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evian spa

went to work, then chinese class for 2 hours.  thought about going to fabric market, then changed to garden books, an adorable foreign bookstore in the french concession that serves big scoops of gelato with real hazelnuts, then settled on the evian spa at three on the bund for manicures.  nancy got nail art, and had these tiny little flowers meticulously painted on her nails.  i was fascinated, and made a little movie out of it.  went to lulus for dinner with ahnee, gary and liana, met up with brian (calvin's highschool friend from troy, michigan) and his girlfriend wendy, who were visiting form hong kong.  took them to the dvd store and with a heavy sigh - it's only wednesday!

angie in new york january

i'll be coming to my favorite city sometime around January 8 - January 20.  i have to figure out all the details, but calvin will be at nyu TRIUM during that time, so i'm going to try and get time off from work so i can accompany him and see all my rockin' friends there. 

i'm scared i'll won't quite recognize the city, or that less things that made new york my favorite won't be there anymore? 

lunch with lauren and annie yesterday - a. just returned 3 weeks ago, a die-hard new yorker - she and carter are convinced shanghai is the new new-york, and that new york (atleast manhattan) is getting out of control expensive. they are lifers, putting down investment for a place here in shanghai eventhough he's going to school back in nyc shortly.  she may even stay here while he's away studying.  i agree that artists could barely afford to live in manhattan, and the city is probably infested with bankers making crazy 6-figures.  but i want to see it for myself.

is that why the bronx it getting hot?  because when i was there, the bronx was, like, where my friend gloria choi's folks lived in a residential neighborhood, and they had carpet.  i don't think they wore pumas or ate organic food.  even in the short time i was away in san francisco, my familiar charles street had installed a fresh and marc jacobs.  and 2 towering highrises, one of which nicole kidman lives in.  it's interesting for 2 seconds that you notice the change, and then you realize how overpriced everything is, and then sadness descends.  then annoyance.

i guess the only thing that sucks is that i won't be home for christmas since i'll have to juggle things around for work.  maybe cal and i will go way north to haerbin ice-festival before all the tourists trample everything grey.  can check out 20 foot godzilla ice sculptures and ice-casinos and sleep in glossy igloos.  i just made that up, i don't know.

the other thing is i'll probably be homeless (as calvin sleeps on his 4000 threadcount cotton sheets at the waldorf with his nyu "room-buddy" eff you both) so any takers offereing their sofa?   i promise to annoy the crap out of you with my new impressions of new york and ask you repeatedly "is this still there?"  "what about this?" and "do you remember when ..."

penguins & chocolate

friday i started chinese classes!  my teacher's name is cynthia - she's got a rock solid format for teaching me, unlike a lot of these wishy washy students we've tried out.  it's at first block, just a couple of building's down from david and pauline's.  i'm supposed to learn 1,000 characters in 3 months.  whewwwwwww.

on saturday, we took nancy b. to muji where she bought some cardholders and organizers for her trip back to new york, and then took calvin uniqlo for his back-to-school clothes. 

lauren and sylvie had a "penguins and chocolate" party at their apartment, but "march of the penguins" wasn't working on their dvd player. must be too nice of one!  the more crappy and cheap, the better to play bootleg dvds.  we had tried to visit the cathay theatre to see it last weekend, the only place with subtitles, but turns out they re-dubbed the entire thing, and only left the french subtitles.  oh, the chinese! 

sunday, it was danyeu's birthday, so we went to the westin for champagne brunch!  last year annie organized the fanciest dinner i had ever been to at laris with our own room, placecards, and special menu.  the photo is exactly where we had dinner.  the mirrors reflected the huangpu river and glittering buildings at night.

i went to my first "shanghai scribblers" meeting, a group of writers met in tamie ayi's building for brunch and read over eachother's work.

next it was down to xujiahui, the human anthill that makes shibuya look like john denver's country road.  we needed to pick up an i-sight video camera before calvin leaves for london.  the operation was successful.

mo chin at kanvas

please check out mo chin's upcoming exhibit on 09-13. 

it will be at the kanvas gallery in chelsea:

click on "gallery", then on "upcoming artists"

old navy t-shirts are designed by racist bullshiters

check out this racist bullshit by old navy.

wtf.

nancy b.

this morning i met with jiaming to talk about any work changes with weijun leaving for london, and no changes.  whew.

after work, i took the subway to sephora to return something and of course wound up buying face wash instead.  i totally bought a whitening face wash.  what the hell is happening to me, michael jackson?  i am being bullied into not being tan here in china! 

anyways, wearing a yoshitomo nara t-shirt with a flowy purple suede skirt nancy looked below 14th street new york which was super nice.  we ate at rbt for taiwanese munchies after buying some stuff she needed (at the place, she said, that has an answer for everything) and chatted about the chins.  as we were talking i thought she pretty much rocks and i was sad thinking how long it had been since i had a girlfriend i could really open up to, everyone being so far away. 

enough boo hoo, we went to 3 for women at bund, where they had 9 foot tall wicker-shaped pod like dressing rooms.  saw a layer-y yohji yamamoto shirt was perfect for calvin but was 5,000 rmb - yoiks.  then i wondered if he would really want that, or a tie instead.  it was really wierd to think that while shopping with nancy b/c it made me think about how we were 2 crazy kids back in the east village, and how calvin would not have wanted a tie back then.  she bought a beautiful vanessa bruno silk dress.  she showed it to the director, who we ran into downstairs, but i totally thought he was a p.a. b/c he's like 20 years old.

she treated me and calvin these incredible tiny chocoate chinese moon cakes from laris' chocolate room, that came in a fancy magnetic box.  caramel, red bean + chrysanthemum, lotus + salty egg and coconut + ginger.  we ate 2 and then were kind of tired.   but guess what, the salty egg one was the best.

had hunan dinner with auntie tamie and uncle richard to catch up since hadn't seen them in a while.  uncle richard came back from a company trip to xia'men and auntie tamie showed me all the amazing things that she bought (to say she is bargain-savvy is an understatement) and made.  it's good to see them, they looked happy and relaxed.  also, it was nice to treat them for once.

maybe a massage tonight and a trip to the dvd store?  see what she's up for. 

the people's republic of media

waiting for the elevator i noticed a huge billboard - and of course stopped to see who of my colleagues i could regognize in their cute summery outfits. my editor looked very nice as usual, and oh, it looks like they took a little summer field trip - shimmery lake, teak wood chairs, and marching alongside chinese flag.

wait, what?

in each photo, the flag appeared. in one, they gathered smiling for a group photo, in front of the huge benign flag of china. the strangest one was one in which each was holding their hands in fists, reciting something after a rather stern looking leader behind the backdrop of, you guessed it, the chinese flag.

other floors for voice dubbing have passport-like photos of members of the communist party so you can see clearly, who belongs and who doesn't. since the whole place is owned by the government, i suggest you snap that picture, and fast.

modern china property developments

this weekend running around shanghai meeting up with friends, before calvin leaves for london.  it's been wonderful - this overwhelming feeling (illusion?) that we have indeed-y found a little family here.  it helps curb my compulsive checking the nyt real estate section habit i've adopted since moving away to san francisco.  the weather has helped too, it's cooled down a bit. 

we even browsed a couple of downtown apartments just to see - and  found one and i kid you not, that had - resplendent with smelly local peony cigarettes - a top of the line karaoke room, mahjahng room with chinese "antiques", pool room, and a friggin' golf range.  tastefully decorated like a W hotel.  wtf.  and every single person in this very expensive, spankin' new downtown apartment was wearing those hideous crocodile pleather shoes or had a huge pile of them outside their door b/c they were entertaining - the standard "new pla uniform" shoes of the masses.  THIS is modern china, my friends.  well, that, and getting your blogs blocked.

2 big bonuses: ahnee moved here a couple of days ago (the night before the oriented event) and nancy bululacao is in town.  ahnee taught her first marketing class to 37 students on saturday, and nancy is keeping her boyfriend company and while he shoots a movie with kelly hu.  so maybe soon more than little miss imdb, cindy chin, will know who kelly hu is?

i'm sorry i haven't written in a while - i've got lots of crap stored up though to back-fill my lame alphabet place holders.  so in the words of elyse sewell, "prepare to be burdened"!

i can't believe kimmu and michael are moving to london soon.  get the 17" powerbook kim.  you know you want it!

roomate in nyc?

anyone need a roomate for my sis in law? she bakes excellent chocolate chip cookies, comes with a very dry sense of humor, and, of course, rules. very cute.

good luck with school and the kids and settling into nyc, cindy. we're rooting for you over here, and know you'll kick some mutha-ass. "you work it out, girl."

meaness is the new black

i've decided i'll never be very cool. i think i want to be warm, instead.