James Pants will perform in Beijing this coming Saturday and thanks to the good people at FREE the WAX, we have quite a few copies of Pants' Rhythm Trax! CD to give away. To win these ten tracks of instrumental goodness, all you have to do is pretend for a moment that you too work for Beijing's expat press and are about to publish an interview with the popular Mr. Pants - what clever title would you use to headline the piece? Feel free to either leave a comment or send your ideas to blog@thebeiinger.com before 2pm on Friday Nov 21 for a chance to win a copy of Rhythm Trax! Keep reading below for the Beijinger's nightlife editor Jonathan White's interview with Mr Pants that first appeared in the Nov issue of the Beijinger magazine.

Nov 22
James Pants
RMB 70.
10pm. White Rabbit (133 2112 3678)
 

The James Pants story starts in Texas on the night of James Singleton’s high school prom. Eschewing the usual post-prom rituals, Pants sought out Stones Throw Records founder (and DJ) Peanut Butter Wolf at a gig he was playing in town and asked if he wanted to go record shopping. Pants may have missed out on kissing his date but that moment led to an internship at the label and, over time, he was put on the roster. Since then, his eclectic first album – think Too Short meets Cameo meets Serge Gainsbourg – and humorous videos have been winning over fans and critics alike.

the Beijinger: As the first artist from Stones Throw to come to China, do you feel a sense of responsibility for representing such an illustrious label? Do you feel like a trailblazer?

James Pants: Now you've made me nervous... I don't know if I'm a trailblazer, but I'm definitely the most excited artist on the roster regarding the dim sum.

As punk rock child prodigies and teenage electro-rockstars, it’s not so far out there to say that DJ brothers, Andi and Hannes, better known today as Gebruder Teichmann, have music running through their veins. The energy and finesse generated at their live shows no doubt come as a result of their life-long experience as musicians and performers. As Gebr. Teichmann prepare for their debut show in Beijing on Nov 15, I had a chance to ask the composer-musician-artist-visionary-siblings more about what-why-and-how it is exactly that they’ve come to make such innovative music, beyond just being born with a gift for it naturally.

Carissa Welton: Coming from a musical family, how were your artistic talents nurtured from a young age?

Above & Beyond placed as number six in DJ magazine’s Top 100 disc jockeys in 2007. Now they have risen to number four for 2008. They play at GT Banana on Friday November 7 and we were lucky to catch up with Tony from the trance trio for a chat before their debut set in Beijing about weddings, Radiohead and DJ teams.

the Beijinger: When did you start Djing, what made you start and who were your early influences?

Australian author and Asialink Writer in Residence at The Bookworm Linda Jaivin, will be talking about and reading from her new book, A Most Immoral Woman (which is due to come out in March next year) at the Bookworm tonight. The book is a fictional recreation of a rather spicy episode in the life of the wonderfully complicated Australian journalist and adventurer George 'Chinese' Morrison (on a side note, Jane Macartney, The Times' correspondent in Beijing, delivered the annual Morrison Lecture two weeks ago - details here). The event marks the author's last public appearance as the writer in residence at the Beijing Bookworm. So, if you haven't had a chance to get down to hear Jaivin talk already - or even if you have - be sure not to miss what should be an entertaining and hilarious evening. If you're unfamiliar with her work, take a look at Fiona Lee’s interview with the author for some idea of what to expect. Personally, I regard The Monkey and the Dragon as one of the best China books around. Tickets are required, so it’s worth calling the Bookworm to confirm that there are still some spare seats.

While researching the historical novel that she'll be reading excerpts from tonight, Jaivin spent a lot of time peering into the journals of foreigners who lived in Beijing around the turn of the 20th Century. Given this, and her presence in Beijing as a foreign journalist for much of the 1980s, we decided to quiz her on the history of laowai life in the city and particularly about how various foreigners who lived in the capital during different eras amused themselves. Keep reading below for her replies to our queries about how laowai partied in Beijing during both the Legation Quarter days at the turn of the 20th century and the tumultuous 1980s. Jaivin also offers a few observations of how things have changed in today's "Olympic city."

Tomorrow afternoon, the Village at Sanlitun's "Orange" will host another serving of Pecha Kucha. For those not familiar with the concept behind the strange name, Pecha Kucha basically boils down to a series of rapid-fire Powerpoint lectures from various creative types working in the city. It's a non-profit discussion platform that goes on in cities around the world and that has a special format to avoid wordy presentations. Speakers are limited to 20 slides and have only 20 seconds to introduce each one. Presenters at Saturday's event include Tally Back Director of Red Gate Gallery, Miao Wong from Acupuncture Records and filmmaker John Romankiewicz. For the full line up of speakers and more info about Pecha Kucha visit their site. We caught up with two (Miriam Deller and Florian Pucher) of the three organizers of the event (the third person is Sebastian Linack) and asked them a bit about the history of Pecha Kucha in Beijing. To make things a little interesting, and in true Pecha Kucha style, we also decided to put limits on their responses: 6 questions and a maximum of 20 words per answer. We began by asking about Beijing's first ever Pecha Kucha night.

This weekend there'll be a double dose of live comedy in the capital as the regular Chopschticks stand-up comedy show brings American's Andy Pitz and Moody McCarthy to Block 8 on Saturday night while over at Tun hosts a Dutch comedy night. Because we don't speak Dutch, we decided instead that it would be easier to interview New York-based comedian Andy Pitz about his style of comedy and what people going along to the show on Saturday night can expect to see. We began by asking him about how he got in to comedy in the first place.

The Beijinger: Why did you get in to comedy?

The China Open got underway in windy conditions out in Fengtai yesterday. Many of the world’s best female tennis players are in town for this year’s tournament, including Ana Invanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic. Unfortunately Dinara Safina had to pull out of the tournament due to injury. If last night's tightly-fought match between Dominika Cibulkova's and Amelie Mauresmo - we caught the tail end of the Slovak's victory over the French player on CCTV 5 (click here for full schedule) - is anything to go by, it should be a great tournament.  Five Chinese players, Li Na, Zheng Jie, Peng Shuai, Yan Zi and Sun Tiantian will all be hoping to make the most of thier hometown advantage. Click here to see the full draw of the women’s competition.

The two favorites in the men’s competition are David Ferrer and Andy Roddick. Other contenders include Richard Gasquet, Fernando Gonzalez and Tommy Robredo. View the complete draw here. Keep reading below for details of where to get tickets and directions to the stadium.

We talked with Serbian player Ana Ivanovic last week about her preparation for the China Open. Aside from winning the French Open earlier this year, the twenty-year old also held the number one ranking for a few weeks. She is currently ranked 4th in the world. The taciturn player has also posed for FHM. We began by asking her about how whether she had completely recovered from a recent thumb injury.

Having just taken over the running of the kitchen at award-winning SALT – a position previously held by one of Beijing’s most respected chefs, Daniel Urdaneta (now at Mosto in Nali Patio), the pressure is on for young Venezuelan chef Ana Esteves. But with stints cooking in the US, France and Peru on her resume, Esteves is well prepared for the demands of cooking for SALT’s cosmopolitan clientele. agenda caught up with the chef earlier this month, asking her about how she is approaching the new job and about her own culinary explorations during her first two months in Beijing.

Look out for an edited version of this interview in the upcoming issue of agenda magazine.

agenda: Your predecessor, Daniel Urdaneta, has one of the strongest reputations of any chef in Beijing – were you nervous to be filling his shoes?

The American Renaud brothers are known for their hard-hitting cinema verite documentary films, which have ranged on topics from college football rivalries to US soldiers in Iraq. It was there that the two witnessed severe injuries firsthand, and learned of the sporting program that turns wounded veterans into Paralympic athletes. Their current project, Warrior Champions: From Baghdad to Beijing, follows former soldiers as they train for the 2008 Paralympic Games.  Brent Renaud spoke to Alex Pasternack from New York, just before leaving for Okinawa to join the US Team in training. The brothers are producing web videos for the US Paralympic team while they are in Beijing, you can view the videos here. Melissa Stockwell failed to qualify for the 100m Freestyle and Butterfly earlier this week, she'll be competing in the 400m Freestyle on Friday morning.

This interview first appeared In the September issue of Urbane.

Alex Pasternack: How did this film come about?

Brent Renaud: There’s a scene in our film Off to War shortly after we get to Baghdad when a mortar hits the base where I’m staying with the soldiers. A number of them were killed, a number of them were injured; one of the soldiers I was with that day ended up losing his arm and having problems with one of this legs. When he returned to the States he started getting involved with these sports programs for injured veterans. They say if you or I get injured or lose a leg, we’d need to train full time for six or seven years and then we might be able to reach that level. But some of these soldiers have done it in less than year. It’s a pretty remarkable story.

Executive Chef of the famous Jean George in Shanghai, Eric Johnson, will be at Beijing's Ritz-Carlton's Culinary Coin Festival this Saturday and we asked him a few questions before tomorrow's event.

The Beijinger: Why did you become a chef?

Johnson: I grew up cooking all the time at home with my parents. We were always crabbing, fishing, mushroom hunting, etc. Basically it was just a hobby until I finished university. Only then did I even have the idea to pursue it professionally. I guess we all would like to work doing something that we love.

The Beijinger: What is your philosophy with cooking?

Johnson: Quite simply to make things that taste good. To give you something that makes you want to have another. Sounds simple, but in reality it's much harder than most other "complicated" concepts.