I'm beginning to see dust....

Hello Everyone,

I have to apologize again for not updating my blog in such a long time. I can't believe my last entry was on January 27, when DJ P-Luv (Defending 2009 Vancouver Champion, 3rd in Canada) was going to compete in the Red Bull Competition. Speaking of Red Bull comps, DJ Flipout (Vancouver 2010 Champion), who is repping Vancouver, flew to Toronto recently for the Reb Bull Thre3Style Canadian Final.

Well since i've been neglecting my responsibilities as a blogger, I will give you a list to check out other bloggers and continue to discipline myself to become a better one. Until my next post, please enjoy and check out the links below.

PAULSKRATCH -- Music + Design; My favourite turntablist!

Nation of Millions -- For your hip-hop fix, with DJ's Flipout and Jay Swing

The Boyscouts -- Canada's veteran party rockin' duo

The Eh! Team DJs -- 2 of Canada's premier party rockin' teams

The Freshest Kids

Fortune Sound Club -- Hottest and finest night club in Vancouver

Livestock -- Canadian sneaker boutique and clothing

W+K Tokyo -- Independent, creative advertising agency with the greatest talent!

Mai Sassy Girl -- She's got the 411 and more, of what's happening in Tokyo

Lovatron -- From NYC; be sure to check out Titty Tuesdays.

Well that's all for now. Passed out in the living room while writing this. It's now 4:07 am. Until next time, good night and good day!

Peace,

.czr.

DJ P-Luv on Global Noon News Extra - Jan.27

My homie, DJ P-Luv gave a short demonstration and talk on Global BC's Noon News Extra to help promote the Red Bull 3 Style Competition. This year he is defending his title at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Jan.28, 2010. If you're in Vancouver, you definitely don't want to miss this party. It was crazy at last year's competition and it's gonna be crazier this year. For the first time this year, 2010, Red Bull will be hosting the championships in Paris. Good luck to all of the participants! Move the crowd!!

For P-Luv's interview on Global BC, click HERE

For information on the Red Bull 3 Style Competition and dates, click HERE

Pharrell Keynote at MIDEM 2010

A good listen.

Pharrell Keynote at MIDEM 2010 from thecashmerethinker on Vimeo.

The A-Team...

I grew up watching this t.v. show back in the late 80's. I always liked and wanted B.A. Barracus' van because it was so cool. I think one of my cousins had the toy van and all of the characters. Jealous I was. Anyways, I hope this will be somewhat of a good remake, unlike some of the other t.v. shows remade to a movie that were released. What do you think?

Where i'm from - EAST VAN

I just learned that this art installment from Vancouver artist Ken Lums was erected the day before I returned to Japan. I drove by this sign on my way to downtown on Monday afternoon using Clark drive and noticed this East Van cross as I was driving by. (Of course my eyes were on the road.) I felt very proud to see a sign of this size and took a couple of pics of it. Here's a story from Yahoo! Canada CLICK HERE and a Flickr link to some photos that were taken. EAST VAN!

Happy New Year!! It's 2010!

Happy New Year to you All!! Yes i'm late, but one of my resolutions is to provide you with weekly updates on this blog. I spent my new year with friends and family in Vancouver. Actually on NYE, I chilled out with wifey and my brothers, DJs P-Luv and OMG, at Bar None in Yaletown. We celebrated the new year together and had sandwiches at Duffin's for our after hours hunger. (Is that English??) Anyways, the year has been great so far. Thank you all for a great 2009! I wish you all the best for 2010!! Like Tupac said, "Keep Ya Head Up". Peace to all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

It's my birthday today in Vancouver, but has passed for me because I live in Japan. Thank you to all for your birthday greetings! I spent my special day with wifey and family. Another year older; another year wiser(?) LOL. Thankful and blessed for this past year. Can't believe 2010 is upon us. I wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a healthy and prosperous 2010.

Peace.

DJ Flipout's re-edit of Bob James' classic

Hello all!

The holiday season is upon us and I would like to wish you all "HAPPY HOLIDAYS!"

I gotta share this with y'all because it's a bangin' track from none other than one of the original bboy's of Vancouver and one of the many Hip Hop historians that I know. When I first heard the original track from Bob James back in '97/ '98 from a Japanese friend of mine who had one of the original LP's, it just blew my mind. I love this track!! And now with Flipout's re-edit of the track with the "Beats to the Rhymes" drums with it and Nas, it's a neck breaker! Be sure to download it from the link below. I got it on repeat.

Bob James feat Nas "Nautilus" (Flipout C.U.P. Edit)

For more info on DJ Flipout, you can check him out here:

http://www.myspace.com/straightgoodsradio
http://www.nationofmillions.ca
http://www.ampfamily.com/index.php
http://thebeat.com/

Also for your weekly dose of hip-hop, and I MEAN HIP-HOP you can tune in "every Friday night/Saturday morning from 12:00am to 2:00am. It’s 100% Hip-Hop, straight from the streets to your radio." << on the Beat 94.5, with DJ's Flipout and Jay Swing. Stream it or download the shows from www.nationofmillions.ca. VANCITY (Vancouver) baby!!

PEACE!

BOOMBOX SAINTS MUSIC VIDEO PREMIERE, "FLIP IT"

THE PREMIERE of the BOOMBOX SAINTS official music video for "Flip It" is finally here. These are my boys from back home, Vancouver. Be sure to check out their site HERE.

Been a long time, shouldn't have left you......

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing well. Yes I know it's been a while since my last post again. Work's been busy since then; day in and day out. I'll share with you with what i've been working on once the project is complete. But for now i'd like to share some music if you haven't heard and got this yet. This mix features the Boyscouts on hunt.fm from last month. One of my favourite mixes to date. Marlon J. English throwin' down the hip-hop and P-Luv bringing us back into time. Check it out!

hunt.FM #102: It Tastes Like Pepperoni w/ Guest DJs the Boyscouts (Marlon J. English & P-Luv)

New Apples for the season

Apple's done it again. They've released an upgrade of models which include a new 27" iMac and the newly redesigned MacBooks. They've also released a new multi-touch mouse; the Magic Mouse. Looks pretty slick, might want to pick one up. Please check out Apple's site for more details.

I DREAM IN COLOR TV

WWW.PAULSKRATCH.COM

Japanese Commercial - Cratz

Hey y'all!

How's it going?

Watching in t.v. in Japan can be quite amusing. This commercial, which features Matsumoto Hitoshi from the TV talk show "Downtown", promotes a snack from Glico called Cratz. It's a mixture of pretzel chunks and whole almonds. It's marketed as an accompaniment with beer. The character he portrays is from a movie he starred in recently called "Shinboru" (the Symbol). I especially like the second half of the commercial.

鎮座 (Chinza) Dopeness Album Release Party @ Moon Romantic, Aoyama - Sept.15, 2009

Chinza Dopeness, one of W+K Tokyo Lab's latest artist, held an album release party at Moon Romantic in Aoyama. It was a good night consisting of good music and collaborations with other artists, such as Hifana. Chinza's a real humble and great artist. Please check out his music and his MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/chinzadopeness

For photos click HERE.

Izawa Ayame performing at Cafe Muriwui, Sept. 11, 2009

I'd like to present to you a good friend of mine, Izawa Ayame. She is a talented musical artist that plays the piano and the pianica. A couple of friends and I went to go check out her show. I surprised her by just showing up. I haven't seen her since I moved to Japan, and it's been a while since we've seen each other. She was a yoga student in Vancouver, and stayed with my family and I for a month. She's a friend of a friend, and we've kept in touch since. She's currently a yoga instructor in Tokyo. She creates and composes her music, and performs her music at selected venues. Please check her music out at: http://www.myspace.com/ayamelody

For photos, please click HERE

The Playface

Hello everyone!

It's been a long time again. I've been busy working and helping out the W+K team with their project with Playstation. I've been asked to edit the web videos for the Playface campaign. Below is the TV spot which was edited by London's Dayn Williams. Just recently I recorded some video with Takeshi at the Playface event in Odaiba at Mediage. There were some PSP and Playstation 3 setups, as well as the Playface booths where it captured a gamers expressions in 360 degrees with 18 cameras recording simultaneously, like "the Matrix" effect. More information and a detailed description on W+K's blog.

Hope everyone enjoyed their summer.

http://www.wktokyo.jp/blog/?p=2021

http://www.wktokyo.jp/blog/?p=2035

Hanabi!

Hello all! Hope you've been enjoying your summer holidays.

It's been another long minute since i've posted anything, but the past few weeks i've been kinda busy working. Aside from my teaching job at Gaba, I worked with W+K on a Nike project and recently on another Playstation project. Busy, busy, busy....

Anyways at the beginning of the month my lady and I, along with her brother and family travelled up to Niigata Prefecture to visit some relatives. Niigata is popular for it's fireworks festivals and I have to agree on that. I've never seen a fireworks display over a landscape. Nothing comparable like the ones I usually see in Vancouver at the Celebration of Lights. You be the judge of it. Below is a video I took of the finalé and I had to pan a lot because my lens was not wide enough to catch the whole landscape.

Enjoy!!

Vancouver Slop invades Japan

On July 3rd, I hooked up with my good friends Matt and Rolf, who hail from Vancouver. Shortly, another friend who's been living in Japan, Ephraim, joined us. We went for eats at a gyoza restaurant in Harajuku. Afterwards we stalked the streets of Harajuku and Daikanyama.

Matt, who is an Environmental Biologist by day, runs a couple of business' on the side. He is 1/2 of Finale Design and 1/3 of Vancouver Slop. As the founder of Vancouver Slop, he blogs about restaurants and places that he eats. As he is always on the go, Matt hardly has the time to cook. Please check out his blog at www.vancouverslop.com. Also please check out Finale Design.

Great to see you guys! Thanks!

Been a while...

Hi people!

How is everyone doing?

Sorry I haven't been on for almost a month. Haven't been in front of my computer for quite sometime to actually post anything up. I've had a couple of friends come through to Japan; 2 from Vancouver and another from the UK. It's always great to see friends in another country.

Recently, i've worked on an audition shoot for W+K Tokyo Lab, for Playstation. It was great to work with them again, as i'm always looking forward to shooting video and taking photos. The day of the auditions was interesting, as all of the auditioners were eclectic and quite a bunch of characters. Thank you W+K!

This past weekend was eventful as well, as it was a long weekend in Japan. Monday was "Umi no hi" or Marine Day. Nothing special, but just a day to take advantage of the summer. It's been hot and humid here too. Not liking it because i'm a winter baby and I don't like the heat.

I'll post up photos soon again of the events that have happened in the past month. Hope you're all doing well. Take care and see you soon.

Peace.

Behind-the-Scenes: 鎮座 Dopeness Music Video

Early this week, I worked on the set of Chinza Dopeness' music video, shooting behind-the-scenes footage for W+K Tokyo Lab along with Takeshi-san.

5:30am - Wake up
6:45am - Leave the house
7:10am - Catch the train to Chuo Rinkan Station
8:00am - Arrive at Tama Plaza Station
--- Walk to the studio ---
8:30am - Arrive at the studio after hitting some Red Bull for the system
9:00am - Setup, makeup and wardrobe
11:00am/ 11:30am - Rehearsal
12:00pm - Start shooting
.................
7:00pm - Wrap

That's the basic schedule.

What even made my mornings and evenings better (sounding sarcastic), was the humidity. As you may or may not know, i'm a December baby, so i'm not fond of heat. But I "toughed it out" and brought me a towel to dry myself off.

The staff, talent and crew were very professional and friendly. Everyone was a class act. Chinza, the main talent, is a gifted lyricist and has a great personality. He is signed with W+K Tokyo Lab and is friends with HIFANA. Good people; good friends.

I look forward in working with Tokyo Lab in the future. Until then, keep smiling and keep creating.

Peace out.

Photos