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.) more ›

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. more ›

Photo by insomnico. Poor quality video, sadly, via our own broken camera. Great show by Ziggy Marley. more ›

Well, at least the Live Bar we have known since Austinite Brad Ferguson took over the place, gave it a fresh coat of paint, new sound equipment, regular gigs and decent beer last October. We received these text message from Brad while at the Ziggy Marley show last night: more ›

All you reggae fans who missed the legendary Byron Lee on his Shanghai tour last year must be kicking yourselves. (Actually, everyone missed the legendary Byron Lee on his Shanghai tour last year, because his band showed up on stage at the Shanghai Centre but he didn’t). more ›

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

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