I D.J.ed a party for Shanghai Tang in Hong Kong last month and all of a sudden I’ve been getting tons of offers to spin. The people that are contacting me are mostly event companies. Luxury brands hire these firms to organize their fashion shows and launch parties. Because Hong Kong is such a wealthy market and because China is such a huge growth market for luxury items, there is a constant stream of events every week in Hong Kong, and now in major cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai as well.

A few weeks ago I got an offer to d.j. two events in Beijing. One was a Ferragamo fashion show in The Forbidden City, and the other was a fashion show for the British brand DAKS. My schedule was to arrive in Beijing on Thursday around noon time, drop off my luggage and then head to The Forbidden City to do a soundcheck. My flight left H.K. at 9:15, which is a little on the early side, especially since I got asked to D.J. my friend Imani’s going away party on Wednesday night. (It ended up going til 1:30, and I didn’t sleep til much later.)

At Imani’s party I tested out Scratch Live, a new hardware / software package for d.j.ing with a laptop connected to turntables. I just bought it a few days before and hadn’t had a chance to test it out. It performed well at the party, and as it turns out, I ended up using it for both the Ferragamo and the DAKS events.

Anyway, my taxi driver dropped me off way too early for the special enterance to Tai Miao (the building where the gig was,) and I had to walk for 10 minutes before getting to the venue. This was a hassle because I was hauling a bunch of equipment and records.

I found the alley way that led to the back entrance of the venue, and followed the sound of music to lead me to the correct spot.

Just came back from my 3 day Beijing trip. I D.J.ed two major fashion shows - one for Ferragamo that was in The Forbidden City, and another for the U.K. brand DAKS. I also managed to see 12 of my friends and caught a music discussion/installation with Brain Eno, as well as checked out N.Y. D.J. Roc Raida on the wheels at MIX. It was a hectic trip, but a great time overall.

A few nights ago I went for dinner on The Peak and ended up going for a walk and taking a few photos. It was the clearest day in a long time, so I couldn’t help myself - even though I have around a hundred photos from here already. The view never gets old.

The search lights in the above photo, shooting up from the building across the water must be a property company looking to generate interest in a new development. Hong Kong is under constant construction.

The government is beginning to develop a section of reclaimed land called West Kowloon. It’s on the Western side of Tsim Sha Tsui. (It’s the right side middle of the photo above.) I’ve seen some of the models and it’s going to be VERY impressive. H.K. has a number of large waterfront projects going on right now that are really going to up the quality of life in the city. The harbor front walks are already enjoyable, but they’re being expanded tremendously. I hope they stay away from the gimicky crap like ‘Avenue of the Stars’ that they created in T.S.T. though.

I saw a new Sony ad campaign today on the MTR (the subway in H.K.). It features a free-hand drawing style that is currently popular with certain Japanese clothing designers. It’s sort of an anti computer-perfect look. It’s more like doodles than graffiti, and it’s meant to be youthful and fun. Of course, I’d prefer to see the trains with graff ads, but it did catch my eye.

I was looking forward to catching Jazzy Jeff at Dragon-I for the third time. Although he doesn’t play that much of my favorite Hip Hop, he does play a good classics set, in addition to mixing in the latest R&B. His mixing is extremely precise and he always cuts beats up nice. I don’t know why he doesn’t work in more underground Hip Hop. Once you have the crowd going, they’re going to respond to solid beats - especially on the strength of his rep. I wish more international d.j.s would play a greater variety of music, and expose people to more interesting stuff than simply the MTV pop standards. Anyway, he’s got skills, and he was the inventor of the transformer scratch, which IS STILL THE BEST SCRATCH - all you West Coast turntablist nerds! Ha. So I cut him some slack on the song selection.

Before I went to Dragon-I, I met up with a friend and went to the grand opening party for Sugar, a club that actually soft-opened about three weeks ago. It’s located in the same building as Hei Hei (also in Central). Everyone keeps talking about how big it is, but it doesn’t seem big to me. It’s divided into 2 rooms, and has lots of seating - maybe that’s why I don’t think it’s big. In Hong Kong, people flock to the newest thing. It could be a store, a restaurant or a club, but you gain face by going to the newest place. There is a local definition of the word ‘trendy’ that is without the negative connotations, and used in a positive sense that means something like ‘up-to-date’. People like to be considered trendy. The crowd at Sugar is higher class than Hei Hei, and I like going there so far as a new edition to my normal rounds. You’ll see people that would rarely go to Dragon-I and Volar at Sugar. I find it far more well run than Hei Hei, and I like that their door policy is better. At the opening I ran into my friend Sarika who told me she’s acting in a new local horror film! Wow! I’m really happy for her, and I’m excited to see it. I ran into a few other people before heading back up to D.I. (Dragon-I) to check out Jazzy Jeff.

After a long weekend of partying, the last thing I needed was a hectic Monday night. I forgot that Tuesday was a holiday, and I was like ‘what’s up with all the people out tonight?’. Ha. Started off at a birthday party at Bling, then bounced over to Nadia’s, then Yumla, Dragon-I, Volar, then back to Bling, then Sugar and Hei Hei. After that I ran into some peeps on the street and went to a freakin’ full-on rave party at around 4am, and then ended up at Home Base around 5:30. I had the sense to call it a night slightly before 6. It was kind of lame everywhere, but I met a few new people and had fun. I was rolling solo, like I do most of the time, which allows me to hit so many spots in one night. I guess I’ve got club-going ADD. Probably because the music is almost never to my liking, I’m always looking for something more. When I left the rave I walked back to Soho. Got a chance to take a photo of a cool futuristic walkway that’s probably over 20 years old. It connects IFC and Chater House to the Jardine building (the one with all the circles) and the main Central post office.

I’m looking forward to checking out the new Johnnie To film ELECTION. I was walking through the MTR and saw the poster today.

I have been told - by someone who would know, that the film is very accurate. It’s about a Triad electing a new boss. I guess Triad movies are as enduring / endearing subject matter to H.K. people as Mafia movies are to New Yorkers.

Notice that the poster has the symbol ‘III’ in a red triangle which identifies it as a ‘category’ three film, meaning that you have to be over 18 to view it. This is usually due to language and nudity (but it has no correlation to violence!)

Heard a little about the movie a few months ago, the same night the beer bong was “lost” at Edison’s PSP party. Ha! No one really remembers that night! That was the first night I had my camera… and somehow it got chipped that night! Maybe my friend Carrie had something to do with it!? Will add some photos from that night in a later post.

Stopped by artist / photographer / creative director Wing Shya’s photo exhibit on Saturday night. I was at an event at Lane Crawford in IFC2 and afterwards I jumped down to Star Ferry and hopped over to Tsim Sha Tsui. It was the clearest night in weeks, so I took a bunch of photos from the boat. Afterwards I walked along the promenade in T.S.T. towards the venue. This was the same view that greeted me on my very first night in Hong Kong many years ago. The buildings looked amazing and it’s still awe inspiring. The XLARGE Fingercroxx exhibit was held at the EXIT Double-Park shop on Granville Road. There were around 12 black and white photographs, some featuring famous, iconic Hong Kong people. Cara Chan, Sam Lee, Prodip and a few others featured in the photos attended.

Was on my home from a long night around 3 or 4am. It’s typhoon season here and it started pouring rain. I walked up through Soho using the escalator system to avoid getting soaked. At my street I needed to run, but I waited for a few minutes to see if the rain would subside. (It didn’t!) While I was waiting I took out my camera and took a few shots. One was of the water cascading down the stairs leading up the hill. Another one was of this sanitation worker who was picking up the spilled trash outside of 7-11. They are doing their thing all day long. There are no garbage trucks in my neighborhood. The government hires workers to take trash to collection points. They put all of the bags that people leave on the sidewalk on carts, and move them to the larger bins at the collection point about 3 blocks away. Very effective system. The streets are almost always clean.

I happened to be walking around Causeway Bay last week with a friend in town from China. One of the cooler things we saw on the street was a huge Adidas shoebox parked in front of the doors to one of the shopping malls - Fashion Island. Later we turned a corner and saw this graffiti wall. Kind of dope. Blends the traditional Chinese walled architecture with graff. Looks like my friend - M.C. Yan is one of the artists.