So, a quick blog about something not necessarily related to Wushu West’s trip to Beijing. Namely the recent alivenotdead.com/tom.com party that I was able to attend.
For sure the best thing about the event was getting to see a LOT of old friends that I hadn’t been able to hang out with in a very long time. Of course it was great to see the alivenotdead.com guys like Pat, Stephen, Boon, Raffi, Olivier, JoJo and Dan, plus some of the other folks that help at the office. And the Alive guys were all there and it was great to talk to them again as well. Terence, Conroy, Andrew and Dan were all in fine form.
But beyond that I got to see some people I hadn’t talked to in quite a while. Beaver, who most of the older jetli.com folks would know, was there. We realized that we had known each other for over 11 years — quite a while now. Hopefully I will get to see him and his family (I haven’t seen his daughter since she was a baby!) before they take a quick vacation. For those of you who would like an update, he just finished production on a Chinese film in Korea and had come straight from the airport to the party.
I also saw Dayyan Eng, a director in Beijing, who I used to know back when I was in High School. That’s like … a LOOOOOONG time ago. We had a nice time connecting too. Since I’m planning on coming to China in the fall, we are already in talks about some possible web collaborations. But in the meantime I will hopefully be able to spend some time with him here in Beijing during the summer.
Honestly, there were far more people there that I got to see that I could really synopsize (did i just make that word up?) in a blog, so let’s just say it was nice.
Also a highlight was hanging out with Shahaub, Wei Jian, A-Niu (Gao Zhen Feng), Wu Di, et al. I got to introduce Shahaub to lots of cool people, which was nice. I also got to give away some of my new business cards too, so it was good I had them made before I left the U.S. Wei Jian seemed to have a good time too and got to have a chat with Dan. I’m sure he’ll post something up on his blog (hopefully), as will Wu Di. Xu Ming Hu was there too and .. yeah. Kind of a blur.
MC Jin performed and did a great job. Lots of local bands too, who were all amazing. I would say the only down-sides of the event were the poor organization (but these things happen) and the tons of smoking that was going on. My lungs had been purified in the clean air of Idaho for so long. By the end of the evening I sounded like the poster boy for Emphysema.
I didn’t really take many pictures. So, you are stuck with just the three or so I have here in this blog. But I’m sure if you went to alivenotdead.com, and look around at some of the blogs, you will find a bunch.
Thanks guys for a great party! Great to see you all again!
