MOJO IN CHINA

China Daily on Obama Win

Glad to see more positive Black related news in China Daily. hehehe (see what I mean here...)

But on a more serious note take a look at this article by Chinese media on Obama's win. It's interesting, and overall positive. The kind of stuff I like. By the way, China, you'll get your money back soon. Give us some time. It will be better in due time under Obama's campaign.

I'll end off with one portion of the story by Li Hong and Du Wenjuan:

"In all, we have full confidence that Sino-American relations could reach a new high that will benefit both countries and the world as a whole, as President Obama takes the helm."

YESＷＥCAN!!!!!! OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!

Where to go on Election Day in Shanghai, China?

You might have noticed, I am really into this Election Day stuff. In Shanghai, there's a few thing you can do on the day of and even after the elections to wet your political appetite.

(Just a reminder, Election Night on the 4th in the US will be Election Morning for us in Shanghai on the 5th!!)

At Malone's from 7:30AM-12PM there will be a big breakfast for 85RMB. Lot of Barack Supporters over here.

AmCham's got something going on from 8:00-12:00 for a whopping 300 RMB (like 37 bucks!!!) at the Hilton on HuanShan Rd. Bring picture ID!

On the night of the 5th at Sasha's, my homies at Shanghaiist will host an "Election Afterparty". What a great flyer:

Vlad and Friend Boris on Palin

China borders Russia... Can Palin see Zoe and I?

I am so proud of our Middlebury Alumni. =)

Chinglish, Engrish? I dunno. Here's a mix from Shanghai and Wuhan.

These are all from my cell.

"Take care of the gap." Make sure it gets plenty of food and water.

OK! OK!! OK!!! I'll be cautious!! My bad!

"Striving for national civilized city, I know, I participated in, I dedicated. Renovated during the construction period, cause inconvenience to you, after updating" ... I have nothing to say to this one...

The Legend of Bruce Lee

With 1.3 Billion people, you are bound to find a guy that looks like Bruce Lee!!!

The Legend of Bruce Lee is on CCTV 1 from 8-9:45 in China. Go watch it. It was originally meant to be shown during the Olympics, but it started after. Strangely, I think Chinese people know less about Bruce than Americans do.

This guy really does look like Bruce though. And you have to see his gestures... It's a mirror!!!

Watch Debate Replay in Shanghai

Image taken from Newsday

Don't think I haven't been keeping up with what's going on with the Presidential Campaign. I'm all over it, and so is Shanghai.

For all those interested and you have the time (I doubt I can go cause I'll be at work, DOH!), you should check out the debates in Shanghai. This is from Democrats Abroad, China Chapter. (Yes, I am a Democrat and I am voting for Obama.)

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Shanghai, Puxi: Malone's American Cafe, Puxi. REPLAY @ 5P. [255 Tongren Ren Lu, Puxi. (021) 6247 2400]. For info contact David, 15801879271.

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Soulfire in Nanjing!

Yes, Soulfire is now on Jing Ling Zhi Sheng

In FM 99.7, 10:30-11:30PM.

Nin Hao, Nanjing. Wo Hui Lai Le.

Keeping Up With The Wangs???

See Keeping Up With The Wangs Article

First it was Keeping Up With The Jones'... And I am a Jones... In China!!!

Where I'm going tomorrow night:

The Blues Room

So today I got an invite from a bass player "bassed in Shanghai" named Jimy Graham to check him out at The Blues Room. I'm excited to go because I like the Blues Room, even though I haven't been there to listen to blues yet. (The last time I was there, I watched the world's greatest slam dunks, which is always awesome to watch.)

I spoke to Jimy on the phone and he's a cool guy, but what I really like are his blues lesson videos. They are great.I look forward to seeing him live.

Check Out My New Marriage Blog

Love Is Forever, Because Love Is You

Zoe and I created this blog to give other couples (married, not married, whatever) a sense of hope and purpose and also show oursleves how much we've both been able to grow together and mark our milestones, trials and tribulations and so on and so forth. Do get a chance to check it out and post your comments!

As many of you might know, I'm good or bad at keeping up my posts depending on how busy I am or the season. I'm feeling a bit on the up and up these days, so I'll post more. Peace!

Great place to get cheap and good sandwiches in Shanghai

That's right, City Shop!

Pre-prepped sandwiches are 15-25 RMB.

China BOTY Soundtrack

Get your BOTY Soundtrack here!

Chinese

English

Check out samples on Myspace!!

SUPPORT CHINA'S BBOY CULTURE AND FUTURE! GET THE CD!!

More on today's floods

Found this on Shanghai Daily...

"The rainfall in many local districts exceeded 50 millimeters per hour, far more than the city

Floods in Shanghai

Uh-Oh... Better get MAACO...

There are floods happening all over the city today in about 60 different streets around Shanghai. There's been torrential downpour for the last several weeks here. The lightning and thunder doesn't help with the sleeping or waking up easy thing, but because of this flood (pictured above is view of the exit outside of Hongqiao Road Metro Station), I can't go to work.

This is kind of a good thing, I was feeling a bit under the weather anyway. Looks like Shanghai is under the weather as well.

Just in time for the Shanghai World Expo, and a great way to say goodbye to the Beijing Olympics.

Zhong Guo, Jia You!!!

This hug was a little too long, Yao...

C'mon now, Lauren... You KNOW he's married!!! Easy...

Olympics is done, but I had fun watching!

Even Google is celebrating!

This year's Olympics has been pretty special for me. Firstly, I've seen more Olympic events during this Olympics than all of the others combined, US Basketball is kicking butt and it's the first time i've ever truly rooted for China teams though different events.

I don't know how people in the US or other parts of the world feel about the Olympics, but the feeling here is a sense of satisfaction. At first, it the opening ceremony was seen as a bit too Chinese, but then as the events got going, everyone was watching. A lot of companies were selling large screen TV's in malls and everyone was watching ping-pong or beach volleyball on their TV's right in the middle of the mall.

China's Gold medal streak was quite impressive, but I would only expect that out of a host country. But also, China learned a lt more about the skils about the competitng countries. I rememeber when Phelps took home 8 medals and Bolt literally bolted through the 100 and 200 meter dash effortlessly winning gold after gold, record after record. Look at Phelps influence on China... CCTV would run broadcasts on what he eats (15,000 calories a day or something... good god.), his college career in swimming and all of his interviews. It was like China had a lot to learn from him because they kept on stating that the US has the environment of swimming where China doesn't.

But for all those that don't know... China 20 years ago wasn't like this. people were trying to eat then, people were trying to get an education. It was a different country then... As far as China is concerned, sport, particularly organized sport for the public masses is STILL a luxury. But I think that this year's Olympics and China's wins and losses will bring a a new sense and pride in sport for China and the people here for years to come.

Next up, the World Expo in Shanghai! (And I'm sure Shanghai will go through a similar clean-up as Beijing... Oh boy...)

Haibao is ready.

LEAVE LIU XIANG ALONE!!!

(Preface for those not in the know: Liu Xiang is a 110 meter hurdler and winner of the gold medal in Athens in 2004. He's all over the place in China with ads and commercials, but he did the unexpected, he came first as a Chinese in track and field. This is for all the Liu Xiang haters, esp. the ones in China.)

Ok, I kind of feel like the guy on You Tube who said to leave Britney Spears alone... But in this case, an athlete really can't control whether or not he or she gets injured. It happens in sport... Get used to it.

Yeah, he did all the Coke and Nike commercials and a lot of money was made from that, but at the end of the day, Liu Xiang is a human and he ruled in a sport that China isn't exactly good at, he got injured and at the wrong time and place. That's a lot of pressure for one man and the dude is like what, my age?

Get a grip and let the man breathe. He couldn't do the run, but he tired and if you feel let down, go for a run and let out your pain that way... Let's see if you will ever be as fast or smooth as Liu Xiang.

China's Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics

China: We invented fireworks!! AND WHAT!! (Sparks Fly for the Olympics at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium)

Before watching the Opening Ceremony, I wasn't that interested in the Olympics, but I got a few good friends over, Channel Young came by my place to interview me about the opening and Zoe and I got some wine and champagne... Of course I had to get excited... But what was more exciting?

The actual opening ceremony!

Dude, I studied you in Mu Lao Shi's class...

Yep, that's big time movie director Zhang Yimou. He made the opening ceremony happen. Now let me remind ya'll, most local Chinese aren't really into his work, sometimes it comes off as too Chinese or too artsy. Mostly people outside of China respect the man's work, but then again, most people outside of China, don't get China. It's no wonder that quite a few Chinese i've talked with about the ceremony told me that it wa a bit too Chinese... (Where's the athletics, bro? Yeah, they know we invented silk, porcelain and fireworks!)

Whatever... I thought the Opening Ceremony was amazing and well done. That's really hard to get all those people together drumming and making Chinese characters out of boxes to the music. And Li Ning at the end running around the top on the stadium. Classic. From athlete to CEO (and CEO's get plump after way too much time in the office! HAHA!) back to athlete. Way to go Li Ning. (I bought shoes for my wife from you once...)

China set the standard... Let's see how London takes this one. =)

Of course, there are some haters and folks calling the fireworks fake and all. It's ok. That fakeness was pretty dope. And little do mot of you guys know.. Chinese people have been jia you-ing (Jia You literrally means "add gas" but it's like saying - YOU CAN DO IT!) other countries... Looks like this Olympics extends past politics after all...

(BTW, US Dream Team beat China 101-70... haha! Mei Guo Jia You! 'Coming again to save the day - yeah!!' But props to the China team for pushing on to the last minute!)

SOULFIRE IS COMING TO SHANGHAI!!! 8-18!!!

Watch out, Shanghai... We're coming home!!!

After all this work, research and pulling strings... You can find Soulfire on Shanghai radio everyday on Shanghai's China Business Network (Di Yi Cai Jing) on FM 97.7 starting August 18th. We'll be on at night starting at 9:30PM.

For Those That Wonder If I Still Break...

Here's proof positive....

OK, so a lot of my moves are the same, but I still got it!

This was at the China BOTY 2008 that happened a few weeks ago. If youa re looking for some clips of the performances and battles, scroll though these search results here. You'll be happy to hear that a lot of the perfromances contain quite a few Chinese culturally related themes. Great job, Caster Dance.

Oh yeah.... get the CD.

Typhoon In China

A lot of water, a lot of typhoon.

7/28, 7:30 AM: Zoe and I head over to the gym and we notice a strange gusts of winds blowing through our complex. The clouds are moving at a super fast speed. It's hot, but cool at the same time and it's been sunny way too much for the last months.

This must mean only one thing...

7/28, 10:00 PM: All is warm and dry outside like normal. We're walking back to our apartment with bags of groceries from Carrefour and some shoes we got from the underground market near the 2 metro stop when all of the sudden.

WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHH!!

It's sudden downour. The open doors in our house shut loudly... BLAM! Oh! The windows are open! It's a fury of wind and rain for 20 minutes...

This must mean only one thing... A typhoon has finally hit Shanghai. It's that time of the year!

7/29, today: cloudy, cool, strong winds, but nothing that could knock over people, cars or buildings, but stong enough that you know the weather has changed a ton. Kind of feels like Fall.

Actually, I like the typhoon, I can actually breathe again after all this humidity!

Busy weekends this weekend and next weekend...

These weeks have been pretty crazy and busy since my lovely time in Jeju with the wifey. But, as they say, the show must go on!

This Saturday, Redstar has a show at Hangzhou's G+ from 10pm-2am. We'll aslo be on FM 99.6 from 2pm-3pm to do a live interview on the air. Be there for that.

Next weekend on the 18th is the China DMC Championship. Find out more here!

The day after on the 19th is China BOTY Final. Find out more info here and don't sleep! (I know I won't!)

My Jeju Review

Wow. It's been a minute and I'm back with some pictures of my wife and my experience in Jeju, Korea. (By the way, some folks call the island "Cheju"... Same difference)

This was my fourth time in Korea and it was the best time. (Sorry, David, you can't trump my wife on this one! But you are a better bboy.) Zoe handled the kimchi and bulgogi like a pro and I got to relax with a few bottle of soju. You just can't go wrong with that.

Anyway, the following are some pictures of what we saw in Jeju. Enjoy and... Go to Jeju!

From the plane about to touch down...

Loveland - the first tourist spot we checked out. They got a lotta sexual staues there... interesting, inspiring and insightful...

Jeju Teddy Bear Museum - They even got an Albert Einstein mini teddy bear!

Of course, we didn't just go to the cheesy spots. We saw what Jeju is reknowned for... It's Nature. (This place has a lot of waterfalls!!! Jeez!!)This is the Cheonjaeyeon (Tian Di Yuan) Waterfalls. There were 7 Chinese goddesses over there a long, long time ago... Zoe is the 8th in this picture.

Life's a beach! This is Sanyang Beach (I think it's Samyeong in Korean). The green stuff is seaweed and a lot of local people liked to pick it up straight from the beach and take it home. (To eat most likely.) The sands there are black cause of the high iron which is good for arthritis, athlete's foot and something else important that I forgot...

We went to a lot of other great places, but you'll just have to check this page out from more pics. Enjoy!

Redstar interview on Interhiphop

Another day, another interview, man.

We were fortunate to get the chance to have an interview with interhiphop, a blog dedicated to interviewing new hip-hop artists and groups on the net. And heeeeeeeeeeerrrr's the interview!

By the way, we're called Redstar. Don't get it twisted! ;)

Chinese Drama On Trying to Make It With Hip-Hop

I was kinda shocked to see this myself...

I don't know how many shows there are, but you can take a look, they are all on Tudou.com. I think Tangking told me about this...

50 Moganshan Lu is the bomb

I need to go there more often...

The last time I was at 50 Moganshan Lu, I was working with the 'Nanking' movie crew at Art Deco. Zoe and I finally found a reason to go checking out second hand fleamarket for our friend Kuli.

The place is full of art studios, clothing designers, antique furniture stores, bookstores and cafes. It's the SoHo of Shanghai, but a bit smaller, more Chinese and trendier.

On our way out, I bumped into two Middlebury alums who also studied Chinese and now live in Hangzhou. They loved the place and would love to go back.

Here's more pics!

Speaking of the fleamarket, my boy Shige (You might recognize him as DJ Shige if you are around Shanghai) had his stuff on sale there and also runs his own little business on the side selling battle breaks and DJ equipment on-line and via e-mail at Scratch Temple. You can contact him at mail@scratchtemple.com. He knows his stuff.

The Greenwich Village has finally come to Shanghai

This was taken on the 2 line in Shanghai... How did I miss this?

The guy in the red with the glasses looks a little... uncomfortable...

"It's gotta be the shoes."

On the note of 'interesting' people on the train, there's this portly guy who (I saw him on the 1 train with my wife) gets on the train, starts ranting away some speeches, preaches about life and current events on the train out loud. It's kind of funny. If anyone can find videos or stories on this guy, please send them in.

Oh snap... Liu Xiang, WATCH OUT!

This guy just beat Liu Xiang's 110m hurdle world record.

His name is Dayron Robles, he's from Cuba, and he is fast! Liu Xiang, as some of you may know, is the reigning king and motivation for the Olympics out here in China. He's in numerous ads out here including Nike and Coke.

Looks like there's some competition brewing in the air from Mr. Liu! Every milisecond counts!

Here's a vid of Liu Xiang's record breaking run last year.

In Jeju, Korea two weeks from today...

MoJo in... Korea?

Even I need a break. In two weeks, my lovely wife and I will take a trip to the magical island of Jeju, Korea on the 23rd. Just an early warning. I will not update my blog during this time, but up till then, I'll keep filling up this puppy as much as I can till my departure and come back with more posts, news and reviews afterward.

Although this isn't my first time in Korea, I expect it to be my most relaxing trip there (maybe the most relaxing trip ever?) . (Clean air, beuatiful scenery, no meetings, gigs or traffic and some quality time with Zoe...) Wish I could bring ya'll along, but... nah!!! haha

Monsoon Season has arrived!!

Get your umbrella... ella... ella... eh... eh... eh...

When in Shanghai, or any part of China, during this time of the year, expect VERY STRANGE weather. It'll last for about 2-3 weeks. Also, expect a lot of rain. (Even if you don't expect it, expect it.) Carry a small umbrella in your bag. It's going to be wet and then riduclously hot...

Here's some music to get you going during these rainy, cloudy days. Cheeah!!

No more plastic bags!!!

You darn skippy it's not a plastic bag!!

Convenience stores and supermarkets are over China are ditching plastic bags for environmental safety. (Actually, you can still get a bag, but it costs extra, and most people don't want to spend more money than they have to.) I think China will make this into a fashion contest, "Who has the prettiest, most cutting edge big shopping bag."

SOULFIRE IS COMING TO CHANGSHA!! 6-16!!!

CHANGSHA, ARE YOU READY?!?!

106.1, Changsha Music Station

June 16th, 2008... Soulfire's coming to a radio near you... (We on either at 4pm or 5pm.. something like that...)

Need Studio Space for rent in Shanghai? Soulfire's got your back.

Our engineers are hard at work and are ready to make you sound GOOD!

Find out more here! I'll put up a permanent link VERY SOON!

YES WE CAN!!!

Change is good...

Just want to move away for the China thing for a minute to bring up something alos quite important, the 2008 Election. Thank you, Mom, for bringing me this big new all the way from the US.

Barack Obama beat out Hillary Rodham Cllinton as the Democratic candidate for the presidential election.

THIS - IS - BIG - NEWS

It was a huge battle between Clinton and Obama, but when asked whether or not she would run on the democratic party ticket, Hillary responded - She'll do whatever she could - even a vice presidential bid - to get Dems into the White House.

YES WE CAN!!!

Obama was as proud and as strong as could be claiming the Democratic nomination, but like any important, smart and genuine political figure would go, he goes into the heart of the issues. Here's his statement on McCain:

DJVibe.CN

DJVibe now also has...

This!

Props to Jason and Graham for getting this started. Keep it up, and keep the Redstar props comin!!

Chinese Hip-hop Tune dedicated to the Earthquake

Not a bad tune. One of the few heartfelt Hip-Hop tunes I've heard out of China.

Graff in Shanghai

Props to Adam S. from Danwei on this one. (AI DE MAN 4 LIIIFE!) Graff = Graffitti = Cool Street Art

Take a day off, fool! It's Dragon Boat Festival!

Zong Zi -- WHAT, FOOL?!?!

Enough with th fool stuff... There's a holiday coming up and it's called the Dragon Boat Festival. All I know about the holiday is that people race on long boats kind of like crew but with dragon heads on the front of the boat and people eat lots of Zong Zi.

What's a Zong Zi? I don't have a direct translation, but it's a bunch of sticky rice filled with meat (or egg) and wrapped with bamboo leaves. it's really good, unless you find that your Zong Zi doesn't have enough meat (they can kep the egg)... grrr...

You can get a lot of Zong Zi in Zhejiang province in Jiaxing. Go Get YOURS.

HA HA HA: The Movie

HA HA HA

Yes, that's the movie's name. I think you know by now that it's a comedy. It features David Wu (You might have heard of him from Talk Da Talk) and one of my favorite comedy duos in China, The Back Dorm Boys. (They became famous in China and around the world for lip-synching a lot of Backstreet Boys and other English and Chinese pop tunes. See below:

Their expressions are just plain unforgetable...

Anyway, back to the flick. "HA HA HA" is a comedy about a baby from a rich family who gets stolen by a bunch of bad guys, but when the bad guys lose the baby, a poor family whose been trying a praying for ages to have a child gets the baby on their doorstep as a nice little surprise.

This movie (Like most Chinese comedies) starts off like a lot of Adam Sandler movies, really slow, silly and hard to follow, but as time goes along, you get into it. There are a lot of China related figures and themes in the movie, like the Chinese Boss who has a lot of money from some random business, the crazed internet bar junkies who think their lives are like an RPG computer game (played by the Back Dorm Boys), and how the baby flies into the poor couple's home via a huge pink balloon in the shape of a pig. (In China, the pig always stands for abundance and fertility.)

Give it a try!

I Heart Beca.

So Chill... Oh, So Chill...

As some of you guys might remember, I work in Redtown (Hong Fang) and it's a really cool place to work. It's not just because I can make the "big bucks" (not yet...) and record dope shows, there's a lot of cool artsy and fashionable stuff around here. What's in fashion now?

One word: BECA

Everytime I pass by this place for lunch, especially now that it's (just about) summertime, the place is packed! Zoe and I just had two glasses of white wine, apple crepes and a glass of sweet ice tea for under 10 bucks. (we used our Enjoy Card of course! Saved 7 kuai, fool!) The place is quite relaxing and there were no flies in the wine. Mad love.

Response to Sharon Stone by Chinese Actor

Zhao Hui Nan responds to Sharon Stone (In Chinese and English)

Here's another update... Sharon Stone has a change of heart?

I hope it is her and not her publicist.

I'm done talking about this. She's making money and popularity points off off my posts.

Hiphop.cn's Xi You Ji Volume 2 Mixtape Is Out!!!

Get your copy here.

Check out Redstar's 'Who We Be'. Very different from what's on our myspace. Enjoy!

Sharon Stone on China Earthquake

Sharon Stone in Shanghai. How ironic...

Thoughts?

The Last Time We're Going to Kowloon Ice House.

Sorry, I can't do it... I can't go back.

Kowloon Ice House is a prety popular snack chain in China (a lot in Shanghai) full of snacks, drinks and nice light foods. Once you step inside, the place is full of Hong Kong karaoke and pictures. It's a great spot, especially if you are a fan of HK pop culture, like yours truly.

But after tonight, I think the next time I'm look for that nostalgic feeling, I'll take a flight to HK instead...

After the gym, Zoe and I decided we would go for a snack. I ordered some soup, curry and some drinks. The first thing I noticed before I ordered is that the menu changed. Originally, it was one sheet with selections on the front and back. it was quite clear and easy to follow. Now, it's a thick book with old plastic covers for each page, new dishes (that almost look like a restaurant rather than a snack house) and the prices are sky high. A lot of the small dishes they used to serve... GONE. Now, I'm not a big fan of these changes, but I can deal.

The part that bugged me was there was a fly in the soup...

That's ok, fairly normal, it happens, especially in this weather. We told the staff about it, and they wanted to change it, but fearing that they'll just dump the fly out and give us the same soup, we decided they can just strike it off of our check. No big deal.

Next up, I found a fly in my iced coffee. That's enough. We told them about this too and they had the nerve to say that the fly JUST flew in. (Right so in between you guys walking from the kitchen over to our table, the fly flew in our soup...)

Zoe and I were in shock. Now, in the mall where this Kowloon Ice House is located, you can't find any flies around where we were sitting, and flies like to be around food, especially where there's lots of food... MAYBE, just MAYBE, their kitchen has some issues. I mean, when we found the bug in the soup, it was underneath all the lettuce, and I don;t think the fly was just going for a swim.

Heck, even the white spoon we recieved had all these black spots and marks all over it. Later w got two spoons, with half of the marks gone...

We wanted our money back, all of it. We weren't going to spend nearly 20 bucks (I'm talking in USD here, not RMB) on non-hygenic food. There are other people around ordering as well. After the fuss and battling between us and the waitresses, we finally got our money back... but not our appetite.

I can't go back there because of this. We go for the quality, but if it's gonna be like this, I'd rather go for street food instead. Stop cutting corners!

Last Stop - Xuzhou

Exhibit A - Dog Meat

So I am back as of yesterday from Xuzhou located in Jiangsu province. It was really hot over there and the place is surrounded by tons of mountains... Kinda reminded me of Nanjing, but a lot smaller.

Anyway, this was the last stop of the 10 day tour with Chivas 12 y.o. Honestly, I'll miss the people on the tour, the whiskey, the meeting, greeting and taking pictures of people. But one of these things I will miss the least:

DOG MEAT

Xuzhou is know for it's spicy dishes, particulalry their spicy dog dish. There are plently of restaurants that have the sings "GOU ROU" (litterally, Dog Meat) plastered all over their walls and store fronts. No, Zoe and I had no dog meat on our journey, and you will know why if you do a picture search for the words Gou Rou on baidu.com... Sick...

Anyway, Xuzhou was cool and the hotel were were at called the Yingdu New Jin Jiang was a pretty posh 4 star. There was a wedding happening at the hotel and at the lobby they were collecting money for the couple with a machine to check whether the money people were giving to the couple were real or fake. Welcome to China!!

If you are ever in Xuzhou and you want to find a fun time, you can check out Calvin Klein Club... Yes, it's called Calvin Klein (CK Jiu Ba... IPR is going well out here!). They have a cage there for scantlily clad male and female dancers with too much make-up (the male dancers too).

Glad to be back in Shanghai.

Back to the Roots @ The Shelter - This Friday

Freakin' beautiful flyer, Gary.

China's best non-pretentious party is back. Be there.

The Forbidden Kingdon (Gong Fu Zhi Wang)

Jackie Chan and Jet Li... at the same time...

You know I had to do a post on this one. Zoe and I saw The Forbidden Kingdom just the other day. Actually, Zoe was more excited about this film than yours truly (Because she is more American than me!). When I heard about it, I wasn't all that shocked and amazed by it. I hear about Jackie Chan and Jet Li all the time out here. If I never learned Chinese and I didn't live in China, I would probably go nuts about this film. Even from it's trailer:

I thought the movie had some good fight scenes and it was nice to see Jet Li be goofy for a change (When he playes the Monkey King). Apparently he wanted to do a role like that for his daughter. The story isn't a real Chinese story by the way, and in certain ways, it's a bit no believeable, particularly for a Chinese audience. (I asked my wife if she ever read about anything like this in High School, she said very clearly... "NO.")

It's also interesting seeing Jackie Chan getting back to his "drunken ways". He's pushing 60 and he moves like a 12 year old in this movie. Really amazing. The role of the kid from Boston is something you see in too many US style Kung Fu movies (Look at The Last Dragon... LEROY!!!), but he's good with the staff.

I think the girl that plays the Pipa in the movie (Liu YiFei?) is going to get noticed in the states kind of like how Zhang Ziyi got noticed in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". To other parts of the world, she's the strereotypical attractive Chinese woman from China, who actually in China, looks normal. hehe. Hats off to Fan Bing Bing (the one with the long white hair). Besides looking like a videogame vixen, she's made a small place for herself in the Hollywood market.

Overall, this movie makes me wonder... Why don't more people in China study Kung Fu? Noone knows it out here. Actually, a lot of When I saw this movie, it made me think that a ton of folks around the world think that in China, all we do out here is fight. Like, when I go to work, I have to battle 10 people at once, no weapons - just fists, bare-chested, on the Line 3 train (or 4) so I can make it to my stop on Hongqiao Lu... That's crazy!

Anyway, Zoe and I were pretty happy to watch this movie together. It's good family fun.

Saved after being trapped for over 180 hours... and gave birth!

General jist of this interview is about a pregnant woman who was stuck in the rubble around the earthquake for 180 hours (cause a lot of the roads are messed up and it's hard to walk around). She gave birth yesterday and the baby is safe. It's a miracle.

By the way, two more folks were saved after 196 hours of being stuck in rubble.

Not all have been miracles, the numbers are over 40,000 in deaths and countless numbers of injuries, physical and emotional. Wherever you are, reader, please donate what you can to this tragedy, be it money, clothes or news you can pass along to others. China is also in need of psychology experts (who can speak Chinese). Thank you.

How to Dress for Mourning...

Dressing fashionable for your memorial?!?!

I was sent this website Yoka.com by my coworker, simply because we use a lot of fashion and style ideas for Soulfire and another webstie for inspiration never hurts. I showed this site to my wife to see what she thinks and she showed me a section on how to dress for a memorial. You can take a look here.

After Zoe and I reviewed the section, we thought it was disrespectful and tacky. So if you are from Yoka.com, please take this down. Now's not the time to worry about how your blacks match with your whites, but rememebring those affected by the tragedy.