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Adidas is one of my favorite brands. Back when I lived in Korea, they use to throw the most awesome branding parties with all the right celebs and musicians in attendance. For the 60th anniversary, the company really splashed out! They threw a global party celebrating six decades of sports and sneaker style. Here in Honkers, they rented a massive loft space in Aberdeen called The Factory. The space was painted entirely by renowned comic book artist Mauro Marchesi and it was exactly the edgy kind of venue needed for such a huge event. 

I had quite a number of events to attend that night- a couple for luxury brands and one for Lucky Jeans- so I decided to ditch the high-end appearances and just go to the photography exhibit at Lucky Jeans. Everyone was making fun of me because I was wearing this one piece Adidas jumpsuit with a huge logo that went right across my mid-section. People were like "Hey you're at the wrong party!" or "Are you working at the Adidas party tonite?" Well in the end my over the top outfit worked to my advantage...

I was on the the 24 Herbs list (Thanks GS!) but I was with an enormous posse many of whom were not on the the list. When we arrived at the factory, the queue was TITANIC. The line practically stretched around the block in both directions. We walked past this Adidas ice-cream truck which was parked right at the front.  I went straight into the ice-cream truck bit of a 'photo op' session since my outfit actually matched!
The old dude working inside the truck didn't seem to mind. I'm sure at that point he was used to the happily drunk people.

We squeezed past the pleb line and angled our way towards the entrance. There was a big crush to get in but we couldn't locate the person with the guestlist. In any case we just cruised past security where we ran into some of the model clan. Everyone was waiting in line again to get into the lift but I kind of scooted around the side and the entourage followed suite. I'm quite sure security thought I was working there and I needed to get inside to do something.

The lifts were crammed with people and it was a bit claustrophobic but once inside the venue, we were delighted by the fabulous set-up!  The set deisgners and brand managers really managed to create a festive carnival-like atmosphere. In addition, they managed to make it homey and cozy despite the venue being so large. There was a pool table, fuzball, a mock swimming pool full of plastic balls in the blue and white Adidas theme colors. There was cotton candy, balloon-like seats that bounced up and down and several art installations which looked like rooms in a house- all plastered with Adidas paraphenalia. In fact, the Adidas logo was absolutely everywhere. There were big projectors projecting Adidas signs on the walls and huge Adidas balloons on all the corners of the roof.

24 Herbs performed, models danced around on stage and there was a cake cutting ceremony with actress Shu Qi, some other local celebs and 70's tennis star Stan Smith who Adidas fashioned a line of tennis shoes after. Then DJ Steve Aoki took to the decks and a big heaving crowd gathered around him. Everyone was taking photos, putting their hands up in the air like they just didn't care and Steve himself put on quite a good show.

The energy of the crowd was amazing! Everyone was decked out in the three stripes or their streetwear best and everyone was in a good mood- possibly due to the heavy-handed free-flow at the bar. When I got to the bar, I poured a can of red-bull into this jumbo plastic cup and the bartender poured about three shots of vodka in my drink- thus emptying the rest of his bottle. He went on to open another bottle and poured about 4 more shots in my cup. Needless to say, that was the only drink I needed for the rest of the night.

There was pandemonium everywhere. Up at the roof, people were dancing their hearts out (including myself). Some were breakdancing, some were line dancing and some guys were stealing balloons and pretending they were breasts. The entire rooftop played volleyball with one of the oversized balloons which we set free. In the main room, people were dancing around in the pit of plastic balls and some were playing tennis with the balls and their purses. I fell into the mock swimming pool at one point and people began bombarding me with balls. I managed to snap this very cool pic as the balls were coming at me.

I ran into about 20 of my new facebook friends who I had not yet met in real life. It's nice to know that cyber buddies actually do exist in real life!  The only bad thing about the party was that it ended too early. I don't know what time it was when we descended what seemed like 80 flight of stairs to get out of there but all I know was that I did not want to leave. The next day there facebook was saturated with Adidas party photos. You could not pay for that kind of publicity and endorsement. It must have cost them a fair bit of money, but for marketing and branding purposes, they did everything right. Not only did they do it right, but it was a righteously fun party as well!

See all the party photos here:

http://www.hiphongkong.com/party-photos/hong-kong/adidas_house_party_6009.htm

Luckily, it's not always drudgery work and often times it's alot of fun! For example, one weekend I was doing research for the bar review section and figured out it was actually possible to party from Mexico (Tequila Bar Old Bailey Street), to Moscow (Balilaika Ice Vodka Bar) to Africa (Makumba) all in one Hong Kong night. After that tour, we bumped into guitarist Jose Gonzalez at this cool new place called the Cristal Bar. He was doing a show the next day at Grappa's Cellar and invited me to come. The show sent chills down my spine!

On another PR night, some friends dragged me to D-I and the Cuban Brothers were performing. The Cuban Brothers are a troupe of flashy Cuban comedians/musicians who do 70's and 80's covers interspersed with Latino bongo playing, breakdancing, stripping- even down to the Full Monty! It was highly entertaining but I think some of the Chinese girls at the front were a bit shocked. Some people, including myself thought it was brillant, but some thought Hong Kong was starving for culture when a group of chubby middle-aged men stripping naked could be thought of as 'quality' entertainment.

People sometimes liken me to Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City and I have to admit, though I am in no way fashioning my life after the TV character, there are similarities. For example- I have a lot of shoes, I’m a writer and I was asked recently to be a ‘real person’ model at a press event for my friend’s clothing line Kanchan Couture.

I don’t know if any of you saw that episode where she’s asked to model some skimpy underwear wearing really high platform shoes and she ends up falling on the runway. First of all, I was relieved I didn’t have to wear bejeweled underwear but I was thinking to myself: ‘If I’m going to be masquerading as a catwalker, I better put on the highest heels I own.’ Hopefully I wasn’t going to end up same as Carrie and fall flat on my face during the show. Happily, I managed to stay upright despite several glasses of champers.

Kanchan has an amazing line of party frocks as well as glitzy daywear. Some it is inspired by different eras such as the 50’s or 40’s. I think its really cool that she always uses ‘real people’ to showcase her clothes because it shows that everyone can wear the clothes- not just tall lanky models.

Kanchan from Kanchan Couture

I arrived at M1NT where Kanch dressed me. I had three layers of skirts which had to be pinned on. I wondered when I was getting dressed if that was the way women felt in the 1600s when they always wore those big poofy skirts. I then had to be double-sided taped into this gold shirt which was a bit too big for me. Luckily the shirt didn’t fall off me either.

We did a quick catwalk lesson (just like in America’s top model) and we were instructed to swing our hips, do two poses, walk to the end where there was a piece of tape, pose, turn and exit. “Lots of ass” Kanch said. “Play with the skirt and walk slowly”.

I really had no choice other than to walk slowly since my shoes were a half size too big. I bought them half price from Pedder Red on Wellington Street so it didn’t bother me that I had to put in foot pads to make them fit. Even then, it wasn’t super easy to maneuver in them.

After the show, the ‘models’ har har.. had to walk around with plates of alcoholic chocolate from the newly launched Francesa line of gourmet chocolates. The event was for the press so there were photographers, videographers and writers from Ming Pao daily, SCMP and various other publications. It was quite fun being part of the whole event and getting to wear such an elaborate outfit. I felt just like a Geisha Cindrella on Christmas day!

They say it’s all fun and games till someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, at this year’s dragon boat races in Stanley, I witnessed first-hand the true meaning of this adage. Amidst the racing, the revelry, the drumming, and the drunken antics came a stupid and tragic accident.

After a few days of black rain, landslides and fallen trees, the weather auspiciously (or so we thought) cleared for race day. I wasn’t paddling this year so I had free license to roam the party boats lining the racecourse. Ferries and sampans waited at the shore to shuttle people out to the boats. I started my day at Zone B where I boarded the Time-Warner boat simply because one of my friends works for that company. Adjacent to that was the BNP Paribas luxury junk yacht where a righteous party was going on. On the other side, there were 2 JP Morgan boats lined up next to each other. My friend and I spotted someone we knew at the 2nd JP Morgan boat so we decided we’d hop over there for a visit.

It’s common practice to hop from one boat to another but, the gap between our boat and the JP Morgan boat was wide and the railings of both boats were quite high. It was going to be challenging and somewhat dangerous to cross from boat to boat this way. A guy from the JP boat started to pull the boats closer together so we could get on, but their boat bitch started yelling at us saying they were full and we couldn’t get on. She handed us some conciliatory beer pitchers instead.

Undeterred, we decided to hire a small sampan to take us one boat down so we could board  properly and safely. Once onboard, we climbed the ladder to get to the upper deck and I remarked how slippery the floors of the junk were due to the spillage of beer and other liquids. I was treading very lightly so I wouldn’t fall and make an ass of myself.

People were migrating at will from one boat to the other and the DJs had the party-goers dancing with some crowd-pleasing hip-hop tunes. Incidentally, I remarked how young and alternative the crowd looked for a banker’s boat. About 50 percent of the people on the boat had had tattoos.

Anyway, everyone was having a grand old time chatting, flirting, drinking beer, and laughing when a bunch of people went to the boat next door for a hula-hoop contest. I wasn’t sure what the winner won, but I think the loser was supposed to get his head shaved. At one point, a big crowd gathered around the adjoining boat to watch one guy getting all his hair razored. I noticed a few people crossing over the top deck to get from boat to boat and I thought to myself- gee, that’s dangerous since the decks are so slippery and people have been drinking.

I stopped looking, but suddenly there was a big ‘Thud’ and a splash followed by a huge commotion. People started screaming “Someone’s fallen in the water!! Who is it?? Help! Someone call an ambulance! Call for help!!”  I didn’t actually see the guy fall in, but his burgundy and white trucker cap was still floating ominously on the surface. My girlfriend, who saw some of it happen, was freaking out. I asked her who it was but all she knew was the guy was really tall.

Random people started jumping in the water after the fallen man but the water was dark and murky and it was impossible to see anything. “Goggles!! Goggles!! Does anyone have goggles?? Move the boats apart!! Turn the motors off- It’s dangerous!! Someone call an ambulance please!”

A communal panic ensued and people’s shouts became more frantic. 5 minutes passed and the guy still hadn’t surfaced. People were still swimming around in vain looking for him in water with zero visibility. The water looked so dirty. There was loads of garbage floating within and one guy seemed to be surrounded by an oily veil of gas from the boat’s engine.

“Who was it??” People were yelling. “It was Eric Tutera” someone said. Then everyone starting yelling “Eric!!! Eric can you hear us?? ERIC!!!! ERIC!!!!” “Someone please call Eric’s cell phone!” Everyone wanted to do something to help- but in the confusion, not much could really be done.

10 minutes passed and all the boats in the vicinity had moved off to the side exposing a potential area where the body could resurface. A few guys sped off in a powerboat to get the police to come and help, but short of having a team of rescue divers on call, not much could have been done.

Police boats surrounded the area, and a helicopter flew overhead. Some guys that were dressed like the fire brigade in helmets and fireproof jackets came to the scene of the accident on an orange zodiac. People were pointing in the water but what were the firemen going to do? Dive in with their jackets and plastic helmets? A feeling of uselessness and helplessness pervaded the air.

The clock kept ticking and about 20-30 minutes had passed. The crowd had lost hope that poor Eric could be rescued. Most likely he hit his head on the way down and was already unconscious when he hit the water. In that state, he probably sank directly to the bottom.

Meanwhile the event continued- the guns at the starting line continued to blast at the start of each race, people were still cheering the paddlers on and happy unsuspecting spectators zipped by on speedboats until they were warned by police not to cross the area. People on the surrounding boats continued to drink, dance and take in the beauty of the clouds framed by the afternoon sun.

The people on our boat were shell-shocked. One guy who had dived in to try to save Eric  was sitting at the foot of the boat with his head in his hands. A blonde girl, who possibly knew Eric personally, could no longer hold back her tears. She burst out crying and her friend took her in his arms to try to comfort her. There were group hugs and a piece of paper was being circulated to get the names and numbers of the people who witnessed the accident. There was nothing more that could be done. I heard a guy on the orange Zodiac say that divers were coming to search the area. But by the time they would get there the only thing they’d find was a dead bloated body.

They wanted everyone who didn’t actually witness the accident to get off the boat so my friend and I guiltily left. Why is it when you witness someone die, that you sometimes feel like it’s your fault? We didn’t even know Eric, nor did we even meet him, but it was so very tragic. It was a really silly accident. Everyone was just drinking and having a laugh. Who knew that we’d be faced with the heaviness of our own mortality on such a festive day?

There was a big colorful rundown of the races in the paper. They even talked about how lucky we were that the weather had cleared. However the accident garnered little more than a one line footnote. ‘An expat man in his 30’s suffered a blow to the head and fell missing in the water. The police are still searching for his body.’

My girlfriend called me crying at 1am saying that she couldn’t sleep and she kept replaying the incident in her head. I tried to calm her down and assured her that there was nothing she could have done. At least he died quickly and painlessly.

 If anything can be learned from this incident, it’s two things:
1. Don’t take silly unnecessary risks- especially if your judgement has been somewhat impaired by alcohol
2. Live and love everyday like it may be your last because we’re all going to die someday.

Eric- if you have left us- may you Rest in Peace.

You don’t actually need to travel to have an adventure. Most of the time, you just have to be curious and possess the spirit of discovery. Some expats jokingly call Kowloon ‘the darkside’ and I think that’s ridiculous. I LOVE Kowloon in all it’s jumbled mess and chaotic glory. I find area around Mongkok, Sham Shui Po and Yau Ma Tei particularly interesting. There are so many cool things to see, buy and photograph there.

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A few days ago, a fellow photographer asked me if I wanted to troll the photography supply shops in Mongkok. I’m always looking for an excuse to go to Mongkok, so it was perfect. We MTR-ed it out there and as soon as we got out of the subway, we found a restaurant which had a massive black snake slithering in a glass box. I don’t know if it was a restaurant serving snake, but we didn’t stop to have lunch in any case.

We found all kinds of great treasures for photography- dimmer switches, neon lights in every color of the rainbow, tripods, reflectors etc.. and it was all much cheaper than any other photography supply shop elsewhere in the world. Afterwards, we walked through the market and found an endless treasure trove of fascinating junk. There were all these things I wanted- a snakeskin banjo, a tacky 70’s gold watch, a rotary dial telephone, nerd-chic granny glasses, vintage film cameras and this cute gold mouse made with beads.
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The afternoon sun cast long shadows onto the streets and people’s stray hairs were highlighted by golden light. We turned the corner and there was an old man wearing dozens of rings on his fingers. He was examining a ring that someone had just brought him through a magnifying loop. Around another corner, there was a throng of old men squatting on the floor studying the horseracing pages of the newspaper. Yet another corner brought us to this decrepit tenement building with an interesting balcony. We decided we wanted to see what was up there so we found the staircase to go in. It was  treacherously steep concrete staircase and the place was so dark and run down I got frightened halfway up and decided not to proceed.
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We got hungry and needed some caffeine after seeing all the sights, so we headed over to Yau Ma Tei where my friend knew of a cool café in some random building. I have no idea how he found that cafe as a typical gweilo would have never stumbled upon this place.
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Anyway, I promised to keep the location secret so I won’t post it here, but the café was so neat! You do not get places like this in Central. The place had a soul, a personality. It looked like someone’s colorful artistic living room. It was full of books, knick knacks and vintage Euro chairs. It was on the 4^th floor of this skinny building. In fact the whole building was full of bars and coffeehouses but this place was particularly special because there was an outdoor terrace. We sat on the terrace talking over beer and dumplings until day turned to night and the moon came out over the towering buildings.

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All the people at the café seemed to be artists and trendsetters. The owner had long hair and amazingly original sleeve tattoos. This Eurasian hippie guy came in with a groovy hat and goatee. He also had these strange leaf-like tattoos on his neck. We got to talk to them later on and found out that Leon (the hippie guy) is from France and traveling around the world doing tattoos. He’s actually working in a studio in Tsim sha Tsui at the moment. Brillant stuff.
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When we got out of the lift, there was a mass of trendy locals going up to various establishments inside the building. My friend ran into a buddy of his that he knows from riding scooters. The guy’s Vespa was parked just outside and man was it cooool! You can’t really see the color here but it’s kind of a dark green and the seats are white.

Hong Kong is saturated with luxury malls carrying brand-name goods so it’s truly refreshing to see an entire mall dedicated to the arts and visual self-expression. 'Delay No Mall' in Causeway Bay is the brainchild of the founders of the funky lifestyles furniture shop- G.O.D (Goods of Desire). Thursday, there was a joint party for the opening of the mall as well as for the launch of 24 Herbs first album. Pretty much everyone who was anyone in the arts, fashion and music industry was there. 

Delay No Mall is full of fashion-forward clothes and accessories for trendmeisters, too-cool-for-schoolers and gay boys. (Fabbbbulousss, dahling!) As we walked in, girls in Moulin Rouge like outfits from House of Siren were administering cranberry vodka shots. Once upstairs, people were getting temporary tattoos on their necks, arms and décolletage. Mine said “Lust” and “I’m your desire”.

Then we entered an area that had these futuristic pod-like beds on a pond. Apparently it’s a type of vibrating bed where you can take a nap and re-energize. Very futuro. Along the way, I saw some models in one room that were paid to be pretending to play a game of strip poker. Their clothes and hats were in a pile on the floor and one of the beefy male models was wearing this “Delay No More” underwear that was completely open on the backside, so his entire butt was exposed! Now that’s cheeky!



I had to duck into the toilet before going into the party and the toilet has this packman/ videogame theme. When you flush, the toilet makes very loud video game noises. I thought the toilet was going to eat me alive!

The party took place in a floor which hasn’t been opened to shops yet so it was in a huge open space with black walls, a large projector image and a stage at the front. Off to the side, models in hot pink underwear and boxes on their heads modeled their bodies as well as the underwear and some jewelery. Someone said they could see that the models were shivering and one person said it was good that they had those boxes on their heads so no one could recognize them. I got the best money shot for my cougar article- see exhibit A below. (I think this lady is a famous sex columnist or something like that.)

The place eventually packed out and 24 Herbs took the stage looking extremely dapper (It’s a special occasion of course). They gave an amazing performance and I was happy not to have been carrying my video camera around so I could actually groove to the tunes.

One of the aspects of my job is attending events, parties, fashion shows and brand launches. The reason for this is twofold. One- I document the event by photographing it and Two- I get to make valuable connections and do PR and marketing for my brand. What’s annoying is when people label me a ‘socialite’ or a ‘partygirl’. I think that both of these terms are derogatory and consider myself neither. While I do enjoy dressing up, getting the complimentary drinks and talking to as many interesting people as I can, I am never out of control and passing out at some random late night place. If that’s what people want to do with their time, that’s their perogative, but it’s not for me.

Another thing that irks me is the concept of ‘fake’ or superficial. It’s true that some people you meet on the social scene are at times gripped by their egos and are not aware of it, therefore they try to make themselves feel important in one way or another. I try to sympathize and look past that to see who the person is inside- why they are hiding and what their fears are. In seeing people and relating to them on a ‘real’ level, I find that my contact with supposedly superficial people becomes much deeper and leads to more gratifying relationships. While a lot of people who are always out and about are somewhat lost and always searching, there are really only a few who are truly malicious. I try to avoid those people.

 On the 17^th, some friends invited me to come out to a restaurant opening at the Elements Mall. I had been invited to so many openings there in the fall, but never managed to trek my behind all the way there. In fact, Elements is only one stop away from Central on the Tung Chung line. Unfortunately someone was convinced were supposed to get off at Olympic station instead of  Kowloon and we ended up having to back-track.

Elements mall is massive and it was difficult to find the venue, but finally we arrived at the small Damiani shop where there was a pre-cocktail and an introduction to the blingy jewelry. There were a couple of models standing around wearing Damiani jewelry and Kanchan Couture dresses. I had a chance to meet Giorgio Damiani, the Vice president of the company. (Why is it that Italians always look so classy and tan in that Rico Suave kind of way?)

Not too long after, we moved into the restaurant called D Diamond. Damiani has something to do with this restaurant and so does Xuan Mu. D Diamond somehow reminds me of Zuma in Central. There’s two floors and an uplit staircase which leads to a bar area and a big outdoor area.

The Moet was flowing and the local celebrities and personalities were out en force. What’s amusing about the canto world is there are so many people who are 50 and up that still like to get really dressed up and hob-nob around. Some of their outfits are spectacular! I totally want to be one of these outlandish dressers when I’m over 50.