DETOX DIVA DAY 2: ALWAYS AND FOREVER

AD and Hyperactive, with the first copy of Always . Forever, autographed by the AD for moi.

What happened?

Indeed.

Lunch at Piadina

I wake up cranky and I blame the detox. Until Chris kisses me and suddenly everything's OK again. Plus, I'm feeling skinnier already. Oops, maybe not. Still can't close the top of my jeans. Nope, definitely not.

What, am I not meant to get skinny in a day?

I have my shake for breakfast and what seems like a bajillion Isagenix "brownies." These little chocolate disks are addictive.

I hop down to Piadina for lunch and scarf down the entire salad buffet.

In the afternoon, I head over to the Yau Ma Tei Police Station. It is gorgeous. Even more gorgeous is the reason I'm there: to collect the bag I lost three weeks prior due to drunkenness. This bag contains over HK$15,000 worth of Chris' photography equipment, which I would have needed to pay for with a lifetime of kisses. Not an unpalatable prospect, but still, my lips have other things to do, too.

So, that's another reason for doing detox, which I'm a bit embarrassed to admit. I've been drunk way too many times and have caused damaged to myself and to property and sometimes, to friendships. No more, no more.

AD happens to be in the area (welcome to Hong Kong - the world is smaller than you think) and picks me up from the police station to pass me a copy of his second book, Always . Forever. He kindly autographs it for myself and Chris, after which we head down the corner for a fruit juice.

I have a shake and 14 pieces of almonds for dinner. Small headache at around 10pm. Bedtime before midnight.

I sleep like a baby.

// BLISS. //

Downtown Detox

ADDICTED TO MULTISENSORY

ANTONIO LAI ON THE COVER OF WHERE HONG KONG

WITH AUDREY LAM, EDITOR OF "ADDICTED TO MULTISENSORY"

ANTONIO LAI, JAMES GANNABAN AND A BOOK - JUST LIKE OLD TIMES.

ISN'T HE LOOKING... QUINARY?

Antonio, you've come a long, long way.

// Congratulations, dear friend. //

More Multisensory

TOM DALEY SELLS A BOOK

// ALL TOGETHER, NOW: "AAAW." //

BUY THE BOOK

FIFTY STORIES FIFTY IMAGES

 

    

 

// BREATHE. //

PechaKucha Night Goes Hyperactive

OK, so I've been hawking MULTISENSORY MIXOLOGY for, like, ages now. 

And just 'coz I like to repeat myself: It's the book I co-wrote with mixology wonderboy Antonio Lai, published by FINDS, that won a Gourmand International Book Award, blah blah blah.  Since then, Antonio Lai has opened a new bar on Hollywood Road and FINDS has been featured in another book.

Well, I've just been provided a platform that's much larger than my blog to talk about my not-so-secret love affair with "spirits," ha, ha.

Come see my 20 x 20 presentation (that's 20 slides at a hyperactive pace of 20 seconds per slide - so what's not to like?) at the next PechaKucha Night on 24 April, 7.30pm, Fabrik Contemporary Art Gallery.

Also presenting will be Juliana Loh, Steven Ballantyne, Huschang Pourian, and more.

Come.

CLICK FOR EVENT  DETAILS

From pecha-kucha.org

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

// JUST "BREMISTRY" MADE SIMPLE. //

JAN BARTELSMAN x HYPERACTIVE

On Friday, my dear friend, celebrity chef Jaakko Sorsa, popped by the office to chat about an upcoming book that we might be collaborating on.

"Have you seen this yet?" Jaakko asked, pulling a heavy, gray volume out of his bag. It was a copy of renowned photographer Jan Bertelsman's "Hong Kong & Macau Magic."

Hong Kong & Macau Magic

I was Marketing & PR Manager at FINDS when Jan Bartelsman's business partner approached us early 2011 about Jan's first project in Asia, a bilingual spin-off of his popular "Magic" brain trust.

Jan, a towering but unassuming Dutchman, came to Hong Kong and Macau a few months later to photograph the book. He gave me copies of two of his earlier books:

"Le Domaine de la Romanée-Conti" cover

Aged wine bottles in "Le Domaine de la Romanée-Conti"

Le Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is a serious volume about one of the world's most celebrated and coveted wines in existence. In my reckoning, the girnormous book weighs more than the centuries-old Holy Bible at the alter of Sts. Peter and Paul Metropolitan Cathedral in Tuguegarao. The book is so beautifully photographed, I want to drink nothing but snobbish red wine. Forever and ever.

My copy of "Dining in New York City" with Jean-Georges Vongerichten on the cover

Chef Anita Lo and GM/Sommelier Jennifer Scism of Annisa

Jan's second present was Dining in New York City, a petite volume showcasing 40 of the city's best chefs and their eateries. Amongst the line-up are Thomas Keller's Per Se, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his eponymous restaurant, Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin, and my favourite chef Anita Lo's Annisa.

A Jan Bartelsman print entitled "Champagne Mercier: Petit Matin de Grande Fête"

Jan also gave me a print of his fabulously moody photo, "Champagne Mercier: Petit Matin de Grande Fête," which makes me want to forget about snobbish red wine in lieu of fabulous bubbly.

My FINDS family: Jaakko, Anna and Michael

...what's that in the background...?

Together with Jan's local writing partner, Rebecca Lo, I developed the text for the feature on FINDS in "Hong Kong & Macau Magic." I also coordinated the shoot. If you look closely, you'll see that there's an image of Finnish men in a sauna behind the bar. I'm The Hyperactive Gay Boy™, natch!

I was unfortunately stuck in the purgatory of deportation when "Hong Kong & Macau Magic" was eventually published. That's why it was all the more special that Jaakko brought an autographed and dedicated copy for me.

Big thanks to Jan, dear Jaakko and my FINDS family! I can't wait to start our next project!

Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

New & Noted with Adele Wong, HK MAGAZINE

MULTISENSORY MIXOLOGY

by Antonio Lai & James Gannaban

Published by FINDS

3rd Place,

Cocktails Category

Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Thanks to Anna Adasiewicz, Managing Director of FINDS, for giving Antonio and myself the platform on which this book was created.

Thanks to Jaakko Sorsa, FINDS Executive Chef, confidante and dear friend, for moral support and for allowing us to freely use his kitchen for our particular brand of "bremistry."

Thanks to Katherine and Verna of kactusdesigns, and to Simonie Ip, photographer, for having been wonderful collaborators.

Thanks to our friends in the Hong Kong media who have been supportive of our endeavor.

Thanks to the sponsors who have provided us the funds necessary to get this book published.

Thanks to our colleagues and loved ones who supported us as we put the book together, learning everything by ourselves along the way.

Antonio Lai, you rock. Who would have thought our little project would get so far?

// GET HYPERACTIVE!™ //

The Diva Video of the Day® Queen Of Vagina x COME AND GO

//

2 + 2 is vagina,

vagina

and vagina.

//

The H Factor 

- COME AND GO is a slick, sweet and shockingly steamy read.

- It's like the "Dear Penthouse Letters," 
but with more lesbian characters than usual.

- The writing is light but lucid, 
expertly flirting with rosy-eyed romance but yanking the reader back to stark reality with accurate and assertive timing. 

It's how I always imagined lesbian lovemaking to be.


(Did I really just say that?)


- Lee Harlem Robinson is a dramatic, gruff, funny, sexy, scrappy and immensely likeable heroine.
 



// Lee Harlem Robinson's 

COME AND GO

Launch Party 

Thursday, 16 February 2012

Program Host:
The Hyperactive Gay Boy™ //

"I've Seen That Face Somewhere... But Where?"

"I've seen the face somewhere... but where?"

Could I be in a state that my favourite essayist, Jessica Zafra, calls "semi-celebrity"?

I wish.

Guy Dads

Hello, Friends!

For faces with furrowed brows, there's a kind of a "rough" tenderness about their body language - a very masculine flirtation. There's a dare there, a beckoning.

The energy between these guys is so kinetic, you could practically see sparks fly.

How can something so static be so electric?



Photo credit goes to Guy Dads, one of my new favourite blogs.

With Affection,
James

The Book of Francis

Hello, Friends!

I got reacquainted with Malcolm Gladwell through Francis, the cab driver who serviced Team Hong Kong around Manila throughout Mr Gay World. Francis had a copy of Outliers inside his roomy Toyota Adventure. Silly me for assuming that a previous passenger had perhaps left the book in Francis' car.

Of course my driver reads Gladwell - how else would he have become so brilliant at making sense of the world? Forget the world; you can hardly make sense of Manila. And I'm sorry, it doesn't seem right to call Francis a "cab driver" anymore. He's a chauffeur. A small matter of semantics, really, but I doubt that Francis cares either way. Francis is as chill as a glass of halo-halo. Nasty traffic, nasty cops, nasty jeepney drivers - all mixed up to create a mind-bogglingly cohesive dessert.

So my cabbie - sorry, chauffeur - gave me the impetus to start reading again. I normally read Facebook updates only - that's plenty. The thought of going through hundreds of pages of text brought back fond memories of a course (curse?) I took in Aesthetics. By the end of the term, I had enough collated photocopies of ancient discourses on "Beauty" and "Truth" to build a house with. How fun.

***

I was fuming at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 because yet again, I was given the run-around by POEA and airport staff regarding terminal fees, OEC's, and other useless acronyms I didn't want anything to do with. I JUST WANT MY FUCKING ENTITLEMENT AS AN OFW. Want another acronym? GTH. Go to hell.

I wanted to document every single detail of the staff's incompetence and sheer unwillingness to help. Instead, I decided to take my cue from Francis; I channeled his inner chill. I counted to 10, found a bookstore, and purchased four books from two of my favourite writers. Both make simple sense, both write briskly, and both have their pulse on contemporary conversations. 

Jessica Zafra taught me that we live in Twisted times. There's no point whining. The world is strange. Own it. Dominate it.

Malcolm Gladwell taught me that success is the product of being serially lucky. And when you're feeling unlucky, just keep doing what you do and make sure you clock in 10,000 hours. Then you can claim to be an expert.


Gee.


I'd lay claim to being a "porn expert," but perhaps that's something I shouldn't be particularly proud of.

I'm a porn addict.

Semantics.


With Affection,
James


P.S.
If you require transport services in Manila, forget public commute. Traffic, pollution and humidity are horrendous. You'll end up spending most of your time complaining instead of having fun.

Give Francis a call; he charges fair rates. Team Hong Kong ended up paying the equivalent of only US$10 per person, per day (8 hours). As an added bonus, Francis always keeps a copy of the The Philippine Daily Inquirer in his car. Plus he's terrific with useless trivia about Manila and the Philippines. And as a tourist, what more do you need?