askland on January 22nd, 2012

The entire company of Zaia wishes you a Happy Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choy! I had my noodles at the local Chinese restaurant and let off bottle rockets into the water of Macau. Happy to report no rockets hit me this year.

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askland on November 12th, 2011

Yin Yang. They are not completely black or white, just as things in life are not completely black or white, and they cannot exist without each other. Highlights of Information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang

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askland on September 29th, 2011

This is a music video about a Chinese love story. I’m sure I have bits of this story wrong but this is how I remember it being told to me:

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askland on May 24th, 2011

The Venetian Macau has changed it’s tune as of around Spring 2011. I don’t mean this in a symbolic sense, it’s literal. And maybe I’m the only one who has noticed or cares – it’s quite possible. When I first started working at the Venetian Macau in April of 2011, all the background music piped [...]

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So I’m talking with a friend here in Macau, China about stocks and I asked them if they knew about the terms Bull Market and Bear Market. They said yes. The Bear Market is when stocks go down. They said the phrase comes from the old West in America. The cowboys would sit around and [...]

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askland on April 2nd, 2011

Here’s a video I made for a lens comparison on the Canon 5D Mark II using Final Cut Express, MPEG Streamclip and ProTools 9. Footage is automatic settings with tripod at 25 (23.98) frames per second. Lenses in the comparison are: Canon 24-105mm f/4L Canon 50mm f/1.4 Canon 15mm Fisheye f/2.8 Tamron 20mm f/1.8

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askland on March 19th, 2011

I found this article very interesting. A CNN crew is taken away by police while filming in Beijing. http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/28/getting-harassed-by-the-chinese-police/

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askland on February 12th, 2011

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjQwMDU1MzYw.html Cirque Du Soleil artists from the ZAIA show did a live television promo up in Hunan, China in late January 2011. It featured the acts of Straps, Skate and Hand to Hand. I don’t know how to embed that link because it’s from a Chinese website – but it’s there if you’d like to [...]

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askland on February 3rd, 2011

Kong Hei Fat Choi from Macau, China! 2011 is the year of the rabbit so that should be fun for all of us. Above is video and photos I shot in Macau on Chinese New Year’s Eve (February 2, 2011). Pictures of Senado Square, Macau Tower fireworks and my personal adventures purchasing rockets and explosives [...]

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askland on December 20th, 2010

The waiters singing Deck The Halls at the Chinese restaurant in the movie Christmas Story. Now I know so many people that love this scene so much from that movie. I just showed this clip to a Chinese friend of mine and asked them if they thought it was funny. They said, “No, it’s normal”. [...]

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askland on November 22nd, 2010

I read this article on CNN.com that the local Shanghai dialect of Wu Chinese is disappearing and the government is trying to find native speakers in order to preserve the language, promote it and study it.

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askland on November 8th, 2010

A Chinese friend of mine came up with a mild tongue twister: Taking a taxi to Texas to pay taxes. I thought it was something from an English book like “Sally Sells Seashells by the Seashore”. But they said they made it up. I googled it and don’t see it anywhere on the web. I [...]

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askland on November 6th, 2010

This is a real email question I received: hi were moving to macau this january 2011.. i would like to ask if how much if were going to stay there in your apartment for two weeks?

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香港导游阿珍骂大陆游客购物不够多摄像录音_在线视频观看_土豆网视频 香港旅游 导游阿珍 导游骂人 大陆游客 港澳游.flv Video is in Chinese. Hong Kong tour guide says “Spend more, you’ll be happier… don’t tell me you don’t need [to buy more], next you’ll be telling me you don’t need to eat at meal time. I will lock you out of your hotel rooms because you don’t need [...]

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askland on July 18th, 2010

Finally got some pics from our recording session of the Cirque Du Soleil ZAIA soundtrack in Hong Kong – December 2008. Most of our tracks were recorded on location in Macau but we did string section and piano recordings in Hong Kong.

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askland on July 18th, 2010

Usher performed in Macau at the Venetian Casino on July 13, 2010. Rumor has it he came over to our ZAIA theater to record some audio tracks for a project he’s working on. I didn’t get to meet him and security was tight. So I posted a video with some Usher music you might enjoy. [...]

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Wednesday June 16 is the 2010 Macau Dragonboat Festival. Macau is already starting to see lots of tourists coming in from Mainland China. At the Venetian Casino (where I currently work) we noticed a lot of activity Monday night. The official holiday is Wednesday but the entire week is a holiday period (does this qualify [...]

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askland on May 8th, 2010

I had the chance to see Kelly Clarkson perform in Macau, China at the Cotai Arena inside the Venetian casino on May 8, 2010. What an absolutely fantastic performer! I guess you could say I’m one of her fans now. Of course I have heard her name for years and have seen bits of her [...]

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askland on April 9th, 2010

Jerry Nadal (senior vice-president for resident shows of Cirque du Soleil): ‘We’re here for the long hall’ as reported April 7, 2010 in the Macau Daily Times. Full article posted here with link to original MDT article at end of post.

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askland on March 9th, 2010

In central Guangzhou, China (about a 3 hour bus ride north of Macau where I currently, live) you can go to the Han River Dog Meat Restaurant and order dog soup, dog with tofu, dog steak and many more delicious recipes. You can even have spicy dog in your hot pot. But the Chinese government [...]

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