Semester 3 Chapter XIV: Warehouses and Rides

I kinda slowed down last week to focus a bit more on school and other responsibilities. On Monday, I met with one of my classmates, who happens to be a vegetarian, for a dinner at Happy Buddha. They still do 1+1 Monday vegan burger deals and they expanded their burger menu by 3 new options. It was really good – I realized I barely eat any bread in China. Guess that’s good too. After that, I met with another classmate for a beer at the Papa’s joint. We went for the 8% braincell killer, got couple of those and talked until late. Pretty chilled evening.

On Friday, me and my biking friend met up to check a gallery in Pudong. Although the weather is pretty chilly, it does not seem polluted around here. Especially compared to last year – December was completely fucked, visibility non-existing and PM 2.5 values beyond lethal. I don’t check PM levels anymore, cause I figured it’s better for my mental health, but I do believe it’s way better this time around.

We went by Fuxing Roud all the way to the bund, took a ferry, rode around the financial center and on the way to our destination gallery at Minsheng Road, we ran into a venue called Shipyard 1862. The whole area northern of Luziazui is pretty industrial. There’s lotta construction going on, there are some abandoned buildings and most importantly, there are some that have been turned into exhibition spaces.

At the Shipyard, there was some media art, video, different installations and even some pieces I saw in Madein gallery last year. I guess they are somehow connected. The exhibition was on the ground floor only, however, there were operational escalators that would take you up to like 5^th floor, which was super weird, cause there was literally nothing up there. Just big ass windows and amazing views. No people, no visitors, no staff, no art, no security. Pretty surreal.

After that, we headed to the gallery we initially picked. Again, massive industrial building that obviously used to be a factory of some sort. Lotta architectural pieces, sustainable plans for urbanism and public space, hyperloop plans with VR goggles that put you inside the thing. This exhibition was bigger, as it spread on 5 floors. Besides of quite interesting content, there were also amazing views from huge windows. Some statues and installations outside, overall very dope. Once we were done, we hopped on a ferry, and then I rode back home.

In the evening, I met with some friends at Papa’s again. This time, they didn’t have the 8% motherfucker, so we leveled up and went for 14%. Same brand but almost twice as strong. The beer was aight but man. I had two of those and I was fucking gucci. It’s feels really more like liquor than beer.

I managed to add some before sleep work into my routine. I try to do some school work for about 2 hours every night and so far it kinda flies. We’ll see whether it sustains. Gotta say though, I cannot wait for this fucking semester to be over. Got about a month left and after that, I’m taking couple of weeks off not doing any fucking thing related to this. Rebooting.

 

 

Highlights:

• Quality Control tape & Big Sean with Metro Booming – those releases keep on coming.
• Went to get my groceries to this veggie market across the street for the first time. Love it. The selection is huge, they have various kinds of tofu and I even got some black beans I haven’t seen before. I got some extra free veggies from this nice Chinese lady too. This place is the shit.
• New Star Wars has a Chinese release date – January 5^th. No idea how to dodge spoiler for 3 weeks but I’ll try.