HBH 34

Floating on music,
Unshackled from earth, soaring -
Open courtyard sky.

OK, yes, I do feel like a bit of a slut composing a Jianghu haiku. Jianghu is not really 'the Haiku bar' - but it has become probably my most favoured hangout over the past few months

HBH 286

Our loves go with us,

Great bars linger in the heart;

There's no leaving them.

This might be my last ever 'Haiku Bar' haiku from Beijing. I am planning to come back for a few months at the end of the year, but that idea is likely to get kicked into touch if Chinese visa policy continues as restrictive as it is at the moment.... or if (probably much less likely) I manage to find myself a decent job somewhere else in the interim.

I have a rich stock of memories to take away with me... although very few bars here have attained to 'greatness': the Yandai Xijie Huxley's in its first couple of years; the original Yugong Yishan; Dos Kolegas and Jianghu before they got popular; Amilal and the Pool Bar and 12 Square Metres. That's it.

Still, that's much better than I'd expected before I came here. And much, much, much, much better than any other city in China could have offered - Shanghai included. Yes, many fond memories to treasure.

HBH 37

Hiatus

Empty Thursdays loom,
Our weekly therapy lost.
One guitar missing.

Yep, no more jazz nights at Jianghu for a couple of months, as my Django Rheinhardt-channelling guitar buddy takes a restorative summer break back in France. I've only been going once a month or so - rather than every week like some people - but I'll miss it. Perhaps Dan will continue to gig on his own occasionally....

This haiku brought to you early, but time-stamped for Friday anyway - to maintain a semblance of order in the world.

Recommended Posts, April-June 2010

Time to look back into the archives again. What were we up to last summer? Ah, yes...

Guided Tour  -  recommended posts from the second quarter of 2010

1)  Twang!!  -  1st April 2010

A little celebration of my latest serendipitous discovery in the hutongs, one of Beijing's most improbable 'concept' bars.

2)  Top Five Bar Promotion Ideas  -  10th April 2010

Oddly enough, this frivolous little recap of some of the bar chatter down at my 'local', 12 Square Metres, has proved to be one of my biggest hits on the search engines. I fear most of the people who come to the blog via that search are disappointed.

3)  What's your -ism?  -  15th April 2010

My blog-friend JES challenged his readers to identify their distinctive quirky hobby/unusual skill/party trick. I chose beermat flipping.

4)  Lili Marleen  -  17th April 2010

The latest entry in my 'Great Love Songs' series is this classic WWII soldier's song; most especially as it was used in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film of that name, and sung by its star, the lovely Hanna Schygulla.

5)  Top Five Passion Killers  -  22nd April 2010

One of my most notorious posts ever (largely because a couple of people re-posted it on some expat forums here!), in which I analyse - as nicely as possible -  why I don't (generally) get very excited about Chinese girls.

6)  A bon mot for the week  -  3rd May 2010

One of my own; and a rather good one, I think - on one of the most distinctive and useful characteristics of beer.

7)  We are becoming a double act  -  6th May 2010

Some of the semi-drunken text message exchanges between The Weeble and myself deserve to be saved for posterity. It's a pity he comes out so seldom these days that this virtual relationship is about all we have.

8)  Top Five Weddings  -  8th May 2010

The imminence of another wedding party prompts me to produce a list of the most awesome ones I've been to previously. And I've been to some really awesome ones.

9)  All I want for Christmas (or my birthday) is...  -  10th May 2010

... a Plastic Jesus!

10)  Is it an art?  -  12th May 2010

More of my musings on the purpose and practice of 'dating'.

11)  Some new Bar Awards categories  -  13th May 2010

The annual chaos and injustice of the expat magazines' "readers' polls" to determine the 'Best Bars' in Beijing leads me to propose some award categories where there could be no dispute about the winner. But, of course, nobody ever listens to me.

12)  Fly Me To The Moon  -  15th May 2010

The Julie London classic is my latest 'Great Love Song'.

13)  I'm walkin'  -  25th May 2010

I realise that my horizons have shrunk to a scant 4 blocks in the centre of Beijing (although Beijing blocks are very big): there are so many good bars and music venues within easy walking distance that I find it very difficult to motivate myself to try to visit anywhere further afield. This is bad news for Mako Live, an otherwise rather promising music club that has opened up about 10 or 12 miles away from me! A nice excuse for a bit of Fats Domino (accompanied by Ricky Nelson in this clip), though.

14)  Reflections on this year's MIDI  -  26th May 2010

The biggest and best of Beijing's rock music festivals was particularly good this year. Three weeks on, I finally put together a review of the highlights, including some of the photographs I took there.

15)  HBH 184  -  28th May 2010

An especially good night at Jianghu the night before not only supplies the weekly haiku, but also a little nostalgia wallow about the great early days of that bar and the many times that I enjoyed seeing the No Name jazz trio there.

16)  Ooh, yeah, just like that...  -  28th May 2010

For once, a run of apparently evil luck bizarrely combines to produce a very agreeable outcome.

17)  Constituencies  -  29th May 2010

Another of my most popular/unpopular (=widely read!) posts, this one analysing the different 'types' we encounter amongst Beijing's English-speaking expat population. A little later, I put up a slightly expanded version of this post on Froogville.

18)  Top Five Gigs to AVOID  -  10th June 2010

Yet more "controversy" (I seemed to be courting it a lot around this period!), as I identify the capital's most overrated rock bands.

19)  The Curse  -  22nd June 2010

The one thing I have against 12 Square Metres.... (well, not really!)

20)  Reasons not to watch the football in Sanlitun  -  27th June 2010

Half-way through this year's excellent World Cup tournament, I find that I have only once ventured out of my local neighbourhood to try to watch a game - a mistake I would not be repeating. And here's why.

21)  Ah, so that explains it...  29th June 2010

After a number of years, one of the great Beijing enigmas is finally solved: that bar that never had any customers... wasn't really a bar at all. I might have guessed.

22)  Celebrity stalker??  -  30th June 2010

The Man In Black alerts me to the fact that the ravishable Christina Hendricks appears to be after me. I should be so lucky!!