But let us not forget to give praise for more bamboo miracles.
I can't read it, but if I was a betting man, I'd say it's probably some political rant.
Christmas spirit.
Sweet silhouette.
Love the old conversing with the young.
My apologies for not photoing from a better angle. This wing of the building was literally being held by steel arms. Quite surprised they didn't use bamboo.
Oh I get it! Save the bamboo for the real stunts.
I guarantee no tourists aside from myself and Rareez rolled this gate. I just like finding the hidden gems.
Damn. Maybe I should have stayed on the other side of the gate.
One of the most magical streets I've strolled down.
Right to Kowloon Park.
Gosh darnit! I went all the way to the Far East, located and strolled down the most magical street ever, just to get to Kowloon Park so I could hawk and hawk and hawk some more. And then I read this.
I must say the signage at Kowloon Park was a little off.
Not that deep. I think Donatello is totally touching the bottom and doing something cool with his bo staff.
This landlord is getting paid.
This shot is for the homies at The Seventh Letter.
And this one is for you.
Being here so long I can actually read the signs now. See the pink one is a night club and the burgundy on the right is for 227 4, and the burnt orange sign is for Multi-virtues Buddhist Heritage Co. Oh and Shirl, my fav, is on the far right ground-level.
I stood in front of this sign taking countless photos, attempting to capture each monetary domination illuminated. To no luck, I settled for the pound and yen.
You thought I was done tripping on bamboo!? Tripping.
I watched this cat go all the way down the block hitting every awning and ledge. I'm going to go out on limb with this one, bare with me. After seeing this little hairy Olympian, I think I have a soft spot in my heart for cats.
Things are looking up. By things, I guess I'm referring to myself. I am looking up. With camera.
Bamboo cocoon.
Very Miami.
I was this close to grubbing at Pizza Hut.
But decided to keep it as real as possible. See that coconut on the right? Shredded pork with some other shit. I'm not talking carnitas. This pork was so finely shredded it had the texture of cotton candy and melted in your mouth. Bomb ass meal.
I like my view from my room, but peep the Costco jacuzzi under the interrogation lights. Not cool. I'm guessing me and a handful of other perverts were standing in our hotel room windows lurking.
Peace out Hong Kong! I'm rollin' back to Tokyo for a hot one.
How the hell is it already December 2010? We are offically in the the future, but where are the flying cars, orbit city and spacely spockets? As I hope for time to linger a little I drove down to be with my friends and family for Thanksgiving.
Coastside. It was a gorgeous weekend. We stopped at the beach for a pre-feast walk.
When we got down there it was a seagul cemetery. Serisouly at least 20 dead birds. Getting closer to 2012 I gather.
More dead animals, TAXIDERMY! If you are ever on the coast hit up San Benito house, they have amazing sanwiches.
These two.
Yum. Double Yum.
Dinner is served. I must say we cooked up the most amazing feast. So much to be thankful for (even if I drank too much, sooowy).
One Gryffindor please. Damn I love Potter.
Spent some QT with my homie Daiquiri. She is lovely.
And off to the Lama's house for a holiday/Martini bar/white elephant/tequilla shots/gift exchange/sleepover/scary movie PARTY!!
Candy Land.
So many funny gifts. The best was backwash of a 5th of vodka and half eatten bag of cashews. Lucky. A close second was the ball gag.
This week I took a fast trip up to Portland to have Jason Kundell start working on my massive back piece. Worked a half day on Tuesday. Flew to Portland. Got tattooed for about 4 hours. Went to bed. Woke up. Got tattooed for about 4 hours. Jumped on a plane and flew home. Went to bed. Woke up and went straight to work. I'm fucking tired as hell, and that shit HURT!
Tools of the trade. That's a lot of machines!
Took this pic after the 2nd day. Looks like somebody beat the shit out of me!
I'm headed to Florida next week to work on a music project with Rob Barrett from Cannibal Corpse. Madball is gonna be in town while I'm there too! My favorite band ever! Can't wait!
Not much has changed. Still mesmerized by the buildings here. Surprised I haven't tripped yet with all my looking up. I'll sprinkle in a few buildings photos throughout this blog post.
The Chinese cats resemble American cats.
Yeah, Survivor!
Bamboo scaffolding never gets old.
Men at work.
Regret not drinking one of these.
Fresh.
I bet this phone number is like our 555 numbers you always see in movies.
Let me tell you about the beds in Asia. They suck. Least comfortable beds ever. I don't care if your hotel is 1 or 5-stars. And it has nothing to do with my preference for an eco-friendly hand made Euro-top mattress. I've slept on many a floor in many a city with nothing but my leather jacket and did better. Even the girl in this ad is not sleeping on the bed. She rather sleep standing and let the wind hold her up.
Smallest escalator ever.
Finally, real sugar in my Coke.
Peanuts are a great snack. Whether you're at the old ball park or somewhere else where you happen to want peanuts. But peanuts with little dried fish, that's a whole different ball game.
Lunch.
Giant Wrigley gum wrapper.
Hong Kong.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday. Enjoy the weekend! See you lovely people on Monday.
So I just get to Hong Kong, hop in a cab and am thrilled to see their concern for safety. It is a law to wear a seat belt. Not like in America, they actually give a shit and tell you to buckle up.
The first thing I see when I get out of the cab is this.
Fuck the bank, I'm talking about the bamboo scaffolding. Scarily impressive.
And the buildings without bamboo are insane as well.
Never seen this type of fruit before.
Needed some pep in my step so reached for the preferred Red Bull. It definitely tasted different than the ones I am used to. Still did the trick.
Spent the majority of today's walk looking up.
Not sure if this is graffiti. Well, it's definitely graffiti I guess, just not sure if it was illegally done by an art school kid who hates his parents or legally by a city worker.
Tell me this doesn't look circa 1982. Eh, what do I know? I just got here. For all I know the locals can be saying this block is on some future The Jetsons type a shit.
Taking ye olde bird for a walk.
Even the Native Americans source in China.
I don't want to say anything bad about this photo. But damn, that bitch is struggling. If this illustration was a single frame, I bet the next one is her dropping that heavy ass baby on her back down on that lonely stair right in front of her.
I bumped into the mystery men who build the bamboo scaffolding.
I swear I turned around for one second to photo another white person and the mystery men were gone and their scaffolding was up. Unbelievable.
Giant and I have always loved cargo bikes. This photo is for him.
On my walk it really got to the point that I just flat out stopped trying to read the signs. I went third eye through this motherfucker. Vibin' it!
For the most part I'm in complete agreeance with the Hong Kong people. If you dress like this you should not be cycling. But I find it quite funny how the Leisure and Cultural Services Department says no to cycling. Fuck exercise?
Graffiti.
Cruisin'.
Shocks. Lucky!
I forget what this is really called, but seemed to be popular. I'm just gonna call it a thicker Ethiopian sponge.
There I go again, back to looking up.
Now the big question. Do I walk this way?
Or this way?
I'll catch up with you dudes tomorrow. I'm about to get lost. Have a great day! And get shopping in the online store! Things are selling fast. A Holiday season without REBEL8 would fucking suck. Don't do it.
I'm a Shanghai kinda guy. Definitely not, but it just rhymes nice.
Directly adjacent to the man on the ceiling, I enjoyed one of the greatest soy lattes and a delicious slice of heaven.
Loved this fish tank. It's built directly into the wall and you can creep on the folks next door.
This building had me geeked out for a hot one. I don't know what color it didn't turn in to. In fact, I'm gonna say it, I don't want to know about any color that this building hasn't shown me.
The spot next door to my hotel has the ill doorway.
Fish comfortably circled me.
Shanghai lights.
Out to dinner.
Shoes.
My partner in crime, Miss Rareez.
Late night eating at Grandma's Place. I was this close to cutting off one of their little fins. Only joking, I don't eat dolphin, nor do I support shark killing through eating shark fin soup. I do have some photos of the menu at this place that I most certainly will post soon. Gnar.
This is the main strip in Shanghai. Or whatever you may call the fanciest shopping street.
It goes forever in both directions.
You know when you go to a foreign place you wonder who is the biggest star or celeb there. Like who the fuck are the locals really feeling? Meet Haibao. He is the mascot for the Shanghai Expo that rocked the entire city. Yes, he resembles a dollop of toothpaste. So fresh and so clean, clean, that little gentleman Haibao.
Dirty Shanghai street cat.
Right next to the biggest Cartier store.
I told you he was popular. Haibao is seriously everywhere. He even has his own security barricade. Everyone wants a piece of his tasty marshmallow center.
Peep. Just a regular street corner in Shanghai, right?
Think again! Haibao layin' in the motherfuckin' cut.
At some point in the night I went to the bathroom. I don't care if I don't understand Chinese. The last thing I want to see when I'm about to whip it out and take a piss is a happy face with a broken wrist saying, "Hi."
Barbie Shanghai. And yes, her eyes slightly differ than the one you grew up with.
Ok, I got this crazy concept for my new restaurant. You know how old diners had booths? Great, right? No, no, but fuck that. I want suspended swing benches over rocks.
Nice rack.
And now I'm blogging from the hottest airport ever. I seriously am losing my mind. I am about to faint. And just when I find a place for cool water, the machine is set to 98 degrees. I could make fucking hot chocolate from this cool water machine. Keep me very far away from the hot water machine. Liquid hot magma and shit.
Enjoy today. Safe travels to me. Catch up with y'all tomorrow.
Early this year I met with the guys from Macaframa to work on a bike project they were doing with Raleigh Bicycles. I drew all the graphics for the bike in exchange for a frame and fork.
No question who this one was made for.
I also got some samples of bar tape that I designed for Cinelli and wrapped my new lock with it.
