"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.

“The Scottish play!” Three Brits corrected me immediately with one voice at an editorial meeting after I dared to speak the name of the upcoming Shakespearean show, Macbeth. As one of William Shakespeare’s darkest and bloodiest plays, Macbeth is a terrifying tragedy swirling with black magic, tortured ghosts, corrupt passion, betrayal and murder. Theatrical superstition says this play is cursed and that saying the name out loud will cause disaster. Supposedly, Shakespeare used a few spells from actual witches as dialogue for the play – which caused great offense and led them to curse the drama.

We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's what Ian Johnson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Beijing correspondent for the Wall Street Journal said:

My favorite childhood book is House at Pooh Corner.

Poetry seems daunting to many of us. Years of staring at print in classrooms made us feel that way. The answer to our struggles to love verse might be the genre of spoken word. We spoke to two of its most acclaimed exponents – British legend Benjamin Zephaniah and slam-winning Steven Connell – on the eve of their performance at 2 Kolegas this Saturday (March 13) as part of the Bookworm International Literary Festival.

As the century turned, Beijing knew little of drum & bass. The Syndicate, a band of rowdy miscreants who dared to venture where none had gone before, changed that. Ahead of the crew’s sixth birthday party at White Rabbit on March 13 (RMB 50, 9pm), members Blackie and Slide tell us how they’ll up the ante in 2010.

the Beijinger: It’s been quiet on The Syndicate front for a few months. What’s been going on?
DJ Blackie: It really was a case of, in the wake of various movements and goings on in the Beijing nightlife scene, us pursuing various other projects for a short while. It’s also given us time to take stock and wait for the opportunity to hit the ground running. We’re super excited about where things are at in terms of clubs this year.

"I hate optimism out of insensitivity."
- Zuoxiao Zuzhou

For the past five years, this guy has been making headlines for pricing his albums from 30 kuai to 500 kuai. He’s also known for being a contemporary artist/poet/soundtrack composer working with Ai Weiwei and film director Jia Zhangke. Born in 1970, alternative rock singer-songwriter Zuoxiao Zuzhou (literally means “left-little-curse of the ancestors”) founded Beijing East Village with many avant-garde artists in early 90s, and their controversial artwork Adding a Meter to the Nameless Mountain (为无名山增高一米. See photo, below) shocked the Chinese art world in 1995. Meanwhile, ZXZZ's rock band "NO" released Trip to Temple Fair (庙会之旅) and The Missing Master (走失的主人). Both albums are filled with spacious guitar chords, tribal drum beats, sound experiments and volatile vocals, which scared many people for sure, but also gained him a loyal fan base.

We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's how expat entrepreneur Dominic Johnson-Hill answered:

For almost two decades, DJ Vadim has been DJing and producing some of the most innovative hip-hop and electronica around. He's worked solo, putting out records on the legendary Ninja Tune label as well as on his own BBE imprint. Vadim has collaborated with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Kraftwerk, from Paul Weller to Sly Stone. Even his wife, MC Yarah Bravo, is a regular collaborator, as Beijing will find out when Free the Wax bring the pair to perform at Yugong Yishan this Saturday.

We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's how Evan Osnos, China correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, answered:

We asked notable Beijingers: "What's on your bookshelf?" Here's how Dr. Geoff Raby, the Australian ambassador to China, answered: