Results tagged “interview”

Helping to kickstart the Halloween weekend is Portland, Oregon-based electronic dance/performance art duo YACHT. Originally the solo project of Jona Bechtolt (who also contributed his electronic wizardry to indie-pop group The Blow), YACHT grew by one in 2008, inducting Claire L. Evans as a full member, just in time to add her no nonsense vocals to their newest album See Mystery Lights.

Dee Dee Bridgewater, the illustrious Jazz singer, has been one of the premier artists in Jazz for the past forty years. From her early days performing with major Jazz legends and winning Tony Awards on Broadway to her more recent work on Billy Holiday, NPR and beyond, Dee Dee has been shaping and defining the way people all over the world understand and appreciate Jazz. To kick off this weekend's JZ Jazz festival, Dee Dee will be gracing Shanghai with a performance this Friday at the Yunfeng theater, sharing the stage with a big band of both local and international musicians. We had the chance to chat about her accomplishments both on and off the stage, her views on Jazz from the past to the present, and her unbeknown love of Chinese art.

Jackie Chan may be an adorable and well-liked kung fu superstar, but he sure doesn't seem to know when it's time to stop talking. We've recorded several of his gaffes before, including one made earlier this year when he insinuated that Chinese need to be controlled... but this latest interview really takes the cake.

Lucky for us, Montreal based indie rock duo Handsome Furs is coming to Shanghai! Currently touring Asia, the band will be making a stop at everyone's favorite live music venue, Yuyintang, on Saturday, September 5.

While some of our readers are lucky enough to live in far off lands of fast internet and access to that thing called YouTube, the many of us here in China are stuck behind the ever-present and always annoying Great Firewall. So how do we at Shanghaiist still have access to our favorite timewasters websites like Facebook and Twitter? Does it have something to do with our obvious awesomeness? Well, yes and no.

Coming to us off a European tour, Australian band Grace Before Meals is set to play at Yu Yin Tang tonight at the Indie China Showcase, along with six other bands from around China.

He graced our Happy Hour two weeks ago and liked it so much he's returned. Yes, Brian Seymour is performing during the Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Cotton's on Tuesday.

Decide for yourself when they play their first show in Shanghai at LOgO this Friday. As an added bonus to our Shanghaiist readers, we're giving away four of their CDs - just send an email to contest.giveaway (at) shanghaiist (dot) com with the words "Shanghaiist Random K(e) CD Giveaway" in the subject line and your name in the body. The first four to send an email to us with that info will get a CD.

Internationally renowned artist Tony Wong is no stranger to success in the art scene, with his work having been exhibited extensively across major US cities, in Hong Kong and Taipei, and throughout Europe.

We recently caught up with Shanghai-based independent filmmaker Luis Tapia of Daedalum Films, who is currently busy preparing for the May 9 premiere screening of his new documentary short about Shanghai band Hard Queen and the life of indie rock musicians in China. Seats are still available for the screening. Advance tickets can be purchased here.

Canadian Jewish rap is truly something to behold. And tonight, you'll be able to behold it at Yu Yin Tang when Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin) hits the stage. Socalled is known for mixing hip hop with slightly less street sounds - drum & bass, folk music and klezmer.

Say what you will about celebs talking politics, but perhaps, this is Jackie Chan at his best - wearing his Greennovate Green T-shirt and looking sweet as a little kitten. And come on, who didn't enjoy the bathtub scene in Shanghai Noon with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan drinking baiju and wearing nothing but bubbles? That almost makes it okay that he thinks Chinese people need to be controlled... right?

The Lab, a non-profit, non-cost DJ Hip-Hop workshop studio, is throwing its Third Anniversary Party tonight at the Shelter. Debuting two new talents, DJ Freeze and DJ Sense, the lineup features ten total DJs including founding member DJ V-Nutz (a.k.a: Gary Wang).

Ever heard of Ghost rock? We hadn't either until Berlin-based outfit Mio Myo stepped into town. The four person group, consisting of Uwe Eger, Thomas Authenried, Benni Pollach, and Michael Angerer, first formed in mid-2005, and have been making their mix of electro, guitar-based indie and pop sounds ever since.

Battles consists of four men with long histories in music making: Tyondai Braxton, son of alterna-jazz musician Anthony Braxton, has worked with hip hop producer Guillermo Scott Herren and noise rockers Parts & Labor. Ian Williams is originally from Pittsburgh math rock pioneers Don Caballero, and also played in noise rock trio Storm & Stress. Dave Konopka, guitarist and bassist, brings the rhythmically complex guitar style of his previous band Lynx into the equation. Veteran of the hardcore scene John Stanier used to play for Helmet - now, when he's not drumming for Battles, he fills out alterna-metal rock supergroup Tomahawk and Australian hard rock band The Mark of Cain

Zachary Mexico's first book, China Underground, just came out this month. It's an edgy look at margins of modern China—and it's a real page-turner. Mexico mixes it up with the masses, returning with sixteen tales of unique individuals "trying to figure out what's going on, trying to carve a place out for themselves in the new China."

So by now, everyone knows the gig is off, presumably because of Oasis' pro-Tibet leanings. But before we learned that the British brothers wouldn't be performing on our shores, the editrixes at managed to get an exclusive interview in with them - separately. If it really was because of the Tibet issue and not just finances, the Chinese government really ought to read the piece and change their minds.

Imprint has come across one of the few interviews of the late Bruce Lee. Soon after the release of his first film, Hong Kong mega-hit , Lee sat down to talk about his life philosophy, super stardom, and of course, martial arts with Canadian television personality, Pierre Berton.

Shanghaiist had the opportunity to sit down with Denise Cheng, general manager of Kiwing Fine Foods, to learn a bit more about the organic food industry here in Shanghai. Some readers may have recently attended the Organic Farmer’s Market at El Willy, which has happened the past three Saturdays and is co-sponsored by Kiwing.

The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres this weekend at Beijing's Olympic baseball stadium. Seating capacity is limited to 13,000 spectators, and sure enough Emma has sold out their allotment of the cheap seats here in Shanghai. We're curious as to the scalper situation in Beijing, but for the risk-averse, other Chinese ticketing websites still have a small number of tickets left. A little internet sleuthing can still get you into the RMB 88 section! As far as the line-ups, San Diego is bringing a mix of veterans and new players to Beijing:

The Padres traveling contingent includes players with substantial experience in the Major Leagues (closer Trevor Hoffman), up-and-coming regulars (Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff) and a host of players who will play in the Minor Leagues in 2008.

The Dodgers seem to have left their star players in Florida in favor of featuring their two Asian prospects:

None of the pitchers on the roster played more than 16 games in the majors last year. Non-roster invitee Chan Ho Park, who is seeking to revive his career, is the most experienced with 11-plus years of major league service, and will be joined by pitchers including Hong-Chih Kuo, Eric Stults and Eric Hull, who spent most of last year in the minors.

That's disappointing for True Blue fans, but the chance to see Joe Torre leading a team in America's national pastime still has us excited to be there. For the unlucky, unadventurous, or just plain lazy, baseball will show its face in our lovely hometown starting next month. The China Baseball League 2008 season runs from early April to late September, with a three-and-a-half month break over the summer for the Beijing Olympics. Shanghai's Special Olympic Stadium, Kangbei Baseball and Softball Field in Pudong, will host the city's Shanghai Eagles in 12 games this season. According to the official schedule posted to the CBL's site last month the Eagles' first home game will be on April 18. Take us out to the ballgame! Major League Baseball Spring Training in China, San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (split-squad), Wukesong Baseball Field, Beijing, Friday and Saturday, 1 pm. Previously on Shanghaiist
Dodgers, Padres to play in Beijing
Spring training in Beijing
Interview: Gil Kim, US player in the China Baseball League
The 2007 China Baseball League schedule Video, from 2007, about Major League Baseball's grass roots efforts in China.

If you like your basslines rinsin' and your selektas rewindin', you'll be in broken-beat heaven this weekend. On Friday the 15th, Hospitality Shanghai sends Logistics and Cyantific to disinfect Club Bonbon. The duo will storm the emergency care ward to celebrate Bonbon's new status as a resident stop on the Hospitality tours. Cyantific is bringing an extra turntable just for us and will showcase his own brand of three-deck trickery.

Cyber dissident Wang Dejia was arrested for "subverting state secrets" (what else?), which means penning too many articles critical of the government. Some of those critical essays pertained to the upcoming summer Olympics:

In recent months, Wang also gave an interview to the Epoch Times, a media group backed by the banned sect F@lun G0ng, in which he claimed the Olympics would exacerbate the sufferings of Chinese people and leave them "living like dogs and pigs."

Continue reading "Beijing Olympics News: State secrets and Spielberg"

By Julien Bertrand: On his first official visit to China, French President Nicolas Sarkozy must have been dizzy, witnessing the signing of contracts worth 20 billion euros in total, comprising of 160 Airbus aircrafts, two EPR nuclear reactors (to be built in Taishan, Guangdong, by 2014) and signal equipment for Shanghai’s future 36-kilometer metro line #10, a long-awaited deal between Alstom and Shanghai Metro that will link New Jiangwan Town to Hongqiao Airport. In an...

Underground Resistance's first foray into mainland China last Saturday at The Shelter was truly a significant milestone for Shanghai's underground scene. DJ Dex aka Nomadico unleashed a set that's been described as a "real history lesson in dance music" — one that took the 800 or so revellers from the pre-electronic routes of modern dance music in the shape of parliament and James Brown, right up to the proper "electro" from the Advent ("program da...

Or more specifically, Hilton, which was rendered as Hiton in a recent issue of The Bund (外滩画报). They ran some pictures and an interview with Paris Hilton when she was here, but unfortunately, it's only in Chinese. She has some interesting thoughts about dark matter in the universe, which she's been exploring for her upcoming novel. On the other hand, it seems that she won't discuss where her money comes from, or if she's saving...

Here, Shanghai, were your favourite stories for the month of November:

Despite the fact that Kevin Rudd - the fluent Mandarin speaking leader of the Australian Labor Party - is widely predicted to romp it in at the Australian Federal election this coming Saturday, it seems he's not taking any chances. The latest salvo in Rudd's "earnestness offensive" according to the Sydney Morning Herald, takes form in a seven-metre billboard of The Great Rudd (see right) that has been suspended above Cameron Road in Hong...

New Burger on the Block: Thanks to the always up-to-date Christine Lu from the China Business Network, we learned that Los Angeles based burger joint Fatburger is planning on expanding big into China, starting with their first restaurant at the Venetian in Macao. From their press release: Additional Fatburger restaurants are scheduled to open in Hong Kong in the coming months: the first on Queens Road East and the second at Jia Hotel in Causeway...

Nanheyangrouchuan is the most unabashed China-basher and the most hated commenter/troll in the English-language China blogosphere. If you still haven't heard of him by now, check out the trail that he has left all over the Internet, and some of his comments left on this blog. This is possibly the most unconventional interview we've ever done on Shanghaiist (not to mention the "riskiest"), and some of you are probably going to wonder why we are...

If you thought all Uighurs/Xinjiangers were fighting for the independence of East Turkestan, this video might be of interest to you. The Opposite End of China brings to our attention an excellent PBS documentary China from the Inside which features some very interesting footage such as a rare interview with Ismayil Tiliwadi, Governor of Xinjiang and new Uighur members of the CCP taking the communist oath. For some of them, the experience is akin to...