The neighbours complained, the police finally arrived, the band managed to finish Get Back, and last words were:
"I would like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we've passed the audition."youtube
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
It was 38 years ago today . . .
That Billy Preston (organ) and Sergeant Pepper's band did play. What was to be their last ever live performance together: The Rooftop Concert.
The neighbours complained, the police finally arrived, the band managed to finish Get Back, and last words were:
The neighbours complained, the police finally arrived, the band managed to finish Get Back, and last words were:
Monday, January 29, 2007
SCMP: more departures
Editor of the South China Morning Post, Fanny Fung has resigned. Number Two in the pecking order, she will be replaced effective 1 February 2007 by someone who was in the fifth editorial layer, C K Lau. Lau was Executive Editor, Policy.
Fung's departure is the fourth high-power resignation (or departure) in the last several months.
In October, a staff photographer took photos of the wrong person in a high-profile criminal court. After publication of one of the photos in the SCMP's Business Post, the SCMP was obliged to publish a large apology on the front page of the newspaper. The photographer was sacked, and staff were not happy about the sacking.
In November, two senior editors were sacked over a leaving page for sacked Sunday Post editor Niall Fraser. In the furore which followed, a third of the staff demanded the sackings be re-considered. To no avail.
In December, business editor Stuart Jackson resigned in the wake of the photo debacle.
Now, Fung. Well, she has recently started to feature as one of the talking heads the BBC Worldservice phone when they need a local slant on current affairs hereabouts . . .
Mark Clifford continues as Editor-in-Chief.
For newer/previous posts about SCMP staff stuff, please click on scmp in Labels (below). Thank you.
Fung's departure is the fourth high-power resignation (or departure) in the last several months.
In October, a staff photographer took photos of the wrong person in a high-profile criminal court. After publication of one of the photos in the SCMP's Business Post, the SCMP was obliged to publish a large apology on the front page of the newspaper. The photographer was sacked, and staff were not happy about the sacking.
In November, two senior editors were sacked over a leaving page for sacked Sunday Post editor Niall Fraser. In the furore which followed, a third of the staff demanded the sackings be re-considered. To no avail.
In December, business editor Stuart Jackson resigned in the wake of the photo debacle.
Now, Fung. Well, she has recently started to feature as one of the talking heads the BBC Worldservice phone when they need a local slant on current affairs hereabouts . . .
Mark Clifford continues as Editor-in-Chief.
For newer/previous posts about SCMP staff stuff, please click on scmp in Labels (below). Thank you.
Eye| Land | View
Another day, another sunset.In anticipation of this year's Chinese New Year celebrations (18 February 2007), the harbour is beginning to fill up as locally-based trawlers return from fishing grounds near and far.
The island in the background is Sek Kwu Chau, which is given over to a voluntary residential heroin rehab centre. People who live there have developed a habit or are professionals in detox, drug dependency, rehab, life and work skills. Casual visitors are not encouraged. So it goes.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food, by Michael Pollan. NYT
Reading matters
Ahmet Ertegun: Eclectic, Reminiscent, Amused, Fickle, Perverse, by George W. S. Trow.
Trow's masterful literary prose profile of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun was first published in May 1978. Trow died late November 2006. Several weeks earlier, Ertegun, by now age 83, fell backstage at the Beacon Theatre, New York City, at a performance of The Rolling Stones for the 60th birthday of Bill Clinton. Ertegun later lapsed into a coma and died mid-December 2006.
Ertegun probably wouldn't have wanted to go any other way.
As well as Ertegun, Trow's cast of characters include Mick Jagger, David Geffen, Prince Rupert Lowenstein, The Rolling Stones, Stephen Stills, Duke Ellington, Pelé, Jerry Wexler, Ray Charles, Waxie Maxie, Ruth Brown, Professor Longhair, Joe Turner, Tom Dowd, Ivory Joe Hunter, Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters, Led Zeppelin, Andy Warhol, Bette Midler, Bianca Jagger . . .
It's fine writing, George Trow is a joy to read. But beware, this is a long article. So make yrself a cup of tea, then read on: New Yorker (part 1) and New Yorker (part 2).
More Trow. The New Yorker magazine has turned the entirety of its magazine over to a single work four times: John Hersey's Hiroshima, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth. The fourth is Trow's Within the Context of No Context. To read the opening section of that essay, click on any of the labels below.
Trow's masterful literary prose profile of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun was first published in May 1978. Trow died late November 2006. Several weeks earlier, Ertegun, by now age 83, fell backstage at the Beacon Theatre, New York City, at a performance of The Rolling Stones for the 60th birthday of Bill Clinton. Ertegun later lapsed into a coma and died mid-December 2006.
Ertegun probably wouldn't have wanted to go any other way.
As well as Ertegun, Trow's cast of characters include Mick Jagger, David Geffen, Prince Rupert Lowenstein, The Rolling Stones, Stephen Stills, Duke Ellington, Pelé, Jerry Wexler, Ray Charles, Waxie Maxie, Ruth Brown, Professor Longhair, Joe Turner, Tom Dowd, Ivory Joe Hunter, Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters, Led Zeppelin, Andy Warhol, Bette Midler, Bianca Jagger . . .
It's fine writing, George Trow is a joy to read. But beware, this is a long article. So make yrself a cup of tea, then read on: New Yorker (part 1) and New Yorker (part 2).
More Trow. The New Yorker magazine has turned the entirety of its magazine over to a single work four times: John Hersey's Hiroshima, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth. The fourth is Trow's Within the Context of No Context. To read the opening section of that essay, click on any of the labels below.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Eye | Land | View
(click on image to enlarge)
Saturday late afternoon, Tin Hau temple and the beautiful game
Joni Mitchell: Big Yellow Taxi
For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot:
Have a great weekend!
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot:
Have a great weekend!
Friday, January 26, 2007
Hong Kong: The ParknShop Oilfish Incident
(click on photo to enlarge)At the beginning of the week it was a food scare about mainland China strawberries full of pesticides on sale hereabouts. Mid week? ParknShop, one of the two major supermarket chains in Hong Kong, hurried to take off its shelves frozen oilfish that had been labeled as "codfish".
That's codfish (one word) as opposed to cod (fish).
Are those two the same or different? Who knows? Outside the academic and professional worlds of ichthyology (study of fish), fish nomenclature is often vexatious and confusing.
In this instance, it was (marine) mutton dressed as lamb: oilfish (possibly) masquerading as codfish. ParknShop says it was labeled as oilfish, but it was also labeled as codfish. Confused?
Not that Mister Bijou had ever heard of oilfish, before. Moreover, this oilfish was taken, as we all now know, from Indonesian waters and the "flesh is very oily, with purgative properties, if eaten much." (Fishbase)
Some people ate much, and purged more.
ParknShop is in crisis-management mode as "fury rises over fish label row": Hong Kong Standard
For overview of Hong Kong's Chinese-language newspapers, Roland Soong offers his perspective (in English): ESWN
Fishy names?
Mister Bijou recalls once standing mystified in front of a fishmongers in Leeds market puzzling over Scarborough Woof. It was, it turned out, catfish.
Later, in Paris, one of Mister Bijou's friends, who had a friend who worked at the wholesale market at Rungis, would come home on a Saturday evening with a langouste. It looked like a lobster (homard). But it wasn't a lobster. Because it was a langouste.
What was it? We weren't sure. But it always tasted most excellent. Which is why in those pre-internet days, we ate well but in ignorance. Today? Zip, zip! Langouste = crayfish, rock lobster, spiny lobster (although it is not a member of the lobster family).
Nomenclature can be mighty vexatious.
Actually, there is something to be said for eating in ignorance. Eating is so culturally bound (Marmite, anyone?).
As it is, hereabouts, there have been times when if Mister Bijou had known exactly what he was eating when he was eating, he would not have eaten it. But local friends were eating it with gusto . . . So he took the plunge, which is how he has eaten some really tasty things he wouldn't otherwise have eaten. Granted he has eaten other things he wouldn't eat again. So what?
What is it? It's something from inside the pig!
In short, trust yr dining companions, but read the label.
That's codfish (one word) as opposed to cod (fish).
Are those two the same or different? Who knows? Outside the academic and professional worlds of ichthyology (study of fish), fish nomenclature is often vexatious and confusing.
In this instance, it was (marine) mutton dressed as lamb: oilfish (possibly) masquerading as codfish. ParknShop says it was labeled as oilfish, but it was also labeled as codfish. Confused?
Not that Mister Bijou had ever heard of oilfish, before. Moreover, this oilfish was taken, as we all now know, from Indonesian waters and the "flesh is very oily, with purgative properties, if eaten much." (Fishbase)
Some people ate much, and purged more.
ParknShop is in crisis-management mode as "fury rises over fish label row": Hong Kong Standard
For overview of Hong Kong's Chinese-language newspapers, Roland Soong offers his perspective (in English): ESWN
Fishy names?
Mister Bijou recalls once standing mystified in front of a fishmongers in Leeds market puzzling over Scarborough Woof. It was, it turned out, catfish.
Later, in Paris, one of Mister Bijou's friends, who had a friend who worked at the wholesale market at Rungis, would come home on a Saturday evening with a langouste. It looked like a lobster (homard). But it wasn't a lobster. Because it was a langouste.
What was it? We weren't sure. But it always tasted most excellent. Which is why in those pre-internet days, we ate well but in ignorance. Today? Zip, zip! Langouste = crayfish, rock lobster, spiny lobster (although it is not a member of the lobster family).
Nomenclature can be mighty vexatious.
Actually, there is something to be said for eating in ignorance. Eating is so culturally bound (Marmite, anyone?).
As it is, hereabouts, there have been times when if Mister Bijou had known exactly what he was eating when he was eating, he would not have eaten it. But local friends were eating it with gusto . . . So he took the plunge, which is how he has eaten some really tasty things he wouldn't otherwise have eaten. Granted he has eaten other things he wouldn't eat again. So what?
What is it? It's something from inside the pig!
In short, trust yr dining companions, but read the label.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Eye | Land | View
(click on image to enlarge)Building site, worker health, safety, and wage mediation
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hong Kong: Legislative Council Questions
Some of the questions (and answers) from the LegCo meeting of Wednesday, 24 January 2007:
LCQ5: Discussion with power companies
LCQ10: Damage on HK's external telecommunications services by earthquake in Luzon Strait
LCQ14: Demolition project of the old Star Ferry Pier clock tower in Central
LCQ15 : Enforcement action against illegal motor racing
LCQ5: Discussion with power companies
LCQ10: Damage on HK's external telecommunications services by earthquake in Luzon Strait
LCQ14: Demolition project of the old Star Ferry Pier clock tower in Central
LCQ15 : Enforcement action against illegal motor racing
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Hong Kong: Long Hair teams up with plastic surgery clinics?
One of the most famous faces in Hong Kong, Che Guevara toting T-shirt activist, self-described Trotskyist, member of April Fifth Action Group, and popularly-elected member for LegCo representing New Territories East, Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄), aka Long Hair (長毛), is considering a cosmetic makeover.
Yes, it's true.
For a sympathetic and knowledgeable follow-up to that Apple Daily story of last Saturday, try the most excellent Daisann McLane on the life and looks of Long Hair: Learning Cantonese
Yes, it's true.
For a sympathetic and knowledgeable follow-up to that Apple Daily story of last Saturday, try the most excellent Daisann McLane on the life and looks of Long Hair: Learning Cantonese
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Greenhouse on a little island in the South China Sea
Update. Whoopsy-daisy! Sincerest apologies all round, the website address is: thegreenhouse.hk
(click photo to enlarge)
Today, midday, friend Jude opened her shop The Greenhouse in the first back street of a little island in the South China Sea.
What's in store?
Health foods.
That's to say, goodies including freshly-baked wholegrain and wholewheat baps, rolls and loaves as well as assorted vegetarian and meat pies, pasties and pastries.
And quiche lorraines (hooray!).
Plus, organic and pesticide-free white and brown rice, mushrooms, and eye-wateringly expensive organic, pesticide-free vegetables sourced from one of the handful of organic farms now operating in Hong Kong's New Territories.
There is a website, but it is very much Under Construction: greenhouse.hk
Alors, qu'est-ce qu'on mange ce soir, cherie?
Quiche lorraine (accompanied by non-Greenhouse, soak in water for an hour before cooking, semi-pesticide-free green beans and mushrooms).
(click photo to enlarge)What's in store?
Health foods.
That's to say, goodies including freshly-baked wholegrain and wholewheat baps, rolls and loaves as well as assorted vegetarian and meat pies, pasties and pastries.
And quiche lorraines (hooray!).
Plus, organic and pesticide-free white and brown rice, mushrooms, and eye-wateringly expensive organic, pesticide-free vegetables sourced from one of the handful of organic farms now operating in Hong Kong's New Territories.
Alors, qu'est-ce qu'on mange ce soir, cherie?
Quiche lorraine (accompanied by non-Greenhouse, soak in water for an hour before cooking, semi-pesticide-free green beans and mushrooms).
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Mass Incident in Dazhu County, Sichuan
This mass incident in China is not the latest in a long series of the Chinese masses finally rising and striking back against the injustice of corrupt and greedy officials who think nothing of seizing land and evicting people.
Instead, this mass incident is about the injustice of arrogant, corrupt and greedy officials, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, a 16-year-old female hotel worker, and allegations of a viscious and ugly sexcrime that led to her death..
The girl, Yang Li, who may have been a karaoke hostess, died on 30 December 2006. The masses' patience finally snapped on 17 January 2007 and as a result the Nest Business Hotel at Xinhua Plaza, Zhuyang town, Dazhu county, Sichuan province, went up in flames.
Report, translations, photos and even youtube: EastSouthWestNorth
Instead, this mass incident is about the injustice of arrogant, corrupt and greedy officials, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, a 16-year-old female hotel worker, and allegations of a viscious and ugly sexcrime that led to her death..
The girl, Yang Li, who may have been a karaoke hostess, died on 30 December 2006. The masses' patience finally snapped on 17 January 2007 and as a result the Nest Business Hotel at Xinhua Plaza, Zhuyang town, Dazhu county, Sichuan province, went up in flames.
Report, translations, photos and even youtube: EastSouthWestNorth
Eye | Land | View
(click on image to enlarge)
An overcast Friday afternoon in January; the helipad of a little island in the South China Sea. A Government Flying Service helicopter comes in to medivac a patient from the local cottage hospital to a major public hospital in town.
The aircrew, which usually includes a Flying Nurse or Flying Doctor, wear very cool uniforms and those Top Gun helmets. Whirlybirds are go!
Anyway, whoever they collected didn't need a saline drip or oxygen, just the usual stretcher, blanket, rubber cover, and noise reduction ear muffs.
Whoever . . . we hope you Get Well Soon!
The aircrew, which usually includes a Flying Nurse or Flying Doctor, wear very cool uniforms and those Top Gun helmets. Whirlybirds are go!
Anyway, whoever they collected didn't need a saline drip or oxygen, just the usual stretcher, blanket, rubber cover, and noise reduction ear muffs.
Whoever . . . we hope you Get Well Soon!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Bob Dylan: Highlands
Bob Dylan in a rare performance of his sad yet whimsical epic narrative Highlands. Last track on the "it's not dark yet / but it's getting there" album Time Out of Mind, Highlands clocks in at 16 minutes. Here, Dylan does it in a sprightly 9 minutes 47 seconds. Watch it while you can: youtube
Highlands lyrics: bobdylan
Highlands lyrics: bobdylan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
