today is kind of my last day in china for a while! technically we leave china on thursday morning, but i’m taking a quick biz trip to seoul tomorrow & wednesday so really, this is it!! here’s what we have coming up:

08/31/2010 – 09/01/2010: seoul
09/02/2010 – 09/04/2010: nyc
09/04/2010 – 09/06/2010: boston
09/06/2010 – 09/13/2010: rhode island
09/13/2010 – 09/15/2010: vermont
09/15/2010 – 09/19/2010: montreal
09/19/2010 – 09/20/2010: niagra falls
09/20/2010 – 09/23/2010: toronto
09/23/2010 – 09/25/2010: nyc
09/26/2010 – 10/01/2010: SHANGHAI
10/01/2010 – 10/10/2010: bali!!

whew. will be posting from the road and enjoying the world of untethered internet. <3 you guys and see a bunch of you real soon. xo.

.

during our upcoming trip to the western world, we’re going to be doing a bit of driving so i thought i’d make a little summer road trip playlist. we’re planning on leaving providence and weaving our way through vermont, up to montreal, back down to niagra falls and then veering off to the left into toronto. we’ll drive straight back to providence after we’re done our trip, and then it’s a quick amtrak to new york and we’re back on a plane to shanghai before you know it.

if you’re familiar with the areas we’ll be in, please tell me your favourite pit stops, motels, burger joints, gift shops, whatever.

also, click >>HERE<< to download the playlist. xo!

.

.

spotted at the shonen knife/teengirl fantasy show over the weekend. you can go to smart shanghai either today or tomorrow and see the rest of the photos from that show. check out that tour tshirt! it’s from 2010 and it kinda blew my mind. uhhhh danzig, GNR, cinderella, slayer, billy idol, bachman-turner overdrive (i guess they dropped the ‘overdrive’?), rick springfield? germans have really really bizarre festivals. here’s the full size image if you want to see the full line-up.

.

very sloppy blog updates! here are two photos from last week. we went to the maison pourcel restaurant opening last week, the first photo is from the patio on the second floor, where we spent most of our time. bizarrely, the first floor of the restaurant was so packed you could hardly move and the second floor was completely empty, save for us and a lonely bartender who obligingly filled our glasses with more and more champagne. afterwards, we went to the nike TRIUMPH party on the bund, eventually we poured ourselves into bed.

we leave for our trip to the states/canada in exactly 8 days! i am so excited to get out of this country for a while – save for a quick weekend in Korea a few months ago, i haven’t left the country since CNY. we have a very busy schedule whilst in the states, and we’re managing to fit in visits with a ton of family members from both sides plus friends and friends and wondrous places and things to eat and see. excited!!!

.

we are all melting!!

.

just noticed that i never posted any photos from the music festival i went to in hangzhou a few months ago! it was kind of the perfect summer weekend, which also happened to coincide with john’s birthday. we lay on the grass, went crazy for PK14, had a marathon 5 hour karaoke session (hi 6am), drank, rode boats, ate delicious foods and generally had an amazing time.

we leave for our whirlwind stateside tour in exactly 3 weeks! so excited! hey NYC, boston, providence, tiverton, state of vermont, montreal and toronto, i can’t wait to see you!!! xx

.

i was recently asked by CTRIP to join their panel of “celebrity judges” (ahaha – the other legit judges were elaine chow from shanghaiist as well as jess beaton from CNNgo) for the MOUSTACHE SUMMER contest. WAHOO!

the grand prize winner (my favourite, pictured above) will be given a whopping 20,000rmb gift certificate from CTRIP, and 2nd and 3rd prize are a very solid 7,000rmb and 3,000rmb prize respectively. check out the BLOG POST for more info.

big congrats to the three winners, and if you see me around town (i’m lookin’ at you, scuba guy), be sure to pick up my bar tab – 20,000rmb ain’t nothing to laugh at. also, if you have any great ideas for any upcoming contests, be sure to send ‘em in, there’s going to be a ton more awesome shit happening with them over the coming year!

.

john & i picked up a canon s90 over the weekend and i can’t get over how lovely it is. a coupl’a shots of our apartment, we’ve slowly been getting around to hanging prints. also, obligatory shot of buster the cat! x

ps. if you’re interested, the photograph in the 1st image is by my friend alex so, who is a very talented photographer from guangzhou. in the 2nd image are two illustrations by my ex-colleague morris! ALSO – peep the new tv and thanks ben houge, we are treating your screen + soundsystem with massive amounts of love.

.

NEW PANTS!!!!!!!!!!

.

40 stories of window washing, no bigs.

.