Pics from our latest event in Shanghai... yes, I met Christy Chung.  She's a lot shorter than you would think... CLICK HERE FOR MORE

I was forwarded this, and thought it was hilarious: http://youtube.com/watch.php?v=IggTu7kV7No&search=lazy%20sunday

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

See you in the New Year.

Geez... almost 28, and seems like nothing to show. What the hell is going on?

A series of unfortunate things have happened in my family lately. An aunt of mine has recently passed away, and another uncle of mine is pretty sick. I can do nothing but pray and knowingly hope that everything will somehow turn out ok. Situations like this make me think of my own parents, most importantly my mom, who has singlehandedly raised me and my brother by devoting her entire adulthood to us. I often wonder when I'll be ready to throw away everything and dedicate my life to something, no matter the cost... that's what a good parent does.

My mom came up to Shanghai this week, along with an uncle and aunt of mine and we got wind that Michael Bolton was performing in Shanghai. It was his first performance ever in China, and my mom and her generation love Michael Bolton. The concert was at Shanghai Worker's Stadium and I had bought scalped tickets. It is quite easy to get scalped tickets and the price of the scalped ticket in Shanghai in comparison with it's actual retail value is a function of various factors:

1/ Size of venue (the larger the venue, the more likely the lower the price)
2/ Popularity of artist (obviously the more popular, the more likely the price will be higher)
3/ Promotion of event (the more promoted, the more likely the lower the price)
4/ Time of scalped ticket sale (as it approaches the concert start time, the price generally decreases)
5/ The ratio between buyers and sellers on site (the more people scalping, generally the lower the price)

In our case, Michael Bolton's first ever China concert in Shanghai was:
1/ Held at Shanghai Worker's Stadium, capacity of about 9,000pax (relatively large venue)
2/ Michael Bolton is fairly popular, of all his songs, the one that seemed to get most response from the locals was the Hercules soundtrack
3/ I don't think it was well promoted, I only heard of it on the day of, but then again, the place was about 90% full
4/ We bought the tickets at 7:25, 5 minutes before start of concert
5/ There was roughly an even 1:1 ratio

All in all we paid 350rmb for a 480rmb ticket... it was an ok concert, EXCEPT he had the flu and couldn't hit his high notes. He also cut his concert a bit short, probably by about 4 - 5 songs. In retrospect, I would have been happier paying a bit less, but it was a pretty good concert, for someone who had the flu.

I swear this is Michael Bolton.  Pics were taken from my Nokia Phone.

So the Diesel party came and went like a thunderstorm through Shanghai. For those of you who missed it, here is where you'll find a few good pics.

Here's a preview:





And as you can tell, I caved into purchasing me some Flickr. Should be a lot more image postings on here soon. So, in all entirety, I've spent money on purchasing a lifetime Xanga membership, Flickr, SkypeOut and some random items off eBay.

So the title of this blog is such because I wanted to comment on how cool I thought the Italian language and people are. When the Diesel team flew into Shanghai, it felt like an episode of the Sopranos. Them speaking with their expressions and such. They had their hand gestures, facial movements and heavy set Italian accents. I wanted to turn on my Italian accent at some point, had to bite my tongue to hold myself back. Not to mention they were all in Diesel gear, all really cool guys that really give the image of coolness that the brand is out trying to convey. Me on the otherhand, with my suit and tie felt really uncomfortable.

About 1000 people showed up to the Diesel Launch in China, and this is only the beginning I'm sure.