I'm a Baaaad Blogger!

I haven't made an entry in over a month! That's a terrible blogging record. No excuses other than the usual; I've been busy. So I'll try to make up for it with a few neat-o pictures and words to summarize some of highlights in the last month.


This first picture is from a rock concert I attended last month. Yep, my first rock concert in HK. My friend Kelly a.k.a. "roller girl" invited me to go along with some of her friends to see a small five band concert. The highights of the evening included my first mosh pit in HK, meeting Helen Fang of the band Ziyo and then hanging out with new friends on someone's house boat in Aberdeen. Helen has great stage presence and Ziyo just go signed to a record contract. They're from Beijing, but the other bands were from HK and weren't half bad either.


Next up was the official opening ceremony of MERECL, our entertainment lab. It was quite an event. I worked night and day with students on our animated logo, a video game sequence and highlight video reel. Several big wigs from government, academia and the local entertainment industry attended. This is a picture of my friend and former US student taken the day of the opening ceremony. She just moved from California back here to HK. Being fluent in English, Cantonese and Manderin, she's now become my teacher in maneuvering the local social and celebrity scene.

This picture is from a press conference from earlier this month. I missed most of it, but this picture summarizes the experience. On stage in the background are the director, lead actor and actress of the new film, "I'll Call You." In the foreground is HK legend and superstar Andy Lau. Most people paid more attention to him then the actual film makers on stage. I was able to hang in the press pit thanks to my friend who works for his company, Focus Films. I've met him before, so I pretty much tried to keep my cool in contrast to the crowds of star-struck, sreaming fans right outside the press pit.

The 2006 Entertainment Expo kicked off last week. This photo was taken during the opening ceremony. Thanks to my boss's boss, I got to walk the same "purple" carpet all the celebrities walked on to get into this exclusive event. It was obvious the press had no idea who I was, nor did they really care when Jackie Chan, Wong Kar Wai, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, and just about all the biggest stars walked the carpet or went up on that stage. Did I say I'm not easily star struck? Well, consider me star struck! I've never seen so many live stars in one place before!


The Entertainment Expo is what brought me to Hong Kong last year and eventually led to my moving here. It is still going on this week and I've been lucky enough to attend many industry mixers and parties. After a year, it is quite surreal to experience the expo again but so much more up close and personal. I've met so many industry pros, oggled over many beautiful people and even met some of my heroes, like cinematographer extraordinaire, Christopher Doyle. The expo continues this week with the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Hong Kong film festival.

Yes, I'm a terrible blogger. But it has been a bit crazy and busy since my last entry. While the above may seem like play, much of the above is work-related and I've also had to keep up with the usual academic workload and MERECL-related biz dev work. I'm not complaining about my full schedule by any means. On the contrary, I'm very excited about the bright future I see here in Hong Kong and Asia.