A MIDI Music Festival movie and rockers torchin' cars

Danwei directs us to this short film by Anna Sophie Loewenberg from last week's MIDI Music Festival in Beijing. Makes Shanghaiist wish we went to the event or, more to the point, wish that Shanghai had something similar. Not sure if it would work here or not -- get on it, Brad.

Maybe we'll try to hit the MIDI next year, although it doesn't seem like it will be the same. The movie's message is that the festival is getting more corporate -- selling out, as they say -- and that next year people selling homemade T-shirts, buttons and other souvenirs won't be welcome.

The movie features music from Beijing punk band SUBS, who we hear will return to Shanghai sometime in early June.

In other music news, another Beijing musician who has played Shanghai is in police custody. Dou Wei, a pioneer of Chinese rock, was arrested "for allegedly setting fire to the car of a newspaper editor Wednesday evening after vandalizing the paper's office earlier in the day."

The Shanghai Daily continues:

Dou Wei, the former lead singer of "Black Panther," allegedly went to the offices of the Beijing News on Wednesday morning to complain about a report that said he was separating from his second wife Gao Yuan. The story also said Dou was facing financial problems, and only gave his wife 500 yuan (US$62.47) a month to live on.

Dou asked to talk with Zhuo Wei, the reporter who wrote the story. After waiting in the newspaper for six hours to meet Zhou, Dou allegedly lost his temper and caused some damage.

The Beijing News said Dou damaged a keyboard, smashed a piece of glass in the office and splashed water on some employees, despite the efforts of several editors to calm him down. Newspaper employees called several of Dou's friends to take him away.

But Dou returned at about 6pm. He allegedly poured gasoline onto a car in front of the newspaper's office building, and then ignited it.

Several newspaper employees put out the fire, and no one was injured in the blaze.

Police took Dou and others involved in for questioning. Dou was arrested yesterday morning for arson.

Dou first rose to fame as the lead singer for "Black Panther." He is also the ex-husband of Chinese pop diva Faye Wong. Dou and Wong's marriage formerly aroused intense publicity, especially after they divorced. The divorce was reportedly caused by Dou's affair with Gao, who was his lover before he married Wong.

There are few better ways to regain your rock 'n roll cred than torching somebody's car. We hope someone is printing up "Free Dou Wei" T-shirts now. They would have sold well at the MIDI festival.