2008年10月3日星期五

3rd Annual China Salsa Congress

http://www.china-salsa.com/

Had a great time at the JW Marriot a couple days ago (thanks to the invite from my friend Brian Zhang - check out his moves in the video below, ha) at the 3rd Annual China Salsa Congress pre-party. Lots of fun, though I didn't wear the right shoes to "get my groove on" on the dance floor, I did enjoy watching the show. :)



After seeing the show, I realized that its been *waaaaay* too long since I last went salsa dancing. I lived in Guatemala a couple years ago (only for a couple months in the Summer) and went salsa dancing every night... but at least I've got some good tunes (aka: Celia Cruz) to keep me in the mood.

I hope everyone has a great October holiday! 国庆节快乐!

~ Elyse

2008年9月22日星期一

chinese in motion: pilot episode

Well, I spent far too much time yesterday prepping and filming the pilot episode for a 6 minute slot on a TV show (I think the English title is "Chinese in Motion" but I can't be too sure), but at least I got to vent my opinions on mooncakes.

Yes, the first episode is about mooncakes. Now, I personally don't mind a good mooncake, in fact, if its a lotus seed filling (minus the egg!) I'm all about scarfing them down. But this one had a preserved rose petal filling, which was very sour, and yet I had to chomp on the sticky sweet thing for like, 5 minutes, as they got *just the right* shot, all while holding a straight face! Thank ye gods for my superb acting training, its all finally coming in handy! ;)

Seriously though, it was surprisingly fun to be a TV pundit, spouting my random opinions on things. I hope that the pilot gets picked up (its meant to be shown overseas, not sure where, really, but would be cool if it got on air in the States). Maybe I could some day give Mr Colbert a run for his money (or, ideally, just manage to get a spot on the Daily Show as their Asian correspondent, ha!)

Today has been a mixed bag of productivity, got some quality work done on the new press kit for Cheeky Monkey (and also thought of some possible names for the as yet untitled 'Experimental-show-about-Chinese-characters-with-modern-dance-thrown-in" and the ode to Shakespeare piece. Not going to share those names with you just yet (wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, now) :) Suffice it to say, they are going to be *awesome* and *cool* (or so says the PR Director, Tabitha).

Ooh, and a quickie shoutout: We're going to do an artWALK in November (the police have already said that this wouldn't be a problem, so no more cancelations, yay) and we're looking for volunteers... you know you wanna :) (pretty please?) 798 has grown way too much over the last couple of months, so I figure that another artWALK is a great way to familiarize myself (and those of you lucky enough to be able to participate) with all of the new galleries and cafes.

Anyhoo, I need to get back to work on that as yet untitled "experimental" show, I hope that everyone else manages to get some sleep tonight...

~ Elyse

2008年7月15日星期二

Cheeky Monkey Theater

I'm currently in London and am overjoyed to discover that I can access blogspot/blogger again! :)

So... I'm putting up a wee little post, but since I'm going back to Beijing in a mere 3 days, I thought I'd also point out that if anyone who stumbles across this would like to see my actual blog, they should just go to this website here:

I Heart Beijing

~Elyse

PS: So, how do I look as a Blue? (rather than my typical "Blonde") :)