Boardgames | BeijingDaze

Jul
7thquickslants: French Teenage Riot, Sparrow returns and some food for the mind

Hallo… miss me? Of course not! Especially with the lovely Ruby at the helm while I was away keeping things in control and bringing the goodies. Well, I’m baaaaack and ready for some good music to recover from almost 3 weeks of deprivation. We’re on home stretch for the world cup but there are definitely some great goodies on the menu this week: Wednesday July 7: Malakwa @ Yugong Yishan: Never heard of them before but I really like the promo picture and the descriptions. Support courtesy of Evening News ( liked what i saw of them a few months back), First Day of Autumn and Mythomania. Not a bad gig to ease back into the week and it’s only 30rmb at the door. Looking forward to hearing the improved sound system at Yugong Yishan. Thursday July 8: nothing of substance so it might be worth going to the lesser known venues and experiment. Friday July 9: Abigail & Friends @ The One: The sparrow returns and brings her friends along for an evening of jolly good and inspiring roots music. Expect Hanggai to make a few appearance as well as other guests! This one might be the highlight of the week for me. See the 10 questions i did with Abigail last year for reference. Misandao 10th @Mao: been a while since i mentioned Mao Live on here. If roots ain’t your thing, this is definitely one hell of a good alternative with one of the better punk bands [...]
Jun
9thwalking the posts: of Rai, Memorials and Farewell

It’s been a busy end of the week folks with shows and events scattered all around this lovely (and today quite rainy) city! Thursday: Rai @ Ginkgo Yup, somehow I managed to get to the Amine Kouider show at Ginkgo (k before g thank you very much) and that was quite enjoyable. I walked in a bit late around 11:00 to a full house enjoying the darbouka beats (tambourine) and distinctive North African rhythms with covers of classic Moroccan and Algerian Songs. This kid with the wild curly hair has the place jamming despite a throat that was basically shot after a few hours of performing. Still, he carried on with an Encore and another encore at the request of some patrons. I can’t believe nobody has tried to jump on him yet for a couple of shows as he is still in Beijing for a few weeks. C’mon cafe/bar folks…. he’s gooooood! Friday @ 2kolegas: Ian Sherman memorial Made it to the show after a late dinner! I hadn’t been there in almost a year and the place changed quite a bit.. for the better I must say! The outdoors is more orderly, decked out with chairs, tents and a chuan’t stand. Caught the tail end of RandomK(e)’s show which was pretty darn good and spent the rest of the night chatting/dancing away. It did get a bit emotional for a bit with speeches about Ian… I’m sure he would have loved all the girls dancing their hearts out. [...]
Jun
3rdbring on the geeks (and everyone else too): bookswap and boardgame saturday

Next time I hear someone talking about “there is nothing to do in Beijing but go out and get drunk in a bar”, I might hurl!!! There are plenty of happenings in the city that a lot of people are enjoying but are not always mediatized. Board Games and Bookswap Saturday in one of them. This little community based/organized event gathering takes place on the first Saturday of every month at Sequoia Cafe on Guangha Lu, across from the Brazilian Embassy in Beijing. It’s been happening now for just over 1 year and is a completely NON-PROFIT initiative by some expat Beijinger including @moderntimes (on twitter) ( who happens to run one of my favorite websites about Beijing http://www.quirkybeijing.com ) and Nick, one of the most knowledgeable men about boardgames that you’ll ever meet. Yours truly just tries not to get in the way! The premise is quite simple: bring a book, take a book! (classics, textbooks and Chinese language titles not accepted). Considering your average foreign language book/novel retails for RMB100+ in Beijing, this ends up being quite a moneysaver for those avid readers. I have personally seen folks show up with 30+ books for trade. The board games side of things is just a great way to spend an afternoon unwinding over coffee/juice/wine with a varied collection of games available: Apples to apples, Settlers, Risk, Louis XIV, chess, monopoly, etc… pick a game, grab a few folks and get going. Sequoia Cafe: Sequoia cafe is also a great [...]