a little soul, a little morrissey, a couple of new jams to get you going. oh, also cos i can, an 8 minute rendition of chuck berry’s ‘roll over beethoven’ and cheesily one of my all time favourite covers in the world. peep a little right click open link right click save action HERE!
lots over the last few days, here are a few photos — Converse threw a launch party for their skate film “逆”, directed by 刘泽锋 (Liu Feng/Hammer) of W+K, also squeezed in another delicious dinner at purple onion, this time with ten+ peeps and we went wild with too much food and wine and pom queens. looking forward to the weekend, it’s gonna be good. xo
i stopped by The Source over the weekend to peep a look at the install happening over at their gallery space for the upcoming show on Saturday. everything looks great, and there were a couple media folk combing over the space and doing interviews with Steve Gorrow, who’s a creative director for the brand. it’s going to be interesting to see how the event turns out, i get the feeling that it’s going to be a big one. also, joey from enovate posted up his interview w/Steve yesterday, have a look at the post and come by the party on saturday – there will be a bunch of Steve Garrow garage art pieces available for sale as well as skate ramps, bar and music by Kami.
UPDATE: just saw this video posted on the interview page of Creative Hunt. love it!
the last few days have been full of good eating, and john surprised me by taking me to a new Korean restaurant that recently opened in the newly renovated Jiashan Market. it’s called Annion Kitchen and the food is fantastic — the standout of the night was the bulgogi, which was cooked perfectly with the usual mix of scallions, onions, green chilis and garlic as well as just the right mix of sweet and salty. we also tried the kimchi stew, which was not the same kind of stew that you would probably find at a typical Korean joint but still really tasty and a nice blend of flavours. in all, the service was fantastic and there are interesting little touches (menus housed in paper envelopes with song lyrics from the cure & david bowie stamped on the front, business cards tucked in discreetly with your bill & change) that pull everything together. it’s being touted as ‘hip Korean’ and i guess it’s run by two Korean brothers, definitely recommend checking it out!
we also (on a different night, i promise!) went back to the David Laris owned Purple Onion for dinner. i’ve been before but only with large groups of people – this time we were only two and still managed to tuck away a fair share of food. favourites: the mussel dish – somehow they are sourcing these massive mussels, and though i usually prefer the tinier morsels, these were succulent and delicious with a light savoury broth. also, the prosciutto tomato pizza, which might have just gotten my vote for best pizza in town. on our way out, we ran into lex – i must be the only person living under a rock who didn’t realize that he was the mastermind chef behind all our tasty foods? he kindly provided us with a little post dinner gossip and a little mackerel toastie. if you haven’t been to the Onion yet, go and make a reservation, it will be très magnifique!
the best thing about both of the restaurants mentioned is the price – it’s good to see that Shanghai is starting to understand that it’s all about the food and doesn’t necessarily have to cost an arm and a leg. reasonable prices, seriously good cooking, expertly trained staff is always the way to go. xox
my dear friend Emilie is someone i met during our time together at W+K Shanghai. sadly, she’s since left shanghai and is now hunting for love in the big bad city of Tokyo. check out her blog, it’s one of my favourites, so sweet and funny and beautiful and great! xoxoxo Emilie, i miss you!
friend Brian from the Source sent me these photos of Steve Gorrow prepping work for the Beijing leg of the INSIGHT Presents: Garage Art Tour 2010. they finished up with Beijing last night and Shanghai is the next stop, peep the flyer for more details.
ps. if you’re in Bali, Taipei, Tokyo or Hong Kong, ping me and i can send you more event info for those cities. each stop will feature bands, dj’s, limited edition tshirts and some amazing pieces up for sale. xoxo
i think the last photo sums it up?
a couple photos from the GAP opening last night. feeling a bit rough this morning but it’s nearly the end of the week. the party itself was not much of a party but still an event with open bar and whatever, i guess it just felt weird to be at a store like the Gap whilst drunk. anyways, so we were given a 20% off shopping card upon entrance and the big idea was to walk around and buy things. so i walked around for a while desperately searching for something to buy because i a) didn’t want to waste my coupon and b) still feel weirdly nostalgic for the Gap of the 90s and still want them to do well. there was also a small “party area” set up outside the store (in the mall hallway), which was roped off by Gap blue curtains, small bar, runway for Gap models (who marched in and out all night) and a DJ booth for Wordy. they served popcorn in Gap cups and gave away little boxes of gummies, overall it was quite fun but we left at 1030 and walked next door to the Ascott Residences where YY had rented us a hotel suite for hangouts. i know it sounds ridiculous but every once in a while it really is fun and hilarious to party in a hotel room with bottles of champagne and dozens of broken glasses and all your friends being silly and taking silly photos of each other and generally causing mischief. i am debating whether or not i will post those photos, because it got a bit messy. hm!
ps. if you’re interested, i bought a nice grey super soft wool oversize cardigan for myself and a grey and white check button up shirt for john. the cardigan is very cozy and i’m actually wearing it right now!
pps. the best absolute best thing about the party is that there was never a point in the night where it was completely packed and everyone was frothing at the mouth to get to the bar. way to go Gap for not pulling a Uniqlo and inviting 293489234 people to a shopping mall xo.
so we’ve known for a while that The Gap is finally coming to China and last week we came upon this massive OOH site on nanjing xi lu that really drove it home. i’m digging the campaign images they’re using so far – shot by Annie Liebovitz, they’ve paired Chinese personalities with Western counterparts (such as producer Diplo & blogger Julia Frakes) and the first batch of ads include the faces of actress Zhou Xun, model Liu Wen, illustrator Wang Momo and even my friends DJ Wordy and Ceilen. it’ll be interesting to see how the launch goes, and if they can compete with Uniqlo?
ps. hoping to hell that they size their clothing differently and adjust for asian bodies, as american gap size 0s are definitely not the same as what we have over here!
pps. the shanghai flagship store opens tomorrow, THURSDAY, NOV 11 on huaihai zhong lu. find it at 282 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Huangpi Nan Lu 淮海中路282号, 近黄陂南路.
i know i complain alot, but there tons of perks to living in asia. here are two:
1. pretec 4GB to-fu oyako credit card flash drives!
2. instax mini! i’m not sure if they’re available in the US yet, but they’re about $150 cheaper here than in japan. half the size/weight of the original with built in flash, self timer, macro lens, ability to darken/lighten your photos (haven’t tried this yet but there’s a bizarre L/D option), wahoo!
if you’re in shanghai, go to the electronics/nerd store in the shopping mall next to the zhongshan park metro. are those directions enough for you?! yay!
