Pete Lee! Director! Photographer!

@sundanceorg turned 40. Sundance changed my life. Doing film outside of LA and New York can be a pretty lonely endeavor, especially in 2018, during height of the rent hike in the Bay, and studio spaces were getting targeted by the fire departments using the tragedy as Ghost Ship as an excuse. To be suddenly hurtled into a festival of all kinds of artists, mostly broke, all experiencing some versions of the same struggle, was an enormous gift. One of my few regrets during those two whirlwind weeks was not taking more (or any) photos - I was so overwhelmed that I came away with a bunch of blurry videos. Ah well, all the reason to go make something else now. Happy birthday Sundance, soon I’ll be as old as you, and I hope to do my part in making other 30something artists feel less alone too.

We been losing the good ones but Zumbi’s departure is going to leave a crater. he was a gorgeous soul, who had a huge impact on my career - starred in my first short film, gave me my first music video gig, and was just very kind and down for anything. A genuinely good guy, with a ton of warmth everywhere he went. We kinda fell out of touch after he got busy with the dad stuff but I did get a phone call from him last fall - it was a strange and heavy week when both he and I lost friends at the same time. Our exchange was very brief, he offered me condolences and peace even though he was also hurting. Just a good man, regardless of what he was going through. It bears repeating that Steve’s departure is going to leave a crater in the Bay (even though the Bay wasn’t always kind to him - I mean this mofo made a music video the day he was priced out of his lovely West Oakland neighborhood lol). We have to do whatever it takes to make sure his babies are alright - they need to feel his love, through us. Through the Bay.

After / hours

Came across some nice ppl last week.

I was soooo looking forward to hosting our first dumpling party since the pandy but decided to postpone it on account of the delta bumming everybody out. I know lots of you were looking forward to this thing, which has grown into an 150-person good-time-machine that’s destined to rival a certain gathering of the juggalos. My heart smarts at the thought of not being able to make these delicious little crease pockets with you this weekend. So here are some b rolls from the @misterjius cookbook to tide you over. Hope you’re safe. Hope you’re healthy. Hope your luck runs circles around our collective despair. Love you all.

So it’s been two years since I started typing up this story about a “Washed-up Chinatown psychic Sandy Song, who must battle vigilante priests, superstitious landlords, ICE, and her own demons in order to safely escort a Mexican-American teenager through the neon-soaked back alleys of San Francisco to the afterlife.” I’m a notoriously slow writer and I’m finishing up on my 28th draft - but in the meanwhile, here is another piece of concept art by stuntman extraordinaire and handsome new dad @hideyoshi_art.

Re/opening

Til next time, Taiwan. Y’all beautiful.

Every once in a while I’ll get written up or interviewed by some very nice publications where a very nice interviewer will ask me about making “outsider art” and I’ll usually have a really nice canned answer about how I been feeling like an outsider everywhere I go - but that’s not quite true, I’ve come to realize. It’s just that I haven’t been home for so long that I kept forgetting what it was like to not have to consciously or subconsciously play the no-win game called “perform your race”. I came back to our flawed and invisible and stable island to no existential questions - where I embraced jokes about my appearance and my awkward ways without having to share those same punchlines with other men who have not much in common with me except for what the jokesters deemed we had in common, where people can ask about what’s happening with the Asian elders in the us without obligatory pity, and where we are not taxed by the concept of “representation”, which as I’ve come to realize, really is just a kinder way of demanding us to justify our value and our work. But after a while - I’ve actually come to miss those burdens, so I guess I’ll be heading home where I know a bunch of us will be busting our ass to make sure our and future generation get to be outsiders who don’t have to explain ourselves. Thank you taiwan. I’ll miss you. And I might be back very very soon. You sure know how to make a girl feel pretty. 我6/3要回美國了，雖然有可能年底可以回來但是現在未知數有點太多。沒想到在這邊的最後幾個禮拜也要居家隔離- 但是我比較多時間還在讚嘆這塊小小的土地能夠在全世界的混亂之中還那麼固執地帶來一點可貴的穩定。（雖然台北貴的可怕而且不管男女老少大家好像都想當clubhouse主持人而且滷肉飯沒有一家好吃而且疫情中留台的白人好像都是別人國家不要的而且為什麼只能看Netflix卻沒有hbonow那麼好的平台而且當男人戀愛時那麼爛為什麼我不喜歡他還要被批評是左膠而且網播是什麼東西為什麼有那麼多網播而且為什麼我爸媽也在這邊並且離我住的那麼近幹嘛而且為什麼到哪裡去都會見到一大堆英文不好在國外只跟華人互動的有腹肌的年輕媽媽在跟台灣人說國外多先進然後為什麼我回來了三個多月還在操著不知道哪裡來的香港口音說國語？）。總之大家要看Fleabag 然後要加油喔！

Wild veggies, sexy herbs, sultry produce, from the @misterjius cookbook (link in bio - also it’s in every bookstore). Missing y’all like crazy, see you very soon. #foodporn #chinatown #colors #stilllife #california #chinesefood #californiasunday #sanfrancisco #foodphotography

Sometimes your lens just falls hard for some faces, and you don’t realize it until we’ll after you’d snapped the shutter. Anyways here are some very old and very very new friends I made here in taiwan

Today is not gonna be easy for everyone, especially given the year we’ve all had. So I’d like to share my little annual prayer for friends whose mothers are not around, and for the mothers who are by yourselves: today also belongs to you. I hope you get to eat or write or laugh or cry or play or run or listen or kiss or study or clean or nap without distraction. May your thoughts be honored and be heard. Continue to stand strong on the shoulders of those who sacrificed for you, and continue to sacrifice for your loved ones and friends. (Hand modeling by @ravassa)

Lol I’m making a hopping corpse movie about a demon-hunting Chinatown auntie named Sandy. It’s gonna be my first feature. Dunno when but maybe soon? ******* Gonna practice at being better talking about what I’m working on (blame @technicolor_talbot and @bootsriley who been yelling at me about it) *ahem* “High Priestess of Souls” is about a washed-up exorcist protecting the San Francisco Chinatown from demons, charlatans, developers, and her own past. It’s kinda based on crazy stories I heard around the city as well as exorcisms I’d witnessed my father perform growing up. It’s also a jiangshi movie about where we are and where we been. I know it’s a lot, that’s why it’s been taking me a minute to write it. Recently there seems to be more and more folks excited by each draft, but since this is my first feature I kinda dunno how or how soon it’s going to happen, all I can do is keep writing and maybe tell y’all about it from time to time. Ok? Ok. Still reading? Wanna help? Just tell somebody cool about it if you’d like - don’t let me get away with not making this thing. Concept art by the incredible @hideyoshi_art - who is also one of the top stunt men in the world?! And speaks four languages? AND he looks 15 younger than me although we are the same age? Do you hate him cause I do.

My goddaughter Akia is 25 today. Everybody be nice to her for today only.

Lol my family is so annoying

By posting this photo I took of @lakeithstanfield3 sitting pantsless it will guarantee him a win for tonight’s Awards EDIT: oops

Listen I love you joy is coming -kim addonizio

Here’s my pretty accurate translation of grandpa’s words in the last shot: “Now I can’t hear shit, can’t see shit, and I can barely walk - in fact, aside from being handsome, I ain’t got shit else left.” The rest are cool friends I made in my mom’s hometown over the long weekend.

Every time I feel old I just remind myself “lol @bootsriley is way older” and then I go back to eating fried foods. Happy 50 friend. 📸by @drewalandaniels

I’m in Taiwan.

Faces

Eats

Mister Jiu's in Chinatown

Don't Be a Hero

I'm a Virgo

Rope-a-Dope I & II

brands and bands

Pete Shot That Main