This weekend, my dragonboat team Fair Dinkum took part in Ecovision Asia’s Hong Kong Coastal Cleanup. Thirty-one of us braved the very windy and mildly cold day to gather both trash and research data for the Ocean Conservancy. This was the second such cleanup I’ve done this year, but the first for which I gathered images. Take a look at our team making a difference for our oceans while making it all look so sexy. Nice.
These images taken at Stanley main beach do remind me of Chris Jordan’s montages of waste and consumerism. I’ve been thinking more about these things lately since this is probably the 40th or so cleanup I’ve ever done. It’s good for the environment, community and yourself when you volunteer like this.
Just two blocks from Wan Chai MTR in Hong Kong, a new art space is opening up courtesy of the Urban Renewal Authority. It looks like a promising space as the outside wrapping (for lack of a better word) is full of artwork by Start From Zero, among other HK artists. I was attracted to this area because of the interesting use of typography in Chinese, which is unfortunately lacking in general. Enjoy this typography and a few other images shot the same night at Times Square.
As a follow up to the November 6 show at Hidden Agenda by Noughts & Exes, here is their awesome new music video. I wish I had shot it, but I did shoot the first original concept behind this video which is their album cover. I also shot their show, which was a blast. More on that soon, for now enjoy the cool music vid.
I had a long conversation last night with my saxophonist friend in Hong Kong Oscar Azahar after a rehearsal and short jam with Chris Polanco for a festival we’re playing later this month in Taiwan. In both separate instances we agreed on the importance of having an actual show to your music. You’ve got to be able to tell a continuous story, and that comes back down to simple things like rehearsing or talking through the music, writing a set list (or at least having one) and most importantly – connecting with your audience. In any performance art form (music, dance, film, theater, sports) you need to be able to entertain in some form. Otherwise, the art form is just a series of scales, steps and random colors and sounds that mean nothing. Check out Lenny Kravitz + Trombone Shorty below to get an idea of what I feel is high musical production value mixed with the most primal connection to their audience. No surprise New Orleans music will do that to ya. Let’s make exciting music like this in Hong Kong!
Hong Kong has just a handful of awesome bands and Noughts & Exes on November 6th is one of them. I shot their new album cover and am photographing the show too. If you’re reading this, you’re out of luck – the show sold out about 3 days ago but I’m sure if you show up you just might able to sneak in
