the phone call was a hassle. I got back from the pub quiz (we won!) past midnight and attmepted to ring, only to discover that the IP card I had gave me "less than one minute" of speaking time. Then no one was in when I called the house. I left a panicked message and went out again.
Everything was shut, so I had to troop all the way down to the 7-11, which contrary to the name is open 24 hours, to get a new one. I called home (at about half past five GMT, now), got his new mobile number off my mum, then couldn't read my own writing and had to call her back to confirm the last two digits, before finally getting through to him. He was at the Phoenix, playing pool with his mates.
So anyway, now I'm really tired after not getting enough sleep. On the upside, I had a great idea for a My Life With Master convention game -- Top Gun. Not sure how it would work but I'm sure it's possible.
My little brother turned 21 yesterday. I had planned to go home and surprise him on the day but that just didn't happen. Instead he'll have to make do with a phone call and a DVD of the HPLHS silent movie version of The Call of Cthulhu.
Making the phone call was a hassle. I got back from the pub quiz (we won!) past midnight and attmepted to ring, only to discover that the IP card I had gave me "less than one minute" of speaking time. Then no one was in when I called the house. I left a panicked message and went out again.
Everything was shut, so I had to troop all the way down to the 7-11, which contrary to the name is open 24 hours, to get a new one. I called home (at about half past five GMT, now), got his new mobile number off my mum, then couldn't read my own writing and had to call her back to confirm the last two digits, before finally getting through to him. He was at the Phoenix, playing pool with his mates.
So anyway, now I'm really tired after not getting enough sleep. On the upside, I had a great idea for a My Life With Master convention game -- Top Gun. Not sure how it would work but I'm sure it's possible.
Tuesday, November 22
Why I Didn't Go To Yugong Yishan on Saturday
It's the same old story. Yoko Ono. Linda McCartney. And now, Abigail Washburn.
Eight-time Grammy winner Bela Fleck was playing at Yugong Yishan on Saturday night. The man's one of the best bluegrass players in the world. The tickets were comparatively cheap. Yet I didn't go.
The problem is his girlfriend, who had somehow got herself top billing.
Abigail Washburn is a not particularly good banjo player from America, who has based her career on the schtick of doing a kind of Chinese/American folk fusion thing. In a recent interview in Beijing Talk, she candidly described how they did OK with expat audiences who were keen to hear folk music, but the Chinese audiences during her band's tour of the country all fell asleep. Literally.
When the woman herself is willing to own up to this, why should any of us fork over 50RMB to see her?
"Ooooh, look, I've got a banjo and I'm standing next to a scroll of Chinese calligraphy, I'm so bloody ethnic."
Imagine if Paul Simon's career consisted entirely of Graceland. Now take away the songwriting ability. It's a bleak picture - and this is why I didn't go to see Bela Fleck. I really want to see him play but I'm not prepared to sit through Abigail Washburn's insipid maunderings.
It's the same old story. Yoko Ono. Linda McCartney. And now, Abigail Washburn.
Eight-time Grammy winner Bela Fleck was playing at Yugong Yishan on Saturday night. The man's one of the best bluegrass players in the world. The tickets were comparatively cheap. Yet I didn't go.
The problem is his girlfriend, who had somehow got herself top billing.
Abigail Washburn is a not particularly good banjo player from America, who has based her career on the schtick of doing a kind of Chinese/American folk fusion thing. In a recent interview in Beijing Talk, she candidly described how they did OK with expat audiences who were keen to hear folk music, but the Chinese audiences during her band's tour of the country all fell asleep. Literally.
When the woman herself is willing to own up to this, why should any of us fork over 50RMB to see her?
"Ooooh, look, I've got a banjo and I'm standing next to a scroll of Chinese calligraphy, I'm so bloody ethnic."
Imagine if Paul Simon's career consisted entirely of Graceland. Now take away the songwriting ability. It's a bleak picture - and this is why I didn't go to see Bela Fleck. I really want to see him play but I'm not prepared to sit through Abigail Washburn's insipid maunderings.
Thursday, November 17
Wednesday, November 16
Hang On The Box suck
This is a tale of woe and disappointment. And woe.
They are living proof that attitude is not enough. They are certainly the worst band I have ever seen in China, possibly the worst anywhere. They are Hang On The Box.
Most of the band aren't too bad, to be fair. It's the singer. She is awful (that's her on the right there). We went along to Yugong Yishan last week because the place we'd planned to grab a drink was standing room only, if that. Hang On The Box were playing, we saw on the posters. Great, we thought. All four of us had heard a lot about HOTB, that they were a really good band and one of the stalwart all-girl groups in Beijing. The latter despite having a male guitarist. Whatever.
By the laws of probability, the singer should have hit at least one note over the course of the set, even if just by chance. But it didn't happen. Add to this awful, awful Chinglish lyrics and the whole thing becomes a melange of musical tragedy. The material does them no favours either, being just yet more derivate punk rock, but with no edge to it.
In summary: avoid, avoid, avoid.
This is a tale of woe and disappointment. And woe.
They are living proof that attitude is not enough. They are certainly the worst band I have ever seen in China, possibly the worst anywhere. They are Hang On The Box.
Most of the band aren't too bad, to be fair. It's the singer. She is awful (that's her on the right there). We went along to Yugong Yishan last week because the place we'd planned to grab a drink was standing room only, if that. Hang On The Box were playing, we saw on the posters. Great, we thought. All four of us had heard a lot about HOTB, that they were a really good band and one of the stalwart all-girl groups in Beijing. The latter despite having a male guitarist. Whatever.
By the laws of probability, the singer should have hit at least one note over the course of the set, even if just by chance. But it didn't happen. Add to this awful, awful Chinglish lyrics and the whole thing becomes a melange of musical tragedy. The material does them no favours either, being just yet more derivate punk rock, but with no edge to it.
In summary: avoid, avoid, avoid.
Tuesday, November 1
Bloody Hell
(in more than one sense)
The Guardian today has an article consisting of interviews with surviving WW1 veterans. It's not happy stuff. But it is moving.
"Six weeks later, a countryman of his killed my three mates. If that had happened before I met that German, I would have damn well killed him. But we never fired to kill. My Number One, Bob, used to keep the gun low and wound them in the legs - bring them down. Never fired to kill them. As far as I know he never killed a German. I never did either. Always kept it low."
(in more than one sense)
The Guardian today has an article consisting of interviews with surviving WW1 veterans. It's not happy stuff. But it is moving.
"Six weeks later, a countryman of his killed my three mates. If that had happened before I met that German, I would have damn well killed him. But we never fired to kill. My Number One, Bob, used to keep the gun low and wound them in the legs - bring them down. Never fired to kill them. As far as I know he never killed a German. I never did either. Always kept it low."
A Magical World of Art and stuff
I got invited to the opening of an exhibition over the weekend - the Wei Dong solo show "I Wanna Fly", which opened on Saturday at the Chinese Contemporary gallery in Dashanzi. Dashanzi is a largely disused factory district built in the 1950s, which now contains a couple of dozen art galleries and studios scattered about the place. It's home to the Time Out Beijing offices and a good but inaccessible cafe, though that's really neither here nor there.
I went along to the opening (with CK) as I'd given the show a good preview write-up in Beijing Talk and felt I should see if Wei Dong's art would back up what I'd said. It did but, as ever, it would have been better if I'd seen the real deal first. Previews are never as good as reviews.
Having mooched around - and not spoken to the girl I know that works there, as she was hip-deep in some excessively loud European collectors' conversation - we went to a new bookshop that has just opened across the way, where I bought two live music DVDs (the Pixies and Iggy Pop) and, for some reason, a copy of The Name of the Rose in Chinese translation.
After that, we found a large number of people, mostly German, going in and out of a nearby exhibition space. It turned out to be Beijing Case, with a mixed exhibition titled "Eins". Most of it was photography about Beijing, but there were some video and audio installations too.
One of the most unexpectedly intriguing things were the large back-projected screens in the middle of the space, showing video of Beijing scenes. Most were stationary, but one was very slowly, almost imperceptibly, zooming in on a fixed point, towards the back yard of a Japanese restaurant, into which birds would fly, staff would sneak out for a fag break, etc. This turned out to be much more interesting than you would think.
It reminded me of a film I read about in James Monaco's How To Read A Film all those years ago, though never saw, called Wavelength. This was a single 20 minute tracking shot across a flat's living room, ending in a close up of a Polaroid tacked to the wall - a picture of breaking waves.
I got invited to the opening of an exhibition over the weekend - the Wei Dong solo show "I Wanna Fly", which opened on Saturday at the Chinese Contemporary gallery in Dashanzi. Dashanzi is a largely disused factory district built in the 1950s, which now contains a couple of dozen art galleries and studios scattered about the place. It's home to the Time Out Beijing offices and a good but inaccessible cafe, though that's really neither here nor there.
I went along to the opening (with CK) as I'd given the show a good preview write-up in Beijing Talk and felt I should see if Wei Dong's art would back up what I'd said. It did but, as ever, it would have been better if I'd seen the real deal first. Previews are never as good as reviews.
Having mooched around - and not spoken to the girl I know that works there, as she was hip-deep in some excessively loud European collectors' conversation - we went to a new bookshop that has just opened across the way, where I bought two live music DVDs (the Pixies and Iggy Pop) and, for some reason, a copy of The Name of the Rose in Chinese translation.
After that, we found a large number of people, mostly German, going in and out of a nearby exhibition space. It turned out to be Beijing Case, with a mixed exhibition titled "Eins". Most of it was photography about Beijing, but there were some video and audio installations too.
One of the most unexpectedly intriguing things were the large back-projected screens in the middle of the space, showing video of Beijing scenes. Most were stationary, but one was very slowly, almost imperceptibly, zooming in on a fixed point, towards the back yard of a Japanese restaurant, into which birds would fly, staff would sneak out for a fag break, etc. This turned out to be much more interesting than you would think.
It reminded me of a film I read about in James Monaco's How To Read A Film all those years ago, though never saw, called Wavelength. This was a single 20 minute tracking shot across a flat's living room, ending in a close up of a Polaroid tacked to the wall - a picture of breaking waves.
Saturday, October 22
Friday, October 21
The Return of the Native
Amazingly, Blogspot has been unblocked in China. To be honest, I like it here a bit better than LiveJournal, though I can't really articulate why, so I think I'll start posting here again rather than LJ. Of course, this new tolerance on the part of the glorious PRC may be shortlived. We'll see.
Amazingly, Blogspot has been unblocked in China. To be honest, I like it here a bit better than LiveJournal, though I can't really articulate why, so I think I'll start posting here again rather than LJ. Of course, this new tolerance on the part of the glorious PRC may be shortlived. We'll see.
Monday, July 18
I am in Malaysia right now, which means I can access Blogger sites. Isn't a lack of censorship wonderful?
But anyway, I'm writing stuff over here now, and I don't see that changing in the near future.
TM (in Georgetown, Penang)
But anyway, I'm writing stuff over here now, and I don't see that changing in the near future.
TM (in Georgetown, Penang)
Thursday, April 21
The Adventure Continues
OK, so Blogger is slightly more accessible here now.
Nonetheless, the ongoing story will now be on LiveJournal for the simple reason that it's easier. I'm not proud of it, but there it is.
OK, so Blogger is slightly more accessible here now.
Nonetheless, the ongoing story will now be on LiveJournal for the simple reason that it's easier. I'm not proud of it, but there it is.
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