Taking exhibition art to a new level, 2011 TED Prize winner, the anonymous JR, is now making Shanghai his canvas by etching huge black and white photographs on the facades of crumbling or dilapidated buildings. His previous work follows the same style, using a team of volunteers to mount a collection of expressions onto various places in poverty stricken zones, spanning the globe from Rio to Kenya, while taking care to operate under the radar. In his travel to the Middle East, he mounted supposedly the largest illegal exhibition in the world on the wall marking the border between Israel and Palestine with comic expressions of a rabbi, a priest, and an imam. more ›

By Jeffrey Wasserstrom more ›

We know he's meant to be quite a bit more brilliant in concert than we saw the other night, but it seems as though a few things conspired to make Harry Connick's Shanghai show this past Sunday less great than it really should have been. For one, the role that the rest of the band played was way too small — it seems that we heard more from Bjork's brass section the week before! And when they were playing, you could barely hear them as the piano and voice were so much higher in the mix and the horns got drowned out. We fell asleep at the beginning of the show, with all the solo piano and mellow vocals happening. Then it was the same 2 or 3 players taking horn solos all night, and there was only one trumpet solo in the entire show! It makes you wonder what the heck was going on for this to happen, after all the hype about this great big band. more ›

Argghh..can you feel it? With the end of the holiday season things in the realm of live music are starting to pick up again. After a much needed break from Shanghai, we are back and ready for some musical action. During the break it seems that venues around the city have started to warm up to the idea of holding more gigs. In April, Windows Tembo, will reopen as a live music venue and is building a solid lineup of shows, while Harleys, that great basement bar in Xujiahui is rumored to be back on the scene with shows by both Queen Sea Big Shark and Canadian dance punk extraordinaire, You Say Party! We Say Die!. more ›

This is just a rumor at this point. But it is a strong rumor. Not a weak rumor, or a flat out lie (like these). Basically, we think you can mark your calendars ... and use pen. more ›

Ma Lik, the head of Hong Kong's leading pro-Beijing political party who questioned whether China's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 should be called a massacre, died Wednesday, an official said. He was 55. more ›

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You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. more ›

Since Shanghaiist kicked off in July this year, we've inflicted opinion after opinion on you, our faithful readership. Here comes a whole bunch more. more ›

Shanghaiist has always been one to pull for the underdog (except for in baseball), so it makes sense that we grew up eating our fast food at Burger King[1], not McDonald's -- well, at least until Wendy's moved to town. Oh, those were the days -- before nutritional information was mandatory, when a family of four could order two Whoppers, two Jr. Whoppers and onion rings for everyone and actually feel good about themselves. These burgers were flame broiled, that must make them good for us. more ›