After having a great time in Glacier National Park and only writing 1 paragraph about it, I decided that sometimes I really should try to actually write my blog, not just summarize and skim over all the details. Part of the reason I don't is because it takes a lot of time and I'm a lazy bastard, another part is because I dont' always want to share stuff in such a public forum. But at the same time, I decided to write this blog, so if I'm gonna share, I might as well do it right when I actually have something to write about. So here we go, attempt number 2 at my time in Glacier National Park. And this time with pictures too.
The Dance portion of my sister's exhibition
As you already know, I'm in Montana to visit my sister. I'm home for about 10 days, and I'm spending the weekend here with her. Of course the point is to see my sister, but the point of coming all the way to Montana instead of just getting her to come home, or going to California when she's there, or whatever else, is to see her first ever photo exhibit. There's this thing called First Fridays in Missoula, where a bunch of cafes and bars and shops and various other establishments around town accept local artists (via an application process) to come and display their work for a month, and the first Friday night of the month is for an opening party at the establishment, during which time the artist is present and introduces their work to whoever wants to come and say hello. So my sister got her first one at one of the local dance studios (who, coincidentally, keep their artists on a 2 month rotation instead of 1 month), so she's got 9 photos up there, divided into travel photography and dance photography, 2 things she's passionate about and wants to focus on. It's pretty great to see her get her first show, and even better to hear that she sold one of her photos (though actually I'm surprised that of all the photos, the one of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia wasn't the first to go, cause that one is awesome. She agrees on this). Hopefully this is the first of many. I keep pushing her to do more, she keeps finding excuses not to, but soon enough she will.
Hot new Amish ride
After that, it was a quick stop at the Farmer's Market for some ice cream (lunch of champions) and then off to Glacier National Park. The park is about a 3 hour drive from Missoula, but we took our time and made a couple of stops along the way. The stop of note was the Amish general store, where I bought edible souvenirs for friends (a theme in my souvenir shopping, when I do souvenir shopping). There were many Amish there, but dissappointingly now a wide range of Amish-made goods. I was hoping everything would be Amish-made, and while there was some, it was also pretty much just your standard supermarket with more Amish-made goods than average (the average of which I assume is at or near zero). But it was all worthwhile when we left and saw the horse and buggy out front that one of the Amish guys pulled up on. The whole experience did leave me with one question, though. I was under the impression that Amish shunned electricity and modern conveniences, but there was definitely electricity and other modern conveniences in that store (like cash registers. And candy). So I'm not sure what the deal is with that.
Glamping
Then we actually went to Glacier. First we stopped and checked into our tipi (we were glamping for the night, as my sister calls it. We hired a tipi with cots, which seemed awesome until we actually went to sleep and found out that the train tracks are like right next to the campground and the trains run all night, so that wasn't fun. Between jetlag and trains, I got like 5 hours of sleep that night. But I'm getting ahead of myself), and then we headed to the park to grab a kayak and head out onto Lake McDonald. When I say we, it wasn't just my sister and I. Her boyfriend came along as well. So my sister and I got a tandem kayak, and her boyfriend got a stand-up paddleboard, and we spent about 2 hours out on the lake. It was great. Beautiful, perfect weather, clean water, a bit of exercise, and bald eagles. Well, a bald eagle (who we named Mohammed and/or Mordechai). We actually got a pretty late start, and then went for BBQ for dinner, which we ended up finishing around like 9:30, but the sun stays up until like 10:00 here, so it doesn't feel weird at all. Then it was back to camp to pass out for 5 hours, followed by early morning reading for 3 hours until everyone woke up and we drank lots of coffee and continued our adventures.
Water fun times on Lake McDonald
Adventuring for day 2 took us for a drive up the Going-To-The-Sun Road, a narrow 2-lane highway through the mountains that cuts across the park via Logan's Pass. It's pretty spectacularly scenic. To be honest, when we were on the lake yesterday I was like "oh this is nice, but it's no Patagonia or Nepal" which is a totally douchey thing to think but I guess I'm just spoiled. But once we started heading up into the mountains, I changed my mind. Like I said, it's pretty spectacularly scenic. So we drove up the mountains, stopping along the way to take pictures of mountains and valleys and waterfalls and trees and animals, before making it to Logan's Pass where the fun really began. There's a short 1.5 mile hike you can do to the Hidden Lake Outlook, which we decided to do. One would think that being just 1.5 miles it would be a quick 30 minutes, but how wrong we were. There was lots of snow (Still. In July. In a heatwave. When it's 99 degrees.), so we had to hike uphill through the snow. And being that it's just a quick 1.5 miles, we thought we'd be like an hour or so and we decided not to turn back and put on sunscreen when we realized we hadn't. That was a terrible decision, because now I'm very red and in pain (also I'm very itchy with like 12 mosquito bites on my legs alone. I thought I got away from mosquitoes when I left Shanghai). But anyway, the hike itself was pretty wonderful, and once we got to the outlook it was gorgeous. If not for the fact that it was noon and we were hungry and sunburnt (a fact that was as yet unbeknownst to us) and my sister had (and still has) mutated bug bites on her feet which probably are full of baby spiders waiting to hatch and therefore her feet were killing her, we probably would have done the other 1.5 miles down to the actual lake itself. But we turned back, got in the car, drove down the mountain, ate a bison burger, then came back to Missoula.
Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain
It's been a long and tiring start to the trip to America, and it doesn't help that America is like the only place I actually get jetlagged, but today I felt like a real human being for the first time. That didn't stop me from taking a nap, but at least I feel normal. Which is good, because sometimes I feel like whenever I come home I'm kind of mean and short-tempered because I'm so tired. Hopefully this time will be different. I also had a chance to hang out with my sister's boyfriend today while she worked and actually get to know him, which was a good thing. Other highlights of the trip so far include my new computer, which I'm currently using to write this blog.
An assortment of crazy Christian billboards in rural Montana
Ok. I did it. I wrote a real blog. And now it's time for music. And because I wrote a real blog I'll be sharing this on Facebook, which means I need to share a fantastic new artist. The first person that comes to mind is the mysterious Anna B Savage, who is a fantastic new artist whose debut EP (cleverly titled EP) I have been obsessively listening to. But there are only 4 songs on the EP and I already shared my two favorites here and here. So she's out for today. Other options are Howard and Nadine Shah, two artists that I've been waiting to share music by until I had something to write, but then I didn't really write much for a very long time and so just shared their music anyway. But you can listen to those here and here (update: after finishing writing this blog, I went to find the hyperlinks and found out I haven't actually shared Nadine Shah yet. Whoops. I will soon). The final option, who's in the same "wanting to share but already shared" category with Nadine Shah and Howard, is Bomba Estereo. Except they're probably the best out of the bunch, and their new album, Amanecer, is one of my favorites of the year so far (NPR agrees). Which means they win and we share Bomba Estereo.
I already shared by favorite song by them, Mar (Lo Que Siento), so I won't be sharing it today. But you should listen to it here. Instead I'll start with another fantastic song by them, Fiesta. I have purposely chosen to share the video. Watch and you'll understand.
Fiesta was the first track I heard by them and it clearly caught my attention. How could it not? It's still one of my favorites but the album is full of fantastic tracks. It's pretty hard to choose what to share, but as we all know I'm a sucker for a great opening track, so up next is Amanecer, the title and opening track of the album.
We just got back to Missoula from Glacier National Park, and it was pretty great. We went kayaking yesterday for a couple hours, and then got up early this morning (sort of not by choice, partially due to jetlag and partially due to the trains that ran right by our campsite) (also a note on our camping, it was not real camping, it was like glamping. Not really glamorous, but we basically rented a tipi with cots and had to do nothing to set it up. It was pretty perfect). Then this morning we took a drive through the park up the Going To The Sun Road, which takes you through the mountains towards the north, until we hit a place called Logan's Point. From there, it was a 1.5 mile hike across snow to visit Hidden Lake, which was hidden and beautiful. It was a pretty great hike, except now I'm horribly sunburnt on my neck. Which is not at all great. But all in all, a wonderful trip up to Glacier, and a beautiful park.
Part of the reason for the burn is also the crazy heatwave going on now. It's been like 100 degrees this entire time. It's so uncomfortable. And in honor of that we're going to listen to Fiya today, by one of my favorite artists, Tune-Yards. It's off her first album, Bird Brains, which my sister put on in the car on the drive back. Haven't listened to this album in a while, but it's a great one.
I got a new computer last night! And then I ate a terrible bao this morning. We went to the Farmer's Market, and I saw char siew bao, and I was hopeful that maybe someone had lived or spent time in China and actually knew what they were doing, and I was very disappointed. But then I also had ice cream and empanadas that were great, so that made up for it. And my sister made me challah french toast for breakfast, so that was also really good. And now: Glacier National Park! So you get an early song today.
And today's song is brought to you by my sister's boyfriend Davis. I just asked what a good camping/Glacier National Park song is, and he said he always listens to Lord Huron when he drives out to go camping. And actually, I think that's very fitting. So today, we're listening to Lord Huron. Time To Run. Off of their first album, Lonesome Dream, cause that album was awesome and the new one, Strange Trails, is fine, but not nearly as good.
I managed to sleep very well last night. All the way until 4am. Lucky me. Now I'm exhausted, but I'm waiting to get on my plane to Montana to sleep, which will be very soon. Other highlights of today included renewing my drivers license (which went much faster than expected), having a wonderful lunch with my family, and cuddling with my puppy. Once I get a nap in, things will be pretty much perfect.
Before that, I had to share today's song, though. It's Clarity by John Mayer. It's an oldie but a goodie. I've written about my affinity for John Mayer in this blog before, so if you're interested, click here. Also, John Mayer lives in Montana, so it's fitting for today.
I made it home safe and sound to America. And I saw a lot of patriotism on the way here, all wrapped up in a single pick-up truck which had an American flag flying at the bag, decals of the constitution wrapped all around it, and more decals with wonderful saying such as "Freedom Is Not Free" and "AMERICA: Love It Or Leave It." I made my dad slow down to take pictures. And then it was Mexican food and family time. Great first evening.
Also great is new music that has been released this week, specifically Coming Home, the debut album from Leon Bridges, and Bones, the new album by Son Lux. I've been very excited about both. And I've shared songs off of both albums on here this year aleady. And today we're back at Son Lux, cause I'm in the mood for him. Bones is a pretty great album. Definitely not for everyone, he's gotta grow on you, but if you have the chance to see him live you really should. It will amaze you. Because he's awesome live. And you know what else is awesome? You Don't Know Me, today's song, features the incomparable Shara Worden (better known as My Brightest Diamond, or basically my favorite artist) on vocals. How can I not love it?
Packing, packing, packing! It's almost time to go home! I actually should have packed over the weekend, but whatever. I'm just at home packing now, gonna have a couple friends come to hang out in a bit, and then tomorrow I go to the airport straight from work!
I'm a bit annoyed with this packing thing at the moment. In general it's a pain, but this time especially so because I have an entire duffel bag I'm taking home for a friend, which I only just realized is super heavy and has no wheels. So I'm working on repacking and reshaping everything in such a way that it's not super heavy and I still have lots of room to bring back lots of goodies for myself and others from America. But I'm about done now. If only I had time to watch the last episode of Orange Is The New Black... Just one more!
As for music, we're going with Howard today. You might find him on iTunes or other places as Howard (US), because I guess there's some other artist called Howard out in the world. I meant to write about him a long time ago. He released his debut album, Religion, back in January, and I was a big fan. The first single, Religion, is a good song, enough to catch my attention, but not as good as the rest of the album. Kind of reminds me of Other Lives (although Other Lives then put out their third album which blew this one away). Or maybe a bit of Radiohead even. Actually, one of my avorite songs, Money Can't Buy, even reminds me a bit of Coldplay, although it's definitely a bit off style for Howard compared to other album tracks. Still a great one though. The reason it took me so long to write about him is because I wanted to when I was writing a blog in which I had something to say which I was going to share on Facebook so that more people would read about him, but then I just never did. I put it off too long. So here he is now. And maybe we'll hear from him again later. But for now, it's Falling, the opening track. Which has to come from Spotify, because it is not easy to find his music streaming on the interwebs.
I'll make this quick, cause I just got home from a work dinner and am hoping to finish watchin Orange Is The New Black tonight. I was out last night and thought I heard Like Real People Do, by Hozier, come on. But then I didn't. Just the opening guitar riff was the same, and then the song turned to shit. The song that came on, not this song. This song is great.
I just had a fantastic lazy day, during which I watched 6 episodes of Orange is the New Black, took a nap, and ate a burrito. This was only due in small part to the many alcoholic beverages I had last night. I also had many grilled cheese sandwiches. It was a good night. Now I'm off to drink more alcoholic beverages and go to an event called Omnivore, that's like a celebrity chef food tasting thing. Should be amazing.
But before that, today's song, which is Crunches, off of Alpine's new album Yuck. I've written about Alpine a couple times here. They're a fantastic band from Melbourne that I like very much. They had a great first album, and their 2nd album just came out this week, and it does not disappoint. No sophomore slump for these guys. So far, I think Crunches is my favorite song on the album, but I need to give it more listens, specifically with headphones.
It's the weekend! And I sure need it. Today was a busy stressful day at work. So now, I'm going to eat grilled cheese. The only thing that would make the weekend better is if my internet worked properly, but it's been acting like a piece of shit for 2 weeks now. Like barely working. I hate it. I'm so ready to go back to America. Oy.
But before that, I'm going to share a fun song with you. Better At Making Time, by DeLux. It's a long one. But a good one. Enjoy.
I'm back in Shanghai! And it's been a good then not so good then once again good day. It started out good, because why shouldn't it? But then I got on my plane and started getting really annoyed by everything (despite the fact that the plane was totally on time, a rarity in China, and an even bigger rarity this week with flights in and out of Shanghai). Then I realized it was because I was hangry. So I had a snack. And I listened to Florence and the Machine, which always makes me happy, because, well, she's amazing. I think that the way most people think of Beyonce is probably how I think of Florence Welch. She's perfect. Anyway, so that all helped. And then I met up with my friend Bryna for dinner and drinks, during which we both just de-stressed from our weeks/days. Also, I had a haircut which came with a nice little head massage and facial treatment that also made me feel much better. And all of this in time to be home early and watch the last episode of Game of Thrones! Perfect.
On the topic of Florence and the Machine, I did say I would revisit the new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. I definitely will say that it did grow on me, as expected. I still think it's her weakest album to date, but I do still like it very, very much. And I am still correct in my earlier assessment that Third Eye is the best song, and that the strongest portion of the album is the bonus track section, although there are other standout tracks in the album as well, like Queen of Peace and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. But as a section, the bonus tracks definitely take it. Maybe (but not necessarily) chief amongst those is Which Witch. At least for today it is. So that's today's song.
Thought #1 for the day: turn-down service is very nice. It's a wonderful touch when you're staying in a hotel. Even better when it includes chocolate.
Thought #2 for the day: my events are done! Fuck yes! Next up, Shanghai. And then, America. Hooray!
Thought #3 for the day: new music. Today's music is Seoul. Like the city. But I think not from the city. They sing in English without any Korean accent. Maybe they're just fans. Which makes sense, cause Seoul is great and the food there is delicious. In fact, Facebook just told me they're Canadian. Anyway, they just put out an album today, their first one, titled I Become A Shade. I started to give it a listen while working this morning, and honestly was not able to pay attention cause I was busy. But I've been waiting for this album ever since I first heard them, when the song Stay With Us came up on a playlist I follow. So I'll share it today, and maybe in a week or so after having given their album a proper listen, and possibly even a purchase, I'll share more music by them and more thoughts on them.
Oy, what another long day. I cannot wait to be on vacation next week. I'm not gonna get into the details, it's all just boring, stressful work stuff. But I'm back in Shanghai on Thursday afternoon, at which time I can bake cookies with my friend, and then I go home next Thursday.
Until then, here's a song for today. Grace Mitchell. Broken Over You. This is off her Design EP, which I think is her only EP. Don't know much about her. It came out last year and I remember enjoying it, and then it disappeared, and somehow popped up somewhere the other day. So now I plan to listen to her again.
Oy, what a day. I'm in Shenzhen, where it's hot as balls. Hotter than balls, even. I guess it depends on whose balls, but chances are it's hotter than anyone's balls. But on the bright side, it seems like we might be close enough to Hong Kong that I don't need a VPN, because I'm not on one right now and Gmail and Facebook and my blog are all working. Or maybe it's just the hotel. Either way, it's pretty great.
It was a very tiring day, though. I left the house at 5:30 to catch my flight down here, then spent the whole day running back and forth between hotels trying to pick a unique and interesting venue for a VIP event we have next month (which I was just told about and had to find time to run down here and plan, somewhere in between my other events and meetings and travel schedule). But I found some good places, and finally got back to my hotel to relax at 7:30pm, only to find out that my event Wednesday might be a little bit fucked, thanks to a dumbass of a colleague who doesn't know how to count and has now potentially invited more people than we can fit in our room. So I'm trying to deal with that.
And I have no idea what song pick. So you get a random song from one of my Spotify playlists, which is BlueMountains by SamAmidon. I obviously liked it, because I starred it on Spotify, but I don't remember it. Although listening to it now, I do kind of remember it. And it seems it's off of an album last year called Lily-O, which must not have been good because this seems to be the only song off of it that caught my attention. And now that I'm getting further into the song, I do remember being disappointed in the album but still liking this song a lot. And what do you know, it's good for my mental state at the moment. It's soothing.
I think it's nap time. So I'll make this quick. I just had a lovely brunch on the rooftop of an art museum, which is in a historic building that used to be the Shanghai Jockey Club back in the day. And now, it's just a wonderful place to have brunch with fantastic views. So, great start to the day.
And then I came home and continued listening to Kitsune America 4, a new compilation put out by the record label Kitsune. I found out about the compilation yesterday when I realized that finally Kacy Hill's song Experience is on Spotify. It's about time. And it's on this compilation, so I decided I should listen to the whole thing. And also on there is Metoux, with this song Neighbour, which is fantastic. Very minimalistic, very soulful, kind of Little Dragon-y. Nothing not to like. I know pretty much nothing about this woman, except she's either from Berlin or Canada, and whichever she's not from I think she lives in. Thanks SoundCloud for that one.
I missed my day for this month. I've been really good at not missing days in a while, even when I'm drunk. I actually wasn't even drunk last night, just exhausted. I had a very busy work week with events, and came home after last night's event and just went to bed and laid there, and didn't even turn on my computer and didn't even care. But now it's the weekend and I can relax a bit. And the relaxation is starting with catching up on some music for the week that I missed because of these events and being out of the office. And then it will continue with some skyping, maybe some Japanese language exchange, haircuts, laundry - all the exciting things. And then actual fun things planned for tonight.
With the music catching up this morning, I found a new band that I'm enjoying. I'm listening to them right now, the two songs they have on Spotify, and I like both of them a lot. They do seem to have two more songs on SoundCloud, so I'll have to go and listen to those as well. I should say, the band is called Day Wave. And I think "they" is actually maybe just one guy from California. Which makes sense, cause they/he probably fits into that whole surfer rock genre that was big a couple years back that I never really got into. But this I really like so far. Here's Drag, the first song I heard by him/them.
I didn't have to have work dinner tonight! That was exciting. I actually get a night to myself. And I'm doing just that, using it for myself to stay home and order in. From Munchies. My favorite/guilty pleasure.
And speaking of favorites, let me tell you about Anna B Savage again. I did two days ago. She only has 4 songs, but they're all pretty fantastic. The more I listen, the more I fall in love. And if I thought the last song I shared, I, was all raw and confessional, III is maybe even more so. It's about having no idea what to do when your suicidal friend comes to talk to you about being suicidal. And it's dirty and sexy and for some reason I also want to say gooey. I listen to the song and it all just seems like it's in slow motion, like the whole story is being told and seen through some sort of gooey, gloopy substance that slows it all down. Obviously, that's me being weird. Anyway, just go buy this EP already!
I'm slightly drunk again, this time because of work. We had our Changsha event today, which was very long and once again reinforced the fact that I hate doing corporate events. But in the end, everything was forgotten. Probably because we got all you can drink German beer (which we paid for. Don't let me saying "we got it" make you think it was given to us to make up for problems). But anyway, point being, Kempinski Hotel (not to drop names or anything...) or any other 5 star hotel anywhere else in the world is not the same as it should be in America or Europe. Especially when it comes to anything even slightly more complicated than just booking a room.
Anyway, I digress. We're here for music. We all know this. And if you don't know this, then you better figure it out, because I really just write this blog to provide you with music. The rest is boring drivel. And today's music is Foolish, by Australian band Alpine. This is a band I like very much, and their sophomore album, Yuck, comes out next week. I have written about them before, but it's been 2 years and we're excited for new music. And that new music is now here. They have released one song, Foolish, which is a wonderful example of their typical style which I love, and which makes me hopeful that they won't suffer from the sophomore slump. It's really a great song, off of what I hope is a great album, by a (up until now) great band. Interesting note: they also have 2 female vocalists, much like my other favorite Lucius. But they sound nothing alike.
I am in Changsha. I basically spent my day at the airport because I had to go pick up my German colleague, and then our flight was like 5 hours later, so we just hung out there all day. And it wasn't Star Alliance so we didn't even get the lounge. Quite lame. But I am in Changsha, and I landed and had a fantastic meal, and I'm staying in a fantastic hotel, so life is good. One of my employees knows I love spicy food, so she always makes sure to order me spicy dishes, and she's really good at ordering in general, so there's nothing to complain about.
There is also nothing to complain about with regards to Anna B. Savage. This new singer from London has just put out her first EP, titled EP, which has four tracks (titled I, II, III and IV). I first heard I on a playlist and was loving it, and then when it picked up into the song I was totally blown away. She is so raw. And her music is so confessional. I've talked about how I don't normally pay attention to lyrics, but I can't help but just be drawn in by this woman. She is incredible. If you're a fan of Sharon Van Etten, Nadine Shah or Jeff Buckley, you will love this woman. I is the clear winner for me on EP, but the more I listen to it, the more I fall in love with all of it. It will definitely make my top EPs of the year list (which is a list I don't make, but if I did, it would be on there). Listen to this, then go listen to EP over and over and over. It's all on Soundcloud and Spotify, and costs less than $4 on iTunes, so really you should just go buy it.
Alright so I've promised to talk about my weekend. It was a very good weekend. Saturday I had plans for a boozy brunch at this new place across the street from me, which although my friend Zanele (one of the main reasons for the brunch) could not attend, was still lovely. Although it also turned out that I was the only one to do free flow on the sparkling wine, which is weird. Who goes to free flow brunch and doesn't order free flow? But anyway, that is what happened. So I got really drunk while everyone else drank. From there, it was on to the Bund to hang out at the beach. Because yes, apparently there is a beach on the Bund. I had heard of this place before, and as it turns out Saturday was probably the nicest day of the year so far here in Shanghai, and there was a big beach party going on, so we went and hung out there. Highlights included the weather, the beach, the view, and me telling one of the girls we were with that I wanted to sleep with her. Pretty much in those exact words, from what (little bit) I can remember. Classy. As luck would have it, though, there was also free flow at the beach. So by the time I made this comment I can only hope that she was drunk enough not to remember me saying it. Who knows. All in all, a fantastic day, that ended up with me eating tacos and getting to bed early. Lovely.
The weather took a turn for the worse on Sunday, but the day did not. In fact, it may have taken a turn for the better. How is this possible, you ask? Well start the day off with a date with a nice, Jewish girl, and you've got a winner. As you might or might not know (depends on how often you read my blog) I have been trying to date this year. And I've been doing a good amount of it. But none of it with Jews, and all of it through online platforms. I actually started feeling in the last couple of weeks like I need to take a break from the online dating. And luck would have it that I met a nice, Jewish girl. So dim sum was had in the garden at my new favorite spot in Shanghai. Good chats too. At one point I looked at my watch and saw it was about 1:15, which seemed weird to me because I thought we'd been there for a while and I definitely was not bored, so I didn't understand how it could have only been like an hour or so. But then I remember we actually met at like 11:30 (because dim sum), and it had actually been an hour longer than I thought. And then it went on for like another hour. And we saw Yao Ming (who's really let himself go...).
And this was just the start. Then I spent a few hours with my friend Bryna, who I had a fantastic day exploring with last week, which ended in us eating lots of free chocolate at an EcoFest, and then having Austrian food in a new restaurant with swings for chairs and a big slide down from the 2nd floor bathrooms. And despite the shitty weather, we always managed to bike without getting horribly soaked. No complaints here!
As for music, we're going with Tanlines today. They put out a new album, Highlights, a couple weeks ago, which is really fun. It's been making the rounds on the blogs and playlists, and now it's my turn. This song specifically, Slipping Away, has probably gotten the most action (listen and you'll understand why), though it is far from the only great song on the album. There are quite a few.
I had a wonderful day, and I am too tired to talk about it. Actually two wonderful days in a row, and one I was too drunk to write about, and the other I'm too tired. So tomorrow I'll have to find time to write about both of them, because tomorrow will likely be uneventful.
I also had no idea what song to share today, because I'm in a sleepy mood and want something to reflect that. Then I remembered I just bought Tracy Chapman's eponymous album (for more insight as to why, aside from it being a classic, please read my recent Joni Mitchell blog post), and I love the song Fast Car off of it. Actually, Tracy Chapman has a way of pulling me into her lyrics, more than pretty much any other artist I know of. I can't personally relate to these lyrics, but I like the way they make me think about a huge part of my country which I am not really exposed to at all and tend to forget about.
I'm drunk. Like properly drunk. Many drunks have been consumed. Now I'm just waiting for my tacos to arrive. And in that time, you should Brainwash yyrr Face. That's also the name of the song by Baio. It's a good song.
One more week down. There's actually a gig I want to go to tonight, but I think I'm gonna stay in. Couldn't find anyone to go with me, and I've been out late the last two nights so I'm pretty tired. Plus tomorrow is boozy brunch day, so I need my energy.
I just got into a little traffic kerfuffle on the bike ride home. Chinese have this terrible driving habit of not looking anywhere but straight ahead when they drive. This applies to both bikes and cars. So as I started biking home just now, a women bumped me a little bit with her ebike, which wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that my bike then got stuck on the back of her bike and started dragging me along. I jumped off my bike and she stopped and my bike came disconnected and it was all fine, just a couple little scrapes from jumping off my bike, but annoying nonetheless. Chinese drivers are the worst.
Today's song is one that I posted last year and I don't know why I haven't already posted it this year. It's a great one. Experience, by Kacy Hill. It's her only song, which is sad cause it's so good, but just listen on repeat (as I tend to do).
Finally made it back to Shanghai, and it was quite the pleasant morning and flying experience. I got upgraded to business class, which is a first for Air China, and only the 2nd time when I have a Star Alliance flight, so that was nice. And then the guy next to me started chatting to me. Normally I'd hate that, but he was actually really great. We spent almost the entire flight chatting, and he was just asking about what I think the difference is between China and Western culture and values, and then we got onto religion, and we were discussing the history of religion and differences between the religions and their values and all kinds of stuff, and it was great. I don't have many conversations like this with Chinese people, and when I do I love it. And it was great to be able to discuss all this stuff in Chinese, which is also something I don't do much, so I'm happy to know that I still can. His daughter is actually going to UCI right now, and he goes to the US regularly and lives in Beijing. We're supposed to keep in touch, so we'll see how that goes. Nice guy, though. And now I'm home just hanging out. I'm about to watch the new Game of Thrones, so I'll end it here because I'm excited.
But before that, today's song. Florence and the Machine put out a new album yesterday, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which is basically the most exciting thing ever. Or so you'd think. Florence is one of my favorites. I think she's the saviour of pop music, and one of the only amazing things going on in pop music at the moment. But her third album seems a bit watered down to me. The first two albums are full of drums and varied instrumentation and harps and passion, and this one just seems to be missing something to me. It's still a solid album, and maybe I'll grow to love it after a few more listens, but after the first one I'd say it's good, but a bit disappointing. I did have extremely high expectations, though. There is one standout track to me, which is by far the best, and that is Third Eye (the bonus tracks are also quite good). After a few more listens I may blog about this album again, but for now we'll go with Third Eye. The album just came out, and this isn't a single, which means today it's the Spotify track.
Last day in Harbin was a success, despite the fact that there were torrential downpours. Actually, the only unsuccessful bit was that I was trying to get a free lunch at one of the hotels I was visiting, but nobody offered me one. But it turned out ok cause I had a very nice lunch at the mall next to the Sofitel after I finished my site visits.
But the real success came this morning when I did a Jewish walking tour of Harbin. I knew that there was Jewish history in Harbin, I learned as much when I came here back in 2009. But back then we didn't explore too much of it. There really isn't much to explore, but I made a point of doing it this time. There's the so-called New Synagogue (which is actually almost 100 years old, but was the new synagogue to the local community back in the day) which is the best preserved Jewish building and which now houses the Jewish museum.
In a nutshell, Jews came here from Europe and Russia starting in 1899 to escape anti-semitism and pogroms, and ended up settling and building a community and having a huge impact on the development of Harbin. Apparently there were over 20,000 Jews here at the peak of the population. Now there are none, the last Harbin Jew passed away in the 80s, but for nearly 100 years there was a population. And back in the day, it was thriving. There were all kinds of companies owned and run by Jews, banks, community centers, hospitals, schools, shuls - everything. It's pretty awesome. The museum itself only gives you a basic introduction, and then shows you a lot of pictures of places and things that were even remotely related to Jews being in Harbin, but it's still interesting to see. And Harbin Jews and their ancestors eventually went on to run global companies, become members of governments, and even run countries. Pretty impressive. The New Synagogue is the only Jewish dedicated building, but there are a lot of old Jewish buildings with placards informing you what they are which have been repurposed into other offices or businesses, so I also took the time to walk around and see a bunch of them. The only missing piece was the Jewish cemetery, which is just outside the city. But I'm still pretty happy with what I managed to get done.
I'm also pretty happy that Beirut has released a new single. Apparently he had a rough few years, suffering from exhaustion, being hospitalized, getting divorced... not a good time. But he's recovered and he's back and he's in love and he's making new music. And the first song he's decided to share is No No No, the title track off of his upcoming album, due out in September. It's a bit of a progression for him soundwise, taking the instrumental arrangements of his earlier music and pairing it with the electronic leanings of some of his later work, and it goes together really well. Doesn't hurt that it sounds a bit like Scenic World, one of my favorite Beirut tracks. This is a great start, and I can't wait for more.
Today has confirmed what I suspected - there is absolutely no reason for me to have come to Harbin. That's not completely true, because I did have to come to plan this event, but I probably could have done it remotely. I definitely did not need to be here over the weekend, so it's good I got out of that, but I did think I needed to be here to go visit customers. Well, today we visited customers. Or should I say a customer. One. That's all.
So pretty much, it was quite a chill day. After visiting our one customer we took a nice, long walk along the 100-year-old pedestrian street, lined with Russian buildings (there's a lot of Russian influence here), and then along the river back to our hotel. It was actually really nice, and I did the walk in reverse to go to dinner. The reverse walk was even better because it was sunset, which was pretty gorgeous tonight, and because I was on my own just listening to music and enjoying a stroll. All of this with one goal in mind: to eat at Nanbo's. No, you did not read that wrong. I was not going to Nando's, I was going to Nanbo's. Because there's a rip-off of Nando's here in Harbin. And you know what? It was pretty damn good! The menu is pretty limited, but the chicken was actually really nicely roasted. I think the sauce was peri-peri, but they don't put too much on and they don't have bottles of it sitting around for you to take and help yourself (something I always take a lot of advantage of because Nando's sauce is delicious). They also don't let you pick your hotness (or maybe they just didn't let me pick), and they don't have my strips and rice. So there are a few downsides, but if this is what counterfeiting is like, I could get behind it! Though I would definitely prefer the real thing.
And what was I listening to as I had my lovely walk to Nanbo's (and back), you might ask? Made in Heights. I wrote about them earlier this year when I found out about them. They put out a single called Murakami, which is a great song, and so I went and listened to their eponymous 2013 album, which is really great. And this week they've put out their sophomore album, Without My Enemy What Would I Do, and I'm a big fan. Murakami is on it, but that's not what I'm here to share today. Today I'm sharing Ghosts, which is a very good song, but not my favorite (that is currently going to Murakami, Pirouette, and Pop It in 2). But I'm sharing Ghosts because I realized that they sound like super 90s R&B, a la Janet Jackson. And Ghosts is a great example of that sound (and the Janet Jackson likeness). Plus it's very good.
