Despite the fact that big international bands keep failing to make it here (by "big" I mean famous, not necessarily good), promoters are still trying their best to bring quality acts to Beijing. Krautrock trio The Secret Machines (see interview here) and singer-songwriter Julie Doiron (see interview here) are playing tonight at Yugong Yishan and 2 Kolegas, while Zuoxiao Zuzhou (see interview here) performs his first solo in eight years at Century Theater. On Saturday, Japanese synth punk band Triple Nipples drive into 2 Kolegas for a night of god-know-what-would-happen. On other sides of the town, French folk duo Vialka and world music group Dawanggang jam at Tiny Salt Coffee Club, whereas Low Wormwood frontman Liu Kun releases his solo debut at D-22 with supports from some of Beijing's best folk musicians. Heavy weekend for live music, so take out your wallet now, you know musicians need money more than faith to keep rocking. 

The net is abuzz with chat about The Beijinger’s Annual Restaurant Award results which were officially published yesterday morning – here’s a roundup of online reactions.

"My brother Andrew lives in Beijing and I am excited to visit him again!"
- Brandon Curtis

Before conducting this interview with The Secret Machines (www.myspace.com/secretmachines), I went through all their albums – days later, the psychedelic thunderstorm of “First Wave Intact” and the innocent love story in “Alone, Jealous & Stoned” are still living in my head. As the band prepares to tour Beijing (Mar 19) and Shanghai (Mar 20), we talked to Brandon Curtis, vocalist/keyboardist/bassist, about the music that brought them to this point.

Following our breaking of the news that Beijing’s Show of Peace had been postponed last week, the Global Times managed to obtain some additional comment from organizer Rick Garson, published in today’s paper.

Yesterday (March 16) saw the best of Beijing’s culinary talent gather at Joy Luck for the Beijinger’s 7th Annual Reader Restaurant Awards, the capital’s oldest and most credible dining awards. 191 Beijing restaurants were nominated across 35 categories, and over 5,000 votes were collated to come up with this year’s results. Hosted by the wonderful Dominic Johnson-Hill of Plastered 8 T-shirts and Beijing personality Ai Wan, the awards attracted a diverse crowd of revelers as they rolled on through the afternoon.

So, without further ado, the winners are…

Tickets are now on sale for the Sanyuan Foods China Open 2010. That’s snooker for the uninitiated. Tickets are priced at RMB 20-2,010 and available by clicking here. To have a look at the schedules and find out when you might see Ronnie O’Sullivan click here.

There’s been more fall-out from the Winter Olympics. Gold medal winner Zhou Yang has come under fire for thanking her parents when everyone knows that you should thank your country above all. To remind her of this was State Sports General Administration deputy director Yu Zaiqing who said “Thanking your parents is not a problem, but should thank the country first. Must put the country first, don’t just thank your parents and that’s it.”

To say the Shanghai-born, American-raised Beijing personality Ai Wan has had an eclectic career would be an understatement. Once named “world most exotic beauty” by American Playboy magazine, Ai Wan opened one of Beijing’s best-known nightclubs, ChinaDoll, back in 2006, and writes a regular column on the capital’s clubbing culture for Modern Weekly. She has also appeared in a raft of films, including Rush Hour and Zhang Ziyi's comedy Sophie’s Revenge, and produced the controversial Chinese documentary Yasukuni, which screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. On the eve of her hosting of the Beijinger's 2010 Reader Restaurant Awards, we caught up with Ai Wan to find out what she has been up to recently.

Back in January we reported on the Show of Peace, announced with much fanfare (with the support of rock legend Jimmy Page), and supposedly scheduled for April 17 this year.  Aside from a “clarification” issued by the organizers when theBeijinger.com and China Music Radar reported that one of the “confirmed” acts was actually playing in Japan the night of the concert, the promoters have been suspiciously quiet in recent weeks. So it was no surprise when we received a notice today stating the Show of Peace has been postponed until October.

The snow on Monday, I don’t know what’s that all about, it’s March already. Don't know how it's been affecting the festival season (which is spring, in case you haven't seen it's coming), but the Beijing leg of JUE Festival is well under its way. Presented by Split Works, the festival consists of art, cinema and music events across Beijing and Shanghai (see our interview with the organizers here and full event schedule here). On Friday night, JUE sees the appearances of American indie singer/instrumentalist St. Vincent at Yugong Yishan and Danish rockabilly group Dead Elvis & His One Man Grave at D-22. On the local side, things get more hardcore at Mao Livehouse, where TOOKOO, Bigger Bang! and The Reason rock on the northern end of Nanluogu Xiang - maybe you can hear them in YGYS, since St. Vincent's music is relatively quiet, maybe.

An Edinburgh Fringe in China? Sounds ambitious for a whole lot of reasons, but that’s what Split Work are hoping to do with the JUE Festival, an extended lineup of artists, performances, screenings and exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai.