Multilingual writer, editor, producer, and musician; currently based in Los Angeles, with stops in Shanghai, Paris, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and New Jersey.
Heralded as a Japanese national treasure, Jiro Ono, 86, is the first sushi chef in the world to receive three Michelin stars, and is the proprietor of the world's most celebrated sushi restaurant, Tokyo's Sukiyabashi Jiro.
I'm not exactly sure where this dark streak started. Somehow, though, it's led me here, submerged up to my chin in a bath of milk, salt, and sugar, chasing ghosts at the Chateau Marmont. The sweet and sticky finish from the white ceramic tub creates an afterglow on the skin that only the dead can see.
In a nation of 1.3 billion-plus people, Zhuo Danting (卓丹婷), is as original as they come. A tattoo artist by profession, 28-year-old Zhuo, a native of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, is perhaps the most instantly recognizable resident of Shanghai: her fluorescent green, floppy mohawk and heavily-inked frame -- skull, neck, chest, arms and hands all covered with black tats -- distinguish her as a counterculture icon of sorts.
SHOWTIME! Entering the venue, the frigid outdoor chill was immediately met by an invisibly thick wall of humidity. The air was stuffy and stale from a mix of heavy cigarette smoke and the overbearing stench of sweat, emanating from the hundreds of concertgoers crammed inside, on the dance floor, standing atop the bar, climbing up the walls.
Starting a mixed martial arts organization is a risky endeavor. Promoters invest sizeable fortunes in advertising, building infrastructure, conducting detailed market research, and doing rigorous strategic planning to command market share. But in China, a country where thousands of ex-pats are currently faking it till they make it, why bother with the business plan?
It was just after the final security checkpoint at Ngurah Rai International Airport when the cold sweat kicked in on a warm, humid September evening. Two weeks of stunning Indonesian sunsets along the west coast of Bali were coming to an end.
Racism is alive and well in the depths of your cereal bowl and your maple syrup. It's up to you if you still want to eat it.
Unlike the American rock music landscape, where cities such as Nashville, Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Seattle and, of course, New York all boast internationally relevant scenes, in China one city defines the sound of the nation: Beijing. The capital city is home to hundreds of bands and a handful of labels.
Somewhere in this age of big data exists some metric, an analytic, that will tell you that Saturday's UFC Shenzhen card may in fact be the biggest event in mixed martial arts history.
LAS VEGAS - Looking in the rear-view mirror, the fighting world has been changed for the better because of what Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor achieved together. Capturing the attention of the entire world, Mayweather and McGregor made history with their "Money Fight" on Saturday night.
I've already sacrificed my favorite pair of titanium Volant skis in pursuit of this story. And now, here I am, staring down the steep ridge of National Chute, a narrow pass on Squaw Valley's Palisades, risking my health, life, and limbs to chronicle this tale of summer skiing.
With professional football eclipsing baseball as America's pastime, and Japan's dominance at the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics (WBC), is it time to proclaim Japan as the world's ichi-ban baseball country? No doubt U.S.
Sacrifice is a word often used by mixed martial artists to describe their journey towards professional success and athletic dominance, as they forgo society's status quo to escape the mundane existence of ordinary life. Fighters experience the elated highs of victory, but with the glory comes a price; they sacrifice family, relationships, and comfort, all in pursuit of grand dreams of having their hands triumphantly raised.
If you like a good, old-fashioned fistfight, we got an instant classic for the "Just Bleed" crowd last night in Las Vegas. A day after receiving a UFC award for volunteer work and community service, lightweight Dustin Poirier dished out one hell of an ass-whooping at a UFC Fight Night event, besting Dan Hooker via unanimous decision.
Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, three-fifths of seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A., are reuniting this weekend. There's no word yet if Dr. Dre will be performing alongside his former collaborators, but if you ask UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley, there were certainly murmurs on the set of the upcoming Straight Outta Compton biopic.
Don't call Zhang Weili the best mixed martial artist in China. She's too humble and too self-aware for such hyperbole. But the 29-year-old fighter from Hebei Province may just be the mainland's best bet to become China's first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) world champion.