Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone a great year ahead!

Light Speed

This year has come and gone like a train in the night. I'm forever thankful for all my blessings, and look forward to whatever's in store for me next..

It's The Festive Season

Time to look back on a good year,

pop some bottles with the homies, and get a little CRUNKY!

Pass The Night

Samba Patio

...minus the Samba (and the patio).

Outdoor Pool

In China, usually when people mention "outdoor pool",

you don't need to run and change into your Speedos

(well you can, but it might get a little drafty..)

Peak To Fong 2011

Every year, Hong Kong Dog Rescue organizes a fund raising dog walk, which starts at The Peak, on the top of Hong Kong Island, and winds its way down to the famous entertainment district of Lan Kwai Fong.

The event aims not only to raise money for the non-profit organization, but also to promote responsible pet ownership, and build awareness of pet adoption as an alternative way to find a loyal canine companion.

This year, Disney is sponsoring the charity event, and I had the opportunity to design the souvenir tee. I was more than happy to give back to this worthwhile cause, as several years ago, I myself adopted my dog from HKDR.

The turn out was great, with several thousand people (and nearly as many dogs!) joining the walk this morning, including celebrities Sandy Lam and Josie Ho, who posted pics of themselves wearing the tees!

If you'd like to consider adopting a dog, make a donation, or know more about Hong Kong Dog Rescue, please click here.

Wasted Youth, Pt. 30

I pretty much expect a minimum 30 min delay as standard..

Airline: China Eastern Airlines

Route: Xiamen - Shanghai

Delayed flights: 30

Total time spent waiting: 1 day, 9 hours

To Infinity And Beyond!!

Some look book images for our Toy Story collaboration.

Ya, I know some of it's kinda kooky, and probably wouldn't fly in N. America, but Asians love anything cute and quirky. People lined up for it! We got picked up by Huffington Post and Perez Hilton. Lol.

Toy Story x Bossini

Today is the launch of our Toy Story collaboration with Hong Kong based fashion retailer Bossini. A pop-up shop resembling Andy's bedroom has been re-created to merchandise the product, with celebrity Joey Yung as the spokesmodel. The signature apparel and accessories pieces in the collection, as well as the pop-up shop concept, were designed by renowned creative studio AllRightsReserved.

Wasted Youth, Pt. 29

Stuck at the gate for an extra 30 mins.

Airline: Shanghai Airlines

Route: Xiamen - Shanghai

Delayed flights: 29

Total time spent waiting: 1 day, 8.5 hours

Wasted Youth, Pt. 28

The usual 30 min delay..

Airline: Xiamen Airlines

Route: Shanghai - Quanzhou

Delayed flights: 28

Total time spent waiting: 1 day, 8 hours

"Can I get a 12 piece bucket with that phone?"

On my lunch break today, I went to the electronics market to pick up the new Blackberry Bold 9900.

When it comes to haggling at these places, I am the worst (mostly because I don't have the patience). So I was already going in expecting to get ripped off. But surprisingly, it was no fuss, and the guy gave me the going price right off the bat. Done deal. The best part about the whole transaction though, after dropping $650 on a phone, was the fact that he put it in a KFC bag.

We Are Like Butterflies...

"...who flutter for a day, and think it's forever."

- Carl Sagan -

Nike GYAKUSOU x UNDERCOVER

Was invited to the GYAKUSOU x UNDERCOVER pre-launch event at Nike's Harajuku flagship store. The Gyakusou collection takes its name from the small but highly dedicated Tokyo running group of the same name, which includes Undercover founder Jun Takahashi.  "Gyaku" in Japanese means "wrong way" and "sou" means "running" - a reference to the fact that the group runs the city's parks counter-clockwise, as opposed to the norm of clockwise. The apparel collection draws upon an obsession for improved performance through design innovation. So expect a lot of technical, lightweight fabrics, considered cut lines, and functional details.

It was a nice event and was great to run into (no pun intended) some of my old Nike colleagues.  More about the event here.  

Dopeland

Fantasy Dream Salon Castle In The Sky?

I don't really understand

the choice of graphics for this hair salon window,

but at least it makes me think happy thoughts.

CLOT x 84-74 Lab x Disney Alice Windbreaker

One of the featured items we are launching at our store opening today is this Alice In Wonderland inspired windbreaker. Designed by Kazuki Kuraishi under his new label 84-74 lab, the jacket features keyhole-shaped welded pockets and zipper pulls shaped as keys, shown here worn by CLOT's Edison Chen. This very limited edition jacket retails for US$1100.00, and is available exclusively at Man Is In The Forest Taipei.

Man Is In The Forest Taipei

Setting up for our pop-up shop grand opening tomorrow. The space was designed by Japanese botanical artist Makoto Azuma. All the plants in the installation are real, and use a new biotechnology where the plants do not require sunlight, and only minimal water to survive.

Azuma-san's designs "aim to increase the existential value of plants by finding out the most mysterious figure only owned by flowers and plants and converting it to the artistic expression."

Travelling Mickey Exhibition Taipei

Next week is the grand opening of our

Man Is In The Forest Taipei pop-up shop.

In conjunction with the opening, is the launch of the 3rd and final leg of our Travelling Mickey exhibition. Please stop by the newly opened ATT4Fun Mall and check it out if you're in town.

Black Rabbit Music Festival

Just got back from an unexpectedly fun outdoor event. We got comped a couple of tickets to the first ever Black Rabbit Music Festival. It was at some field way out in the cut and took a while to trek out there, but I could think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than drinking beers and listening to live music outside.

There were 3 stages, with 30 Seconds To Mars as the headliners for the 2-day event. Grandmaster Flash is always a good time, and he had the crowd jumping. But who really surprised me was Ludacris! As commercial as he is, you shouldn't be surprised that you know the lyrics to every song he played - you don't actually realize how many hits he has until you hear them all back to back like that.

Anyways, it was a fun day out, and I hope they do it again next year. Some good pics of the event here.

6 Feet Under

The Most Important Meal Of The Day

I love how perfectly artificial this breakfast setting from, oh.. about 1975 looks.

For The Birds

Math Graff

If Stephen Hawking were to stencil a piece,

it'd probably look like this.

Factory Direct

The factory downstairs from the photo studio we are working out of. Not sure what they actually make, but looks like good honest work. Where you sweat, and get your hands dirty, and go for beers at the local bar after punching out your time card. Kind of like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, minus the bucket of water raining down..

Elevated

"The elevator to success is out of order.

You'll have to use the stairs... one step at a time."

- Joe Girard -

Shoot Me Please

We're doing a photo shoot today for our upcoming Mickey Mouse fashion campaign. Setting up our equipment..

DMC China

As part of Nike's Festival of Sport weekend here in Shanghai, they hosted the DMC China finals.

See Horses

As a little kid, for some reason I always imagined seahorses in that same realm of fantasy creatures along with sea monkeys, winged lions, and unicorns. So it was strange seeing these laid out to dry. Shouldn't they be playing in the ocean with The Little Mermaid or something? Instead, they're going in someone's Chinese medicine..

Kowloon Sunset

Travelling Mickey HK Station

We're having the launch of our 2nd stop of the Travelling Mickey exhibition in Hong Kong today. Hong Kong based artist, Eric So, who contributed one of the 10 designs, will be joining us at the opening event. The exhibition is on display at Langham Place Mall in Mongkok. Please stop by and have a look if you have time.

Early Morning Mongkok

Sound Advice II

I accidentally stepped on one of my Nakamichi earbuds while getting out of a taxi, instantly disintegrating it to dust.

Needing a quick replacement, I picked up an inexpensive (around US$20) pair of Philips O'Neill SHO9950 Specked buds. The main selling point is it's tangle free nylon cord. Though it's a collaboration with O'Neill, these ear buds are not waterproof, so I'm not exactly sure how they link to surf..

After having the super bass-heavy Nakamichi's*, these sounded like I was listening to music through tin cans - flat and hollow, and not a lot of punch. But for 20 bucks, you can't expect too much and it's not really fair to compare them with a $100 pair.

The tangle free cord actually worked, which is great because I'm normally trying to pull a tangled mess of wires out of my pocket. But the problem with the textured cord is when you're moving around and it rubs against something, the sound travels up to your ear, which is really distracting. For that reason alone, I wouldn't recommend these.

*You can read my review of the Nakamichi's here.

Beer Testing - Round 23 (Canadian Open, Day 3)

The final day of competition, and Asahi "The Master" Pilsner continues to dominate.

Defending Champ

Name: Asahi "The Master" Pilsner

Origin: Tokyo, Japan

Alcohol: 5.5%

Price: USD2.55/can USD0.73/100mL

With 8 wins under its belt and a score of 8.95/10, who can take down this beer?

Challenger 1

Name: Phillips Brewing Co. Ginger Beer

Origin: Victoria, British Columbia

Alcohol: 5%

Price: USD4.71/650mL bottle  USD0.72/100mL

The idea of a ginger flavoured beer sounded delicious, and it stated on the label, "More Ginger than Gilligan can handle.", so we were expecting good things. On the pour, it had a nice amber colour, and a strong ginger aroma. However, it just tasted like watery beer with ginger added. Interesting idea on paper, but got hard to drink after a few sips, as the novelty quickly wore off. I think we were imagining it would taste more like a strong beer with a hint of ginger ale flavouring, rather than a weak beer with an overpowering spicy ginger sting. Final score 4.15/10.

Challenger 2

Name: Granville Island Ginger Beer

Origin: Vancouver, British Columbia

Alcohol: 5%

Price: USD5.41/650mL bottle  USD0.83/100mL

We tried Granville Island's limited release ginger beer as a direct comparison.  Although it also had a strong ginger smell to it, the taste was comparatively mild, but with a ginger aftertaste.  Slightly better than the Phillips Brewing.  Final score 6.25/10.

Challenger 3

Name: Cannery Brewing Blackberry Porter

Origin: Penticton, B.C.

Alcohol: 6.5%

Price: USD4.89/650mL bottle USD0.75/100mL

A really nice dark colour with a creamy head of foam on the pour, and a rich, berry aroma. Has an aftertaste of chocolate and black berries, but a really bitter after aftertaste in the back of the throat. Final score 4.5/10.

Challenger 4

Name: Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout

Origin: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Alcohol: 10%

Price: USD2.99/bottle USD0.84/100mL

Looks like motor oil on the pour. It has a strong, dark chocolate scent, as well as a strong smell of alcohol (well, it is 10%). The taste starts really bitter, but the aftertaste is a bit sweet. However, it gets harder and harder to drink, and all you can taste after a while is the alcohol. Final score 3.3/10.

Challenger 5

Name: La Binchoise Blonde

Origin: Belgium

Alcohol: 6.2%

Price: USD3.46/bottle USD1.05/100mL

Smells like a floral wheat beer. Very fizzy! Not really my thing. Final score 5.95/10.

Asahi "The Master" Pilsner's win streak continues with an unprecedented 8th straight title defence!

Live It

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker

Pender Grocery

I dig the type and colours.

New Ink

I was wandering around Gastown and came across this new tattoo studio that I'd never seen before. It looked like a dope space, so I went in to check it out. The guys were all real cool, and I already had an idea for my next piece, so I decided to just go for it and get it done. Check out the studio here. I'll post some pics of the new ink later.