With both the Midi and Strawberry festivals going down this past weekend, hip hop impresario Damon Dash was spotted out and about town taking in Beijing's music scene. 

Renowned for being Jay-Z's first producer and launching the careers of Kanye West, Beanie Sigel and Cam’ron, among others, Dash rose from rough and tumble beginnings in Harlem and amassed an empire that included "a record label, five clothing and shoe companies, a Swiss watch company, a top-shelf vodka company, a television production house, and a movie production company ... worth an estimated USD 50 million," according to the Atlanta Post.

But his fortunes fell in 2004 after a very public falling out with his former protege, Jay-Z (read all about it here). With his marriage, houses and business interests on the rocks, the 38-year-old has been working on rebuilding his empire with a host of creative music, art and business related projects - among them DD172, a four-story art salon-cum-music space in Tribeca, Creative Control (an online TV station) and the BlackRoc project that has paired Ohio blues rock wunderkinds The Black Keys with a who's-who of MCs, including Mos Def, Raekwon, Black Thought, The RZA and more.   

Google rarely runs smoothly at the best of times in our office, but our friends down at Shanghaiist are reporting that we may now be entering the worst of times. At least, if you discount the existence of alternative search engines, or depend just a little too much on the Internet to get through the day.

Join us for part two of our interview with Wes the Truthseeker, who talks more about life outside of Earth and Beijing's reaction to it. We also touch upon other popular conspiracy theories, and urge anyone who has any info about famous assassinations to come forth! Julilu predicts a Happy Ending, and travel deal hunter Chris Cook discovers a cheap route to the sunny skies of Yunnan.

Question: How many recognized species of Alien are there? Beijing Blender has the answer! Meet Wes, a self-proclaimed "Truthseeker," who comes on this week's show to shed some light on myths, legends and/or conspiracy theories Beijingers have been chatting about; then, let the musical stylings of Beijing-based band Made of Sound take your ears on a wild wide. It takes two," says Julilu, and the Queen of the Quasi-Employed reminds us all that 'tis the season for giving.

Thinking turkey thoughts? You're not the only one! Special guests Shannon Vaughn and Noah Purcell hop in the booth to pay homage to this feast-centered holiday with a hip-hop inspired song, and if that gets your mouth watering, the Blender's got a list of restaurants you can go to where you can eat yourself into a coma. Julilu brings together two lonely hearts, Chris Cook has a deal for fellow Brits, and Margo speaks her mind, as always.

What podcast would be complete without a sound engineer to make sure that every edition sounds absolutely perfect? Before each Beijing Blender podcast is made public, Wayne and his Sniper Sounds Post Production team seclude themselves in the studio, finding refuge only in their heavy duty headphones.