The Wandering Monkey

Last night I found both an apartment and a new roommate within 3 hours of each other. I saw an ad for a two-bedroom apartment by People's Square, which is at the center of Shanghai. The two main metro lines both intersect there, and this place is a 10 minute walk from the station. The thing which interested me most was the price of the apartment, 2000rmb. Most similar deals would cost 3000 or 4000, sometimes 6000.
I went to see it. It was larger than I thought. Though far from a luxury apartment, I still could not believe the deal. Adequate accomodation, excelent location, and incredible price. The owner said the price was 2300 when I interviewed them, but this was so minor I didn't give it much fuss. Between two people there, we'll still be paying 1150rmb, or about $US 140. At that rate of spending I could afford to just be a dancing teacher!
After I saw the place, I met with a person who had answered my personal ad looking for roommate. He's a British guy, a bit younger than me, with the same adventurous spirit. It seemed like providence and we hit it off right away. We went back to the apartment to get his take on it, and then we agreed to grab it then and there.
There's still the deal-finishing steps to take, but this is a major weight off my head. I mark it an 8.5 out of 10 on the success meter. Now I can focus on reorganizing the school.
-J

Today I took a little time out at a roadside restaurant. I was low on blood sugar so I stopped a this place I would never normally go. I ate something which was like fried won tons. After eating I did not want to move until my energy came back, so I just sat there a while. It was fascinating.
Everything -- the kitchen and dining area -- was all in the same room. Across from me, a man was taking out handfulls of dough then stretching it to arms length. He'd double it over and stretch it again. Reapeat several times, and flick the middle into flour every once in a while. After about maybe eight folds, he'd clip off one end of the strands and throw it into a pot of boiling water. Noodles. He was making noodles straight from dough into the pot.
Next to him an old woman was sitting on a stool with a small wooden block in front of her. She had a cleaver big enough to scare a mugger. She sliced away bit by bit on a piece of meat about the size of a large grapefruit. She must have been at it 20 minutes, patiently working away. She looked up at me from time to time, but I was too tired to be self-conscious at my own staring.
I looked around the room and Chinese people were eating at the opposite tables. And suddenly it hit me -- I'm in China. I had not felt this sense of being in another culture for some time. My usual routines involve seeing many English speakers and going to bars and restaurants I am used to. It was pretty cool to get back connected to the simple pleasure of experiencing the culture once again.

Today I think I have met the first Chinese girl I really am attracted to in a way that has some long term potential. She is quite striking, smart, and interesting. Also very tall for a Chinese girl, about 5'7 or 5'8. Another major positive, she does not frequent the bar scene. (I think it would be far too much work to try to hold onto such a girl who is always out and drinking.) I don't know if its going to go anywhere. So far we're just talking and exchanging language teaching. I'm not going to press this situation. We'll just see if something happens.
Today was the first class I taught on my own. It really is so much easier for me this way. I went for four hours today and I was not nearly as tired or frazzled as I had been before.
Wow, last night I did not feel good. I got into a fit of worrying and feeling very homesick. I woke up this morning in a not positive mood. It wasn't until just after lunch that I felt better, and after teaching class I felt reaffirmed that I am where I am supposed to be. Sometimes I just get into a frame of mind and I don't want to deal with the challenge of being out here. I wish I could say I was always 'brave' and never felt this way, but that's not the case. And when it's like that, you have to just look at it and try to figure out, Should I really go back? or Should I just accept this as part of the difficulty of what I am trying to do? I'm glad its over. So long as I don't give myself too much time to think about things it seems to flow a lot more smoothly.
My #1 task now is getting a positive cash flow (I must sound like a broken record). As part of that I'm moving to a cheaper place. My next days will be looking at apartments.
Peace,
-J

Here's the status of the swing dance moment in Shanghai:
Yesterday, I saw an informal documentary shot by a friend of mine several months ago. It is called Shanghai Nights, about the night life. I did an interview for it around October. Then, in December the filmer came back to Shanghai shots us at the Roaring 20's Ball at the Paramount. Both are in the documentary which is uploaded to the Shanghai Swings yahoo group. It should be available in one or two days. To see it then,
(select text below and paste into your browser address)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shanghaiswings

You will have to join the group to view the video. It is located in the "Files" link. It is about 20mb, so be patient! It's about 13 minutes long and it gives a good idea of exactly what's been happening.

I have learned about the Chinese holidays: close your business! Over Chinese New Year, I kept the classes and social night open, but it was pointless. Only 1 person showed up. The Chinese also have a May holiday. It lasts for one week, just like Chinese New Year. And we are going to close this time.

Once the holiday is over, we are going to begin new classes. This time, we are going to sign up people for specific classes that begin and start over 4 weeks time. Before we had a 'just drop in' method, which worked while we had so few students. We would customize the class every time. But after a while people stopped coming. They had even pre-paid for their lessons, but they weren't using their pre-paid cards. So this strategy I think will work for this phase of the business.

I am still not turning out a profit living in Shanghai. I need to at least break even as soon as next month. It may be possible. I'm now running all of the business affairs and making the decisions. I hope to make this a viable living soon! But we have so many things going for us now compared to when we started. We've got a good body of students, a regular weekly place to dance, a rented studio, plus coverage in four different magazines, one TV show, and now this documentary. As a dance group, we are known and welcomed in two live-music clubs. And recently, a champion dancer has joined us - the Boogie-Woogie champion of Germany for six year running.

I have contacts with several DJ's and various other media avenues which should allow us to put out our advertising without cost. I have the names of many people who have directly expressed interest, plus contacts with certain social groups which have 100's of members. In theory at this point, everything is possible to make this happen.

My dance partner has graciously allowed me to take over the studio and run the business in the way which I see fit. I had previously been very concerned about this. She had much different ideas of how to promote the business, how to run the classes, and so forth. She will still be involved for performances and to pick up teaching classes and other similar things. From the beginning, she's just been in it for the life experience of it. And it would not have been possible to take it anywhere near as far as fast had she not been there each step of the way.

Only one thing has not been panning out quite as well as I had hoped. We have not heard back for several weeks from the Lindy Hop guru Frankie Manning or the New York City big swing band George Gee. I believe that if we re-approach them with a viable business plan that everything will work out just fine, however. If for any unfortunate reason we cannot get them, we will still go forward. We have contacted arguably the most famous swing camp in the world - the Herrang camp in Sweden. They have agreed to help us in whatever way they can.

Aside from all that, on a personal note I feel pretty good. I am going to move out of my apartment into another one with roommates. My lease is finally up and now I can get out of the contract without having to forfeit my significant deposit (I can't afford to lose that now!) I am making turtle-like but steady progress learning Mandarin. I am going on dates every now and then. And I have taken a 'regular' day job which will ensure me a small amount of cash and proper work-visa status.

I will be living here at least one year into the future.
-J

There are these types of people I keep running into. I would like to create a label for them, because they always throw me off when I have to deal with them and if I could call them "One-of-THOSE" types of people, I think it would be easier to blow them off.

They tend to have a few things in common. First, reasonably intelligent. Second, a very high regard for their own ability in one fashion: either highly educated, very attractive, skillful, or whatever. Third, show any sort of human weakness or indecision and they will pounce upon it as if they really have it all together and you'd be best off to take their sage advice. Fourth, they disagree with just about anything you say, as if contrariness were a skill they want to keep sharp.

There is another basic characteristic -- most observers agree that they really do lack any sort of great ability or trait. In fact, it may be very much the opposite. A person who views themselves as 'very confident' is actually quite insecure and constantly criticize everyone around them to keep the social upper hand. People who think they are 'quite hot' are really rather unattractive by any standards. And folks who describe their mastery of multiple skills really lack any specfic accomplishments.

It's not so bad when you have to deal with these people on a short-term basis. You just roll your eyes, check the time, and be on your merry way. But when you must see them frequently or deal with them constantly over a period of time, it starts to get to you. It gets to me, anyhow. I have been considering just telling these people off. Man, I must say it would really make me feel better. But if this person is important for whatever reason or connected to you professionally or socially, its not the same thing.

In a way I think it is god's way of punishing me, or karma if you will. I could be described as being in the past very much like "One-of-THOSE" people. I hope I have grown out of it. I think I have. That's probably why it bugs me so much to see folks like that now.

Anyhow, please forgive my rant of the day. And may you not run into any folks like this during your own day.
-J

Today I submitted the paperwork to close The Jimbo Corporation. I meant to do it yesterday, and I had all of the paperwork prepared and ready to submit. But at the last moment I had second thoughts and I did not submit it. Today, however, I decided that it's best just to let it go. There's no more income from that endeavor, and it costs a decent amount of money to pay the fees to keep a corporation in existance.

I thought perhaps it might be useful to have a corporation in my name just in case I wanted to start up some business venture. That's the main reason I did not want to get rid of it. But overall, I just decided to let it go. I can always form a new corporation, and at less cost that it would be to keep the existing one running for a year.

Anyhow, I felt OK after doing it, and I think that's the best way to figure out if your actions were the right or wrong thing to do.
-J

This past Saturday I filmed a commercial. I played the part of a doctor along with two other expats. They combed my hair and I wore my glasses so as to look as mature as possible. It was a lot of fun. The other two people were quite cool and we basically just joked around for an hour and a half. We took some pictures of us and it all flowed pretty well. Got paid for it, too, and hopefully we'll get more similar work in the future. If I did one of those every day I'd have more than enough to pay for my expenses. I'm supposed to get a DVD copy, but you know how these things go.
Stupid Blogger won't let me post the link for some reason, so if you want to see the pics, select the text below, copy it, then paste it into your internet browser address bar:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/shanghaiswings/my_photos

Then, select the "HostpitalCommercial" folder. It's quite funny, I think.
Peace,
Jim

I am in a bar called Windows 2. It is on Najing Lu, named after the city Nanjing. They have beers here for 10 quai (about 1.12 US). Tonight I visited my friend Amar from Bombay. We got dinner and a Sichuan restaurant then had a few beers. He's talking about creating a club out here. Not for profit, but just to create a place to hang out for us and our friends. It does not cost much, about 20,000 quai over four investors, or $US 10,000. It would not be for-profit, but just a fun venture between friends. If he sets it up, I'll go.

I'm looking to move now. Having a place all to myself is good when I have a date, but 99% of the time it's rather dull. I think I've wathed every DVD China has to offer.

Over at the pool table to my right is a girl I met last weekend. Her name is Alisa, and she is rather cute but I think she's a player so I'm avoiding her. What am I saying? I'm at a bar at 1am and I'm typing into my blog. The geek-factor is staggering. I got an email from you-know-who today. What the fuck? It was not even addressed specifically to me. It was part of a bulk emailiing looking for updates on addresses and people's lives. I deleted it. I cannot claim I have not thought about her since I came out here. In fact, when I first arrived there was a girl in a major advertising campaign which looked remarkably like her. Every billboard, every subway stop. Talk about annoying. But that campaign is over and that relationship is over, and both have their place in the past.

I have decided to open up a swing dance venue out here. Once a week, patterned loosely after the Dogg House in San Francisco. However, we will offer more to drink.

Last Wednesday we had our first Lindy Hoppers from San Francisco come and visit. That was pretty cool. I had not seen anyone dance except Kellian and Alicia for the last six months. This girl had the typical leg-flick-on-one that all San Fran Lindy Hop girls have. It was so cool to see that. It took me back.

Anyhow, tonight is going pretty well. I'm going to be getting out of our Wendesday gig and going into a Friday night gig. It's a risk, but China was a risk. This is much less of a risk, relatively speaking. And I need it, frankly. After the mis-communication (or bad deal) at Jazz Seeker I was really getting depressed and despondent about my ability to handle the social scene. But that's ridiculous. Jimbo's Swingin' Party I back in San Jose had over 200 people in attendance. For all the faults I have, organizing massive social events is not one of them.

Peace all,
JImbo

I have been looking for new places to hold the swing dancing events. I talked with two places. The first is a unused dance hall. It used to have a stage upon which we could have placed a band, but for some reason they covered the front of the stage with plywood and they are using it for storage now. Sometimes, I swear, I think the people here have no aesthetics. It was such a wonderful old place, with wood construction, hanging lamps, and this beautiful stage. But I still think we will use it. We can just play our CD's for music. Maybe later we will arrange for the band.

The second place I talked to was the Paramount Ballroom. This is the premier location for any kind of fancy dance events. A few days ago I was feeling pretty good and decided to drop in. I told the manager we would have about 50 people and asked him if we could dance there. He was excited about the idea, actually. He even said the band could prepare to play more swing-type music and we could come once a week. He would charge a very reasonable rate. He event invited me to bring my friends with on a Saturday to take a tour. I was surprised with this success. I had built an expectation that the Paramount would be difficult to obtain. But I just walked in and asked and there it was.

I think the plan now is still to rent out the small private hall. I think for the scene to develop properly, we need our own space which we control. We can play our own music, have our own people, and charge very little to attend. We will serve water only, and people can bring in food or other drinks so long as they clean up after themselves. We'll start with playing CD's, and if the attendance increases we'll bring in a band.

In othe news, today I went to a casting call for a small part in a movie or commercial (I'm not sure which). They were looking for foreigners to play the part of a doctor. The woman there said I looked very young (which is good). They put some glasses on me then said it would probably be no problem. I would like to get more involved in that. I lived in Los Angeles for two years and not once did I ever work as an extra in a film. I could have, but I never pursued it.

Opportunity for me here is much greater than back home. The more time I spend here, the less I consider returning 'home', whereever that may be. Life is more exciting out here, there's more possibilities, and I am getting to know a great many people. I try to picture myself going back to America. I see myself finding a city, renting an apartment, getting in a car and driving back and forth to work 5 times a week. Going out on weekends, dancing some, and so forth. I think it would be a lot harder for me to try any new career directions, and from what I read in the news the job situation back there still sucks.

I would never go back to Chicago, though that is where I grew up. To me, it would feel like a failure to return unless there were some great career opportunity. Also, the dating scene is much more favorable out here. Part of it is just because I am feeling better now. A positive direction in your life makes a great difference in how 'attractive' people perceive you.

Well, all for now.
-J