After several months of being blocked here in China, Blogger is finally available again and a great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since my last post so it's time to catch up a little and try and get back on track once more.
At the time of my last post June 11th, Pirates 3 "At Worlds End" was doing the rounds in the movie theaters both in the west and here in China. The weather was becoming much warmer with temps in the 90's and the humidity was increasing dramatically 85/90%. Now here we are in late October with November just over the horizon and I have to say the weather is beautiful right now. Sunny days, cool temps around the high 60's to low 70's, and little or no humidity.
So what have I (we) been up to?
The first and probably biggest thing to happen is we moved to another apartment. Our previous landlady just didn't cut it. During the 6 months we lived in her 26th floor apartment there was an endless series of problems that ranged from broken AC's to a faulty washing machine and water heater, not to mention the other smaller issues which had been apparent from day one and which she promised numerous times to fix, but to no avail. So we took some time, looked around and after visiting numerous apartments in the local area that I would have boarded my dog in, we finally found an apartment owned by the editor of a local paper, who had completely redecorated his apartment western style. It's extremely clean, all mod cons and it's even cheaper than our previous accommodation, and the best part, we found on it the 3rd floor of the same building that we are already living in, so moving was a breeze.
Another thing of note from my perspective was that I completed several more TV Commercials here in Shanghai. In particular was one for the Chinese up market brand of mens and womens shoes, KangNai. You can view the commercials on this link... I had to shave off the beard for this one, so look for the Chef at the end of the video. Below is a photo taken at a place on the outskirts of Shanghai called "Thames Town", it's a rather plastic recreation of England in the form of an upscale housing development for the wealthier Chinese.
My agent LandyLee for this particular commercial. Oh, and that's not all me. The director decided he wanted a fatter French Chef, so they padded me out with the nylon stuffing you get inside a winter coat, just the perfect thing to be wearing on a day when the temperature hovered around 95 and the humidity around 90%. Below you can see an example of "Thames Town" and fake England, or in this case fake Tudor.
Another project I just finished is another stage play, "Angels Fall" by Lanford Wilson. I got to play the rather demanding part of "Father Doherty" the catholic priest in the play. This was another production by the East West theater company and included cast members from England, America, China, Australia, and a Canadian director, Jonathon Geenen.
I have been following with great interest the final stages of construction on the World Financial Building here in Pudong, Shanghai. The building is a 15 minute walk from our apartment, so each time a new milestone is reached I try to take a photo for my own pleasure and the members of a flickr photo group called KPF-Kohn Pedersen Fox, who are the architects responsible for the design of the WFC. Recently the construction crew reached their latest goal which was the 101st floor. Here's a photo of the building on that day. Completion of the whole building including it's shops, offices, restaurants and hotel is due in early 2008. Behind the WFC is the Jin Mao building currently the tallest building in Asia, once the WFC is complete it will at least for a short time be the tallest building in the world.
