Shanzhai Lu

i love this shot of Danielle. 

and here's a cute one of her feet.

...both taken by the seriously awesome friend, cyberpunk, photographer kris krug.

photos: CC // kk+

And if they don't. They should all just live vicariously through Aric.

Awesome voice. A way with words and an eye for telling stories through his pictures.

Oh and he never stays in one  place for very long. Ever.

So I met Aric two years ago on one of my visits back to Shanghai. He was in the process of creatively getting himself kicked out of China with a show on Current TV called Shanghai Diaries. We've been good friends ever since.

The past few years I feel like I've lived my life by walking in a vague direction of where my heart or gut has told me to go and I've learned to trust that i'll always end up where I need to be.

I thank and blame that in part to Aric's influence.

The below video is a few minutes of pure nostalgia for Leah and I but go ahead and feel free to watch along. I'm pretty sure he got kicked out of China the week after this. Buy him a beer and he'll tell you the story one day. :)

Update: Leah reminded me that this series won Aric the Most Prolific Vlogger award at Current in 2008.

this year, i'm going to start giving shout outs to people who influence and inspire me in the hopes that you'll get to know who they are and the work they do too. 

meet isaac mao. if you don't know who he is, you should. especially his thoughts on what he calls "sharism" -- it resonates with me.

i'm honored to be able to call him a friend and always appreciate the time he's taken from his insanely busy schedule the past few years to catch up for a late night coffee here or a lunch there when our paths cross in shanghai. he is truly inspiring.

also super grateful that he's set aside time and confirmed to speak at [re]think : shanghai in may. he'll be sharing his insights about "cloud intelligence"

in the meantime, have a read of his most recent article in the guardian. it gives a nice glimpse into what's on his mind lately.

you can follow him on twitter at @isaac and say hello. he's a really nice guy.