Aug 8 - Maximum Balloon

Today has been a pretty successful day, and it's only 4pm! The morning started with things getting repaired around the apartment, and my internet being upgraded (it's still kind of shitty though, cause China), the dim sum which I've been craving, and errands. Mostly grocery shopping, which I never do. But I'm having a dinner party tonight and I want to make tinga later this week, so I've been preparing. My apartment is also in order now, we hung up the masks and everything and it's all good to go. Right in time for a dinner party.

But before everyone comes by and I get busy, a bit of music. Today is Apartment Wrestling by Maximum Balloon feat. David Byrne. This is a side project by Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio and it's got some great tracks, and great collaborations. The album is already like 5 years old, but it's a good one.

Aug 7 - Ryan Adams

After a relatively easy week, for some reason Friday turned out to be really stressful. I am so glad it's the weekend now. But I'm not even drinking because after last night's drinking my cold, which was getting better, is back and my throat is not happy. So I didn't even get a celebratory weekend drink. I will tomorrow, though. I didn't stop me from going out, though. I almost stopped me from going out, but my friend invited me to meet her and some of her friends, and she was at a restaurant/bar around the corner from the supermarket I had to go to, so how could I say no? So I hung out and drank tea, and it was really nice.

Another point of interest today was the weird rain. There's another tyhpoon headed our direction. We had a big one a few weeks ago, or at least what was supposed to be a big one and turned out to just be constant light rain all weekend. Today we had short bursts of torrential downpours, which are coming from the tail end of the largest typhoon of the year, which is passing near Shanghai but not over Shanghai. So we'll have a rainy weekend, unfortunately, but all the more reason to stay at home in my new apartment.

No more remixes for today's music. But in the theme of "things that I'm not always crazy about but sometimes happen to really, really like," today's song is from Ryan Adams. Ok, I should admit, I can't actually say I'm not always crazy about him. I haven't listened to that much by him. I heard last year's self-titled album, which was pretty good. And then yesterday I found out he released a new single a couple weeks ago, titled Willow Lane. The title track is pretty good, like most of his music, but the second track, Yes or Run, is fantastic. Then there's this weird third track that we can just not talk about. But Yes or Run, let's talk about that. And let's also talk about the fact that this guy put out an album last year, and has already put out like 5 singles this year, all of which have like 3 tracks, and all of which are (to my knowledge) new. At least they weren't on last year's album. Which means he's actually put out more music in singles this year than he did in an album last year. If that's not a fan pleaser, I don't know what is. So kudos to you, Mr. Adams. And thanks for this song.

Aug 6 - Banks

I had a sort of "cheat day" today at work. I didn't go to the office, instead I did some site visits at hotels for a trade show next year. In like 15 months. But it's actually gotta be done now cause it's the largest trade show in China and we have budget considerations, and standards. So that makes it tough for me. But anyway, spent the morning looking at hotels, then came home at like 2:30 and managed to get my apartment in order! Like, totally in order. Well, not totally totally, but like 99%. And that's pretty good. Just gotta hang a few things. It'll get done Saturday morning. By Saturday, my apartment will be 100%, and I can't wait. And there's a typhoon coming, which means I can have a legitimate excuse to sit here and enjoy it.

The other high point today was finding out that there's such a thing as Pudong cuisine, which is different from Shanghai cuisine, even though Pudong is in Shanghai. Pudong is east Shanghai, the part that nobody ventures to unless you work there, have a trade show, or like 9 children and got sent here by your company from America or Europe but are not at all interested in actually feeling like you're in China. But back in the day it was a real place, and they developed their own cuisine, and today I tried it. And it was damn good. I'm taking leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It's kind of similar dishes to Shanghai food, but better flavors and not as sweet (which is the typical identifying point of Shanghai food). I was told it tends to be oilier cause they use a lot of soy sauce, but all the soy sauce is home made cause it was originally farmers making Pudong food, so they'd just use the sauce they made at home, which means it's not nearly as salty as what you and I think of when we think of soy sauce. The food was great. I need to take friends. And any visitors, cause it's actually an awesome and very local/insider Shanghai thing to do when you think about it. So good day all around. Then birthday drinks with friends (not my birthday. Duh). Good day.

To keep in the theme of remixes I actually like (which I started yesterday), today we're listening to Banks. This is not the first time I've blogged about her. This isn't even the first time I've blogged about her this year. She's pretty great (although somewhat disappointing live). And since I already blogged about her once, I feel very ok sharing a remix. And surprisingly it's one of my favorite tracks by her (sort of by her, I guess it's also by someone else). That track being the Snakehips remix of Warm Water. What I love about this remix (aside from the sound of it) is the fact that it maintained the original vocals and lyrics, instead of cutting them up and just using them as another element of sound, like so many remixes do. He's taken a very sparse (but very pretty) song and turned it into something amazing, and amazingly fun.

Aug 5 - Gallant

I wised up today and wrote my music part of the blog at work. Now I just have to fill in this little bit about my day. Which was, as usual, an uneventful work day, but then a very eventful dinner. There's a place called La Coyota in Shanghai, it's a Mexican shop with a little restaurant. Not even a restaurant, just a kitchen really where they make tacos and burritos and flautas and stuff, then they have a couple stools or you can take it to go. I've eaten it before at events, and it is the best Chinese food I've had in Asia. They used to have a small location, now they have 2, and now in my new apartment both of them are within like 5 minutes of me.  By bike, but on foot it'd still only be 10-15 to either. Which makes me a very happy boy, because they make legit Mexican food. So I'll be there at least once a week now, I'd say!

Today's song is actually a remix. Well, I think I'll put the original and the remix. I don't usually get that into remixes, though there are some exceptions, and this is one. It all started today when Gallant came onto a playlist on Spotify. Spotify apparently now has this weekly tailored playlist that they make me. They give me 30 songs a week, and actually most of them are from artists I haven't heard. I've listened for 2 weeks now, and it's very hit or miss. Generally the playlist is pretty good, but there are only a few artists I actually follow up with and listen to more of. Last week there was one, but this week there's like 4, one of whom is Gallant. I swear I've heard this guy before, or at least heard his name. As soon as I went to his Spotify page and saw the cover image for the single Weight in Gold (today's song, by the way) I recognized it. I guess he's been on other blogs or something. It's pretty minimalistic, but I like it.



So I heard Weight in Gold and got pretty into it. It also helped that the related artists on Spotify include JMR and Azekel, two other up and coming artists that I blogged about earlier this year, and Stephen A. Clark, someone else who came onto my radar recently. During my viewing of his page, I saw there was also a Ta-ku remix of Weight in Gold. And it also caught my attention. A lot. I especially love that little cymbal hit that starts about 20 seconds in.




He's had a few more singles this year, as well as an EP last year, Zebra, which are

Aug 4 - Oscar

I've decided to go ahead and write at work today. It used to be super easy because we had a sort of VPN that let me access sites blocked by China which weren't blocked by the company. So I could get onto YouTube and my blog, but not Facebook because the company blocked that one. Now I can't. So I never write at work anymore. But today I'm a bit bored. Well, I've been a bit bored since I got back to the office. I'm working on a few things, but they're pretty tedious and long, so I'm taking them in small bits. So today, blogging becomes another form of procrastination. No progress has been made on my apartment because I've been asleep and at work since I last wrote, but I think it will be done tomorrow. I hope. We'll see. Soon anyway. I should be able to have my housewarming on Saturday, but just in case I'd rather wait and make sure everything is in order, and just have my housewarming once I'm back from my trip to the US and Tokyo. So that probably means Sept 12. But I think I will try to have some people over on Saturday night anyway because I want to show off. Maybe I'll even cook! I found out I can get chorizo at this Mexican market, so if I actually can then I'll probably try to make my mom's tinga, which is the best thing ever.

Ok now that I've rambled on about nothing long enough, I'll ramble a little bit about music. Today's music is Daffodil Days, by Oscar. This is off of his Beautiful Words EP, which came out back in June. This guy is getting some good buzz, but I actually don't like him very much. This song is the exception. This song I love.

Aug 3 - Regina Spektor

The house is starting to look like a real house! I'm about 75% of the way done I'd say. Everything is unpacked, and things are somewhat in place, but there's also still a lot scattered around waiting to find a home. But so close! I can't wait to be finished. It was another long day of unpacking after work today, but tomorrow will be a bit of a break as I have dinner plans. Although I am gonna try to make plans turn into ordering in... We'll see.

Today's song comes to you by way of Regina Spektor. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but I do like her more than average. I feel like most of the time, she makes good solid music. But when she gets something right, it is amazing and perfect. And, as I mentioned yesterday, I feel like at this point in the year I should also start thinking about what songs have to get into my year in music. One of those is Us, by Regina Spektor. It is one of my favorite songs ever. And it is by far her best song. Although don't get me wrong, she does have plenty of fantastic ones. But this is the best.

Aug 2 - Nina Simone

I am so exhaused. I spent the weekend moving, and now I'm ready to just pass out. But I have a bit more unpacking to do first. So I'm gonna make this quick.

I missed a day yesterday cause my internet wasn't quite set up. It's still not completely set up, but it's alright. I am going to make it 25 times faster than it currently is though, so that'll be nice. But even though I didn't post yesterday, I knew exactly what I wanted to post. And that was what I listened to as soon as I got into the apartment. Nina Simone. And the first song I put on was Feeling Good. Which just happens to be one of my favorite songs of all time, so actually it wouldn't be a proper year in music on my blog without this song. It is also very fitting for my apartment, cause it's also an old, historic Shanghai building. Art Deco style. Beautiful place. And it just fits this kind of old jazz. I've been listening to it a lot since I moved in. Once the place is all in order I'll tell you more about it and post picture. But for now, Nina.