Apr 24 - Jaala

Alright, so, Austria. My friend Julia happened to be home in Austria while I was in Germany, so I took a couple days to go and visit. This is Julia of the Zotter Chocolates, so of course that meant I went to see the original chocolate factory. But that didn't happen until Monday, and I went on Saturday.

I flew into Graz, the nearest city to her hometown, and we were having dinner with her parents and previewing a new video for the company that evening at their video guy's house, so we just spent the afternoon in Graz. It's pretty cute. And apparently the rooftops of the old town are UNESCO heritage. I'm not sure why exactly, but they are indeed very nice. We got a close look cause there's this big mountain with a fortress and clocktower on top (not very impressive fortress, sadly) that we climbed. It's right in the middle of old town, so we got a close look at the rooftops, and they are indeed nice. And the views of the city were nice. And the beer garden was nicer. Especially on a fantastic and warm day, coming from Munich which was overcast and rainy like the entire week. So we hiked up, had a beer, hiked down, ate ice cream, wandered a bit around old town, and then went to dinner. Which was lovely.

Sunday was super chill. Julia's house is like a little farm and they have chickens and goats and sheep and turkeys and donkeys and llamas. Yup, llamas. Oh, also an amazing dog named Fleur, who I love. So yeah, llamas. We played around with the animals for a while, and then took the one of the llamas (Honeymoon) for a walk (her friend First Lady had to stay home because she's pregnant). In fact, it was her first ever walk outside the house. And it was like 8km and 3 or 4 hours, the last third or so of which I basically had to drag her because I think she was getting tired and hungry and she kept sitting down in the middle of the path. It was pretty annoying. But overall, super fun to walk a llama through the Austrian forest! And the forests are pretty great, too. They're like fairy tale forests. It's wonderful. We have nothing like it that I know of in California, so for me those type of forests have always seems both magical and super creepy. So I loved hiking through them with a llama (during the day. At night it would be terrifying). The afternoon at home was quite lazy. They also have a bunch of small pools on the property, which are more like lakes than pools actually, but which they use as pools. So we jumped in one, which was miserable because it was freezing. I literally could not breathe when I hit the water. Luckily we followed it up with like an hour in the sauna, which was much more to my liking. And then a delicious dinner made by Julia's father, who is actually a trained chef (as is Julia).

Monday was chocolate factory day! This one is actually a factory, unlike Shanghai which can produce but mostly only produces for B2B stuff, and imports the stuff for consumers. So Julia set me up with a headset and sent me on the tour while she worked in the morning. Then we had lunch together in the Edible Zoo, which is exactly what it sounds like. They have a zoo with all kinds of animals, most of which we normally eat (though some we don't normally eat) and they raise them as free range animals then eventually slaughter them and serve them at the restaurant. So everything is super delicious and fresh and organic. And the scenery is pretty great as well. We ended up having a massive lunch, which actually turned out to be a bad idea cause we had an even more massive dinner. But before dinner, we kept working a bit (me too. boo), and then we tried to go visit a vinegar and brandy factory, but sadly they were closed. This is when I learned that apparently this region around Graz has an amazing gastronomic industry, with family businesses (like Zotter Chocolate) which have been around for years (or even generations) and which specialize in one or two things, and do them amazingly. Even though we didn't get to do the vinegar tour and tasting, we did get to taste some stuff in the gift shop, and it made me wish we could have done the tour cause it was delicious. This was followed by a visit to the Riegersburg Fortress, a much more impressive hilltop fortress than the Graz one. Much bigger, and on top of this massive, solitary hill, which is a big part of why it's never been captured since it was built in like the 13th century. The fortress was also closed, so we couldn't go into the main bit, but we did get to walk around on the grounds, which was still really nice. Then we went to dinner. A ridiculous dinner. I don't remember the restaurant name, but it's this little place in a little village in the middle of the Austrian countryside, and apparently has been called one of the best restaurants in Austria. So of course they'd put it in a village. Europe is weird like that. Anyway we went for the five course set, which (because of Julia knowing the chef and manager brother/sister duo) turned into more like a 15 course meal. Most of the additional courses were just a bite or two, but still, it was a ridiculous amount of food. Delicious, delicious food. We were so full that like 3/4 of the way through we went for a walk. Which didn't help. And when we finally did finish dessert and ask for the bill, they brought us like 6 more desserts before bringing the bill. It was actually kind of like torture. It was nuts. But delicious. So, so delicious. Sorry I can't tell you more, but it was like a week ago already and I was pretty much in a food coma for the second half.

Then Monday it was a flight back to Munich, a glass of wine with my friend Jonas, some time with the Mangs, and then back to China. And here I am. And I've been a busy little bee what with Passover and all, but I'll tell you about that later.

First let me tell you about Jaala. They're an Australian band that I just found recently and which I love. Think Hiatus Kaiyote. That's what I thought. And it turns out they were touring with Hiatus Kaiyote in Australia, which would have been amazing. Hard Hold is the first single, first track on the album, and also title track of their debut album (called Hard Hold, in case you didn't pick up on that), which came out last year. And it was the first song I heard, which totally grabbed my attention and made me fall in love pretty immediately.



It's not every day you hear something that intriguing. And I love the singer's voice. She is Jaala, by the way. I think it's her last name (but maybe her first), and I have no idea how to pronounce it. Anyway, I bought the album, and the whole things is super intriguing. My favorite track might be Salt Shaker, so you can also listen to that today. And as it turns out, it's the other single from the album.

April 20 - POLIÇA

Another lounge, another blog. I'm in Istanbul now on my way home from Germany. I had zero time to write during this Germany trip. I had like zero time to do anything for myself during this Euro trip. I was in Germany for a trade show last week, which occupied me from the time I woke up (getting ready, getting to the show) until I got home (after dinner and entertainment and whatnot so always very late and therefore not in the mood to write a blog). So I didn't write at all last week.

The trade show was good, though. It was Bauma Munich, the largest trade show in the world (so they say). Definitely the largest in the industry, and it happens every 3 years, with a similarly large (but not as large) show in Paris and Vegas on the years between. It was my first time at Bauma Munich, actually, so it was nice to see. When I could see it. Because I mostly just saw meeting rooms and our booth. For not doing any sales and not having customers there the whole time, I was ridiculously busy every day. I don't think it's really worth going into the details of the show itself, because it's quite boring. Just meetings and taking guests on tours of our factory and then having dinners and eating far too much every night.

I did get to stay with the Mangs, though, which is always worth mentioning. You know them, they're the friends in Munich who are the parents to my BFF Henry, who will be 6 in like 2 weeks. I actually wasn't supposed to stay with them, but the secretaries at HQ put me in a village 100km from Munich, gave me an 8am pick-up every day, and 9:30 meetings, which I had to get through rush-hour traffic, trade show traffic, and highway construction to get to. Which meant it would be impossible for me to make any of my meetings. So instead I got to rent a car and stay with the Mangs. This made getting to Bauma in the morning much easier, cause I could just take the subway, but it also meant I had to fight traffic leaving Munich every day to get to Schrobenhausen for dinner, which usually took about 2 hours, and then had to make the drive back late at night. But I got to see them every morning, and spend some time with them on the Monday and Tuesday night cause I didn't drive up to Schrobenhausen. So that was great. And I took them to Bauma on the Saturday to see the show, which was also fun. And fun for me cause I got to see the show instead of just work all the time.

After the show I went to visit a friend in Austria, but I'll talk about that next time.

So all that's left is POLIÇA. They put out their third album, United Crushers, recently, and it's a great one. I loved this band's debut back in 2012, but then as many bands do, they put out a disappointing 2nd album. And now with the third, they are back in form. Since I was just in Germany, we'll start with Berlin, which is a great track and would be shared even if I wasn't just in Germany.





The best track is probably the closer, Lose You. So that will be today's second song.

Apr 8 - White Denim

Daniel came back last night. You may remember him as the friend that stayed with me for about 2 weeks and restored my faith in my ability to live with other people. Well he went traveling for 2 months and just came back last night. Right in time for me to leave tonight, unfortunately. He's only here for 10 days, and then he's off to Austria for good. And he lands in Austria the day I leave Austria. So what did we do with our one night? Get really drunk, obviously. And then today we did pretty much nothing. I didn't go to the office cause I'm flying to Germany tonight, but I did go to the dentist, and the tailor, and pack, and watch a shit ton of Curb Your Enthusiasm (mine and Daniel's favorite pastime). And then we said our goodbyes and I have no idea when I'll see him again. But it was fun while it lasted!

And now I'm at the airport writing a blog. This is a blog I've been meaning to write for a long, long time, about a band I like very much: White Denim. But then I just never got around to it. But now they've released a new album so it's about time. The new album is called Stiff, and it's typical White Denim style rock. So it's great. I think my favorite song is Holda You (I'm Psycho).





And because they've been around forever and I've been meaning to write this forever, you also get an old song. The first album I heard by them was 2011's D, so we'll also be listening to It's Him!, the opening track off the album.

Apr 6 - Sevdaliza

I wrote a blog like 13 hours ago, so not much has happened since then. I didn't go to the office today cause I had some site visits this morning. But now I'm working from home so I can take a minute to write. About music. And today's music is Sevdaliza.

Sevdaliza is a Dutch (by way of Iran) singer, who decided that being on the Dutch national basketball team and getting her masters degree and starting a career wasn't enough before turning to music. She put out 2 EPs last year, the second of which is Children of Silk. And today's first song, Marilyn Monroe, is off that EP. NPR is loving this song, and I am also liking it quite a lot. The first time I heard it I wasn't sure I did, but then I listened more and realized I do.

Very FKA Twigs, no? Her EP before that, The Suspended Kid, is also very good, though I do prefer Children of Silk (although the cover art for The Suspended Kid is much better). And so from there, we also get to listen to Sirens of the Caspian.

Apr 5 - Pinkshinyultrablast

I am so tired today. I had another friend in town this weekend, so it was another big one. And it lasted 3 days because yesterday was Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday to celebrate one's ancestors and go and sweep their tombs, among other activities.

My friend David was visiting. I met David back when I lived in Beijing and he was my neighbor for a couple months. We got along really well, and kept in touch via Facebook, and now 6 years later he's in Shanghai for a week so we hung out. Originally the idea was to take a day trip out to Chongming Island on Saturday, which is a big island that's part of Shanghai and covered in nature reserves and stuff. But then it rained. So instead we found out that El Willy, one of my favorite restaurants here, does a 5 course brunch for RMB 198, and for an extra 100 you can get free flow wine and cava for 2 hours. So we did that instead. And then we went to my friend's house and drank more. We drank all day. Cause after the friends house we went bowling. And then we went to dinner. And finally I got home at like 11:30 after like 11 hours of marathon drinking. It was a good Saturday.

And it made for a pretty lazy Sunday. I pretty much just went to lunch with David (we were supposed to go to this weekend market, but they changed the dates without changing the ads, so we just ended up having lunch), and then dinner with my friend Julia at an amazing Italian place that I've been meaning to try (and now love). Otherwise, lots of couch time was had. I watched this Netflix show called Love. It wasn't great, actually. Which is disappointing cause it's Judd Apatow. I guess nobody's perfect, though.

And Monday was a big one. I helped my friend Graeme move, after which we went to Jump360, a massive trampoline park in the middle of nowhere. And apparently Asia's largest trampoline park. They not only have trampolines, but also a Ninja Warrior obstacle class, trampoline volleyball and trampoline basketball, bubble soccer... I mean, it's amazing. And I'm in so much pain today. And I realized how old I am. But it was so much fun. I want to go again for my birthday. Assuming I'm not this sore by then. I should go get a massage. I'll probably do that soon. But first, music.

Today's music is Pinkshinyultrablast, a post-punk/pop group from Russia. I don't think I have any other Russian musicians, so this is quite exciting. They make very fun, high energy, pretty ambient and somewhat noisy music that I guess is closest to pop-punk, but also kind of like pop. Hence the /. I guess the band name is actually a pretty accurate description of their sound. The closest thing I can think of is Jonsi, maybe. Which is a great association, right? They have a new album out called Grandfeathered, which I like very much. It does sound like a lot of the same-same, but I still like it. If I didn't have so much other music to catch up on, I'd probably go listen to their first album. But I will soon, I promise. For now, you can enjoy Glow Vastly, my favorite song off of Grandfeathered.

Apr 1 - Camel Power Club

Again not much to report. But I am back in Shanghai. And not in such a great mood at the moment, for no particular reason. But here's a song that puts me in a better mood. Laika, the 2014 debut single by Camel Power Club. These guys don't have much music and I don't know much about them because they don't really have any other great songs, but this one is great and happy.