黑泽

Shanghai 2 Portland

2007-07-19T05:20:00.000+08:00

can't tell you how good it is to be back in portland. man. did i leave? it was so strange when i was there walking in the streets, walking through the wieden and kennedy building, seeing old friends. it was like a day had not passed. remember 12 monkeys? that movie with bruce willis and brad pitt? well, i was bruce willis alright. so bizarre. felt like i was in this time warp. everything was the same. it was perfect. you know when you talk to someone that you haven't spoken to in a while and you say, "how are you? how are things?" and they say, "ah you know, the same." trust me. that's a good thing.

i needed it. i needed to feel that familiarity again just to make sure i was still alive. don't get me wrong though, shanghai is amazing! i love it. but to come home and feel the love, feel grounded, feel like you know up from down (until you spend every night in rontoms) was magic. love portland. love everyone there. it was so good to see everyone! and for those of you who gave me hell about the updates, or lack there of, and you know who you are (alright miami!) this is for you!

my first night in portland i went straight to jimmy mak's to get some soul. mel, louis, ronato and dan. always incredible and awe inspiring. love it.

the next bit is where i spent just the rest of my evenings. thanks ron. congrats on your place. definitely home.

ah k. karen this the world, the world karen. (what movie? although her name was claire in the film) if anyone is looking for an interior designer to help with your decor, she is your girl. amazing. this woman knows color like no one else as well as textures and materials. karen thanks for everything. miss you much and good luck with the condo!

two of my favorite people in the world. miss you much. all my love. see you soon in shanghai!

home sweet home.

ay! what'd you doin? wha' the hell you want?

tram

perfectly portland

blue sky. notice the crow!

laurelhurst

This is for you!

2007-07-19T05:11:00.000+08:00

hey kristy!

THE ROOTS

2007-05-24T12:17:00.000+08:00

man. after a hard day, and that day was particularly tough for one reason or another, da funk was exactly what i needed. they played for 2 and a half hours that night. great show.

without much further ado...

2007-05-23T11:42:00.000+08:00

temple

garden

accent of jwhite

AF25

happy

tokyo

well hello hello. christ. how long has it been? since february? man. where do i begin?
well right now i am sitting in hongchow airport waiting to go to beijing in 2 hours. i’m sitting in the terminal with laptop in lap, beer right beside me, listening to george benson. love the fact that i can sit here and drink a beer in the middle of the airport. that rules. really does. not to mention listening top GB’s most recent album while typing to you all is really relaxing. must be the beer.

didn’t mention it, but my dad is here with mr. mullen (chunk) visiting me. we are all going to beijing together. can’t wait. so good to have them here right now. we’ve had a blast. they are staying with me at my apartment. love it. it’s fun having them there when i get home. kind of a like a treat. definitely makes me homesick. miss everyone so much.
since i wrote last i have been to tokyo for chinese new year to see the deftones with j.white; met and become friends with allister (which deserves mentioning); had the opportunity to direct a campaign in shanghai, china; ride the streets of shanghai on my bike; get knocked off my bike by a moving car and have a scotch with my dad in people’s park. not bad. it’s been a good few months.

tokyo was amazing. it was just happen chance that kurt parker was there in the tokyo office working when we were there. so good to see him. it was like a little taste of home. i had the opportunity to see john jay and meet the tokyo office out for drinks a few times. loved it. loved them. tokyo was like a dream. honestly i had this sense of calm rush over me when i got there and walked out into the streets. the people were beautiful as well as the city. had such a good time. smiles all around. i will say that it was a bit expensive, especially that cab ride from the airport to the hotel. jesus. i kept thinking, “that can’t be right.” it was. 200 bones. but i decided right there and there, “no worries. i’m on vacation. what happens, happens.” glad i decided that because i had an amazing time as a result. highly recommend it if you have the means. if you are with WK, definitely take the time to call Shig, Anthony, Sumiko, Kimi or anyone there for that matter. wonderful people. hated to leave. the “tones” were amazing. they always are. i think i will be flying back in july to catch them in portland. crazy i know. just so happens that they are playing when i want to come back. can’t think of a better thing that i want to do on my vacation. 7 words? live? COME ON! rontoms you better get your ticket. no kidding. do it. now.
allister. so this guy that j.white introduces to me with a thick british accent tells me that he is a dancer and is trying to make it in shanghai, slaps me on the ass and buys me a drink at the same. first impression is always the best and this could not be more true. miss allister at the moment though. it seems that he has been out town for a while. speaking of which, WHERE IS JASON WHITE?! he is the guy in the tokyo picture that is laughing at the table. man. he’s been traveling for WK for about 2 months now. miss that kid like no other. ready for my brother to get back to shanghai. doesn’t feel right without him. i think he’ll be back next week. i pray for shanghai.

so i have started riding in shanghai every morning to work and then back home again. my god. i thought i was an amp rider... well for empty streets and lots of room maybe. now i can officially say that i have no problems with being “traffic”. everyday is like a russian roulette in a way. honestly. you never know at any moment where or when someone could jet right out in front of you... actually they would just cruise out in front of you. i have become pretty good at skidding to a stop under control. seriously there are not many rules of the road. people just go where they want to go, when they want to go, how they want to go. it’s very interesting when something happens because they yell and scream about who was at fault. who was at fault! i so wish i could understand chinese at those moments.

so yes i was in an accident. yes i was hit by a car. actually i hit the car the car pulled right in front of me. so quick that i was up on the car and then on the ground before i knew what had happened. that sucked. wasn’t in love with china so much at that moment. i was riding south on maoming lu on my normal morning trek (hah) and was just about to cross the intersection of changle lu. i have to admit i was a bit tired from being up the night before (what dedication... ahem) so i didn’t break like a usually do going through intersections. i was probably going about 21 rpm’s so moving pretty good. then out of no where, this black car is in front of me. no choice. no turn. it’s there and i tried to break. i tried to break so hard i pulled the cables right out. i ended up sliding into the side of the car, crushing the side door, rolling on top of the car and then off onto the ground.

i came too and found myself on all fours staring at the ground wondering what the hell just happened. shook my head a few times and looked up. i saw 6 chinese men staring down at me talking really loud pointing and looking. i think they were surprised that i was looking back at them because they immediately stopped talking. this older gentleman stretched out his hand to me and helped me up. when i got off the ground, the small crowd said, “Oooooooh.” it think that meant that they were surprised that i actually got up. apparently in china if you are in an accident, you are suppose to stay where you are... in the middle of the road, on a car, in a tree, on a fence... until the police get there so he can dicern what happened and then decide “who was at fault”. the older guy helped me straighten out my bike so i could at least get it over to the side of the road and out of traffic. the driver and 3 friends moved the car to the side as well and got out to start the chatter again. the police arrived and stood there to listen to what this guy had to say. iw as pretty freaked out. i thought this guy was going to tell the police that this western idiot smashed his car and should be taken to jail. so i called work and got them to tell the cop my side of the story. after a while of back and forth another cop came who new a small amount of english. he pulled me over to the side and said, “how much do you want?” i said, “what the hell do you mean?” he said it again and i replied with, “i have no idea what you are talking about.” the cop pointed behind me and there was the driver of the car, whose door was really messed up (serves him right), with his wallet in hand and open showing me that he had cash. i looked back around to the cop who asked me again, “how much do you want?” so bizzare. thinking back to it, i should have taken 5000 dollars from the guy, but i was freaked and in shock from the whole thing so i took... well, enough. the cop gave me a written slip of the accident and told me to take it to the hospital to get checked. he also gave the me driver’s name and number. i think i will get that framed. i did manage to mess up my shoulder pretty good. nothing bad. just a deep bruise. got off really easy if you ask me. very lucky. unfortunately, i have seen much worse. needless to say i had gitters for about a week so i wasn’t so quick to get back out there. actually i couldn’t because i had to get my bike fixed. it was so bad though. they managed to get everything back in shape. found a great bike shop and contact for other riders in shanghai. need time to actually get out and take a long ride, but at least i know where to look if i want a riding partner.

did i mention that you could buy a beer in the hongchao airport and walk around with it in hand? love that. probably will be severely dehydrated but at this point i really don’t care. i’m on vacation.

as far as work goes, i am getting to do what i have always wanted to do. i am getting to work on projects that are being produced and shown in market, shanghai in this case. that'll do! the office is doing well. very well i might add. hiring new people every week it seems. just broutgh in a new creative director from hong kong, iris. very nice woman and i look forward to working with her. she is a copy writer so probably won’t do much hands on with her, but none the less. actually, anna gatewood has been for the last 2 months helping out from the Portland WK office. can’t tell you how good it has been to have her here. man. talk about a taste of home. she hails from raleigh, north carolina originally but has been in Portland for the last 3 years with her husband Brad. yeah i know, north carolina. what can you do? you take what you can get, right? love ya anna! mean it! anyway, i had to say good bye today. she is leaving for london and then home tomorrow. that was tough. i will miss her and that connection to home. hopefully i will be back in july for a short while so i will get my fill then. thanks for everything anna!

no worries though. my dad is here with chunk and we are on our way to beijing. we have had a blast so far. being in beijing with them will be nothing short i can assure you. let’s just say that me and johnny walker have gotten reaquainted this past week. good times good times.

ZAPATISTA

2007-02-11T19:35:00.000+08:00

I'm ready to brave the elements like the locals. The mask is what most people who commute by bike wear to protect their faces from wind and cold and unfortunately the exhaust. There could be a huge market for these for screen printing anc customization...

HAPPY YEAR OF THE PIG!

2007-02-11T19:26:00.000+08:00

Oh yeah. This is what you think it is... but more. Need to work on the animated GIF so you can get the full effect, but this pig had blinking Cherries for eyes that were battery powered. I had some of the skin, but that's about it...
VINCENT: Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?
JULES: Well we'd have to be talkin' about one charmin' motherf#@#in' pig. I mean he'd have to be ten times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm sayin'?

Basketball in China

2007-02-11T19:13:00.000+08:00

So a group of us that are working on the Nike account set out the other day to see basketball courts around Shanghai so that we could get a feel of the players that we mean to reach with our creative. It was amazing. There are many open courts around town that are full of kids, teenagers, young 20 something's playing street basketball everyday of the week, not only in Shanghai, but in every major city in China. Basketball has a huge pull in China with the emergence of Yao Ming in the NBA. We spoke to many of the kids and they all said that Yao was their hero. More importantly seeing someone like Yao be successful in the NBA lets them know that anything is possible. It gives them "hoop dreams" of their own.

One site inparticular, that was extremely fascinating, was Rucker Park. SO COOL! From the outside of the building you would never know that there was any activity what so ever, much less a basketball court. But as you entered the building graffiti art and the sounds of exercise could be heard through the stairwell, giving the clue that something out of the ordinary was happening. 4 flights up you enter this huge space with courts and kids having a blast living out their basketball fantasies. They are serious though. They all are true "ballers".

Rucker Park was started about 3 years ago by a couple of guys that could not have been older than 25. They wanted to a create a placer where young people could come and "hang out", be kids, listen to their music and play ball. They have annual tournaments within the park and with other parks from what I could understand. The other courts that we saw that day were similiar to those that you may see in Portland or Atlanta. But this one, as you can see, is quite unique.

Taking in the Back 40...

2007-02-11T19:07:00.000+08:00

Hail! Our fearless leader! That is Kel Hook, the Managing Director of WK Shanghai. Kel is from Australia so I think on this particular beautiful day, he might have been thinking of the "Barbi" on the shore back in Melbourne. I think I would have rather been there as well. Actually this scene was just before they started construction on the building to create more space for new hires here in the office. This place is busting at the seems!

YOU'VE GOT GOT NUTHIN TO LOSE

2007-01-31T13:06:00.000+08:00

Periodically I would like to recommend a "song of the day" or some musical influence that you may or may not enjoy.
One song that has been on my mind for quite some time now (thanks to the blessing of The Reverend Dave Gil) is "Deuce" by Kiss... "YOU KNOW YOUR MAN IS WORKIN HARD. HE'S WORTH A DEUCE." Yes, the painted ones hailing from Detroit. If you haven't seen Kissology, the DVD that was released last year, add it to your list. IT'S GOLD. PURE GOLD. I mean, who here got to see them in their prime? When they were considered "evil" and a bad influence of the youth of 197... When was that Dave? Trust me, it's worth the viewing. Gene Simmons doing his demonic parody, Ace Frehely with smoking guitar and Peter Chris singing Black Diamond? What's not to love? Of course there is the rhymless banter of Paul Stanley, but this is part of the beauty. These guys were to first to do what they did... are doing. So many acts have followed and immitated, it's countless. The music is bizarre and you may not be a fan. But it is so unique to them and only them... Loud. Rude. Simple. RocknRoll.

Old School Shanghai Apartment

2007-01-29T11:32:00.000+08:00

So these are the new digs! It's a great spot right in the middle of Shanghai. When you enter in the downstairs you walk through a common kitchen area for the downstairs tenants. a little bizarre at first, but I have gotten to know the people downstairs a bit... by site anyway. They are usually cooking dinner, doing laundry... the normal stuff. So you go through the kitchen and then up a flight of stairs, through a door and then you are in my apartment. There is a landing with a front door and a bathroom and then inside the front door, you see the main living room and kitchen.

I love the fact that it is situated in a very old Shanghai lane community and near the French concession. When I get my stuff in February, I will be able to ride to work. Maybe a 15 to 20 minute bike ride? Should be pretty sweet. Really looking forward to it.

Studio...

2007-01-28T17:13:00.000+08:00

Is where it happens. For those of you who are not familiar with the term Studio, it's the part of the agency where it all comes together. We create concepts, help those see their vision, and then produce it and get it out the door. Acutally Studio is a lot like the kitchen. When you have a party, where does everyone end up at the end of the night? (besides that Pointsette) The above is of me and Molly Lee. She is the Matriarch of WK Shanghai. She knows everything. EVERYTHING. Don't know how, but none the less... Anyway, it was a late night. Fun with rabbit ears. Always a good time!

I live in Shanghai...

2007-01-26T18:40:00.000+08:00

Every day at least once that phrase comes from my mouth. Today I said it while riding in a taxi from Nanjing Lu to work.
Interesting that even though last night ended at 5 am for a Nike presentation, I was in the best mood. Sense of accomplishment? Maybe. Sleep deprived and amused by the dancing Panda's on the hood of the taxi? Probably. Either way, it was a good feeling. I was talking with Maya (oh by the way, in this "blog" I am going to refer to my friends and family by their first names only. If you don't know them, you should, and any case ask me) yesterday morning while waiting for the Art Directors to get back to us, and she asked me wether or not it had set in that I actually lived here. That it was for the long haul. I don't think so. Not yet anyway. So much has been happening it feels like an extended stay. Anyway, it's all fantastic. It's hard to describe. Anyway...

So! Here I am and this will be the place that hopefully I can put my thoughts (if you have a few pennies) in a somewhat timely fashion. I've been fairly good about emailing, but this will help. Shanghai. Indeed. So amazing. Shanghai is a mix of what China was and what it is and what it will be all at once. You can see the guys fixing power cables with bamboo laters as well as bamboo scafolding around construction sites, but then down the street LED screens and super modern buildings. Every day you see something new and different. That would also include when they bring you a bird on a plate that still looks much like the bird might look when it was sitting in the tree. Tasty.

I have an residence now in this perfectly old Shanghai apartment. It is situated in a lane with many other common buildings full of apartments. I love the fact that when I look out of my window that I can see the tops of old Chinese houses, complete with Bamboo drying racks, tiled roofs and interesting Chinese details to each buidling. Then, just above that, you can see the modern city taking shape. I will post a picture of what i mean soon enough. As far as that goes, I'll try and get as many pics as often as possible. Time. I've got a lot of it... filled with "stuff", but lots of time here.

We're off for dinner this evening at Zen in Xintiandi, a sweet place just off of Huai Hai Lu.
Take care -