DJ G is a DJ I have been collaborating with recently. He’s uploaded this cool mix of Electronica / chillout music to Mixcloud. Your ears will thank you for listening.
This is just a mix of other people’s tunes but we’re working on our own original music and he’s planning to release an album at the end of this year. Exciting times!

I had breakfast this morning in Yau Ma Tei with HK Honey’s creator Michael Leung (he’s my neighbor). We were chatting about creation and use of sound by bees, but digressed into two newish long-form music videos. The first was a comedic one by the Beastie Boys, and the second one by Kanye West is below along with stills from the video highlighting some of the moments I felt were best captured by the cinematographer Kyle Kibbe. Amazing music, though some funny lyrical clashes with the high concept art direction and photography.

Celebrating the snapshot with guards in Zhuhai, China at a dragonboat festival.

Here’s a followup to the Shark Savers event I posted about recently. To increase awareness about how Sharks are treated when they are hunted, a performance artist hung herself by shark hooks for 20 minutes while being interviewed by the press.

Sarah Renfro has new undies a new song called “Save Me” that she’s debuting online via Me In My Place, a site featuring “Real girls in their own place. Not too crazy and just a pinch of naughty.” It’s quite PG, really, but a very sexy look at real women chillin’ at home. Something cool about Sarah’s music is she could be wearing a Parka + Galoshes or be completely bare and the music would have the same effect. Expect more fun Renfro-vocalizations at the second half of the tune. There’s always a surprise or two about which way the melody is going.

Today I visited the Jockey Club Creative Arts Center for a an anti-sharkfinning event held by the Shark Savers. The highlight of the day was a performance artist suspending herself by shark hooks for 20 minutes while being interviewed by the press. Strange, yes. It was. It’s been a surreal day, especially after a 7-hour trek yesterday that turned into an unintentional night hike at stages 7 & 8 of the Maclehose trail in the New Territories of Hong Kong…but I digress. The video below lured me to the event, and the artwork featured at the Arts Center by Kozyndan is astounding. They both show us that we (as humans) need to renegotiate and rethink our relationship to nature, especially with the animals automatically assumed to be violent.

Today, I’m inspired by Nico Muhly a composer of awesome music, cheeky character and witty blogger. I just watched a film called The Reader (don’t watch the trailer, just watch the film!) and was intrigued by the music, did a bit of research and found his site. Funny too how small the music world is – we even have a mutual friend on facebook.
He has a way of bringing music into the colloquial/present tense that the general population might not listen to normally. It’s great music, wonderfully composed, engaging. His own music is the same. The way he works with his orchestra(s) is so fun. You should really read his blog. Even if you don’t know music you’re going to laugh. How can you not laugh with excerpts like this: “These elements work with, and against, one another in a satisfying, loosely erotic ballet, and Reich, at the end, adds a cryptic but so fucking satisfying coda” and “If your venue is freezing cold before people come in, do not adjust the thermostat. This is good. When people come and start drinking, they will make it hot in there, and then you will wonder why it is so hot. It’s very much like resting steak. It seems counterintuitive (“I want hot meat!”) but everybody knows that you have to do it, except sometimes people don’t, and wonder why everybody thinks they steak is fucked up. The same applies to the Temperature up in here almost universally. My flat has an aircon unit and fans and a system of windows and shades; anybody who wants to come over and see how it do is welcome at The Campari and Dubonnet Masterclass in Ventilation and Temperature Regulation, weekdays, from 6:45 to 7:30, in my heezy. Closed on bank holidays, and for four random days on either side of the bank holidays, with auto-responders put on all forms of communication.”

Funny guy, really reminds of why blogging and podcasting is so cool:

One of my favorite people here in Hong Kong, Grace has been an inspiration to me (and a kick in the butt) to get fit. This was taken recently on a hike we took together around Kennedy town.

Hello, Future is a music video challenge through the band Moby and agency Saatchi & Saatchi challenge now at the stage of having selected its finalists. These are my favorite three videos: