Lao Wai on the Move

• I kind of can't believe it, but I found a good pair of rollerblades that fit me! I bought them on the spot and spent a couple hours zig-zagging around the S&T Metro plaza, dodging small children and getting my footing back. I have not rollerbladed since high school, so it was a bit surprising that I could get up and move around swiftly without falling at ALL. I suppose it's like riding a bike.
• I finally got flicker to approximate something resembling normal functionality. I was having serious problems with it all day Saturday, but when I got home from the Live Bar show it was working fine. So I posted a bunch of new pictures, some from this weekend and some from last weekend. Check 'em out if you're so inclined. Here's one from the rock show I went to last night:
  
  
  The show was really fun. Everything about the place reminded me of Austin. The venue felt so much like Flamingo Cantina, Beerland, Room 710, or even Emo's that I was instantly transported back to Texas. And the music was really good too. Even the crowd had a bunch of scruffy-haired hipsters drinking cheap beer and kind of wiggling back and forth in an attempt to evince physical appreciation of the music without displaying too much emotion (because that would be uncool). Ah, just like home. However there were some people having fun, because I definitely saw a mini mosh pit get started :-)
  
  Something else I found amusing was that the lead singer of the first band, The Dropkicks, was definitely Jewish. (I can smell a fellow MoT from a mile away.)
  
  
  
  So that made me happy - a British/Jewish punk rocker in Shanghai. Of course the connection between Judaism and punk rock has been documented before. But I wonder if this guy knew that his band name was a dead rip-off of these guys?
  
• I got some sweet videos also, from both Friday and Saturday night, but our favorite Web 2.0 wunderkind YouTube is blocked right now, so I can't upload anything at the moment. SH-ist seems to think it's because of the protests that have been going on across the country (and indeed, the world). If you hadn't heard, Bjork sparked an international incident here a week or so ago when she made some politically sensitive statements at her Shanghai concert. So I think everyone is a little on edge. Meanwhile the upshot is that I can't upload my videos to YouTube. Ah well, c'est la vie.
  

Meanwhile - I've gotten just two questions. There's still time to send in your questions, if you have any, about Shanghai, China, my experiences here, and so on. Leave a comment :-)