By Jeffrey Wasserstrom more ›

Photo from Sypro more ›

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.

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.

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there. 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 ›

You may have walked past the Holy Trinity Cathedral before and not even known it. The church has been under construction for a couple of years now and protected from public view by the ever-cunning big cement construction wall. But it's still there, awaiting its impending resurrection amid a chorus of jackhammers. more ›

China's premier on Wednesday extolled the prosperity the Communist government has brought to many Chinese, yet he sounded an alarm that inflation could derail the country's rapid emergence. more ›

Photo by ranmachen more ›

Are you starved for techno? Real, honest-to-gosh techno? Well, Shanghai's Void crew has you covered. Several times a month they fill up LOgO and The Shelter to bring you the foot-tappinest, head-noddinest, neck-snappinest techno you ever could lay ears on. They've showcased both DJ Nomadico and Jason Hodges in Shanghai, and this Saturday March 1st they bring a little bit of Detroit and Berlin to The Shelter. more ›

By Wm Patrick Cranley more ›

Photo of Shanghai Museum, one of four locations offering a free entry trial next month, from mkools. more ›

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This weekend venues are still suffering from the New Year hangover and not many events are happening. You might check out blues band, Studio 188, who will be performing at the Blues Room on Saturday. Or maybe join the firecracker loving crowds throughout the city for a bit of noise. more ›

href="http://torontoist.com/2008/02/phototo_snowbal.php">photographing a big, organized snowball fight.

HAPPY DRINKING! more ›

Image credit: Nature abhors a vacuum more ›

This latest courtesy campaign video starring top hosts from media conglomerate SMG reminds us of the courtesy campaigns that we grew up with in Singapore. Don't get us wrong, we do like the idea of a kinder, gentler Shanghai, but there is something about the unrealistic and surreal touch of the whole video that actually made it feel a bit, erm, creepy. A series of shorter clips might have done the trick, whereas a 6 minute vid of people all across the city being kind to each other is, quite simply, an overkill. What do you guys think? (h/t to Shanghai Eye) more ›

Nasty. Nasty. Nasty. If we didn't have to walk the dogs, we'd just stay inside our (semi) warm living room all day. We know the miserable sleet (or is it freezing rain?) and slippery conditions are forcing some offices to send workers home early today. But winter's icy grip on China is far more serious than some missed work or a slip on the sidewalk. Here's a rundown (and, please, feel free to add to this list in a comment): more ›

Take a walk down Panyu (Fanyu) Lu from the Film Art Centre and you will soon pass by the SH508 restaurant. It occupies a slaughtered renovated colonial mansion adorned with a huge neon sign. Unknown to the proprietors, reviewers and most of the customers, this is actually the former family home of British writer J.G. Ballard. more ›

A reminder that Shanghai's airwaves weren't always the preserve of Love Radio's soul-negating pop or bizarre phone-ins dedicated to giving out street directions, courtesy of the Radio Heritage Foundation. Around 40 stations operated out of the city in 1940, though this dropped during the course of the Japanese occupation to less than ten by 1945. The website has put together a list of the stations that broadcast during the period, and is calling for anyone who has any related pictures, stories or memorabilia from the period to get in touch. It also has an excerpt from a 1940 Time article profiling Carroll Duard Alcott, an American radioman based in Shanghai who made his namer needling the occupiers. There's another snippet on him here, also by Time. more ›

- ESWN has translated the sad story of a 31 year old woman who left a goodbye note on her blog before commiting suicide because of her unfaithful husband, an employee at Saatchi & Saatchi Beijing. The story is now making the rounds big time in the local advertising scene and has also unleashed a manhunt which saw enraged citizens coming up to his apartment to seek revenge for the dead woman. More pictures here. more ›

Al-Jazeera's report on the anti-Maglev protest has interesting footage of how the city government is collecting feedback and an emergency residents meeting in one neighbourhood. While municipal authorities have promised more research and feedback opportunities, train protesters have been warned not to conduct any illegal protest during Gordon Brown's visit to Shanghai. more ›

Xinhua: British PM visits Shanghai more ›

Next time, Steve, stay for some Grandma's Mashed Potatoes. Trust us. more ›

This news just in from Shanghai Daily:

FIVE workers were injured in an explosion at a demolished building near Shanghai's landmark Jin Mao Tower in Pudong New Area this morning, Eastday.com reported. more ›

Gay China seen through the eyes of three different media this week more ›

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Yesterday, we were tipped off on our Contribute page that an anti-maglev protest was going to take place today 2pm at People's Square. Apparently that has been derailed by the police. From Reuters:

Police in China's financial hub of Shanghai detained scores of people on Saturday after hundreds showed up to protest a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation. more ›

Troubling news has emerged over the last day regarding the tragic killing of a man in Tianmen, Hubei province. more ›

Shanghai mayor, Han Zheng (韩正) looks set to keep his job despite earlier suggestions that he would only be a seat-warmer after his predecessor Chen Liangyu (陈良宇) was exposed in a massive pension scandal and was sacked from his job. Apparently, rumours have been rife in Hong Kong media that Han would be replaced soon. Reuters (via the Straits Times) tells us more:

Beijing believes that Han is 'a good comrade' and 'can continue to do a good job in Shanghai', one of the sources paraphrased new Shanghai Party chief Yu Zhengsheng as telling a recent meeting of senior city officials. more ›