One-Eyed Panda’s Journal

I want to escape

I don’t want to get on a plane and head off to warmer climes.

I’d rather bury myself in books and movies

I want to get on a train with Paul Theroux

I want to go through London with Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes

and I want to sleep in my own bed at night.

J.

Fell ill on Friday after eating some bad food Thursday night

(at least that’s what I think happened)

Spent most of last night on the toilet.

Today’s been a daze.

Slept until 1:30pm.

I never do that.

Been laying around on the sofa all afternoon and dozing

while listening to my iPod.

Discovering the joys of talk radio

Meditations on Shakespeare

The fun of Jonathan Goldstein and Wiretap

Catching up on Canadian news via Rex Murphy and The National

Learning how to avoid be sick again via The Art of Manliness

And of course local music via Andy and Jake at Kungfuology

And just feeling better.

J.

I haven’t written for so long

cause I’ve been burned out.

I wanted to take a step back

and really see where I was.

I didn’t like it.

So I assessed what was wrong.

Too much stress. So I switched jobs.

Found one with a more manageable stress level.

It’s a management position, but less hours than before.

I’m happy.

I have free time to spend with Betty and Roger.

And to go to rock shows and read again.

Life is good.

J.

Hi

Other stuff has been dominating my life for a while which has forced me to keep radio silence. It’s going to be a while until I put up a proper post, but to fill the void here is what Jake and I got up to last night.

J.

I’m feeling so much better since my last post. Took a great trip to Hangzhou with Betty and read Haruki Murakami’s When I Talk When I Talk About Running. Both helped set me on a path to recovery and got my head around things for a great week at work.

I made some other great discoveries this week as well. I found a great CD shop on Fuxing Lu that has a lot of Chinese alt rock CDs. I bought seven on Monday night including stuff by B6, Dead J, Sound Fragment and Sulumi. I also picked up Queen Sea Big Shark’s album there today and ordered discs by Muscle Snog and Joker.

DVD-wise I found seasons 5 to 7 of Spooks. I hadn’t seen any other seasons available since buying season 1-4 in 2005. Betty & I started watching them yesterday and the show is as good as ever.

Well I guess you’re wondering since there was so much positive stuff in this post, what’s the shit at the door? it’s just that – somebody left shit at the door on Friday night. The notes the person/people left said Roger had shit in the hall which is just not possible: I am the only person who walks Roger and I would have known if he shit in the hall. Two I carry Roger through the building so that he can’t do that. I called my landlord about it on Saturday and she said she’d look into it. I’m annoyed at the people who did it, but I’m not going to let it ruin my weekend.

I’m writing this on my mobile phone at Boxing Cat Brewery where I’m meeting Betty for lunch then we’re heading to The Thing on Changle Lu to see if they have Shanghai bu huiying ni t-shirts. Then home to watch more spooks. It’s been a great weekend.

Update: The Thing didn’t have the Shanghai bu huying ni t-shirts but we were able to get a few other great ones including a cool pig wearing a gas mask to represent Swine Flu.

In my last post I said I was tired. That’s ventured into full-time burn out at this point. We’ve decided to redesign our website at work and that’s meant that we’ve started doing web-only stories on top of our magazine content (see my first one on Chery’s proposed IPO here). I’m still trying to adjust to the new demands and that has meant I was just slammed this week. Betty, my girlfriend and I were hoping to get away this weekend to Hangzhou to relax (it’s the only way to cope when things get like this), but she got sick and I still had a bit of work to do at the weekend so we’ve had to postpone the trip.

I did relax this weekend though. I went to Boxing Cat Brewery with friends on Friday and in the taxi on the way home to walk Roger, I found a Cuban cigar still in its case and fresh – that almost made the tough week worth it. After walking Roger, I went to Yuyingtang to see Convenience Store and meet up with Jake Newby. I liked the sound but the crowd was mostly young girls there to swoon over Convenience Store’s supposedly handsome lead singer. We left after watching Convenience Store for about 20 minutes and headed to Exit where we met some of the friends from Boxing Cat and I got to enjoy that cigar. Ended the night wandering Xikang Lu looking for a BBQ stand.

Saturday, I spent the day sleeping, reading and watching Star Trek. I’ve started Richard Price’s Lush Life. Price really knows how to write a crime novel and his method of writing dialogue – seen best on HBO’s The Wire where he was a staff writer – is simply superb.

Last night headed back to YYT again to see the amazing Jeff Lang, a blue musician along with Joker, another great up and coming Shanghainese blues band. I was amazed by both of them. Joker cause they’re so young and blues/rockabilly isn’t that popular among Chinese youth and Jeff Lang cause he can combine blues and progressive rock guitar into an amazing live set (he also played for nearly two hours in a felt suit). His amazing live set made me not want to pick up his CDs for fear of not being able to live up to his live sets (unfortunately Joker’s ep wasn’t there). They were also RMB100 a pop which made them a little bit expensive and probably hurt sales. For another take on both nights at YYT check out Jake’s post.

Today was literally a bit of a washed out day. It’s been pouring rain pretty much constantly since I woke up. It made walking Roger tough. Each time we got out it was heavy rain and even with his raincoat on he still got a bit wet. I spent this morning writing this month’s book review and the afternoon reading a bit of Lush Life and sleeping. I had only meant to sleep for 30 minutes but ended up dozing off for more than three hours  - I guess that shows you how tired I am. Going to take it easy tonight so that I’m prepared for next week.

Enjoy the rest of your Sundays.

J.

Well I’d originally planned to hit up Heart Attack at Not Me on Thursday. Got some really good news that changed things — my girlfriend landed a new job which meant I spent the night celebrating. So didn’t make Heart Attack (and hey the celebrating was more important).

Did my second Drunken Dragon Hash House Harriers run yesterday — I found the trail a little tough and it just made me annoyed and with the stressful Friday I had I was just in a bad mood. Was planning to hit YYT afterward for the Mushrooms’ animal patterns show, but got pulled into a round of post-Hash drinking, so never got there – but my mood improved a lot.

I thought about going to YYT for tonight’s Mindless DJ showcase, but who am I kidding rock shows and me on a Sunday night don’t mix — especially when I have a busy week ahead and need my sleep. So for those of you wanting Chinese indie rock news check out Jake Newby’s blog. He’s got reviews of the Channel One Mall music series and the Mushroom’s animal pattern show.

And here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that talks about the Beijing rock scene and Carsick Cars’ new album.

I will get out to a show again some time soon.

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend.

J.

Well it’s been a while. Work and just life have kept me busy for the last couple of months. I just haven’t had time to blog. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Ended up ending a two-year relationship at the beginning of June and am now with someone else. It wasn’t something I wanted to do at the time, but I realize now that a lot of things in that relationship just weren’t working.
• Roger has completed the application for his dog license and is now on the fast track to being a legal Shanghainese dog. I’m supposed to hear about the license any day now.
• Had a scare with my eye in June. One doctor claimed my retina had detached but it turns out that he had misdiagnosed me and everything is fine.
• Joined the Drunken Dragon Hash House Harriers. You can find me running in the suburbs of Shanghai every other Saturday.
• Have been trying to watch more movies and do more reading recently. I haven’t really succeeded, I keep falling asleep in front of the TV (that’s the problem when it’s in your bedroom). I’m now refusing to watch TV while in bed only sitting. In terms of reading I’m working my way through Prisoner of the State: the diary of Zhao Ziyang
• I’m back going to rock shows again after more than a month-long break. Here’s a review of the show I was at last weekend. Hoping to hit Not Me’s new indie night, Heart Attack tomorrow as well.

That’s a quick update, more substantial posts to follow.

J.

We moved into the new place last Saturday & had a great housewarming party last night – I know this is going to look weird for anybody that reads this in the archives cause the last post was on us finding the house, but whatever. It has taken about a week but everything is finally in a state where I can say we’re settled and I can freely blog again.

It really felt that way after last night’s housewarming party, which we combined with the going-away party for our friend, Ray Shi, who’s heading back to the US on Wednesday. It was great cause we got to see a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while and everybody loved the place. I need to take pictures as we made one or two small changes from the photos that the landlord posted for the classified. I’ll try to do that soon.

I’ve spent a lot of time exploring the area – most of it with Roger, who prefers to now do his business outside rather than using the diapers that he used as a puppy. That means more walks which means more exercise for me. There are lots of great little cafes and shops on Shaanxi Nan Lu and through out the French Concession and it just feels like a perfect combination of Western and Chinese side by side. It’s great to come home at night and just feel like you can relax here.

But other than that there isn’t a whole lot going on. Work is going at a steady pace. I’m busy but not getting overwhelmed. I’ve become addicted to Aric S. Queen’s Rough Sundays podcast and am really enjoying Pascal Mercier’s Night Train to Lisbon. I sat down today at Vienna Cafe today for brunch and ended up reading about 60 pages and probably will cover another 80 or so before I head to bed.

It’s been a perfect long-weekend.

J.

Well it’s after 10pm and I should probably be heading to bed, but I’ve had such a great last couple of days I had to blog about it first. 

First thing is that we’ll be moving by the end of the month to this apartment in the French Concession. It’s like something out of Lust Caution and I think we’ll really enjoy living there. There are cafes all around the building and it’s close to my office. I’m looking forward to walking Roger in the area.

Secondly things at work are going really well. I think things are finally coming together for me. My cover story in our April issue got a lot of great feedback (the link to the main story is here). The book review I wrote for the April issue was on James Fallows’ Postcards from Tomorrow’s Square. Today I woke up to find that James had linked to the review on his blog with some very flattering comments.

Finally I’ve been listening to a lot of good music recently. I went to the Battles show at the Dream Factory about two weeks ago and then to Hard Queen’s CD release party last week. Right now, I’m listening to the first of Aric S. Queen’s Rough Sunday shows and I can tell that this show will become a big part of my Sunday mornings.

That’s it for now. I’ll keep this space updated with new developments.

J.