Seven Twenty-Two (was it AM or PM?)

It’s the morning in Beijing, and I’ve gotten up at a reasonable hour.

Today, as I mentioned, Simon is playing at Sugar Jar, a tiny, loft-like CD store in the Dashanzi art district not far from our house. It was formerly an industrial area, and now many (not all) of the spaces have been turned into galleries. You can still see paintings on desolate walls instructing workers to follow Maoist thought. Also, random jets of steam tend to spurt out of the ground. It’s looking on the sunnier side today so I’ll bring my Lomo.

The show last night was good. I think the combination of my earplugs and the reverb-heavy sound didn’t exactly do Carsick Cars justice, but Shouwang (aka Jeff, the guitarist) is amazing as ever and still just as simultaneously friendly and shy. I received a (signature) awkward hug. Yes!

As I arrived, Sulumi was playing outside. There was a nice cool breeze (not unlike Montreal, which I am wont to compare everything to right now). There were two people playing electronics, a Microkorg, and various Gameboys and Kaoss pads – Sulumi and… Sulumi’s Friend? Anyhow, they were far more impressive than they had been in the past. Sulumi himself was singing through a weird mic that looked like an olde tyme telephone mouthpiece. There were thunderous beats and many blips and gloops and whirrs. About three times as good as the Crystal Castles show. (Plus, no one was selling meat kababs outside Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, motherfucker). You can check them out at www.myspace.com/sulumi.

I’ll scan the poster from the show and put it up later. It’s done by the one guy seems to do every cool flyer in Beijing. His stuff actually kind of reminds me of what Ming draws (although I don’t think I’ve seen any of Ming’s graphics involve someone getting spanked). Something about the faces.

Last night I started to read Julie Doucet’s 365, which is good for missing Montreal and straining my eyes. Nice to think about hanging out at Drawn and Quarterly with Megan and like, almost half, of Charlottetown.

Today I have to register with the local police station – so as not to get deported. Apparently foreigners can’t do whatever the hell they want here any more. Or more specifically, they can, but more than ever (whether you do something wrong or not) you realllly better obey the Chinese government. Yaaaah!