Saturday, June 16, 2012

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Monday, June 11, 2012

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Muddy Waters: You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Sage words from a great philosopher. . .

Friday, June 08, 2012

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Monday, June 04, 2012

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Zaz: La Pluie

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Spare a moment to enjoy this chanson (les paroles y compris | lyrics included). . .

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Thursday, late afternoon.

The harbour of a little island in the South China Sea is very full. Why so?

Locally-based fishing vessels have returned to port as there is now a two-month ban on fishing.

Some of the local boats will never sail again. A law comes into force at the end of the year banning all trawl fishing in Hong Kong waters. Trawl fishing is when a boat drags a net though the water. So far, so good. But when fishing in shallow waters, the net scrapes along the seabed. That's really destructive. The result is carnage.

It is to be noted that the mainland Chinese government already prohibits trawling all year round in its territorial waters of less than 40 metres (132 feet) and extends this ban with a May to August moratorium on all trawling, purse-seining and stake-netting activities.

Hereabouts, Hong Kong Government has put in place a number of measures to compensate soon-to-be ex-trawler owners and crews. And thanks to its buy-back scheme, the local authorities plan to sink some of the newly acquired trawlers to create artificial reefs.

Beach Boys: Sail on Sailor

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Kate Rusby: Who Will Sing Me Lullabies

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

 Just beautiful. . .

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Drama on a little island in the South China Sea (part 2)

Yesterday's film shoot

[Sadly, I have never learned to read Chinese so I have no clue about what the banners say. Still, it looks "political" to me. But it probably has nothing to do with the telegram sent on 17 May 1968 to the POLITBURO OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY GATE OF CELESTIAL PEACE PEKING]

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Drama on a little island in the South China Sea

Local terrestrial broadcaster TVB filming on location. There's the film crew, ancillary others, assorted Canto actors, and a dozen or so crowd extras (age 18-25) including one European blonde . . .

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Monday, May 21, 2012

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Stromae: Alors on danse

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

As an antidote to the weekend's wet weather, here's some Belgian/Rwandan electro dance music (with French/English lyrics) . . .

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Second Sunday in May: Frocks!

("Procession in Honour of the Holy Cross and Our Lady of Fatima")

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Lee "Scratch" Perry & Mad Professor: Mad Man Dubwise

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Classic Jamaican riddims coupled with Hong Kong kung fu in glorious black & white!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Monday, May 07, 2012

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Dulce Pontes; A brisa do coracao

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

The singer is the Portuguese Dulce Pontes, the music is by Ennio Morricone. Theme song for the 1998 Portuguese film Sostiene Pereira (Sostiene Maintains).



Recently discovered the film. In this household it currently rates as one of the most enjoyable viewed so far this year. More about it here: Sostiene Pereira (Sostiene Maintains)

Friday, May 04, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Bun Festival, procession (28 April 2012)

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Bun Festival, procession (28 April 2012)

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Eye | Land | View


With much crashing of symbols and bleating of cornets, a lion dance crew cruised past at least a half-dozen times today.

It's been like that for the past seven days, whatever the weather, come rain or shine.

Monday, April 30, 2012

May Day

Tomorrow, May Day is a public holiday, hereabouts.


Vive La Fête!

[The image above is from La Dialectique Peut-Elle Casser Des Briques? (Can Dialectics Break Bricks?), a 1973 film produced by French director René Viénet. A Situationist critique of cultural hegemony, it used the 1972 Hong Kong film The Crush (唐手跆拳道) by Tu Guangqi for its visuals. Probably only of interest to the politically literate.]

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Bun Festival, procession (28 April 2012)

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Bun Festival, procession

The Snaps: Rain on Me

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

This is too good to miss. . .

Friday, April 27, 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Supermarket

A little island in the South China Sea begins its annual Bun Festival tomorrow with Cantonese opera at the temporary bamboo/tin opera house newly erected in front of Pak Tai Temple.

A couple of days from now the place goes "vegetarian", although what counts as vegetarian is somewhat idiosyncratic. Oysters, anyone?

This year, the pièce de résistance -- actually, there are two: the procession through the village and "bun climb" -- is on Sunday (29 April 2012) (whoops) Saturday (28 April 2012).

Just so you know.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Dave Brubeck : Unsquare Dance

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Music is from the album Time Further Out. . .

Friday, April 20, 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Monday, April 16, 2012

Eye | Land | View


Monday, thunderstorm

Around 4:20pm this afternoon it got real dark. Dark enough the street lamps turned themselves on. Then the rain arrived, seriously torrential rain. Oh, and the wind picked up. So much so that soon enough it was bordering on typhoon-type wind.

Not the sort of wind nor rain you want to be out and about in.

Twenty minutes later is was back to "normal": the wind dropped and the rain became once more the kind that pitter-patters. It's still raining as I write.

The above photo was taken at the height of the storm (5:00pm) and from the comfort and safety of the flat. For me, it was too hazardous to venture out.

That said, I am still trying to work out how to capture such rainstorms in a way that "works", because I'm not there yet.

Sunday, April 15, 2012