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Waterfront, Cantonese opera recital

Flying Pickets: Only You

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Closing moments of Wong Kar-wai's film Fallen Angels:

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Local hospital

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Rooftops

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Mid-autumn festival, Tung Wan beach

Reading matters

Chan-demonium, by Daisann McLane: Learning Cantonese

Myanmar near the tipping point, by Alice Poon

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Mid-autumn festival, Tung Wan beach

Reading matters

Diary of a Bad Year, by J M Coetzee: NYRB

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Back street

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Tung Wan beach

St Vincent (Annie Clark): These Days

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

These days, Jackson Browne's song goes like this:

Hong Kong: Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節)

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Now is the time of Mooncake. This one has a very light pastry case filled with a dense, sweet lotus paste enveloping the salted egg yolk at its centre. Verily, a yin and yang for the taste buds.

Why? Mid-Autumn Festival is next week.

It's a really pretty festival. If everything goes according to plan, loads of people go down to Tung Wan beach and plant lighted candles in the sand.

Mind you, Hong Kong Government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department is vowing to spoil everyone's fun: press release

Still, its writ does not always run far or deep on a little island in the South China Sea. . . Tuesday night's the night. The day after? It's a public holiday.

Bon appétit!

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Late night diner

Reading matters

The cult of Leica, by Anthony Lane: The New Yorker

Hong Kong: Lung Ying-tai 龍 應 台

Essayist, cultural critic and professor of literature in Taiwan, Lung Ying-tai has emerged as one of the most influential writers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Since 2003 she has been a visiting professor at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. And she has made quite an impact here, too.

Lung Ying-tai has a lovely laugh, speaks Chinese, English and German, and currently lives in Hong Kong: bio

So what does she think about Hong Kong? Why the destruction of Wedding Card Street? Star Ferry? Queen's Pier? And what about the West Kowloon Cultural Development Project? And Tamar Development Project? Central Police Station?

First broadcast on 13 September 2007. Now video streaming (Windows Media seems to work better than Real Player), 22 minutes: RTHK (via ESWN)

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Public pier

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Waterfront restaurant, live fish

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Public pier, Sunday afternoon

Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames: Yeh Yeh

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

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Waterfront

Hong Kong: after 36 days, bar benders' strike ends

The 36-day bar benders' strike ended last night when, by a show of hands in the street, striking workers unanimously agreed to support the deal worked out by their representatives with employers: a daily wage of HK$860 and an eight-hour working day.

According to extensive, generally sympathetic coverage in SCMP (behind paywall, no link), the employers also agreed to the bar bender's demands for a review of the salary package in March 2008.

The bar benders -- they work on the steel frames which form the skeletons of high-rise buildings -- had previously worked a nine-hour day for a daily rate of between HK$800 to HK$850, down from the 1994 daily rate of HK$950.

So now, instead of working nine hours and getting eight fifty, the bar benders will be working eight and getting eight sixty. OK, this falls short of their demand for eight and nine fifty, but sometimes you have to know when to fold your cards and walk away. There is a time to start a strike, and a time to end it. This was the time to end it. Working eight hours a day is better than working nine. Plus, overtime, if there is any, kicks in earlier.

This was the longest strike in Hong Kong in thirty years and as well as general coverage at the strike's conclusion, SCMP focused on one of the strikers: "Strain of epic tussle reduces hardened iron man to tears".

Mr Wong Wai-man (50) has been a bar bender for thirty years. Married with two sons (the eldest is a university student, the youngest still at school), Mr Wong did not even finish primary school. Interviewed by SCMP reporter Agnes Lam, he said:

"Most workers have very little education, like me. I have really learnt a lot during this labour movement, such as how to answer reporter's questions and how to bargain with contractors.

We are no longer working as individuals. We are a group and we are united. Whatever comes from the negotiation table does not really matter. Unity is the most precious thing we have won."

Other lessons learned? The pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) raised money for the striking bar benders and actively supported them. According to SCMP, CTU has vowed to continue helping the bar benders build a stronger union. The pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) which "represented" the bar benders at talks, was accused by bar benders on the last night of the strike of "betrayal" and only showing up for talks with the employers.

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Waterfront restaurant

Daily Telegraph obituary: Lord Michael Pratt

The obituary writers at Britain's Daily Telegraph (aka Torygraph) long ago turned obituary writing into a fine art. Most especially of dilettante aristocrats:

His mother, the Marchioness, suspected him of being idle; Pratt maintained that he was unable to study owing to a broken leg.

In fact, both these things were true.

Lord Michael Pratt

September 11

The film is 11'9"01 September 11 (11 minutes 9 secondes 1 image). This is Ken Loach's contribution:



(With Chinese subtitles)

Reading matters

America's Labor Day, the Right to be Lazy, The Photocopy Shops of Istanbul, and the Democratization of Knowledge, by Stephen Lewis: Hak Pak Sak (via Doc Searls Weblog)

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Waterfront dried-seafood stall, closing time

Reading matters

The end begins, by Stan Goff: counterpunch

Subterranean pr0n

G-Cans flood control system, Showa, Japan: crooked brains
Plus, Range Rover Tokyo ad: youtube

Drains of Canada: bldg blog

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Mourners in "funeral square".

Sonny Boy Williamson: Nine Below Zero

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Less is more:



Have a great weekend.

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Another day, another film set.

This one was in front of the ferry terminal. At about one o'clock in the morning.

A local television crew (TVB) and two actors:

Couple run four yards to the ferry timetable. Actress traces timetable to locate time of next ferry. Actor leans in. Both then stand back and fidget awkwardly.

He: What are we going to do?

She: I dunno. What do you think?

CUT!

p.s. The actor's "peace sign" was not in the script, but for the benefit of Mister Bijou. Peace out, dude!

Hong Kong: Tiger Head, Snake Tail

Daisann McLane writes Tiger Head, Snake Tail (虎頭蛇尾): Learning Cantonese

Hong Kong: bar benders strike about to enter second month

Hong Kong's longest running strike in thirty years is today entering its second month.

Late last week, it was reported that representatives of the striking workers -- the bar benders who put together the steel frames required in the construction of high-rise buildings -- lowered their demand to $HK900 for a day's work.

That's down from the initial demand of a day rate of HK$950 (the latter figure is ten dollars more than the day rate in 1994).

But they still stuck out for an eight-hour day. They currently work a nine-hour day from 8am to 6pm, with short breaks in the morning and afternoon as well as a break for lunch.

Last Friday, the bosses' organization -- Hong Kong Contractors' Association -- which had offered to raise the construction site metal workers' daily wage from HK$850 to HK$875 . . . withdrew their offer.

And then everybody walked away.

According to legislator and general secretary of Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions Lee Cheuk-yan, the emergency fund set up by CTU in aid of the strikers has reached HK$600,000, and HK$300,000 has been distributed among 993 workers.

The main site affected is one in To Kwa Wan in Kowloon. Meantime, flying pickets composed of 12-20 strikers at construction sites in Oil Street, North Point, and in Shatin, were this week met by large police presences (100 at the Shatin site).

So, where are we? The bosses have walked away from negotiations and are in no hurry to re-start. Plainly, they have decided to starve the strikers into submission.

We'll see.

Elsewhere, Angela Lam comments:

Whilst the immediate problem concerns the workers’ pay, it actually goes right up the chain. When there are few projects going round but many contractors to compete for them, bid prices go down to a level where some try to win a job at a loss, hoping to make up for it later by submitting claims for this and that. This is neither good for the contractors/workers’ sustainability nor the quality of the completed projects.

Is there any solution?

For her solution and some perspective: Sustainable Building in Hong Kong

Luciano Pavarotti: Nessun Dorma

Nessun Dorma, one of the world's most emotionally affecting musical moments? Pavarotti in Turin, Italy, in 2006, performing the aria from Puccini's opera Turandot:



Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007)

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Out-patients department

Reading matters

The Mix Tape of the Gods, by Timothy Ferris: NYT

Voyager 1 playlist:

* Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
* Java, court gamelan, "Kinds of Flowers," recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
* Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
* Zaire, Pygmy girls' initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
* Australia, Aborigine songs, "Morning Star" and "Devil Bird," recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
* Mexico, "El Cascabel," performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
* "Johnny B. Goode," written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
* New Guinea, men's house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
* Japan, shakuhachi, "Tsuru No Sugomori" ("Crane's Nest,") performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
* Bach, "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
* Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
* Georgian S.S.R., chorus, "Tchakrulo," collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
* Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
* "Melancholy Blues," performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
* Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
* Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
* Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
* Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
* Bulgaria, "Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin," sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
* Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
* Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, "The Fairie Round," performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
* Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
* Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
* China, ch'in, "Flowing Streams," performed by Kuan P'ing-hu. 7:37
* India, raga, "Jaat Kahan Ho," sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
* "Dark Was the Night," written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
* Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37

Neat sounds, eh? But with one major lacuna. . . nothing from the Arab/Persian musical soundscape.

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Waterfront

Reading matters

The US Market’s Pyramid of Lies, by Philip Bowring: asia sentinel

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Public pier

Georges Bizet: Carmen

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

From Carlos Saura's film Carmen, some flamenco:



Have a great weekend.