We've been having too much fun and been too busy to blog since we flew to Bali a week ago. I'll get to it eventually...maybe on the flight home tomorrow.
In the mean time, enjoy this video that Matt found today, it's bril.
Shanghai - 10/14 - 10/17/08
Since we weren’t able to get visas for India in time they sent us to Shanghai to wait for them. Of all the places on the trip that we were going to spend a little extra time, Shanghai would not have been our first choice but they set us up in a swanky hotel so that made it much better.
The hotel is really beautiful - Hyatt on the Bund. It’s a bit of a walk to the touristy places but has great restaurants, spa, gym and pool.
Also, an amazing view of everything Shanghai has to offer from our bedroom.
Shanghai is all about the buildings. 2 of the tallest in the world are in this shot. If you lined up this skyline with most any other city in the world the buildings would be dwarfed. The one that looks like a bottle opener is 470 meters high.
After Tokyo, Shanghai is a bit of a shock. Tokyo is clean, shiny, lots of green spaces and interesting shops and the people dress like they are walking the runway. It is a lot like New York and has a very solid place on the list of “most cosmopolitan cities” in the world.
Shanghai is a city that has no appeal I can see beyond minimal tourism and loads of commerce.
And, apparently, Formula One races.
We spent most of our time in areas that look like this
But I have a strong hunch that most of Shanghai actually looks more like this
There are way more scooters than cars in the city.
There are few road rules or helmets worn and it seems like an insane way to get around.
We arrived early in the morning so we slept and relaxed for a bit before we went exploring. First thing was laundry – Matt’s been going 2 weeks now so he really needed clean clothes. After some hand-waving and gesturing we were able to drop the clothes at a local launderer with a 47% of being able to pick them up the next day.
We started at the Bund. The Bund was the heart of trade in Shanghai 100 years ago. Still looks very European but if you look closely all the flags on top of the buildings are Chinese. Sort of feels like another reality where China took over the western world.
Shanghai is under a ton of construction preparing for Expo 2010 so it was very loud, polluted and dirty. I think they are working on it but it’s pretty overwhelming. We walked and walked trying to find a way across to where the tall buildings are and finally found the ferry system.
We crammed in with other passengers and loads of scooters.
This is the traffic the ferry has to dodge going across the river. Quite the ride.
Once we got across we went strait to the bottleopener building. It's actually called the Shanghai Financial Center but I prefer to call it The Bottleopener. Matt is a huge fan of tall buildings and this one has the highest observation deck in the world – 470 meters up.
Also, that deck has a glass bottom.
This is the 2nd tallest building in Shanghai viewed from the tallest.
The bottle opener just opened up a month ago so it’s all bran-spankin' new. It was pretty neat.
These are the guys that wash the windows on the building.
Can you say hazard pay?
After the bottle opener we went over to the Oriental Pearl. It’s the space agey looking thing in the skyline. It is by far one of the tallest, weirdest, tackiest buildings in the world.
After dinner and some more wandering it was time to head back.
Next morning we decided to really take advantage of the hotel. We ordered room service, went to the gym (they had a dance studio that I had all to myself!), and laid by the pool for hours. We realized that this is what a “real vacation” would be like.
The rest of the day was wonderfully lazy and not worth writing about except for the rooftop bar that had a perfect view of the city AND a jacuzzi.
We woke up early the next morning in order to have breakfast and watch the debates. It’s really nice to be away from the news right now. They both did well but I enjoyed watching the roasts they did at the black tie event much more.
We still had a bit more curiosity about the tourist sites – primarily Old Town. Much of it looks like this…
It is very cool except that the 1st floor of these building is full of crappy tourist shops selling garbage. Also, we smelled the worst smell ever. I’m serious…ever.
It was either this:
Or this:
After the gardens (ho hum) we went to the “Bund Tourist Tunnel”. This is a bizarre tunnel with a people mover that takes about 2 minutes and involves a light show.
The end of the tunnel has a “rare sea creatures” exhibit. It was enough to make us decide not to go to the aquarium. The animals are all sad and cramped and we just didn’t want to pay them money to see more of that.
So we went to the mall. 10 stories – 1000’s of stores. Sadly, nothing I really wanted to buy.
It was getting late in the afternoon so we went back to the hotel to meet the Shanghai crew and the rest of the team. We filmed on the Bund but had to keep running away from the police since we didn’t have permits.
Shanghai at night is very photogenic.
The Shanghai team is great. Stella is adorable and has a ton of pets. Geok kicks ass and is an amazing crowd controller. Mark seems to be somehow connected to Shanghai's public officials and can get some impressive permissions (got it for the Bund for the second round of shooting).
The next day’s shooting just happened to be at a famous bun shop in Old Town – 10 yards from the terrible smell we discovered the day before. Luckily, it was not quite as bad early in the morning.
They are shooting 2 different ads on this trip. One is all Matt dancing. The other is all shops and the “merchants” dancing. This is the bun lady outside the bun shop.
Bun lady realized how tiring the Matt dance is. She was almost passing out by the end of the shoot. They got a few more shots of Matt dancing in the Ya Yuan Gardens and then we had some time off before the final merchant shoot.
I decided to get a manicure at the hotel.
It’s weird to be traveling the way we always do but not actually have to do anything.
We had an overnight flight back to Singapore to transfer to our flight to Bali. We took the MagLev. It’s a magnetic monorail that goes 301 kpm. City to airport in 8 mins.
We had dinner with Jackie, Danny and Nick and witnessed both the volume of crazy stories these guys have and the huge amount that they can drink. It was impressive and funny. Between the two of them they have met just about every celebrity and either gotten wasted with them or almost got killed by them.
Turns out the other celebrities that Visa has used so far are Richard Gere, Jackie Chan, Yao Ming, Pierce Brosnan and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Interesting company.
We had a 4 hr flight overnight to Singapore and then 6 hours in the transit hotel. We discovered that the Singapore airport has a pool, a movie theater and a butterfly sanctuary. When we woke up we went to wander around Singapore. Apparently they LOVE to shop here. Walked up and down one of the main streets in town and had a delightful cab ride where the cabby serenaded us with Elvis songs.
Back to the airport for the Bali flight and back to coach seating until Singapore to Seattle. At least the flights are short. I’m already spoiled.
Bottom line with China is when I come back I’ll skip Shanghai and get out of the cities as much as possible. I find this is a good rule for most of the world.
LA to Tokyo - 10/9-10/13
I realized I’ve never told the story on my blog about the coolest thing that happened this summer. It was a great summer – 2 lovely weddings, the video launch, San Diego trip, Matt’s renewed famousness…but the absolute most unexpected thing was our trip to Skywalker Ranch to visit with Rick McCallum, the producer of Star Wars. The Ranch is gorgeous and we did meet George, briefly.
The highlight was watching the video in their private screening room. Holy Moly.
This is us, in front of Ewok Lake, bored.
Matt is making an ad for Visa and I am his companion for the next 17 days through Asia. We plan to go to Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Vietnam, Bali. We were going to go to Ankor Wat but apparently Cambodia is too dangerous right now.
I met up with Matt in LA around 9:30pm and although I hadn’t slept much the night before (so excited!) I really wanted to see the sites in LA. Matt had rented a convertible and a GPS so we decided to go for a road trip.
In just 3 short hours we went from the airport out to Santa Monica Pier, up to Malibu, across the hills of Northern LA to what we thought was Mulholland Drive (turns out it was a dirt road with a nice view of the valley), back to the real Mulholland Drive, then through the city hitting Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Westwood, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood Blvd and then to the hotel.
The flight to Tokyo the next day was different from any flight I’ve ever taken. Since this trip is being paid for and scheduled by someone else we are flying First Class directly from Seattle to Tokyo.
We watched the stock market crash while eating breakfast in the first class lounge before boarding the flight.
Kenny G sat in front of us on the flight. The Director of Photography for the project was flying with us and started chatting with him before he knew who he was. He happened to mentioned that Matt was famous and KG turned around and said,
“You’re famous?”
Matt was busy unloading his supplies for the long flight.
He turned around, “Hi…aren’t you Kenny G?”
“Yes I am. Who are you?”
“Well, I made this video on the internet. It got popular. I’m dancing in all these countries and…”
“That’s you???”
Kenny G loves the video. He’s also incredibly nice.
This is what our seats looked like:
It is a very good way to do a 12 hour flight. Sleeper seats, tons of room, great food. I could get used to this.
It was early evening when we arrived in Tokyo. We were greeted by about 12 people from the production company and the ad agency. Met the Director, Producers, etc. 2 hr drive to the city in bad traffic plus a collision with a taxi cab meant that we were totally exhausted by the time we arrived at the super swanky hotel. Fell asleep at 7pm which meant waking up at 5am.
Oh jetlag, you sure are fun.
Saw the sun rise over Tokyo.
Since we had a couple hrs before our call we hopped on the train and went Shinjuku, the skyscraper district, to wander around.
The fashion in Japan is amazing, even on Sunday.
Style is a BIG thing and everyone is wearing short shorts/skirts, tall boots and furry hats. Every dog has an outfit too.
The shoot was pretty disorganized.
We went to Harajuku – an area known for crazy outfits and big crowds. It was a lot of standing around before they decided to give us 2 hours off while they found the location they wanted. No problem!
We wandered around, looked at the shops, got some lunch and explored Yoyogi park. Matt showed me where the amateur rockbands perform in the park and the place he danced with the crowd in Tokyo for the video.
After that we did the shoot - Matt dancing in front of a big crowd. They hired a couple of girls to dance with him.
We weren’t really sure if the guy in the middle was the manager or dad.
There was some confusion about the next shot so more standing around until we changed location to Shibuya. Then they sent us on our way for 3 hrs. Shibuya is a bright, loud shopping area known for giant stores (electronics, toys, clothes, crafts, etc) and a HUGE crosswalk.
I’m beginning to realize that eating in Asia is tough for me. I’m allergic to shellfish and they put it in everything without telling you. They use baby shrimp as a condiment.
Few restaurants have English menus and few waiters speak English. No accidents yet but I’m carrying my epi-pen with me everywhere just in case.
This is was the Shibuya shot - look familiar?
This is one of the producers talking to Matt. This is all you need to know about Mel.
As soon as Matt was dancing people started recognizing him.
“Hey, it’s Matt!”
“That’s the dancing guy from the video!”
“Can I take a picture with you?”
There was even a guy Matt used to work with at Pandemic in Australia who happened to be crossing during one of the takes.
I think the famousness surprised the crew.
After the shoot the jetlag was hitting us again so when the rest of the crew went out, Matt had some drinks at the hotel with Daisuke (a friend he met when he did the Japan show) and I went to bed.
The next morning we were greeted by the very hung over crew and we all flew to Singapore. Since we couldn’t get visas for India in time they are going to Dehli for a couple days while we go strait to Shanghai to wait for them.
Where the Hell is Matt (2008) is done!
We started in Amsterdam in April 2007...
and ended in Seattle in June 2008.
thanks for the pic gapey!
40 countries and a cast of 1000's
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
LA Recording, Seattle Dance - Check, check!
The last two pieces that needed to be done were the music and the Seattle Dance. We are now officially done!
Well, technically there is more editing to be done but for all celebratory purposes this year-and-a-half long project is finished. No more emails, no more lists, no more invites or events. We are done.
It's been an amazing ride and I can't wait to see what happens when this video hits the internet. It could explode, it could flop. Who knows. No matter what, I love it and am so proud of what we've done.
The recording in LA was really fun. I flew down for the day and it was so worth it. Met up with Matt at the Burbank Travelodge (a surpsingly productive place) at 2am on Weds night. Woke up at 8am for a 10am start in Alhambra.
Matt got an SUV rental. When in Rome.
2 goals for the day -
1. Record Palbasha
2. Record 27 violins and 6 cellos.
Palbasha is a 17 year old Bengali singer from Minnesota. I found her on YouTube. Her voice is incredible and it is perfect for the video.
Matt, Palbasha and Garry going over the game plan.
She sang her heart out and we got some amazing stuff.
Garry is the composer. He also composed the music for the last video and the outtakes. He also composed the music for Bioshock!
Also attending the recording were Palbasha's mother, family friend, Garry's assitant Peter, 2 guys who run the studio, Dan the engineer (worked on the other videos too) and 2 friends of Garry's who are documentary film makers and fans of Matt.
It was great to finally meet Garry and Dan after hearing so much about them over the years.
When we were done with Palbasha she sang while Matt danced.
After lunch it was time for the violins!
Matt and I felt like we had the best seats at the symphony. The we realized we'd hired the symphony.
When we were done I was planning on just heading to the airport when we got an interesting invite. One of the film makers - Sherry - invited us to a cook-out at her house. Why not? We have a couple hours.
Turns out her house is a 14,000 sq foot mansion on 2 acres in North LA that was built in the 20's. We're talking gargoyls, a library, a studio, a full bar and a living room/movie theater. It was the perfect place to sit in the sun, drink wine, chat with interesting people and wind down after an exciting day.
I didn't want to leave. I probably shouldn't have. I actually tried to miss my flight. No luck.
Delays in San Francisco caused a 3 hour trip to double to 6 hours. I was already exhausted but after getting home at 4am I crawled into bed and could barely wake up to go get Matt from the airport at 9:30am.
The next day was all about hanging out with my sister who came to town for the Seattle Dance.
The dance was fantastic. We had almost 200 people! Largest one yet! All our friends and family to dance with! I could not have asked for more for the last event.
Check out Mark's and Paula's flickr pix of the event here and here (respectively).
And now it's done. And Matt is home. Hooray!
Congratulations Toni and Ryan!
They...
made this...
Welcome to the world Genevieve!
