Noodles & Champagne (aka Trip to Beijing)

What the heck. It’s been a good 1 ½ years since my last trip to Beijing. I even skipped

the good ol’ ympics and all that jazz, so I was not aware HOW MUCH it actually changed

since my last visit. Terminal 3 aka the new mega star wars airport, everything so much cleaner, someone sucked away 50% of the smog etc. etc.. Wowz.

Lucky me was invited to spin tunes at the launch party of ONEDREAMRUSH,

a short film Project about 42 42-second short films

from 42 World class independent film creators like Harmony Korine, Asia Argento,

David Lynch, Zhang Yuan and 38 more heavyweight names.

The strictly invite-only event was held at PUNK, one of the Bars in

Beijing’s new 6* Boutique Hotel The Opposite House.

Anyhow, so I arrived in Beijing late night of last Wednesday, and made my way to

the aforesaid hotel which provided me with shelter during my stay in Beijing.

Posh as can be but very minimalist and stylish, so I felt like home immediately

and fell asleep like a puppy dog on mother’s milk.

Yes that is a wooden bathtub in the front.

Next morning I decided to stroll around in the neighborhood after

squeezing some pancakes into my freshly showered face.

I went for a walk on this perfectly blue skied day and got offered ridiculous amounts of watchbagdvd on my hunt for some fresh Kpapas and Pamus in one of

Beijings massive indoor markets.

Back to the hotel for a hourlong powernap and a shower with no showercap,

and off to the elevator I was to head to the basement floor for soundcheck.

My tag team DJ partner for the night was no one less than the People’s Republic’s Number 1 DJ,

3 x China DMC Champion and homeboy DJ Wordy, all in 1.

As the venue and the partypeople slowly started to fill up,

we started rocking the spot back to back on 4 decks for the high snobiety.

Majority of the crowd actually wasn’t all that snobby

but stylish, thankful, open minded and very enthusiastic about good tunes!

Out of the blue, a fresh bottle of bubbly made it’s way to the DJ booth.

Next day homeslice Wordy picked me up at the hotel, insisting on having noodles for breakfast. Stupid me was like “Nah wtf, noodles for hangover breakfast?!”, but I shoulda known better. Through grimey alleys and staircases he took me to this tiny hidden noodles spot,

one of those ones where you have to ring the doorbell of an inconspicious door to get in.

And oh joy were my taste buds happy. Best noodles EVER.

The Wordyman gave me a lift to the airport to catch my flight to Hong Kong,

where I was supposed to play at Alivenotdead.com’s Halloween festivities.

Went to the check-in 55 min. prior to departure humming joyous melodies,

till the fact that Air China won’t let me check in made me hush from one second to the other.

“60 min. policy, Sir.”

Ouch. I admit, showing up 1h before departure for intl. flights is a no go.

But that's how I do and I NEVER MISS FLIGHTS. Ok, maybe once (twice?). Ah well..

To be completely honest with y'all, this was the 3rd time, out of 5 gazillion flights.

Assertive but charmingly I argued my way to the manager, but it was all hopeless,

even though I didn’t even have bags to check in! Major pain in the ass.

Been on standby for the next flight to HK, but it didn’t quite work out.

Tried getting a seat on a aero to Shenzhen or Zhuhai to make it to HK in time for my gig- NOTHING. In the end I’ve spent 6 hours at the airport, making phonecalls and trying to

save the night. Eventually I had homebruv DJ Enso replacing me in HK ,so I headed back downtown, spontaneously deciding to extend my Beijing stay for 2 more days/nights.

The Opposite House was kind enough to let me stay 2 more nights, and Beijing had some good nightlife action to offer on Friday/Saturday, so things weren’t all THAT horrible for me in the end.

Me on the phone from the cab: “Yo Wordy, it’s me. I’m still in Beijing.”

Wordy: “WTF?!”

Me: “Yep. Missed my flight. And no chance to make it to HK in time for my gig..”

Wordy: “Awesome! Let’s go see DJ Craze tonite!”

Me: “WTF. Word, Wordy.”

To my joy, homeboy/legend and Kanye West’s tour DJ CRAZE was in town.

For those of you who don’t know DJ Craze, he’s 3 times DMC World champion, a true legend and the hell of a World class turntablist, making even me look like a bloody bedroom DJ,

no matter my World titles.

He has changed the game forever with his 1998 winning routine

(Well, the 1999 and 2000 ones too)(<---WATCH ALL THOSE!!!),

and has been a HUGE inspiration for me ever since I got on this shit.

Wordy and me, being the antisocial nerds that we are, kicked it in the DJ booth all nite,

while Crazearoni KILLED it.

Main reason for Craze for being in the Jing was his new employer Kanye playing

his China debut show the next day at the “Beijing Worker’s Gymnasium”.

We had chances and hopes to see the rehearsal before the show, but as strict as

Mr. Kanyeezy is, he finally didn’t want ANYONE except the crew around for the rehearsal.

We had free tickets for the show though, and we ain’t mad at all.

The show was aight, however, the last 15 minutes of it were

PRETTY FUCKING GOOD.

It was a seated concert (!), and the securities constantly advised the people to sit down,

which made the whole thing kinda awkward. Also, censorship was a must

(“I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t messin’ with no broke, broke”).

Well that’s China, innit.

After swapping some choons with Wordy the next afternoon,

I managed to make it to the check in counter 90 MINUTES PRIOR TO DEPARTURE.

The flight turned out to be delayed, packed to the ceiling, shaky and tight.

On top of that, peeps were burping and farting like there's no tomorrow.

So it was quite a party, let me tell y’all that!

I’m out. G’nite.