chiseen

The Stage: Short Documentary

2010-01-09T02:55:00.002-05:00

So here's a little short documentary, Kim Chan, put together for me about the creation of "The Stage", the design project that Edward Huang and I put together for the HK/Shenzhen Biennale. If you don't know what I'm talking about please refer to my previous blogs on www.alivenotdead.com. As you can probably tell I'm pretty proud of this project. It's interesting to me personally because what was once meant to be my career has now come back to me as a hobby. One of the main reasons why I didn't want to do architecture as a career was because I had worked in many offices but still could not find the creative freedom and energy that I had in school and I found that quite depressing. I wanted to affect the world with my creative energy, not sit in front of a computer all day drafting up other people's half-assed designs or dealing with office politics. Luckily the Hong Kong film business found me and I was able to find a whole new environment that allowed me total freedom to be creative. The two fields may seem totally different but they are more alike than you can imagine. They are both arts and art is about the ability to speak to an audience using your own creative skills via a medium. One is through buildings and one is through film. Both require the public and an audience in order to be successful and when people are touched by your work, that sense of satisfaction is beyond words.

The Stage: Short Doc from Daniel Wu on Vimeo.

If you haven't been over there yet and you live in Hong Kong, you have until Feb 26th and then it all comes down and will nothing more than an awesome memory in my mind. If not enjoy the video. Thanks again Kim for all your hard work on this video!
To learn more about the Biennale click here.

Chinese Jamaicans

2009-10-15T02:36:00.001-05:00

Have you eve noticed that no matter where you travel in the world there are Chinese? This subject has always interested me and I always try to find out about their history. This woman here with the crazy Jamaican accent is a perfect example. Her accent is so rad! She has obviously been in Jamaica for a long long time, most likely born there as the way she laughs as well as attitude are imbibed with Jamaican culture. As I recall the earliest Chinese settled in Jamaica because it was along trade routes from the east and the Chinese are a prominent part of Jamaican culture. In fact many of the most influential producers of reggae (one of my favorite types of music) back in the 70's and 80's were Chinese Jamaicans. Before I moved back to Hong Kong, I used to think Chinese women with British accents were sexy, now after living here for so long I've kind of gotten used to it but a Chinese woman with a Jamaican accent? Now that's sexy! I love everything about Jamaica and it's culture but I still haven't been. Now I gotta go soon!

Prisonyard workout

2009-09-20T09:29:00.002-05:00

Eddie "Dor Yuk" from 24 Herbs sent this over to me the other day. Damn these guys are strong but I bet my hands are smoother than theirs! I like working out but I hate pull ups. These two have 'em in spades. They either spent too much time in prison or spent too much time on the playground.

Prisonyard workout

2009-09-20T09:29:00.001-05:00

G.I. Joe

2009-08-30T07:44:00.001-05:00

Since G.I. Joe the movie just came out I thought I'd post these little "modified" public service announcements from the old G.I. Joe cartoon. I used to watch G.I. Joe everyday after school when I was growing up. At the end of each episode they would tag on these public service announcements teaching kids what to do in emergencies. I actually saw these "modified" versions years ago before youtube and websites and you had to download it off a bbs server, remember those? Anyway, they crack me up every time I see them.

This has to be fake

2009-08-26T01:42:00.001-05:00

Does anyone know?

John Hughes R.I.P.

2009-08-11T08:10:00.002-05:00

John Hughes died last week of cardiac arrest while taking a stroll in New York. One of my favorite films as a kid was The Breakfast Club. Actually it's still probably on my top ten list. It's the story of a bunch of kids from totally different backgrounds and social circles that slowly begin to realize they are all just lonely kids looking for acceptance while spending a Saturday in detention. I used to want to be like the "rebel" played by Judd Nelson. I wore lots of flannel and even had my own pair of fingerless gloves. I think my first cigarette was because of him too. I have seen this movie dozens of times and it still doesn't get old for me. One of my fondest memories is of my two sisters and I, 80's dancing to the movie's theme song, Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me" in our living room as the end credits rolled. John Hughes was the king of 80's youth film and although his films have been criticized for not portraying a realistic version of adolescent life, they were entertaining and captured the zeitgeist of that era nonetheless. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Rest In Peace dude!

Tooth Fairy is coming tonight!!

2009-07-30T11:02:00.003-05:00

No those are not some new kind of drug. Those are my bulldog, Buddy's, teeth. We took on an 8 year old dog from the Hong Kong Dog Rescue a few months ago and she (Renee) and my old dog(Buddy) are still trying to figure who's the boss of the house. This results in periodic fighting. Yesterday while I was eating breakfast they went at it again and after I stepped in and pulled them apart, I noticed some white things on the ground. When I got a closer look, I realized it was a shattered tooth. Renee knocked out Buddy's bottom front tooth!
I have some friends who have had their teeth knocked out for various reasons and I have even had a tooth chipped but i've never heard of a dog getting it's teeth knocked out. The tooth was small to begin with but the vet said she would have to have it removed. Upon closer inspection we noticed the others were loose so he took out a total of three of her bottom front teeth. In the pic above what you're seeing is mostly root, the little white tip on top is the actual tooth.
I don't think she cares at all since she didn't really use them but she looks kind of funny without them. Although you can only see it when she opens her mouth it's hard to not feel sorry for her. I'm gonna have to teach her a couple of better defensive moves.

Little David and Christian Bale mashup!

2009-07-22T09:16:00.002-05:00

I blogged about little David a while back and his video has got to be one of my favorite youtube vids of all time. Now someone's taken the video and done a little mash up with the Christian Bale incident. Love it!

Jun Kung

2009-07-19T04:24:00.002-05:00

Here's a little clip of my boy Jun Kung's recent show for Agnes B in Taipei. As one of the artistes in my management company, Revolution Talent Management, we are working hard on getting his long awaited album to release this year. This song was a collaboration with the Godfather of Taiwanese rock, Wubai and is Jun's first Mandarin song. Enjoy!

The Big House

2009-07-03T07:13:00.002-05:00

I'm still backlogged on blogs here. Here's a little something from The White House:

When I was about 5 years old, I wanted to be the first Chinese American President of The United States. I very quickly grew out of that idea and I'm glad I did. On my recent trip to New York we decided to take an excursion to Washington D.C. as I haven't been since I was 7. Through Lisa's father's relationship with the Secret Service we were taken on a special tour of The White House. Unlike regular tours we got to go into most of the State rooms as well as go into places that most people don't get to see.
The first room here (sorry for the blurriness) is the White House theater. This is where they watch movies and the President sometimes practices his speeches. These two chairs are where Michelle and Barrack actually sit when munching on popcorn to Hollywood's latest release.

This is White House china purchased by George Washington. It is actually from China. Nice to see a little bit of China in The White House.

Aside from all the official State Rooms, we went down into the bowels of the building and got to see the kitchen! All meals are prepared here. I was much smaller than expected. I have worked in kitchens much larger than this that served a whole lot less people than I assume the White House does.

This is in the Chocolate room. Custom chocolates are made here for every occasion as you can see form the photo board. I wonder who was munching on those cookies?

Yes, that's the toilet and yes, I peed there. Really couldn't miss the opportunity although it would have been more poignant during the Bush administration.

The Secret Service are specially trained special agents whose job is to protect The President. This blacked out badge is very cool looking.

This is one of the Secret Service agents that protect the grounds of the White House. That Sci-Fi looking sub machine gun is a Belgian made P90. You don't want to mess around with these guys.

Although I didn't see Barrack but his presence was felt as he was in the press room talking to the media. Overall I was surprised to see that all the rooms looked a lot smaller than they do on tv. I guess that's what a bit of make up and good lighting can do.

The High Line NYC

2009-06-26T07:15:00.005-05:00

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

2009-06-12T08:39:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-06-01T09:22:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-19T09:02:00.000-05:00

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

2009-05-17T05:59:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-05-03T04:23:00.001-05:00

Is it really even a contest?

Eric Nakamura in the spotlight

2009-04-21T01:50:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-04-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-04-09T02:26:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-03-25T10:43:00.000-05:00

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

Shijuku Incident vs Dan The Automator

2009-03-22T12:47:00.003-05:00

To celebrate the premiere of Shinjuku Incident today I'm reposting the viral video that was made for the film. The song Let's Go is by Crudo made up of Dan The Automator(Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School) and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom). This is a viral NOT a trailer made to just give you a taste but reveal nothing! Thaks to Kim Chan for the edit.

24 Herbs on Nikeskateboarding.com!!

2009-03-14T05:02:00.002-05:00

Yeah!!! 24 Herbs got a track on the Nike Skateboarding site. So proud of the fellas and the song is perfect for the footage. Congrats to my boys! Check it out:

Zeigeist

2009-03-03T08:05:00.003-05:00

Some of you may have already seen this. If you've got a spare couple of hours, you should check it out. You may believe it, you may not but it will make you think differently about the world. It may open your eyes, it may even motivate you do something but no matter what it will definitely affect you. If you are moved by it check out the addendum here.

Sichuan- Habiat for Humanity

2009-02-27T00:46:00.001-05:00

Last week me and a few boys from my company,Revolution Talent Management, headed up to Sichuan last week to build houses for the quake victims. This was something I've wanted to do since the earthquake and I finally got my chance. Habitat for Humanity is an organization started back in 1976 with an aim of helping build homes for the impoverished around the world. As we all know more than 70,000 lost their lives in the quake and millions became homeless. Habitat aims to build over 700 homes for families who lost their homes to the quake. We went to the area known as Xiao Yu Dong two hours outside of Chengdu.
Our first stop was to see the Xiao Yu Dong bridge. This bridge was the only way out of the Xiao Yu Dong area. When the quake hit, this bridge went down. Luckily no one was on it but it's collapse also closed off the only route into Xiao Yu Dong by car making it impossible to drive in ambulances. So the injured had to be carried one by one throught the fast running waist high river to get them to the other side and off to hospitals in Chengdu. That's real heroism.
We then went to visit the temporary housing shelters where most of the homeless have been put up by the government. Although conditions are good and clean. Each family only gets a 20sqm(200sqft) room. So many are eager to rebuild and move out.
An outdoor dining room. Although these temporary structures are probably not the best to live in, I found them architecturally interesting and beautiful.
Some have even built their own temporary houses out of scrap wood and materials just so they have a place to store their belongings. It's interesting to note that although conditions are simple, eveyone has a tv and sattelite dishes. These were provided by the govenrment so they could watch the Olympics.
We then went to a farmers house to have lunch. HIs new Habitat house was being built just next door but in the meantime he built his own temporary house because the govenrment provided ones just couldn't hold all his stuff! His wife prepared an amazing feast for us made up of food fresh from their farm. In fact I actually saw the veggies being picked and brought straight to the kitchen and the chicken pens were right next to our table. Probably the best and healthiest meal I've had in a long time. Organic's got nothing on this.

After lunch we headed over to our building site to get to work. The houses are actually quite simple. They were designed for Habitat by the Sichuan University Architecture department. They are timber framed houses made of light but sturdy materials. The advantage of a wood frame is that it is much more resiliant to the typical concrete slab construction that was used before. In concrete construction, all the structural connections are fixed making it a rigid structure so when the earthquake hit they just crumbled down. In these wood homes, the connections are bolted together making a flexible joint so when there is an earthuake the structure can sway with the movement of the earth, causing less damage. Even if things start to fall the materials are lighter causing less injury than a falling concrete slab.

We spent most of the day moving bricks and filtering stones out of huge piles of sand so it could be mixed with concrete so we could start laying the brick walls. Here are two volunteers filtering out the sand. Looks easy at first but it's probably the most backbreaking jobs on site.

The next day we stopped by the shleter again this time to play with the kids. Jun Kung taught them how to play musical chairs as well as sang a few songs to them on his guitar. The kids then sang a couple of songs back for us. It was great to see the kids happy and having a good old time.

We also took some time to look at more of the disaster areas. Check out my albums for more photos of the damage. There are too many to put in this blog. In this picture we are actually on a fault line. As you can see the 50m wide bit of road that is rasied up about 2m. The row of building that was sitting on it was totally wiped out almost as if a giant monster just stomped thoruhg there.
We then headed back to work and my goal of the day was to finish laying a brick wall. Don' have any pictures of it because I was so busy building it but we finally finished off. The family in the middle is who we were building for. It was such a pleasure to actually be able to see and talk to the ones we were helping. I hoped they liked our work. Special thanks to Brandon Ho (Ghost Style) and Phat Chan from 24 Herbs, Jung Kung, Ken Wong for coming up with me to help. Also thanks to Habitat for their work in Sichuan. You can see it is making a difference. If you want to know how you can go and help or if you would like to donate go to their link above.