this time of year is always filled with chinese new year celebrations, everyone’s having some kind of party and the weekends are a madhouse of bopping around and indulging in too much. on friday, we dropped by the Nike Year of the Tiger Cortez release party, with a performance by PET CONSPIRACY, a puppet show and more. afterwards, we hit up rodney and natasha’s Central Studios CNY bash and then stumbled over to shelter to see KIDFRESH play bananas. his music was a-maaazing, peep his blog HERE.

on saturday, i went to the jellymon cny dinner, they held it at this amazing private kitchen in XJH, one of the best chinese meals i’ve ever had, and not only was the food fantastic, but the jellymon family are such warm, funny, wonderful people – it’s so great to see a fresh creative agency with young, amazing talent. sitting down to dinner with all of them really made my evening, i’m really looking forward to seeing what great things they come up with in 2010.

also on saturday, john robinson’s house party! i’ve uploaded a flickr set here and that’s about all i’m going to say. if you’re looking for photos from my personal collection of that evening, just email me! rooahhaa.

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W+KSHANGHAI had our annual CNY dinner earlier this week, and there were performances, lucky draws (2nd year in a row that i haven’t won – total bummer!), speeches, alcohol and the like. it always feels so good when the entire agency gets together to have fun – there was a salsa performance, kungfu demonstrations, and my favourite of the evening, a really really amazing bitboxland music performance with LED screens, neon outfits and awesomeness. love working with such a creative, hilarious, talented group of people. happy 2010!!

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had such a great time at BADTASTIC VS BANANAS! we had a bit of a late start but the place was bumpin’ by the time it mattered and thanks so much to everyone who made it out. hurrah badtastic!!

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IT’S WEDNESDAY! only two more days till the weekend, only three more days till BADTASTIC VS BANANAS! am very excited about the upcoming andrew bird show, i’ve never seen him live but some friends have told me he’s the most amazing dude ever. also, i kinda want to hang out with him, we both studied music performance in school and so maybe that means we’re soulmates?! ohhhhhhh. there’s a nice MP3MONDAY article on him in today’s smart shanghai.

(speaking of smart shanghai, they’ve posted my MAOLIVE photos in their gallery, go have a look + thanks to the site for their awesome shoutout, guess this means i’m gonna have to update my site more often?)

finally – i was just looking through my flickr page and noticed that i’d never posted the above two images. both are from last weekend, a very random and hilarious saturday evening where we somehow managed to get dragged into a hummer limo birthday party (some friends and i ran into these people at a bar, we don’t actually know them but who can say no to a bunch of screaming foreigners behaving badly?). the other image is from earlier on saturday, our two cats hanging out, high on cat nip.

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SUPER AWESOME BEST FUN SHOW!!! had such a great time on friday at the Maybe Mars label showcase, with PK14 + 24HRS + RUSTIC + OURSELVES BESIDES ME. the venue was packed (hey mao, love you guys but your bar service is abysmal), energy was high, friends a plenty were in attendance, bands killed it, one of the best shanghai nights in recent memory and looking forward to more. yay!

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been thinking about BEIJING lately, and how much fun i had living there. i moved to shanghai in april of 2009, and have been back multiple times since, but it doesn’t quite feel the same. i used to spend an inordinate amount of time hanging out with friends at D22, and was looking through old photos and thought i’d put together some of my favourites. all the photos were taking in the first few months of getting to beijing, when JOYSIDE were still getting wasted and bombing the stage, when we were still calling QUEEN SEA BIG SHARK by their chinese name (and not to mention that this was way before my company teamed up with CONVERSE and sent them on tour), when the SCOFF were still playing the same 5 songs in their same set, week after awesome week. miss you guys + click here to see a full size image.

ps. this beijing post comes right in time to also talk about how excited i am for the MAYBE MARS LABEL SHOWCASE on friday. not only do i love the bands that are playing, but my beijing buddies are in town and that means reunion time and fun. the show also marks my first forays into taking party snaps for the smart shanghai site. see you on friday, fuckers, i’m stoked!!!

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it’s very nearly christmas, only one week to go! spending another holiday season in shanghai is a bit sad, but there are always things going on and it’s not very pleasant in canada right now anyways, with it’s incessant snow and -30 degree arctic temperatures. to get into the christmas spirit, i searched online and found a shop that delivers christmas trees, and ended up getting a 6ft tree (real tree!), 2 wreaths, 3 gold wrapped poinsettias and a ton of decorations for about 50USD. china, love you! also exciting is that i bought a violin over the weekend, after having not played for 3 years, it feels quite weird. will keep practicing and see what comes out of it.

hmmmmmmmmmm. despite the fact that john & i are both ill, it was a very enjoyable weekend filled with both good and bad alcohol related decisions. on friday, we went to the shanghai grand theatre to see helen grimaud play a piano recital. it was my first time going to the theatre and the acoustics weren’t terrible, quite a nice venue. the music was OK, she barreled through her repertoire quite a bit but all in all, a nice friday night out. think i’ll definitely make more of an effort to do things that don’t involve clubs and bars in the new year – turns out that FAME is coming to town and have booked 6 tickets for the 23rd of december. musicals in china, will it be good?!

on saturday, i met up with the usual gang at MoCA, our friend Nial was participating in the Animamix Biennial, and it was a lovely time had by all. the exhibition will be up until the end of January, i would recommend heading down if you’re in the area.

post show, we had dinner at barbarossa (blech barbarossa but it was right next door and someone had booked a table) and then off to monkey lounge, which is Shanghai’s latest attempt at a ’secret bar’ – i stayed for two glasses of champagne and then headed off to meet John at our friend’s birthday, which by the end of the night had ended up being hosted at the BARBIE STORE, how ridiculous! by the time i got there, everyone was off their nut and swishing around to kind of awesome top 40 jams, and it was super surreal being surrounded by barbie decor while being goaded on to do baijou jello shots. we poured ourselves into a cab around 230 and called it a night, oooooomf.

by the way, DO NOT recommend baijou jello shots. never never never.

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stoked to see that my friends at SPLITWORKS are bringing more awesome Canadian bands to China! HOLLERADO are doing an insane 14 city tour across the PRC and they’ve even organized a chinese site to generate more buzz. they play this SUNDAY at YUYINTANG. see you there!

ps. also stoked that the GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS are gonna be rolling by in january. yay, canada!

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been sitting on this for a while, but it’s been officially announced that my friend and colleague Nick Barham has been named co-executive creative director of the WIEDEN+KENNEDY SHANGHAI office. Nick previously served our office as planning director, and this is an amazing step forward that showcases W+K’s willingness to redefine and continually push the boundaries of creative thinking and leadership.

without gushing too much, Nick is one of the hardest working people I know, and also one of my favourites. the fact that he is constantly pushing all of us to do better is inspiring, and he has an incredible gift for walking into a room and immediately and accurately accessing what needs to be done and how things can be improved in a way that’s at once crazily creative and strategic in thinking.

super super stoked, and looking forward to many more great projects together and late nights on the town. BIG LOVE!

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BADTASTIC IS BACK!

the website has been updated, promo requests sent out, flyers made, facebook page posted, flickr pool filled… what else is there to do? oh yeah, and sammy made stickers and they look awesome. COME AND PLAY WITH US!

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