Results tagged “kennyg”

So the rumors we heard over the weekend at Kiito's were true ... and sooner than expected. According to SmartShanghai, China West — the outfit that brought, among others, Norah Jones, James Brown, Black Eyed Peas, The Roots, Incubus, James Blunt, Kanye West and Kylie Minogue to China — was "unable to maintain a profitable bottom line" after five years here. SmartShanghai says China West is "bowing out of the Chinese market for 2009," so perhaps they not ruling out a return to the market in 2010 or beyond. Either way, a shame. And then there was one? (OK, maybe two.)

The massive NBA marketing machine rumbled through Shanghai last night in the first of three “China Games,” the latter two to be held in Macau beginning tonight. The pre-season game between the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers was held at the Qizhong Sports Stadium in the Min-hang district. Some observations:

At the closing ceremony at Jiangwan Stadium last night, Kenny G played a rendition of “Butterfly Lovers” (梁祝) as women in butterfly costumes descended from cables strung to the stadium lights. When they reached the stage, they claimed a Special Olympian and escorted her back to the lights as the announcer declared in a monotone voice, “Now she has made it.” And that was just the beginning.

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week.

Since Shanghaiist has indie cred to burn, we don't feel that we need to justify our decision to attend the Kenny G concert last night. The show was two hours of jazz-lite — he actually only played one song and then just held the final note (an E-flat, we believe) for another hour and 55 minutes. Ok, unfortunately he played a lot of songs, including: that one pop song where he holds a note for a long time, that sort of latin song where he holds a note for a long time, that one that's almost bebop where he holds a note for a long time, and funk classic "Pick Up The Pieces". "Wait, can Kenny G bring the funk?" we hear you asking. No. But his band can.

What have we, what have we, what have we done to deserve this?

There are a lot of tempting events coming up this weekend. But please don't invite us, we're saving up for Kenny G.

We think that's exactly what we said when we read this email from the fine fellows at China West Entertainment:

Perhaps emboldened by our recent Beijing safari, Shanghaiist decided to venture into the Heart of Darkness to Pudong--OUTER Pudong, no less, to the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Zone of Line 2 fame. (Unlike other Line 2 stations, its name has not changed in recent weeks.)

This weekend, Shanghaiist went to the Bund area and scoped out a couple of galleries. First stop was Contrasts Gallery on Sichuan Zhong Lu. The ultra-modern space is housed on the fifth floor of a run-down heritage building (providing the "contrast" of the gallery's namesake) and shows work that leans more towards design than fine art. The current exhibition features the sculptures of Luo Xu, whose work Shanghaiist had never seen before this weekend and probably will never see again (consciously, at least). It's a shame when a great space like Constrasts Gallery has is wasted on mediocre work like Luo Xu's. Most of his sculptures, which are made to resemble dying leaves, are cold, impassive blobs that give no indication of the emotions that the leaves are supposed to represent. Then there was the piece called "Bathtub", which is indeed a large bathtub ... but one that is formed from a woman's naughty bits. We would call it clever if it weren't so tacky ... and there wasn't a woman's leg daintily arching above to make the showerhead. Cute, but cute vaginas aren't really our thing.

Oddly enough, our random internet search process seems to turn up a lot of stuff about China -- and in this case, an article about freedom of religion, publications about religion, and book culture in China from none other than -- who else -- The Turkish Weekly. This article is, for people who don't know much about the subject, quite informative. The writer visits some general bookstores (such as the Shu Cheng in Shanghai) as well as state-sanctioned religious book shops, where you can get Bibles, Korans, and more devotional type books.

Shanghaiist has always been intrigued by the bits of Western history and culture that seep into the Chinese mainstream — the terrifying, ungodly mix of Buicks, Kenny G, and Da Shan gives us a headache, but is fascinating to behold. Though not quite as fascinating as washing your hair with birth control pills.

Goodbye beautiful bunches of roses for 10 yuan. Goodbye piles of cheap Christmas decorations. Goodbye grumpy man who sold us a money tree. Goodbye woman who tied together beautiful corsages for our wedding, only to add the world's gaudiest bow at the bottom. Farewell. Adieu. You will be missed.