It's Picture Time!

I had a request for more pics in my blog. Since my new phone comes with a 2 megapixel camera, I figure it's a good time to see what this baby can do to fulfill that request.

First up, is the last photo I took with my old phone. Yes, it's another LKF night in Hong Kong. But this time it's with my friend Alice (on the left) who is visiting from Vancouver. She introduced me to her cousin (on my right) who moved here from Japan earlier this year. They look tall or I look short in this pic, because I'm standing further down the steep street than they are.


I brought my new camera phone with me to Shanghai last week and this pic is one of the first shots I took there. It's a picture of Tomorrow Square which is currently my favorite building in Shanghai. The Marriott hotel is at this building, which might explain its spaceship-like appearance. I learned that the Marriott is owned by the Mormons who really like this type of architecture. I'm fascinated by this building because it fits a modern, mythical style of architecture I would like to use in a personal creative project I'm developing.

OK, day shots are easy. But my previous camera phone couldn't handle low light evening shots. Turns out this phone has problems in low light conditions too. But it fares a lot better than my previous phone as these next two photos demonstrate.

This pic is of one of the many jazz bars found in Shanghai. One of the reasons I love Shanghai is because of its historical relationship with jazz in the 1930's. Jazz happens to be my favorite genre of music and that era happens to be my favorite era of the 20th century. Combine those traits with the vibrant, dynamic city that juxtaposes the old with the new, East with the West and you'll know some of the reasons why Shanghai is currently my favorite city in Asia.

The guy in this photo is from a new company called Red 5. It's an American company funded by Koreans which just opened a division in Shanghai. His claim to fame is that he started the cinematics group of Blizzard Entertainment, currently king of the MMOGs with their phenomenally successful World of Warcraft. My business partner and travel buddy introduced me to him and his co-workers, whom we had dinner with at the swanky Indian restaurant this picture was taken in.

The last photo, I'll include in this blog is an advertisement I found to be extremely funny. It's an ad to learn English. But what cracks me up is the not-so-subtle message it is sending about how you can hook up with a rich, white expat if you join this program. For obvious reasons, it also appeals to all the white expats with Asian fetishes in Shanghai. My friend, Billy told me the dude in this photo kinda reminds him of me. Well...I wouldn't mind being tied up to her! :P

There you have it. These photos should cover my blog photo quota for at least a couple entries.

Dorky Superhero Moment

Yesterday, I went to an American comic book store to pick up the latest copy of Marvel Comics' "Civil War." While waiting at a sidewalk to cross a street in Causeway Bay, I was deep in thought about how my favorite comic book character, Iron Man is really overreacting and just way out of character in this series. Yes, my head was deeply lost in the land of dorks.

When the pedestrian signal changed from red to green, I was still lost in a daze standing at the sidewalk. For some reason, my eyes wandered and anchored on a mother holding the hands of her two young children. One child was a boy around 4 or 5 years of age and the other, a girl must have been 2 or 3 years old at most. The mother was dressed rather sharply in an off white business suit-like outfit while her children were dressed just as sharply as their mother.

The pedestrian signal post began to rattle its characteristically, loud and repetitive sound to indicate the signal would be changing back to red soon. I snapped out of my daze and watched as the mother lurched into the street holding both her children's hands tightly. I resumed my journey to the comic book store as I saw the mother trip in the middle of the street while still tightly holding onto her children's hands. The three of them were sprawled in the middle of the street.

At this point the pedestrian light ceased to make its loud noise, indicating the light was about to turn green for the cars. This is one of those moments when everything seems to run in slow motion. I could see the cars were revving their engines, while the mother was scrambling to her feet as quickly as she could. During this time my brain quickly assessed that I couldn't possibly help them all to their feet at once. So while the mother scrambled to her feet, fully intending to lift and possibly drag her children with her, I helped lift the girl to her feet so the mom could focus more on the older and slightly heavier little boy. We made very brief eye contact. She even verbally thanked me as she ran for the sidewalk while I stayed behind to make sure the cars clearly saw pedestrians were still in the middle of the street.

When I got to the sidewalk, I could see the mother consoling both crying children with hugs, kisses and apologies. They seemed fine so I continued on my. It all happened so fast. Yet I don't think I ever was completely out of my lazy, Sunday, hazy musings on superheroes. In that moment, in the middle of the street, in between those microseconds of adrenaline rush, I projected a dorky image of a superhero reacting to that situation. It was like I role played a fantasy moment in which I just reacted and then went on my merry little way.

Only when I was halfway down the block, did I snap out of my haze to think I should have stopped and talked to the pretty, well dressed mother to see if she was ok and needed any further help. I suppose I felt that moment was for her and her children to share. So I didn't want to disturb it. Instead, I kind of thought to myself, "My work here is done. Time to get some comics."

That was my first surreal, dorky superhero moment in HK.

The Revolution will be Inter-blog-cast

This is my first U.S. election season which I am experiencing overseas. It is an interesting experience. Thanks to the Internet and blogs, I feel like I'm just as informed and aware of the political climate as I would be if I were still living in the U.S.

An interesting highlight for me has been this Michael J. Fox vs. Rush Limbaugh incident. With the original ad posted on YouTube, this event represents to me the present moment of U.S. media and politics. This event unfolded before my eyes on TV, radio, podcasts and in the blogosphere. Not only did it unfold on those media, but what I found interesting is how each of those media had interplay, interaction, communication and then affected one another. There is a real back-and-forth communication between traditional media and the Internet media that I believe is more prevalent in this election cycle than the previous.

The barriers between the media elite who have always had a forum and the common pedestrian citizen have really blurred. It seems the media elite are not only paying more attention to their audience, but they are interacting and communicating with their audience more than ever. That's probably because the audience has become the new media. Ironically, traditional media has become an audience of that new media. And a new news cycle emerges.

How will this play out when election day arrives a few days from now? Will there be a slight revolution and will a changing of the political guard take place? I don't know. 'But this new media dynamic does add a new layer to the whole equation of politics and media. The saying that the revolution will be televised has definitely outlived its use. Unfortunately, the word in my blog title, "Interblogcast" just doesn't have the right ring to it. So maybe the revolution will just have to be televised for a little longer.