What I would be doing anyway

Today, I found out we have a website. So, you can read some of my stuff if you are so inclined...

http://talkmagazines.cn/htm/shanghai/stories/article2.html
http://talkmagazines.cn/htm/shanghai/stories/article10.html

There was more but that's all that's online.

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. During the move on Monday, Leo was telling me how much some of the Chinese youth still hate the Japanese... last month, five of them saw a car parked on the street and beat it to pieces just because it was a Japanese brand. World War II here is called "The War Against Japanese Aggression."

My days lately have consisted of quickly churning out pieces I don't care much about then obsessively researching Chinese music. There's a strong link between Chinese and German bands and there is a lot of superb noise. Tomorrow night, I'm going to see Carsick Cars, a group that is going on a European tour with Sonic Youth at the end of the month. Myspace is my best research friend but I'm in an office where other people are doing "real" work, the computers are from 1997 and the headphone jack doesn't work... so I can't play the music. I download it first, then listen to it on mp3 player so I have to pass by any bands who don't have at least one downloadable mp3 which is, obviously, a really lame filter system but it's all I have to go on from here.

Olympic fever is heightening here as they're less than a year away from launch. All the news remains positive (as is all news regarding anything to do with China): buildings and stadiums are completed, children dance and draw, tourists gather, anti-spitting campaign gearing up, plans to kick the beggars out of the city (this is seen as a positive), yet "strangely" no word on decreases in pollution... I really feel bad for the marathoners, I think a lot of them are going to get sick.