*** May, that goldilocks season. It's not oppressively hot yet, you're not getting pelted in the face with carcinogenic sand, you can wear your capris or your jeggings or whatever with casual abandon and no one will blink twice (because there's no cancer dust blowing in their eyes). Swap your Docs for your boat shoes, there's plenty to get after over the next few weeks. ***

We've got a bunch of new stuff opening up around town here and there but there's two in particular that seem to be working up a nice lather out there on the Beijing dining and drinks scene. First up, Great Leap Brewery 2: Electric Boogaloo is easing into a soft opening phase with three nights of staggered taste testings May 4, May 5, and May 6. Guests for these were being sourced from their mailing list, and, evidently, they've filled up all available seats for these events. Damn, that's a popular little operation, huh. You should get on that mailing list if you're not already. If you're looking for a sneak peak of the place, though, check out their Facebook page. They've posted a few advance pics of the new digs. Freshly minted. Looks pretty large and in charge. Good for them. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, after… hmm… One month? Two months? Three months? Of secret-ish dinners and things, it's looks like Michelin-anointed chef Umberto Bombana's Opera BOMBANA -- Do we need the capital letters? We do? Okay... -- will finally be opening their doors to the public this month. When, you ask? Check it. I did some journalism. Here's their Managing Director: "At the moment, we are planning to officially open in middle May. We will let you know the exact date as soon as we finalize everything internally. We hope to see you on the grand opening." Oh, you will. And you shall reap the whirlwind. [Update]: Hello, this just landed in the ol' inbox from said MD: "I'm very excited to let you know that Opera BOMBANA will officially open in Beijing on May 15th." There you go. One for the Gulou kids: Beiluoguxiang bar The Other Place has been remodeling since March. They're supposed to re-open this month with a new design, a small stage with an electronic music-oriented sound system, and a small record shop. Right on. What else… Cinqo de Mayo is this Sunday already. Cantina Agave. 200rmb for sheer madness. Do it. And don't forget: May 12 is Mother's Day. If you love you mum as much as I love your mum, you should take her to a nice brunch somewhere. Or if your mum is not even in Beijing, call her and say, 'Happy Mum's Day", and then hit a hotel brunch because they'll be full of hot mums. What else should you be onto... Oh shit. Hockey playoffs, son. Your friends at The Beijinger have a round-up on where to check out the games. Siiiiick. Last item of business: May seems like a really good month to enjoy The Taco Bar. [Update: Alas, 'tis already closed.] Possessions are fleeting, you know. The Buddha said that. I think.

It's a big month for music, and things get rolling right off the bat. Tonight beloved psych/gaze/noise rock duo Alpine Decline play their last show before an extended sabbatical. If you haven't heard/seen them before, they're a nice couple who moved from Los Angeles to the suburban wilds of Tongzhou about a year and a half ago to focus on their music. To that end, they've toured extensively and recorded two full-length records with Yang Haisong, the P.K.14 vocalist whose nine to five is producing the vast majority of noteworthy Chinese indie records. I tried interviewing Alpine Decline the other night but half the interview was preceded by "Off the record, but…" and the other half was actually them interviewing me. I don't know, whiskey was involved. Here's a music video that says more than any words existing in my brain could: Alpine Decline's at School Bar tonight (Friday, May 3) along with their Nanjing buds Plastic Heads and a new kind of jam band supergroup called Xin Ma You Jiang. Also happening this weekend is a bit of pan-Asian sonic befuddlement courtesy of Mr. Dirty and Spacefly from Taiwan and AAW from Japan. Between the three of them are so many post-rock, punk, jazz, and "experimental rock" vibes. They're at XP tonight (Friday, May 3) and School Bar tomorrow (Saturday, May 4). This month features a handful of series put together by mini-labels, or "platforms," or "curators" or whatever these groups of three or four musicians who book shows mostly consisting of their own members performing can be called. One of them is System Error and comes from Xi'an. Basically it's a bunch of kids in Xi'an who were obsessed with Beijing's weekly Zoomin' Night performance series, so started their own version. Now they're coming to Beijing for two gigs curated by the Zoomin' Night booker. Kismet. The Xi'an contingent in its various permutations plays Friday, May 17 and Saturday, May 18 at XP. For a more homegrown noise collective energy, the NOJIJI crew is pretty active this month as well. Some of you may remember their sadly defunct venue Raying Temple, or as I liked to call it, "the only reason to go to Tongzhou besides drinking whiskey with Alpine Decline." Raying Temple was the practice room/apartment/venue/bar/fish hatchery for a ragtag bunch of longhair psychedelic noise musicians for quite a while, but it got destroyed over a year ago and is probably a Starbucks now. So several members of the collective will play as Mobile Raying Temple on the evening of Saturday, May 11 at Zajia Lab. It's part of Zajia's monthly Midnight Sound series so it's technically midnight on Sunday morning. Don't get it twisted. NOJIJI spiritual head Yang Yang also plays along with cohort Yang Xiu at the Tuesday, May 21 Zoomin' Night. And newly launched label (? platform?) Kitchen Table Recordings is sort of kicking things off this month. This project has been in the works for quite a while. It's spearheaded by Dashan-style CCTV reality show celebrity Dong Mohan, a jovial Irishman who plays around town as the guitarist of noise blooze duo Lowbow and electro drone duo Cloud Choir. Actually both bands have the same members: Lowbow's drummer Mike also plays solo as Noise Arcade. So anyway, these guys have been super active self-releasing CD-Rs and such over the last few years and now they're slapping a name on it: Kitchen Table Recordings. They have new jams online from Cloud Choir and Noise Arcade. And they've organized some good times with good friends for later in the month: Friday, May 24 at XP with Streets Kill Strange Animals, thruoutin, and experimental animator Chaimi, and Friday, May 31 at School with Streets Kill again and Girl Kill Girl, a post-rock trio featuring Hang on the Box frontwoman Gia. The latter event sports the egregiously questionable title "Muff Blastin' Rock'n'roll"… I have to assume they meant "Muffin Blast." What else… for some folkier vibes check out the Mini Beijing Dongpai Folk Festival on Saturday and Sunday, May 11-12 at 2 Kolegas. This used to be the Ditan folk festival but they've scaled down and are utilizing 2K's prime outdoor real estate for a total of two stages. Plenty of guitar strummin' will go down. Some raspy vocals probably. Wrote a bit more about this one over at last week's massive May rock festival primer. Speaking of 2 Kolegas, they're turning lucky number 8 years old this month and going all out with a non-stop party from Friday, May 24-Sunday, May 26. Basically it's a Friday night warmup, and all-day fest Saturday, and a hungover "DJ party" on Sunday. Sounds about right. Friday and Saturday feature free draft beer from 8-10pm and WHOLE ROASTED GOATS, also free while supplies last. Basically you can expect maximal outdoor lounging, drunk expats, drunk locals, and a dog sated on the roasted goat meat being dropped by all these drunk people. Find the full lineup here. A few odds and ends: Split Works, not ones to rest on their laurels, have two shows coming up this month: US indie folk rock group Wye Oak on Saturday, May 18 at 2 Kolegas and San Francisco experimental folk pop unit The Dodos on Sunday, May 26 at Yugong Yishan. Meanwhile "a couple of guys" are bringing known breast enthusiast Bob Log III to Temple on Thursday, May 16. I did an email interview with him and it was really shitty. He was pissed that I called his helmet a mask. Some of that interview might come out for comic effect in a future MP3 Monday… Finally, I'll mention this Ian Curtis tribute night. I usually think tribute nights and cover bands are pretty lame. Maybe this one will be too, but there are some pretty serious bands on the bill: Snapline, Residence A, The Dyne, and P.K.14 side-project After Argument unite in Joy Division worship. Talk about an interzone. That's Friday, May 24 at School.

With Strawberry and Midi two-oh-one-three in the books, it's time for the city's big electronic celebrations to invade your life with duly oppressive pomp and vigor. In one corner: May 11, the Great Wall Music Festival, David Guetta, Andy C, Kaz James, and more. The exact nature of that "more" is, as of this writing, still a mystery. They haven't released the exact schedule. Eep. Watch this space. Or keep tabs on the developments at the official festival webpage. Just don't open that webpage at work. It starts blasting absurd dance music automatically and all your co-workers will think you're a bit of a knob, trust me on this. And in the other corner is INTRO on May 25 -- pretty much all Beijing DJs out at Crab Island for a full day of nnn tsst, nnn tsst, nnn tsst, oonce, oonce, oonce. Not going to get too much more into these two. Just too damn sick of talking about them excited. Read this here if you want more details on getting out to one or both of these unmissable, unmissable events. SmartTicket has pre-sales for both. What a convenient website. Meanwhile, out in clubland, Cool DJ Agency are kicking out a few legacy DJs: Paul Oakenfold on May 10 and Sasha on May 31. Perennial China favorites the pair of them -- expect wonderfulness. On the hip hop side of things, your friends at Street Hustle are hosting in smutty crunk peddlers, Yin Yang Twins on May 8. Remember this one? Of course you do. Get your pre-sales at sendmetickets.com. One last item of interest: Jimmy Edgar at Dada on May 24. Rad. Press release for that one says "No guest list. No reservations." Translation: "all you deadbeats are paying to get in or I will loose a shitload of money. Please, dear God, pay the cover."

is going pretty multi-media this month. On Friday, May 10 they host an event called "Animalise _ Pure strokes" featuring an installation from sculptor Zhang Qiang, music from free improv saxophonist/keyboardist/other Li Zenghui, and "live art" from Japanese multi-media artist Megumi Shimizu. Then on Sunday, May 12, experimental electronic music + visual art label (? platform?) Brain Wave Communication holds a night of improvised sound and visuals. Will be pretty soundscape-y, I'd wager. Sounds from Brainwave founder Hong Qile and Li Zengui (again), plus visuals from sound artist/filmmaker Wu Quan and video/GIF artist Mao Wengweng. Zajia also continues its weekly Wednesday night documentary series, which features work from emerging Chinese filmmakers. May's theme is docs focusing on the cultural, social, and philosophical aftershocks of the massive 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In light of recent events, this topic is more timely (and sensitive) than ever. On May 8 you can see Zhong Cheng's Red White, which tells the story of a 62-year-old Taoist and how he deals with the massive destruction of the earthquake in accordance with ancient principles. On May 22 it's Bi Ma Jian's The Next Life, which tells the story of a Sichuan woman struggling to get pregnant again after the death of her eight-year-old daughter in the earthquake. The on May 29 Zajia screens Yang Jianjun's Wind Flower Snow Moon, which tells the story of a family of geomancers obliquely cataloguing the change in community life after the earthquake. All the screenings start at 8:30pm and require a 20rmb ticket (ticket money goes directly to the filmmakers). On the gallery side, there are a few recent openings worth checking out. A few weeks ago I was walking around Caochangdi, which was pretty dead, but I stumbled in on Sun Xun's ShanghART residency in progress. All kinds of dramatic black and white sculptures of Zodiac animals and mythical beasts, constructed in grand cinematic scale. A major component of the work is three-dimensional imaging: Sun Xun used a 3D camera to compose still images, and even the poster requires those red and blue glasses to achieve full effect: Despite the months that went into preparation, the actual exhibit runs for just over a week. It opened on Tuesday and is up until next Wednesday. More info here. Another recent opening worth checking out: Movement Field at Long March Space in 798. This features new work from Xu Zhen, who now produces art under the corporate proxy of MadeIn Company, which now produces art under the brand name "Xu Zhen." I think that's right. Movement Field is derived from the artist/company/brand's concept of "movementism": "a form of media creation based on media diffusion." Works in the installation include a lotus flower sculpted from gas stoves, a "huge rainbow Buddha," and collages of internet-sourced images representing the artist/company/brand's interpretation of Eastern and Western cultural divides/overlaps. That runs until June 23. ***