hk kids are so fucked up

cousin, i'm sorry to use an expletive in my blog entry. don't be mad.

it was the only expression i could use to describe what i'm seeing this morning at my flat.

my son's eight-year old friend is over here and he is completely flummoxed when his head is not immersed in some kind of metal box, namely, a computer, nintendo, wii, or television set. he tried to throw a ball with my son a few minutes ago and he couldn't even muster that. i mean, he could throw the ball, but without any hope of it land...Read more

yet another catch up!

this is another crazy catch up session, just so y'all know i haven't died yet.

since the last time i blogged, i went trick or treating (with sam, my son), caught the linkin park concert (with sam), then flew to beijing, then new york, miami, london and, then, again, new york and miami. i just got back friday and woke up at 4 am this morning, giving me a small window of blogging time.

miami was incredible. a real social circus. i stayed with the owner and host of design miami basel, the companion show to art bas...Read more

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...Read more

green inspiration

i was just in bali last week.

the undoubted highlight of the week was spending time with john hardy, the jewelry designer, who recently sold his very sucessful jewelry business, so he could become a full-time eco-preneur.

in the twenty years john has lived in bali, he has trained an artisanal work force of 1000 balinese to make jewelry, for export to such tony retailers as neiman marcus and sak...Read more

gross...but engrossing

i am in macau.

what a crazy mindfuck.

you can understand the craziness by looking into the wild, desperate eye of any chinese gambler.

i'm totally grossed out.

but also totally engrossed.

the venetian is also apparently the single largest building in the world, in terms of square feet. it has 6000 rooms plus an arena like madison square garden and on and on and on.

that part is great. especially the garish grandeur of the structure, as both a physical and commercial undertaking....Read more

post mortem on shanghai

last week, i went to shanghai to supervise shanghai tang's participation in the opening festivities of the ShContemporary art fair. it all went swimmingly well with our sponsorship of wen hui, a celebrated performing artist from beijing, who staged a fantastic dance piece loosely themed around the Silk Road, during the opening night party. the fair was incredible. curated at the highest level by the l...Read more

ShContemporary Art Fair

http://www.shcontemporary.info/

the first international-level art fair of all time is about to happen in shanghai next week. the fair's organizers founded Art Basel, one of the most important art fairs in the world, alongside the venice biennale, for example.

just as a barometer of the quality, ONLY TWO HK GALLERIES (Han Art and 10 Chancery Lane Gallery) have been permitted to actually exhibit at the fair, which focuses primarily -- or even exclusively ...Read more

the REAL shaolin temple

justin guariglia, a fab photographer from new york, who actually shot  shanghai tang's kung fu collection campaign with philip ng a co...Read more

a philosophical jag (via Transformers)

i know this isn't rottentomatoes.com and i know rottendoubt totally disagrees with me, but i have to put in my two cents: transformers clobbers the simpsons for ME.

who cares if the scrīpt came shrink-wrapped out of a cereal box? i was transfixed by the near-constant stream of visual thrills and found myself pressing  up against the back of my seat, as if i was on an amusement park ride! i loved it. then again, i'm also the sort of person who would watch "300" with the sound turned off.  casti...Read more

Back in HK : ) : ( : O

just returned to hk from a month away in europe. longest vacation of my life. and a serious unplugging. much needed. but i'm still swimming in jetlag, which means my blog may not make sense for a couple of days. btw, excuse the awful photos. rottendoubt pulled those off the internet, so he could finish my page.

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another btw, rottendoubt is actually related to me! definitely, an unexpected headf---k. my brother emailed me (from nj) the other day and asked me if i remembered that his wife's cousin founded rot...Read more