Saturday, October 24, 2015

Oct 24 - jennylee

Wow, last night took a turn. It was just supposed to be dinner at my friend's new restaurant, a place making Taiwanese-style bao with delicious global stuffings, like carnitas and korean fried chicken. I thought it'd be a chill dinner with a few drinks, maybe followed by more drinks somewhere else, and home. I got the first part right. It was a chill dinner with a few drinks, which turned into a lot of drinks. Like many beers and a bottle of whiskey and a few bottles of wine and some mijiu (a type of rice wine from Southern China, but actually good, not like the typical baijiu), and then we went on to KTV (or karaoke, as it's known everywhere else in the world). That didn't even start until midnight, so no surprise I got home much more drunk and with no voice at 4am. Then slept until 11:30 and basically only moved from my bed to my couch and back for a nap for about 4 hours.

At 3:30 I finally got off my ass to go and meet up with my friends to watch this performance by a group called Bandaloop. They're a vertical dance group, so they basically perform suspended from ropes on the side of skyscrapers. So we watched that and it was bizarre and amazing. It was super cool, but it was hard for my brain to comprehend. First of all, they should not be able to do that. Obviously. But ok, ropes and harnesses and whatnot. But also, when they would do their leaps and stuff, it was like everything was in slow motion. I have no idea how that worked, but it definitely made it seem extremely graceful. And it's crazy how precisely they can control their movements and landings. And to make it all the more impressive, I am under the assumption that they can't rehearse. I don't understand how they'd be able to, unless their studio is just an empty 6 story building and they jump around on the walls rehearsing all day, but that just seems so inconceivable. I'm stumped. And impressed. It was super awesome.

And then the drinking started again, but very light drinking. Which actually made me feel better. And then I went with my friend Steph, who's visiting for the weekend, to check out this amazing ceramic shop. I can't remember the name now, but they sell Jingdezhen ceramics, which I learned today is about as good as it gets when it comes to Chinese ceramics, but they have amazingly creative pieces and some beautiful colors and shapes, and all of it is very affordable. Apparently they just opened a shop in NYC that's like triple the price, but in Shanghai it's all surprisingly cheaper than you'd expect when you see it. I will probably end up buying a lot of things there for myself, and also for anyone getting married for the rest of the time that I'm living in Shanghai. I was so impressed. And to finish off a fantastic day, I finally got my falafel at Dahliah's! So I've now been 5 times in less than 2 weeks, and in the end, it was worth it. Cause that falafel was fucking delicious. I want to eat it every day. And there was shakshouka and babaganoush and hummus and I am one happy Jew.

Another thing which made me a happy Jew yesterday was the release of jennylee's first single. She's one of the members of Warpaint, which as you may know by now is one of my favorite bands. She's putting out a solo album, right on!, in December, and Never is the first single. It's a pretty good song, I'm not in love with it or anything but it's definitely a sound that I'm liking and which I want to hear an entire album of. Although that's probably because it still sounds very much like Warpaint. Which I will never complain about, those women are amazing.


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