Dj tantrum @ cici club- shanghai christmas eve 2007 : AOL Video feed

Re_Acciona

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:19 -0500

Experience Re_ in a way you’ve never seen before. Re_ is an attitude. A call to action to begin the thousand actions we need to do together. And to do it now. http://re.acciona.com

Introducing Cici

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:40:11 -0500

Cici and I did a very "last minute" photo shoot today in Texas. She was born in China, near Shanghai, and moved to Texas at a fairly young age. She’s intelligent, sharp, witty, and so much fun shoot with. Oh, and did I mention she is absolutely naturally beautiful? I guess I don't need to- you'll see for yourself. Her photos will begin appearing in my stream next week. In the meantime, enjoy her introduction!

Xin Cun (New Village) by Birdhead

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:03:31 -0500

Bird Head is a collective of artists whose works consist of photographic captures of everyday life in their native city Shanghai. The snap-shot aesthetic of their extensive and accumulative photo-series (b/w as well as colour) deliver a subjective and un-retouched take on urban reality today. "I often feel that November belongs to a boy with his trouser pockets filled with roasted chestnut, wearing a thin shirt in the chilly wind, and walking aggressively and bravely. Long time ago, before Starbucks, McDonald’s and Dolby-surrounding cinemas. Thus, in numerous sunny November days, the idle boys had to wander in groups across the streets, fiercely and energetically. And seemingly, our Shanghai grows in their wandering and repeated stare. The dark-green scaffolds are removed and mounted; the cement columns of the viaducts silently form the shade over our heads; large landscape across the old houses that have witnessed our birth; during typhoon season, the ferry dock trembles in the Huangpu River; at midnight, earthwork trucks run across the void roads. Tank cars. Roses. Ruins. Fountains. Fireworks. It takes too long and the night is near. They almost cross the entire Shanghai, when the columns of the viaducts are occupied by green Boston ivy. Our hearts are filled with huge amount of love and sadness. Afterwards, there are metro and light rail, crossing through Shanghai under the ground or in the sky. Time passes too quickly for us to make a revolutionary posture. No time for questions and hesitation. There's a voice pushing us, following the boy with chestnuts, wandering aggressively and aimlessly, to witness what shadow our Shanghai will create and when the ivy will cover all the roads." Bird Head, artists statement, 2004-2005 Ji Weiyu (1980) and Song Tao (1979) were both born in Shanghai where the artists today also reside and work. The artists graduated from the Shanghai Arts and Carafts School (2000). Recent exhibitions include China Power Station II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007), Bird Head 2006-2007 Photography Show, BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, China (2007), and Individual Position II, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China (2007). ]]>

Video: Cici and Mommy making multi-touch music with Bloom

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:31:34 -0400

Cici switched from using her fingers to her toes and nose on my iPhone screen. Cici turns five next month. Hands-on review createdigitalmusic.com/2008/10/08/hands-on-with-bloom-new...

Shanghai, China - 1934 movie

Sun, 10 May 2009 04:44:59 -0400

The first part of this home movie shows Shanghai in 1934. The later portion appears to be the Forbidden City in Beijing (called Peiping then). Wikipedia: Under the Republic of China (1911-1949), Shanghai’s political status was finally raised to that of a municipality on July 14, 1927. Although the territory of the foreign concessions was excluded from their control, this new Chinese municipality still covered an area of 828.8 square kilometers, including the modern-day districts of Baoshan, Yangpu, Zhabei, Nanshi, and Pudong. Headed by a Chinese mayor and municipal council, the new city governments first task was to create a new city center in Jiangwan town of Yangpu district, outside the boundaries of the foreign concessions. This new city center was planned to include a public museum, library, sports stadium, and city hall. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Shanghai on 28 January 1932, nominally in an effort to crush down Chinese student protests of the Manchurian Incident and the subsequent Japanese occupation of northeast China. The Chinese fought back in what was known as the January 28 Incident. The two sides fought to a standstill and a ceasefire was brokered in May. The Battle of Shanghai in 1937 resulted in the occupation of the Chinese administered parts of Shanghai outside of the International Settlement and the French Concession. The International Settlement was occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and remained occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945. According to historian Zhiliang Su, at least 149 "comfort houses" for sexual slaves were established in Shanghai during the occupation. Film from the Prelinger Archives.

Chaplin Returns To Shanghai

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:46:18 -0400

An improvised adventure created in the streets of Shanghai, China. This 17 minute video short features Lauren Muney (as Charlie Chaplin) and was created at the Kimtom International Clown Festival in Shanghai, China in October of 2007. I shot the footage using my Sony consumer miniDV camera and edits were done in iMovie. Using my improvisational camera techniques, this was shot spontaneously following the actor improvising scenes with spectators around Shanghai as we went from our hotel near Century Park to a restaurant in the Hongkou District where there is a life size statue of Charlie Chaplin which commemorates Chaplin's visits to China in the 1930's. By pausing the camera in between recorded footage, panning in and panning out, most of the edits were created "on-the-go." So as the actor improvised in real time, I took footage in real time, running in front of the actor, along side, or shooting from behind as I saw interesting shots emerge. We went back a few days later and shot the scenes in the park to add a beginning to the piece and the makeup sequence at the end. Then we added Chinese subtitles with the help of one of our Chinese translators at the Kimtom International Clown Festival. In total, Chaplin Returns to Shanghai was shot with less than 45 minutes of raw footage which is interesting to keep in mind when viewing the piece. In iMovie, I mostly went through and cleaned things up between edits and added some basic effects and title cards in the old silent film style imported from Photoshop. Our sound man at the Kimtom Festival, Andy Rinehart, lent us some appropriate music tracks that we imported including "Jeannette" by Gus Viseur and "Hommage A Gerard Lajoie" by Rejean Simard. We held off on rendering any footage to black and white until Charlie enters the gates of the Hongkou District where, in his mind, he is going back in time to visit his memories of Old Shanghai. Lauren's identity as a woman is also not revealed until the very end of the piece where we rendered a reverse makeup sequence. Also, this was my first ever chance to work on a story line concept which I found to be refreshing after capturing so many straightforward 'live' events. More information on Lauren Muney is available at: snakeoilproductions.com More information on Kimtom is available at: www.kimtom.cn More information on my video shooting is at: zigzago.tv More information on my performing is at: michaelmenes.com

Tantrum

Sat, 09 May 2009 23:16:12 -0400

This a demonstration of tantrum when Nicholas was a bit younger (18 months) which made us secretly chuckle: in this scenario Elena refuses to give him a knife after he points at it and grunts a request to have the knife - the following tantrum is hilarious esp the frog jumping.

Burnt by the Shanghai Stock Market

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:21:26 -0400

Many investors have been attracted to the fast growth of Shanghai's "booming" stock market. But little have many investors understood the market's vulnerabilies, or forseen its descent. ZHANG: To many, it seemed like a one-way bet as Shanghai's stock market has grown in the past few years. New investors ranging from taxi drivers to factory workers dumped money into stocks in a bid to cash in on the new capitalist structure. But that dream has recently gone sour. Shanghai's benchmark index has sunk by 40 percent so far this year, leaving investors dazed. Although some analysts had warned that the market would fall, many of China's newest market players did not believe that the party would end. Undergradutate student Lu Yi borrowed $1400 from his parents to invest in the market. Today, he is less than pleased. [Lu Yi, 22-year-old stock investor]: "In January, I went on a mountain-climbing expedition so I did not pay much attention to the market. When I came back, I was shocked at how bad the stock market was. So I felt it was not an appropriate time for me to sell my holdings and I waited for a rebound to decide whether I should stay or leave the stock market, but the market did not even give me a chance." There's no question that the Shanghai market is one of the more volatile indexes in Asia. China analyst Jason Ma says that one cause of the market's unpredictability is the Chinese regime's unwillingness to let the market operate more freely. [Jason Ma, China Analyst]: "At the very beginning, they want to get the money from the stock market, but they don't want to lose control of those companies. So they set about 70% of the stocks aside which can't be used in the market. They only put 30% of the companies in the market. In this way, for all the companies, it is very really difficult to evaluate the value." According to Ma, the uncertainty over the true value of companies is not the only reason for disturbances in the market. He says that because of the lack of freedom and transparency in the market, Chinese investors are caught in a cycle of speculation. [Jason Ma, China Analyst]: "In Western countries, basically, people consider the market--many people consider the market--a long term investment. It is something that will have a better return than putting money in the savings account. But in China, generally speaking, Chinese consider the market as a gambling place, because the Chinese regime they totally control the market, and there is a lot of uncertainty in the market and the market is not really reflecting the progress of the social economy." Ma says that this mentality of short-term speculation only amplifies the volatility of the market. And it can be brutal for those who jump in when the market looks hot. Once a maid to a foreign family in Shanghai, Xue Qiaozhen invested all her money in the market--only to see her savings wiped out. [Xue Qiaozhen, 55-year-old stock investor]: "With such huge swings in gains and losses, I feel the stock market is not healthy. It is like we get up to heaven and then fall down to earth so quickly, some stock investors cannot take this. A lot of us are trapped now." Chinese authorities have recently cut taxes on share trading in an attempt to encourage a rebound in the market. But for those left with no money, there is now no appetite for fresh bets in listed companies.