Philadelphia's Brian Seymour (MySpace) will once again be performing an acoustic set of his original music on Tuesday, June 23 at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu during the Shanghaiist Happy Hour, which runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Seymour is in town doing a series of shows at the House of Blues & Jazz — it's called "The Piano Has Been Drinking" and he's playing, naturally, the piano and singing the music of Tom Waits. For us, he'll be playing guitar and performing songs from his albums. more ›

Hope to see you all tonight at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu for the Shanghaiist Happy Hour featuring a live performance from Philadelphia based musician Brian Seymour (MySpace), who is town doing a series of shows at the House of Blues & Jazz (he's playing piano and singing the music of Tom Waits). For us, he'll be playing guitar and performing an exclusive acoustic set of his originals. Based on what's happening outside our window right now, it looks like Brian will be playing indoors at Cotton's, which is fine by us (the speakers are better inside). more ›

It's been close to three years since Philadelphia based musician Brian Seymour (MySpace) last visited us, but he's back. And he's playing an exclusive acoustic set of his originals Tuesday night at the Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Cotton's on Xinhua Lu. As usual, the Happy Hour runs from 6 to 10 p.m. and features free entry and 2-for-1 specials on selected drinks. Brian's set will kick off at around 7:30 p.m. more ›

• Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).
• Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.
• LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.

• SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others.
• Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list.
• Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island.

Forgive us, but we enjoy watching a game of American football every now and then (yes, even after that ugly display in London). Last year, we got in the habit of watching the NFL's Sunday and Monday night games on Monday and Tuesday morning here in Shanghai while we answered emails, fed the dogs and did other important things (we watched on ESPN Asia via our Filipino satellite system). Right now, for example, we'd be... more ›

China Construction Bank’s A share began trading yesterday. The ￥6.45 IPO closed at ￥8.53 , a whopping 32 percent gain, eye popping in any Western markets, but here in China, a big yawn. Two other smaller companies went public on the same day, both advanced 200 percent plus, cha-ching! CCB was the largest China IPO to date(￥58 billion), but that title will soon belong to Shenhua Energy, the nation’s largest coal miner. The offering attracted a record ￥2.6 trillion(USD $355 billion) of funds looking to buy shares. The actual amount raised, based on projected ￥37/share and 1.8 billion shares offered would fall somewhere in the neighborhood of ￥66.6 billion, still a lot of zeros. more ›

OK, we've never heard of East Star Airlines before, but it has just become the first private airline in China to be authorized to operate international flights. A Xinhua report tells us that under Civil Aviation Administration of China regulations, new airlines may apply to operate international flights only after three years of operations. East Star has been in business less than two years, but it beat rivals Okair, Ueair, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines to be the first. Hmm... we wonder what made them bend those rules! more ›

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... more ›

We have finally woken from the slumber brought on by watching the Super Bowl (the Prince halftime show was much better than the game itself). If you were tuned in to ESPN Asia this morning like we were, you saw, over and over again, the same Allen Iverson "I'm not a gangster" commercial they've been playing for two years now — we love AI as much as the next guy, but would have preferred these. You also heard the announcers, over and over, talk about the "one billion viewers" that were tuning in to the game, and, almost as often, you saw them promote this August's "China Bowl" NFL preseason game in Beijing, featuring the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, on August 8. Here are the details of that game — not much has changed since we last told you about it in September, except now they have a logo (pictured). more ›

is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. more ›

think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? more ›

We have been wanting to tell you about this all day, but the technology gods had other ideas (the same is true for all other Shanghaiist contributors, which should explain while the site didn't change much today). Anyway, if you are still in front of your computer and still have no plans tonight, do yourself a favor and head over to Bar 288 (aka The Melting Pot) for what promises to be a great night of discussion and music. American singer/songwriter Brian Seymour (an indie artist if there ever was one) is in town for a one-night "traveling session" -- from 7-9 pm he'll discuss his craft in workshop form and then after 9 he'll perform. Also, performing tonight are Ferris Wheel (摩天轮), one of Shanghai's top young bands. 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 ›

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 ›

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: more ›

Soon, all of our living rooms will look the same. Our hot-dog-shilling friends at IKEA are planning a China takeover. They are opening a new Asia distribution center in Shanghai and plan to have 10 China stores within the next three years. IKEA -- famous for "affordable solutions for better living" -- already has stores in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. New stores are planned for Chengdu, Shenzhen and Nanjing. In 2006, IKEA plans to open its first two outlets in Japan, as well. more ›

Gothamist sure does get around. Seems like only yesterday we here at Shanghaiist got all gussied up for the globe. And today, we're happy to welcome two more wonderful cities into the fold: more ›