Back from Bootie Beijing!

We're back from our 3-1/2 day trip to China, where we did our first Bootie Beijing party at Punk, at The Opposite House. Here are some of the edited highlights:

This is The Opposite House. It's on Sanlitun Road, a street well-known for its bars, restaurants, and nightlife. Beijing is currently revitalizing the entire area, and swank-tacular boutique hotels like this are part of the developments.

Here's our room. This was SO NICE to come to after 18 hours of travelling. We got in at 6 in the morning, but didn't want to throw off our sleep schedule, so instead of crawling into that cushy bed, we fought jet-lag and hit the ground running.

Our first stops (after eating a fabulous vegetarian meal at Pure Lotus) were The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Those imperial palaces inside go on forever. And then when you're ready to leave, you realize you're stuck in the middle, and you have to go through a bunch more just to get out. But the Imperial Garden was awesome! Except for this part...

Chinese Gardening Fail!

On our way to the Forbidden City, we passed by a building I had been DYING to see: The new CCTV Building. It's an architectural marvel, and it's almost completed. The Chinese love to come up with funny nicknames for their buildings, and this one is called "Short Pants."

The next day, we hired a car for the day (taxis and car services are shockingly cheap in Beijing, especially compared to what we're used to in San Francisco and New York) and made the obligatory trip to The Great Wall of China, which is about an hour away. OMFG! It was pretty damn awesome. Who knew that starting a club that plays mashups would lead us to being at The Great Wall of China? Pretty crazy.

All and all, it's just another ... brick in the wall.

Did you know that there's a section of the Wall where they've built a tobaggan run? Why doesn't anyone talk about these things? You take ski left up the mountain to the Wall, and then you can slide down on these tobaggans. And they can go FAST! To get a pretty good idea of what it's like, check out this video.

This photo shoot cost us $3. These guys were hustlin' in style!

Mysterious D's latest hat. She does NOT know how to haggle properly and paid WAY too much for this. She thought she was being generous, until we read somewhere that when Westerners don't haggle, they don't think you're being generous ... they just think you're stupid! But who cares? She loves her new hat!

After a harrowing ride through the countryside back into Beijing (drivers are crazy in China) we went to the Olympic Village ... kind of a "compare and contrast" between (very) old China and (very) new China. This is the "Bird's Nest."

We were psyched that you could go inside the National Stadium. There were a zillion Chinese tourists there, but shockingly, not many Westerners. You can tell the Chinese are obviously proud of what they've got here.

Doesn't Adrian look like the Beijing Olympic mascot?

If D were wearing green, this might work better.

The Water Cube wasn't so impressive during daylight hours, but when it's lit up at night, it's pretty great!

The next day our friend Dean flew in from Shanghai. We first met him five or six years ago when we used to DJ on Thursday nights at The Cinch, the little gay bar down the street from us. He loved our stuff and booked us for his company Halloween parties. He has watched us grow our Bootie empire over the years and has been super supportive. Part of the reason we got to do Bootie Beijing was because when we visited him in Shanghai last year, he introduced us to DJ Teng Boon, who liked our mashup style, and then booked us at Punk! Speaking of...

Here we are at Punk, doing our first Bootie Beijing. This is before Adrian climbed up on the DJ booth to sing the live midnight mashup show, causing a beer to spill on the brand-new Rane digital mixer, which then fritzed out, grinding the show to a halt, creating havoc, but also gave us an opportunity to talk to the crowd and give out free Bootie CDs while resident DJ Ekki switched out mixers for us. Oh, Ekki, we LOVE YOU! Here she is, after the crisis has been averted:

DJ Ekki is adorable. She kicked off the evening, but then pretty much had the night off after we went on ... we DJed for six hours! Apparently, Punk usually closed down around 3 AM, but we had them dancing until 4:30! It was definitely a later crowd, and they were up for it!

Getting down at Bootie Beijing. Hey, there's Dean in the front!

There was a club photographer there who took better photos than we managed. You can check them out HERE.

Apparently in China, girls show their love and appreciation for the DJs by biting the sides of their faces off.

It was a little rough the next morning, but we made it on the plane! We loved Beijing, and hope to be back soon!

TONS AND TONS MORE PHOTOS HERE!

Bootie Top 10 - November 2008

ABX of The Hood Internet - Glass Eye Of The Candy Tiger (Survivor vs. Glass Candy) - Chicago BOOTIE EXCLUSIVE!
When ABX from The Hood Internet dropped this at our first Bootie Chicago party a couple weeks ago, we both made a mad dash for the DJ booth to find out what it was. While the iconic music from "Eye Of The Tiger" has been used in several mashups, this is the first time we've heard the vocal used ... and it sounds slightly less cheesy when used over the icy cool electro of Glass Candy.

Clive$ter - Downtown Murder (Petula Clark vs. Sophie Ellis Bextor) - Vienna, Austria
It's not often a song as old as "Downtown" gets mashed up, but here it gets a much-needed dance floor remake, courtesy of Mashup Industries' Clive$ter, who skillfully gets these two British songstresses from different generations to sound like they're collaborating on a duet together. This track has a really warm vibe and just screams 'happy.'

Earworm - Reckoner Lowdown (Kanye West vs. Radiohead) - San Francisco
It's rare for Earworm - the king of complex, multi-layered productions - to produce a simple "A+B"-style mashup. But here, the pairing simply works, and with DJ Earworm's touch it works beautifully, creating a moody take on Kanye's new single.

DJ Gauffie - Kung Fu Dancing (Carl Douglas vs. Scissor Sisters vs. Wham!) - Sweden
A song from the '70s, mixed with a modern song that simply SOUNDS like it's from the '70s. Is it any wonder this works so well together? Carl Douglas' one-hit wonder fits like a glove while the Scissor Sisters' work out their '70s jones. And of course, a little Wham! thrown in for good measure is always good in our book!

Mad Mix Mustang - Take It Easy On Me (a-ha vs. The Commodores) - The Netherlands
We're always looking for new "slow jam mashups" to close out the night at Bootie parties, and this one couldn't be more perfect! It turns an '80s one-hit wonder into a beautiful ballad, perfect for drunken slow dancing! "Take On Me" actually sounds less like 80's cheese, and is really quite touching with the help of Mad Mix Mustang.

DJ Magnet - Brick Dick (Mickey Avalon vs. The Commodores vs. Beastie Boys vs. Jimi Hendrix) - Denver
Our friend (and Bootie go-go dancer) John-John has been quoting the ridiculously boastful lyrics of Mickey Avalon's cult hit "My Dick" for months! Needless to say, he was elated when this mashup came out, meaning he can now lip-sync every word while shaking it on a go-go platform. The Commodores make a second appearance on this month's Top 10, giving it a nice funk vibe, and DJ Magnet spices it up with just the right amount of Beasties and Hendrix for some flavor. This one is in heavy rotation for us right now.

Mash2Mix - Shut Up Your Delight (The Ting Tings vs. Sugarhill Gang vs. N.E.R.D. vs. Chic) - The Netherlands
Seemingly tailor-made for a Bootie dance floor, this track expertly mashes up the Sugarhill Gang classic (already practically a proto-mashup) with indie dance darlings The Ting Tings ... and then throws in a little N.E.R.D. for good measure. Gets the kids dancin' every time!

DJ Morsy - Lolli Lolli (DJ Morsy Remix) (Three 6 Mafia vs. DJ Morsy) - New York City
While we tend to focus on straight-up mashups in the Top 10, we also love unauthorized bootleg remixes ... especially when they're as bangin' as this. When we play a hip-hop track at Electro-Bootie, our monthly "club-within-a-club" in San Francisco, THIS is what it sounds like. We especially love the throbbing basslines and "Halloween" piano sample used throughout, making the song sound mysteriously evil.

DJ Y Alias JY - Don't Let It Be In Anger (Oasis vs. The Beatles) - Munich
Another fantastic "last song of the night" mashup. I mean, you know Oasis want to be the Beatles anyway ... and this bootleg proves it! Bootie Munich's resident DJ Y Alias JY totally nails it on this one. Is this the closing number at Bootie Munich? We hope so!

DJ Zebra - Roxanne Should Be Dancing (The Police vs. The Bee Gees) - Paris
DJ Zebra's "retirement" from the bootleg scene was obviously short-lived ... and bootlegs like this make us glad he's returned to mashup-making! "Roxanne" never sounded funkier ... this is a floor-filler for sure!

Bootie Beijing this Saturday!

OMG, we're going to China! It's our very first Bootie Beijing!

Seems like we only ever post to the Bootie Blog when we've got a new Bootie Top 10 (coming soon!) ... or when we're traveling out of the country!

So we'll be posting our travel reports here ... assuming we can access Blogger through the Great Firewall of China! Stay tuned. We'll let you know how our diplomatic mashup mission goes!