June 2006 Archives

June 29th of:

1613, The original Globe Theatre in London burns down after a cannon is fired during a performance of a Shakespearean play and sets fire to the straw roof.

1941 Germans advance in Russia.

1949 U.S completes the withdrawal of the last of its troops in South Korea.

1971 Three Russian cosmonauts are killed when their Soyuz 11 spacecraft crashes on landing.

1972 U.S Supreme Court strikes down death penalty.

1974 Isabela Peron takes office as Argentine president.

1979 Bo, the first ever Chinese art director to create a global TV ad from within China is born.

1997 American heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson is disqualified from the ring for biting off part of the ear of Evander Holyfield in the third round of their fight in Las Vegas.

1995 Lisa Clayton becomes the first woman to make a solo non-stop voyage around the world - completing a 286 day voyage.

my new obsession... damn it!

nils' presentation, and the upcoming beckham ad.

Well, Mr Ogilvy would've been proud last friday. The Beijing office not only managed to keep moto here in asia, expanding it to make all their global print work, winning new businesses such as google, redbull, siemens, we also received a couple of cannes finalists, for the first time in OMBJ's history. Looking back at my own progress, I think I did ok, could've been better, but not bad. Other than winning redbull, I pretty much had a hand in all of the things I mentioned believe it or not, hehe.

yay, the show returns! Finally, I was so sad when the show got kicked off of fox, but i can't blame them, they already have The simpsons. The show will have a new home on comedy central now.

watch this!

Had dinner at one of silia's friends near my apartment, it was the best home-cooked dinner in months... well, the only home-cooked dinner in months... hehe. This is their cute cat, her name is judy, and she's going to be a mother very soon, she can barely get up and walk, she only does that to find a cooler place to lie down again, and she's pretty nervous when people touches her tummy.

(sorry for the quality of this picture, I didn't bring my usual camera, this is a cheesy cellphone pic)

Thanks to Stone, I was able to catch the Twelve Girls Band's anniversary concert in Beijing. Watching twelve girls playing various traditional chinese musical instruments was a visual delight, I had fun watching them. The music was above average, there are some awkwardness while mixing western classical orchestra music with these, but on most songs, they absolutely shined, very lovely.

I was lucky to catch the tail end of "retrospective du documentaire Francais" or Frech documentary gallery. I always wanted to watch that "darwin's nightmare" but missed it. I did watch this one called Loin du Vietnam which I can't say is really exciting, but... different and interesting. People my age by now should be able to recall pretty much 90 percent of all Vietnam war footages, I went in thinking there will be some war news reel and such, but in fact the film didn't show a lot of those moments if at all. The beginning of the film is very striking, it filmed these street venders building temporary bomb shelters, what it is is just a simple one meter tall and half meter wide concrete tube burrined in the ground with a removable thin concret lid, kind of like a simple fox hole, and when the siren hits, people do differnt things to it.. or in it.. or besides it, a depiction of a city in war can't be more real than this, i thought to my self.

The documentary also features some interviews with Fidel Castro, and really dramatic street debates in various parts of USA, mainly New York, from mid 60's to late 70's.

There's also this really cool song in the film, try to find it if you're interested. Its called Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation, by Tom Paxton.

4 month after I bought this humidier... i figure my lung probably took in a lot more... way to go beijing!

School mates emily and matthew from hongkong visited me last friday. From watching football games, club hopping between 6 clubs, and having peiking duck, this was the only picture I managed to snap. Security was pretty tight in these new clubs in Beijing, they stoped me right after I took it, I don't understand what the big deal is.

This picture just reminded me how horrible a night in the dance joint can be. In the background: a horribly dressed woman, a pair of chinese guys dressed just as bad, and a properly dressed black guy, but... drenched in sweat....... Godddd, what were we doing there that night... Shivers ~~~~~~~~

Mare is a lovely restaurant, since it was my first time to eat spanish cuisine, I can't say whether its authentic, but I can say it is very tasty. I love how the sauce contains bits of seasonings and chopped veggies, sorta like more ground up salsa, very lovely. Definitely try the lamb steak, it is very tender, the only other time where I had a plate of lamb steak this good was in new zealand. The bass was a bit over baked for me though, but it is still very good.

This past friday about 20 teams from Ogilvy Beijing participated in a fools ball mini world cup. These teams services clients from around the globe. On June 9th, they gathered in Ogilvy Beijing's break room, competing for the ultimate price. Strong favorites are teams that service redbull, china mobile, and the art buyer's team. To participate in this glorious moment in agency history, two teams representing motorola have also entered the race. After 3 hours of intense wrist action, the redbull team won first. Heart breaking second was pocketed by a newly formed, energetic black sheep team - Thats right, Me (forward) and Da Sheng (rear guard). The price? The reassuring pat on the back and respect in the break room. I'm... happy ^_^

Yesterday, while I was on the treadmill in Kerry Center, I cought The simple life on Starworld. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were placed in Crispin Porter + Bogusky as "interns", and their task is to come up with an ad for a new bigger than usual breakfast sandwich.

There are also, another pair of interns competing against them, so while the poor interns went off to brain storm, Paris and Nicole flirted with two dozen guys and came up with this idea:" puny guy eats it, and then becomes buff hottie."

Make a long story short, on final presentation to the board of directors of Burger King, the interns presented a made up animal/pet in the shape of a stomach, and called it the "growl" his master gets up in the morning, and feeds it to keep it calm. Then Paris and Nicole presented, their idea: a pair of young chimpanzees, looking into the camera, the copy says: we have evolved, why not your breakfast sandwich?

The interns, board of directors, and the creative directors were all in shock, and then the Burgerking bosses want to decide between closed doors. I was so anxious on the treadmill at this point that I began to ran faster and faster on the machine.

The decision: Paris and Nicole's Chimps twin...

I almost fell off the treadmill. Thank god I don't work for Burgerking

This is really funny

Very nice idea, copy and paste the link.

http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=2572

Went out to bowl with Silvia's girls. Between 2 hours at the bowling alley, and 90 marinated prawns, I heard personal stories from working under A monk who runs the biggest paramid scheme in China, to an island hopping multi-million deutsche mark, (o oops, euro now) widow. Definetly will hang out with them again.

Vinyl toys are quite a thing now, after getting the lovely Gorillaz set, I spent a lot of money on this one figure from an HK series called "The Gang" (九港大战). My feeling after owning it - a bit of a let down. Why? Its craftsmanship. Everything is crudely put together, package smelled seriously like superglue. The illustration on the box totally fooled me, thanks to whoever that photoshoped it. Why can't they make these things with more heart???

I found this play by accident online. Jujube tree is widely grown across beijing, especially in old chinese court yards. The play revolves four families living in a court yard along with a Jujube tree. It is very well written, and performed. The plot has a lot of wit and originality, the ending is adequate and self conscious. I loved this piece, and would recommend it to all. The play only runs from Jun 1st to 4th, at least thats according the the website, so hurry and don't miss it.

This is by far, the worst movie I've ever witnessed. We have yet again, this coming of age film, about some character that has lived through the Japanese occupation, the nationalist brief triumph, and the communist coming to power. I'm getting absolutely fed up with these chinese films. The Barber however, is exceptionally bad due to its over the top corny lines, horrific background music with crude editing, and an unsympathetic treatment on all the major characters. The only commendable part about this film is perhaps its cinematography, its not ground breaking, but I see the ambition, so that qualifies as "commendable mediocrity" i guess, and thats it. This reminds me of that other nightmare, my second worst movie ever seen - The promise, at least in THAT it has an acceptable soundtrack. My verdict: Avoid watching The Barber at all cost, it is not even worth my 6 kuai.

whack your boss