What a way to celebrate the fourth of July...
I can only hope that this is the last time we have to hear her name spoken again...

if you ever had any doubt that this person should not be allowed to control anything,  listen to this rambling speech, not hardly a single coherent thought gets finished.  She makes Bush look like a great speaker. :-P

I was pretty stressed out most of Thursday afternoon. I had to get to the hotel where everyone was staying by 1pm to drop off stuff and then get to the venue by 3.  I didn't actually have time to eat anything! :-O

My main responsibility for the first part of the day was to make sure the bands who were performing at the party were all getting their sound checks in... based on our previous parties, i know these things usually go long, but I was dismayed to find out the sound guys were still setting up when I arrived! :-O


Finally the bands started going at around 4:15, but because things weren't set, the first band, 'Chun Qiu' didn't finish until after 5:00! (all the sound checks were supposed to be done by 5!)

It was stressful but you can't do much about it...  

The outside part was doing slightly better:

as this was also a launch for Tom's 'Sharkwave' sports site, they had a skate ramp set up too.


the amazing thing was that this entire place was full of cars and bicycles the day before. :-P

Around 5:30 the Alive boys showed up.  Since the sound checks weren't done yet, they had to move their interview up to the roof of the venue.

They did an interview for Tom Online (link in my previous blog)


the late afternoon sun kind of washed out all my pics.
(are those Andrew's Distressed Leather boots?)


Another interview for CETV

The next part was actually kind of fun, the Tom group CEO Ken Yeung was doing an interview downstairs with the HK business press announcing the two launches.  At the end of the interviews, both groups did a group shot.



And even the business press couldn't resist the chance to get Dan's thoughts on the collaboration



After that everyone took a break and sat around chatting. CEO Ken was telling everyone about Tom's latest projects.  I think both sides found it interesting to meet, since they're from very different industries.

Wait... something's missing...


I couldn't resist the chance to do a little branding! ;-)

That's it for now, I'll continue with more tomorrow!

hey guys, just got back to the place we're staying in Beijing.  We had our big 'alivenotdead+tom.com partnership' launch event up here. It was a joint event with Tom.com's other new web partnership, 'Sharkwave', a sports site.. 

A LOT of stress on me today... i'm glad its over. the party was great, but also overfilled, so I want to apologize to anyone who wasn't able to get in (especially the person who RSVP'ed via email at 6:52pm for an event that starts at 7pm...)  :-P

Anyway, it was our first big mainland event...  the media (and fans) are CRAZY here... makes HK look very well behaved. :-P



Alive + Tom Group CEO Ken Yeung + NBA China CEO guy



Thanks to everyone who came.  More pics coming later (once I sleep and recover).

In the meanwhile, here's a link to some of the coverage on Tom.com (they're pros, everything's already up!)







I couldn't get it in the screen grab, but there's a video too!

Click here for the video and the photos!
http://yule.tom.com/zhuanti/hot/alive01.html?source=HP_YULE1

Video can also be opened here:
mms://vod.tom.com/ent/200907/090702alive.wmv

Event is tomorrow,  a lot of the people flew up today, more coming tomorrow (actually going on by the time you read this). it should be a cool event, even though it'll be hectic and I'm sure there will be logistical snags (knocking on wood).

Wednesday Jojo and I spent all day at the Tom.com offices.  We got lunch in the mall downstairs. we decided to go to a shaolong bao (少龍包) restaurant.  They had a window right into the kitchen...


I forgot to take actual pics of the food. :-P

it was pretty good! no cardboard here! :-D

I'm pretty busy right now,  we've got a big event on Thursday up here in Beijing.  I actually got a chance to go do some tourism stuff this afternoon with Eddie, but no time to blog it now!


In the meanwhile, here's two quick shots I took out the window of the taxi:

yes, its the iconic CCTV tower.  Pretty cool to see it in real life.

and whats that hiding behind it?

yes, thats the neighboring hotel that caught on fire during Chinese new years.

you may remember it from such classic Etchy blog entries as this one:
http://alivenotdead.com/etchy/CCTV-Tower-On-Fire-Beijing-s-cutting-edge-architecture-gem-in-flames--profile-493436.html

for some reason the entire complex is still surrounded by that really high temporary wall...  can't see it well from close-up.  :-P

ok,  hopefully that'll keep you guys sated til i have more time. ;-)