Last show in present series

The last show in the present series of Lucky Cat will be on tonight at 9pm on Resonance 104.4FM (www.resonancefm.com).
To join my mailing list for info on club nights and future radio spots please email luckycatzoe at gmail.com

Playlist 21st April 2009

New music from China

• Blood & Fire - Niney
  
• Rice Shop 米店 - Zhang Wei Wei & Guo Long
  
• Dead Flower - Jeff Zhang 守望 (Is It Real EP)
  
• That Long 那么久 - Wu Ning Yue 吴宁越 小南瓜
  
• Goo goo night - Ourself Beside Me
  
• 47 Rockets For Wan Hu - White (Shenggy from White is pictured)
  
• Why Punish Me Kneel Down - Unknown Hong Kong 1950s singer
  
• Proverbs - Mamer (Eagle CD)
  
• Who Say Me Done? - Cutty Ranks
  
• Soulful Dress - Sugar Pie DeSanto
  
• Also played a coupel of tracks from the excellent CDBollywood Steel Guitar
  

Check out new Beijing label MicroMu:
http://www.psfk.com/2008/08/micromu-an-innovative-new-record-label-in-china.html
http://www.buchadian.com/
Information on new music from China:
http://wiki.rockinchina.com

Technicolor Delight

Grace Chang Ja Jambo

Playlist 14th April 2009

• I Love Boh Boh Cha Cha - The Stylers
  
• My Darling Doll - Siao Fong Fong (pictured)
  
• Lion of Judah - Laurel Aitken
  
• Kalenda March - The Lion
  
• Talk About Love - Pat Kelly
  
• Track from the I Know EP - Wong Ching Yian
  
• The Dark End of the Street - Pat Kelly
  
• I Love You - Siao Fong Fong
  
• Young Love - Siao Fong Fong
  
• Let's Go Gay - The Rocking Skippers
  
• Eggs and Sausages in a Cadillac - Tom Waits
  
• Vietnamese Title - Song from the Robert Crumb compilation CD Hot Women, Singers from the Torrid Regions of the World
  
• Mr Ska Beena - Alton Ellis
  
• Electrified - Max & Cha Cha (Beijing)
  
• Here I Come - Ourself Beside Me
  

The Lion - New Sculpture in Chinatown

Apologies for the poor quality of these images - taken with my phone. The Lion is above Little Wu restaurant on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Wardour Street. In the bottom picture you can see (L-R) Someone from Shaftesbury PLC, David Tse of Chinatown Arts Space, artists Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Kimiya Yoshikawa, the Mayor of Westminster and Christine Yau from the London Chinatown Association.
I thought the new sculpture looked pretty good. I was worried before that it would be a bit cliche but actually it was quite contemporary and apporpriate for the space. So look up when you're on Shaftesbury Avenue!
For more info on the artists see their web site: www.hsiaochikimiya.com

Sophie Yau plays live on Lucky Cat Tues 7th April

Singer songwriter Sophie Yau will join me on tomorrow's Lucky Cat for a live performance.
Sophie has also agreed to take part in the Dim Sum Lunchbox tasting - this week it's Chez Pim's Thai-marinated fried chicken.

For more info on Sophie Yau go to: www.myspace.com/sophieyau

Japanese Cinema and Art Festival @ The National Gallery

Strength from Adversity
A Contemporary Japanese Cinema and Art Festival @ The National Gallery in London 15-17 April 2009.
A celebration of contemporary Japanese cinema. The festival has been organised by Japan Care for the Elderly.

Takeshi Kitano's Kikujiro is showing on Friday 17th April, the film was nominated Golden Palm at Cannes in 1999. Other films include the UK premiere of 2009's Best Foreign Film Oscar winner Departures.

Varifair Film Festival

The brand new VARIFAIR Film Festival will be showcasing current Chinese Cinema in London this month.
The festival will run for one week, 18th - 25th April. There is a competition to find a 90 Second Short Film.

The VARIFAIR Film Festival aims to bring a completely different vision of Chinese film and to discover and develop the next generation of film makers.

Films showing include The Sun Also Rises directed by Jiang Wen and Post Revolutionary Era a documentary on Chinese indie rock music and bands.

For the festival diary see the post at dimsum.co.uk.

Radiodiffusion Blog

A few nights ago whilst doing some late night searching for images of the Taiwanese girl group The Petals (as you do) I found this amazing blog:
http://radiodiffusion.wordpress.com
I can't believe I didn't know about it before, the information on there is incredible, it catalogues recorded popular music of the '60's and '70's from many, many countries including East Asia (which obviously I am particularly interested in). What a brilliant resource: cover art, mp3s and historical and cultural information.
Just take a look, for instance, at the Singapore page.
The creator Stuart Ellis compiled the excellent Bollywood Steel Guitar CD for Sublime Frequencies and he will be doing some other compilations for them soon.
I found this picture of Cai Mi Mi & Five Petals Guitar Band too (see above) on the Taiwanese page too.
For more info see: http://radiodiffusion.net

King Boxer & 36th Chamber of Shaolin, new DVD editions

Weinstein label Dragon Dynasty has released two Kung Fu classics on DVD with new interviews, commentaries and extras:

• King Boxer aka The Five Fingers of Death starring Lo Lieh
  New commentary by Quentin Tarantino. Classic Shaw Brothers action from 1972, check out the glowing red fists! Lo Lieh gets to play the hero in this one, he went on to play a lot of villains, as in the next release....
  
• 36th Chamber of Shaolin
  The 1978 classic that should be on every true martial arts film lover's shelf. Gordon Liu in an iconic role as the young hero.
  New commentary from Wu Tang Clan's RZA.
  

Brian White, formerly of the now dissolved Hong Kong Legends DVD label, is working with Dragon Dynasty. Read all about it here.

Playlist 31st March 2009

• Boxer - Carolyn Franklin
  
• Joe Frazier Round 2 - Dennis Alcalpone
  
• Shaolin Temple - Barrington Levy
  
• Natty Kung Fu - Dillinger
  
• Early Spring at Green Lake - The UK Chinese Ensemble
  
• Sukiyaki Rock - The Lincolns
  
• Sukiyaki - Kong Ling & The Fabulous Echoes
  
• Hypocrites - Michael Prophet & Daddy Freddy
  
• Liushui, Flowing Water - The UK Chinese Ensemble