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Yoyo’s best friend Da Hai was in town on business for a week and we got to hang out with him for a few nights. I wrote about Da Hai before here, he was the one who got Yoyo the modeling job. He is really a nice kid, though a little shy, and he had a tough time for a couple of years in Beijing before he found steady work. In pursuit of his dream to be involved in the fashion industry, he endured several years of design school with little support from his parents apart from tuition, during which time many of his meals consisted of nothing but a little dou ban jiang (red bean sauce) on white rice. Now he has a good job and is working his way up to the top of the Beijing fashion scene. Slowly but surely.

Georgia Sam has been doing a lot of gigs lately. We now have a residency at the Shuffle Bar, a relatively new place in a nearby neighborhood which used to contain our old favorite bar, Tang Hui. We are still waiting for Tang Hui to re-open after their unfortunate closing last year. In the meantime, Shuffle Bar will do. We have been helped out very much the last two weeks by friends of ours, mostly Sam Hooper (pictured here) of the Sam Hooper Band out of Boston. Sam and his band just finished up a five-month stay at the House of Blues and Jazz, during which time we all became friends, especially during Sunday night open jams. We got our gig at the Shuffle just as his was finishing, and so we asked him to come down, and he was happy to do so. Sam can really play the blues and it was truly an honor to share the stage with him on two fantastic nights.

The Rolling Stones are finally making their mainland China debut after many delays, and we have tickets! I successfully booked 23 tickets together for Yoyo and I and many of our friends. The show will be on Sat., April 8 at 8pm.