Gaga heels by Japanese Designer

When you think of Lady Gaga, what comes to mind first? Her meat dress? Her balloon dress? If you step back and think about it, all these images are related to fashion. We tend to think about her fashion before her music. She has crafted a signature look to cement her brand. Part of her look includes those crazy high platforms that have no heel. Lady Gaga has bought fame to the man behind those unconventional heels, shoe designer Noritaka Tatehana.

For the past 2 years, Tatehana has designed over 20 pairs of heels for Lady Gaga; which has helped him make his work become an icon. The story of how he and Lady Gaga started to collaborate is kind of cool.

Tatehana wanted to modernize the traditional Japanese ‘greta’ shoes that were worn by geishas, he designed his first shoe for his thesis. They were eye catching, pink leather with a reptilian texture. He sent out mass emails to people in the industry and he received 3 replies; a blogger, a journalist and Lady Gaga’s stylist. And the rest is history.

As for the future, Tatehana hopes to expand his brand to clothing, accessories and hopes to raise the profile of his Japanese heritage around the world.
Reference: Korean Herald

DigitalRev TV: Cameras, light & action

For the past few months, I have been researching seriously about what DSLR camera I should get. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a DSLR for over a year. I’ve been learning a bit about the mechanics of a camera and lenses, TLR, SLR, mirrorless, ¾, full frame. But I'm still having great difficulty on deciding what I want.

In terms of cameras, my family has always owned a canon camera – we use to shoot on film. Then I got 2 canon point and shoot cameras, the ixus and ixy. I love my canon cameras; it’s easy to use, produces great colored pictures, has some nice art filters. So naturally, I would stay loyal to the brand and get a canon DSLR like the 60D, 600D right?

Well, that’s what I initially thought. After going to camera stores and picking the brains of experts, my friends and watching DigitalRev TV my mind has changed some what.

Let me tell you about DigitalRev TV, well it’s a show about cameras. It’s one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen, I’m absolutely obsessed with the show now. Think of UK’s TV show Top gear but instead of featuring cars, the show features cameras. Like Top Gear, DigitalRev TV has 3 hosts: Kai, Lok and Alamby.

Kai is the frontman of the show, his humor is similar to Jeremy Clarkson’s – it’s blunt and he comes up with some classic one liners. In one video he referred to Justin Bieber as a singing foetus. His humor is bloody brilliant.

From the show I learnt that Canon cameras are large plastic things and the lenses are cheap plastic. Olympus OMD M-5 has a magnesium alloy body with weather sealing. All the features of the SLR are in a more compact size in the OMD M-5. The smaller camera is more ideal for the traveler. Currently I'm leaning towards the Olympus M5, but I shall ponder a tiny bit longer about it. I want to be 100% happy with my purchase.

Back to DigitalRev TV, some of my favourite moments include Kai and Lok painting DSLR cameras (they are not cheap) PINK! Such as a canon 600D, Nikon D7000 even a Leica M8 camera!!! I enjoyed their smoke photography tutorial (let me mention they nearly burnt the apartment down!! Don't worry, they had a bucket of water lying nearby LOL!)

I’ve posted one of my fave DigitalRev episodes below, check it out =) This is where they just abuse a canon 7D camera to test out its durability. You'll be surprise at how much the 7D could handle.

Odd Things I saw - Toilet signs

I was browsing around on the web and came across this photo that actor Peter Ho posted on his weibo (China's version of twitter).

Clever toilet photo sign yeah? lol!

SBS Bollywood Star

My new fave Aussie show this year is 'Bollywood Star'. This delightfully entertaining family show is on the search to find  Bollywood's next superstar in Australia.

In this 4 part series, contestants go through a grueling audition process to discover who has the talent, star quality, appeal to succeed in Bollywood.

A diverse group of contestants of different backgrounds went to Sydney to dazzle the judges. Amongst the good, the bad and the ugly auditions, the judges uncovered remarkable talent that shined through the crowd.

In the second episode (aired 9th June), the contestant pool was narrowed down to the final 6. The 6 include G-Luv, the only male to make it to the finals. His personality is huge, unmissable on the show, making him one of the most memorable faces on the show. He is what I would describe as Bollywood meets hip hop. He has a lot of hip hop attitude, the way he speaks and poses. The way Bollywood is modernizing for the younger audiences, G-Luv may as well find a fanbase in Bollywood.

The final 6 will now fly to Mumbai for the next round of auditions. Tune in next Saturday on SBS at 7:30pm to see what happens next!

Odd Things I saw - Miniature art

I'm a huge fan of art and I came across this unique form of artwork that I wanted to share with you all. Artist Chen Forng Shean expresses his creativity on a microscopic scale, his masterpieces are the size of a needle eye. If you don't look hard enough, you probably won't realise it's there.

Chen has been dubbed as 'the founder of miniature art in Taiwan', he has been creating miniature masterpieces for 30 years. He never needs to worry about running out of space to store his artwork! LOL!

When working on a small scale, there are quite a few challenges. For instance, a shaky hand is of no use in this type of artwork.

"If the hands shake a little bit, the work will be destroyed, " Chen said, "my job is dealing with very fine things, so I learned to breathe and hold my breath. When I take a breath, I can hold it for 60 seconds, and then I can engrave every stroke with the rhythm of my pulse." Reference: Sina english

Employees refuse to take tattoo survey in Osaka

Do you feel it’s OK for a workplace to make you declare if you have a tattoo? In Australia tattoos isn’t an issue in the workplace. On a professional level, they may ask you to conceal it while at work but they certainly would not sack you over it.

In Japan, the mayor of Osaka Toru Hashimoto forced all employees in the public sector to declare if they have tattoos in a survey. If an employee owned up to having a tattoo, they could meet some unfavorable consequences such as relocation or dismissal. Not a win win situation for inked employees.

So why all this fuss over employees having ink? Well, in Japan tattoos are frowned upon in society - because they assume that person has an association with the yakuza.

 Recently another tattoo survey was conducted and 15 employees refused to fill out the form arguing that it violated their privacy. Displeased with their response, the government replied that they will take disciplinary measures that include salary cuts and other reprimand.

Mayor Hashimoto strongly feels that if people want or have tattoos they don’t belong in the public sector and should find work in the private sector. If you think about it, how does having a picture on your skin affect a person’s ability to do their job. Having ink doesn’t take away a person’s qualifications, skills or experience. Why so judgmental Mr Mayor? Don’t you feel that you are discriminating against people with tattoos? Doesn’t the public sector in Japan have work laws such as Equal Opportunities.

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