Download podcast | Size: 58.8 MB

Ace (Amy’s roommate!) speaks to John Artman and Amy Daml about teaching young children in China, culture shock after arriving from Boulder, Colorado in 2009 — her first time out of the country — and other…unique experiences in Beijing. 

Download Episode 11 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.

Follow John Artman @knowsnothing or visit his website. You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe.

Download podcast | Size: 27.3 MB

The beneficiary of tomorrow’s Chug-Off for Charity at the new Great Leap Brewing is Magic Hospital, a 10-year-old organization based in Beijing that organizes activities to cheer up sick, orphaned, abused, and generally neglected children. They’re a wonderful foundation, and to tell you more about it, here’s Lesley Sheppard, Magic Hospital’s volunteer communications director.

Some highlights:

On Mr. Liu, a “performance artist” who’s been working with Magic Hospital from the very beginning and has never missed a week of work (4:50): “You have children who are so sick maybe they’ll be in wheelchairs, maybe they can barely move, they’re so weak sometimes — and their eyes light up, they’re smiling, they’re waving, everyone wants to go up and touch him, hug him.”

On funds running low (15:48): “It’s every non-profit’s nightmare, trying to get enough funds. One thing that happened is all of our core team moved at one time. Poor Rob (Wang, director of Magic Hospital). It was Rob, and only Rob. And it wasn’t planned that way, it’s just how it happened. So as a result we missed some of our fundraising events, we got a little bit behind. At the same time, hospitals want us more days. So the hospitals that just had us on Saturdays want us on Sundays, and we don’t ever want to let any children down.”

On a particularly memorable experience (24:05): “I was there on the floor, we were playing some bingo, and I was singing some songs to them, and we’re having a great time, and I notice this one little girl over in the corner. She wasn’t participating that much, but there were a whole bunch of kids climbing all over me, so I didn’t focus too much on it. And when I began to sing the songs she perked up and she came running over and she just threw her arms around me, and she motioned — she can’t talk, she has some serious learning disabilities, but — she kept motioning with her hands, Up, up…”

Lesley and Rob are both expected to attend the Saturday event, where we’ll also have a lucky draw (sponsored by That’s Beijing) and some merchandise via Plastered 8 (like with the raffle, all proceeds to Magic Hospital). A portion of the sales on one of Great Leap’s beers will also be donated.

Download Episode 10 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.

You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe. Anthony Tao @anthonytao is subbing for John Artman @knowsnothing on this episode.

Download podcast | Size: 55.9 MB

Badr Benjelloun — Beijing Daze curator, IT captain at True Run media, ESL forum operator, former Tangshan teacher, capoeira practitioner, guy who does business on the side, cook, and owner of the best rum bar / Moroccon eatery in Beijing, Cu Ju – is… um… sorry, we lost our train of thought. Badr does a lot around Beijing. We’re very happy he’s here.

John Artman and Amy Daml sit with Badr over whiskey (and rum, of course) to talk about his many projects, including dazeFEAST, Middle Eastern cuisine, what it was like to run a Chinese-language boot camp, and football/soccer (he’s an FC Barcelona fan, but missed the Barca trivia question: “Barcelona is the only European club to have done what since 1955?”).

p.s. Go to Cu Ju on Fridays for 10 kuai rums.

Download Episode 9 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes. Chad Lager, somehow, gets mentioned again.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.

Follow John Artman @knowsnothing or visit his website. You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe.

Download podcast | Size: 36.9 MB

The “emergence” of punk, in 2008, was a social interest story, as international media arrived in Beijing for Olympics coverage but “discovered” Chinese rock.

It’s different now, as Nevin Domer, COO of Maybe Mars and founder of Genjing Records, explains in our latest episode of The Creamcast.

“In the past couple of years, you’re getting proper music magazines, blogs, other taste-makers from abroad that are looking down not just at, Oh wow, China has rock music, China has punk music, whatever, but they’re actually looking at the quality of the bands, writing about music itself, writing about the musicians,” he says.

Listen as Domer talks to John Artman and Amy Daml about punk rock, his former bands, the early days of D-22, and why Michael Pettis decided to found Club XP.

Download Episode 8 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.

Follow John Artman @knowsnothing or visit his website. You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe.

Download podcast | Size: 68.7 MB

Long-time Beijinger and The Local owner Kenn Bermel enlightens hosts John Artman and Amy Daml on why his bar is no longer called Brussels, how he survived SARS locked into his dorm (people had a lot of sex), and what exactly propelled Brussels The Local to an improbable 2nd-place finish in last year’s the Beijinger Burger Cup (including a shocking – shocking — victory over Blue Frog).

Also, Kenn had this to say about his handicapped bartender from Minnesota:

“He’s definitely going to listen to this podcast, because he is stated his plan to discredit me. I’m serious. He wants to besmirch my name.

“Besmirch was my word, discredit was his.”

Also, Chad Lager’s name comes up again.

Download Episode 7 of The Creamcast, i.e. Unfettered Sex in the Time of SARS, here, or listen to it on iTunes.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie.

Follow John Artman @knowsnothing or visit his website. You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe.

Download podcast | Size: 43.5 MB

Candice Lee is leaving China, and that doesn’t seem fair for those of us who can’t imagine a Beijing without her — including the bowling league, the annual kickball tournament, those random nights at 4corners or Great Leap Brewing when she would be merrily blitzed from a boozy dinner and talk about things no one would remember the day after.

If there was an Expat Hall of Fame, C-Dice would be a first-ballot entry. Over her seven years here, she has accumulated friends and acquaintances — and stories — from every social circle, from Ultimate Frisbee to business to journalism. If you’re an Olympic-wave expat (arrived 2006-08) in Beijing and find that you’re separated by more than one degree from C-Dice, you’re doing something wrong.

What we could say is that Candice Lee represents millennial expatriate fun in its purest form, and might just be the linchpin of our presently fading era of easy jobs, friendly faces, cheap rent, and discoveries around every bend. That’s probably overstating it though. In the end, we all just wish we could have a China experience like hers — before we grow up, buy business casual slacks, and leave this place.

This episode marks the debut of our new host, Amy Daml. Lee talks about her projects, a planned cross-country sidecar trip, being an Asian American in China, and making out at bars. Also, co-host John Artman tells his famous snail joke.

Download Episode 6 of The Creamcast here, or listen to it on iTunes.

|The Creamcast Archives|

Theme song sampled from Löhstana David’s ”Demain je change de vie,” and our logo is by Katie. This episode was recorded at the offices of Vericant.

Follow John Artman @knowsnothing or visit his website. You can catch Amy Daml every weekday from 8 to 10 pm on China Radio International’s Easy Cafe.