Sunday Salon: Violinist Chai Liang + Wings of Music

This Month’s Time Out Critic’s Choice Event

Time Out Beijing/Shanghai’s Classical and Performance editor Nancy Pellegrini couldn’t be more delighted about her newest catch for this month’s Sunday Salon Classical performance (and I’m pretty stoked myself!). This Sunday at The Bookworm, classical music lovers have the chance to appreciate some of China’s top musical talent – internationally recognized violinist Chai Liang 柴亮 together with classical guitar virtuosa Li Jie.

An all-star event proudly organized by Nancy together with music critic and impresario Sam Su and promoter Zhang Kexin, they take you behind China’s music in an interactive lecture series and intimate performance by both of these star musicians together with a few of their select students from their Wings of Music Programme, a non-profit organisation linked with the conservatory that provides free instruments and high-level music lessons to children of migrant workers and the rural poor.

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Black Eyeliner + REPHLEX (Mike Dred UK) at DADA

Mike Dred aka REPHLEX headlines Black Eyeliner at Dada this Friday, May 10th

Respected as a true pioneer of acid techno, REPHLEX (Mike Dred) is a UK legend and “master of the Roland TB- 303 Bass Line synthesizer” and he has touched down in Beijing this weekend to headline Hipster DJ Trio, Black Eyeliner (Sound Spade, Attacks Unicorns and DJ Ost), also Dada Beijing‘s premier dark music dance party.

“Mike Dred, AKA the “Jimi Hendrix of the 303”, an “Acid (music) Genius” (The Rough Guide to Techno) Kosmik Kommando, Machines Codes, Chimera, DJ Judge Dred and Space Avenger, has a profile to make the pretenders weep.” - Benjamin Leeland Bacon aka DJ SoundSpade

Beijing’s dark, dancey DJ party, Black Eyeliner was created back in March 2012 by co-founders Alex Chow and Benjamin Bacon to “make the emo kids cry”, they used to hop between different Gulou Bars but now they’ve found their home at DADA Bar Beijing.  Now the DJ Trio includes DJ SoundSpade (Benjamin Bacon), Attacks Unicorns (Kyle Page) and DJ Ost (Hua Dong).

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Magnificent Mothers: Spoil Your Mom this Sunday

Time to Treat the Most Important Lady in your Life

Better not forget the date, mark your calendars twice, set your alarms because this Sunday is Mother’s Day and it’s time to start planning something worthy of your family’s Queen Bee.

Pretty much every hotel is on it when it comes to brunch options this Sunday. From complimentary roses to champagne to free spa massages, these guys are pulling out all their stops to prove that they know exactly how to properly spoil mom. If you bring your mom to Barolo Italian Restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton, they’ve prepared chocolate carnations and sweets for all moms, The Hilton Beijing’s One East is serving up their organic brunch and they’re treating all moms to a 40-minute massage in their Jing Chen Spa, and if you bring your mom to Café O2 at InterContinental Beijing Beichen, she dines for free! (offer limited to “one mom per table” so you’re out of luck if you were planning to bring your grandma or aunts along for the freebie deal)

Though the hotel deals above are pretty sweet, a few of my top picks for Mother’s Day include a few experiences I’m pretty confident will “WOW” her:

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One East Hilton Goes Green: Natural & Organic Menu

The Hilton Beijing’s New Natural & Organic Menu at One East

I appreciate that the Hilton Beijing makes an effort to be different.  A lot of the major hotel chains in Beijing can be quite stiff and cookie-cutter boring, but not the Hilton Beijing.  These are the same guys known to host pole dancing competitions and bring in a mechanical bull for their annual Texan Rodeo Charity Event, which was not only hilarious, but super fun to get whipped off a spinning and jerking giant, fake bull.  As I said, not your typical hotel chain branch.  I was quite curious when I heard about their new “Natural and Organic Promotion” in their Louisiana-style American restaurant One East.

One East adapts the style of a Louisiana mansion with dark wood and louvered windows

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Hair & Beauty by Hummingbird: Full-Force Makeover

Introducing the “Beauty” Part of Hummingbird’s Hair & Beauty Salon

Since my hair first met Celebrity Stylist Tom Yuen, nicknamed “The Scissorhands of Beijing” by his loyal cult following, I don’t dare trust anyone else to touch it. You’d think that speed and scissors are a terrible combination but seeing him at work is really nothing like I’ve ever seen. People really aren’t exaggerating when they say he’s like Edward Scissorhands and he’s equally as talented.  I could easily imagine Tom rolling up his sleeves and whipping up a masterpiece sculpture in a matter of minutes if you gave him an untamed bush to manicure.

Since my first haircut with Tom last year, my hair has never been easier to maintain (I’m so lazy when it comes to my hair that I can hardly even be asked to blowdry it), and even after 6 months without a trim, my locks are still in better shape than how they might have been after a haircut elsewhere.  But Hummingbird’s Hair & Beauty Salon has quite a lot of other noteworthy services.  Hair is not even half of it.

“We are a boutique salon that specializes in haircuts, styling, bridal and special occasions, damage remedy, hair colour, hair texture, nail services, skin care, facials, waxing, makeup, massage, and spa packages.” – Hair & Beauty by Hummingbird

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Off-Menu Chef’s Dinner with Alan-san at Kagen

Off-the-Menu Chef’s Dinner for serious Hatsune Addicts

It’s not every day that you will catch Hatsune Restaurant Owner Alan Wong slaving away in the kitchen (he has his team of sushi samurais to take on most of the grunt work), but when he is in the kitchen, everyone knows something special is in the making.

Always inventing and recreating new (and often one-off) dishes, it would be a shame to let these beautiful creations slip away unnoticed so I’ve taken it upon myself to organize small dinners for our die-hard Hatsune sushi addicts to present an exclusive dinner of “Off Menu Creations”.

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Free Health Talk: Learn Chinese Secrets to Longevity

Cherry Blossoms in Yu Yuan Tan Park in Full Bloom 

With Spring in full bloom (I have a bunch of Cherry Blossom pictures to prove it), this is the season for activity, a time of renewal and the stirring and loosening of stored energy after the longest winter in the history of winters (that’s how long this past winter felt anyway).  Now that it’s finally over (hallelujah!), I’ve gotten back into the grind of training for upcoming half-marathon in Inner Mongolia (click here for info about the Genghis Khan Inner Mongolia Outdoor Adventure) thanks to Heyrobics and HeyRunning’s Summer Camp 2013. As great as it is to start pushing for more physical exercise and to “sweat like a Swede”, the motivation to push yourself really only comes in spurts (let’s be honest guys, we all have a tendency to get lazy and not hit the gym for weeks/months at a time) and what happens once there comes a day when your body just can’t handle a 5k run and hour-long intense aerobics programs?

For those of me who are keen and curious to learn about long-term ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle focused on balance and learn about the traditional Chinese practice of Qi Gong, a cross between deep-breathing, meditation and stretching, I’m delighted to spread the word about a FREE health talk presented by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner and educator, Alex Tan of Straight Bamboo TCM Clinic aka The Hutong’s TCM Guru and my Health Hero.

The first time I met Alex Tan was about a year ago when I showed up for his free health talk and since then, it’s had a powerful impact on my lifestyle. I’ve changed my eating and sleeping habits for the better and changed the way I think about one’s overall state of health and well-being.

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Goodbye Taco Bar, Hello Great Leap Flagship Brewpub!