I get to spin fat and dirty breaks at the Great Wall next weekend. I am so excited about this. I have no words...

Ok, so I managed to compress the set differently and get it up on zshare. For all you who enjoy breakbeats, I highly suggest you download this: there are some great tracks in there. www.zshare.net/download/k...1-cpgz.html I'm unhappy with at least three of the transitions, and had initially planned to re-record it, but due to my recent data apocalypse I am currently missing a few of the best songs, so I figured I'd just post it as is and move on to a new one. Feedback is much appreciated.

Things are much better. Money's extremely tight, but I finally have my laptop back. It was a miracle that I managed to secure its return from the very brink of the yawning maw that is the New Year; I had to patiently list every mistake the repair place had made and tell them I was a graphic designer who needed my machine for work *now* to pull it off. I'm kind of proud of the fact that I'm now perfectly capable and comfortable doing all that in Chinese. It came back completely and utterly devoid of my data, but it's been sort of nice to rebuild my machine exactly the way I want it, without all of the clutter it had accrued over the last year and a half. By way of cosmic compensation for the repair places' ineptitude, they seem to have accidentally replaced my 60g hard drive with an 80g one. Thanks to my beloved iPod, I managed to hang on to the majority of my music, and I had the install files for the DJ program I use backed up there, too. I must remember to buy an external hard drive when funds permit.
The New Year is full apon us, and with the plentitude and magnitude of the available fireworks in this city (they *are* a Chinese invention, after all) I've begun to feel like I'm living in Baghdad. Ropes of firecrackers yards long provide a nice machine-gun chatter day and night, and some of the bigger ones have this massive mortar-like boom that set off car alarms for blocks. According to Chinese tradition, there is a fearsome beast that tries to descend on the city at the New Year, so the fireworks are to frighten him away. If I were he, I'd be hiding in the mountains somewhere quivering with my tail between my legs by now. And yet, people continue to joyfully indulge in the near-primal human joy of pyromania. All I have to do at night is leave my curtains open and I'm instantly treated to gorgeous light shows of exploding colored sparks and tracers. I went to a friend's house on the outskirts of the city the other night to do the traditional family thing of making dumplings (and then *eating* them... I love that tradition), drinking beer, and setting things packed with gunpowder on fire. Apart from the firecracker that exploded in my hand (100% my fault), it was a great time.
Thomas' mother should have just landed in Beijing by now. I'm looking forward to helping him show her around the city, and we're going to my friend's amazing Thai restaurant for dinner tonight. She comes bearing some goodies from my father, including a copy of my much-missed Groove, so I am very excited about that. My dad is so great to me.
To sum up: flat broke but happy. Gongxi facai, everybody!

(Oh, those of my friends who are technologically inclined: can you recommend a free file-hosting site so I can share a set I spun here in Beijing with everyone? The file is just a tad too large for zShare (even zipped). Any feedback would be much appreciated.)

I will blog some about my weekend adventures with Taiwanese popstar Tao Zhe (David Tao), and the horrible punishment he inflicted on my poor head sometime when I have a little more time. For now, suffice to say that partying with celebrities, especially Chinese celebrities, can be hazardous to one's health. I just got finished DJing at my favorite place in Beijing. They had originally told me to prepare to play for about an hour, but they had me spin for 2 and a half hours. Thomas and some of my friends from the Burning Man project came out to see me, which made me very happy. The head DJ guy told me he'd give me a weekend spot next time; however, he asked me how I felt about a 4 hour set, which is a little daunting. I have to go teach the "kindergarteners" tomorrow morning; I've told that agency that I'm not working for them anymore, as they're constantly trying to nickle and dime me, and way underpay me, but out of adoration for the children I've agreed to stick it out while they find another teacher. I am tired, and tomorrow (tuesday) is my busiest day. Ah well, all will be fine. Be well, my friends. I sleep.

I am le tired. Taught kindergarten this morning, which is good b/c it means i don't have to go tomorrow. I spent all the money I earned this morning on sushi and hot sake. Damn was that good, especially after last night's dinner travesty. We went to a (relatively) expensive Chinese restaurant; food was horrible, they charged for chopsticks, and we ended up with a massive vat of 3-organ something when I thought I was ordering barbecued lamb. It chaps me a bit that I'm supposed to teach for an hour, and I get paid for an hour, but I generally teach more like 1.5. Today I taught the 3 y/o kids for 45 minutes, then had to wait 10 minutes for the 2 year olds to come in. Much as I'd like to only teach them for 5 minutes (god knows, I feel like running after 2 minutes), some of their mothers bring them specifically for my class, so I feel bad. Ah well, definitely with the early sleeping tonight.
I got to demonstrate the awesomeness of my anti-beggar line to Thomas today. We get panhandlers approaching us all the time, and even though I'm willing to give money to bums in the States, I don't in China. If they're playing an erhu or something, that's different. They're persistant as hell here in China, but my mighty stock reply has never failed yet. “要是你没有你需要的，你就出家，当一个大和尚吧！” It translates roughly to "If you don't have what you need, why don't you go be a (Buddhist) monk." I always get a stare, then a hasty retreat complete with mutterings of "宗教狂热，宗教狂热 (religious fanatic, religious fanatic)！“ Always good for a laugh. *Evil grin* I'm a little sad that it's so effective, b/c I have an even better backup line for the uber-persistant. In the most polite tone of voice, you say "您可以滚吗？" which translates roughly to "Could you (polite form) pretty please f*** off?" Heh, I will master this language! (It'll just take a century or so, :p) Much to do tomorrow. Be well, friends.