Best of '04: 30 second round-up

Best CD: Franz Ferdinand (just pipping The Streets)
Best gig: Patti Smith's tribute to Rimbaud at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, March 26th
Best movie: Supersize me
Best theatre: ATC Brussels, Spinning into Butter (directed by Elizabeth Merrill)
Best exhibition: Otto Muehl, Life/Art/Work, MAK, Vienna
Best book (fiction): Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
Best book (non-fiction): The working poor: invisible in America, David K. Shipler
Best footballer: Deco

Nice itinerary, shame about the scenery

Spent yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon at the "Karel Appel. On the road" exhibition at Bozar in Brussels. Subtitled "A journey through art in the Low Countries by Rudi Fuchs", the aforementioned curator has come up with an interesting twist on the standard retrospective, presenting it as a journey through 500 years of Flemish and Dutch painting by the subject of the restrospective, Dutch painter Karel Appel.
Hence, at one point an Appel portrait from the CoBrA era, Mens (1953) is cheekily juxtaposed with Rembrandt's Portrait of the preacher Eleazar Swalminus (1637). The concept is also applied to the field of landscape painting with some success, with Van Gogh's Field with poppies (1890) offering a curious counterpoint to Appel's Cloud with trees (1984) and Horizon in Tuscany #24 (1995), while Fuchs' placing of Jean Brusselmans' Storm (1936) next to Piet Mondrian's Red cloud (1907), next to James Ensor's White cloud (1884), next to Appel's Black clouds over the city (1984) creates a chain of correspondances where none previously existed, surely the goal of all mixologists whatever their medium (paintings, music, alcoholic drinks).
Yet despite these successes, the exhibition as a whole doesn't entirely convince. Perhaps in part because Appel's oeuvre is not sufficiently interesting to support the curator's conceit. Later works such as The victory of matter (five parts) (2003), with its stuffed animal heads chained to canvases full of bold splashes of colour, do not captivate in the way that much simpler, but more profound, paintings from half a century earlier such as Stierege Cat (Bull-Cat) (1951) do.
A second flaw in the program is the large chunk of the exhibition that is dedicated to Appel's CoBrA cohorts, Hugo Claus and Lucebert, whose art work is largely of academic interest only these days.
Despite these gripes, there is just enough to justify the entrance fee, should you be so inclined. (For more information visit www.bozar.be. The exhibition ends January 16th).

A load of bollocks

Describing a dream is usually a pretty lame thing to do, but the one I had this morning was so bizarre that I just have to pass it on. I dreamed I was at a paper industry Xmas function where the entertainment was being provided by Punk ne'er do wells, the Bollock Brothers (Must be something to do with having seen them last summer at a small club in suburban Brussels). In my dream they played one 20 minute long song that was surprisingly well received by the assembled throng. In fact the dream band fared better than the real BB as I recall (although the latter's cover of Madness' Baggy Trousers - substituting the refrain 'Bollock Bruvvers" for the standard chorus - is a memory I shall treasure). www.bollock-brothers.com

Berry me some data

The virtual world too must be ripe for brand-conscious counterfeiters. How soon, for instance, before 'tech savvy teens' (as we called them in my Internet Markets days) start adding the tag line, Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net), to their emails, irrespective of whether or not they own the technology in question? In fact, they probably are already.

Faking it - the real deal

Xiangyang Fashion Market, Shanghai
Originally uploaded by MonkeyGone2.

Shanghai's number one tourist attraction is not a modern marvel such as the Jinmao Tower, nor is it one of the city's beautiful Buddhist temples (although the Longhua Temple and Pagoda and the Jade Buddha Temple are both superb). Instead it is the Xiangyang Fashion Market on Shanxi Road, better known as the 'fakes market'. Here, despite the warning posted over the main entrance (see photo), Western visitors compete to wring the best deal for knock-off Burberry, Armani, Rolex, Gucci, Paul and Shark, etc. from the vendors. The market is split into three sections - A, B and C - with A-grade fakes the best, C the lowest quality.
Leaving aside the ethical and economic consequences of supporting counterfeiting on a mass scale, it is fascinating to observe the bargaining process on the stalls. Haggling over prices turns shopping into a sport, for participants and spectators alike.

Dinner in Shanghai

There are some great restaurants in Shanghai, and not only serving Shanghainese cuisine. One of the most enjoyable ones I visited was a Thai restaurant called Lan Na in the Rui Jin Hotel and Garden Complex (Can Ling You (no. 4) building). Built in 1936 as an independent garden residence belonging to the Mitsui Trading Co. and later hosting such communist-era luminaries as Chou En-lai and Ho Cho Minh, the complex is beautiful inside and out. And its finery is matched by the quality of chef Thipa Suajamsil's menu.
Shanghai also has a number of excellent all-you-can eat Japanese restaurants, where for 150 RMB (approximately 15 euros) you can have your fill of sushi, sashimi, tempura, etc. as well as hot sake, ice tea and 650 ml bottles of Asahi beer.
For local fare, the Jade Garden in Pudong is hard to beat, both for quality and price. The hairy crab sauteed in soy sauce was delicious if, like any crab, a little awkward to handle.
Probably the most interesting restaurant I visited was a place called 'Sea Port', also in Pudong. Here, you get to choose what you want to eat from a series of tanks holding lobsters, crabs, turtles, snakes, and various, hard-to-identify fish. As well as the main dining area, there are also corridors full of private dining rooms (and a small army of staff - eight people greeted us as we entered and left the building). Among the delights I sampled were chrysanthemum tea, baby tuna fish, stir-fried ostrich, turnip-shaped pastries with sweet noodles inside, solid coconut milk shapes and gelatinous green balls filled with black sesame sauce (delicious).

DIY Band Aid

With the Xmas party season in full swing, what better way to capture the spirit of the times than to have your own Band Aid party? Everyone takes a line of the song (we all come together to 'feed the world', natch) and leaves at the end of the evening with a copy of the recording (burnt onto CD there and then). Lovely.

They are among us

Debates about the need to limit or monitor advertising usually centre around what we see on TV. An article in last Sunday's New York Times magazine, "The hidden (in plain sight) persuaders" by Rob Walker, lifted the lid on a sinister new twist, human infomercials. US companies are recruiting ordinary members of the public to act as living advertisements for various products: throw a barbecue and tell all your friends and family how great these new chicken sausages are! There are an estimated 20,000 people across the US who have been co-opted by the marketeers for this very purpose. The idea, of course, is that word-of-mouth marketing is by far the most effective. But, how would you feel if you found out your closest friends were involved in this racket? It would certainly leave a sour taste in my mouth. From an army of police informers to an army of 'informed consumers', history repeats in the strangest ways: Welcome to the new (improved) iron curtain!

You wait years for an article about manhole covers and then...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1347199,00.html

A glossary of glossaries

http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/hyperref.html

Dust off those D90s - a follow up

I received an interesting spam email this week from a company in Washington State. It seems they have everything you need to know about converting records and tapes to CD. Here's the PR blurb:

Summary:

Blaze Audio has released a video tutorial entitled "How to Convert Records and Tapes to CD" for people who want to preserve their precious records and tapes. This video tutorial covers connections, proper recording, editing, removing pops and clicks, and burning the final CD. Following the easy to understand instructions, people of all ages can convert records and tapes to CD, preserving their collection and enjoying listening pleasure for years to come.

For: Blaze Audio, POB 189, Lopez, WA 98261 http://www.blazeaudio.com
Further information: Tom Jeffries, 360-468-2108, pr@blazeaudio.com

Starbucks in Xintiandi

Starbucks in Xintiandi
Originally uploaded by MonkeyGone2.

The quest for world domination continues! Can we have some Chinese tea houses over here by way of exchange?

Rising through the smog

Rising through the smog
Originally uploaded by MonkeyGone2.

A thick smog almost obscures the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. Built in 1994, this showpiece project was one of the first fruits of China's new 'open for business' approach. But with Shanghai now one of the world's most polluted cities, questions are being raised about the pace and nature of development.

The road to Xintiandi in pictures

Progress
Originally uploaded by MonkeyGone2.

New apartments under construction in Pudong. A Gucci store is also in the offing.

The road to Xintiandi

This is the first chance I've had to gather my thoughts since getting back from Shanghai. It's a fantastic city - so dynamic. A taxi ride from Pudong airport to Xintiandi downtown is like no other journey in the world. (Assuming you make it: Shanghainese drivers love to change lanes for no apparent reason and with scant regard for other road users). Leaving the hypermodern airport and driving alongside the Maglev track (at 430 kmh, the world's fastest train), the manicured roadsides, high-tech business parks, shopping malls and private housing estates (some of which look like Barratt Homes with Chinese eaves) are redolent of US edge cities such as Plano, Texas.
Closer to the river, the buildings become taller, a thicket of office blocks and new appartments, many still under construction. In this part of Pudong, where the taxi drivers frequently get lost, it is normal to pass a building one day and see a whole new section added to it the next. The pace of change is incredible - it feels like being in Manhattan as it is being built. Crossing the Huangpo and leaving the special economic zone (a swamp 15 years ago) for Puxi, the traditional heart of Shanghai brings a rush of a different kind. Now you real feel like you are in one of the world's most populous cities. Buildings crowd in on the highway from all sides; a profusion of signs, sounds and smells. Old men with half a shop of the back of their bicycles; twentysomethings in an SUV wearing Ralph Lauren: Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World' concept brought to glorious life.
And then the driver pulls over, you are paying him (no tip, don't forget your receipt). And you are walking into a gentrified version of 1920s Shanghai: Xintiandi.
Saved from the bulldozers by a perceptive property developer in 1997 and now the favourite haunt of Shanghai's beautiful people, expats and Western tourists, Xintiandi houses hip clubs, arts and crafts stores, a Starbucks and the fantastic restaurant/gallery TMSK (pot roast with oyster sauce, mmm) among other toney things. It was also the site of the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party back in 1921. The building in question is now a museum. I spent a diverting half hour there, virtually alone. A sign of how much China has changed in the 28 years since Mao's death.

Doc Cox moment

Notice in a Shanghai taxi:
"Psychos or drunkards without guardians are prohibited to take taxis."