The Wall

The day after we arrived in Beijing we took a trip to the Great Wall. We went to the part that was the furthest away, in order to avoid most of the other tourists...


This thing is just ridiculous, it goes on and on and on. I don't think you can fully appreciate the idiocy of mankind until you see this with your own eyes. I mean, seriously, how bad can a neighbour really be? Can't we all just get along?


We walked about 15 kilometers, in flipflops, up and down, up and down. The heat and humidity was killing but it was a really great experience. I'll never do it again, haha.


Back in Beijing we spent most of the time shopping. Equally exhausting.

Monkey Island

The cabel car ride over to Monkey Island offers a great view of the area.


Saw this old basketball court in the jungle below. Of couse with a bright red star in the centre.


We took a day trip to the place. However, the drive there took about four hours and once there our driver didn't want us stay on the island for more than two hours, he didn't like driving in the dark...


I must say that it was pretty over rated. I was hoping to find animals living wild but it turns out that while some of them are semi-wild, living free on the island, most are put in training, to entertain brainless tourists. Whipping seemed to be the favoured method of encouragement... so if you like watching chained monkeys doing tricks, this is the perfect place for you. I walked away.


Still it was really nice just watching the wild ones.


There were also some budhist monks, or at least some people dressed as monks, that would drag you into some shitty hut, ask you to sign a paper, pretend to prey and then tell you to pay them. Hallelulja!


...and this is what a monkey looks like just before it bites you.


On our way home we passed rice field after rice field...


...as well as the Chinese version of Disney World... or something...



The Chinese really like their tea. At the airport in Sanya, they even have a special room where you can fill up with hot water.

Sanya

Went to Sanya, way down as far south as you can go in China, on the southern tip of the island Hainan. It's described as the Hawaii of the east. Apparently very popular with the new russian elite, or should we say mobsters? Anyway, all signs were in both Chinese and Russian. This was low season, apparently because it is too hot.The beaches were more or less empty until the sun went down. Of course we took advantage of that and burned ourselves senceless!


As on every other touristy beach there were people selling all sorts of crap, not nearly as annoying as the ones on Bali though. They were pretty respectful and actually left us alone after a while.


This lady makes the best smoothies ever. In the stall next to hers was another lady making the best smoothies ever as well. So far I have yet to meet a communist Chinese. These ladies were fiercly competitive and their smoothies and prices were awesome.


I could live on this stuff alone.


The street food was great. You can't find fresher sea food than this unless you start chewing it still in the sea.


Anna waiting for the barbeque.


I just had to try the steamed sea urchin, they look so scary. Tasted just like egg oddly enough.

Randomness

Have been away travelling this past week and here are some pics from the week before that... the travel pics will be up tomorrow... maybe.

Anyway, went to a pool party and managed not to take a single photo but here are some from the way there...


It was Anna's and her Chinese teacher's (whom I've completly forgotten the name of right now... sorry)...


The night ended at a karaoke bar... here things got a bit hazy and thankfully I don't remember singing to some Avril Lavigne song, so that definitly never happened.


Someone who really have a good voice and knows how to use it though, is Sarah. You should check her out, her debut album should be out pretty soon and you can listen to some of her songs on her MySpace.


As always in Shanghai, we had a crazy view...


Walking around town I spotted some, eh... stencil graffiti?


I also found this awesome monument for the good old days... remember pay phones?

Emmy Nomination!

Last summer I worked as art director on the film "Last Days on Earth". It was a crazy project but also a lot of fun. We were 13 people, squeezed into an office the size of my bathroom, slaving with the graphics 12-14 hours a day, six days a week to finish on time. Not even when I did my military service did I see a group of people working that hard to achieve a common goal and I learned a lot from the experience.

Anyway, yesterday I got a mail saying that the film has now been nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy in the category ”Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Graphic & Artistic Design”. Cool bananas.

By the way... the organization behind the Emmys is called "National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences", Natas for short... am I the only one reading that backwards?

Shanghaiaiaiai

I arrived in Shanghai on July 1st and will be here all of July. Well, except for a weeks vacation somewhere not yet known... looks like Sanya, Cambodia or Tibet. We'll see.
Anyway here are some first impressions of the city.

I think whereever you live in this city you'll have an insane view, simply because the whole city is crazy, so futuristic, old, dirty and polished, all at the same time. Here's the view from our apartment on the 19th floor.


I like to take long walks exploring the city. Somehow I always end up where I started out, no matter how I try I never get lost, eventhough I never know where I am. I take this as evidence that the world is round.
Yesterday I passed these guys playing badminton out on the street. Looked like fun, cars and motorcycles swishing by as they ran out into traffic to save the ball.


Oh, and when crossing the street, remember you are polite people!


I'm here working and try to spend a lot of time drawing at different cafés, Anna took me to Xiaoxiao, a really nice little place where I ended up falling asleep for a few hours. Anyway, they have the nicest menues I've seen i a while, check it out...


Here's something funny I noticed while sitting at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Sure the dude from Prison Break looks like a skinhead but isn't the headline a bit much? Who thought Fashion Weekly would be racist?


...have a closer look...

CK - En på miljonen

Here's something I forg to post earlier... some weeks back Swedish rapper CK asked me to do a cover for his new EP entitled En på miljonen. He was in a rush to get it out in time for Hultsfred, which gave me about a day or so to whip it out. Here's the result... sorry for the shit quality of the photo.


...and the illustration up close...

Back in NY

Went to NY on a quick trip for work. It was an "inspiration trip", so basically we just went around shopping and looking at stuff for a few days. On our way to the NY office we ran in to Don King, the old boxingpromotor/killer/hair style icon... here's my boss posing for a pic with the man.


The view from the office is pretty crazy. They were rebuilding the terrace and had lots of nice little asbestos flying around up there, so I didn't stay out for too long. Saw one of the workers taking a leak off the building but unfortunately didn't catch it on camera. Just imagine the little man in a suit way way down on street level licking his lips wondering why the rain tastes of salt.


I dragged everyone out to Bushwick to see my favourite live band play, Matt & Kim. I was so happy that we timed our trip to be able to catch them play once more. They were better than ever and I had an awesome time. It was the release party for Parts & Labor's new cd and a whole bunch of bands playing. Not sure but I think the guys in the pic below is Deathset. Anyway, they were pretty cool too despite one of the speakers fucking up constantly...