Monday, May 28, 2018

Semester 4 Chapter XII: Your Local Popstars


Sorry for the wait again. The blog is still running, we are all good in Shanghai, sun is shining, weather is beautiful, I just got back from the stadium, did some running, some working out, played some badminton with this Chinese grandpa, Im fresh off the shower, new Pusha T is bumping out my headphones (its still fuck Kanye tho)... The important thing is that we are live, we are back on and we intend to keep it that way until I wrap it up in about a month...



Let me start with some logistics. I finally managed to book my ticket back to Europe so all of you motherfuckers who cannot wait to see me, know that Ill be back there July 4th. So get the drinks ready, get all that dope shit ready, it is officially going down.



Now, back to this motherfucker. I had one of my dawgs from the Czech Republic visiting for about 10 days which is the reason why I skipped a week with the blog. Im sure I did some shit before he arrived but since we consumed excessive amount of alcohol over the past two weeks, my memories are all blurred up (even more than usual) and Im not even gonna try to recollect everything. I remember a hangout with one of my friends at her place which turned into an all-nighter... Thats about it...



Aight, so May 17th, I picked up my bro at the Jingan metro station which started our broliday. We managed to do so much shit, its hard to believe. We hung out at all my favorite places, I introduced him to my favorite people, we went to All to check a Genome show, we ate all the amazing food Im aware of in this town (and trust me, it is a lot), we drank shitload of beer, lotta whisky, we went to Shengsi island for two nights, we went to Powerstation... We hit Arkham to see Boys Noize for his last night... It was just too much good shit. Thank god we managed to squeeze some workouts and runs into all of that... Im detoxing like a motherfucker now.


Now, let me give you some brief overview of the Shengsi trip. Shengsi is a small island located south-east from Shanghai. You have to take a bus from Nanpu Bridge which takes you all the way to the ferry station which is about two hours away, and it passes this 30km bridge over the sea. Pretty impressive. Then you hop on the ferry which takes another hour and voila you are at the island. You gotta take a bus to the center of the only city over there. Nobody speaks English and there are barely any tourists (we havent run into any international ones). If you are lucky enough, you find a small bus station and take another minibus to this tiny fishing village. We got there, got ourselves a hotel room for 300 RMB per night with a view at this sandy beach in the bay and that was that. Two days of chilling, walking around, discovering scenic spots, eating amazing food, drinking beer, talking shit... We didnt swim tho although the water didnt look totally unacceptable, it didnt look super appealing neither, so we passed on that....


Another highlight was arcades. I discovered this spot a while ago but I didnt really go in to play any games up until now. Located close to West Nanjing road on the 4th floor of this building at Jiangning Lu, this place offers dozens of old-school SEGA and other old timer 80s and 90s machines. You can race, you can shoot zombies, you can shoot machine guns... Its super cheap, super loud, super colorful, super fun... We ended up spending two nights over there. Fucking awesome.


Overall, this whole thing was dope. I guess its always cool catching up with your squad, especially if your life decisions got you to the other end of the world. Im really looking forward to catching up with the rest of my people in July. Its still one!

 
Highlights:

  • Pushas & Asap Rockys albums.
  • The current exhibition in Powerstation. If youre around, go check it out. Worth every penny.
  • Trying out some new exercises on the bars at the stadium. Feeling that!

Monday, May 14, 2018

Semester 4 Chapter XI: Down the Memory Lane


Aight, I dont really remember what was the last time me pulling two dj gigs in one week but it had to be at least like 6 years ago. Up until last week. I played with my bro at Cs on Thursday and then I did my very first Shanghainese solo set at Ninja on Sunday. Both events were chilled but the Sunday one got kinda lit around 1am, and it turned out to be actually quite dope. Plus when those motherfuckers told me I can get anything at the bar, I immediately went for a Hennessy bottle... And that just adds value to your night... Ya dig? There were some of my peers dropping by to show love but most of them left before it got good... So the lesson is... Next time, come around 1! I really enjoyed the night tho... Like 4 hours set of bangers on bangers on bangers... Felt good as hell... Based on reactions, there's volume 2 coming quite soon! YLP bitches!


What else is new... Last week, I went out for some dinners (one of my friends took me to this Vietnamese joint close to West Nanjing Road - great cold veggie noodles!), went out for some beers, hung out in bars, apartments, hotel rooms... The usual shit...  I also started to plan my summer... Still dont have my ticket to Europe but Im gonna deal with that real soon... However, I do have my tickets to Uppsala (I see you, sister!), and also to fucking Montenegro... Can I get a hell yeah?!!


On Thursday, I met with my favorite people from Dragon Burn to do a dinner at Jen Dow before my thing at Cs. After that, they talked me into joining them for a beer at Cages. Apparently, they do like dodgeball tournaments over there on weekly basis. I had no fucking clue, adults voluntarily play dodgeball... My primary school memories of playing that are overall horrifying. Any person who was not among the biggest or strongest kids in the class can surely relate to that.  I also did not know that this game has any kinda rules. They use like 10 balls at the same time, one of them is red, and that one is somewhat special or some shit... Fucking ridiculous... However, I ended up joining them for a game. Seems they are really good in talking me into shit... So I left Cages like one hour before my set on my board, being all sweaty... Ready to rock!


On Saturday, I went to the ifvegan restaurant to do like a late b-day dinner with my biking partner. We let the lovely lady in charge who was feeding us those amazing things during the Earthfest couple weeks ago join us and it turned out to be a very chilled and long ass hangout. And the food. God damn it. She even got a custom cake made as a gift. And that was some mean cake. Food is life...



Highlights:

  • Donald Glover. Thank you for existing. I finished the last season of Atlanta, Im still amazed by that This Is America video. The song went straight to my setlist. Big up!
  • Tee Grizzleys new project, Blocboy JBs mixtape... Riding in a motherfucking Ro ver!
  • My supervisor asked me to revise one of his papers and gave me a ton of articles to go through. So I guess I should start spending more time in library again. PhD in this motherfucker!

Monday, May 7, 2018

Semester 4 Chapter X: Baller Nation


Yo, we got another week on deck, we got new Rae Sremmurd buming out the headphones, we got new Royce album out, we got summer vibes all around the city... Everything is straight, everything is good, I hope all of you are doing good as well, lets do another chapter of the most pointless blog in the world!


Last week was kinda eventful... I was out pretty much every day, hanging out with different people, being all social and shit. The highlight was definitely Thursday, when I met up with my friend at her spot, we drank some whiskey and beer, got joined by another friend of hers, and by midnight, we took a cab to Arkham for this Marty Baller gig. I wasnt really familiar with this motherfucker before, but hes an affiliate of ASAP Mob and when I found out hes coming to Shanghai, I just downloaded his latest mixtape and I liked what I heard. So there were. DJs were spinning some of the hottest shit our right now, and Marty killed it. I mean... Nobody really knows him that well, but his stage presence was amazing, he rapped his ass off, and he got the crowd hyped enough to actually stage dive. You gotta give it up to him.


I would also like to take a couple of seconds to speak on Kanye. Fuck Kanye. Thats pretty much all I have to say.

Last night (Sunday), I met up with a friend I havent seen for ages and we went for a beer to this German brewery at Found 158. Pretty good beer and an amazing hangout. We ended up at her spot getting baked as shit... After passing out (literally) and sleeping like a baby for couple of hours, I took an early morning OFO ride around Shanghai, getting a corn, soy milk and a sesame bun across the street from my place (the breakfast of champions), hit the gym right after... All the good stuff... 


Oh, and last Friday, I had to go to Minhang after some time. Turns out, I can take the last course required for my program during the second half of this semester as opposed to first two weeks in July. So Ill have my weekly dosage of Minhang for the next 8 weeks. Yay! Which also means Im gonna be back in the Czech Republic sometime during the first week in July. So all you motherfuckers who just cannot wait to hug me, kiss me or punch me in the face... Its coming! Gonna get a plane ticket soon...


So here we go. Got some more work to do this week, more people to meet, more places to see, time still flies like crazy but yeah... All is good. Peace!


Highlights:

  • All the new music. I really fuck with the new Sremmurd album heavy. And I was super happy hearing the new Royce/Em track from the Book of Ryan. Finally a dope Eminem verse on a solid beat, that doesnt sound like a complete trash.
  • I ordered this Shanghai Sharks jersey online. I even got it customized so on the back it actually says TAEB 31. Another thing from my Chinese todo list crossed off.
  • Metanol. New Czech movie (split in two parts) after a while, another really cool project. Was pretty impressed...