Mike Shinoda

Source: www.casualiscool.com | Stunts: www.alfredrocks.com

Am I getting better at manifesting my dreams or was this coincidence? I was thinking about Fort Minor’s song and the next day I wake up and meet the guy behind it. Let’s not forget the time I had a dream I met Jackie Chan while I was in Taiwan and the next day I get an email from Robbie saying we are demo-ing for Jackie Chan. Here is the Mike Shinoda manifestation story:

I went to the East West Players Visionary Awards yesterday to do some interviews for Pacific Rim. There were a lot of great people there and talented Asian artists. =)

The strange thing was this: 4am the night before I was writing song lyrics for my business fraternity’s 10 year reunion event…

Past present blending through the ages
Destiny scripted on your manuals pages
From E-xi till DnI we cry and laugh
That sig on the back you can keep my autograph

A fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat
Building boats and memories we’ll never forget
In you and I got u.n.i.t.y.
Reach for those dreams the limit is the sky!

…and that line “a fraction inspiration, the rest is sweat” was inspired by Mike Shinoda or Fort Minor’s song “Remember the name”.

So at 4am I fell asleep thinking about Fort Minor’s lyrics:

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

and the next morning (same day) I wake up to a text from Pacific Rim saying “hey I know its kind of last minute but can you help cover the East West Players Awards at 6:30pm today?” So I said yes.. and BAM! I’m covering the event and then get to meet and interview Mike Shinoda! It was awesome because I really like his music and style and he seemed like a very cool person.

If you guys don’t know, Mike Shinoda is an Asian American artist best known for his vocal and musical endeavors with two-time Grammy-winning, multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park who also has his own project Fort Minor. He also is an awesome graphic designer that graduated from The Art Center — and I happened to have just come back from The Art Center that day watching a screening for a grad program short film I worked on.

Other actors/performers were at the event as well. Here are a few other pics:

Joan Almedilla Miss Saigon

Kaba Modern was there too!

kaba modern and mike shinoda

I had a good time at the event for sure. I also was hanging out with a fellow volunteer, Michi, and she taught me some improv games. There’s one where you pick a random letter of the alphabet like.. “G” for example so then I would say “Go get me some apples” and then the next person would have to start with the next letter of the alphabet “H” and they would say “Hellll no I’m not getting apples for you”.. etc / There’s another game where you can only ask questions.. and that was fun too. I think I might try to check out some improv groups when I have more time. I heard about OPM (opening people’s minds) and a few other improv groups. It would be cool to work with some really good improv people.

In summary- it may have been a coincidence or it may be that I have my hands in so many things that I’m bound to “accidentally” meet people that I am inspired by, but part of me thinks that the universe definitely does work in such a way that if you go about it the right way, paths will cross and dreams can manifest.

Martial Arts:

Mooto Backpack

Got a sick white backpack from my sponsor – MOOTO! They are sponsoring me with gear that I shall be sporting at my next competitions such as at the 2010 Sport Accord Combat Games! Mooto is known for being a high end korean taekwondo focused brand. They are expanding and are already based in many countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, throughout Asia, etc. Anyways, I can’t repeat enough times how cool that backpack is.. it has pockets and zippers everywhere and a mesh lining that keeps your back separate from the actual bag to prevent your back from sweating. More details at wushukicks.com

As far as training.. I have been consistently working out of course, but not as much as I’d like. I’ve been trying to nail down a lot of work and projects so I had my competition focus diverted. With taxes filed, 2009 year wushukicks finances done, and site upgrades completed I should be able to go complete focus the next 2 weeks.

On Saturday we also had a crazy photo shoot for Martial Arts Complete. A lot of good buddies came out to help including Adam, Robbie, Tamiko, Greta, Kim, and Travis. Much thanks to our 2 professional photographers that drove all the way out from Fresno – Shaun and Boone! I’ll post some picture after we sort through all of them.

Here is one just taken on Boone’s iPhone for fun. It still came out dope though!

kung fu sidekick block

In website news… I contracted a web programmer to clean up and make wushukicks.com even more secure. We got the ssl encryption working flawlessly. Made a few other cosmetic changes as well and I am a happy camper. This took me a grueling 3 days of ocd style managing because I really wanted to get this locked down.

Misc:
Got new dryer installed – had to ghetto rig the exhaust in the back. Might have to fix that in time. – Shin sen gumi with Ant.
Dinner and sake with Ryan – Ryan learns the meaning of “unfiltered”
In the process of helping Audrey purchase her first home! =) Putting my real estate license to good use!

apathetic heart

Here we go – Apathetic Heart is a song I wrote while I was in Taiwan. I finally had a chance to put it together and record a quick video.  The inspiration behind the song came simply from the fact that my room in Taiwan had no windows so I would never know if it was day or night.. even when it was bright and sunny outside, it was dark and cold inside so it put me in a mood and I thought I would translate that feeling into a song. I was also partially inspired by Kanye West’s song Heartless and I really liked Jay-Z’s Song Cry beat, so I chose to go with the Song Cry instrumental.

Check it! (ps. I am not emo!)

———————–Apathetic Heart Lyrics——————————————-

thinkin back to a day (when i) had a girl id call my own
eager to hear my babe, stay up talkin on the phone
before colors turned gray and my heart faded to stone
i love a lot but i still feel like im alone

it wasnt my intention, to make you a mess and
dry your eyes come close and, we’ll relieve that tension
lot of bad guys and you ask me why,
fuckit, ill let the song cry

reminisce a time when i was so poetic
fast forward the rhyme my heart went apathetic
a simple chick how my heart became sick
this rhymes got me so nostalic

now its so easy, i have so many to please me
touch me, squeeze me, say love me dont leave me
warm body firm embrace, but even while i hold
a numbness in mind thinks my hearts grown cold

had a lot of girls, good girls, hood girls,
rub me in the sweet spot, wanna buy me a rock girls,
every ethnicity i could go down the list,
but in the end, i know im still heartless

sorry women my love has come and gone
except for the one, i’ve written this song
wondering how long, this facade can go on
asking myself if time would right my wrongs

dui bu qi, wo de xin yi jing mi lu
wo bu neng gei ni xin fu, wo de xing yi pian muo hu,
bi jing ni hui muo shu, ye bu hui you bang zhu,
wo bu hui fu chu, baby bu yao zai ku

wo bu yao shang dao ni, wo ye bu yao xiang dao ni,
mei shen me yi, wo zhi chong lai mei you ni
bu guan ni duo xiong, wo de xin hai shi yi pian kong
wo zhi dao ni tong, jiu rang wo liu zai ni de meng

reminisce a time when i was so poetic
please repeat this rhyme if your hearts felt apathetic
like a lock and key, but something wouldn’t click
this rhymes got me so nostalic

(and) it wasnt my intention, to make you a mess and
dry your eyes come close, i guess we’ve learned our lesson
lot of bad guys and you ask me why,
fuckit, ill let the song cry

Youtube has spawned a new generation of online musical artists doing more and more “covers”.

Well at least it seems to me that I’ve been hearing that word more and more.. so u know what?

I made a little “cover”.. go ahead, get lost in it!

Check it! Ungh!

By the way, the song is called “Lost in Love” by NB Ridaz. We are just being random.

Quick mini shout out to Ryan Huang and Cool Silly for inspiring me to make random music videos.

Tony Chung of CoolSilly.com meets up with Alfred Hsing of AlfredRocks.com / CasualisCool.com to create a performance integrating wushu with music. Also, along the way Tony and I will teach viewers a thing or two about our respective arts.

A little intro into our collaboration..

Here is something I was messing around with at wushu. Don’t worry about this for now.

I was watching the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” with interviewer Martin Bashir. I want you guys to know that Martin Bashir is full of crap (you can see it for yourself) and completely sensationalises his interview with Michael Jackson. He puts MJ under the spot light in a harsh and closed-minded perspective in order to skew the presentation of the documentary in a way that suits his end goals. He also snakes his way into MJ’s home and acts like a friend and gives him all this false praise just so he can lure Michael Jackson into saying things he can use for his piece. Besides being a shitty human being, he is also an idiot for thinking that the viewers won’t realize he is painting a one-sided picture.

He had a wonderful opportunity to delve into the entire life of one of the world’s most talented musician/performers, but chose to focus his energy on the scandal and superficial tabloid worthy material. Disgusting!

If you watch the youtube part 9/10 or 10/10 it gets worse. There is also a release of the behind the scenes which shows Martin’s two-faced side called Take Two.

Michael Jackson moved people, inspired people, and contributed to more charities than ANY celebrity. He hated the “fake” adult world which he recognized but didn’t want to be a part of. He wasn’t stupid. He knew what people implied and he took that heat and continued to show love to underpriveleged youth, terminally sick children, and so on. People out there took his innocence and love to their advantage. Seriously people, the guy was a millionaire. He doesn’t have to invite a terminally sick child over to a million dollar ranch just to get some. If that’s what you think, then you are just as wacky as people make him out to be.. and on top of that you’re not even contributing anything close to the level of music, inspiration, and outreach that he did. I do agree that some of his behavior is definitely not “normal” or “pc” but given his childhood and lifestyle you can’t imagine him to have a normal life. We (the public) are partially to blame for making his lifestyle so different.

Michael Jackson revolutionized music and dance as we know it. He helped millions of kids, charities, foundations. He donated his time, love, and money. He inspired artists like usher and athletes like kobe. What has Martin Bashir done? Act fake in order to create a documentary focusing on crap and bringing down Michael Jackson’s reputation in order to boost his own career. Good job.

Here is a synopsis of “Living with Michael Jackson”

I first heard this song when I was in Taiwan.

Congratulations to Paul Kim!

Thats right….