A Week in the Life: Nov. 2005

My buddy, Pat recently cajoled me about not updating my blog this week. At least I know one person reads my blog!

It has been a very full week. Here's a summary:

SUNDAY: I read an awesome New York Times article about the booming art scene in Bangkok, Thailand. The picture above is from the article. According to the article and some local people, Bangkok is a great place for film, animation and post production. Before coming to HK, I spent time in Thailand and loved it! So I can personally attest to Bangkok being a very happening place. I hope to return to Thailand for business and pleasure after this Avian flu thing calms down a bit...

MON: It's been 4 months since my knee surgery and according to the doctor's schedule, I can start running again. Although, I'm only allowed to run on the treadmill for now, it felt great! I can't wait to get up to my regular running speed again.

TUE: I spent the day at the university working on MERECL marketing materials. Had dinner to say goodbye to Haibin a professor who is returning to the mainland. I'll miss him as he's been the source of many Mandarin language lessons.

WED: Worked at Cyberport. It's starting to really look like a startup office. After Cyberport I had dinner with a husband and wife director/producer team. They invited me to the local premiere of their new film on Friday @ 10, but I have a meeting at 10 so I can't make it. However, we did talk about how we might move forward with an animated feature film project.

THUR: I went to an Oriented mixer in HK. Oriented is a networking organization my friend Christine started in Taiwan. There's a monthly mixer in every major Asian and US city. After attending many in SF, it's cool to see one out here.

FRI: A very busy day in which I had meetings @ 10, 12 and 3pm. I met with a VFX company, the Cyberport CEO and a company called Wow Wee. Many exciting potential projects here. I was blown away by Wow Wee's future products. I now believe those Sci Fi robots in books and movies are nearly a reality. My buddy Eric from SF is in town so I met him in SoHo during the evening.

SAT: Attended a day lecture on Mental Ray, a powerful rendering engine I've used in many film, TV and video game projects. The lecturer was an Italian from Mental Images. He spoke quickly in a thickly accented English so at times I barely understood him. Many students, who barely speak English, didn't retain much. I did manage to learn a few things though.

Whew! What a week!

Asian Education and Matt Damon? Oh My!

This weekend kicked off the Business of Design Week. An innaugaral event was held at PolyU for Design Educators. This event also marked the debut of the first design piece in Chinese that I have ever art directed. The image on the left is an early version of a student flyer that was placed at the registration table. Yeah, it's only a student flyer, but professional design instructors from Asia, Europe and the US all had a glance at it! I'll admit that it's a little unnerving to think all those PhDs and pros with decades of experience took a look at this piece.

The Design Educators conference was very interesting and sparked a lot of thoughts. I missed the morning session with the Asian educators from Korea, Japan and China. But I made it to the Western portion in the afternoon with an Australian, German and several American speakers. It was interesting to get the Western POV of Asian design which everyone acknowledges is just starting to come onto its own in the modern age. Asian design is emerging from its traditional past and making its way into the modern age with a style that can be elegant, functional and distincly Eastern.

Other ideas I kept hearing included social responsibility and sustainability. These concepts are just barely getting traction in the West and our Western counterparts were really trying to instill this to the Eastern design educators. I hope that the educators took this to heart. I feel these are crtical global concepts that are needed for the world's most populous region as their economies and consumption continues to explode.

Overall everyone felt that it was an exciting time for Asian design. New and wonderful ideas are emerging and educators can have an enormous role in helping shape that exciting future. After all design and media has an enormous hand in influencing and augmenting public attitudes. That's why I was very dissapointed to read a New York Times article about 2 anti-Chinese and anti-Korean comic books that have emerged as bestsellers in Japan. One of the things that can impede or damage Asia's exciting growth and future are the insecurities and fear that can result in misguided racism and nationalism. As China and Korea emerge to challenge Japan's Asian supremacy, there is a great danger of moving back to the Asia vs. Japan mentality that culminated in the horrors of WWII. I hope Asians are smarter than that.

After the conference I met some friends for a very late night out. Again, I lucked out and got into a very full club without paying the cover and met all sorts of cool people. I met a German guy who bore a striking resemblance to Matt Damon. We got along swell and ended up waiting for the MTR together at 6am, but I did detect a little competitve streak when it came to the subject of women ;). I might meet him for a bite later this week before he heads back to Shanghai, which he told me feels more like home than Germany. Going head-to-head with a German Matt Damon in Hong Kong... who'da thunk it!

MERECL v0.5 & Pitching

We're getting very close to opening the doors to what Gino calls MERECL v0.5 @ Cyberport. We'll have a housewarming sometime next month and then a big media opening event sometime next spring. I assume that's when we'll call it MERECL v1.0. But in between that time we'll be working with temporary furniture and a constantly changing environment. Even when we officially open, I imagine things won't ever truly settle. But that's how an entertainment lab should be; Always changing and always pushing toward the future.

The picture was taken yesterday when I did my first day of work at Cyberport. It's almost entirely empty and for the first couple of hours, I was they only person there. It was very neat to have an entire floor all to myself! Other than Dr. Yu's office, IMHO the table I setup my laptop at has the best view in the office.

The next picture was taken later when I was joined by members of the newly formed PolyU School of Design Entrepreneur's group. I talked to them about MERECL and did what was originally supposed to be a practice pitch for a movie studio's execs. However, I actually already did my pitch the previous day as the movie studio execs suggested we meet earlier than originally anticipated. So within one night I threw together a Powerpoint presentation and presented my pitch to two movie execs and two studio producers. That felt like a very Hong Kong experience. Things turn around and upside down very fast. You just have to adapt and go with it.

I really wasn't too stressed about the change and I think it all worked out anyway. The execs invited Gino to present his two ideas and me to present mine to the CEO next week. I wasn't too nervous for this presentation, but I'm a little nervous for the next one. These two talks were a warm up for the real thing next week. I also learned a lot when I presented to the students. I learned the most from two students who have experience with the media industry in China and one who is very well versed with the business dealings of this particular movie studio. I feel like I'm going into this meeting with a lot more understanding of China, the company, and the company's position in Asia.

Yet another experience in going with the ever-changing, fast flow of Hong Kong.

Beautiful Dinosaur

I keep two vocabularly lists on my PDA. One list is for new Cantonese words I learn and one for Mandarin. Since I live in HK where Cantonese is the main language, I try to learn a new Cantonese word everyday. The most recent Cantonese word I learned was "faw gnau" or literally fire cow. I learned this when I asked IT support for a spare power adaptor for my laptop. Apparently, the word for power adaptor is fire cow. The IT guy had no idea where this came from. Perhaps a power cord is like the tail of a cow and power is like fire? Anyway, that's my most recent Cantonese word.

The most recent Mandarin words are "piao liang mei mei" and "kong long." Literally they mean "pretty beautiful beautiful" and "dinosaur." Strange words unless you know the context. One of my colleagues from China told me the Internet has given rise to a new Net speak. The use of Web cams allows people to see who they're chatting with. "Piao liang mei mei" is used to describe a pretty girl you are chatting with on the Net and "kong long" is an ugly one. A little mean, but I found that slice of modern Chinese life amusing. :P

Going from A to B

These two pictures were taken a day apart at almost the same time of day. I was heading to the same place, but using different modes of transportation. The one with the crowd was taken on the MTR (HK's subway system) and the one without the crowd was taken on one of HK's modern double decker buses. Nearly the same time and the same direction, yet a world of difference in terms of the environment. This is one of the many things I have to learn about getting from place A to place B here.

I've learned that even the local folks aren't aware of all the transportation options out here. Case in point, the MTR shuts down @ 1am. So when partying it up at Lan Kwai Fong I can't take the MTR back home. According to most locals (including friends of my parents) my only option is to take a taxi. I paid $80 HKD to do just that to get to the Kowloon side during my first week here. But I refused to accept that there were no other public transportation options. So asking around, I found out there was a late night LKF green mini bus that does the same thing for less than $20 HKD. Tada! Instant savings that meant I could use $60 HKD for another drink for myself or a friend.

My most recent transportation pain occurred this last Friday, 11-11-05. For the first time I took public transportation to/from Cyberport. It took 20 minutes to wait for the 69x mini bus and another 20 minutes to get there. Not too bad. But coming back was a *major* pain. Two 69x buses passed me and my student assistant before we gave up and boarded a double decker. It took us nearly an hour and a half to get back to the university this way. I learned that we were waiting at the last minibus stop at Cyberport so they will almost always be full at that stop. We'll have to go to an earlier stop next time. I also learned that the last bus leaves Cyberport at 11:30pm. It looks like the Cyberport commute will be a little more challenging then going to and from the university.

Other than figuring out the transportation bit, there's a lot going on here. I've been keeping so busy I haven't had the time/energy to blog. Things are really starting to pickup. I'm going to have to stay organized to keep up. To make up for my lack of posts; here's a quick bullet point update:

* I'm getting a better sense of who's who and how things work in the film industry here. I'm meeting a good number of film producers/directors and post production execs. Hopefully, I'll be collaborating with them soon on a few projects.

* I spent Friday at Cyberport with my student/assistant setting up working desks so it looked presentable to a few UK video game execs who visited this weekend. We should be moving in and working there this week. I've got my eye on a desk that's got the best damn view. It will be the best view I've ever had for an office. Sweet!

* I may be pitching an IP idea to a major HK film studio in a few weeks. To prepare I'll be doing a dry run with a student entrepreneur group at Cyberport this week. Not that I'm an expert, but I'll probably have to explain the whole pitch process to them. This will be my third studio pitch and first one in HK. Hopefully this will result in a greenlit project!

* I finished my first HK business plan 2 weeks ago and we may actually begin executing and funding portions of it faster than I ever thought possible. Things really move fast here!

* I went to Hey Hey! at LKF last night and didn't pay to get in! I'm sure it won't last forever, but I'm really lucking out with the party scene. I haven't had to pay a cover to get into all the exclusive clubs I've gone to. Just lucky enough to be hanging with the right people at the right time so far!

Well, enough rambling. I've got a big week coming up. I better try to get some sleep...

Music Ho

I feel so dirty.

Yesterday, I went with a few friends to look at music CDs, DVDs, software and video games. All of which were "fan ban" or illegitamate copies. They were sooooo cheap. I refused to buy anything. But a guy from Singapore told me I won't be able to hold out. When he first arrived in HK, he went on a buying spree. But I'm different. This is my industry. I'm only hurting myself, right? So after seeing my buddies gleefully grab some prime CDs, I ... broke down.

I feel so dirty. Yet, I'm not entirely guilty I did it. When I moved here, I said I'd try to immerse myself into local culture as much as possible. I've looked and bought stuff legitamately @ the HMV. It's more expensive than US prices for CDs and DVDs here. The average Hong Kong person earns far less than an American, yet their media costs more. If I were a local, I'd probably indulge in a bit of "fan ban" purchasing too. Well, I guess I just did that.

So putting the dirty feeling aside, I am enjoying the discovery of new music. I love music! And since coming to HK I've discovered some awesome world music through co-workers. So what have I discovered?

Jay Chou: Taiwanese pop star. I understand the mainland no longer listens to HK Cantopop that was so dominant there in the 90s. It's all about Taiwan talent and Jay is at the top. I believe he's classically trained. I'd say he's a mandarin verison of hip hop/r&b mixed with Western classical and occasional traditional Chinese melodies. Yes, he indulges in the pop ballads that are popular here, but I like how he uses Western music, but keeps a fresh distinctly modern Chinese air to him. My co-worder says he doesn't listen to him, but all the teeny boppers do. Out of all the teeny bopper artists out there, I like Jay most.

Lisa Ono: I just discovered her from another co-worker. Apparently she's Japan's top French Jazz Bossa Nova artist. She covers a lot of French Bossa Nova, but apparently writes her own too.

St. Germain Des Pres Cafe: The St. Germain district of Paris is booming with innovative electronic jazz. A coworker gave me a copy of the vol. 6 compilation. This one is my absolute favorite discovery so far. Jazz is my favorite genre of music and I'm so glad to see that it's alive, well and evolving with the electronic DJ scene. SF is known for some great electronic lounge DJ's, but this stuff is awesome! Too bad Paris is burning. If things get better there, I'd like to check out this area of Paris.

Shanghai Lounge: More electronic lounge jazz, but the stuff that's playing in Shanghai. I love Shanghai. Unlike Hk, there's so much culture and history there. Walking through the streets, you can see the 30's Euro coffee, movie star, jazz culture mixed in with the booming modern buildings. This album marries those two sensibilities by blending jazz with electronica. How perfectly fitting!

OK so after getting so much free music; I actually bought a legit copy of Jay Chou's latest album. See? I became a legit paying customer. If only, the big bad media companies would stop fighting the digital media age. Fortunatetly, one of the people I'm working with is an entrepreneur dealing with this issue. But I'll write about that in a future blog entry...

Just Breathe!

Today, I was schooled (in a very good way) about breathing and health. Amazing! I thought after all those years of martial arts and meditation I knew a lot about breathing.

But sometimes it takes a bad moment (like being ill) in your life to realize how useless all your knowledge is if you don't apply it. It's very easy to get caught up or lost in the manic pace of life here. I get the sense that the things I love about NYC are also here in HK. Such as the fast and furious pace. Or if you can dream it and meet the right people, you can make it happen. (Sorryif that sounded like a self-help book; but it's true!) That is if you're mindful of yourself and your health.

I realized that I've been feeling ill due to stress. Too much crammed in a day and night. As a result I was only breathing shallowly into my lungs. My boss, Dr. Yu told me to breathe deeply into my stomach. Don't think about how it makes my gut stand out, but see it as a way to make sure energy flows freely throughout my entire body; which is a good thing. When my stomach is full of air, then I can fill my lungs next. Of course, I learned this before in Karate or Kung Fu classes, but they're useless if I don't practice it.

A new trick I did learn was to empty my lungs completely. My body will then naturally fill in the air without me having to think about it. Sort of a zenlike moment that reminded me of a moment in a Murakami novel. As soon as I took a moment to correct my breathing by breathing more fully I felt better.

So instead of going to an EA party at the exclusive Volar in Long Kwai Fong, I took time to breathe, read and just be at the nearby park. The area where I live is Causeway Bay which I'm told is the most congested and polluted part of HK. Across the street from me is Victoria Park, a welcome respite from all that. I didn't truly realize how bad the air was until I left the park. While the air in the park is certainly not mountain fresh, it is much clearer than the streets of Causeway Bay. As soon as I re-entered the streets I could feel my lungs and body convulse a little. Note to self: Take time to properly breathe every day! That should be easier at Cyberport where there's lots of open air.

Ironic how it took coming to one of the most manic, congested, fast-paced, achievement-driven places in the world to realize I need to take a moment to breathe and just be.