I’ve been listening to a lot of Sigur Rós lately. These guys are freakin’ AMAZING!!! Their DVD “Heima” was filmed last year in their home country Iceland and is hands down one of the best band performances ever. After touring the world they went home and did a bunch of free shows in small community centers, abandoned factories, and grassy fields and people just came and enjoyed. The music and cinematography of this film is just mind blowing. Check it out…….

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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After cruising around Osaka for two days we decided to hit the Tennoji Zoo before we headed back to the airport.  I didn’t expect to see so many animals this trip but it was to nice to walk around with the family and not just spend the whole time looking at stores (although I did go crazy the day before buying records…heh heh).

Mr.Hippo was loud and greeted us at the entrance while taking care of some stuff that luckily was hidden underwater.

It was so hot that this elephant wouldn’t get out of the water!  Remember feeding bananas to the old elephant at Lai Chi Kok?  Too bad you can’t feed elephants anymore.

This white bird just looked evil and pissed if I got any closer.

All the cats were sleepy from the heat except for the tiger that reminded me of Kingsley back home.  The small cat above is a Leopard cat.  I found out that you can get them now from breeders in the states but I believe they’re pretty expensive.

“Hyena’s?  We ain’t got no stinkin’ hyena’s!”

All the school kids were visiting that day.

Some people brought their note pads and were doing cool sketches!

They even had Godzilla there!

After the zoo we crossed the street to check out some traditional puffer fish delicacies.  But after watching the Simpsons episode where Homer almost died from eating raw puffer (they’re poisonous and deadly if not prepared right) I didn’t touch the fugu!

These flowers looked like little fireworks!

Finally before we left we had some super juicy Kobe beef and luckily I didn’t have to prepare the lobster this time!

Sayonara Osaka!!

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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I’ve been addicted to the Flight of the Conchords lately. So awesome!!! It’s definitely one of those shows that grow on you and the more you watch it the funnier it gets. They’re filming the second season right now and I can’t wait. Since they write and play their own songs they’ll be playing some cool music festivals this summer so if you get a chance check them out…..

“Business Time”!

“Hiphoppopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”!

“Inner City Pressure”!

“Business Time” Live!

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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I just got back tonight from a three day trip to Osaka with my family and it was a blast.  If you haven’t been there it’s definitely worth checking out.  We spent most of the time walking around different areas of town while I would sneak off and dig for some vinyl and look for guitar shops.  We also hit the aquarium and the zoo to get our national geographic on…

We just decided to get away a few weeks ago so I couldn’t wait to check out a new city and hit the ground running!

On our flight there we got to enjoy the newly designed Cathay Pacific seats.  Each person had their own little area and the seats can lie totally flat!

Scott enjoying his cocoon!

The first place we checked out was Shin Sai Bashi.  Lots of cool shops that stretched out for blocks.  Miki Gaki is a great music store to go to and a must is Tower Records, Athens Bookstore, Tokyu Hands, etc.  Also checkout the side streets for some hidden treasures!

Big city lights…..

I love it how people can just rock out in the streets in Japan…

End of day one with a great view of Osaka Castle from our hotel room!

The following day we went to one of the biggest aquariums in the world -The Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.

I forgot what these guys were called.  They’re similar to otters but smaller and reminded me of Kingsley since they were the same color.

We were also greeted by some penguins, dolphins, super strange looking round fishes, and a manta ray!

This guy reminded me of a turtle I saw while snorkeling in Waimea Bay (Hawaii) but the one I saw was missing a leg (probably from a shark attack).  I wonder how he’s doing now….

There were some weird but colorful looking jellyfish and some evil looking spider crabs….

But the coolest, biggest, and my favorite animal was the WHALE SHARK!  I always wanted to swim with one and used to dream about it when I was a kid.  This was my first time seeing them in person and it was sooo insane.  They had two in the aquarium and they were huge.  They just chilled and didn’t think twice about the workers cleaning inside the tank.

Whale sharks kick ass!!

Posted on June 18th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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I finally got all the pics back from our trip to Singapore the other day.  It was my second trip to the land of the merlion (the first being in 1992) and we had a blast.  The first reason for the trip was to be a guest in the Sam Hui show and the other reason was to take part in the SK fashion show while squeezing in some time for fun and food….

The merlion!  Its always the first thing I think of driving in from the airport.

The show went good this trip.  Everyone had a great time and it’s always a pleasure playing music with my family.  There’s more behind the scenes pics at Badboyben’s blog too!

Once we had some free time we had to hit Orchard road to get some food and check out some cool shops.

Last time I was at Lucky Plazy I was really into collecting comics and I remember running down here with Ben buying Spawn and Jim Lee comics!

The top floor of the shopping center has this really good hainanese chicken restaurant.  This was the first place we ate after getting off the airplane!

Badboyben and the Perpetual Princess drove up from Penang as fast as they could to meet us just in time!

A fan from Japan came to our show and gave me a really cool Yoshitomo Nara gift from the Omotesando Hills store.  I have a bunch of Nara stuff so I was pretty stoked!

After everyone left we stayed on for a few days and went to the Night Safari Zoo.  For some strange reason I kept trying to get as close to the animals before they would attack me!

The owl looked cool but also kind of mean so I didn’t even think about it…..

Justin and Ray getting crazy on the go carts!  We spent one afternoon at Sentosa goofing around before heading over to the Singapore Flyer to get a good view of the city.

BBB also took us for some really really good Japanese food at Robataya Yoyogi.  Yeah!

I don’t really cook unless you count ramen noodles so being in a real kitchen was pretty foreign to me.  Luckily for the rest of the crew I only helped out for the TV recording.

One of the places we ate at was the Yummy Lobster House where the chef asked me to help prepare the live lobster.  It was pretty freaky to say the least.  The chef put the knife in but I couldn’t continue because I could feel the poor thing squirm….I seriously lost my appetite…and can’t eat lobster anymore…..I can still hear the hissing sound in my head….aaahhh!

While everyone else was happy eating the lobster I had to admire the fruit carvings just to get my mind off it…

One thing we had to get was laksa.  Last time we were in Malaysia Patrick ate this twice a day!

There was pics of this wanted guy everywhere so someone thought it would be a good idea to make other possible disguises just in case you see him in drag or in a pirate uniform!  So funny!!

While on our whirlwind trip we also got to do some press including I-Weekly magazine.  Thanks to Liyu for posting it on her AnD blog!

The Straits Times/Urban people also went through all my stuff and we got to have a good chat.  Thanks to RyanStyle at What’s good! for posting it.

Last but not least I took part in the SK fashion show that also included fellow alivenotdead artist Mindee Ong!

That was our fun few days in Singapore.  Hopefully we’ll be back within the year with some new tunes and please no lobsters……..

Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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Last week we got invited to two fashion shindigs and we had a lot of fun hanging out while checking out some cool threads.  Both events were held at Kowloon West and it was interesting seeing how these two separate events were set up just days apart from each other.

The Coach party was nicely designed and they went all out promoting their new store in Central!

This party was also put together with our friends over at CLOT so thanks for the invite yo!

For the special occasion Coach invited John Mayer to play a seven song set.  I believe this was his first time playing HK but I don’t think it will be his last judging from everyone’s excitement.

I’ve been doing a lot of acoustic performances when I was promoting my music last month so watching JM keep it simple with just two guitars was pretty cool.

If you’re not into his music that’s ok but the guy can really tear it  up on the guitar!

After John Mayer DJ AM got things started on the wheels of steel!

Newly wed and our good friend DJ Tommy was holding it down before JM hit the stage!

Diesel’s party focused on launching their new “Black Gold” line.  The fashion show was actually pretty big and our very own 24 Herbs were in the front row taking it all in.

After the show a couple of  DJs including DJ Strech Armstrong kept things going for the rest of the night.  It was cool because almost our friends were there so we had fun catching up and enjoying the free drinks….heh heh….

Gotta love the view of the HK harbor at night…….

Posted on June 6th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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Last sunday there was a huge 512 Charity show for all the victims of the Sichuan earthquake and over 300 artists from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan pulled together and supported. It was an honor to be able to help and remind people that we need to continue to support our friends. They project that it will take over 7 years to get things to back to normal for the 5 million people are now left homeless and for the thousands of families that lost loved ones to recover. So don’t forget and keep giving…..

24 Herbs, Josie Ho, Audiotraffic, Terence, and myself performed “Message in a Bottle.” Alivenotdead represent!!

Backstage huddle before we go on…….

The crowd was great and everyone donated a lot of money to the charity!

My dad, Eason, Leo, Miriam, and Joey closing the 7 hour show! This was actually the first time my dad and I were in the same event/show that wasn’t his own concert……so cool.

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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Tony Hawk interviews skater Tommy Carroll…….who is blind!
Inspirational stuff…..

Video: http://www.shredordie.com/videos/4600e35e6f

Posted on May 27th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE “Narrow Stairs”
I’ve been listening to this album a lot lately-great melodies and songwriting. These guys always take things to the next level with each album. I believe it also debuted at No.1 this week too. Definitely a solid release from DCFC but my favorite CD of theirs is still a tie between “Transatlanticism” and “We have the facts…”

THE LEMONHEADS “It’s a Shame About Ray” Reissue
This is the fifth time I bought this album! (I worn through two cassette tapes and killed two CDs). So when they re-released this album including tons of old demo versions and a DVD you know I freaked out. Mr.Evan Dando’s songwriting totally influenced the way I play write songs.

WEEZER “The Red Album”
Weezer is back and their new CD comes out in a few weeks!!!! Can’t wait………….!!!!!
(Their new video rocks!)

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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I just watched the news tonight and saw that the Sichuan Earthquake situation is still getting worse. Its almost unbelievable to see how many people were affected by this disaster. My heart goes out to all the families that have lost loved ones and that lost their homes. Please keep them in your prayers and donate if you can. You can find places to donate here.

Posted on May 21st, 2008 by Ryan Hui
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