The Creative Conference Semipermanent starts today featuriing the likes of Kayt Jones, Stefan Sagmeister and Nabil Elderkin. Check out this music video by the latter of those folks. It’s high production value over a simple yet epic song.
A new set of murals in Yau Ma Tei’s fruit market is enhancing the artistry of the neighborhood. The work was done by artists under the direction of the HK Contemporary Artists Association.
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!
I’m bringin’ back a few images from an experimental shoot I did a long time ago. Why? I’m keeping the blog fresh. Every now and then, it’s good to look back to see where you’ve come from. I find earlier ideas I’ve had come back later in a bigger, better way, or a more mature form. What ideas do YOU have?
Model: Kiyoko, from Japan
It seems obvious that functional items like clothing and cookware have historically been embellished to make our everyday lives more comfortable and fun. Why is then that Virgin America is one of the few airlines that does the same with inflight safety videos? (That’s a rhetorical question, in case you were wondering) Enjoy the video I watched on a recent flight from San Francisco to Seattle:
Video by the Anomaly Agency in New York. My personal best experiences with Airlines have been with Emirates and Virgin America.
In my family, we have had our share of health problems and even recent deaths in the family. Historically, we’ve had addictions and diseases and all sorts of issues we’d not openly share. One day I will die and that’s okay because today I’m happy to say that I’m living life to the fullest. I fly back to Hong Kong from Seattle in about 4 hours. During my time on the West Coast I met some incredible folks like Chase Jarvis and Jasmine Star and reconnected with good friends like Dave Dolengewicz and his girlfriend Lauren. I reconnected with Wayne Mak who lived in Hong Kong and David Alvarado who I went to school with – we even shot a documentary together for one day in the hills of San Francisco. I hung out with Chris Nicholas and Joowan Kim of the Great Integration and photographed their show in the Mission. One of the greatest trumpeters the University of North Texas has seen was miraculously in San Francisco: Evan Weiss along with another great musician (and model!) Gabriela. Laura Trimmell and her boyfriend Donothan aka Diskgrunt and myself spent four days photographing and screen-printing and eating Voodoo donuts in Portland. Those were probably some of the best days of my life. I spent way too much time away from my beautiful and lovely girlfriend Q (who is a squirrel in disguise), but that will soon be solved with just a little bit of time and jet fuel >8< Sure, I’m going broke and I’m trying to hit a grandslam most days now but burning the candle at both ends doing something I love with the people I love feels so much more real than anything else I can think of.
Pictured above: Me and Nikko, volunteers for the laaaate shift at the Jasmine Star Wedding for Creativelive.com in Seattle. We’re overlooking the skyline from West Seattle. Shot at approximately 5:45am
I listen to TED talks, probably more than the average person, but I did find this idea truly worth spreading. Jamie Oliver bluntly states how our world consumes food and offers a solution through his TED wish, which was granted. This is remarkable stuff, and accessible to everyone.
Yesterday (well, 1:30am for me) Chase Jarvis introduced a new way to democratize creativity and education through creativeLIVE – with a revamp to the 1-year old site and big endorsement from Chase, aspiring artists will be able to view some of the top professionals in their field give lessons, broadcast for free. It’s quite an interesting business model. For more info, check out the video below:
Fair Dinkum Dragonboat Team. These are my friends in Hong Kong! Our team held a major adventure race throughout Hong Kong with 23 teams participating and me as the photographer. After a crazy morning in Admiralty, we sneaked away to Ma Wan Island where the teams used clues and intuition to find us, build a 1/2 meter tall sandcastle and swim in the “shark’s nest.” Goodtimes.
