Shangri La Video

A video of our recent trip to Gyalthang (Tibetan name), DeQin (Chinese name), Shangri-La (new, made-up name). By any name is is a a Tibetan Autonomous Region in Yunnan, China and we were with the Tashi family (Kesang, Tsedan, Pema and …

Anna and Arabella

I wrote about Eli losing his buddy Hugo to Singapore. His sister Arabella is one of Anna's best pals. This is them Sunday night. They are moving on Friday.

Last Day of School

We continued the Blumenstein tradition of taking pictures on the first and last day of school. This was the last day. June 29, 2007.

Check out More photos post below

Order got messed up because I tsarted that last week and it went up in the order I intiiated it. Good shots there.

Give Me One Reason – Woodie Alan acoustic trio

Woodie Alan's version of Jr. Wells' version of Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason." The Vineyard Cafe, Beijing, China. July 14, 2007. It was fun, mellow gig. Just a trio. As per usual, I got one random song on video, not nec.…

More Yunnan pictures

Oh, man. I could write so much about this trip and this place but I really don't have time to stop and do so right now.Just a few facts: The top three scenic photos were taken by Doug Keare, one of the members of Tashi's delegation. he was a…

Last week’s column

This one has spurred some interesting discussions in my in my forum.I only barely knew what deep waters I was wading into here.Expats of Chinese Ethnicity FaceDouble Standards Living in ChinaJuly 5, 2007Expats of Chinese ethnicity face a unique…

Luther Allison RIP

I stumbled onto a Luther Allison site today. He as great blue guitarist who died just as he was finally getitng some fame in the late 90s. I wrote the liner note for a posthumous live album on Alligator Records and totally forgot I had done…

Quick shots of Shangri La

Kind of cozy right now sitting in a hotel room, packed bags all around, kids sleeping away. Becky is back in Beijing. We leave in the morning to join her. It has been a great trip, reconnecting with friends and basking in this wild, mystical…