The Portfolios

My group, the Georgia Sam Blues Band, was back swinging it Wednesday night at a new club called Shuffle. It was the first time we had played since New Year’s Eve, and featured some new players. The core group remains Knut on drums, Nate on bass, and myself on guitar and singing. Eli used to be our lead guitarist but he moved to Beijing a few months ago, leaving us without a go-to guy during the solo spots. That post was filled by Giles, a keyboard man who can play like Stevie Wonder – he’s amazing. Unfortunately for us, he’s moving back to England next week. He joined us for the Shuffle jam and brought his friend Tony, who is a blazing guitarist. Since Tony will be sticking around indefinitely, we’re trying to recruit him to the cause.

Shuffle is a relatively new and undiscovered territory, down the street from the former Tang Hui pub, where Georgia Sam used to hold court every Wednesday night until it closed in November. The bar is big yet intimate, comfortable and low-key, and they have fantastic musical equipment and acoustics. But nobody knows about it. Last Saturday Nate and Knut were checking the place out and they said that, despite having a live band playing, there were barely five people in the bar. Hence the reason they agreed to give us a gig without even hearing us play. We got a few of our friends to come down and support us, and we all had a fun time rocking and dancing around all night. The manager asked us to come back every Wednesday. Could be a good time.

Xianyi and I celebrated our First Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday, February 8th, 2006. We had a lovely dinner at Le Garcon Chinois, an excellent Spanish restaurant recommended by Jarrett, our personal gastronomical expert. Arriving before she did, I had a few drinks in the bar while I waited, and then we dined on tapas, scallops, beef filet, monkfish, and paella. It was one of the best dinners we’ve had in Shanghai, and a truly memorable first anniversary.

On a sidenote, other memorable dinners here include Yoyo’s birthday dinner at New Heights last year, when our friend Chef Brad Turley prepared us the most fantastic display I’ve ever seen, and of course the Thanksgiving dinners we’ve had the last two years at Michael’s house have been out of this world, and prepared by several hands, including Michael, Brad and Jarrett. In fact, we are going to Jarrett and Candice’s house for dinner tonight, so maybe we’ll have another top ten feast…

Happy Year of the Dog. We were in Chengdu for 5 days over the Lunar New Year, staying with Yoyo’s parents. During our trip we spent a day in Luodai, an old tourist town just outside the city, where lots of people were walking around and eating snacks. They were eating so much, in fact, that the first three restaurants we went to were actually out of food.