Mstislav Rostropovich RIP

The Mstislav Rostropovich obit in the New York Times is a colourless affair. The Guardian obit much more reflects a giant of a man who lived life with gusto and had such an appetite for life.

In the mid-199os, Mister Bijou had the rare good fortune to meet Slava, albeit briefly, backstage at Hong Kong's Cultural Centre after a mesmerising solo performance.

As Slava started performing in public at the age of eight, he must have shaken hands with thousands of people. And yet again here he was graciously shaking hands.

A man still revved up after the show he had just given, being nice to people he'd never met before and would never meet again. A great bear of a man with thick, muscular, sausage-like fingers.

And when he was introduced to Mister Bijou's then partner, who is a cellist as well as an attractive woman, Slava's smile grew even broader, mischievous even, before he remarked, almost conspiratorially: "Ah, another cellist."

NYT obit
Guardian obit
Rostropovich -- reached out for the music: On An Overgrown Path
Prelude from J S Bach's Cello Suite No. 1: youtube

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Ferry terminal

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Island oasis

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Sunday, village square

Francoise Hardy: Message Personnel

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Françoise Hardy:



Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
Ne crois pas que tes souvenirs me gênent
Et cours, cours jusqu'à perdre haleine
Viens me retrouver
Si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
Et si ce jour-là tu as de la peine
A trouver où tous ces chemins te mènent
Viens me retrouver
Si le dégoût de la vie vient en toi
Si la paresse de la vie
S'installe en toi
Pense à moi

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Dai pai dong, tableware

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Birdmen

Hong Kong: Legislative Council Questios

Some of the questions (and answers) from the LegCo meeting of Wednesday, 18 April 2007:

LCQ2: Supervision of Octopus Cards Limited
LCQ6: Enhancing road safety at roundabouts
LCQ12: Protection of Chinese White Dolphins

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Saiwan, prayer altar

Hong Kong: I Ching, Book of Changes

Hexagram 46, 升 Shêng / Pushing Upward -> Hexagram 3, 屯 Chun / Difficulty at the Beginning
Source: afpc

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Sonny's hair salon

Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.



Have a great weekend.

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Friday afternoon, Island Cafe (previously known as Charles Bronson's).

Kurt Vonnegut Jr RIP

Obit: NYT
Slaughterhouse-Five: wiki
Cold Turkey: In These Times
The closing lines of Vonnegut's Requiem (circa 2005):

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.

Vonnegut? He's gone. So it goes.

Alan Johnston: a voice silenced

The BBC's petition:

We, the undersigned, demand the immediate release of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston. We ask again that everyone with influence on this situation increase their efforts, to ensure that Alan is freed quickly and unharmed.

is now closed.

But this one is still open: Free Alan Johnston Petition Thanks, Gavin!

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Dai pai dong, cooked food stall

Hong Kong: lit crit

Canto-culture – Loving a Floating City, by Fred Armentrout: Hong Kong Journal

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Waterfront dim sum restaurant

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Funeral parlour, flights of fancy

Siouxsie and the Banshees: Hong Kong Garden

For this long weekend, a guilty pleasure.



Have a great weekend.

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Ching Ming/Easter

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Waterfront dim sum restaurant, day-glo steamed buns

What with it being Ching Ming festival as well as Passover and Easter and Muhammad's birthday (according to Shi'a), the waterfront is real busy with people!

Hong Kong: Ching Ming festival

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Fifth of April is Ching Ming festival. Ching Ming is also known (in English) as Grave Sweeping Day, and it's a public holiday.

But before the grave comes the funeral service. On a little island in the South China Sea such a service is usually held in the open-to-the-elements funeral parlour in 'funeral square'. The square in reality is a rectangle. And this rectangular space has good feng shui, backed by a small hill and overlooking an unimpeded view of the sea.

Even in death life goes on. As well as the funeral parlour, there is a video games centre, pet shop, and three restaurants with alfresco dining in the square. So one can watch a funeral service and dine in the open air at the same time. Cool, eh?

And for funeral participants (and occasional restaurant watchers) the funeral services come and go in a variety of styles: ancestral, Christian, Taoist. Often what occurs seems to be a mix melded from two or more traditions -- all the better to hedge one's bets in matters ethereal, celestial, spiritual.

Anyway, the photo above shows a mourner and some of the bamboo and paper replicas which will be burnt during this ancestral-Taoist funeral service. With a car, house, trunks full of goodies, the departed is assured creature comforts in the netherworld after a life which may have included assorted disadvantages and discomforts in this one.

Hong Kong: Soko Islands RIP?

Will the peaceful Soko Islands Rest In Peace?

Today, Hong Kong's so-called Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has green-lighted CAPCO's plan to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and associated facilities at South Soko Island.

EPD: press release

CAPCO (Castle Peak Power Company Ltd), you will recall, is 60% owned by one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world: ExxonMobil. The other 40% is owned by one of the world's most successful and profitable power generation, transmission and supply companies: CLP (which used to be known as China Light & Power).





cartoon
©Gavin Coates





The EPD's decision was based on an Environmental Impact Assessment supplied by CAPCO. Hello? Yes, that's right: CAPCO assessed itself. Oh, CAPCO didn't assess itself, it paid someone else to do its EIA. See Nick G in Comment.

It gets better: CAPCO's EIA report was issued on 27 December 2006 (Happy Christmas!). Oh, and the report was in English only. Nice. The report was of humongous length. Even better. And the general public had just one month to digest, formulate and respond. Better and better.

The full report which probably no one has ever read in its entirety, including the people who wrote it: Contents

The report which some people may have read, including some of the people who wrote it: Executive Summary

The 7 March 2007 CAPCO clarification (with photos and montages of the now as well as the imagined future): further info

But is it a done deal?

The spokesman stressed that the statutory ordinance dealt only with the environmental acceptability of the project. The project proponent had to seek policy approval on the development of the project and approvals or consents under relevant legislation in Hong Kong before the project could proceed.

Probably. Still, it's good to keep in mind that: It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings.

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First heavy rain of the year

Hong Kong: I Ching, Book of Changes

Hexagram 20, 觀 Kuan / Contemplation (View) -> Hexagram 50, 鼎 Ting / The Caldron
Source: afpc

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Dai pai dong, afternoon tea