Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Recommended Posts, October-December 2010

Better late than never, here is the 'pick of the crop' from just over a year ago....



Guided Tour  -  recommended posts from the 4th quarter of 2010


1)  Brain the size of a planet  -  6th October 2010
My formidable talent at trivia quizzes threatens to become an embarrassment and a bore. At least I have a theory on the optimum team size for such competitions. And a strange reminiscence of a 1960s British comic book.


2)  Festival overload?  -  7th October 2010
I've had too much of music festivals in Beijing. Haven't you?


3)  Missing the diva...  -  16th October 2010
Cesária Évora was supposed to have been playing in Beijing. I don't think she did. But I was gutted to have missed out on her, whether it actually happened or not.


4)  Top Five Signs of Winter  -  18th October 2010
It gets COLD early this year.


5)  On the mountainside  -  18th October 2010
One of my biggest audience participation posts: who would be on your Mount Rushmore of Rock?


6)  A song for Ruby  -  23rd October 2010
I spend a part of my birthday watching a concert by virtuouso finger-picking guitarist Tommy Emmanuel. And he has an especially pretty song named after one of my companions.


7)  Music puns  -  29th October 2010
A couple of irresistibly silly cartoons inspired by the names of famous bands.


8)  Top Five Things That Can Go Wrong On A Date  -  4th November 2010
You need to read this one. You KNOW you do. And then you'll never complain again.


9)  Single, and PROUD  -  11th November 2010
My response to the recent-ish Chinese holiday of 'Singles Day'.


10)  Weird and wonderful  -  20th November 2010
Visiting Finnish vaudeville choir Semmarit fairly knock me out.


11)  What's the Rush?  -  6th December 2010
I see a Rush cover band just down the road from where I live. They're quite good. But why would you want to cover CRAP? [Provocative music post]


12)  Pump It Up  -  28th November 2010
One of my Great Drinking Songs - the classic Elvis Costello hit, which was one of the regular highlights of 2010's marvellous Monday Nights With Nige.


13)  Bon mot for the week  -  6th December 2010
One of my own; one of my best.


14)  Another useful metaphor...  -  8th December 2010
... for that occasional overwhelming imperative you feel to get wasted immediately after work.


15)  HBH 212  -  10th December 2010
A particularly good Beijing gig reminds me how I discovered Jimi Hendrix...


16)  Top Five New Hangouts  -  10th December 2010
2010 was a good year for new bar openings; I broadened my horizons a bit.


17)  Bad Santa(s)  -  13th December
Concerns about whether this year's SantaCon might get busted by the perpetually over-anxious Chinese security forces suddenly gave me the idea for a new theme song for Chinese dissidents.


18)  Top Five STUPID names for bars  -  15th December 2010
You wouldn't believe it were possible unless you lived here.


19)  Again with the metaphors...  -  23rd December 2010
I never approach the turn of the year with anything other than the most extreme trepidation...


20)  OffMyFaceBook  -  28th December 2010
One of the most marketable ever of my drunken ideas.


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