Click on the player below to listen to the "Beijing: Portrait of a City" book launch at the Beijing International Literary Festival or save the mp3 file to your computer here. Audio courtesy of the Bookworm.

Sound recording by Steven Lee at City Weekend.

10:24 I James walks off the stage.. some standing ovation. Nurty: “there is a fine line between genius and madness” Thanks all the acts and thanks the audience for coming

10:17 I “This might be the last one… its been a wonderful evening, thank you very much” James has now played 2 songs without an E string, which he broke during his frantic performance. “We’re living in web two – point- zero guys. One day I want to be able to pick up my mouse and touch your screen yeah… 24 inch of plasma screen baby yeah… usb connections baby yeah… I gotta webcam baby yeah….”

9:47 I Final act: James Brody. Who is the one wearing the kilt that was mentioned earlier. Scottish, obviously, playing the guitar. James explains in 1.5 hours his team will be playing a rugby game against their arch rival, hence the kilt. James sings & plays a hilarious song about “Sweety Tommy Sue”. Very Adam Sandler-like. He sings and plays and jumps off the stage, and keeps on playing all the way out the room… 30 seconds later he comes back in continuing to play and sing… foots are stamping, he is singing his lungs out. Song two: a little lower key, Ok not low key. He started screaming the lyrics. And now he’s whispering the lyrics… He’s now stomping his feet and screaming the lyrics as loud as he can. The audience is laughing out loud, enjoying the animated imitations James is making of various animals, images, people… majority of this is improved on the spot, and the crowd is loving it. Loud applause at the end and a big gulp of beer for James. Song three: “I’m going to take it down a notch and sing a quiet one…. Seriously.” Song four: James is now making an impression of an old English lady who manages a bed & breakfast. Audience is laughing. “I don’t care about what you wear and I don’t care about your hair, I just wanna get out of here!” Song five: “It’s a serious song, about Beijing. I wouldn’t like anyone to laugh during this song. I did a lot of research. There are radical theories in this song, but there are strong historial foundations from research”. “Oh Beijing jing jing it had a ting ting…” “I have a father in-law… the law says he’s my father…” “I ordered an espresso… Beijing style. Yay!” “You ting ting, she ting ting… everyone around me called ting ting.. anyways so…” According to James Brody, the first girl named Ting Ting was the head concubine of the Ming, who was Mongolian. And now everyone is named Ting Ting.

“You heard it heard it here. Primary source material… I don’t work with secondary…”

9:41 I Second song: “That is the end of the news”; a comical song about fictional news headlines

9:36 I Encore by Nick & Paul. First song: “These are the songs we sung”

9:33 I the ending of the piece met with loud clapping & approval. Nury Vittachi on again.

9:18 I Patrick & co. begin to play. A classical piece by Beethoven. Cello and Piano exchange taking the lead in propelling the melody. A moving piece with crescendos and arpeggio. The music has a tension to it, with deep movements of anxiety followed by restrained revelation.

9:16 I Just about finished setting up. The audience is looking at the Lethal English flyer they just recently received from Cheeky Monkey Productions.

9:10 I Nury back on stage, “This is the performance as well as the rehearsal. This trio has ever played together before” Patrick Gale (Author) on Cello, Hanna Quinn on piano & Maggie Zhou on violin.

9:03 Cheeky Monkey Productions new show “Lethal English”. Only one scene tonight. Sneak Peek. Foreign girl comes on stage and speaks on her phone, talking about her daily life, and her Chinese students. On the bus: Chinese girl yelling at her boyfriend about wanting wanting to be independent. Boyfriend getting mad, starting to get violent. Foreign girl steps in, tries to stand up to the man for treating the girl as his property. Chinese girl runs out of the bus, the Chinese man yells at the Foreign woman and runs after the Chinese girl. Leaves the purse on the bus with the Foreign woman….. , loud applause.

8:52 I Give a warm welcome to the first act, Nick Smith and Paul Eldon on piano Musical numbers: Singing a elegant English ballad from the 19th century “Mata lou” Nick’s singing is strong, masculine and reminiscent of what would have influenced barbershop singing.

Singing songs written by an English songwriter who had traveled to Asia during the early 20th century.

This next song was performed in 1932. This next song is very much jovial, called “Mad Dog, the Englishman”. About an English man who lived in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore at the turn of the last century. The tune is highly similar to tunes you would find in early musical stage shows, or sung by sailors at a pub.

8:47 I Nury VIttachi is on the stage introducing: “We have beauty, brains and brilliance, and that is just the MC” Asks how many people have been in Beijing for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 years… a surprising amount of hands stay up until the 4-5 year mark. Puts in a plug for City Hotel, anything in the rooms you can buy. 600 for a bed, 5 for a lamp, so on…. Disneyland is an entirely Chinese experience: “everything is made in China”

“If everyone is rowdy or loud will be asked to stay, everyone else can bugger off”

8:45 I Mic check. The Chinese technician at the back is making sure the sound system is functioning properly. The drapes are closed.

8:34 I People are sitting around tables sprinkled around the stage, chatting among themselves and drinking their alcoholic beverage.

8:18 I There is a man in a kilt standing enjoying his time. Chatting it up with his friends. He seems to be enjoying himself.

7:15 I Starting of the BBILF session tonight. Standing room only in the main cafe area. After a brief introduction into the book, its contributors and the background on how it came together, there is number of short short readings by a selection of authors who's writings are included in the book. Unfortunately for this live blogger, because the standing room in the cafe was so full, I was forced to sit in the adjacent room and try my best to listen to what was being said in the other room. As they were only reading excerpts from their essays, I omitted the content and leave it for you to enjoy the full pleasures of "Beijing: Portrait of a City". If you really can't wait that long, listen to the readings in the podcast hosted above. Readings: 7:33: Adam 7:36: Poet, author, & director Ju Lin, reading one of his poems for the audience. Reading in Chinese. ‘February in early spring’. Re-read in English 7:40: Hong Ying. Author prominent from the gay community. Reading a short story in English. 7:44: Reading an excerpt from ‘PanJiaYuan’ 7:47: Roy Kesey & Paul French: 50 year fictional conversation between Mao and Zhou Enlai. Roy is Mao. After a long monologue, audience laughs and applauses. But ‘Mao’ says “I’m not done!” 7:53: The readings over, thanks everyone for coming, informs everyone there is a ‘Writers’ Caberet.