Hits That Never Can Say Goodbye

(NY Times)
By Ben Brantley

Ricko Baird performing “Smooth Criminal” in “Thriller Live,” a London show celebrating the high points of Michael Jackson’s song catalog.
 
London — A wake it was not. True, the management had provided two condolence books, lying open beside a tasteful white funerary arrangement in the lobby, in which theatergoers could express their sympathy [...]

Best of the fest: the great big Glastonbury music roundup

(The Guardian)
By Alexis Petridis

There’s no doubt that a Friday afternoon slot at a Glastonbury recovering from a torrential rainstorm is a tough gig for Fleet Foxes. Their eponymous debut album has been rightly bathed in acclaim, but its currency is blissful, bucolic folksiness: with the best will in the world, a bespattered crowd staring glumly [...]

Beijing Calling

Event information
Host: Club Obiwan
Type: Party – Club Party
Time and place
Date: 3 July 2009
Time: 10:00 – 3:00
Location: Club Obiwan
Street: Xihai Xiyan no. 4, Xicheng district 250m SE of Jishuitan, Dongcheng
Phone: 83221231
E-mail: contact@clubobiwan.com.cn
Description:
DJs Carlo, Trouble, D-Rock, BB and Ed spin a pulse-pumping selection of all that rocks: indie, punk, grunge, triphop, crossover, new wave, alternative, elektrorock & [...]

Dirty Laundry

Event information
Host: Club Obiwan
Type: Party – Club Party
Time and place
Date: 1 July 2009
Time: 22:00 – 3:00
Location: Club Obiwan
Street: Xihai Xiyan no. 4, Xicheng district 250m SE of Jishuitan, Dongcheng
Phone: 01083221231
E-mail: contact@clubobiwan.com.cn
Description:
Cheap, cheap drinks for everyone!
5rmb TsingTao drafts
10rmb Gin&Tonic, Rum & Coke
DJs D-Rock and Marco spin block-rockin’ beats.

Language and Communication in China

By Terri Morgan
Problems that may result from cultural differences in business are compounded by the fact that even though a native speaker of one language has learned the other person’s language, he or she may not have been sufficiently exposed to actual usage of the target language. Mistakes in usage can occur even when grammar [...]

Registering Your Trademark In The US And China On The Cheap

Many years ago, a very good client of mine (in a China related business) called me in a panic. The client had gone to its regular US corporate counsel and asked about using a trade name on product it would be importing from China. Its corporate counsel said it saw no problems and my client [...]

Divorce, Chinese Style

The China Daily a couple weeks ago had an article,  “Young Couples Splitting from Tradition”, that highlighted the stresses and strains of marriage on the fruits of the one-child policy: the little emperors and emperesses of China. It seems they’re finding it difficult to get along:
 
Gao and Deng, who were both born to single-child families [...]

Mix master: Bob ‘Spirit It’ Louison on Beijing’s cocktail scene

This Saturday (June 27), Bob Louison will teach the thirteenth in a series of cocktail classes held by his company Spirit It. The lessons have covered everything from the classics to creations inspired by Thailand, India, France, and the United States. I asked him a few questions about the class, the Beijing cocktail scene in [...]

Israeli Prisons: Are Palestinian Children Abused?

(TIME)
Walid Abu Obeida, a 13-year-old Palestinian farm boy from the West Bank village of Ya’abad, had never spoken to an Israeli until he rounded a corner at dusk carrying his shopping bags and found two Israeli soldiers waiting with their rifles aimed at him. “They accused me of throwing stones at them,” recounts Walid, a [...]

Bernard Madoff gets maximum 150 years in prison

(AP) — A federal judge rejected Bernard Madoff’s plea for leniency Monday, sentencing the 71-year-old swindler to spend the rest of his life in prison for an “extraordinarily evil” fraud that took a staggering toll on thousands of victims.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin cited the unprecedented nature of the multibillion-dollar fraud as he sentenced Madoff [...]