I’m training for the Oxfam Trailwalker race, a 100km race through the New Territories of Hong Kong. That’s about the distance of two marathons. Our target time is about 22 hours. The fun thing about technology and social media today is that I can show you graphs, charts and fancy numbers related to our training this weekend. To plow through all the data, basically we did a 25km trail in 7 hours on probably the hottest and most humid day of the summer in Hong Kong. I was a different person after taking a dip in a cool mountain stream. It’s amazing how much energy the sun takes out of you.
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.
Tomorrow Today is the Stanley Warmup Races. It’s Buddha’s birthday, so in Cantonese tradition we scare away the ghosts in the water so we can swim in peace (We need to invent another holiday to scare away the pollution!). Check out Sunday’s race featuring Fair Dinkum, the spectators (my sister, Curious Doodles and Diskgrunt) as well as a special image from the leader of the Fireman’s team: Sunny. I have a higher respect for the Sunny and the firemen, not just because they can pull of crazy pink speedos but because there was recently a fire in my building and they had a quick response time of about 3 minutes to get there. Amazing! Props to the Hong Kong Fire Department. Click here if you’d like to be firesafe in Hong Kong.
To eloquently misquote Martin Luther King, Jr. he did not say, but many people confer that: “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
Kevin Spacey presents a strong case for financially supporting the arts in the United States. His view is more community and economically focused, though I have been reading books and articles and watching videos on neurology that suggest music as a cross-training for the brain (to make a sporting analogy) for virtually any subject or endeavor. All interesting and extremely helpful whether you go for the community view or the scientific one. Probably because of the art’s difficulty to quantify and justify its existence, funding often gets cut before other seemingly more practical things. I hope this will change with the advent of better data analysis and advanced brain imaging techniques.
Kevin Spacey in a related television interview mentioned that Winston Churchill during the Second World War spoke with his finance minister who said Britain should cut arts funding to support the war effort. Churchill’s responded: “Then what are we fighting for?”
Justin, who just recently left us made a number of brilliant graphics to begin his last blog posts. These are below:
My new living space
Will work for bone marrow
Faith and Positivity
Smart Cookie
The Plot Thickens - this last image isn't as doom and gloom as it looks. Justin was a bit humorous in that he had already come to terms with the possiblity of death, but he was really annoyed that he couldn't find his green hat.
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.
In lieu of the annual PIMP party (Party In My Pants), Chase Jarvis Inc. opted to host an awesome shindig to launch the Seattle 100 book and Pop up Gallery. It was a surreal evening: an open bar and meeting everyone from Trent from Head Like A Kite to puppet maker Emmett Montgomery to Bow Jones (motion graphics for Chase’s workflow video) to a guy who curates Fail Blog. My brain is overstimulated with great conversation and caffeine. I probably won’t sleep much tonight and I couldn’t be more pleased. Good times. Enjoy the photos.
Ok, so Nikko from Creativelive is an impostor but I had to shoot this!
Trent from Head like a Kite (above)
Jerard (pictured right) just got back from a journey with Chase in Asia where his shot this video with over 20,000 views.
