Walking the Path

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 know it’s been a long time since I posted. Work has been taking up a lot of my time – I’m working on the cover story for the April issue and that’s going to involve a trip from Anhui. I leave tomorrow and return Wednesday.

The one thing I have been doing with my free time is reading a lot. I’m currently in the middle of James Fallows’ Postcards from Tomorrow’s Square but at the same time I’m also working on John Pomfret’s Chinese Lessons and I’ve just bought a few more books today.

Why I don’t know. They just seem to fill me with a lot of hope.  And I know that sounds silly but they’re helping me to chill out during a very busy time right now.

J.

Well I know I haven’t posted for a while. Chinese New Year kept me away from my laptop  and I returned to Shanghai and a really busy six-day work week. Hopefully in the next couple of days, as we wrap up the March issue, I’ll have more time to write in this space. Until that time you can read some of my stuff here and here.

J.

I’m in the middle of a major project at work — no that’s not right. I am struggling with a major project at work at the moment. and that is seeping up all of my time and desire to blog so posting will be a bit light here for another week. I hope to get on top of things this week so that I can write something soon — as this space is a real outlet for me. But I don’t want to turn this blog into a spot to rant about the failures of PowerPoint (or my failure to master the program), so I’ll just stay semi-silent until I finish the project.

On a more positive note though, Winnie and I did watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies on Friday with some friends at a Greek restaurant in Gubei. It was simply awesome especially the fireworks. I do hope that this put a lot doubts to rest about whether China was ready to host the Olympics or not. I’ve also been watching the Olympics on and off all weekend. As of right now, China has six gold and two silver medals.

It was sad to hear about the murder of an American at the Drum Tower yesterday. My thoughts are with the family, but I am wishing deep in my heart of hearts that there is no backlash against China for it. It sounds like it was just a deranged man and the family was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Look for posts again soon.

J.