While the rest of the world is wondering how George W. Bush will further fuck up Iraq and where Becks and Posh are going to settle in L.A., we came across a report about a concert event in Las Vegas:

The two-day event — designed to serve as a showcase for Chinese bands in America and vice versa — will take place at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino Theatre of the Arts on February 13 and 14, coinciding with the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The performances will be broadcast in mainland China via Hunan TV.

The first day of the festival showcases Chinese artists including Jackie Chan, A-mei Mayday, Zhang Zhen Yue, Shin Band and Supergirls.

The second day features Gnarls Barkley, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Spank Rock, Tigra, Berko and Girl Talk.

We're not quite sure how this happened, or who thought of this particular combination. And for that matter, are the "Supergirls" the Super Voice Girls that we all know and love? We couldn't find any mention of this in our cursory search of the Chinese net. Perhaps this is old news that just passed us by while we were at home, worrying about whether or not we would get drafted.

In completely unrelated news: an African-American man in Chicago named Eddie Rogers II, has become well-known for singing Chinese songs in Chinese. Rogers studied Chinese in college and is also a musician, so the combination seemed to suit him well. A funny anecdote he relates about learning Chinese:

"Chinese is very specific to tone," Rogers said. "Where I could say 'I love you' in lots of different ways in English, pronunciation is key in Chinese. A guy went into a restaurant and asked how much it was for yiwan shui jiao [one bowl of dumplings]. But he used the wrong tones and ended up asking the waitress how much it would cost for one night of sleep. The girl slapped him in the face. Tone and pronunciation is key."

We had never thought of this before, but when you think about it, yi wan shuijiao yao duoshao? really could be taken the wrong way ... In any case, we think that Kanye West and Co. should consider inviting Eddie Rogers II to perform in Vegas.

Photo from musik-base.de.