catch up

since i wrote my last entry, i shot the shanghai tang ad campaign in madrid (massively stressful since one suitcase went missing on arrival and we only got it back 36 hours later after working closely with cathay in hk. the iberian people were worse than useless. on top of that, we were wrecked and zombie-like, the entire shoot because shooting until 3 am every day for 12-14 hours. all par for the course and certainly better than the insane xinjiang desert experience last season, but still a rollercoaster. seems like moses crossing the red sea every time we do the ad campaign!)

while in spain, i also tried anguillas, which are tiny eels, the texture of which resemble soba noodles! they are a national delicacy. weird to think that each thread-like baby eel would have grown into a full-size eel the size of my adult body!

on my way to beijing from madrid, i met vince spadea, professional tennis player, on the plane (to frankfurt). we rapped the entire flight. despite his studied appearance of cool, refreshing everyman middle-classness, in expression, vocabulary and choice of fashion (when i told him he should really buy a jaeger lecoultre instead of a rolex for his next watch, he had no idea what i was talking about), he was sharp and trenchant as a knife in his observations about human nature. it was a wonderful surprise to have a conversation of substance on the plane, for godssakes.

http://www.vincespadea.com/

when i landed in beijing, i met up with craig robins, with whom i'm working on china's first LEED-certified Neighborhood Development and, possibly, the world.

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/Steven_Holl/beijing/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pn-ZANUXj4 (steven holl, star ny architect, explaining the development and architecture)

Craig started Design Miami Basel with Ambra Medda a few years back. design miami, if you didn't know, is the world's most influential design show (and is the sister show to art miami basel, which is just as important on the international art scene). here is a fantastic, but very long interview of ambra:

http://vernissage.tv/blog/2007/06/11/interview-with-ambra-medda-design-miami-basel-2007-part-12/

after spending the weekend in beijing with craig WORKING, i finally came back home on sunday (a week from today)

but it wasn't as if things were a lot calmer over here.

this week alone, i have flown to macau twice and entertained and met with at least 6 out of town visitors! i kid you not! that's why i decided it's just best to write a relatively prosaic blog entry today to just catch up (with myself, if not you, dear reader, who could probably care less). this week alone, i had two dear friends from singapore come through, my art gallery partners from beijing (i never mentioned but i'm planning to open my own art gallery soon), my business associate from new york (creative director of Chandelier, a top ny design agency), the creative director of Old Navy, rob watson's partner (rob founded the LEED standard, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the world's leading green building standard. rob and i are members in china's leading NGO focused on clean energy, JUCCCE (joint us chinese cooperation on clean energy)) this is actually not THAT abnormal (i have at least two such visitors every single week, i reckon) but this week was EXTREME and crazy, especially since i've been trying to catch up with sam, my 8 year old son, and do things like make his halloween costume and play wiii at rottendoubt's house.

...

on that note, i'll finish here, by just saying that i'm exhausted but happy this week. forgive me for writing something a bit boring today, but, at least, y'all get to see what a slice of my life is like pretty much every single week.