chiseen

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.

Little David

2009-02-09T00:12:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure if this is right or wrong but it's definitely pretty funny. This kid came from the dentist and the drugs obviously hadn't worn off yet. He's high as a kite! I don't remember trips to the dentist being that fun. Reminds me of kids in highschool getting drunk for the first time.

Narcissus Pageant

2009-02-05T12:07:00.001-05:00

I have no idea what the Narcissus Pageant is but my friend sent me this the other day and all I have to say is if it's got Bruce...it's amazing.

Telemarketers

2009-02-03T08:41:00.003-05:00

Calls from telemarketers has got to be the most annoying calls you can get. I usually get them when I'm in a meeting, sleeping in late or away for work. What's worse are the ones from your own cell phone provider. I got suckered into a call the other day from my cell phone provider. He hooked me by starting the conversation with, "You're paying too much for you current plan." He then convinced me to change to a cheaper plan with more minutes...cheaper by how much? 12hkd a month! Not much of a difference to make me jump for joy but since I had already been talking to him for a few minutes, I figured why not? Big mistake. He arranged to change my plan and even sent a customer service rep over to my office to sign the new contract and get the new sim card the next day. After signing the contract I was told to switch sim cards within a few days and the new plan would start.
I switched cards that day but then realized I could only make calls. Somehow the sms function and the email functions on my Blackberry weren't working any more. I couldn't make long distance calls either and I assume my roaming function wasn't activated either. After countless calls and tinkering back and forth turns out the guy that changed my plan, didn't bother to reactivate all the features I had before. When I changed everything back to what it was before...it all ended up being MORE than what I was paying before. WTF? Wouldn't you be boiling in your own skin if that happened to you? Nevermind that I was without Blackberry functions for 5 days(that's a long time for a Crackberry addict like me) and wasted all that time calling back and forth, being put on hold a million times only to have the same plan I started with but more expensive! Seriously WTF? I kick myself now for even talking to the guy.
Right after this happened an old friend coincidentally sent me the following email. It's from Andy Rooney, that old guy who wraps up every episode of 60 Minutes. I wish I had received this sooner...

Andy Rooney Tips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work !!
(1)The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...'
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!

(3) Junk Mail Help:
This one is the best!
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the ma il for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the la st increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents.
The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage cost s again. You get the idea !
If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

Change has officially begun!

2009-01-21T04:23:00.003-05:00

Wow! What an amazing day yesterday was! I am so excited and happy to see the collective energy present at the swearing in of our 44th president. Truly a historic day in American history and one that will not be forgotten for generations to come. I am proud of what we have done as Americans.
They say there were upwards of 1.5 million people there to witness history in the making. I really wish I could have been there to absorb all the good vibes.
Although Obama's speech was somber, I think his message to all of America was extremely clear. We need to get off our asses and do our bit to make America a respectable nation once again. The illusion of prosperity of the past 8 years has really screwed things up for not only the country but for the world and it's our responsibility as a world leader to tighten up our belts and pitch in to help fix what was damaged and at the same time take us into a new era. I am excited!

Downhill Skateboard = Homesick

2009-01-06T09:05:00.004-05:00

http://www.vimeo.com/1654340
Can't figure out how to load Vimeo clips here. Maybe someone can help me. Anyway check out the video above.

Never thought a downhill skateboarding clip would make me homesick but I used to drive this road at least 4-5 times a week when I was in high school. The highway was always faster, but going over the Caldecott Tunnel from Berkeley back to my house in Orinda was always way more fun. It's actually a really great road set up for mountain rally racing. I did many stupid things on that road as a kid. I can't even remember how many times I've spun out on that crazy hairpin turn that you see these skaters barely make it around. I think I did skate it once or twice but I think I only had the balls to butt board it down. As you can see in the video here, you go really damn fast!
They call it Claremont Canyon because it ends up near the Claremont Hotel which is the big white building you see near then end of their run. At the very end of the run you can also see the burrito joint I used to eat at all the time as a kid. I still try to stop by there at least once every time I go back.
Actually now that I think about it, this road was the center of my existence as a youngster. I used to hang out in Berkeley on Telegraph Ave after school and on the weekends and then boy race it home back to Orinda when I was done. Sometimes my friends and I would spend the evenings racing though the hills in our cars and then end the night at a cafe down in Berkeley. Fortunately for me and my own personal safety I don't race cars anymore but I can't help but reminisce about the good ol' days. Fun times it was.

The Red Camera

2008-12-14T07:24:00.003-05:00

This amazing and newish Red One camera professional digital HD camera is the brainchild of Jim Jannard, who previously owned Oakley, the sunglass company. With the billions he made from Oakley, he was determined to make an affordable, compact high end HD camera that could rival film. For those of you who don't know, there is a digital revolution going on right now in the film world as we make the transition from film to digital HD. Everyone knows that digital HD is the future but the technology still hasn't been able to rival the quality of the light captured on film. The Red comes close and the great thing about it is that it 's cheap, well relatively speaking. So instead of a hundred or so thousand (US)dollars for a film camera, only a few thousand can get you the Red. I just think it looks cool..I want one. I'm jealous of fellow AnDer Mark Allen because he has one.

Check out this skate footage shot on the Red One camera. Probably some of the most amazing quality skate footage I've ever seen.

Photoshop Madness

2008-11-28T04:14:00.004-05:00

My sister is getting really good with Photoshop. She sent this to my whole family the other day and said she saw it while driving through Tsim Sha Tsui. I believed it for about two seconds but my Mom on the other hand was upset that I allowed someone to put that poster up on a building without getting her permission first. I told her not to worry, she looks still looks beautiful in the picture and it won't be up for much longer. At her age she has no idea what Photoshop is and that anyone with some time, patience and a home computer can do this stuff nowadays.

Bad English

2008-11-28T04:07:00.003-05:00

I'm sure most have you have seen stuff from engrish.com, the website that publishes examples of badly used English. My sister sent me this one today. It's pretty hilarious but I am a bit curious as to what this product is because it claims to do quite a lot of different and unrelated things all at once. Anyone ever try this stuff? What else can it do?

MC Jin

2008-11-23T09:49:00.004-05:00

If you bought MC Jin's latest Hong Kong release ABC, then you might have seen the dvd it came with it. Terence and I produced the three videos for the album and I directed this one.

This song is about Jin and his family but it's also the story of an immigrant family but it's also about just trying to get by in life. Which unless you were born rich, most people must struggle with. I thought the lyrics were great because they were intensely personal yet very universal at the same time. Since Jin was releasing his first album in Hong Kong, I wanted to take him out of the American Chinatown environment that he grew up in and place him right into the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, like he belonged there. Because of a super limited budget, I kept the video as simple as possible so that you, as the viewer, can just focus on his words. So it's just a simple stedi-cam shot of Jin walking home from a long day of work telling you his story. Every man's struggle, Every man's life.

I Love New York

2008-10-22T20:55:00.003-05:00

Was back in New York again, this time to finish shooting Clara Law's film, "Like a Dream". It's been a rough and tough few months. We began shooting in July in Taipei then Shanghai and finally here. I'm so wasted from this shoot having lost over 15 pounds. Despite all the suffering I really think this is going to be a good one. I can't wait to see it. I guess my reward for all the blood seat and tears(literally) is that we finished in one of my favorite cities in the world. Check out some NY images below.

The Guggenheim Museum by architect Frank Lloyd Wright is a structure that never ceases to amaze me. I can't even imagine what people were thinking when it opened in 1937, I know it angered many but it must have really blown people away.

The spiral motif appears all over the place inside.

One of my favorite artists Jeff Koons had an exhibition of his sculptures on top the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I love this piece. The Met is crazy big. Even a full day is not enough time here but it's amazing to see examples of art from the beginning of time to now in just one place.

This piece was part of a special exhibition at The Met entitled "Race and Indentity". If you look closely, this head is made out of patent leather pumps.

This ad is just silly funny.

Saw this at a private gallery on Houston St. It's sad to see Grover from Sesame Street end up like this. I wonder what happened? Now he's broke and a drunk. I wonder if he'll make a come back like Robert Downey Jr.?

But you don't have to goto a museum to see art in New York. Nice piece of graffiti here in Union Square.

This is just so wrong. It looked ten times worse in person. But I see this all the time all over the place. Guys and girls from all walks of life. I really just don't get it. How can you not know half of your ass is hanging out of your pants?

And I can't talk about New York without talking about the food!!! Had several good meals while I was here in an effort to gain back some of that lost weight. This was todays breakfast. You can never go wrong at Clinton Street Bakery. Usually you've got to wait 30-40 minutes for a seat but this time there was a free table just as we walked in. This is the Southern Breakfast. Two eggs, cheese grits, candied bacon and two fried green tomatoes coupled up with some coffee and a glass of fresh squeezed oj and you're ready to start your day!

I think I fall deeper and deeper in love with this place every time I come here. I'm leaving tomorrow, I wish I could stay longer but I'm dying to get home after being gone for so long.