Beijing Night Owl / 夜猫子在北京

A day or two before Christmas I was thinking back to my last Christmas break at the end of 2004. At that time I had already made my plans to come to China, in fact I was already registered for school at Beijing Foreign Studies University, already half-moved out of my apartment of 10 years+ in San Francisco, already booked on a flight to Bangkok where I planned to launch a one month mini tour of Southeast Asia before arriving in Beijing. I had no idea of what the next year would bring to me but I was very curious to find out.

Fast forward about 12 months later and here I am just a day away from 2006. It's not quite one year in China just yet - that will happen in mid February - but it's just two weeks away from one year away from the US, away from home and away from the life I lived from 18 and onwards. I'm not quite ready to navel gaze at the last year just yet. I think I will wait until it's truly been one year in China. After all, I won't have experienced a chinese Spring Festival until then. There is one milestone day coming soon though. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and every year one takes a look back at the prior 12 months, takes stock of their life and stares ahead at the next 12, hoping that this one is even better than the last.

I would say that I am mostly happy with my 2005. I am living in a dynamic and vibrant place. I have a good job and I work with good people. I have a wonderful lady to share my life with and recently I've added a beautiful little kitten to my household. Now since my subject line promised a snowboarding angle, I of course have to fill you in on my xmas day fun. Amani and I went on a one day ski/snowboarding trip to Nanshan (南山) - literally South Mountain. This little resort about 90 minutes out of Beijing is a nice beginner's mountain with two ski lifts and numerous rope tows. The snow itself is all man-made as we have not had a drop of actual snow in the area this season. We went on a group trip planned by my employer - that's Beijing. The trip was all inclusive with transportation, meals, equipment, clothing, alcohal all part of the price. It was a really nice time and we walked away with no major injuries although Amani got her share of bumps and bruises on this her first time out on a board. For a few pictures, check out the link on the image above...

This past friday Amani and I went over to Haidian (海淀) for a night of Beatles cover songs. At the time I didn't realize it but upong reading a paeon to John Lennon in the International Herald Tribune this weekend, I realized that friday was in fact the 25th anniversary of the shooting death of John Lennon in New York.

The show was at Club 13 around the Wudaokou area. I had been there once before back in springtime during my spring semester at Beiwai. The club I recalled from then and the one that we showed up at on friday were quite different. The last time, Club 13 was dead with about 3 people standing on the floor area in front of the stage and all the rest of us sitting down in the lounge area. This time, the club was completely full, with a rather excited audience on hand. As is standard operating procedure, we arrived about 90 minutes after the official start time. I was a bit worried that we might have missed the bulk of the show. In total there were supposed to be six bands, playing about 5 songs apiece. The first band we were able to see was on their last song when we got there. Luckily we hadn't arrived too late as another 4 bands took the stage throught the rest of the night. While all the bands we saw differed a bit in style, they all were quite accomplished musically. I thought to myself that it's a shame these bands don't make it more often to my local places such as Yugong Yishan (愚公移山).

Here is a sampling of what we saw:

• She Loves You
• A Hard Day's Night
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Ticket To Ride
• Drive My Car
• Yesterday
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
• Strawberry Fields Forever
• Back In The U.S.S.R.
• Happiness Is A Warm Gun
• Yer Blues
• Helter Skelter
• Revolution
• Come Together (twice!)
• Across The Universe (twice!)

I came across this image a couple of weeks back. By this time have forgotten which site it was although I do remember that it was from Europe and the page specifically had a mention at the bottom from what would seem to be the German equivalent of the RIAA.

Okay so once again it's been a long long time since my last entry. Life has been very busy since the summer and while I often think about getting around to blogging, something always comes along and sucks up all my time. Just to recap quickly, I am working full time now and it's geek work so needless to say I am happy abou that. Much more on that in another post yet to be written. I got around to solving a few blog tech issues tonight which makes me happy. With a little nip here and a tuk there css-wise, I will finally get a design I can live with. In the meantime, enjoy this little pic of my new blanket...

Well it's been over two months now since the music festival in question was actually held so I figured it was time to break my blog silence with a bit about this wonderful two day festival here in Beijing. The festival was called 'Les Trans En Chine' - 跨越音乐2005法国现代音乐节 . I don't understand french so I can't explain exactly what the story behind the festival was but from talking to my french friend Sebastian it seems that the organizers put on festivals in france from time to time. Sebastian actually already knew several of the bands slated to perform and he met up with Amani and I for both days of the festival.

The festival was held at Chaoyang Park (朝阳公园) from 3pm until about 11pm on saturday and sunday June 18-19th. The lineup (taken from the website) was:

Samedi 18 Juin 2005

15h00 - 15h50 : Big Buddha
15h50 - 16h40 : Bikini Machine
16h40 - 17h30 : MISSILL
17h30 - 18h20 : Wang Lei
18h20 - 19h10 : Digicay
19h10 - 20h10 : Denez Prigent
20h10 - 21h10 : Dj Morpheus
21h10 - 22h30 : Gotan Project

Dimanche 19 Juin 2005

15h00 - 15h50 : Big Buddha
15h50 - 16h40 : IZ
16h40 - 17h30 : Dj Morpheus
17h30 - 18h30 : Danyel Waro
18h30 - 19h20 : Pat Panik meets Netik
19h20 - 20h20 : X Makeena
20h20 - 21h10 : Bobby Hardcore Liberace
21h10 - 22h30 : St Germain

Of these groups, I had only heard of Wang Lei (王磊) who was the only Chinese performer and the headline act St. Germain. The acts were all good for the most part. Some were simply DJs spinning various forms of electronic music, others were full bands. The headline act of the first night, Gotan Project, was very well received. Their music featured a lot of tango influenced music and for many songs they had actual tango dancers on stage.

The two days of the festival were a nice way to spend a weekend. The area in the park where the festival was held was spacious and open, with nice soft green grass all around. The crowd was a nice mix of both expats and locals with most everyone just relaxing and having a good time. The weather was a bit of a problem on the second day with some afternoon thunderstorms. The rain actually brought the show to a halt for about 45 minutes. The rain let up however and the festival started up again. The clouds still hanging around from the rains provided an exquistely beautiful sunset which can be seen in the above picture and in more pictures in my Les Trans En Chine photo gallery.