Vice Anniversary

Congrats Bryan!

Skate Or Die

30 years later, I still have my Skull Skates deck with me. I remember my dad driving me all the way into the city to PD's Hot Shop on Oak St. to get this. Thanks Dad!

Peanut Butter Wolf @ Shelter

https://soundcloud.com/pbwolf

Died Young, Stayed Pretty

I found this wounded butterfly on the ground near Ebisu station.

1:1 Gundam

Also out in Odaiba, in front of the DiverCity Tokyo shopping mall, stands a life-sized 18 meter (6 storey high) Gundam robot. As a kid having grown up watching Gundam, seeing a 'real' one made me geek out a bit. The attention to detail is impressive, and daydreaming like a little boy again about these giant robots flying around defending the Earth seemed pretty rad.

Skyline GT-R

My brother and I went out to Odaiba to check out Toyota Mega Web, a huge complex which includes a showcase of the latest and future Toyota designs, a motion simulator in the 'Mega Theater', and 'Ride One', which lets licensed drivers test drive one of the latest Toyota cars of your choice on a 1.3km course. There is also a 'History Garage', showcasing a beautiful collection of classic cars, not only Toyota. This is a super crisp looking 1970 Toyota Skyline GT-R.

Mission Control

The most advanced toilet control panel I've ever seen. And this is in a public washroom! There is even a button to play music or the sounds of birds chirping beside a river, to mask the sounds of you doing your bizness.. Even the toilet roll dispenser is well thought out, maximizing space by creating a small table to put your phone, keys, lines of blow, what have you..

Happy Beef Life..

I have to say, my beef life was pretty happy at this yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant. They don't beat around the bush. You know exactly what you're getting when you come here.

Rattan To Go!

This rattan chair stacking talent is, in and of itself, a pretty impressive display. However, it's nowhere near the awesomeness of this iconic Malacca Rattan furniture commercial that was an important part of my childhood. If you grew up in Vancouver, B.C. in the 80's, you will definitely remember this. Catchiest jingle ever. "It's Malacca for the money. Wicker for the show. Fabrics to get ready baby. Rattan, to go!" See, I already can't stop singing it!

Wired

Get Your Kicks

Went to Lumpinee Boxing Stadium to check out the Muay Thai fights (thanks JM for hooking it up). It's a super old school arena, which adds to the whole atmosphere. On the 2nd level, gambling is allowed, so it's just as entertaining between rounds, watching the bets being placed using a flurry of hand signals. The energy of the crowd really picks up in the later rounds, as there's more money on the line. I felt like I was in the arena in Bloodsport, expecting Bolo Yeung to come walking out at any moment.

Chasin' Tail

Three month old jaguars at the Shanghai Zoo.

Some people are gonna say the zoo here is not bad, as far as zoos go (it's actually quite scenic with lots of trees, and a big park and lake in the middle). Others are gonna say zoos are cruel in general, but particularly in China where people have no compassion for the animals. Yes, I did see people being dickheads - spitting on the crocodiles to try and get them to react (I was this close to spitting on the guy), banging the sh*t out of the glass in the turtle tank (they're not gonna move any faster motherf*cker, THEY'RE TURTLES!), and feeding the bears junk food, so there's all sorts of garbage in their little habitat.

I didn't know how I felt about it. Living here in China this long, I already expected that sort of behaviour going in, so I just rolled my eyes, and mumbled 'wtf' a lot. I knew getting all huffy and righteous about it was gonna ruin my day, so I just tried to ignore it as best I could. It felt wrong though not to try to make change or speak up, even though it would inevitably fall on deaf ears. What does that make me for not standing against what I think is wrong? Is leading by example the only thing I can do in this situation, or is that just a cop out?..

2 (Whisky) Live Crew

My colleague asked me to go with him to check out Whisky Live, an annual tasting event bringing together all the top whisky* brands. We got hooked up with comp passes (thanks J.C.), but normally, for US$25, it's an all you can drink affair. So we made the rounds to each booth and sampled as many as we possibly could.

The most expensive bottle I saw was a vintage Dalmore, priced at US$80,000, which was part of their Constellation Collection - 21 bottles of their rarest and finest, dating from 1964-1992. They said within the first few hours of the event, some collector had already come in and snapped up the entire collection for I think close to half a mil U.S. (things were getting a bit blurry for me by that point, so my memory may not be 100%, but it was a hefty chunk of change nonetheless). Dude just bought the equivalent of an entire house to put in his cigar room..

I finally learned the difference between Scotch (it's made from barley) and Bourbon (it's made from corn and rye). And also the proper way to taste it (not in little shot glasses after you lose at a round of dice games):

1. Pour into a short stemmed glass that has a bowl and a narrow neck.

2. Coat the inside of the glass by tilting and rotating the glass slowly. Beads or 'tears' will fall back down the glass. The faster it falls, the younger the whisky. The smaller the beads, the higher the alcohol content.

3. When smelling, or 'nosing', make sure the whisky is settled. Don't swirl it around like wine. The high alcohol content will naturally evaporate on its own, allowing the various flavours to travel up the glass at different rates.

4. Taste slowly and work it around your mouth to hit all your taste buds. Pay attention to the finish for further flavours.

5. Re-evaluate the nose and taste by gradually pouring in a small amount of water, which disrupts the composition of the whisky and can release new flavours.

I skipped the Chivas and Johnnie Walker, as they just reminded me of going to a ktv. Of all the ones I tried, my favourites were probably the Glenfarclas and Glenrothes. But to be honest, after knocking back the first few, they all started tasting pretty good..

*I never noticed that there are 2 spellings. Americans and Irish tend to spell it whiskey with an "e", while Canadians, Scottish, and Japanese spell it whisky.

Kendrick and the Doctor

As part of the Beats By Dre promotion in Asia, Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar came through Shanghai to perform last night at Cuvve. My friends organized the event and did Dre and Kendrick's PR for their China leg of the tour, so we got hooked up with the VIP (thanks R.X., D.M., C.L. and J.L.) and were at the Beats tables. The club was rammed to the hot and sweaty hilt, so we were fortunate not to have to deal with gen pop. Dre didn't actually perform, and Kendrick only did 3 songs before they bounced. But we had free booze and got gifted a pair of headphones, so I wasn't complaining.

D.M., was great to see you up in Shanghai and catch up over dinner. I miss our Hong Kong days..

The Way Of Taste

I was craving something a little sweet after dinner, so I walked down to the All Days and bought this herbal jelly thing:

Upon opening it, I found under the lid what appeared to be a very zen set of instructions for reaching enlightenment through convenience store desserts..

I can appreciate the effort, but perhaps the way to spiritual awakening is lost in translation.

15 Minutes Eternal

"In the future, everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

- Andy Warhol -

Went to check out the Andy Warhol 15 Minutes Eternal exhibition at the Power Station of Art. Everyone knows his Marilyn Monroes and Campbell's Soup cans. But it was interesting to learn of his early works and see his progression to eventually become an icon of pop art and pop culture.

It was my first time to the Power Station, and I was amazed with the space. As the name implies, the museum was originally a power plant built in 1897, and was converted as one of the pavilions during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Sound Advice IV

As I mentioned in my last review, the Incase ear plugs tend to pop off and get lost pretty easily. I started off wearing the M sized plugs, and when I lost those, I managed ok with the large plugs. However, when I eventually had to resort to the small plugs, they were just too small and wouldn't stay in my ear. I liked the Incase ear buds a lot, but without any extra ear plug replacements, it was time to try another pair.

My friend at Apple hooked me up with a set of Earpods (thanks BBL!) to hold me over for a while. For US$30 stock headphones, I was pleasantly surprised! They are a HUGE improvement over the old Apple headphones (which sounded like what you'd expect cheap stock headphones to sound like). The new Earpods have a clear, dynamic range, with well-balanced bass. Really impressed.

HOWEVER.. the big fail is the fit, or lack of. The Earpods are a one-size-fits-all deal. Now, I don't think I have abnormally shaped ears, but as soon as I even moved around a little, the buds would fall out. Apart from walking around with my index fingers stuck in my ears, there was no way for the Earpods to stay put. Every few steps, I'd have to readjust them, forget about even trying to go for a run wearing them. I wondered if it could just be me, so I did a quick search online, and found that this is one of the major complaints. That smooth, white plastic and slightly oversized casing do not make for a snug fit. If these Earpods had come with some sort of thin rubber cover, I would be sold on these. But if they can't even stay in my ear, what good are they? Too bad, because the sound quality is great. For me at least, these Earpods are a definite NO!

A Hunny Day

Today we launched our Winnie the Pooh collection with Hong Kong retailer Bossini.

Winnie the Pooh x Bossini

Here's a preview of the collection we're launching.

Heather Grey Wall

I was invited to the opening of Kazuki Kuraishi's new retail concept, Heather Grey Wall. I couldn't make it to the festivities unfortunately, but the store is super dope. Find out more here.

A Little Birdie Told Me..

You have to accept the fact that sometimes you are the pigeon,

and sometimes you are the statue.
- Claude Chabrol -

Poppin' Bottles

Happy New Year from Ho Chi Minh