The Adventures of Cedrick Chan

Bin Laden DEAD!

2011-05-02T12:23:00.001+08:00

I haven't lived in the U.S. for over 5 years. Today, I sit in an apartment in Hong Kong reacting to what seems surreal and fantastic. But even with the distance of time and space from 9/11 in NYC, as I look at these spontaneous celebratory images, I can't help but feel emotional.

I grew up in the New York Tri-State area. When those towers tumbled, like many others, I felt a piece of my life crumble and fall. Many lives were lost that day. Even many more have been lost since as a result of that day. I never imagined I would feel this way about the death of an individual man. But today, I am a kindred spirit with this flash mob.

FB Making Moves

2011-02-09T23:19:00.004+08:00

Since I've moved to mainland China my blog entries have been extremely sporadic. That's because most international blog sites and that makes it enough of a pain where I don't blog regularly. (That and my crazy production and work schedules).

I'm currently in NYC on a trip over the New Year. (Happy Year of the Rabbit to all!) So I figure it's a good time as any to make a quick blog entry about Facebook in the headlines. Facebook is another site that's blocked in mainland China. After viewing this report on the New York Times Website, it's very obvious what' China fears:

Cairo's Facebook Flat

I mean, the guy pretty much said that Facebook and Twitter is what has made the last 2 weeks of protest and possible revolution possible. So I'm wondering why Egypt block or control Facebook and Twitter like they do in China.

I also found the following article in South China Morning Post to be quite timely and interesting as well:

Facebook opens HK office as part of Asian push:

I read that Facebook has hardly any presence in Japan and of course is blocked in China. Lots of speculation about what Facebook is planning to do in Asia and China specifically. But many people I know in HK are pretty damn hooked on Facebook.

And then this article makes China's stance on the Net pretty clear:

War on independent Web cafes worries Net users

In China, information and the Net are closely controlled and monitored. For example, this blog entry can't be easily accessed in the mainland. Currently, if you don't have a VPN, you're pretty much out of luck. I've heard rumors that China's making plans that will render VPN's useless in the mainland as well. Hope not. I like to stay informed about the world beyond what the state says I can or can not follow.

Anyway, that's an interesting snapshot on the state of the world at the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and 2011. Now let's see how long it'll be before my next blog entry...

Oh My Lady Gaga!

2010-08-24T15:41:00.003+08:00

Consider this my birthday blog: I haven't had enough luxury of time, inspiration or motivation to set finger to keyboard and tap out a blog entry in a while. So if I can't take a moment to reflect and comment on life in China on my birthday, then when!?!

OK, so the first topic I've been itching to write about is the phrase that has swept China, "Oh My Lady Gaga!" At least this phrase seems to be all the rage in Shanghai. I've used it a few times in Beijing and it seems to have less affect or recognition. So when and how do you use this phrase?

First of all, it's actually said in English. There's no Chinese version as far as I know. It's used in exasperation or reaction to something that is outrageous or silly (Gaga-licious!). It's kind of replacement for 我的天, or the Chinese equivalent of OMG!

So Her Gaga-ness has not only arrived in China (non-stop and repeatedly in all the damn expat nightclubs) but she's made her way into mainland vernacular as well!

Birthday post over: Now if I have time, I hope my next blog entry can be about a prominent director's comments about the state of beautiful women in China!

The Cult Has Landed!

2010-07-11T12:04:00.004+08:00

It's time for another one of my sporadic blog entries! I would love to make more entries but the Great Firewall of China is just hard enough to jump over that it actually dissuades me. But I digress.

This entry is about the official opening of Apple's second store in China. The first was in Beijing, which I witnessed 2 years ago. The second is here in Shanghai, which I attended yesterday. Yeah, everyone knows I'm a bit of an Apple nut. But even I have to admit the picture snapped here is a bit freaky. It just looks so religious and cult-like. Apple's symbol is so bright it defies capture on my iPhone 3G (yeah, I'm behind the curve and craving an iPhone 4). It's just floating high above everyone in the temple of Apple. OK, consider me officially creeped out.

Shanghai Expo Redux

2010-04-22T01:29:00.002+08:00

We're weeks away from the World Expo opening here in Shanghai. I've been living in Shanghai for over 4 months and what I find amazing is how quickly things get deconstructed gutted, remodeled and rebuilt so quickly!

Like the Olympics in Beijing, there have been many construction projects in preparation for the millions of expected international visitors. From the facades (I've seen front of buildings painted nicely, but when you go into the alley, you see it's only the front facade painted), to entirely new buildings and parks (like the Expo grounds), it's an amazing site to behold. But what I find the most fascinating are scenes like the picture to the above and left.

These are actual commercial sites that have many active customers and patrons. But then suddenly a few days later you'll see it gutted. It's not like there's only a few patrons, but hundreds of active patrons. Yet as you see in the picture above, many people still frequent these places while construction is going on. I literally had just eaten at that food court a few days earlier only to see this place gutted a few days later. This has happened to at least a few other places I used to eat at. The speed of change, construction and renovation happening in China is already mind blowing. Add international events like the Olympics and the World Expo to that change and I'm witnessing a very unique, strange and exponentially rapidly changing China everyday.

This unique time in history is a daily aspect life in China right now. It is just one of the many reasons I choose to live here at this time.

Magical But Unsustainable

2010-04-21T01:04:00.006+08:00

I ordered my iPad (or as some call it, my "giant iPod") a few weeks ago and I'm told it's currently waiting for me in California. So while I'll be taking a journey overseas for business reasons, I'll be able to pick up this "magical" device (as Steve Jobs and company describe it) weeks before its international release. Not dissimilar to my experience with the iPhone, as an Apple fanatic, I'm salivating at the prospects of playing with this device. Nothing new there. End of story right? The difference is this time, I tracked my iPad's progress. As indicated in the screen cap below, my iPad's journey begins in Shenzen, China!

While I currently live in Shanghai China, I just happened to be in Shenzen last week on transit from Hong Kong back to Shanghai. So wouldn't it have been cool if I could just pick this device up at the factory where most Apple products are assembled in China? Yeah, I know commerce doesn't work that way. But it should.

Who am I to be getting on my high horse after ordering this device and going (indirectly) overseas to pick this up? I admit it. I'm guilty as are most of us for committing unsustainable practices. What the heck does "unsustainable practices" even mean? That's one of the things I'm trying to define. How? Why?

One, I've been reading "Confessions of a Radical Industrialist" by Ray C. Anderson on my Kindle. Mr. Anderson is at the forefront of creating truly sustainable companies. Two, I'm starting a new project which proposes to build a green and sustainable university campus in China. This is one of those "journey not destination" moments. But I believe it is an extremely important and worthy journey. I hope someday I will look back upon this blog entry about picking up my "magical" device in an unsustainable manner and laugh at how we used to practice unsustainable commerce back in the early 2000's.

If that future were to become real, then that would truly be magical!

OIHK!

2009-09-06T03:07:00.005+08:00

I just attended a friend's birthday dinner at D17, a small seafood restaurant in Hong Kong. It was good food, good company and overall a good experience. But there was one experience that I had to snap a pic of and document.

That experience would be when I went to the men's room which is represented in picture to the left. While snapping it, I thought how Hong Kong this image is. Only in Hong Kong where space is at a premium would I see them fit such a narrow door in a tiny corner. Hong Kong is nothing if efficient. But in most other cities this space would barely be enough for a closet much less an entire bathroom with a working urinal, toilet and sink.

The restaurant staff told me no one has ever had trouble going to the men's room. But I would imagine any large or overweight person would have to use the ladies room.

In the mainland, several Westerners told me they have a shorthand saying, OIC or Only in China. While Hong Kong is part of China, there's still a menality the Hong Kong is a not China. So perhaps I can start a new term, OIHK! I prounounce that like a pig's oink, only with a silent "n".

Yeah, it's late. Time for bed.

Chinese Internet Maintenance Day! Woohoo!

2009-06-04T21:47:00.001+08:00

Today, I sit here writing on "Chinese Internet Maintenance Day." After all in a country of billions, sites such as Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail and Bing require at least a full day (probably more) of maintenance so as to better serve the people.

My own words fail to express the gratitude the Chinese people must feel for this great day. So today, I had to look to a certain Barack Hussein Obama to help express the un-expressable. How ironic, that it takes a man from half a world away to express that which can not be expressed. Yet he is so eloquently forthcoming on this issue.

Where words fail. Hopes, spirit and sentiment do not.

Admiralty 2.0

2009-03-17T22:05:00.003+08:00

Nearly three years ago, I embarked on my journey to directing. Since then I've directed several commercials and a music video. Today, I'm directing my latest commercial, developing my next batch of commercial projects and writing my first feature film.

None of my current projects would have been possible had I not taken that first step by directing my first live action piece, Admiralty. I never finished that particular piece. Despite the many months, weeks and hours that several volunteers put into it, I never saw it to completion.

That has always bothered me.

There have been many excuses. The biggest excuses being a lack of time and money. Which is largely true considering the experimental FX and animation ambitions of the project.

I've thought about keeping this project shelved. After all, it was shot years ago and I'm a different person and director now. But those are just excuses too. So after several fits of starting and stopping the project, I've started again. In fact, I plan to re-shoot much of the short that I originally shot on Beta with the much-hyped new Red One camera.

Above is a photo I took from a rehearsal for Admiralty 2.0. My buddy, Ian will fight choreograph the fight sequences and a large FX studio in Beijing will handle much of the FX and animation. Given the upgrade in camera, fight choreography, FX studio and director (that would be a slightly more experienced me); I'm hoping this won't look like the first thing I've ever directed.

To be continued... and finished!

What's on Your "Kindle?"

2009-03-15T13:26:00.008+08:00

Last year, I held off on buying the Amazon Kindle, because I knew the new and improved Kindle 2 was on its way in '09. So when the Kindle 2 was released a few weeks ago, boy was I ready to jump aboard the e-book bandwagon.

Only, I didn't jump.

Call me cheap, but despite the many great reviews about the Kindle 2, something bothered me about spending $359.00 for a specialized device that's designed for one main function. Then a couple of weeks ago a free Kindle was offered.

This time I jumped.

Well, it wasn't exactly a Kindle. More like a free iPhone app provided by Amazon that allows you to read Kindle formatted books. To be honest, this isn't the first time I've read an e-book. That disctinction goes to my Palm V days of yore. Nor is it the first e-book I've attempted to read on my iPhone. That distinction goes to "The Heart of Darkness" which I read last year. But it is the first time I've become hooked on reading an e-book

The image above is a screen shot of my free "Kindle." As you can see I've downloaded many a free chapter. And I've even bought a few ebooks. I finished my first Kindle book, Neil Gaiman'"s "Coraline" in slightly less than half a week. Granted that's a children's book. But a week and a half later, I'm almost halfway through a book on geopolitics by George Friedman called "The Next 100 Years."

Over the weekend, I saw an interview with the author of "What Would Google Do?" Within minutes I downloaded the sample chapter and read it over lunch. There's something to this Kindle stuff. So I'm back to my fundamental question: 2 Kindle 2 or not 2 Kindle 2?

Given the great experience I was pretty convinced I was going to Kindle 2 it. But then the rumors for an Apple Netbook has been hitting critical mass lately. So, I guess I can wait until the rumored Oct release date of the Apple iBook, iPod Touch HD, iPod Air or whatever they end up calling it.

Yes! I've decided not to decide.

Who Runs on What?

2009-03-09T00:31:00.007+08:00

I'm a terrible blogger. At least I'm a terribly infrequent blogger. It's been over 4 months since my last blog entry. Sheesh!

So I'm planning to rectify that this year. Starting now. What could possibly be worthy of a blog entry since my previous entry when Obama was elected? The answer is: Nothing of any major cosmic or global significance. But it was something that brought a slight chuckle to my day.

This afternoon I went for a run as part of my battle against the weight I've gained from the holiday bingeing and traveling I've done during the period from November through February. It was a rather nice day and despite having rather tight and sore legs from a previous workout, it wasn't a half bad run.

After my run, I stretched out in front of my apartment. Just as I was finishing up an old lady walked by and gave me a rather strange look. As I was finished with my stretches, I followed her inside and rode the elevator up with her. While in the elevator she asked me what type of work was I doing. I replied with a question, "Now?" To which she replied, "Yes." I told her I wasn't working, but was exercising. At least that's how I interpreted the conversation.

This might be a good time to say that I'm still living in Beijing at this time and this entire conversation took place in Mandarin. There are subtleties of language and culture that I'm so used to in U.S. English, but I just don't have in Chinese. So it's in that context that I thought I may have misunderstood what she meant with her question. This thought was further reinforced by the fact that as she exited the elevator, she looked unsatisfied and confused by my answer. Her reaction in turn made me unsatisfied and confused with my answer as well.

As I exited the elevator and shortly afterward, entered my apartment, I noticed my outfit. As the accompanying photo shows; I was wearing a blue "America Runs on Dunkin" t-shirt with a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath and my sunglasses. Seems innocuous enough. But it's all about context. I don't live in a neighborhood with many other Asian Americans or expats. Most people in my complex seem to be local folk. They often dress in pretty drab grey or dark colors during the winter and I don't remember seeing anyone wear sunglasses. It struck me that I must look like a multi-colored freak doing these strange things in front of her apartment. She may very well have thought I was wearing some strange uniform and wondered what the heck I was doing in front of her apartment. I'm pretty sure I stood out like a sore thumb dressed as I was while doing strange things in front of her apartment building.

So I had a little chuckle about the matter and snapped the accompanying pic from my iPhone to commemorate the incident. I could very well have been suffering from the effects of a runners high and completely misinterpreted the situation. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have. But it gave me a chuckle and I deemed it blog-worthy enough to break my 4 month non-blogging streak.

Watching the Election from China

2008-11-05T08:54:00.005+08:00

I am experiencing an online media ORGY!

I am a self-professed media junky. So I've given myself a surreal media experience while I'm watching the US election from China. I'm currently simultaneously watching CNN live from a Slingbox feed from New York, CNN International live feed from cnn.com, Fox News Web page updates and MSNBC live over msnbc.com while popping between Google News and Facebook updates. I pop audio on and off between video feeds as I see something interesting popping up in each window.

I find it surreal that I have access to so much live information while I'm in Beijing, China. At this point I have access to more live newsfeeds in China than I did during all my years living in the US. That includes my short stint working for a news organization in Florida where I had access to live newsfeeds and AP wires. I find this experience to be an astounding statement on the state of global media, technology and telecommunications.

Some observations I've made while subjecting myself to this early Beijing morning media orgy:

* Whiz bang graphics and technology
Every network is using huge touch screen technology with GUI driven maps and graphs

* Touch screen
There's just a lot of touching and sliding around going on. I'd say that John King on CNN is the king of the touch screen

* Live interaactive maps
Each Web page has constantly refreshing information. But I really like Fox News map that shows the graphs and numbers growing and changing live. The mouseover on each state also brings up key stats and graps for each state.

* 3D graphics the reporters can walk around
CNN supposedly will use a sophisiticated technical setup to allow reporters from around the country to be virtually in the same studio space. i haven't seen it yet, but I'm waiting for it.

* Virtually projected reporters
So far my favorite are the MSNBC 3D virtual graphs that the reporters can walk around. So far it seems gratuitous, but I'm waiting to see if ther's a new, dyanmic way for the reporters to present news and data.

Finally, I find it interesting how Fox News live map updates. It currently puts McCain ahead of Obama, but CNN, MSNBC and Google show Obama ahead. It's almost like they're in denial with the wave the Obama seems to have.

A Cool Beijing Day

2008-10-16T23:28:00.008+08:00

It was actually quite a warm day in Beijing. This is my first October living in Beijing, but even I know today was unseasonably warm. But I thought I had a pretty cool day. So why not chronicle it? Why not indeed. Here's a quickie bullet-point run down:

I woke up to a sunny, warm morning in Beijing with blue skies

While preparing for the day, I listened live to the 3rd U.S. presidential debate

Dealt with my university duties in a conference call with a software team in Silicon Valley

Had a call with LA to review dailies for an independent film

Headed off to a pre-production meeting for the latest film starring one of the biggest Chinese stars in the world

While witnessing test shots for the Chinese film, I remotely supervised FX shots for the US independent film and a shot for a major Hollywood studio film

Headed to a design conference where I played journalist for a Beijing design magazine by helping them interview two US companies about sustainable design

Headed off to my friend's art gallery and bar to meet about our development of several intellectual properties

Had a call to Japan to follow up on a commercial where I'm directing the animation

Headed home to work on my screenplay, deal with taxes and write this blog

It wasn't all roses and happiness. There were several problems and a few fires to fight. But overall, it was a full, but productive day.

Just another cool day in Beijing.

Uncensored!

2008-07-31T23:27:00.003+08:00

I just arrived back in Beijing today and just viewed a story on CNN about how China is not going to be censoring the Internet during the Olympics. I wasn't previously able to access my blog while in the mainland, so I figure I'd give it a shot. After a couple of taps on the keyboard, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I am now able to view my own blog inside mainland China.

To celebrate this new found openness to blogging, I've decided to post this picture I took today in Hong Kong on the way to the plane with my new 3G iPhone. This was Team South Africa on their way to Beijing. I overheard that at least one of these guys is from the crew team. As I arrived in Beijing, I could see that the Olympics have definitely arrived. There was a separate area for the athletes to go through and everything was pretty clearly marked and organized.

Security seemed increased, but it wasn't unpleasant and didn't interfere with my arrival in Beijing. Speaking of security, I heard it was very hard to get into the Olympic Village where the press and athletes are staying. I know at least one person staying there and I heard even her parents are having a hard time going in to visit her.

I'm working feverishly in Hong Kong and Beijing to finish the first music video I've directed. But I should be done this week, in which case I hope to have more time to start blogging.;

Censorship?

2008-05-25T19:43:00.002+08:00

It's been over a year since my last post. Now I'm residing (mostly) in mainland China and it seems I can't even view my blog here. But it seems I can make updates. So I'll just do what I can while I'm here and if I have any problems I'll post more in HK.

I don't intend to make any political observations or points while I'm in the mainland, but we'll see what happens. Will this entry be visible to everyone outside the mainland? It's weird. I've never dealt with Internet censorship like this before. But worst case scenario, I'll just start another blog. Again, I don't see how that should piss off the Chinese government as I'm just trying to document my personal (non-political) travels.

Media Thought of the Morning

2007-03-13T05:29:00.000+08:00

As I'm writing this entry, it's one of those late nights/early mornings in which I woke up and had trouble falling back asleep. So I did what I always do when I can't sleep; I surfed the Web. I imagine that my Web surfing habits start off like just about anyone's. I begin by firing up the emails, followed by some general news sites. After those standard routines, I get into my specific areas of interest. One of them is the U.S. media.

I've been living in Hong Kong for over a year and a half now, but I still find myself a U.S. media junkie. Maybe it's because I don't read or write Chinese, but I find it harder to track all the things here which I like monitoring in the U.S. media. From weekly box office receipts to Nielson's top rated TV shows, I have several meters for how various movies, TV shows, books and comic books are doing. One place I frequent perhaps once every 2 weeks is a Website called the mediabistro, where it focuses on the U.S. TV and cable news media. It was at this site which I found a link to an L.A. Times article about how CNN was blacked out in China during an interview with Hong Kong's leader, Donald Tsang, when he spoke about plans on universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

I found this stream of media-centric Web surfing interesting for a couple reasons:

First, the Web has made it possible for me to be more in tune with the American media anywhere in the world. I'm more in tune with the state of the U.S. media living in Hong Kong, than I was 5 years ago living in the U.S. How's that for a sign of the times and what NYT's columnist Thomas Friedman calls the flat state of the world?

Second, is the way in which the U.S. media paints the state of Chinese censorship and democracy. My reaction just a year ago to this article is far different from what it is now that I live here as a permanent Hong Kong resident. A year ago, I would have thought about what a bunch of bastards the Chinese government has been for taking away the system of government that the British put in place. What the British set up here resulted in a Chinese city far more prosperous than any other in the mainland.

Now that I live here, my perspective has been clarified a bit. Don't get me wrong, I still hate censorship. But thanks to some friends here, they've pointed out a few things that are obvious if you bothered to read between the news headlines: There's more democracy in Hong Kong now under Chinese rule then there was during almost all of British rule.

Sounds strange doesn't it? But I do remember reading in the international press back in the '90s about how right before the handover back to China, the British Hong Kong governor, Chris Patton, put in last minute government changes to give the people of Hong Kong democracy. So when this British governor, who was appointed by British bureaucracy without universal suffrage, made these changes which were revoked by the incoming Chinese government, it looked like China was coming down hard on democracy. But several locals have told me that the people of Hong Kong have gained more rights and privileges in deciding government matters than they did under British rule, when relatively none of the local Chinese had much say in the British appointed government.

The truth of the matter is that Hong Kong is far from a democracy right now. But by living here in these times, I've got a lot better insight on the political and media war going on both sides. And with that closing thought, I think it's time I went back to bed now.

Captain America is Dead!

2007-03-08T11:19:00.000+08:00

This morning began like any other. I fired up my Firefox Web browser and opened tabs for checking my email and news. Nothing out of the ordinary, until I hit the New York Times Website and saw the image on the left.

What a shocking and cool sight! A rapid fire of thoughts shot through my early-morning, groggy brain; Holy crap! They killed Cap. Holy moly! The death of a fictional character made the front page of the New York Times. This is soooo freakin' symbolic. This is sooooo fraggin' cool.

This was particularly timely as my brother, who has been a huge Captain America fan since he was 4, emailed me a CNN article about this last night. In an interesting twist, the CNN report had more depth and insight than the NYT's article. Certainly this moment is a sign of the times in more ways than one:

1) A cable news Web site had more insight and depth than the bastion of U.S. news media, the New York Times.

2) The CNN piece reports on how the recent Civil War storyline is "an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the War on Terror and the September 11 attacks." In the Marvel Civil War, the pro-registration faction won which in general says a lot about civil liberties in a time of war and specifically reflects on the current state of these real-life issues.

3) Captain America has been a symbol of "American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers, and later Communism." So what does his death say about America in her current "War on Terror?"

4) As a veteran of WWII frozen in time until his revival in Marvel Comics' golden age in the 1960's, Captain America's modern tale has been about a man out of time. In many ways, his world views are vestiges of America's last great war. He has not changed much with the times and is even more out of place today.

5) What does this say about the American media, when a fictitious patriotic character created during WWII is killed and then makes the front page of the New York Times today? You could write a term paper on this one.

On a personal note, Cap's death does strike a chord in me. As Marvel's oldest hero, he has been a permanent fixture in the modern mythology of the Marvel Universe where I spent my childhood. He represented to me the moral compass and positive spirit of the American ideal. I can't help but feel a little sad for the passing of the symbol for these ideals during a time in which I think America needs them more than ever. On the other hand, I feel more than a little sad that I'm still such a dorky, comic book fanboy.

Fanboy

2007-03-08T05:50:00.000+08:00

I just ran across an amusing column about how to be a fanboy. First of all, the writer says you don't need to be a boy to be a fanboy. In fact, you don't even need to be male. But "fangirl" just doesn't have the same ring as "fanboy." Thus we're stuck with the term fanboy.

As amusing as the column was, I had an issue with it. You see, I've been a fanboy for nearly as long as I could read. It started off with comic books. From the moment I read my first comic book at the age of 6, I became a fan of comics. That would make me a comic book fan when I was a mere boy or a fan boy. Get it? But this joker ...er writer narrowly defines a fanboy as a videogame console fanatic of any gender or age. Hmm... sounds PC enough, but I almost take offense to the author claiming the term for just for videogame console fanatics. Since I have faith that the truth must exist somewhere on the Internet, I investigated further and found fanboy.com. This sagely site implies that fanboys are cultural fanatics of any gender or age, not merely videogame console fanatics. My faith in the Internet to tell the truth was instantly restored.

So all the above useless, trivial line of thought got me started on another pointless, trivial line of thought; Am I still a fanboy today? And if so, what am I a fanboy of?

That burning question is fairly fun to answer. We can start with the picture on the left taken on my camera phone last Friday at the Hong Kong Cultural Center. This was taken moments before the jazz supergroup, SFJazz Allstars began performing. A friend gave me her extra ticket at the last minute, so I had no idea who was in this super group of jazz all stars. I was extremely excited to find out my favorite contemporary trumpet player, Dave Douglas had recently joined this group. I have seen my share of live jazz in Asia, but seeing these guys perform was like watching professional NBA players versus kids at the playground I've been seeing. Aside from each musician being accomplished jazz band leaders and composers, they checked their egos at the door and meshed so well together. It was quite possibly the best jazz concert I have ever attended. But I digress.

Back to the topic of fanboys. It's pretty well known to my friends that I'm a huge fan of jazz. But that doesn't necessarily make me a jazz fanboy. During the meet and greet at the end of the concert I unabashedly told Dave Douglas I was a "big, big fan." I would say that was a fanboyish moment. So the nature of being a fanboy seems to apply to something more specific than an industry (such as jazz or videogames), but perhaps a specific object (such as a videogame console) or person (such as a jazz musician).

If I apply my definition of fanboy, then I could make a list of many people and things ranging from directors, musicians, authors, cinematographers, designers and yes, even a few politicians and spiritual leaders whom I admire. Perhaps cultureboy would be a better term for me than fanboy. But that might bring up visions of diseased experiments or the 80's Boy George group, Culture Club. So I guess I'll just have to stick to being a fanboy.

Year of the Piggie

2007-03-01T10:37:00.000+08:00

Last week was the first time I experienced Chinese New Year in Asia. Unlike in the West, Chinese New Year is a major holiday here in China where people actually take time off to be with family. Christmas and New Years is small potatoes by comparison.

This is the year of the pig and there was no chance of missing that in Hong Kong where they bring the commercialization of Chinese New Year to new levels. You could not avoid a single cutesy, cartoony pig anywhere. Interestingly, enough I didn't have to take any pics 'cause I had a guest in town who had an awesome Nikon SLR camera. It was her first time in HK and it was great to see Hong Kong through her eyes and lense. This left pic was one of the first pics she took. We found it amusing to see this blow up pig suckling on the vendor with his blow up butcher's knife. It was almost subversive to see this vendor amidst a sea of other vendors hocking their cutsey cartoon pig-wares.

A few days later, while exploring the Sheung Wan district, we encountered these real slaughtered pigs all hung neatly in a row. Many Westerners often find it disgusting to see their meat in this form. Namely, the full carcass. I actually prefer to see my meat this way. Not because I'm barbaric, but because it reminds me that I'm consuming life. I think most people (East and West) who buy their seemingly sterile, plastic wrapped, mass-produced processed meat or beautifully, presented restaurant steaks and pork chops are conveniently disconnected from the painful, bloody, reality of the slaughter.

Morbid thoughts for the year of the pig? I suppose so. But amidst all the commercialized, cute, plastic, glitz and glam; I see this as a needed touch of reality. It made me re-visit the idea of becoming vegetarian. My readings and understanding of the subject really does point to the conclusion that consuming less meat is more humane, environmentally friendly, healthy and in many ways moral.

Anyway, I hope that everyone has a happy, healthy and prosperous year of the pig! ;P

Plunging into Penang

2007-02-15T00:57:00.000+08:00

I finally did it. I took the plunge and took a real vacation.

The last two months have been rough. It's been a steady stream of non-stop 7 day weeks, late nighters (into the wee hours of the morning) and an occasional all-nighter. There's been little time to really plan and think as it's been almost all about execution. This culminated in a lung infection that bordered on pneumonia. So it's almost needless to say; I needed a break.

So I cut off all emails (except for one 5 minute session at my friend's house) or phone calls related to work, took my new camera and headed off to Penang, Malaysia.

This was my third trip to Malaysia, but my first trip to Penang where my buddy and fellow blogger Pat lives. So in the grand tradition of cross-over events on TV or comic books, this is our first cross-over blog entry. The first picture above was taken by Pat with my new digital camera. It's set on the high shutter speed so he could snap a shot of me with my friend Candy as we take the plunge together into a much needed vacation.

This next shot was on the first day we all met up in Georgetown, which I believe is the biggest tourist city in Penang. We took bicycle taxis together through Georgetown in search of a restaurant for brunch. Pat's in the bicycle taxi in front leading the way. I think this picture captures the basic feel of the streets of Penang on that day. It was warm, sunny and a touch laid back, but also a bit manic. The buildings and architecture felt tropical and not unlike the buildings I've seen in the outer parts of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

After a great lunch by the bay, Pat took us to the southern tip of the island where he and his wife live. It was awesome to finally see the people and places I've been reading about in his blog for the last year and a half. His wife Kelly is deaf so we had to learn sign language to communicate with her. I learned about 10 different signs including basics like yes, no and several relevant city and country signs like Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

After visiting Pat's home (and a quick 5 minute email check), he and his wife accompanied us to Genting Hill. This is Pat's favorite place to watch the sunset. We road a long winding road to the top where there was a restaurant and had a few beers while the sun set. I took this picture of Pat and Kelly during the sunset. I had the camera set at a higher ISO and exposure so it's a little grainy, but could get the decreasing light from the sunset. We all thought this picture looked fake. The sky and the skyline almost feel like a flat picture while the foreground elements almost feel like they're artificially lit in a studio or something. Anyway, I thought it was a fun shot and worth putting in this blog entry. So here it is.

As the saying goes; the third time's the charm. This was my most enjoyable visit to Malaysia yet. It was due to the absence of work and the presence of some great friends. I really enjoyed seeing Pat whom I haven't seen in almost 3 years and meeting his newly wed wife. It was also great to meet Candy face-to-face as we've only collaborated on Skype for the last three months on a Spider-Man 3 related project. This last shot is about great company and a variety of choices. Candy took this shot of me at the tallest building in Penang. It showcases why I love theaters in Asia. In the same theater I can choose from American, Hong Kong, Thai or Korean films. But according to Pat, the negative part of theater-going in Malaysia is the enormous censorship. Sex, violence and profanity are all edited out. So I decided to skip out on movie watching in Penang. Instead I enjoyed more sun, fun and good times with good friends.

Beijing Cool !?!

2007-01-27T01:33:00.000+08:00

Why the question mark next to the exclamations in the title to this blog? The answer is quite simple; I was surprised at how much I enjoyed my trip to Beijing this last weekend. After my last two trips to Shanghai, I was convinced that city was my favorite city in mainland China. I'll spare the details (in this entry) of why I think Shanghai rocks, but I thought there couldn't possibly be any comparison between modern Shanghai with the old, stodgy, communist capital of China. I'm glad to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all, I must admit it helps to have a young, lovely local serve as your guide. I was lucky enough to have such a guide. Umi is the director's assistant at the film production company I was there to visit. The first place she brought me to was Factory 798 which is an art district composed of old decommissioned military factories. This picture was taken at one of the smaller buildings. It was also Umi's favorite pic I took on my camera phone that day.

I thought it was appropriate that these old communist, military factories were housing and sheltering the works of today's Chinese artists. It's sort of a small, beginning of a redemption for the art and culture the communist party so tragically destroyed forever in the Cultural Revolution. This next pic illustrates the vast size of these factories. I love the contrast between the stark, cold concrete walls with old communist phrases and the modern, Chinese art that mixes traditional with more modern techniques.

I can write more on the booming modern Chinese art movement that is sweeping the mainstream art speculation scene in New York, London and Hong Kong. But I'd rather write about other things I enjoyed in Beijing. When I travel, I love to immerse myself in the local culture and that includes shopping, music and of course food. My guide happened to be a vegetarian so for most of the weekend I ate like rabbit (which happens to be her Chinese zodiac sign). Despite eating like a rabbit, I ate much and ate well. This pic is from my last meal before I took off to the airport. We each had our own personal hot pot and despite having some meat on the table, I actually preferred the veggies. It just seemed to fit the mood and environment of the restaurant.

The previous night I believe we had fresh Beijing noodles which reminded me a lot of the fresh Italian pasta I had growing up with Italian Americans. Music-wise that night I ended up at my favorite scene for music; a late night jazz club. But during the day she also brought me to an artsy music store where she introduced me to a treasure trove of modern progressive Chinese music, much of which is hard to find in commercially driven Hong Kong. When we listened to one band I found interesting, she recalled they were playing a gig that night. She called them on her mobile and confirmed that they were indeed performing that night, but in Shanghai. So I ended up purchasing 3 CDs (legitimate of course) from various artists whom had shades of Tom Waits, Radiohead, Sonic Youth and jazz all mixed up.

My first trip to Beijing confirmed why Beijing is considered the artistic and cultural center of China. I could happily get lost in the city's art scene. About the only thing I didn't like about the aesthetics of Beijing is that the architecture was quite boring and uninspired. As this picture indicates, the buildings are mostly uninspired bricks. I didn't see any of the usual tourist stops like Tiannanman Square or Mao's grave, but I'm fine with that. To really see and experience a city, I think you need to look beyond the veneer of its cliche, tourist trappings. Thanks to my own personal guide, I had just the experience I desired.

Oh yeah, lest I forget; I also made a stop at the film production studio I was in town to visit. The studio itself was dreary, damp and a bit depressing, but the projects they were working on were quite exciting. It was a good first meeting. I look forward to working with them in Beijing!

Pedal Power!

2007-01-15T00:54:00.000+08:00

I was on my way to work for like the 50th Sunday in a row or something. Nothing special. But on my way to the bus I passed by an interesting race taking place. There were a bunch of people racing in these little pod-like vehicles. It looked like a lot of silly fun. Especially, when I noticed a fuzzy elephant (see pic on left) making it's way through the course.

But upon closer inspection, I saw some serious looking carts with corporate sponsorships. Upon even closer inspection I noticed that these vehicles were powered by pedaling. Then I noticed these racers were actually in very good shape.

My curiosity was piqued. So I decided to take a closer look. The signs posted on the dividers said this was the "21st Round Table Pedal." I took off my earhphones, paused my iPod Just in time to hear the announcer say they were a minute away from finishing their 24 hours! I thought it was so cool that this organization HKPVA
has been running this 24 hour race 21 times.

When I looked at their Website, I saw that they promote human powered vehicles, but couldn't see how other than this race. Apparently, it's a race with teams of 10. So that averages to about 2.4 hours per person. Which is do-able, but would require a lot of training and preparation. This event reminded me of Bay to Breakers mixed with 199 mile Relay race I've done a few times in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hmmm... I might be feeling the urge to do a few charity races again.

Of Comics, Republics and Patriotism

2007-01-08T01:32:00.000+08:00

If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of.

Samuel Clemens - Mark Twain

The above quote was used in the latest issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man." It's an issue written by American Television writer/producer, Michael Straczynski and drawn beautifully by Ron Garney.

The line was used in the context of Spider-man asking Captain America for advice on how to he handles having the majority of the country, government, media and public against him in the Civil War taking place in Marvel Comics storyline that has been selling like hotcakes through the fall and winter. At the conclusion of Cap's speech, Spidey is moved and concludes, "it feels good to be on the right side again."

I really enjoyed this point in the story on so many levels:

1) It provided a poignant and dramatic turn to the storyline
2) Quote from Mark Twain made me think of many other references to literature or thoughts in a comic which led me to read or research a topic, idea or word.
3) Spidey's defection from my favorite character, Iron Man to Captain America's side on the surface seems righteous and noble. But Twain's quote could apply quite nicely to Tony Stark/Iron Man who just as strongly believes that he is on the right side of this Civil War.
4) This quote comes at such an appropriate time as George W. Bush continues to make policies and plans on an unpopular war with much of the media, government and opinion stacked against him. So by Twain's remarks in the context of this story, he has "nothing to be ashamed of."
5) It reminds me of why I have dorked out over comic books for most of my life.

I could tack on a few more, but the gist of it is this little piece of a niche fiction about a pop culture icon hit all the right buttons in me.

Favorite Movies of 2006

2007-01-01T17:10:00.000+08:00

Wow! It's 2007. I remember when pop cultural references to the distant future such as Prince's "Party like it's 1999" or "2001: A Space Odyssey" made a year like 2007 seem so far into the future. But here we are; we've now entered the 7th or 8th year (depending on how you count the year 0) of the new millennium.

So many amazing things happened in 2006. But for this post, I'll keep it a narrow topic that I love: Movies! Below are my favorite movies that had a theatrical release in 2006. Now, I acknowledge there may be better movies released in 2006. I still very much would like to see "Flags of our Fathers," "Letters from Iwo Jima," and "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" all of which I think I will enjoy, but for now these are my Top Five Films of 2006:

1) FLIGHT 93
I appreciated director, Paul Greengrass' no-frills nearly documentary style approach to this story. There was utmost respect not to paint this story with cultural, political or social commentary, but to let the moments unfold very much as they did that tragic day on 9/11. Unlike "World Trade Center" there was little over-dramatization/Hollywood-esque blockbuster moments. There were no big stars. Instead, Mr. Greengrass' film is about the pure moments and events of that day. The result of that choice for me was an experience that was purely riveting cinema.

2) INSIDE MAN
I believe director, Spike Lee is one of the great American film makers of our time. This film is like his post 9/11 valentine to New York City. The cuts to interviews of NYC bank hostages showcases and gives voice to the multi-cultural melting pot that is New York City. This serves as a nice underlying spicy base to the main body of story which touts some great actors, stars and scenes. Despite its twists, the story is a fairly straighforward bank robber, crime story. But in the hands of a master director like Spike Lee, there are many great scenes and moments which add to a solid film that manages to make observations about power, corruption, guilt and attempted redemption in one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Oh and the soundtrack by the great Jazz musician/composer Terence Blanchard doesn't hurt either.

3) The Departed
The is the best film by director, Martin Scorsese since his glory days of "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas" and may very well garner him his much evasive, yet deserved Oscar win. If so, it's interesting that a remake of a solid Hong Kong crime film, "Infernal Affairs" would give him that win. The original film is easily one of the best to come out of Hong Kong cinema in the last decade. in the hands of a master director like Mr. Scorsese, I believe the result is greatly improved. The changes and the film itself is not without it's flaws or problems. I particularly wince at the ending scene and last shot of the film. But overall, it is a cinematic joy to watch Scorsese making the type of film that he is best known and loved for.

4) Monster House
I'm a little jealous of first time director Gil Kenan whom I've read got this gig almost immediately out of film school. Unfortunately, this animated film did not do very well at the box office. From a marketing and business standpoint, I understand why. But in the over saturated market place of animated CG, cute animal films, I appreciated his non-Pixar-wannabe approach to the CG animated film. The stop-motion-like style and stylistic choices to the film make this stand above the rest of the animated CG crowd. It is a charming and fun movie about childhood fears and friendships without being too saccharine or sweet. I hope Gil Kenan gets another shot at directing.

5) Gwoemul (The Host)
I love giant Asian monster movies. With the likes of Godzilla and Gamera, the Japanese have ruled this genre for decades. But with "The Host," Korean director, Joon-Ho Bong, almost single-handedly wrests that rule from Japanese cinema. This is a fairly straitforward and often-times predictable giant monster movie with a host of cliche moments in a cliche story. But Joon-Ho manages to fit in many little creative twists to very cliche moments. All of them add up to a very enjoyable and entertaining movie that pits a quirky dysfunctional Korean family against a giant monster that confounds the Korean and U.S. governments and military. This is the most enjoyable giant monster movie I have seen in a very long time. Hollywood has remade its fill of Japanese horror movies and is moving onto Korean movies. I've read Hollywood is going to remake this one. If they get the wrong team and mess this up, at least I'll always have this original Korean film to watch.

Honoarable Mentions:

"Isabella"
A film by my friend, Pang Ho Cheung which didn't find enough commercial success to be distributed outside of the Asian market. That's a shame as I think this is a nice father/daughter film set against the unique setting and time of Macau's hand over back to China.

"4 Kings"
An interesting documentary-style film about the Hong Kong music industry directed by Hong Kong heart throb Daniel Wu. It's Hong Kong's version of "Spinal Tap" and it's observations about the HK entertainment industry, according to my friends in the industry, is spot on. It's a surprisingly entertaining and interesting by a leading HK actor. All his looks and he can direct too. I'm jealous!

"Curse of the Golden Flower"
The third martial arts epic by China's premier director, Zhang Yimou. IMHO, it's better than his second, "House of Flying Daggers," but not as good as his first, "Hero." It's an over-the-top but entertaining classic Chinese opera about a dysfunctional family that happens to be the royal family of China. When ordinary families feud, people get hurt. When the royal family of China fight, thousands die in a operatic, kung-fu wire-fu CG battles. Artsy and fun at the same time!

"Curious George"
In an age of CG animated films with smart-ass humor, it's nice to go back to the basics of traditional 2D animation (although it has moments of 3D animation). The story is simple and charming. A perfectly wholesome cartoon of one of the most beloved children's characters for kids of all ages.

"Cars"
Pixar continues to make great animated CG films. IMHO, this is the second weakest Pixar film behind "A Bug's Life." But despite it being one of the weakest Pixar films, it is head above heels above almost all of the other CG-animated wannabe-Pixar films.

That's it for 2006. In my next post, I hope to post my thoughts on my most anticipated and most dreaded films for 2007.

Happy New Year to all!

Macs R Cool!! :D

2006-12-06T22:21:00.000+08:00

It seems everyone in Asia uses MSN Messenger. So today I broke down and installed MSN Messenger on my MacBook Pro. I had forgotten that MSN and Yahoo struck a deal so their users can now chat with one another. So that led me to install Yahoo Messenger as well.

Messenger was my IM client of choice in the U.S. so I'm pretty familiar with it. The Mac version in many ways seems so much cooler than the PC version. In fact, once you get used to the Mac, everything in the Mac versions is generally much cooler than the PC

If this sounds like a Mac commercial, then so be it.

[BEGIN COMMERCIAL]

I've used PC's for almost all of my professional life. They've just been a necessary tool in any number of my jobs. But this past year, I decided to make the leap to Mac for my main work computer. I have to say that every time I return to my Dell PC laptop, I really crave working on the Macbook Pro.

It wasn't an easy transition as I've got so many programs and files setup on my PC. But after a few months of straddling the two, there's no doubt that I prefer the Mac. I still use my PC, but the image above summarizes one of many reasons I think the Mac is so cool. At one of my offices, I've got dual monitors for my PC. Despite the large amount of screen real estate, my tiny 15" MacBook Pro screen feels less cluttered, more efficient and far more elegant when working with many applications. With a push of a button my Mac desktop organizes itself and I can get to any app I want so quickly.

It's the organization, design and look and feel that make the Mac such a pleasant working environment. I just feel more creative and think differently when I use the Mac.

One of the many projects I'm currently working on deals heavily with interface design. It's almost needless to say that I'm drawing a great deal of inspiration from the Mac for this project.

[END COMMERCIAL]

LOL

2006-12-01T01:05:00.000+08:00

It's hard to find anything funny about all the problems the U.S. is facing these days. Many of these problems can be linked in some way to president Bush's 'leadership.' But then I ran across my colleague, Nury's latest blog entry about George W. Bush's visit to a church.

Apparently, Bush's campaign manager offered a sizable donation to the church if the sermon could mention that "Bush is a saint. " Whether the story is true or not, I found the sermon to be hilarious. Yes, the sermon does include the phrase "Bush is a Saint."

It's Picture Time!

2006-11-23T04:21:00.000+08:00

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

2006-11-20T02:08:00.000+08:00

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

2006-11-01T04:27:00.000+08:00

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.

2006-10-31T09:14:00.000+08:00

Michael J. Fox Political Ad

Here's the ad that caused huge U.S. political and media waves. And it happens to me my first YouTube video blog embed.

Not The Greatest

2006-10-27T00:38:00.000+08:00

I recently learned something interesting about China's advertising policy. I learned this during a meeting with a fairly large client who is making their debut in China next month. Apparently, they had to change their advertisement from stating "The World's Largest ____ Store" to "The World's ____ Store." That's because Chinese censorship policy will not allow the use of superlative hyperboles in advertising.

This got me thinking about all U.S. superlative hyperbolic claims in advertisement and branding. Superlatives are as American as apple pie. I mean let's take a quick look at a few:

Barnum & Bailey's would go from "The Greatest Show on Earth" becomes "A Show on Earth"

"Mission: Impossible" becomes "Mission: Difficult"

"CNN. The most trusted name in news." becomes "CNN. A trusted name in news."

All those claims of "the most powerful truck in its class," would have to be changed to the "a powerful truck in its class."

OK, time to get really dorky:

The legendary rock band, KISS could no longer open their show as "The hottest band in the world!" but "A hot band in the world!"

The Avengers would no longer be "Earth's Mightiest Heroes," but merely "Earth's Mighty Heroes"

Captain Marvel would no longer be "The World's Mightiest Mortal," but merely "A World's Mighty Mortal."

Anyway, I'm sure there are so many more. But this is all I can think of at this hour.

Oh yeah, one more: Muhammad Ali could no longer be "The Greatest of All Time," but perhaps "A Great One in Time." Or he would have to say, "I am not the Greatest!" What fun is that?!?

Picture's Worth a Few Words

2006-10-20T06:07:00.000+08:00

This evening, I decided to dump a few photos from my camera phone. I found a few G-rated enough to post and write a few words about. :P

This first pic's taken last Sunday from the 2nd Annual RockIt festival which features mostly local Hong Kong bands. It's quite telling that the picture shows an audience of mostly Caucasians. Rock music's just not that big here in HK. The locals live mostly on a steady diet of Cantopop and Taiwanese pop music which are steady, sugary, sweet and cavity-inducing staples at the karaoke clubs.

The festival also costs more than the average HK person would be willing to pay for music they don't really get or appreciate. I attended to meet Josh, the lead singer of the band in this picture. He's in the yellow T. While waiting for him to finish some interviews, I hung with my friend who shot the festival for a 3 min segment for her TV station. Josh and I spoke afterwards about the short film I'm working on. He freelances for Cartoon Network here and is interested in contributing to the soundtrack and possibly time as an editor. We spoke the same geek-speek about Star Wars and Transformers, so we got along quite dork-aliciously.

This next pic was snapped the night before at the HK's infamous party-central, Lan Kwai Fong. There was a street carnival, so the normally crowded street's of LKF were even more annoyingly crowded than usual. I was planning on keeping it a low key evening, but my friend who just happens to be a beautiful model/designer convinced me to go out. No, it wasn't the allure of meeting more of her beautiful model friends that got me out. She got me out by promising to discuss the designs for my film.

Yeah, she had to twist my arm. But I'm a slave to my film which is going way to slowly for my own taste these days. Work's been crazy-hectic, but I'm trying to move the film forward however I can.

Yeah! That's two entries this month. Doest that mean my blogging slump is kinda, sorta over?

Blogworthy

2006-10-05T01:51:00.000+08:00

It's been over a month since my last entry. It's not that there hasn't been anything blogworthy to write. It's just that life happens and it keeps you from blogging. But tonight, I had an experience that I think is worth taking a few minutes to chronicle.

Tonight I went to dinner with one of my Hong Kong celebrity friends. She introduced me to her Venture Capitalist boyfriend, a few HK film industry producers and a beautiful celebrity photographer. (The photographer looked like she belonged in front of the camera as opposed to behind it. But I digress.) This would normally be my element as I certainly have no problem conversing about film, photography, art and industry. But we spoke mostly in Cantonese and I still haven't mastered the art of industry and business conversation in Cantonese. So it wasn't nearly as good a time as I would have had if I were more fluent in Cantonese. I think I understood about 60% of the conversation.

Occasionally, I would look around the room whenever the conversation went too far beyond my Cantonese. On one such occasion, I saw someone familar in the reflection of the mirror by the neighboring table. I did one of those double takes you might see in a cartoon and said a little too loudly, "Holy shit! That's Peter Jackson!"

At first, no one at the table recognized him as they remember him being pudgy and wearing glasses from his Lord of the Rings days. But I recognized his thinner, lasik-eye-glassless new and improved self from all the King Kong publicity. One of the film producers then told me he was sitting next to Stanley Tong, a farily prolific Hong Kong director who has also directed a few Hollywood films.

Despite being a celebrity herself, my friend was wondering if she should get an autograph from Peter Jackson. But we didn't have to get up to greet anyone from that table as Stanley Tong recognized the photographer sitting to my right. He came over to our table to say, 'hi.' Apparently, they're old friends.

So there you have it. A blogworthy topic that got me out of my over one month blogless slump. No ground breaking observations or realizations. I just thought I wanted to write this down before I forget it happened.

'Til the next blogworthy moment, I bid thee adieu

Nasty Peeling Flesh!

2006-08-30T22:28:00.000+08:00

Tonight, I took a yoga class at my gym. I arrived a little late, nearly every spot in the room was taken, there were maybe 2 or 3 guys, the rest were women and the instructor was speaking calmly and almost soothingly to the class; the usual stuff. But then I noticed something a little peculiar.

I've taken yoga on/off for over 3 years now. All my instructors in the US (east and west coast) were usually Caucasian females. On occasion there was an African American or Asian American female. On rare occasion there was a male instructor. But never an Indian. Tonight was the first instructor I've had who was Indian.

So am I about to make a racist point about this? Hopefully not. I just thought it was rather peculiar that it took my coming to Hong Kong to have a yoga instructor that was ethnically Indian.

Even though yoga originated in India, race really shouldn't matter. It's all about the ability and routine of the instructor. So how was this guy? I really didn't care for his class. Aside from the more rushed pace (which I generally don't like for yoga) and the low intensity, he had us partner up for buddy stretches. Nothing wrong with that, except he had us do these barefoot-to-barefoot buddy stretches. My partner had nasty peeling flesh on her foot! And they smelled really bad too! I think she had athletes foot! So I carefully kept the balls of my foot as the only point of contact during our stretch.

All in all, It was the worst yoga experience I've ever had.

Eeeew! I think I need to wash my feet again.

Drinkin' it In

2006-08-12T00:38:00.000+08:00

Being a best man is a thankless job.

I just got back a few days ago from a wedding in California in which I served as best man. It was a lot of work! Managing 13 men on a Vegas weekend (like herding cats), MC-ing the wedding, preparing the slideshow, the speech and other duties was very draining. I'm sure it was a fraction of what the bride and groom had to go through, but boy was I drained! I'm tired just thinking about it!

I think karma came into play. Because nearly a decade ago, I was best man at my very, near and dear friend, Brian's wedding in which I had to do very little. I still feel a little guilty about that one, but I think in the karmic scheme of things, I've balanced things out a little with this one.

This picture, taken by a friend after the outdoor ceremony, sums up some my recent return to the US; Beautiful blue skies. Fresh air. Trying to sneak in a little time for self indulgement between all the activies. Drinking way too much alcohol during the week and trying to balance it (in vain) with a little water and exercise. Good friends!

During this trip, I also had promising meetings in Vegas and Vancouver. I recently read an article about how technology has made it very difficult for people take non-working vacations these days. I don't count this trip as a true vacation, but one of these days I'd like to take a business-free trip.

As I'm writing this, I'm still a little jett lagged. But I feel like I could use some real R&R soon. But alas, I'm back in HK and that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. More on that later...

Weekend Travel Trilogy

2006-07-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

After being on a roll with making several blog entries in a week, I went the other way and went an entire month without a a single entry. My excuse this time is a trilogy of weekend traveling.

It started three weekends ago when I realized that I've had my Wui Heung Jing card since April and haven't used it once. It seemed like such a waste to have this card which allows me unlimited entries into China without paying ridiculous American travel VISA prices. So I organized an overnight trip to Shenzen with some co-workers and a master student. Our first activity was dinner with Haibin, a former co-worker who lives and works in Shenzen now. Next, we ended up at a club called Cyber in Shenzen. Cyber's an infamous local club in HK. So when I saw Shenzen had one with a giant Star Trek-like flourescent spaceship in the front, I had to snap this picture. We ended up staying at a massage place that gives you a massage and then let's you sleep overnight. Given that we travelled with women, I was assured that this was a normal, safe place with no 'special' services. I've tried many sleep aids in my lifetime, but getting massaged to sleep has got to be one of the most bizarre ways I've fallen asleep.

The following week, my friend Aug from SF came to town. That weekend we went to Ghuanzhou to visit a few of his relatives. The same co-workers from the previous week came with us and we had a grand old time. A lot has changed since the last time I was there in 1993. When I was last there, I remembered dirty, dusty roads filled with an anarchy of mopeds and bicyles. Aug's cousin drove us around in her very nice new Jaguar and we saw what a modern city this place has become. We had some awesome noodles the first night, checked out the clubbing scene and shopped in an area with cool clothes by local designers. But strangely enough, one of the coolest places we went to was the fast food restaurant pictured here. Translated to English, the restaurant is named "Real Kung Fu" and Bruce Lee's image is everywhere. The staff wears a varation of Bruce Lee's yellow jumpsuit from "Game of Death" (Uma Thurman wears a homage to that jumpsuit in "Kill Bill") which I thought was so cool. When I asked the staff in broken Mandarin how I could get one, they all just looked at me funny. This chain has been around for a couple of years now and according to my HK co-workers the food was better than any Chinese fast food chain in HK.

Last weekend, I went to Singapore with Aug. During our first evening, we hit up a place one of those celebrity chefs from the US Food Network went to. That's where I snapped this picture with my camera phone. It felt very local and authentic and we somehow managed to get by with our broken Mandarin.

I've heard so many things about Singapore that I already had a preconceived notion of what it would be like. I imagined a very modern city with lots of modern conveniences, but not a lot of personality. Now that I've experienced it, I'd say that's only partially true. If you bother to venture out of the ultra modern, Western-like areas, Singapore does have an interesting flavor. For example, aside from the local cuisine from the first night, Aug and I also enjoyed the atmosphere and food of Little India. Luckily, several friends from HK were in town and showed us around the Singapore night life. All in all, it was a good time.

After, Singapore I returned to Kuala Lumpur for some business. I arrived during the last minutes of the final game of the World Cup. I snapped this shot in the hotel lobby which I thought summed up the atmosphere: Two bar girls passed out while a huge crowd was gathered outside for a street party. This is the first World Cup I've experienced outside of the US. Having followed it in HK, mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia, I finally experienced how big this thing is. The World Cup feels bigger than huge US sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Series combined. Yet Americans are barely even aware of its existence. I guess Americans aren't interested in championships where the rest of the world is involved...

So that was my weekend travel trilogy. I'll take a couple weekend breaks from travelling, before I head back to the Bay Area. Until then, I'm back to the hectic HK lifestyle.

Apple, iPod and China

2006-06-18T05:23:00.000+08:00

Last week, there was a lot of hub-bub in the Western media about how Apple's iPods are manufactured in horrendous slave-like conditions in Shenzen, China. To summarize a typical report: The average Chinese worker making an iPod in Shenzen makes about $50 USD a week and is forced to pay for housing provided by the factory. The conclusion and spirit of a CNN report was made in an interview of a Western economics analyst who said something to the affect of, "No wonder why they can manufacture things so much cheaper than anyone else. They don't pay fair wages!"

While I was living in the U.S. I would probably brush it off as typical bad Chinese behaviour and think, "How horrible the Chinese businesses and governments are to allow such exploitation." So now that I live here, do I think any differently? Maybe not entirely. But I do have another perspective now.

Shenzen is just across the border from Hong Kong. It's less than a half hour train ride from the university. I've been there once, but know people who live and visit it quite often. Shenzen is known to be a cheap city to eat, drink and shop in. $50 USD a week comes out to almost $1,600 RMB a month. I asked one of my co-workeres in HK about that rate and she said that sounds about the market rate for a factory worker in Shenzen. Is that a liveable wage in a city like Shenzen? I'm really not sure. But I do know the cost of living in Shenzen is significantly less than HK. For example, in a previous blog entry I wrote about how I had a huge meal, more than enough for 3 people, at a pretty nice Shenzen restaurant for $6 USD!

Now, I do believe those factory workers could be paid more and could probably be treated better. But the tone and implied conclusion of these reports irked me. On one hand the Western media and industry talk about the low and sometimes unfair Chinese wages and industry. On the other hand, I know how Western companies pressure Chinese companies to keep wages low. In fact, I've experienced this several times myself when bidding on Western contracts. When I quote a fair price far below Western rates, some Western companies often ask for even lower "Chinese prices."

So which is it? Raise Chinese wages or keep them low? At the university, I lecture on visual FX and animation, not economics. So I don't even pretend to know the answers. But I do know Apple isn't the only big Western company taking advantage of Chinese labor and the people here are trying to make a living and grow their industries. Things are a lot more complicated than the West often paints things. From my perspective, the tone and hypocrisy of the contradicting messages from the West can sometimes be more than a little frustrating!

The Bunker

2006-06-16T04:00:00.000+08:00

Before I was foolishly distracted by this stupid Mentos/Coke thing, I was planning to write about my experience this past Monday evening. What was so special about Monday? Late last week, Nury invited me to a dinner event which he described as a 'speaking gig' with 'powerful people.' This event took place Monday night.

Dinner was held at an old WWII bunker that has been converted into a 'living museum.' Before dinner began, a British expat gave us a brief history of this remarkable location. He told us we were in one of dozens of underground bunkers linked by a series of tunnels. These bunkers played a crucial role in the defense of HK during WWII. So when we toasted those who gave their lives using these bunkers in defense of HK, I felt a sense of gravitas and gratitude.

The rest of the evening was much more light and celebratory. I was indeed dining with some powerful people, as this event was for one of the world's largest and most influential PR agencies. The CEO was a gracious and affable host. He introduced Nury, who then proceeded to entertain the group with an entertaining and funny talk on the topic of creativity. As the CEO and Nury fired off joke after joke, I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated at the tough act I had to follow.

When Nury introduced me, I swallowed the nervous lump in my throat and began to speak. I can't pinpoint the exact moment in my life I became comfortable with public speaking, but I was quite thankful that I was that night. For despite being a little intimidated by following two great public speakers and being in a room of professionals who shape the public face of the world's largest organizations, I felt quite in my element. My talk appeared to be well received as I got a few compliments and pats on my back as I made my way back to to my table.

So there you have it. My first non-Mentos/Coke post in 3 days!

Mentos & Coke Laughing to Bank!

2006-06-15T10:54:00.000+08:00

OK, I've got my answer: According to ABC News, Mentos and Coke are laughing all the way to the bank with all this free publicity. There are at this point over 800 videos on the Internet of people doing this home brew experiment.

They had a scientist on the show to explain a few things:

* The large and uneven surface of a Mentos means more bubbles
* Diet sodas generally have more CO2 than normal sodas

That is among the several reasons this works. Oh and before I forget:

If you actually drink a diet Coke and have Mentos, you will not explode. But you will probably vomit. I haven't seen (nor do I want to see) this on the Internet, but I imagine someone's done this.

If this shows anything to me it demonstrates the power and phenomenon of YouTube.

OK, I think I'm really done with this topic now. Tune in next time for a dose of a non Mentos/Coke blog entry...

Ultimate Mentos & Diet Coke?

2006-06-14T09:10:00.000+08:00

There's been this buzz over the urban myth of Diet Coke and Mentos that is quite literally exploding and reaching critical mass. I just heard it mentioned in a CNN segment on YoutTube, which means it's now officially crossed over from Internet phenom into mainstream media.

I've read and heard about the buzz, but hadn't actually seen it. So I hopped over to Google video and found this clip:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1450915772177922792

Hmmm... looks like it isn't a myth. But that's merely one person. It could be faked. So I hopped over to YouTube and found a whole bunch of clips here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search=mentos+diet+coke&search_type=search_videos&search=Search

Take your pick. But several people have pretty much proved that it's true: Mentos and Diet Coke are and explosive combo!

Still not satisfied? Well here's a Pepsi variation of the theme:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8694244338798619086

And then finally, I don't think anything could top this one. (Feel free to prove me wrong) If you've seen the Bellagio fountain in Vegas, then you might think that this might give it a run for it's money:

http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html

So of course, all this linkxploration leads to a few mind boggling questions:

1) Is this good advertisement and PR for Coke, Pepsi or Mentos?
2) How would you deal with this if you were doing PR for Coke, Pepsi or Mentos?
3) Having seen what you've seen, would you drink a Diet Coke and have a few Mentos?
4) How many more variations of the theme will emerge (Pop Rocks & Coke anyone?) or has this phenom hit critical mass and will be so 5 minutes ago in 5 minutes?

OK, I've waisted enough brain cells on this inane topic. What silly times we live in.

Am I a Blog Addict?

2006-06-09T07:25:00.000+08:00

I'm really getting into this blog thing. Did I just write a silly and obvious sentence in my own blog? Possibly. Especially if I were writing about my own blog. But I'm not.

A couple of recent incidents sparked a desire to seek out and add as many friend's blogs to my bookmarks as I could. The result is a five fold increase in my bookmarked blogs. So strong was my calling, that my quest even led me to add a list 'o blog links to my blog. Don't worry, if you told me your blog is private or even semi-private, it won't be listed here. In the meantime, here's a quick run down of some blogs I frequent:

The Curious Diary of Mr. Jam
This is my colleague, Nury Vittachi's blog. Being HK's best selling English language novelist, Nury's a bit of a celebrity. I find his insights to life in HK and Asia to be well written and a pleasure to read.

Patrick James Coston Asian Adventures
My friend Pat obsessively documents everything in his personal Website and was even once interviewed by the New York Times Magazine about his obsession. He met his wife online and currently resides with her in Malaysia. This blog focuses exclusively on his experiences of living in a remote island in Malaysia.

Hey Christine!
Christine's been writing online diaries way before the term blog existed. Between Oriented, the organization she founded, and the longevity of her online chronicles, she has amassed quite an online following. She's also a bit of an evangelist for promoting yourself online and has convinced several of her friends (including yours truly) to blog.

Card Carrying Member
This blog belongs to a dear friend whom I've known since I was 8 years old. He currently is a an economics professor at the University of Maryland. This blog is filled with insights and comments from the left side of American politics. I can always count on Jonah's blog to give me some hardcore insights into what's really going on in the US.

Ask Chuck Hillig
I recently met Chuck in Malaysia through my boss, Gino. He and Gino met online and really hit it off when they met in Kuala Lumpur. Chuck has published 5 books on enlightenment and keeps a pretty detailed blog about his life as a retired psychotherapist.

So there you have it. With so many friends who keep such interesting blogs, I'm feeling a bit addicted to following their latest musings.

Back in the Swing of Things

2006-06-06T01:03:00.000+08:00

It is less than 24 hours after my return to Hong Kong from my trip to Malaysia, when I found myself in this strange field pictured to the left. Was I abducted? Did I get lost? Or was it all part of some sick, crazy delusional sleep walk? OK, let's tackle these questions one at a time:

1) Was I abducted? I was taken for a ride in a white van to this undisclosed location. But it was voluntary. So I'll have to say, "no, I wasn't abducted."

2) Did I get Lost? I had a vague idea where this van took me. But I certainly couldn't have gotten there myself. So I'll answer, "Yes, I was lost. But it wasn't my doing."

3) Was it some sick, crazy delusional sleep walk? Hmmm... I didn't leave that field until sometime after midnight. So I was in a dazed, near sleep walk state. But I'll answer, "no, it was not a delusional sleep walk."

Still haven't the foggiest where I was? That's ok, I wasn't exactly sure either, but I wasn't scared or nervous. I was rather excited because I was on location for a shoot on the first commercial HK film for which I'm serving as VFX Supervisor. I saw the entire principal cast in action. I was originally going to oversee two shots, but the director cut the FX from the scene with the lead actor and actress. So I was there for hours only to supervise one shot. I probably went overkill in terms of documenting the set. But if I was going to be on location for hours, I was going to make the most of that one shot. Besides, the director said this shot is a crucial part of the film, so that's why I played it coonservatively and recorded as much as I could.

For rather obvious reasons, I'm not going to write any specifics about this film. But here's a quick list of non-specific highlights that shouldn't get me in trouble:

* It is starring a well known and respected HK male star.
* The DP was really experienced and seemed to be getting some great shots.
* The DP and producer were very nice and supportive of my colleague and me.
* It rained on and off the entire night, but it worked out because the scenes called for rain.

So there you have it. My first commercial on location film shoot in HK. I'm back in the HK swing of things baby!

Manglish & More

2006-06-01T02:49:00.000+08:00

I got back on Sunday from my trip to Malaysia. I had an incredible experience and an awesome time. I met so many great people and took over 100 pictures. After trying to figure out which ones to put in my blog, I decided to start with this one taken from the Malaysian Twin Towers. Security was very tight even when compared to any post 9/11 NYC building. But once up there, I thought the view was spectacular. I think this particular picture was taken from the office of a video game company that I visited. The founder is from Sacramento, CA, USA of all places! He's been in Malaysia for over 7 years. When I asked him why he decided to setup and settle down in Malaysia, he said it reminds him of California in the 70's. I was never in California in the 70's, but it sure didn't remind me of California in the 90's!

The Malaysia that I saw was a very interesting place. My first thought is that it felt like a slightly more developed and cleaner version of Thailand. The people are friendly like Thais, are generally darker skinned, the climate is warm, and the food is delicious and cheap. The people I met were also quite fluent in English and at least 2 or 3 other languages. I was surprised to find that many of them speak better English and Mandarin than most people in a former British colony like Hong Kong! In addition to English and Mandarin, many of them speak Cantonese and Malay fluently as well. They also speak a mangled, Malay, slang version of English called Manglish. Apparently Manglish speakers can communicate fairly well with Singlish (Singapore's version of English) speakers even though they are quite different. I've never been to S'pore either. But I learned of a love/hate relationship the two countries share among so many other things. I usually research a place before I travel there, but I just didn't have the time this time around.

There's so much more I could write about my incredible week in Malaysia, but it's late so I'll save it for another entry.

The pace in Malaysia was slower than HK. Once I got back to Hong Kong the pace picked up almost immediately. It must be the air in HK or something. As soon as I got home I felt that I was right back in the thick of it. More on that possibly in my next blog entry.

Look! I'm directing!

2006-05-09T23:54:00.000+08:00

Today marked the first day of directing my first film. It's a short film that is really a vehicle to research and push some techniques and technology, but nontheless it is a film that I wrote, am directing, art directing and VFX supervising as well.

Looking back at the day through pictures one of my students took; I realize that it was a blast! We had so many people (students, friends, friends-of-friends, etc.) who volunteered. There were also univserity pros with decades of experience. Overall, it was an amazingly positive and supportive environment.

As expected in HK, we packed as much as we could into our studio time and accomplished far more than we set out to do. As the crew set up, I met with the director, producer, and cameraman of another film I'm VFX supervising which we just signed onto. My coworker Pierre also shot us working for a reel we're putting together for a venture MERECL is helping to launch. I originally set out to shoot 7 shots with 1 actor and instead ended up shooting 12 shots with 2 actors! If the footage turns out well, it was not a bad first day.

I can't help but feel a little giddy about the day I just had!

My Global Media Sunday

2006-05-01T01:33:00.000+08:00

My Sunday started with a morning meeting. I met with a director to discuss his next possible feature film's design and how it might be funded. The budget is tiny by US standards, but in today's HK film industry it is unlikely that the funding will be local. I understand this is how Hong Kong's most internationally critically acclaimed film maker, Wong Kar Wai gets his films funded. Given his international success, I really don't mind following in his footsteps!

The next thing I did was meet with a friend who introduced me to a store with American comics! American comics are the first medium I fell in love with. Today's comics are written by successful novelists, film makers and TV show pros who share the same love of these characters that I do. Therefore, today's best comics often have a greater level of sophisticated storytelling while retaining the great heroic nature of these characters. Of course, the men-in-tights comics are no longer niche subjects but are often the subject of today's biggest blockbuster movies.

Yep, summer blockbuster season is nearly upon us and this will be my first time experiencing it in HK. It seems a little strange watching US blockbusters in HK. But it's also nothing new. US blockbusters have always had a very big presence here and around the world.

What's very wow-and-now are Webcasts and Podcasts I follow daily. With today's technology, it is quite possible to not watch or listen to any local media. In fact, that's what many of the expats do here. It's almost like they're living in HK without really living in HK. But that's a subject for another blog.

Next up, I met with a master student on Sunday to advise him on his paper about the globalization of the visual FX industry. I have first hand experience with this in a Chinese film I worked on in the US. But more interesting to me is how the FX industry has and will continue to become more international in scope and production. I believe just as India has led the IT outsource revolution, it could do so with FX as well. Afterall, India has the 2nd largest film industry in the world. HK's film industry, once the world's 3rd largest, must succeed on an international level if it is to survive.

I finished my Sunday by working on my own short film project which seems to be gaining more North American volunteers every day! I kind of see it as my own little
local experiment in a globally minded, digital film production. In other words; it's my own little way of practicing what I preach!

So that was my global media Sunday. One of these days I'll have to do a lazy Sunday...

Tri-lingual (sort of)

2006-04-29T20:55:00.000+08:00

On Friday, I experienced my first Hong Kong press conference that didn't have anything do with the entertainment industry. Because Gino's been in the US for the past month, I sat in for him as a judge for a Hong Kong Observatory weather icon contest. Friday was the official unveiling of the winners in front of the press.

This was the first press con in which I actually had a moment in the spotlight with TV and newspaper cameraman snapping pictures of me. I couldn't help but think to myself, 'self, you'll have to ask one of your model, actor, or director friends how they handle so many camera flashes going off in their faces.' It is so blinding and distracting!

While most of the conference was in Cantonese, a Chinese reporter from the South China Morning Post interviewed me and several other people in English. As the Cantonese dialect is not spoken by a majority of mainlanders, it's not uncommon for Chinese from the mainland to communicate with the Chinese here in English. That event and two others that day made me think about how people in Hong Kong have increasing pressure to be trilingual. At least sort of. Mainland Chinese is written and spoken very differently from Hong Kong Chinese. It's almost an entirely different language!

So what were the other two 'trilingual-themed' events that day?

1) Two interviews: I participated in interviewing two candidates for a position with MERECL. They spoke Cantonese, but then were obligated to also answer questions in Mandarin and English. Sheesh! I certainly would have failed that interview!

2) "Heavenly Kings" movie: This an interesting new HK movie which lampooned the HK entertainment industry while making some good observations about the current sad state of the industry. There were many things about the film that made me sit up and take notice. But among the most intriging is how each of the 4 lead male actors are overseas Chinese who were either born and raised elsewhere or were educated overseas. They all spoke perfect unbroken English and most of them had accented Mandarin and Cantonese. For all these reasons, I found the movie to be as enlightening as it was entertaining.

So there you have it: We poor Hongkies have to be trilingual to survive and thrive! I'm so screwed!! ;P

The Dichotomous Nature of Children's Dreams

2006-04-27T00:13:00.000+08:00

I had a dichotomous day.

The morning was spent talking about a child's dream sequence in a project I really would like to VFX supe. The director is heavily influenced by some very cool, but dark material. I've been studying Dave McKean's art, Marylyn Manson's videos and digging up my favoriate Nine Inch Nails songs for ideas. On the surface it seems to be the stuff of nightmares, but I see it as a post-modern Grimm's Fairy Tale dream sequence.

By contrast, this afternoon was spent with a major global, corporation in which we essentially talked about hocking products to children and families. On the surface, this was much more pleasant and the art direction would lean toward the bright colored, saccharine, commercial goodness side of things.

So was the afternoon or evening the true nightmare?

If I were an eloquent writer, I'd close my blog with that semi-rhetorical question. But I ain't no eloquent writer nor am I even close to an elegant writer, so I'll answer: I'm more excited about the morning meeting. After pursuing and working on many commercial projects in which I'm supposed to sell something, I'm excited as hell for the opportunity to tackle something that is essentially a short art film on a topic that I feel very close to. That topic would be children's dreams.

From my childhood to this very evening, I've been blessed/cursed with insomnia. Sometimes it's not being able to shut off my mind and other times it's the subconcious playing tricks on me. It's not that I have nightmares very often, but I often have dreams that ride that delicate (and delicious) border between sweetness and nightmares. Not good for sleeping, but great for imagination and creativity. Should his producers give me the greenlight on this film, the director told me to unleash my creativity. That type of direction is the stuff with which my dreams are made of!

Sweet dreams indeed...

Everything is Everything

2006-04-25T01:05:00.000+08:00

I just had a very full weekend where everything seemed to fit together. I worked with master students on their projects, I met with friends @ CNN International, I met a new film director about his new film and I coordinated a meeting between a VC and my colleague. Tonight I just had a conference call with a fellow Asian American and a Canadian American about a short film we're working on together. It was a little strange and surreal to be collaborating with North American English speaking people on this side of the world. But oddly enough, it also seemed to make sense and felt quite natural. North Americans working together in Hong Kong? Nothing strange about that.

On a practical level, all these projects and events interconnect in some way. On a broad visionary level, all of these events relate to the reasons I moved out here; To expand the boundaries of what is possible with digital media, to spark something new and exciting and to make a difference.

Without getting into details that could jeapoardize some of these projects, I'll just say it feels like everything is very interelated at this moment. Sure my life is extremely hectic, busy and full, but it also feels a little zen-like. Or to borrow a song title from Grammy winning artist, Lauryn Hill; Everything is Everything.

If that's all a little too psychedelic or corporate-manufactured-self-help-like: Too bad. It's late and that's just the state I'm in right now!

I'm a Hongkie!!!

2006-04-15T10:43:00.000+08:00

After 6 months of living in Hong Kong, I am now officially a permanent resident of Hong Kong.

I just picked up my Hong Kong smart id card last week. While visions of Big Brother have popped in my head when thinking about the chip in the card, it does seem to make things easier. For example, coming into and out of Hong Kong appears to be as simple as swiping your card and reading your thumb print.

I still need to get a Hong Kong passport and a China pass called a "Wui Hueng Jing" (sp) so I can go into and out of China without paying the crazy US Visa fees. But I pretty much am free to come and go as I please into Hong Kong to work as long as I like. Yep, to borrow a term I've read in some Hong Kong movie sub-titles; I'm now officially a Hongkie!

Isabella @ the HKIFF

2006-04-06T07:22:00.000+08:00

Last night I attended a screening of "Isabella" at the Hong Kong International Festival. In attendance was the director, Pang Ho-Cheung, lead actor, Chapman To, lead actress Isabella Leung, and Peter Kam, who won the prestigious Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for the film score.

Most people in the world probably don't know who Pang is. In fact, until I met Pang and his wife, Subi at the 2005 HK Entertainment Expo last year I had no idea who he was. But I have a feeling with a little bit of the right promotion and luck, Pang may be recognized as one of the great new directors of this region.

After years of HK films dropping in prestige and box office draw (due to the lack of quality, repetition and the rise of Korean media), Pang is considered a great hope of HK's film industry. To date his films have been comedies with a very local flavor. His latest film is a local drama that represents a very new and exciting direction for him. I have always respected people, and especially artists, who are willing to try new things and push beyond their comfort zone. By doing so they risk failure and embarrassment, but they also have a great a chance for reward in the form of growth and success. With Isabella, I believe Pang has achieved the latter.

Simply put, this is a very good, perhaps bordering on a great film. Like wine, I think it takes time, age and perspective to see if a film is truly great. So only time will tell. But at this moment, I know that I enjoyed Isabella on many levels. First of all, as a visual artist, I loved the cinematography. There is not much new or innovative in the cinematography, but there are frames of this picture that are beautiful works of art. I loved that Pang let the photography, music and moment sit there and unfold without the manic cuts that are so rampant in even many of today's dramas.

As a budding screenplay writer and filmmaker, I also appreciated the script. Pitting this tale against the backdrop of Macau's handover from Portugal back to China gives it a flavor and texture that is unique to Macau. It also mirror's and provides a slight metaphor for the two main characters’ relationship. I have never been to Macau and know little about its history. But this film gave me a glance at some very interesting aspects of Macau's personality. I can't wait to visit.

I also enjoyed the subtle moments in the film between the two main characters. These are the moments where what is said on screen is often less important than what is felt, implied or acted upon by the actors on the screen.

So that brings us to the music. It is a very good, powerful and touching score. George Lucas has said that sound and music is half the movie-going experience. The importance of the score to this film cannot be overstated. It gives the film half of its mood and personality. So I can certainly understand why this score won the Silver Bear for the score. There are times that the score truly enhances the somber mood and atmosphere of the film. But I felt that the score at times didn't reflect some of the lighter moments of the film. Isabella is a film about change, reflection, sentimentality and ultimately responsibility. But peppered throughout Isabella's poignant moments of a daughter searching for something, a policeman dealing with the consequences his past and Macau feeling the foreboding weight of the world's largest Communist nation bearing down upon her; Pang fits in his characteristic humor and lighter moments. In other words, he gives us depth and humanity. That is the true beauty of Isabella and perhaps that is where the score sometimes fails Pang’s wonderful story and vision.

So in case you haven't figured it out yet; I liked the film. Check it out at a film festival near you!

I'm a Baaaad Blogger!

2006-04-02T15:24:00.000+08:00

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.

"My Chinese Is Getting Worse"

2006-02-22T17:44:00.000+08:00

Since I've been in HK, I try to speak Chinese as much as I can. It can be frustrating because I just don't have the vocabulary to articulate what I want to say in terms of meetings, world events or the arts. However, my Chinese has improved significantly and I continue to learn new key words every week. My recent Cantonese vocab includes:

Information = jee liu
Chance = gei wui
Philosophy = jeet hok
Pay Rent = gau jo

Recent Mandarin vocab includes:

How's it going? = Zen Mo yang?
(a few dirty phrases)

While my Chinese is improving, I have had several friends recently tell me that their Chinese has gotten worse since they've known me. They're Chinese is becoming slow and broken around me and they tend to use simpler vocabulary. One of my friends has decided to try only speaking English with me so that she can at least improve her English while I try to improve my Chinese. Unfortunately, the result is a conversation in broken Enlglish and broken Chinese which often means for v-e-r-y sloooooow and frustrating conversations. Eventually, one of us breaks down and reverts back to the language we're most comfortable with.

Ahhhh... life as an illiterate who can barely speak. Priceless!

Blogging is Hard

2006-02-16T09:31:00.000+08:00

It's been over a month since my last entry. Between the holidays, fighting a cough for nearly a month, travelling to both US coasts and now getting back into the swing of things; I just haven't had the time or desire to write an entry.

Now that I've been blogging regularly for a few months, I've found that writing regular, interesting blog entries can be challenging. Is it better to write a bunch of quick, short entries or wait until I've got something to say and think about how I'm going to say it?

A topic that I've been itching to write about is what the Western media has labeled the 'cartoon protests.' Beyond the surface there are so many deep issues playing out here. No matter where you stand on this issue, I think it's safe to say that the Muslim violence that has spread to all manner of non-Islamic symbols and properties points to far deeper wounds and issues that have been around quite some time. This is no longer just extremist Muslim's against the West. It is a reflection of the state of our world.

IMHO, reflecting and interpreting the world around you is often the job of an artist. As an artist, I would be both flattered and horrified to see my work generate such a reaction. I really believe that one of the lessons to be learned from this by the Western media can be summed up by paraphrasing one of our greatest modern, mythmakers: With great power and freedoms comes great responsibility.

'Nuff said (for this blog entry at least)

What I Miss

2006-01-04T08:06:00.000+08:00

Wow! This is the biggest gap from when I started writing my post and then actually making it live. I started this on the 4th but only got back to it today, the 21st.

I've had a very full schedule since my last complete post. Of course work takes up most of my time here. But that's ok, 'cause for the most part I enjoy it. During the first week of the new year I taught my first workshop at PolyU. I was a little nervous, but was happy to receive mostly positive evaluations from the students. From 1 to 5 (5 being highest) I had 2 students who gave me all 5's and the rest averaged around 4. Certainly there's room for improvement, but overall it went well.

I also spent the last two weeks preparing for two meetings with a toy company and a movie studio. Very exciting possibilities are developing here which I won't get into (I don't want to jinx them). But I was very happy with how well the PolyU staff and students rallied to help me put together the presentations. The two companies were very impressed and appreciative of what we showed them. I took out a bunch of staff and students for drinks yesterday to thank them for a job well done.

I have so much to get done before I head back to the US next week. But as much I love it here, I have to admit to being excited about returning to the US. During the first week of the New Year I remember listening to Ebert & Roeper's top movies of 2005. Both of them had "Syriana" and "Crash" in their top two. I saw Crash but I'm dying to watch Syriana. That made me think about how much I miss being able to add movies to my Netflix queue. So that got me thinking about what I miss and look forward to when I get back the the US. So in no particular order, here's a list:

Things I miss about the US:

1) Friends: I have met and bonded with so many very cool people since I've been out here. But I'm really looking forward to catching up with some very good friends in the US. I'm very excited to go back to the East Coast which I haven't been to in nearly 2 years. I can't wait to catch up with so many people in SF!

2) Netflix: I miss being able to conveniently watch as many high quality DVD films, documentaries and TV shows as time would allow. The only way to catch some of this stuff here is through pirated media; which is not the most convenient or consistent in quality.

2) Tivo: I don't watch much TV out here. Surprisingly, I don't really miss it much. But I do miss having the convenience of watching shows anytime I want or the simple ability to stop and rewinde live TV. However, I really don't feel out of touch with the US media. Through podcasts, Websites and blogs I feel very on top of things in the US. From the SNL Lazy Sunday bit to O'Reilly's spat with Letterman and all the corruption of the Bush administration coming into the spotlight, I don't feel like I'm missing much.

3) Space: Everything is so compact here. Having a little more elbow room will be nice.

4) Fresh Air: Ahhhh, sweet fresh air. I've been sick several times since arriving in HK. Many foreigners say they had a tough time adapting to the air quality here. Eventually, they did. But I do miss the fresh mountain air where I did so much hiking. I'd definitely like to fit in a few outdoor runs and a mountain bike ride when I get back to SF.

5) Food: HK residents are proud of the international culture and cuisine in HK. But there are some things I'm looking forward to eating and drinking when I get back to the US. When I'm in NYC, I can't wait to get a few slices of the best damn pizza in the world! I also look forward to the best chain coffee in the world: Dunkin' Donuts! When I get to SF, I'm gonna have a Mission St. Mexican Burrito! I also have to stop by my favoriate SF jazz club for some Ethiopian food with my jazz.

6) Reading, writing and talking: I'm illiterate here. My spoken Chinese Cantonese has improved. But it takes quite a bit of effort to communicate and my vocabularly is not good enough to have deep business or intellectual conversations. It will be nice to give the new language part of my brain a little rest.

The above might might seem like a lot of things. But overall, I'm still lovin' it out here. But ready or not America; Here I come!

A New Year!

2006-01-02T02:02:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! Last night I rang in 2006 in Hong Kong. It wasn't my first New Years Eve in HK, but it was far better than my first one from 15 years ago in which I spent it in the bed of a hotel room. We went to a jazz club at the swanky Shangri-La Hotel and it was a swinging good time. But for me it doesn't get much better than ringing in the New Year with my favorite genre of music surrounded by good friends and lots of free flowing alcohol!

If anything, it may have been a little too good a time as I probably had a few too many martini's. I don't really believe in New Year Resolutions; as I read somewhere a long time ago that most resolutions aren't kept. But I do believe in setting goals. I've got many of them which I think are quite achievable out here in HK, China and Asia which is a major reason why I'm out here. But in order to achieve them, I think I'll need to hunker down a bit. Which I think means, a little less partying. So if I were to believe in resolutions; I resolve to continue to work hard and play hard, but I'm gonna try to explore other forms of play other than just the bar and club scene. Luckily, I've met many wonderful people out here who are willing to show me around some of the other things HK has to offer such local museums and hiking paths.

So here's to a wonderful, productive, happy and healthy New Year to all my friends here and in the US!

The End of a Year

2005-12-31T07:32:00.000+08:00

Up until now, I've been pretty good about updating my blog at least once or twice a week. So what happened? It's been over two weeks since my last blog entry. Simply put; I've been busy. So busy that I missed that last days of the WTO. I did manage to snap this picture of the fully assembled sculpture. It was nice to see this put together after seeing it in various stages of assembly. I found this image of starving Africans balanced with one cow against the backdrop of modern Hong Kong to be a very interesting image. It's got great contrast, balance and a strong message. (Almost sounds like settings on a TV).

So what'd I miss? Oh not much. Just many Koreans jumping into the Hong Kong harbor in protest and trying to swim to the WTO meeting. I heard they got sick from the polluted Hong Kong waters afterwards. There was also the siege of Wanchai (the neighboring disctrict that's about a 10 minute walk from me). One of my friends participated in the siege and said it was great fun. The Korean farmers were really nice and gave him a mask and goggles (kind of a makeshift protester riot gear) and he taunted the police as they tear gassed him and the protesters. While he was playing with the police and protesters, his wife waited nervously at home! I heard from another friend the final day was very peaceful. She told me the Korean farmers made peace with the police and danced in the streets with them on the last night of the protests.

How the heck did I miss all this fun? Well, I took my first trip into China since I've arrived in Hong Kong. I went to Shenzen to visit an animation studio. Since I spent all that money on a single-entry Visa, I decided to stay through the weekend. It was an awesome experience. But the most memorable thing about the trip for me was the food. It was good and cheap. My former coworker has been officialy dubbed "The Restaurant Hunter" and brought me to the most amazing places. For about $6 USD you could feed 3 people. The food was amazing. It was so colorful, flavorful and spicy! This shot was the first of many meals I had there. Every dish rocked! My favorite in this meal are the barely pictured bowls of noodles that cost about 60 US cents. I'm lucky to have my friend show me around, because Shenzen is known to be the second most crime-ridden city in China. There are many horror stories of people getting knocked out on the street or attacked by gangs in public bathrooms to get your ATM card. Luckily, I left with only good experiences. In fact, I left with a final, pleasant experience waiting in the immigration line to return to Hong Kong. I bumped into "Roller Girl" who I met at a Halloween party. What a small world! Because the prices are so much cheaper there, she was in Shenzen to do some Christmas shopping.

So that was my business/pleasure trip into China. Work has been quite hectic. I did a talk at a digital entertainment conference last week. Next week I will be teaching my first class; a 2 day workshop. I'm nervous about it as I haven't had much time to focus on preparing for it. I've just got so many other projects I'm juggling at the moment. So I'm trying to be efficient about it. For example, yesterday I filmed a blue screen test with some students which I hope to use in the workshop and also for a film project I'm developing with a local director. The old two birds w/ one stone, yet I'm still overwhelemed with too much to do!

So here I am in Hong Kong at the end of year. I started 2005 in San Fran and recall thinking to myself; "'self you've got to make a change this year." So I guess I succeeded in that regard. It's been a hell of a year. But I have to say that the first two and a half months I've been here stand out as the highlight. Incidentally, this isn't my first New Years Eve here. I was here almost 15 years ago with my mom and brother. That time, my mom took off to celebrate and left my brother and me in a hotel room where we almost slept through New Years Eve. That sure as hell ain't gonna happen this time! I've got a full day ahead of me and an even fuller evening planned. I'm pretty sure it'll be several days until my next blog entry as I'll need a few days to recover from tonight.

Until next year; I wish all my friends and family a very Happy New Year!

An Interesting Place and Time

2005-12-13T06:44:00.000+08:00

Tonight, I took off from work earlier than I had planned to. That's because my coworkers checked out traffic conditions and told me things looked scary due to the WTO. The Webcams showed HK streets and highways that were empty. HK is a city that really never sleeps. There's always traffic of some sort, so it was a surreal image to see. It was something out of a sci-fi/horror day after type of movie. So I took off 'early' (7:30pm) to allow for traffic time.

It wasn't very bad at all. I got home in the usual time. But when I got home, I saw many police officers in the street right by my apartment. I didn't see any protesters and the streets were pretty empty. I thought that perhaps HK might be overreacting. Afterall, don't protesters go home late at night too?

After dinner, I grabbed my camera and headed to the park to see what 'award-winning shots' I could snap up of the anti-WTO activities. Then I saw the real reason why the cops were blocking the street. This next picture pretty much says it all. I guess someone was about to jump or perhaps this was some WTO protest stunt? I don't know, but I thought to myself: "Self, you really live in an intersting place at an interesting time."

I mean, just last week I witnessed the pro-democracy march going through my neighborhood. This week I'm seeing the parts of the anti-WTO movement. Then I see this image tonight on the street I walk on everyday! What's next? Well, keep reading...

Quite a crowd had gathered to look up at what that giant cushion was setup for. But unlike Hollywood movies, there was no dramatic spotlight on any jumper. A crowd had gathered (of which I was now a member of) on th street and foot bridge where I took the shot of the firetrucks and giant cushion thingy (i don't know what the official name of that is).
Everyone was looking up and focused on the top of the building by this cushion thingy. No one could really see anything and there was a lot of speculation going on. So being the artsy-fartsy person that I am, I thought it would be intersting to snap a few shots of the people looking and taking pictures of the spectacle. The results includes this next shot which is my absolute favorite shot that I've taken since coming to Asia. I love the colors and composition. If only I had a SLR camera w/ fishbowl or wide angle lens and a tripod. But it ain't half bad for a point and shoot with a few manual settings; if I say so myself.

So enough self lauding. This all happened on my way to the park. The park by contrast seemed anti-climactic. But was nontheless quite interesting. The WTO talks start tomorrow, so it looks like people are still setting up here. Tonight, there were many colorful tents setup all over the park, which gave the park a very carnival-like appearance. It's too bad I have to go to work tomorrow. It looks like a very festive environment. That is other than the increased security. Last night police were walking around in groups of three. Tonight, I saw them patrolling in groups of four. And I just heard on BBC World that 1/3 of the HK police force is dedicated to WTO related activities.

Tonight, I also saw what those emaciated statues I saw last will be used for. They're part of a sculpture series that makes a point about the unfairness of farm subsides. At least one group of them will be used in a large scale with a cow on one side outweighing 6 starving human beings on the other side of the scale. While not obvious by what I saw, I received a pamphlet with a picture of the sculpture in it's final form. For this piece, they adapt a quote from George Orwell's "Animal Farm" in the pamphlet:

All people are equal but some people are more equal than others.

I was going to end this entry with that quote, but then I just saw these sculptures on BBC World. Is it synchronicity, coincidence, and/or surreal? I don't know. It's late, I'm tired and I'm heading to bed now. An interesting time and place, indeed.

WTO Prologue

2005-12-12T00:27:00.000+08:00

After a very rough week, I needed a break. So tonight I took my break of choice; A late night walk through Victoria Park. Upon approaching the park I noticed 3 police officers at the park's entrance. There were many other groups of 3 police officers patrolling the park. There were also many park workers, stages and signs written in 5 or 6 languages spread all over the park. It appears the local Pro-Democracy demonstrations may have been a dress rehearsal for the WTO this week.

I have to admit that I expecteded to see something as a friend told me that Victoria Park will be packed with WTO protesters this week. So I brought my camera for some shots. While not a great shot, I thought this first one I took right outside of the park looked kind of like cops from a Sci-Fi show.

On the main lawn I saw this stage with sort of a bullet point list of issues. Most of them having to do with immigrant and labor rights which ultimately came to the conclusion that there shold be no WTO agreement. If their point is to cause the WTO talks to fail, then I'm not sure this gathering is necessary. From what I understand, the talks have been failing. It's so hard to get a couple of countries to sign a trade agreement, that difficulty is obvioulsy multiplied several times over when it involves over 149 nations. So in all liklihood, these talks will fail unless there is a plan B of some sort. I hope that plan B represents some views from the protesters.

I do think it is good that all these people will gather here (and around the world) to represent and stand up for the common laborer. The commodification and exploitation of the common laborer by those in power (namely multinational corporations and governments) is a trend that has existed for far too long. I don't think it will end in my lifetime, but it is worth bringing these issues up while the world spotlight is on Hong Kong.

The protesters don't have nearly the money and resources that the multinationals and governments do, but they do have passion, compassion and creativity. Tonight, I snapped a picture of these statues of emaciated, starving human beings lined up in a row. I'm not sure how they'll be used this week, but their imagery says a lot to me about what these people will be speaking against.

The WTO and their protesters are dealing with issues that are very complex, with so many layers. There are no easy solutions. But unlike the pro-democracy march in the previous week; these are issues that I can not avoid. Gino is sending me to China to talk to a few animation studios. Their obvious advantage is their low cost of labor. Since coming to Hong Kong, I've met several western digital entertainment executives who have come to Asia to explore the low cost labor opportunties. As I meet and help shape relationships between Eastern and Western companies, I will seek the best win-win deal for all those involved. But I believe I will bring with me to these meetings, the images, sounds and ideas that will be presented this upcoming week in Hong Kong.

The March of Democracy

2005-12-05T06:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I went to a Shanghai-style dim sum restaurant at Lee Gardens in Causeway Bay. It was the best dim sum I've had in Hong Kong yet! Content and full, I began a leisurely stroll back home.

The streets of Causeway Bay are usually extremely crowded on Sundays, because many maids who have the day off just hang out in the streets. So it seemed quite normal as I approached Victoria Park to see a very dense crowd gathered. But as I passed the park on the way home, I encountered an extremely large crowd congesting the main street by my home. This picture is what I saw from my street.

I couldn't read 95% of the signs as they were written in Chinese (I'm a Chinese illiterate), but then I saw one that read something to the affect of "6 billion people want to leave the communist party!" D'uh! This was obviously a pro-democracy march.

I have seen many large demonstrations in San Francisco. None of them even approached the size of this one. It was an amazing event to witness. As I snapped picture after picture, I was at first just excited to be witnesesing my first pro-democracy event in Hong Kong. But then I couldn't help but feel the energy. Yes, there was passion and even some anger in the crowd. But overall, there was electricty in the air. The marchers were all very peaceful and for a crowd of this size extremely well behaved.

The authorities were obviously expecting a march as there were dividers in the street to guide the crowd. This picture was taken at a foot bridge down the street from me. Despite such a large crowd, a lot of public transportation could still move down the street. I later read that no one expected the crowd to be this big. The police estimated the crowd to be 64,000 in size, but the march organizers estimated over 250,000 attendees. I've been to many stadium concerts and I've been to a Central Park concert in NYC where an estimated 250,000 people gathered on the Great Lawn. I believe the marchers ' estimate was closer to reality.

I make it a point not to get involved in local politics until I undestand the local POV and local issues. So I behaved as a mere observer. But I couldn't help but wonder if I was witnessing something historical. Does this happen often and will this mean anything in the long-term? I don't know, but I later read that there have been many marches in the past few years, but this was the first that focused only on democracy and universal suffrage.

This would obviously never fly in the mainland. The world press says there has been no coverage of this in the China's Chinese language press and the English language Chinese press merely say a few thousand people gathered to protest the Hong Kong governor. To say that was not even a half truth would be an understatement. This type of censorship is nothing new in China. But as Bob Dylan wrote, "The Times are a Changin'"

Today, China has to deal with the Internet. China has effectively censored the Internet from the masses. But for the tech savvy, there are easy ways around that. For the masses there are an explosion of blogs where millions of Chinese are expressing themselves. Many blogs cleverly use tongue and cheek humor to make observations and even criticsms. Finally, there are an enormous number of mainlanders who travel relatively freely into and out of Hong Kong. Try as the communist government may, they can't erase the memories of mainlanders who witness the free media and the hundreds of thousands who participated in the march of democracy.

Certainly there is much to think about here. But one quote came strongly to my mind. It is from an upcoming movie, based on one of my favorite graphic novels of all time, V for Vendetta:

"People should not be afraid of their governments; Governments should be afraid of their people."

Oh What a Beautiful Evening

2005-12-01T03:06:00.000+08:00

Today, I worked a full day @ Cyberport with over 15 other people in the office. That's the most people I've seen in the new office since we've moved in. This group represents one of the first companies to be incubated at MERECL. They are really cooking and are on the verge of landing another project.

I stayed at the office until 9:30 pm and took this picture from the balcony. Hong Kong lights up like a Christmas tree at night and this secluded area of Hong Kong is no different. The blue lit building is Cyberport 3, E Core which is where MERECL is. The 3 story buildings in the center and right are very expensive houses that I'm told cost about $10 million USD each!

Hong Kong really gets into the Christmas decorative mood (even though I think most people here are Buddhist) and I'm seeing all sorts of huge decorations pop up. Some of them border on cheesy. Believe it or not I think the only holiday decorations in this picture are the lights on the top of the luxury apartment walls. Everything else is exactly how it looks and feels every night. Well, at least for the winter. The air is very cool and there's a very pleasant breeze blowing in from the bay.

As I left the office, looked at the beatiful harbor view and felt the cool breeze on my face, I thought to myself: I really enjoy working here!

A Week in the Life: Nov. 2005

2005-11-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

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!

2005-11-20T21:20:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-17T01:05:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-16T07:22:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-12T21:33:00.000+08:00

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

2005-11-08T01:22:00.000+08:00

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!

2005-11-03T22:16:00.000+08:00

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.

HK Halloween & Sulu is Gay?!?

2005-10-31T20:42:00.000+08:00

It's my first Halloween in HK! I went to two Halloween parties this weekend with the same costume. I rented a hat, bought a mask and wore black; tada! Instant Kato, butt-kicking partner of the Green Hornet! Interestingly enough, most people had no idea who I was. I'd say everyone knows who Bruce Lee was, but only a very small group knew I was Bruce Lee as Kato. Oh well, at least one really cool woman knew who I was. Her name was Alethia (very cool name for a very cool local journalist) and she practically screamed "Kato!" when she saw me in my costume. That's good in enough for me. :D

The first party was an industry networking event, to which my guest and I arrived late to. We still met some interesting folk from Eurosports, Celestial Pictures, InvestHK and a mobile video startup. The next night the party was at a place called Red at IFC1. That's where I bumped into "roller girl" (see pic on left) who also happened to be at the industry party the previous night. We didn't bump into each other until the second party, but it kind of illustrates how small HK can be.

Roller Girl's actual name is Kelly and she grew up in Vancouver. She does marketing for CNN World here in HK. We're planning to do a power lunch this week to discuss the media, marketing and who knows what else. So I'm still quite happy meeting cool media and marketing people here in HK!

Just before I went to that first party on Friday, I found out that George "Mr. Sulu" Takei came out! No freakin' way! Not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but he was one of the few positive Asian American male media figures I had growing up. Now it turns out the Asian male stereotype that we're effeminate is only reinforced by the swashbuckling helmsman and later starship Captain Sulu. I know it's wrong, but that kinda peeved me off! Maybe I should just accept that Asian men *are* effeminate. I don't see many manly men here in HK. They're mostly very thin and don't look very masculine at all. Maybe I should just accept my lot in life... But no. I decided to take a picture of how I felt and here it is: I am a heterosexual, masculine Asian male! Here me roar!!!!

Well at least Bruce Lee is still a manly, man and ass kicker!

Cyberport!

2005-10-27T03:28:00.000+08:00

Today a bunch of my coworkers and I took a trip to Cyberport. This is where MERECL, the digital entertainment lab I am a part of is going to be headquartered. I took this picture today in the courtyard that also serves as the entrance to our office. The dude in the center of the pic is Nury Vitachi. In addition to being one of the people in charge of MERECL's creative IP development, he also has the distinction of being Hong Kong's best selling English language author. I will be working alongside him on creative IP. Luckily, he and I get along famously so far and I look very much forward to working with him!

While the photo of our courtyard entrance may not look it, it is on the 7th floor of the Cyberport. This next pic is the view that Nury is looking at. If you've ever been to Hong Kong, then you know it is jam packed with buildings and people everywhere. It is surreal to see this much open space and greenery in Hong Kong. The circus tents in the distance are for Cirque de Soleil's Quidam which debuts next month. Tickets start at $1,000 HKD which is $125 USD. That's almost twice as much as they start at in the US! The only other place that could be comparable to this area may be the newly opened Disneyland on Lantau island.

This third pic was taken within the office space which is still under construction. That's me walking through the piles of debris on the floor. The most striking thing about this picture to me is all the green out the window. It may be common in US industrial parks, but it's a rarity for office space in HK. Many HK people don't like Cyberport because it is so far from everything. But it's actually about a 25 to 35 minute bus ride from where I live. People in HK are a little spoiled by how convenient and efficient the public transportation is. Anyway, while I will continue to have an office at the university, I will spend a majority of my time here at the Cyberport. Personally, I love that I'll be working here away from the hustle and bustle of the highly condensed, people-heavy part of Hong Kong. I look forward to creating and producing many creative projects here!

Small but Efficient

2005-10-24T19:37:00.000+08:00

There have been some requests for a recent pic with my new haircut. So here's a self portrait I took last night in my new apartment.

I can see how blogging can become an obsession. As I was making my way to the immigration office today, I kept thinking about what I would write about in my next blog entry. After some thought, I came up with the theme of this blog: Small But Efficient.

That phrase sums up a great deal about HK. The geography and government of HK is small relative to many major cities in the world. Yet they are really efficient here. Case in point, for various reasons my working visa wasn't started on until 3 days after my arrival. A day after submitting my paperwork, Immigration called me to clarify a few pieces of info. A week later (Wednesday of last week) I was told that it was ready. I can only imagine how long it takes to process a work visa in the US! Today I went to pickup my work visa and it took less than 10 minutes to submit my letter, pay for my visa and be on my merry way.

I’m pretty sure there are many other nations that are small and efficient too. Japan and some European ones come to mind. But last week I met a German MBA student who said he’s been to many nations in Europe and Asia, but he believes the Hong Kong government is the most efficient one he’s seen.

The government isn’t the only thing that’s smaller here. Another example are the food portions. Between the warmer weather, smaller food portions and enormous amount of walking my shrinking waistline and weight are definitely benefiting. I'm back to my weight from before my knee injury this year. HK itself takes up a fair amount of geography, but most people prefer to live and work in a small area on Hong Kong island and Kowloon. As a result the apartments are small and e$pen$ive.

This is a picture of my small but efficient service apartment. Service apartments are designed specifically for people in town temporarily. It's basically a fully furnished apartment with water, cable, phone and maid service included. My apartment is tiny, but it's pretty neat. I've never had a glass door that leads to my bathroom! The LCD tv, desk, fridge, microwave and stove altogether take up less space then my home office in SF did. I could see how life can get a little claustrophobic, but for now I'm cool.

HK Arrival & Marketing in Macau

2005-10-23T00:43:00.000+08:00

This is my first post in Hong Kong. I wanted to make chronological posts starting with my Thailand vacation which occurred before arriving in HK. But too much is happening so I'll have to save Thailand (which rocked) for future posts. Anyway...

I arrived in Hong Kong on 9-10-05 (they do their dates day-month-year here) and the next night, I had dinner with my two bosses; Dr. Justice (sounds like a comic book character, huh?) the School of Design (SD) head and Dr. Yu, the SD Multimedia Innovation Centre (MIC) head. Also present were designers from the US and HK. I was digging the international creative vibe I felt and the view was spectacular. I took this picture (which really doesn't do the view any justice) from the Vietnamese restaurant we ate at. I believe the restaurant was called Rice Paper and it was located at Harbour City on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. I had been to Harbour City earlier that day when I had lunch with Dr. Yu and the president of a US toy company. I was already in love with HK that night!

So fast forward to nearly two weeks later and it feels like a lifetime ago. I'm still loving it here, but I've been battling a sore throat all week. I think it's a combination of the air quality, many late night parties, long hours at the office and the stress of dealing with moving and immigration. They sure work and play hard here! These last two weeks have been the fullest 2 weeks I've lived in a long time!

I'll probably write in greater detail about the last two weeks in another post. But I want to write about tonight while it's fresh in my mind. Tonight I met a women in a book store at Times Square called Page*One. She had the coolest looking glasses! It turns out she got them in Macau 'cause that's where she lives. She does marketing for The Venetian in Macau. She told me that Macau has a population of 500,000 and has a huge lack of media and design talent. To discuss the opportunities in Macau, we had drinks and dinner at a place called "People's Coffee & Books." This is a really cool bookstore/cafe with a tongue and cheek, nostalgic design motif based on old Maoist China. She logged on at the cafe and showed me the Vegas-sized plans for expansion in Macau. Looks like Macau, like the rest of China, has huge growth plans!

Sonia is Portuguese/Chinese and speaks 4 languages; Portuguese, French, Cantonese and English. But we spoke mostly in English 'cause that's what I speak best. She lived in Europe for 7 years before moving back to Macau. She comes to HK once a month, so I just happened to catch her at the right time. She asked me to send samples of my work and she would forward it to the right people at The Venetian. Sonia is just the latest example of the many interesting people I'm meeting out here. I'd say there are two major types of people here; Very international and very local. She obviously falls in the former category.

The only other thing worth noting today is that I went to a local salon and asked the very local hairdresser to give me a new local hairstyle. I figure since I'm in a new place with a new job and making new friends, I might as well get a new hairstyle. Not sure what I think of it yet, but it's shorter and it looks like something local 20-something year olds might have. They were trying to get me to dye it brown. Looks like a lot of the young kids do that here. I'm not in my 20's anymore. But many people here seem to think I am. I'll have to think about it...

Basically, despite the stress and challenges of moving and setting up out here I'm having a blast meeting new people and seeing new things everyday. Everyday is a new adventure and I'm learning so much!