Words cannot describe the thousands of picture-worthy moments which so make me love my visits to China. With no time to travel or play on these work trips, I still find myself constantly entertained just looking out the window. I share with you the first collection from my own amateur photography of one of my favorite subjects. I fear it have vanished into the future within just months or years from now the way China is steaming onward. Enjoy....
So we accidentally took Dave and Spencer to their first Taiwanese Steakhouse tonight. You see I told our local friend, Michael, I wanted to take our fabrics expert, Stan, to get a steak somewhere nice in HangZhou alongside the historic and legendary West Lake. Turns out it was a steakhouse, but not the kind any American knows about. Inside this weird place was this warning on the wall to beware of pick-pockets. [SHOWN LEFT: IS THIS RACIST? Notice any racial type-casting here?]. Judging by this PSA it seems that HangZhou has had problems with Norweigian pick-pockets. We foreigners run all over China taking the RMB right out of their unwitting pockets. The best part about this sign: notice how the innocent Asian couple are getting jacked simultaneously - her purse and his wallet. THAT is how we foreigners do it east side. Please comment!
I can't possibly do this place justice so I'll just point out some of its finer features and leave it at that. In the corner, a major focal point of the room, was the requisite indoor waterfall, of course defunct - out of service. Clearly a good place to park one's bike.
The salad bar, of course, rivaled that of any Sizzler I've ever been too, minus the taco bar. The highlight are the two vats of pudding-like "salad dressing" in the foreground. Some things are better appreciated from afar.
We wrapped the lovely evening up with a stroll around the famous West Lake - a lake so beautiful that it has literally found its way into various Chinese literary classics over the last 1000 years! Now it has been modernized, surrounded by gift shops, cotton candy vendors and even Starbucks Coffee! What an improvement. How could we pass up this diamond-in-the-rough-collectible shown behind glass in the window: Nothing say's ancient China like David Beckham rockin' the dirt bike. M A N I L O V E C H I N A!
Truth is, I think I laugh more here in a day than I do back home in a month....and not at anything particularly funny - just at life as it is. Like a kid wearing his father's coat, these 1 billion people try on the industrialized world with a vengance that can only be blamed on having been deprived of it for the last 100 years, having caught up with the rest of us in only 10.
I've been coming here since age 5. I have been blessed to learn the language and love the people. God bless the P.R.C.
-- Shawny D.
P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment on my "Sexist" blog a couple of posts previous (below). I'll send you a MOM blanket if you have something interesting to say.
So I had dinner again tonight with my everybody's favorite Asian, (and hopefully biz partner) Jackie Chan in Beijing tonight. Hopefully he can help me make the right connections to roll out LoveSac in China and help us take care of a 1/4 of the world in one fell swoop on our way to total global furniture domination.
I swung by his new place in Beijing after. It is an amazingly cool mansion apartment with a view. It is still under final construction, awaiting the interior designer but he has Sacs throughout. Last fall Jackie was filming his new movie, "The Spy Next Door," in Albuquerque New Mexico. They filmed part of it in a mall and they wanted a LoveSac storefront on the set. Jackie ended up napping in a BigOne, and just had to have one, so his entourage followed him into our Cottonwood Mall store in Albuquerque where a LoveSac rising star, Mr. Any Morales hooked him up with Sacs for his pad here in Beijing. [ABOVE: Andy, his family & the NM LoveSac crew with Jackie on Sactionals.] Jackie is going to have a sick Sactionals pit set up in his entertainment room, and Sacs in 3 or 4 rooms throughout the place! It will definately be the pimpest place in the Eastern Hemisphere, no doubt.
Who knows where the partnership will take us. We are certainly dealing with the heaviest of hitters her in China. We've got big plans but I'll keep em under wraps for now. I feel very lucky for this opportunity. Yes, mom, I got you a personalized Jackie autograph.
Y'ALL DON'T FORGET TO SHARE A COMMENT ON MY "SEXIST" BLOG BELOW!!! - win something!
-- Shawny D.
[ABOVE: Just a taste of the grandeur to come. Jackie got a personal fluffing lesson from the ChiefSac himself....that kinda came out wrong, yeah!?]
Last month I asked y'all to comment on our bizarre take on Easter (see a few posts previous). Some of you had some REALLY insightful comments, and I would love to get some more on this month's LoveSac ad/window poster: "Mom's Love Sac too." IS THIS SEXIST?Comment here.
I guess it could be viewed as sexist on a few levels...but without any hints, what do you think? Or is it just cute? Or just funny? Or not funny at all? What feelings/emotions/thoughts does our image conjure up? Is it good for sales, or not? Does it get your attention, or not? Do you care?
Anyway, please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. I read every one last time. I will send my favorite couple of comments (submitted no later than Thurs April 30th) one of our limited edition MOM blankets (shown in poster), just in time for Mother's Day! Don't hold back. Say anything you like, good, bad, or ugly (but no F words). My "favorite" comments aren't always ones that praise our work. I just like a good point.
Rock on (from the dark side of the planet)... I LOVE MY MOM! HAPPY MOM'S DAY!
First to Beijing to meet with Jackie Chan again, then on to Shanghai and Hangzhou to work with our Sac and Sactionals factories there. The Last time I was in China, February of this year, we got a lot of work done. My friends Joe & Rob came over on a trip of their own to check things out, but ended up hanging out with Dave and I as we worked with our factories somewhat. It definately added a little life to our party.
I must have been to China now over 30 times. I first went to China at 5 years old, singing and dancing. I lived in Taiwan for 2 years as a missionary, then Shanhai for 1 year working as a consultant. I must have ridden in 1000 Chinese cabs, but on this last trip we actually discovered something new. You see, Joe is probably 6'2" tall or something, and these little Volkswagen Chinese Cabs are just not meant for big Americans. Joe leaned back a bit and litereally bent the passenger seat in half, backwards. We were laughing so hard we were crying. The seat was in Dave's lap by the end of the trip. We felt bad, but still, couldn't stop laughing. It is not every day you see a car seat literally fold in half, in the place where it shouldn't fold in half.
Crazy Rob ate a chicken foot at lunch. In my years of travelling to China I have seen many a toddler happily munching on a chicken's foot (its like the dum-dum sucker for Asians), but have never felt inclined to integrate myself into the culture in this way. Way to go Rob.
Dave...was Dave. Doesn't say too much, but when he does I usually laugh. Dave is "restricted" according to the giant Chinese character behind him.
I'm seein' Jackie again on Wednesday. Should be cool. Hopefully he wants to be our biz partner in Asia. I guess we'll see.
Children of the 90's unite! I'm sure that many of you, like me, had "friends" who rocked those genie-like Hammer Pants to dances in Jr. High School. In my case it was the Holmgren twins. Man, they could do the running-man like nobody's business...in MATCHING twin blue-with-sequen Hammer Pants no less. WHAT a memory. Well, I guess the next best thing to having Josh & Jeremy Holmgren to roll with is rollin' with the man, the myth, the legend himself, MC Hammer on the LoveSac Bus. Oh, snap--and Vanilla Ice too!!!??? (more below) What's even better, THE BUS HAS ITS OWN BLOG! That's right, save it as a favorite - check it everyday: http://lovesac.typepad.com/bus/ will keep you updated on exactly where the LoveSac bus is, moment to moment, day-to-day, which is valuable information if you like free stuff. That's right, free LoveSac swag for anyone who catches the driver and says, "Show me your Sac." There is also a "text me" phone number on the side of the bus that you can text the word "where" to and get the bus's location, in real time, anywhere in the U.S. & be entered to win our weekly drawings for a FREE SAC.
We have heard from a number of you die-hard Sac fans just might not be getting enough love from the Sac from my blog alone, so we've added Charlie (our beloved keeper of the bus, AKA luckiest job in the world) to the ranks of LoveSac bloggers, and he'll be keepin' you updated from the road via the Bus Blog. He's lucky enough to be rollin' the open highways of the southern U.S. with the likes of upcoming pop-star and MAJOR HOTTIE Jesse James. (shown left) That's right, JESSIE JAMES IS ON THE LOVESAC BUS RIGHT NOW! Go Charlie.
Anyway, enough with current, relevant pop-stars...back to Hammer & Ice. So a few weeks ago, our man, the infamous Mr. Samuel Salisbury, a virtual legend in Salt Lake City, Utah, put together a concert for the history books. Sam brought in Vanilla Ice & MC Hammer for a very special one-night-only/ever sold out concert event. The LoveSac Bus was rollin' deep thru the weekend with the Hammer Dancers, Vanilla Ice, and the Hammer himself takin' their own pics and rockin' the Guitar Hero on the way to their various party spots. To see all the photos from this crazy event click here to see the gallery at LoveSac.com with all the pics of Hammer, Vanilla, and maybe even YOU at this event. Check out this little raw user-video (below) of this very weird event....and Sam, i gotta hand it to ya, no one throws a party like you.
Tiffany, Jesse (with a broken neck, man!), Dan, Chris, and all of you in the S.L.C. who made this go OFF!!!!!!!...........I love you guys.
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