hey y'all, just wanted to let you know that today, and every friday for that matter, is "freaky friday" @
A TASTE OF SINGAPORE Restaurant & Cocktail Bar (新风味生活餐吧), in 3 gorges square, shapingba. 
and what could make a friday, or any day for that matter, more 'freaky' than 50% off all food and drinks sold by the glass, which includes cocktails.  as some bro said on cqexpat,

 "What makes the restaurant great are the drinks (50% off on fridays, excellent selection, *proper* drinks) and the atmosphere."

so, so before you head out to The Bei(jeifangbei for the newbs) this friday, next friday, or whatever friday night, i suggest stopping by  freaky friday @ "the singapore" for a bite and a pre-func/pre-funk to ease your way into the ensuing debauchery.




Address: Shapingba District, San Xia Guang Chang, 5th Floor, CapitaRetail Building (next to Wang Fu Jing taxi stand) Chongqing. 重庆市沙平坝小龙坎新街029号华宇广场1号三峡广场嘉茂购物中心5楼2号（王府井出租车站旁边）

posted by: sidewalkspew

***lindsay lohan sightings not guaranteed

mark your calendars y'all 'cause here it comes.  the 7th annual(well almost annual last year's was canceled due to the olympics) chongqing beer festival.  and this year the event spans 2 weekends, begening the weekend of  july 24-26, in yuzhong (at the sports stadium near the hilton), and the following weekend july 31 - Aug. 2, in jiu long po "panama city."
i've not been to a cq beer fest, but i here the shancheng flows like the jialing(though much safer for swimming), so be prepared to drench your belly from the inside and out, as word on the street is that as the day wares on, beer fights ensue.

details to come...

and as always, new music for y'all.  from their new e.p., Neon Indian's  "deadbeat summer." a perfect song for chilling out to on a steamy cq night.
dwnld or listen below.

...actually i prefer a mocha, more so an espresso.  and when i want one, i now know where to go thanks to cqscene reader Tiankong, who put me on to Holiland, which i am eternally grateful for.  Holiland, the bakery chain found throughout CQ, has good coffee/coffee drinks, at an unbeatable price. to quote tiankong,

"if you're on the go... the best cup of coffee is holliland... 6 kuai quick and deliciously caffeinated,"

 products range from espresso and americanos(goes great with a dico's doughnut), to mochas and vanilla lattes, at a cost of 6 -12 kuai.  and to top it off, the coffee they use is one of my personal favorites, illy.  and if you happen to be in longhu/xin pai fang, the holiland there has tables and free wi-fi, though it lacks atmosphere, its well suited for your coffee sipping web-surfing needs. 

and as you know by now, i take any chance i get to share music with you that i can tie into my posts(however 'loose' the knot may be').  this song has been on my summer playlist non-stop since i came across it.  the Super Viral Brothers' "hot chocolate + polar bear rug" (dada life rmx).  download the song here.  

p.s. if a you have any suggestions, tips or questions, please leave them as comments or email us through the contact page. 

one thing i've taken for granted growing up in america, was the ever present availability of doughnuts.  whether its my favorite organic, vegan doughnut from seattle's(one of CQ's sister cities) "Mighty O,"  or a pack of the hostess donettes from the nearest gas station, doughnuts, in america are everywhere.  and no matter where you are, its not easy to find a bad doughnut.  of course some are far superior to others, but most doughnuts are in some way enjoyable, even in china. 
i have found one however that goes beyond merely being enjoyable (i would go as far to say it is absolutely delicious), and that is the dico's doughnut.  yes dico's the over-priced fast food haven finally gives us a reason to enter its doors and that reason comes in two flavors, powdered sugar, and chocolate.  both being tasty, the chocolate exceptionally so, and at RMB3 and 3.5 respectively you can't go wrong.

as i sit in createa(bottom floor of the "capital retail" shopping mall @ san xia guang chang), my coffee shop of choice here in shapingba, i am overly annoyed by what i assume is some of that infamously horrible chinese pop music playing throughout the cafe. a quick google search of the lyrics reveals that the song is "pretty pretty boy" by the group m2m, which is in-fact a norwegian pop group(my ancestors must be rolling in their graves), but a bad pop group all the same. the song has played for the 2nd time in less than an hour, and is tempting me to pay the extra 7-20 RMB for a cup of caffeination over at starbux, but my past experiences, all of which pleasant, especially to my wallet(10RMB espresso/americano, 16 RMB med. soy latte), convince me to stick it out, and turn my annoyance into inspiration.
inspiration to share with you, what the unkowing may consider to be oxymoronic.   good chinese pop music, or shall i say "indie-pop."  in particular, a couple of bands who recently made their way to chongqing. Life Journey(gallery) and Hedgehog. 

Hedgehog - (24 hr rock party)24小时摇滚聚会 [dwnld]
Hedgehog - (day dreaming)白日梦蓝 [dwnld]
Life Journey - (back to babylon)回到巴巴拉拉的城堡 [dwnld]
Life Journey - Dog Dog Dogs [dwnld]

rumor had it that a new pizza restaurant opened up in shapingba, and after reading a post on cqexpat, i decided for myself to see what and where the hype was all about.  as I read in the post, suzie's was in the most unassuming of locations, located on the 23rd floor of an apartment building, but with the simple directions i had(across from the 2-story mcdonalds in shapingba[not the one by starbux]), it was fairly easy to find(if standing with your back to mcdonalds its in the tall gray building across the street and to the right), and well worth the trip. 
I tried both the chicken oregano and the hot & spicy pizzas, and both were quite good.  I was especially pleased with suzie's use of real cheese ,                                                                                                    a  homemade sauce and crust, that was delightfully crispy.  

suzies is located @ 沙平坝，[三峡广场重庆大酒店旁边]商社电器楼上，金沙国际B-23-4
or you can call her @ 136 9641 9353 for 24 hour delivery anywhere in CQ. [menu]

as i mentioned in my previous post, chonging can get damn hot come the summer-time.  and with humidity to match the heat, often time you find yourself looking for a way to avoid becoming the world's largest jiaozi, that doesn't involve speanding the entirety of the day in -front of the AC.  fear not friends! we have the solution, or shall i say solutions, for you. 
all summer long we'll be giving you tips on how to "beat the cq heat." and first on the list(with the exception, of course, of our friend mentioned below) comes to you all the way from the usa.  yes, cq now has a dairy queen(aka DQ).  and though it lacks the burgers, fries, etc., found in the DQ you may be used to from home, it does have quite the offering of frozen treats, the highlight of which being the blizzard(oreo w/ banana in my case).  to get there just hop on the light-rail to yang jia ping, or take a cab or bus(i take the 402 from shapingba) to yang jia ping bu xin jie(aka"fu an bai huo")  and go into the "grand ocean" department store building right next to the station.  your escape to ice-cold extacy awaits you in the bottom floor.  though not hard to find by merely keeping your eyes open, a simple "DQ zai n'ar?" asked to any of the workers ought to get you there.

p.s. anyone trying to do the opposite and heat things up, might want to check out whats going down at cici park this weekend.  they'll be hosting 2 parties, friday being a latin party, and saturday's party, "german bold," will feature 2 german djs playing drum&bass, dubstep, and electro.

being away from home in a foreign country can be lonesome at times.  whether its a miserable chongqing winter day, or an unbearably hot day in one of the "3 furnaces", you can always count on your buddy in the green bottle to get you thru the tuff times. and now that faithful friend can be found on facebook. so give him/her an add and show him/her how much he/she really means to you.

 as many of you may know, subway makes its chongqing debut today(wed. 5/20) at hong ya dong in jeifangbei(No# 88 Jia Bin Road Chongqing CQ 400015 ).

 i feel shame to be taking up increasingly less valuable web space by posting about/promoting subway, but i'm sure many of you here in cq, myself included, yearn for the (up until today) evasive combo of  bread-meat-vegetables-cheese-bread, or as my friend Andy of the band Acorn Project used to eat, just plain 'ole 'bread-meat-bread.'
and in celebration of all things "sub," i'm offering some tracks from the 'sub-chongqing' cd series, an annual compilation cd made of tracks from cq's 'cold-cutty' underground music scene.

Yuren Chuan - from subCQ2 [dwnld]
unnown artist - from subCQ2 [dwnld]