WE HAVE MOVED

http://eyesinworld.wordpress.com/

Whirlwind

bang bang-

...flying into Shanghai from Shenzhen last week the lady gets on the intercom and explains that the weather is too bad to land>>>>so we circled the airport for an hour and a half....finally she gets back on the intercom and says "were going down now" I looked around and seemed to be the only one even slightly botherd/amused by this... obviously she hasnt been following the news recently and the nascent declining track record of airtravel safety....

pics soon

<3
MAX

Vblog1 Crickets

Maybe i'll have to go to the burning man of crickets this year too ;)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6PyoR-j9rc

I had a great 20days in America!!!!

Thanks and Love to all MY dearest Americans!!!

Midi Festival goes to Zhenjiang 镇江!

Last weekend I headed out to see one of China's top "rock music festivals". I tried to stay as empty as possible so I could fill up my whole cup. As a concert is in so many ways a canary song; at least I knew it would be very China telling. Nuff Said.

From the Handbill:
"With the 10th anniversary of China’s exciting and authentic rock festival, this year’s Midi Festival will move to south Chinese town Zhenjiang (镇江), on invitation of the city council.

There will be 2 stages, the rock stage and the Yan electro stage, filled with live music each festival day from 2pm to midnight. The main theme of the festival of course will be the 10th anniversary of Midi Festival, 18 Chinese Bands, old and newer friends to Midi, such as Again, Miserable Faith, Thin Man, Yaska, Muma, Honey Gun, Spring & Autumn, Reflector, Subs, Cold Fairytales, LR etc, plus 12 oversea bands will be there to celebrate such a milestone event in China’s long way in modern music, even godfather of chinese rock, Mr. Cui Jian will attend the stage there, too!"

-This dude Cui Jian 老崔 was pretty cool. And he has a cool and interesting history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_Jian

His band made me smile. I can see how he wanted to jam with the stones, and I could see how he & SCI would want to jam together too. His trad instrument guy was especially tuned in.


-The band Army Of Freshman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Freshmen

Made me want to die. I feel sorry for all the people around the world that are tricked* into shitty music; and how every Chinese person there thought they were A) Awesome & B) Dancing/Acting Cool

I definitely learned quite a bit from how the very large mostly Chinese crowd acted. Which was a weird wild sunny muddy mess to be stuck in, I saw some things I could have expected, many beautiful things, some ugly behavior. Overall it was just your normal under control drunks patriots sickos CALI bands and things for my dome piece to think about rock festival, developing in China. @(^_^)@

miss.these.peeps

a picture is worth a thousand words...a video is 36 pictures a second

If only there was video evidence of me driving the car, little fish was having a bit of trouble operating the camera; tell truth she was having a bit of trouble operating a motor vehicle as well

night time driving under the highway...its awesome that the entirety of this highway is lit up from underneath with some colorchanging LED's, for this clip we're on the electric blue cycle

4/16/09 1:23pm....a lefty in right handed scissors...not exactly a smile....until the rattail malnurished cat ending


driving in the cop car with jules joey & chris in the hat, nuff said.......


lets take a walk & a roadsoda


couchsurfing dinner party and nasal stethoscope


jono being funny

why do you look at me like that :)

3clips somewhere between guangzhou & shanghai

Its Official We're Vernal

A few nights ago after a quick midweek trip to Hangzhou - Back in the burbs of Shanghai (wait is that an oxymoron?); I went to an Iranian New Year party. In Iran the new year starts on the first day of spring which is the Vernal Equinox- (thats awesome!!) It was again confirmed that everyone, including both the Chinese and the Iranians use a standard calender that is more accurate than the Gregorian, as the Chinese operate a lunar calender and the Persians a solar, both of which offer some of the longest chronological records in history. In Persia after 12 days of celebration and festivities, every one gets together on the 13th for Sizdah Bedar a time of chaos when families put order aside and avoid the bad luck associated with the number thirteen by going outdoors and having picnics and parties. Then on the 14th a celebration marking 'The Passing Of Sizdah Bedar' takes place - just another excuse for another huge party :) - As everything bad that was going to happen would have already happened within the first 13 days of the new year the joke of the evening was that it was safe to reinvest in the stock market. I was mainly just very lucky to have been invited into such an interesting and influential circle in Shanghai. Aside from tying knots in grasses and making wishes, great food, and dirty jokes; there is nothing like getting advice from a roundtable of 15 grown men from 10 different countries over cognac and cigars. I love bouncing balls off these guys brain walls, I think I blow their minds a bit too, I like tutoring 9th grade physics and math to their kids too, I'll let you know if one of these guys and I go into business together; or if we devise our own super alien accurate calender :)

1st 60 Days

CLICK THE PIC>>>>CLICK AGAIN TO ZOOM IN

Last week was the end of my first allotted visa stay of 60days. If I want to stay for a prolonged period without the hassle of going to the border every 60 I need to consider some other options. Nonetheless this time I didn't and decided to pursue my next quickest and cheapest option and take the train to Hong Kong, which is "technically" not a part of mainland PRC. I had been to Hong Kong once before and knew if I wasn't careful I'd never make it out alive or with any cash at all.

On the train down I was very excited when 2 cute 20 &22 yr old girls were sleeping on the two bunks above and above/across from me- less excited that their round overly gruff father was directly across from me. I totally did my best to keep my eyes on my book and my mouth shut- but after dinner when the dad busted out the bai jiu and insisted I have a drink with him- I knew right there this was going to get weird. It turns out that one of the daughters goes to school at the University of Michigan & the other goes to university in France somewhere. The father is adverse to flying and came up to Shanghai to pick his daughters up at the airport and take them home on the train as they were visiting for spring break. It also turns out there are 5 daughters in their family all of whom went to or are currently in a foreign university except their youngest daughter who will also surely have some amazing opportunities. The father does not speak much English or Mandarin- but sitting across from him with his hott daughters on either side; him asking a question in Cantonese; one daughter translating it to me; my response; and the other daughter translating it back to him; one could really feel the robust vigor of what’s "really" going on in China. We covered quite an array of topics and I kept the father laughing & informed with my well-placed yet insightful questions and responses. One of the daughters was definitely giving me the soft eye too. Yet as dad's face got redder and redder it became harder and harder of a conversation to gracefully step out of. After politely refusing and him not recognizing my refusal- I finally told him that I thought my mother would disapprove of my drinking so much alcohol- thank god he bought it- truthfully it wasn’t because I was becoming drunk but because with each additional sip the foul paint thinner like stuff was really getting to me. As we all readied for bed the father had one of his daughters ask me which one of them I would most prefer to sleep with. I bowed and said that they were both of course very beautiful girls- the father said no really which one- and I stuck to my story that they were both very good looking girls. Then as if he were agreeing with me he had his daughters tell me that he thought I would much prefer his youngest daughter because at 16 she is the firmest and he thinks her boobs are going to be the biggest. All of this out of her older sisters mouth with out even batting an eye. Then the dad pulled the cover up and went to bed and both the daughters obediently did the same. I just awkwardly lay there for a minute giving my head a quick de-briefing. We arrived to Hong Kong later the next afternoon, last night seemed to be forgotten and I pleasantly talked a bit with the two girls before arriving. At the train station we all went through customs and when I came out the man and his two daughters were flagging me over; his wife had met them at the train station and had brought a bottle of bai jiu to give to my mother- in an awkward disbelief I accepted the gift said good bye and walked into Hong Kong-

I first quickly ditched the bai jiu


About a week before my arrival I had exhausted all my options on Couchsurfing - strange not even one person responded to me :(
In the end I had found this article from a blog linked to the Australian Women’s Health Magazine- HERE
and decided that was my best lead and that I would use it as my rough plan
It is truly amazing that outside one of the most densely populated places on the planet there are never ending hiking trails and an abundance of untouched wilderness.

I was probably a little green in the face when we arrived at the pier swerving through the back hills of HK @ 100+KM/hr. In retrospect I could have written down where I thought I was going once I got to the pier but I hadn’t and I just hired a Cantonese fisher woman to just drive out there for a bit & see where it took us-

When I saw an island with some decent looking beach fronts I "point and shooted" us over there. 100HKD didn't seem bad at all to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Stepping onto the pier it again was immediately apparent that just like in Sesame Street one of these things was not like the other, it was me. It was apparent I did not belong here. The little fishing village probably had less than 100 people living on it with their sparse huts and boats. Nonetheless I walked right up bought some noodles some beer and kept on going. It only took me about another hour and I had hiked to the complete other side of the island. Within 4 hours of arriving in HK I was now completely alone on Max's Beach; I got a little wet; cracked a beer; cracked my book, and read till sunset. Sunset = :) A little after dinner I got a phone call from Chase in Europe, which was really great to talk to a familiar voice for a bit, and he told me of some contacts I should probably follow through with in the next couple of days back in HK. After dark I noticed the bioluminescents in the water, as the gentle waves were breaking in neon blue. I started throwing stones into the water and gave my self a little light show, and ultimately threw out my arm trying to give my self a bigger and bigger light show :) then I pulled my jacket over my head and went to bed, it was probably still shy of 9 o'clock. The next morning I woke up and my jacket was nowhere to be found, which I thought was slightly odd as there had not even been a breeze- all of my things were safe though, as I learned from the last time I crashed out on a beach in Thai, I had buried everything a few hundred meters away from my sleep spot. I laugh a bit thinking about some fisher-dude quietly checking-up on me in the middle of the night & now rocking my fake Armani overcoat. I did a little reading; took another dip; tried to stretch; and walked back to the other side of the island. On my way I was walking next to all kinds of cows who seemed annoyed but not angry I was there- then I heard a funny sound- I made a sound back as not to spook the cows when I came out of the jungle onto them- it made a funnier sound and I became a little nervous- then I crouched as to gain an animals point of view- straight up- looking me down was some sort of wild boar thing- it was a mini tank is what it was, not nice looking with some big tusk/teeth thingies. He made another angry sound at me and I thought I was going to have my soft pink flesh scattered around Hong Kong island- I clanked my beer bottles together and threw one at him and retreated; thankful he did not advance again. My heart was beating faster than a businessman’s after reading The Economist. I happily strolled back into the "town center" and was watched the whole way- first person I asked to take me back to the main pier happily obliged I asked how much he wanted, he scratched his head and said "ummm 8HKD?" I took him up on his offer.

Back in downtown Hong Kong I got on the subway and headed for Shenzhen, there was no way I was going to let the glitz and glam of HK snag any of my money. Shenzhen has a really interesting story, as it was Deng Xiaoping's pet project and China's first Special Economic Zone. Deng Xiaoping is the father of China's modern socialist market economy and is mainly responsible for China kicking so much ass in the last 40years. I got off at the last subway stop on the line and walked across the border back into China. Shenzhen I think is cool- the average age is 27, and 20 percent of China's PhD's work in Shenzhen. I bought some dress clothes and went looking for Chases' contacts. After a good briefing; and being welcomed into their home for the night, and shown around HK some more the following day, I boarded my train back to Shanghai with some needed R&R provided by nature and a few good topic seeds to heavily contemplate.

Other than the that- everyday seems to be filled with smiley Chinese people and the stories they tell me and the topics we blunder through are amazing and just too much to transcribe into any type of post that would have any underlying meaning or story behind it.

I bought a camera the other day after realizing my missed opportunity in HK and I hope to be better documenting my countless stories with it soon.

I hunj% had fun/learned/and grew from my 48hr visa jaunt to HK-

MAX

:(

I have realized that my blog, to date, sucks ass
maybe its because i was "soooo super cool" in my ANTI POST
i will be working to change this
MAX

also new awesome auxiliary email for those interested

www.thechange.be

Jennings@thechange.be

Already? Feels Like Summer

CLICK THE PIC

STRANGEST.CATCH

Think we can teach the cormorants on the S. Platte river to do this?

Cormorant fishing is a traditional method of river fishing that has been practiced for some 1300 years. This method involves fishermen using cormorant birds on leashes to catch fish. Fishermen tie a string or attach a ring tight around the birds neck so it cannot swallow the fish it catches. The birds dive repeatedly for the catch. The leash is then connected to the small metal ring that around the cormorant's neck. Every time a cormorant manages to catch a fish, the fisherman pulls them back into the boat and forces them to disgorge the fish, he then cuts up small pieces of a fish able enough for the birds to swallow and gives them this food to keep his 'business partners' happy.

These little canal towns are wild- one could say part Venice part 500AD

WHY.DONT.YOU.JUST.CALL.IT.HEIGUIZI

I am quickly becoming numb/used to all the things that contrast so differently to my liberal western upbringing. I mean I no longer have qualms about eating BBQ lamb penis, I barely bat an eye when there is a chicken head or foot in my kungpow chicken, when I see a homeless person poop in the street, or when my landlord surprises me by buying me some underwear with the 'big' pouch in front. This one however really made my jaw drop; if you think any of the things I just described are unacceptable, think again.............. 黑人牙膏!!! 黑人 hēi rén, or "black people" 牙膏 yá gāo "toothpaste" is one of the most popular brands of teeth whitener in China. It surely blackens Colgate's reputation when they want you to be impressed just how white my teeth look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie

WE.ARE.NOT.ALONE.IN.OUR.TRAVELS

CLICK HERE & WATCH: THE.DISCLOSURE.PROJECT

WHAT.A.VIEW

MY.ANTI.POST

Generally when one starts a blog one describes: Who they are; Why they are blogging; and what they will be blogging about. Well this is not my first blog. And I'm not entirely ready to put in stone any of those things; yet still willing to document a personal discovery on such examinations. Two weeks have passed and here I am still thinking of my first post since moving to China. So I'm just gonna get on it - MY ANTI POST - Thank you for visiting - 'kernels from my consciousness' coming soon