some kind of attachment

I think I'm developing some kind of attachment to China. It's been a slow development, but a couple of recent things have led me to believe that I do find many things about this place special and I know that I will miss it when we eventually move on.

Last night my boss confirmed that she was moving on to start up another company and that a couple of other staff would be running the school from May. This was a little sad to hear as she's been a great employer and has personally looked after me well and been very approachable. She also deserves a change because she has virtually not had a holiday in over 3 years and has been working 7 days a week regularly for this period. She's exhausted and I can see why. Managing people isn't easy. Managing teachers who often have a fly by the seat of their pants attitude, is probably more difficult, especially given the different cultural customs. We've had our disagreements at times, but many of these can be explained by understanding the Chinese culture of working non-stop and doing things at the last minute - or giving little notice.

So my boss (Jennifer) and a few teachers had a drink last night, and I thought to myself - I'm going to miss this person and miss the current work environment. The fact that I'm even having these thoughts made me realise that I'm making attachments to people within this strange place, China. Jennifer will still be around and I'm sure we'll see each other regularly, so on the whole I don't imagine many changes to my work.

This week I've had mid-semester exams for my Chinese. So far a speaking examination and general Chinese (reading, comprehension, writing) examination. Both were okay, but tomorrow I have a listening examination (which should be okay) and then a writing and reading characters examination which I believe will be quite difficult. Next week is the May day/week holiday and we're going to Hong Kong.

Sonic Youth - Incinerate (live in Shanghai!!)

Two nights ago we saw Sonic Youth and it was incredible. They were really energetic and sounded very good (the mix as well as their togetherness). Pavement lovers will spot Mark Ibold on bass guitar. The audience was probably two thirds expats, but it was a great audience - very lively and the band treated us to two encores. They also said that we were "the best audience ever", but I've long since stopped believing these statements. Looking around at the pretty impressive Shanghai Concert Hall with Sonic Youth playing, I thought to myself that Shanghai and China has very quickly become a pretty cool place to live/visit. Sonic Youth and most touring bands have never ever bothered to go to established Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong or Seoul but now it seems Beijing and Shanghai are not only becoming sought after destinations, but have leap-frogged those other cities...

Sonic Youth - Silver Rocket (live in Shanghai!!) - from where I was standing!


Sonic Youth (live in Shanghai!!) - it wasn't really that noisy

I wanna be sedated

Young at Heart - check out their version of Sonic Youth's Schizophrenia on You Tube as well...

Big Pig +

I'm in love with You Tube. It's the availability, its sharing, its the DIY attitude and it's just got anything you could ever want to see (or not see). So today, I'm taking a trip down memory lane with some music videos.

Big Pink - Breakaway
This takes me back to the mid 80s - around about 86 or 87. I was a teenager in high school just starting out as a drummer and I can remember hearing this song with their 2+ drummers and thinking it was the coolest thing ever. I can now quite confidently admit that it isn't the coolest thing ever, but still it brings back a lot of memories. Nowadays, the haircuts are harsh and the singlet looking mallet guys look like a precursur to the tap dogs or something...

Happy Mondays - Lazyitis
This one was from about '88 when the Mondays were starting to make it big. I've always loved the go-nowhere feel of this song, the total abandon of conventions that the video portrays - kicking around in the rain. It's also known for Ryder's borrowing of the Beatles "Ticket to Ride" melody, plus potentially a few other melodies thrown in there... all no doubt on purpose, and if not, who cares. It's great...

Beasts Of Bourbon - Chase The Dragon

And of course, the Beasts. For some real dark and dirty music, the Beasts were the fix. Kim Salmon's unmistakable guitar stabs (and fashionable green shirt), some other Beasts at the back and ladies-man Tex Perkins out the front. The lyrics of this song are as obvious as George Bush's mental capacities... lyrics that myself, Morry and Phil and the like used to like to quote from time to time... "I brought back a sourvenir, all the way from Kampuchea...". They were scary live (in the good sense of the word)!

irony

The more things change, the more they stay the same. For example have a read of this interesting story about Beijing's attempts to improve Chinglish signage. The article itself uses a bit of Chinglish particularly in the second paragraph. I can't see things ever changing and I hope they don't. Chinglish gives us something to laugh at over here, it would be a tragedy if they tried to clean it up!!

China Daily

Sonic Youth are coming to China

And I'm going to be there. Me and two other friends from work are off to see Sonic Youth in Shanghai in two weeks time. They're playing in a very conservative classical theatre - the Shanghai Concert Hall. All very sit-down affair - much like the Royal Albert Theatre in London. The prospect of seeing them and the mental image of this band - an extremely noisy, experimental band playing in this modern contradiction that is China, just kinda makes me feel really happy. The fact that they passed the PRC Cultural Visa requirements is also cool (some don't). For a place that has had the likes of the Rolling Stones and Kenny G tour, Sonic Youth is going to blow everyone's minds... well either that or a few speakers. Or a few wallets - it's not so cheap, so I can imagine an almost total expat audience in attendance.

Jintian wo de shengri

Which means - Today it's my birthday!! Hey hey - and no better way to enjoy your birthday than by watching some genuine, up and coming Chinese talent.

Ooooooh yeah!