So Shanghai has been on my mind a lot lately. I never really took much notice of it except in movies or songs, but the more you look into it, the more interesting this city looks!
This traveler got some sweet time lapse shots on this vimeo:

The city is the most populous in China and has grown from it’s humble beginnings as a port city.

There’s something about Neon signs, skylines that raise through the clouds, a harbor, and a history riddled with intrigue that gets me all Ninjaed up.

I read an article about underground music in Shanghai that I found pretty fascinating and worth sharing. I think a lot of people take for granted the fact that here in the US we have a career choice called a musician. It’s viable enough for people to devote their lives to it; just turn on the tv and see how many different artists are making mullah from advertising or television programs; not to mention concerts and cd sells etc. It’s a pretty interesting topic on it’s own, but I don’t feel like tackling that in this post. Instead I want to take a look at the music scene in Shanghai and explore what it’s all about.

‘”Unless your name is Beyonce, you can’t get a gig in China,” said Maxime Lenik, a Parisian transplant who serves as the artistic director for LOgO, a hipster hot spot in the French Concession, formerly a trade area for French businesspeople in Shanghai.’

Outlined in the article is a band called The Mushrooms. Their battle to maintain a music career is two-fold: against an ambivalent government that perceives their punk-inspired music as a threat, and against an indifferent public.

‘The authorities seem to regard punk as a greater counterrevolutionary threat than Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman are: When the legendary Shanghai punk band Top Floor Circus wrote a song ripping into the city’s world expo, suspicious Chinese authorities demanded that the group stop performing the song and removed videos and MP3s posted online. The group now is banned from performing in the city until the expo concludes in late October.’ -McClatchy

I spent some time getting into their music which you can find on their Myspace.

I like this video, but because I can’t figure out how to embed Youku (the Asian Youtube), you’ll just have to click on the link to watch it. It’s a live performance of the fourth song on their Myspace.

Again… I’d like to be able to post some music or videos into the blog, but when you’re dealing with underground music in Shanghai you should be happy I at least found it!

*BOOYAH! I found a video on Youtube, but I still like the other one better.*

I’m diggin their ‘Do what you want’ vibe which is why I decided to feature them here on The Neishon blog.

Keep it up Ninjas!

-TravisNN

So I came across this one courtesy of a friend, but finding the movie in its entirety has proven quite difficult. Here is one man’s adventure to come across the movie that is “An American Hippie in Israel.” I found his blog after scouring the internet trying to find a place to buy this film. It’s some random myspace blog and it’s the most concise lead I’ve found and it explains well the dedication many people have put into trying to find this Hippie. In fact no one even knows who the original director or actors are. But just read this to find out the whole story:

“On The Trail Of ‘An American Hippie In Israel’
After stumbling across the “An American Hippie In Israel” trailer on YouTube earlier this year, it’s become kind of an obsession with me to try and find this never released, long lost, long forgotten 70s oddity.

It’s not listed on IMDB, type it into Google and the only thing you get back are people looking for it as well, there’s no solid information anywhere about this mystery film.

The trailer for it surfaced a few years back when it was featured on the DVD release of “I Drink Your Blood”, from the Grindhouse DVD label, featured in their Coming Soon trailer section of the bonus features. Just the title alone is enough to make you do a double take, but actually watching the trailer is a truly unique experience, one which I won’t even attempt to describe, simply watch it below.

Grindhouse announced they would be releasing The Hippie at some point in the future (along with the equally sort after “Gone With The Pope”), but ever since then everything’s gone quiet from them, infact they don’t seem to have released any DVDs for a couple of years, there doesn’t seem to even be a website for the label.

So the trail went cold for a while, but with all treasure hunts you mustn’t give up. So every once in a while I throw the title into Google and see what comes back.

Then one day there’s some news, a 35mm cinema print has turned up for sale on ebay, unfortunately I’ve missed the actual auction and I only find out about it from an online forum discussion about it.

The seller’s write up listed the print as being in pristine quality, looking as if it had never been projected, he’d played the print recently and said it look brand new. Just knowing that The Hippie had been projected and watched recently in the world made me feel so much better.
Now the print ended up going for just over $500 dollars, which is a good price for such a rare find, prints can go for way more.

Other people have been looking for this film so there was quite a lot of talk about this print, one person had emailed the seller and asked is he knew anything about the Grindhosue release. The seller replied and said that he’d recently been intouch with Grindhouse to ask if they wanted to by the print, they replied and said they had higher quality materials that they were working from for their release. Which is great news, but could really mean anything, they don’t seem to have released any DVDs for a couple of years, so I’ve no idea when, or if, the DVD will come out.

One interesting point is that the seller was asked one very important question on the auction page, which he replied to:

Q – Is the onscreen title “An American Hippie In Israel”?

A – Yes, that’s the onscreen title.

This really helps a lot, as one of the theories going around, as to why there was no information at all about this film, was the possibility that Grindhouse had re-titled it; hence why no one could find any details about the original version. That now seems to have been settled, though we still have no idea who the Hippie himself is played by, or who the director was, as nothing is listed on the trailer beyond the films title.

Now, I’m not totally sure about the next point, but it’s possible that the winner of the auction could be another DVD label, one of the people on the forum discussing the print said he though the winners name was that of a DVD-R label, though that’s unconfirmed. If that’s true then it would be very possible for them to put out a DVD made from the print, it might not look perfect, but it would still be a great watch.

I do like to think about what I would have done if I’d been able to buy the print, if I had enough money it would have been simple to win and then get it shipped over here. Then book a slot at Mr Youngs and have the UK premiere of The Hippie, 30 odd years after it was made, would have been a night to remember.

So that brings us up to date, there’s hope, a print surfaced, now someone else owns it, it’s possible they might put it out, plus we still have the possibility of the Grindhouse DVD release. That all brings me one small step closer to actually seeing this most obscure film.

Will it be any good? That’s not really the issue, it could be terrible, but I get the feeling it won’t be, the trailer just looks too entertaining, watch it for yourself and decide. ”

And here it is, “An American Hippie in Israel.” There’re boobies in the trailer!

I’ll try and find some more sweet movies for you Ninjas,

-Travis NN

-A STUDENT has been saved from a vicious assault – not by the boys in blue but the men in black.

Ninjas scared off three thugs who had the misfortune to attack the 27-year-old medical student outside their warrior school.

The German exchange student had been targeted by the men while he was riding the late-night train home, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

They demanded he give them his wallet but when he refused and got off the train, they followed.

They pounced as he made his way through a dark alley in Sydney’s west.

They grabbed his phone and iPod and kicked him while he lay on the ground.

However, the men were spotted by a member of a nearby dojo.

Nathan Smith told his sensei and the rest of the students at Ninja Senshi Ryu and they rushed out to confront the thugs – all dressed in traditional black ninja garb.

On seeing the ninjas, the men fled, only to be later arrested by police.

“You should have seen their faces when they saw us in ninja gear coming towards them,” the school’s sensei, Kaylan Soto, told the Herald.

They also failed to notice a ninja, Nathan Smith, standing in the shadows outside the dojo. Mr Smith immediately alerted his sensei, or teacher.

Another ninja, Steve Ashley, said: “It was probably the worst place in Sydney where they could have taken him.”-

Dang playa, that’s intense. Go Ninja!

-Travis NN

After being overshadowed by Jay Z’s blueprint III release over summer, it seems Cudi’s mainstream momentum was put on hold for the time being. Kid Cudi’s album was supposed to be released a few weeks before Jay Z’s, but delays pushed it back to the same time as blueprint. Obviously Jay Z’s selling power took a lot of the media attention away from Cudi’s very deserving album. However this may have been the best thing for him in the long run.

He was able to taste fame only to return to his indie roots where all his true fans, myself included now, really reside. And it’s definitely not like he hasn’t been busy!

For all of you who are familiar with the new HBO series ‘How to Make it in America‘ you can catch Cudi appearing on it annnnnnd more importantly making a mixtape for it. Collaborating with Dj Green Lantern and Broke Mogul they have released some pretty sweet sound candy:
You can download the mixtape by clicking here.

Staying true to the theme of the show the mixtape focuses on following your dream, ignoring the haters and making the biggest most important ideas come to life. Definitely worth a download, and it’s FREE.

Also if you don’t already have Kid Cudi’s ‘Man on the Moon’ album you can buy it on Amazon or iTunes:

-Travis NN