On Friday night I went out to a couple of concerts and was reminded of how awesome some people are that I know.

First I took Line 2 to Zhongshan Park, switched to Line 4 and got off at West Yan'an Road: Yuyintang. The rain meant that the crowd wasn't too big; all of the seats were taken but there was enough room to squeeze yourself in just about wherever you wanted. Cold Fairyland played a two part, three hour set of old and new songs. A giant screen played scenes from their unreleased work-in-progress Finland tour DVD. They band has added a new member on a second synthesizer, adding in effects that help round out their songs -- I didn't catch her name. After the show I went to say hi to Xiao Song because the rest of the band was in the back, and he greeted me warmly and pushed me back to where the band was resting. Lindi grabbed me, sat me down and we chatted for a while about the band, about Charlotte (she follows us on Flickr) and about upcoming concerts. Seriously, it's been over a year since I've been out to see them play, they've been touring around Europe making awesome music, and busy with their own lives, and she still greeted me as warmly as if we had just seen each other the previous day. That's how awesome Lindi is, and props to Xiao Song and the rest of Cold Fairyland too.

Second, after they took off I grabbed a taxi and headed down to the intersection of Danshui Road and West Jinling Road. On the south side of the Middle Yan'an Road Green Strip sits club Bling, where my former student Philip (aka DJ Stonnie) was DJing. For about an hour I hung out on the balcony, getting my fill of up-to-date West Coast hip hop, surfing Slashdot on my phone and generally feeling old in the crowd of ABC party people, young girls in sexy outfits and guys with popped collars ordering a rainbow of drinks and popping flashes left and right. When Philip passed on the baton to another DJ, he came out of the booth and got me a drink, and we chatted about life in California, about having kids, and about his plans for this summer. Here's a guy who is making waves in the clubs of LA, totally snoozed through my AP Stats class last year (being very up front about not wanting to do the work), and could be at the center of the happening party, but took the time to be a good host and take care of his old Stats teacher. In my book, that's pretty awesome. This guy is for real.

Last but not least, map props to Jodi for letting me stay out till 2am running around Shanghai on a rainy night. Not that she pining away, alone and bored — she was up till 1:30am working on her Liba thread! Hoho, 强~