The High Line NYC

Just got back from yet another trip to New York. Besides sampling NY's awesome cuisine I made sure to go and check out the newly opened High Line Park. The High Line was originally an elevated train line that serviced the meatpacking district in NY. It was made to help alleviate street level delivery traffic on the west side of town. Unused since the 60's someone had the great idea it into a park instead of tearing it down. It was designed by landscape architects, James Corner Field Operations and architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
It's a wonderful idea for a park. Because it is elevated off the ground it allows unique views of the city that you wouldn't normally get at ground level. Above is the entry at Gansevoort Street.
The High Line snakes through the west side going through buildings. You can still see the old rail tracks peeking through the plants in some parts.
The details are amazing, everything from the concrete to the rusted steel planter boxes(ala Richard Serra) are elegantly designed and well thought out. There are plenty of benches and chairs to sit and get away from the city while still being in the city. This nicely designed tanning bed actually sits on the old rail tracks and can be moved along the tracks just in case the guy next to you farts.
From the street, you can see the High Line snaking it's way up town peeking out from the buildings.Above is an amphitheater like seating area with a giant picture window that looks out onto the street. This is probably my favorite design feature. If you are in NY you should definitely make some time to check this place out. I think cities around the world can learn a lot from this project in terms of how to creatively reuse architectural features that may no longer be useful. It's a perfect way to integrate the new with the old. Often times, city governments don't see the value in preservation so they just tear them down but when something is done right like the High Line, it can add vitality to the city. If you want to learn more about The High Line Park click here.

Terence Yin sings Hallelujah

I shot this at my boy Terence's birthday gig. I was playing around with the HD video feature on my Canon 5D MkII. I was really amazed at the quality that I got and I didn't even light it. There is no auto focus when shooting in video so I had to pull the focus myself and because I was using a telephoto lens that made the depth of focus short it was hard to stay on him. Turns out it created a nice effect with his singing, which was very much on point that night.

Terence Yin Sings Hallelujah from Daniel Wu on Vimeo.

Damien Walters...is sick too!

Mr. JBS sent this one over to me. I lost count of how many times I yelled out Jesus Christ while watching this. I am always amazed at what the human body is capable of and Damien here is one capable dude. Really really impressive.

Double your pleasure

This is crazy. I have been into martial arts pretty much my whole life and I love watching fights but I have never seen this before. Two good right hooks landing at the same time with the same effect. Amazing. Even the ref is confused. I wonder how this goes down on their record, two losses or a tie or two wins? I think the best thing is to forget it even happened.

Remebering 5.12 and Jet Li

I always found it interesting that in the 12 years I have been in the business here, one of the people I most wanted to meet had always alluded me. I was finally able to meet Jet Li last year at an event in Shanghai. There were many people there but I was at least able to say hi and shake his hand. Jet is the reason why I started learning wushu. I saw Shao Lin Temple when I was 6 or 7 years old in a Chinatown theater back in SF and immediately decided that I had to learn Kung Fu.

So when Jet invited me to join his charity organization, One Foundation, for a memorial walk for the victims of 5.12 in Sichuan, I jumped at the opportunity. Check out some of the video I shot from the event and a conversation we had about the event as well the origins of the One Foundation and how he plans to make this world a better place. Don't mind the cheesy music in the intro...

Bruce will always win.

Is it really even a contest?

Eric Nakamura in the spotlight

If you're in Japan town LA come see my friend Eric. I have been a contributor to his magazine Giant Robot for over 10 years. Now I get to interview him live on stage. I like being on this side of an interview. That's a silly picture of me, not sure where they got that from.

Asian Americans Represent!

I'm back home in SF right now and my Mom of all people showed me this last night so I had to put it up. I blogged about this topic before a while back but it's good to hear the young kids out there voicing their opinion. I don't know KevJumba but he's speaking the truth, saying things I've been thinking since I was a kid. It's not that there are not any cool Asian guys out there, it's that mainstream America won't let us be anything more than than the "Long Duk Dong", asexual nerdboys or chopsocky kung fu guys or broken ass English triad guys.  I mean now you have guys like Masi Oka, Daniel Dae Kim and John Cho, but they are only given variations of that same old sterotype. Many people have asked me why haven't I made the transition back home, well to tell you the truth it's not up to me. It's up to America and the people in power in Hollywood to take the initiative to put someone like me or any one of the many other talented and cool Asian American Male actors out there in good roles. Just look at the talent on this site alone! Sung Kang, Jason Tobin, Dustin Nguyen, Roger Fan, Andrew Lin. Terence Yin, Andy On, Johnny Lu, Vanness Wu the list goes on and on. We all speak perfect English and were either born and/or raised in America and we have all paid our dues. Like the prelude to the Beijing Olympics motto: "We Are Ready!". Just open the doors, because we are ready to represent.
To all the KevJumba's out there, keep it up and make the message loud and clear because it's people like you that will help make that change. Peace!

I eat bugs!

Promoting Shinjuku Incident was a crazy whirlwind of work that was not fun but had to be done, I barely had enough time to eat and sleep much less blog. Now that that's all over, I've got a bca log of stuff that will slowly make it's way onto this blog. Here's one of them in no particular order:Yes, those are bugs and yes I tried everyone of them. I was in Yunnan, China filming a tv commercial and they had these in a restaurant so we decided to have a try. The thing on the far left is a dried shrimp but the big ones are deep fried Dragon Flies and the little white ones are some kind of caterpillar. The dragon flies were pretty good and actually tasted better than the dried shrimp. Crispy and crunchy. That caterpillar was edible but I wouldn't try it again. When I bit into it oily guts squished out. Did not like that.
I actually tried them first then got everyone else to try.
I've actually had bigger and grosser looking insects in Thailand. Grasshoppers and scorpions both taste kind of like soft shell crab. What weirdness have you consumed?

Robbie Madison is SICK!

This shit is insane! I think it speaks for itself.