No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
--John Donne
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Chinese Punk
Spent the May Day weekend in Beijing- originally we hoped to go to the Midi Festival, a music festival with Chinese and international bands, but a week before it was cancelled... well actually postponed till October (after the Olympics) by authorities...for no particular reason other than 'security'. A shame as it would be really cool to go to a Chinese music festival!
Who would have thought that just a few days after returning to Jinan, we would discover the so called 'undergound' music scene happening here. From a friend of friend of friend we heard that a 'cool' Beijing band 'Brain Failure' was playing in a bar in Jinan, and thus in search of 'real' non- coreographed culture we went along.
It was really cool- both music and people wise. Discovered the hiding place of the trendies of Jinan, who were really getting into the music. The bar was not a huge one, filled to capacity although given this city has 5 million people I suppose it was relatively uncrowded...definitely not mainstream Chinese taste (which is quite sickly sweet pop) even though I have found out that the band is going to make an international tour some time, so they must have quite a following. Their music was really cool, I don't know if it was really punk or not, some of it was almost reggaeish... anyway... here's some of their lyrics, the song is Coming down to Beijing
How it's so funny, how it's so lovely
How it's so pretty, how it's so junky
All the shit's happening in this city
How did they build it, all the building
It could be survives, in one second
Leave for a week, can't find your home!
Welcoming down to the b.e.i.j.i.n.g.
What you gonna do, what you gonna listen
What you gonna search, what you gonna check
Buy a DVD, back your home drink Coca-Cola on your bed!
Hey, baby you come on in July and December
It's not the good time for real human being
Hey baby you can light your
Phoenix cigarettes in the toilet
Welcoming down to the b.e.i.j.i.n.g.
Anyway, in other news I am still well- had a great trip to Beijing- went to see some art, shopping, ate some alternative food like Thai, mexican, burgers, (now I'm back on the rice :P ), experienced the nightlife a little, ..... now I'm back, studies coming along, playing a bit a mah jong in the afternoons these days, time flying by, Alex has booked tickets to come to China for 13th June which will creep up in no time!
If you get on facebook you should be able to see some photos' of the 80's birthday party Portia had, just before we went to Beijing. It was fantastic! Costumes were so easy to come by as all the fashion is 80's here anyway, and as clothes are so cheap in the markets everyone got really into it. We went to a restaurant all dressed up, we hope people realised we were dressed up as we looked pretty ridiculous! Then afterwards we took a heap of 80's playlists to Languifang, a kind of cool kind of lame bar mainly frequented by ...well us...and got the DJ there to play our stuff... which was pretty fun. It's the sort of thing you could never do back home, but here we can have our very own 80's danceclub. :)
Also it is now getting warmer here- last week was all hot days, although today it's only 22 again. Funny though, the Chinese people I see wear so many clothes for a 30 degree day. I seems no one wears shorts and skirts, and when I looked around on the streets heaps of people still had two layers on, with long sleeves. It's was only April, but 30 degrees in 30 degrees!
Who would have thought that just a few days after returning to Jinan, we would discover the so called 'undergound' music scene happening here. From a friend of friend of friend we heard that a 'cool' Beijing band 'Brain Failure' was playing in a bar in Jinan, and thus in search of 'real' non- coreographed culture we went along.
It was really cool- both music and people wise. Discovered the hiding place of the trendies of Jinan, who were really getting into the music. The bar was not a huge one, filled to capacity although given this city has 5 million people I suppose it was relatively uncrowded...definitely not mainstream Chinese taste (which is quite sickly sweet pop) even though I have found out that the band is going to make an international tour some time, so they must have quite a following. Their music was really cool, I don't know if it was really punk or not, some of it was almost reggaeish... anyway... here's some of their lyrics, the song is Coming down to Beijing
How it's so funny, how it's so lovely
How it's so pretty, how it's so junky
All the shit's happening in this city
How did they build it, all the building
It could be survives, in one second
Leave for a week, can't find your home!
Welcoming down to the b.e.i.j.i.n.g.
What you gonna do, what you gonna listen
What you gonna search, what you gonna check
Buy a DVD, back your home drink Coca-Cola on your bed!
Hey, baby you come on in July and December
It's not the good time for real human being
Hey baby you can light your
Phoenix cigarettes in the toilet
Welcoming down to the b.e.i.j.i.n.g.
Anyway, in other news I am still well- had a great trip to Beijing- went to see some art, shopping, ate some alternative food like Thai, mexican, burgers, (now I'm back on the rice :P ), experienced the nightlife a little, ..... now I'm back, studies coming along, playing a bit a mah jong in the afternoons these days, time flying by, Alex has booked tickets to come to China for 13th June which will creep up in no time!
If you get on facebook you should be able to see some photos' of the 80's birthday party Portia had, just before we went to Beijing. It was fantastic! Costumes were so easy to come by as all the fashion is 80's here anyway, and as clothes are so cheap in the markets everyone got really into it. We went to a restaurant all dressed up, we hope people realised we were dressed up as we looked pretty ridiculous! Then afterwards we took a heap of 80's playlists to Languifang, a kind of cool kind of lame bar mainly frequented by ...well us...and got the DJ there to play our stuff... which was pretty fun. It's the sort of thing you could never do back home, but here we can have our very own 80's danceclub. :)
Also it is now getting warmer here- last week was all hot days, although today it's only 22 again. Funny though, the Chinese people I see wear so many clothes for a 30 degree day. I seems no one wears shorts and skirts, and when I looked around on the streets heaps of people still had two layers on, with long sleeves. It's was only April, but 30 degrees in 30 degrees!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)