Not 3-wheelmotion, but I was pretty excited to get a glimpse of this new invention they got over here: An Invisible Suit! The scientists are still tinkering with the invisible technology, which explains why you can still see the gloves gripping the bike.
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Anyway, I wanted to explain my extended hiatus from the blog.
Commence circuitous story now: See about a month ago I was DJing at this party at this Nike party celebrating "Air Force 1's." Like with exhibits. And free scotch.
-- What exactly are Air Force 1's?
-- Back in the early 1980s, these were the first basketball shoes with the now ubiquitous "air" cushioning feature. Today Air Force 1 sneakers have reached iconic status in the "streetwear" phenomenon that has spread all across the globe and now China. Nike even flew in this b-boy crew from Korea (word to their fried chicken) as well as DJ Clark Kent from NY.
-- It was a great party. A doozie, if you will. I met some new friends and the hip hop legend, Clark Kent, who was instrumental in introducing this dude named Jay-Z into the hip hop game.
-- I was stationed up on this huge stage (I'm the little speck below), which was supposed to be restricted access.
-- After my set I went down to mingle, as James Brown used to say (see 1:15 into the video).
--
Anyway the point of this whole story is that after the party, I went back up on stage to the restricted access area to pack up my equipment and...my laptop was missing!!! Somebody straight jacked my laptop from the "restricted access" area.
Some great pics gone. My music! Devastating.*
So getting your laptop jacked is not conducive towards updating blogs, which is a major reason why the blog has not been updated in a while.
Other reasons include me starting a new job and my laziness.
[*In one of the miracles of China, Nike's event production team bought me a replacement laptop same as before! I'm coming back strong with my blog game now.]
I had the pleasure of meeting this fine fellow on the way up to the Great Wall. He was slanging tamarinds, and I bought some.
Notice his pimped out chair. Old school. --
On the other end of the old vs. new school spectrum, this picture was taken at this hot pot restaurant on Gui Jie* ("Ghost Street") around 3am on a Tuesday night (after the Talib Kweli concert). If you look closely, you can see a balladeer, jamming on the acoustic geeeetar. Apparently there is a crew of these dudes who make the rounds at all these late night restaurants and charge about 2-3 USD to sing some songs while you eat. This dude was the 4th guy we saw during our meal. Evidently the Chinese young folks like to get serenaded while they dip thin slices of lamb and beef into a delicious boiling broth.
[*Gui Jie was the first street in Beijing where restaurants began opening up--after Deng Xiaoping decreed that: "To get rich is glorious." It's called "Ghost Street" because the restaurants open late and don't close until about 5:46 in the mornin' crack dawn'n now I'm yawn'n...] --
So back in China and life has returned to straight random. One night I'm hanging out with Talib Kweli and his entourage at his recent performance in Beijing.
-- The next night I'm camping on the Great Wall of China. Amazing. (Real talk!)
Some friends organized the trip and I...tagged along. One of the guys had just bought a car, so I took my first road trip in China. After about a 2 hour drive from Beijing, we arrived to the base of the mountain. Ahead of us: about a 3 hour hike up to the Great Wall.
Luckily I only had a small backpack, which I had borrowed from my friend. The other 3 had these serious hiking backpacks full of tents, sleeping bags, water, food, Famous Grouse, etc. It was a completely different experience than my previous and only other trip to the Great Wall.
[In 2000 my family went to this wack (real talk) part of the Great Wall called Badaling. It was like a zoo with almost as many street vendors as tourists.]
This time, we saw only a handful of other people hiking. Once we reached the top of the mountain, we found the wall to be raw and relatively untouched.
"Relatively untouched." There was still a lady (sitting) who had hiked up the mountain to sell bottled water and tea in that cooler. Also peep my boy rocking the "unbuttoned" look. --
Anyway, from this point we still had to traverse up the wall itself to one of the sentinel towers to encamp. This part of the hike was actually the hardest and a bit scary (real talk). I could not help but marvel at how the Chinese had built this thing. The incline at certain parts turned almost vertical. How did they get all the bricks up the mountain??! The wall was literally crumbling under our feet as we climbed.
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We did make it to the tower right before dark fell, and as my friend Steve said, "It was glorious."
We set up our tents and busted out the Famous Grouse. --
The best part of the trip came when we were sitting on the roof of the sentinel tower in the middle of the night. This fog had rolled over the valley below and all you could see were the surrounding mountain peaks and the tops of the hills below. The sky was as clear as I've ever seen in China and the moon illuminated the landscape so that the hilltops jutting through the fog below looked like islands in a sea of mist.
I felt like I was inside a Chinese painting.
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-- You can't help but feel the presence of all the history permeating China, and the way the country is modernizing so rapidly makes it such a fascinating place.
-- Apologies for the blog hiatus. I recently got back to China after almost a month back in the USandA. USandA is a pretty nice place.
Here are some things I already miss (in no particular order):
Clean air. (Picture taken near the Faculty Club on the UC-Berkeley campus) --
Chillin' at beach houses. (Picture taken at Stinson Beach...congrats to Dan and Jenny again!) --
Chillin' on rooftops. (Picture taken at the PONA in Chi-town) --
Booty width discrepancies. (Picture taken in downtown Chicago) --
Hanging out with OG's in the LES at parties with free malt liquor. Word to my man Roscoe. (Pictures taken at the Reed Space in NYC) --
New York City. My first time back since moving away. I must say it was a bit weird not having my own place to stay. Big big ups to James, Paul W., Rob, and Jiminie for making me feel still at home. (Picture taken outside of Frank in the East Village in NYC) --
Diversity. (Picture taken in 42nd St subway station in NYC) --
Guitar Hero!!! (Picture taken at Casa Andria, Christina, & Justin in SF) --
DJing in NYC with my homeskillets. Word to Moe Choi, my bro (Derek), and Adrien. (Picture taken at Double Happiness...RIP) --
Fully stocked refrigerators with Lychee POM juice. Word to Paul and Mona. Bratwurst modeled by Notorious VIV. (Picture taken at the PONA) --
MEXICAN FOOD!!! Word to Ms. Marie for facilitating maximals last-minute burrito and taco nourishment before the 12 hour flight back to China. (Picture taken on the Mission in SF)
-- For reals I miss most of all my homeskillets and homeskillettes in Chicago, DC, New York, SF, and Virginia.
Real talk.
Speaking of which...new favorite video?
"...I wish you woooooouuuuuld burn my motherfocking clothes!!!!"
In an earlier post, I referenced China's manners and etiquette campaign in advance of the 2008 Olympics. Because China sees these Olympic Games as its coming out party to the world, it is very self-conscious about its image. Next August when Beijing is flooded with foreigners, China wants these visitors to return home and talk about how Chinese people are so modern and sophisticated. Not about how uncouth Chinese people are.
Of course the Western mainstream news media has picked up on this story, and of course they have to add their own little slant.
After living in China for a while, I can't help but notice how the Western media's depiction of China is often quite skewed or at least incomplete.
Notice the selected quotes.
"If I hadn't learned some international rules and standards on manners, I could have made a fool out of myself."
Or the lady with the Chinese Jeri Curl: "I have higher standards for myself now. I have made great progress in dressing and manners."
I mean come on! It's not like Chinese people don't know how to act. I mean I go out to restaurants all the time and...
That ish is gross son! WTF?!
"Man, my ear really itches! Hey bro do you happen to have any Q-Tips on you?"
"Nah man I don't mess with Q-Tips no more. Just use that chopstick."
Back in Beijing now, after a pretty surreal experience in Korea. Spent 2 weeks in Hotel Odaesan in Odaesan National Park schooling young ninjas. Up at 6:50am. Done at 9pm. Had some interesting conversations for sure. One of the things I had to explain was that Michael Jackson was not born looking like that (true story).
We stayed in this pretty nice hotel that played a CSI marathon every night on the English channel. So random.
-- So in the hotel lobby one day, this kid, about age 4, and his older brother, a plump 10 year old, approached me and asked me if I was American.
"Yes. Yes, I am lil' fella."
The younger boy, a bit shy, whispered in the ear of the older kid, who was apparently the designated translator for this cultural exchange delegation. I wondered what young Korean children know about America. Do they all hate Bush?
The older kid asked me, "Do you raise animals?"
"Um...no."
"Thank you."
The younger boy's thirst for knowledge was not quenched though. He again whispered in the older kid's ear, presumably posing another question. I wondered if he knew about Michael Jordan. Did he want to ask me about the movie, Transformers?
"Do you eat vegetables well?"
What are they teaching Korean youth about Americans? "Don't be like American kids. They only know how to eat vegetables with mediocre ability!" --
About 2.5 hours east of Seoul, the scenery in Odaesan was quite idyllic. The air was soooo much cleaner than in Beijing. The contrast made me think of the scene in Spaceballs when they take out the can of fresh air. I would definitely buy a can of fresh air in Beijing. (Business idea #29582).
Beyond the air quality, the Korean hygiene standards are definitely quite ahead of those in China. Below the machine on the left uses UV light to kill the bacteria on the cups for complimentary water on the right. So thoughtful!
-- As mentioned earlier, the food in Korea is pretty bomb. Had a nice BBQ one evening, but alas, no reeeeibs.
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Speaking of food, back in Seoul I passed by the restaurant where Madonna works.
-- I also found the Wicked Witch of the Far, Far East. She got crushed by a newspaper stand in a Seoul subway station!
-- Regarding the Seoul nightlife, I noticed that people seem to know what they want.
-- And if they like it, they want more of it.
-- And if they really like it, hey why not even more?!
-- OK, this is getting ridiculous...
-- At times I felt like there were all these subliminal messages as well.
-- One of the highlights of the trip was going to a Korean film festival and catching a screening of the movie, Planet B-Boy, that my cousin, Amy Lo, co-produced. (Big ups to Benson Lee and Johnny Lee!).
Really, really dope. The film broke the audience record at this past year's Tribeca Film Festival. One of the crews from Korea featured in the movie came to the screening with their families.
-- Apparently b-boying in Korea is HUGE. The crew above, Last For Won, are like national icons, and they now tour all-around the world repping Korea. To be honest, I kind of forgot about b-boying after the 80s, so I was blown away when I saw these dudes from France, Japan, Korea, etc. busting some next next next level ish.
A bit incredulous are you? Peep a clip for yourself.
