The weekend is finally here, and despite the buzz surrounding Linkin Park on Sunday, there are plenty of other shows that are also worth checking out. Friday, Yuyintang warms things up for Linkin Park fans with four local nu-metal bands strutting their stuff and letting out their best screams. While over at 4Live, Pixel Toy, from Hong Kong, provide an eccentric mix of Cantonese pop electronica. Opening for them is Banana Monkey. Phreaktion in celebration... more ›

We got a last minute heads up on a electronica duo playing at Mao tonight that should get early evening blog readers off the computers and into the club. Hailing from Japan, and named Miami, they are bringing an interesting 8-bit electro/violin mix to Shanghai. Tickets are 50rmb and include a free drink....doors at 9pm. Mao - 46 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu, 岳阳路46号，近东平路 Abe Deyo is Shanghaiist's Music Editor. Email tips, recommendations, news and... more ›

Last fall, we told you about the China Bowl — the NFL preseason (American) football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks scheduled for early August in Beijing. In February, we told you about all the China Bowl plugs we saw during the international broadcast of the Super Bowl. And just one month ago, we told you about the three Chinese kickers (one named "Rambo") the NFL was training with the hopes that at least one of them could suit up for the China Bowl. We even had one reader email us to see if we could confirm the date (we had heard anywhere between August 7 and 9) — because he had already booked plane tickets for his brother-in-law, a huge Pats fan, to come to Beijing, but was worried he had him schedule to fly back before the game even started. more ›

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

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. more ›

“Shanghai sure got cold in a hurry!” we muttered under our not quite frigid breath, returning from a weekend trip to Sanya, the Miami of China (well, without the glam and the glitterati, but a whole lot more prostitutes). Anyway, our trip? Awesome! Yalong Bay (a beach resort area in Sanya) was gorgeous, and the sunny 30 degree weather has left us feeling and looking a little George Hamilton. more ›

It may be the pariah for self-respecting filmmakers (and film buffs) everywhere, but if it’s true that there’s no business like show business, then, the Oscars are anything but irrelevant. Case in point: The recent announcement that China will have not one, but two of its own submitted for consideration in the crapshoot otherwise known as the Best Foreign Film category. Of course, it never hurts when you’re able to find a loophole in the system. For all intents and purposes, the would-be blockbuster The Banquet should be represented by the mainland -- it features one of China’s most beloved (and commercially successful) auteurs in Feng Xiaogang, while starring Chinese megastars Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun. So how come it ended up as Hong Kong’s submission? Well, the catch is that The Banquet is a Hong Kong-China co-production, which means those of you who were pulling hard for Johnnie To backed the wrong horse. more ›

It may seem that we just can't get enough of blowjob jokes, but the Shanghai Daily's headlines are just too doggone funny. more ›

Photo by raincontreras taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing) is keeping things cool this summer, nudity and blood optional. Less cool are the comments in this post about a hipster auctioning off crap so she can buy a house. And no summer would be complete without the twin guilty pleasures of crap dining and crap TV: get them both with Torontoist's interview with "Rockstar: Supernova" star Lucas Rossi and a look at the safety ratings of some of Toronto's favorite greasy spoons. more ›

We -ists are an eclectic bunch, but there's a couple of things we all love: famous people, social causes, and wacky local facts. Join us as we starf**k, get virtuous, and learn across the -ist network! more ›

The movie opens July 28 (July 27 in Puerto Rico) but doesn't appear to have a China date, and we highly doubt it ever will (it opens in Japan on September 23). We don't usually like the big summer blockbusters, but we have to admit that we are kind of looking forward to this one. We used to watch Miami Vice religiously on TV -- box sets of which are available at many a friendly neighborhood DVD store in Shanghai. Back in the '80s, we owned the show's soundtrack and even remember admitting to liking Phil Collins and not getting laughed at. We were very happy to know that Michael Mann, the creator of the original Miami Vice would be responsible for the movie version and not someone whose name begins with a "bruck" and ends in a "heimer." more ›

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. more ›

For our recent trip to the US, we decided to check out American Airlines' nonstop service from Shanghai to Chicago, which they launched in April. Since moving here in 2002, we have primarily used Northwest Airlines' Shanghai-Tokyo-New York route, save for a couple legs on JAL and Air Canada, whose website is embarrassingly incompatible with Safari. American is now our airline of choice for flying home. Here are some notes on our travel experience: more ›

Sampaist is on the scene in São Paulo beginning this week to become the only ist south of the Equator. Editor Leandro M. Pinto leads the paulistanos down there. more ›

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called How to Get the Guy that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing. more ›

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. more ›

The wonderful and great things awaiting Americans -- no, the world! -- since the U.S. government's murder of Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have begun! We got this email from American Citizen Services an hour ago: more ›

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. more ›

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. more ›

Mercer Human Resource Consulting just released its annual standard of living report, which ranks the quality of life in the world's major big cities. Shanghaiist has kept up the results the last few years, and there haven't been any major changes. Bloomberg reports: more ›

Gothamist posts on the capture of a NYC perv thanks to Little Brother and a camera phone. They also scour the city for vodka martinis and Shamrock shakes and spot the friend from the Wonder Years at a city law firm. New York police think that Littlejohn is their man. more ›

DCist helps us make more sense of the world this week. Posts like this concert review are the reason for Scott Stapp. DCist also enumerates the reasons for playing ultimate frisbee, Condi's tight buns, their love of a local convenience store, and their jealousy of a person in Seattle calling the city. more ›

Outspoken (and slightly above average) Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones made history this week, becoming the first active American NBA player to sign an endorsement deal with a Chinese sports apparel brand. Li Ning, one of China's leading sports brands, signed Jones to a two-year deal, details of which were not disclosed. Jones has worn Li Ning's "Feijia" sneakers for most of this season. more ›

The last time Shanghaiist was in Miami, we were interviewing hardware store owners for a magazine called Home Improvement Market. Talk about sexy! We escaped to South Beach, bought a gyro and took a seat on the stoop of what appeared to be a church -- people were coming and praying, some were leaving flowers. And then we realized it wasn't a church. It was Gianni Versace's mansion. And this wasn't long after he had been murdered on that very stoop. We got up, and we threw away our gyro. Ah, Miami. more ›

The Crystal Method at Miami's 2005 Winter Conference music festival more ›