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  • Day 5

    Uptown?

    February 20, 2018 in China ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    The Bel Air Hotel a clear attempt at misleading potential guests into thinking this establishment might have any of the qualities of the up scale Bel Air neighborhood. This miss direction might work if you are under the impression that Bel Air is in Jacksonville Florida and is connected to a 7/11 and a vape shop and has free HBO. These types of obvious attempts at trying to build up a businesses image purely by name alone always evoke a smile out of me. Enter Uptown Records. The record stores in Shanghai seem to be in short supply with only a hand full of hits. While most indicated permanently closed. There was one named Uptown Records, so off we went. Following the directions we arrived at its supposed location with no trace of a record store in site. The block was scoured and still nothing. Just as we were about to write this off as google maps error,we noticed a poorly photo copied black and white paper attached haphazardly to a wall beside a door that looked like the last door you would enter before being murdered in a bad horror film. So in we went. The aroma of the dimly lit hallway matched its decor perfectly. Pipes seeped rust color sludge, assorted dried meats hung beside drying laundry. A staircase was barely visible at the end of the hallway, and as we approached it we could hear a very faint muffled sound of what might be music. It could also be the grinding gears of a killing machine. So we pressed on. Descending the stairs we arrived at a large open steel door that resembled a submarine hatch requiring us to step over its threshold if by chance this door swung shut our fates would definitely be sealed forever. Once inside the hatch a quick left and impossibly there it was a small record store. We entered and were greeted with a nonchalant "hey guys" by the potential owner of the establishment. The causal greeting seemed appropriate had we just stepped off the busy streets of Manhattan, but we had just descended into the bowels of this building like Indiana Jones and the owners lack of shock at seeing other people was quite alarming. We staggered through the shop in shock that such a place in fact existed until we noticed another door in the very back corner. Situated in the furthest corner of this shop stood a wooden door that appeared to have been on the receiving end of a boxing match and hanging in the middle was a sign that read pump hour 11am-1pm.Read more