Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Sitting and seeing the year out

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Winter monsoon wear

A cold front has swept down from the north. The air temperature on a little island in the South China Sea is currently 13.3C and dropping, probably to a low of 11C overnight.

New Year's Eve will be "fine and dry" with a high of 16C and humidity below 50%. Hong Kong Observatory talks about 'fresh northerly winds" amd forecasts an even colder and drier New Year's Day.

Time to dig out the lip salve.

Van Morrison: Sweet Thing

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Astral Weeks . . . side one, track three:



End of year bonus, From Stranded (1979):

Van Morrison's Astral Weeks was released ten years, almost to the day, before this was written. It was particularly important to me because the fall of 1968 was such a terrible time: I was a physical and mental wreck, nerves shredded and ghosts and spiders looming and squatting across the mind. My social contacts had dwindled to almost none; the presence of other people made me nervous and paranoid. I spent endless days and nights sunk in an armchair in my bedroom, reading magazines, watching TV, listening to records, staring into space. I had no idea how to improve the situation and probably wouldn't have done anything about it if I had.

Lester Bangs

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Dried seafood stall

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

On the waterfront

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

The Marine Police do a medevac

Eye | Land | View

(Click on photo to enlarge)

The evangelicals (plus tree) pass through the square

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Christmas Eve on the waterfront

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Christmas on the waterfront of a little island in the South China Sea

Grace Jones: I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Nightclubbing . . .

China: Choking on Growth

Ninth in a series of articles and multimedia examining the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China's epic pollution crisis: China Grabs West’s Smoke-Spewing Factories: NYT

Previously in the series:
The Overview
China's Water Crisiis
The Activist
Three Gorges Dam
Energy Rules
Wildlife Threatened
Polluting Trucks

Interested? Start here: NYT

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Local fire station

Hong Kong: Legislative Council Questions

Some of the questions (and answers) from the LegCo meeting of Wednesday, 19 December 2007:

LCQ13:Fresh food prices
LCQ17: Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections
LCQ20: Assistance to low-income people

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Late afternoon, waterfront

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Couple

Reading matters

The phenomenon of the Christmas bestseller, by Stuart Jeffries: Guardian

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

A nice cuppa tea

Dennis Potter: The Singing Detective

For the weekend, a gulty pleasure.

Keep your pecker up, old chap:

"Chinois, encore un effort pour être révolutionnaires"

In May 1968, the Situationist-inspired Occupation Committee of the People's Free Sorbonne University sent the following telegram from Paris:

POLITBURO OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY GATE OF CELESTIAL PEACE PEKING

SHAKE IN YOUR SHOES BUREAUCRATS STOP THE INTERNATIONAL POWER OF THE WORKERS COUNCILS WILL SOON WIPE YOU OUT STOP HUMANITY WON’T BE HAPPY TILL THE LAST BUREAUCRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF THE LAST CAPITALIST STOP LONG LIVE FACTORY OCCUPATIONS STOP LONG LIVE THE GREAT CHINESE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION OF 1927 BETRAYED BY THE STALINIST BUREAUCRATS STOP LONG LIVE THE PROLETARIANS OF CANTON AND ELSEWHERE WHO HAVE TAKEN UP ARMS AGAINST THE SO-CALLED PEOPLE’S ARMY STOP LONG LIVE THE CHINESE WORKERS AND STUDENTS WHO HAVE ATTACKED THE SO-CALLED CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND THE MAOIST BUREAUCRATIC ORDER STOP LONG LIVE REVOLUTIONARY MARXISM STOP DOWN WITH THE STATE STOP OCCUPATION COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLE’S FREE SORBONNE

Some years later (1977) René Viénet, Situationist writer and filmmaker, assembled a visual collage from historic film footage to produce this amazing (and anti-maoist) political documentary about China in the 20th century: ubu

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Indoor market stairwell

Hong Kong: Legislative Council Questions

Some of the questions (and answers) from the LegCo meeting of Wednesday, 12 December 2007:

LCQ1: Statutory minimum wage
LCQ7: Improvements to urban planning, land administration and approval procedures for building construction
LCQ13: Remuneration package for Officials Under Political Appointment System

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Cargo boat

Master Landscape Plan: Fisherman's Wharf?

(click on photo to enlarge)

Here is a detail of a map of a Master Landscape Plan for a section of a little island in the South China Sea's harbour front. The whole thing -- plus a couple of artist impressions of how it is supposed to look when it is done -- is on a panel standing right next to the ferry terminal.

The Master Landscape Plan starts a little north of the ferry terminal and extends up to Pak Tai football pitch. Just close by that lone HSBC ATM machine is the entrance to a "wood deck promenade". Further along are two Observation Piers, a Fishing Plaza and a pier for guidos. The already established restaurant row becomes a Food and Beverage Corridor.

All fine and dandy. Now if they could just find a way to encourage the fishing boats and other harbour users not to dump diesel, sundry liquids and other stuff into the harbour. . .

Beijing and the water follies of the 2008 Olympics

Thirsty Dragon at the Olympics, by Dai Qing: New York Review of Books

Creature Comforts: Jaguar

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Notes on a cold island:

Eye | Land | View

(Click on photo to enlarge)

The two large shophouses on the corner of the waterfront and the square were put up for sale by auction in the spring. Whoever bought them got the wrecking crew in this week.

Now the buildings are no more. But not for long. For pleasure and profit, another building is in store. It's a primo site.

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Public pier

Hong Kong: King Hui -- The Man Who Owned All The Opium In Hong Kong

(click on photo to enlarge)

Officially launched today, Jonathan Chamberlain's book King Hui: The Man Who Owned All The Opium in Hong Kong.

Good title, eh?

The book should now be available in, as they say, all good book stores. In Hong Kong, anyway.

Online shoppers? Yes, here (free international delivery): blacksmiths books

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Public pier, citizens' action produces seats for all tastes

Reading matters

Joseph Conrad: the moral agent, by Giles Foden: Guardian
The future warehouse of unwanted books: bldgblog

Hong Kong: Legislative Council Questions

Some of the questions (and answers) from the LegCo meeting of Wednesday, 5 December 2007:

LCQ4: Economic benefits of Hong Kong Disneyland
LCQ16: Pilot project to purchase primary care services from private sector
LCQ20: Introduction of vehicles using cleaner fuels

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)

Another hospital, out-patients department

Medical matters account for the absence of posts for the previous eight or so days. The sun rises, the sun sets. Life is sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet. Mister B now looks forward to posting some more. For the emails, thanks!