So Much To Say!

Soooo sorrrrrry for being MIA… but I’ve been like Diddy in that I haven’t stopped

So, soooo much to say and catch ya’ll up on, and will just have to give you quick synops with flicks of last week’s adventures:

First, in my first few days of being bombarded with all sorts of tips and tricks of all that Shanghai has to offer, one in particular caught my ears - “an area that mirrors NYC’s Chelsea art gallery hops.” So last week, I finally got around to checking it out for my own self.

According to Lonely Planet: “Chinese contemporary art has been the hottest thing in the art world for the last few years and there’s no sign of the boom ending, with collectors paying record prices for the work of top artists. Traditionally Běijīng dominates the art scene in China. But Shanghai has its own thriving artistic community, centred on this complex of industrial buildings down dusty Moganshan Rd and edging up Suzhou Creek in the north of town.”

However, I was not so overly impressed with the work nor the area. But to each their own! Here are some random flicks anyhoots, but you can see more here via Flickr slideshow.

After walking around in the gruesome heat and humidity in the day, I later met up with the usual suspects for some din din, then we headed off next door to Zapatas for some Ladies Night thing that R had been tipped on. I didn’t know anything previous to our attendance, but now know enough to not suggest it as a destination. LOL Walked into an outdoorsy area, but filled with some gray haired, big-bellied expats along with some super younguns, and I immediately felt this was to be an episode of Spring Break Shanghai. Moreover, the first track played in the umm bar/club was “Girl You Know It’s True” by Milli Vanilli with (really embarrassing) expat chicks dancing on top of the jampacked bar. But! I did meet a cool Singaporean, who is now studying at Columbia University for his masters, and chatted about the East Village and Brooklyn! As you can imagine, it felt wonderful to have this conversation!

Then, I finally made it to this spot called, Windows. There are 3 locations, and well, I won’t be in a rush to check them all after my first visit. The place was… oye, just not OK by my standards. Just look - this was during Souljaboy. Can you find him on stage?

On Thursday, I took random photo of crowded People’s Square station during rush hour.. (or could be, pretty much .. any hour…)

Later that evening, I shot down to the French Concession area to meet up with friend, Duane (courtesy Jonesy!) and eventually Cenk (Turkish DJ) rolled thru for some evening concoction of cool-me-down lemonade. D - a China resident for close to 4 years, introduced us to a fabulous Sichuan restaurant down his street where the waiter of course mistakenly thought I was the Mandarin-speaking one… and who can blame him, when 3 folks walk in - a Turk, African American and well, me. And the jokes continue since I’m the ONLY one that does NOT speak a lick of Mandarin and the “black brothah from LA” is doing the ordering. HA! (In any other normal situation though, I’m immediately the foreigner. More on that some other time.. ) Anyhoots, after din, us “talkin’ music heads” rolled to an awesomely chill spot called Face Bar. Me likeys mucho! Located in the heart of the city, behind bustling Mao Ming Road, it’s a gorgeous old country house within an enclave, with a huge lawn that makes you feel like you’re in some rural garden idyll - apparently a spot that THE CHAIRMAN himself chillaxed at! The old-world interior décor includes ancient South East Asian and Indian artifacts, arranged so tastefully you half feel you’ve stumbled into a Country Life magazine shoot. Also with an outdoor patio for sweet summer nights!

We got the master digs!!! Soooo comfy!!….

Here we are!

But seriously, it felt sooo refreshing and relieving to have a real music convo with these dudes! We all needed a good chill session… I felt right at home!

Friday evening started off with a lovely bbq dinner party, hosted by one of Ralphie’s colleagues, Daniel. His place was pimpingly located directly across from the Jin Mao Tower and Financial Center:

After who knows how many bottles of vino (Daniel’s Australian brother works for some vineyard), R & I met up with my nightlife insider, D and some of his peeps at another me-likey spot: Velvet Lounge. Will definitely check back there again. Relatively small, quaint with comfy couches, the place was rockin’ that night! (Sorry, no pics this time.. but I’ll definitely be hitting that spot again…) Thennnnnn, because I was the queen-foreigner who wanted to check other places and Duane and business partner, Denis weren’t going to let me down .. we hopped over to Club Volar. Owned by a Hong Kong film star, Volar originally penned as an exclusive member’s only club but has recently made moves to appeal to a younger Hip Hop / Dance crowd. The place was OK. We popped some Goose so that usually makes things all the better anyway. But yeah the music…. I think they just “discovered” Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray” as a “classic anthem.” SHRUG. But Lupe’s Superstar was heard…. Anyhoots, still had fun though….

Thennnnn let’s see, the night didn’t end there because the Double D’s wanted to show us “After Hours Shanghai.” The only troopers left were R and I. and R was a “barely”… LOL. We arrived at this secretly gated spot called Dragon Club or something like that (see, I can’t even remember right now). This spot apparently opens at 3am’ish..and goes on til…..We arrived as the early birds and eventually got home at 6 in da mornin’ - walked out into daylight, as since the sun rises here WAYYYY EARLY (at maybe even 4:30am).

A few hours after our catnap…. we were on our way to a POOL PARTY!! Much anticipated as since every Saturday prior had been rained out. So this was THE day that we had all been waiting for. Though, I had wish I was in a more energetic mode..and that I didn’t have to give a lecture later that evening. (Yes, I got pulled into giving a lecture to high school students looking to attend university in the U.S. on a Saturday evening!! But obviously, this didn’t stop me from having some poolside fun.)

The Riviera on Purple Mountain Hotel was the spot!

Thanks to knowing a few people who can make things happen at the punch of a cellphone button, I got us the hookup with a bed and some bubbly… “Happy Campers Were We….”

Just when the gettin’ was good, and everyone was seemingly becoming best-friends-forever on that deck, I had to unwillingly mad dash outta there before trouble was to ensue…and zoom back to campus to get my act together for a 1.5hr lecture to high school kiddies intrigued with American university life. I felt downright guilty and awful for the condition I was in to be conducting class, but a cold shower and some caffeine helped whip me back into passable condition. After a quick classroom spin, I tweaked my focus and alllllll was good in the end! Phew!

The next morning, E & I met up with my local friend, Chen (Jeffrey’s wife) for some brunch at a new restaurant, LaTour in the Jin Mao Building. Food was just OK, so it’s not one I would rush to return to. Then we hopped over to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower to check its observation deck. - The tower is 468 m high, the highest in Asia and the third highest in the world, next to the 553,33 –meter-high Toronto Tower Canada and the 533 meters high TV Tower in Moscow, Russia. The tower consists of 15 spheres of different sizes at different levels creating an artistic conception of “large and small pearls dropping onto a jade plate”. It has become a symbolic architecture and a great point of reference to the lost soul wandering the city streets! (Sorta like the Duomo in Florence.)