Israel is the North Korea of the Middle East

Or why running an Israeli blockade is a bad idea, by Pablo: Kiwipolitico

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Sunday, mega downpours

Dave Brubeck Quartet: Take Five

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Dave Brubeck (piano), Eugene Wright (bass), Joe Morello (drums), Paul Desmond (alto sax) . . .

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Awnings

Meditations on noise

Three books:
The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise, by Garret Keiser;
Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence, by George Michelsen Foy;
In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, by George Prochnik.
Reviewed by Dwight Garner: NYT

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Tung Wan beach

All Things Reconsidered: The 35th Anniversary of Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks

A dozen and a half essays consider one of Bob Dylan's masterworks, the breakup album Blood on the Tracks: popmatters

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May moon

God, John Locke, and Equality

Investigating the foundations of equality, by Jeremy Waldron: wsws

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Café

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Bun Festival

Commodification: foam non-edible buns

Chungking Express / California Dreamin'

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

The scene in Wong Kar-wai's film Chungking Express of the first meeting of Tony Leung and Faye Wong at that kebab place in Lan Kwai Fong, Midnight Express.

The (loud ) music is, bien sûr, by The Mamas and Papas . . .

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Bun Festival

Canto opera singers

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Bun Festival

Dragon dancer

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Bun Festival

Procession through the village

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Bun Festival

Procession through the village

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Bun Festival

On the waterfront

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Bun Festival

Temporary altar in front of Pak Tai Temple

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Just after 3pm this Wednesday afternoon, it felt like all hell had broken loose . . .

Out of nowhere, a little island in the South China Sea was subject to a sky so dark the street lights turned themselves on, while a quick succession of very strong gusts of wind and an almighty deluge of rain hammered the place.

Right-minded people ran for cover, while others battened down their hatches and turned on the lights.

Twenty or so minutes later it was back to business-as-usual.

Which includes, in the run up to the big event on Friday, small groups of resolute males holding big bunches of lighted incense sticks while walking through the village in the company of Taoist priests, cornet blowers and drum thumpers.

Brilliant!

Bangkok updates

Live blogging: guardian newsblog
Live blogging: reuters live
google map
Thailand, the odds are on retribution
by G M Greenwood: asiasentinel

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Bun Festival

In front of Pak Tai Temple, the three bamboo-frame, bun-clad towers are in place. Too, four large papier-mâché gods. And an incense altar. Plus the open-sided, bamboo opera house.

A little island in the South China Sea goes vegetarian tomorrow, Wednesday, and will remain so until Friday when people scale the towers just before midnight and pull down the buns.

Until then it is the calm before the storm: fifty thousand people are expected on the island on Friday to watch the procession through the village and the bun tower climbing.

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Ferry pier

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Ferry pier, lower deck entrance

The Beatles: Within You Without You

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

side two, track one . . .

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Afternoon

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Public pier

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Noodle place

Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Clustershag to 10 Downing

The British electoral impasse. . . The Daily Show embed doesn't seem to be working, so here's the link.

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Cloudy with occasional rain

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Neighbourhood

In the Name of Womanhood and Humanity...

"What is now widely viewed as a sentimental tribute to family -- Mother's Day -- was originally a call for women to wage a general strike to end war."

AlterNet

Renan Luce: Les Voisines

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

The visuals are from Hitchcock's film Rear Window. Ah, the neighbours . . .

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San Hing Back Street

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Waterfront

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Another of Sunday's angels

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Gnarly tree

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Dragon dance

Sunday's "holy" procession wasn't the only event of the day.

From morning till late afternoon, the air was filled with the sounds of (sometimes competing) large drums, small cymbals, bowl gongs and blaring trumpets.

There was much sound and fury . . . signifying something.

Whatever the reason, many of the local, neighbourhood association dragon dancing teams were on walkabout on this little island in the South China Sea.

And very nice it was, too.

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An angel passes by

Today, Sunday, the island's congregation and friends of the local Catholic church -- Our Lady of Fatima -- made a procession down to the waterfront and back again.

It's an annual event.

The were many Filipinas, a good few in ballgowns. Plus local, petite "senior" angels, ancillary angels, an unhurried drummer, and taped hymns. And a couple of hundred congregants from hereabouts and elsewhere.

John Cleese + The Two Ronnies: Social Class

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Because it's May 1st . . .



Bonus for the comrades, Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory: The Internationale