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Restaurant alley

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San Hing Back Street

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Waterfront, sitting-out area

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Back street

Reading matters

The Whores of War, by Neil Mackay: Information Clearing House
Cartoon strip: Get Your War On

Bob Dylan: DYLAN?

So, Columbia Records have just released yet another Bob Dylan greatest hits. What's this one called? DYLAN.

It's a 3-cd set. Skip it. Save yr money.

Personal choice for a Dylan overview? The beautifully sequenced 2-cd Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1971), or the revealing 3-cd Bob Dylan Biograph (1985), or the 3-cd awesomeness of dive into the vaults, Bob Dylan The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991.

Don't believe Mister B? Maybe Douglas Wolk's review of DYLAN [Rating 1.3 out of 10] will convince: pitchfork

Louis Prima & Keely Smith: All Night Long

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Keely rules, OK:

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Waterfront, mid-autumn festival

Reading matters

Loaded Language and Loaded Guns: The Meaning of Opposites, by Charles Sullivan: Information Clearing House

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Frock shop

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Lantern

Reading matters

Freedom of Noodles, by Daisann McLane: Learning Cantonese

Much Ado About Nothing: Alice Poon

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Today is the 58th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China: National Day. It's a public holiday.

At eight am, local worthies and "distinguished guests" arranged themselves on a temporary raised dais in a little island in the South China Sea's main square. They were there to witness the official flag-raising ceremony.

Protocol being what it is, the PRC flag was hoisted up the square's tallest flagpole and the HKSAR flag was run up the slightly shorter one. The island's cub scouts did the honours.


Photos on the dais, photos in front of the flagpoles . . . then everyone went for breakfast. Or back to bed.

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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.

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Chopsticks

Observations on the semiotics of chopsticks: Roland Barthes

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Ferry pier

Hong Kong: bar benders strike longest industrial action in 30 years

Hong Kong's six to eight hundred bar benders -- those are the guys who along with the welders assemble on site the girders which make possible all those high-rise buildings -- are now in their 23rd day of strike action. This is the longest such action in Hong Kong in thirty years.

The strike has now spread to around 100 construction sites -- up from 60 last week.

According to reports, members of the community, including Cathay Pacific flight attendants, have donated money, fruit and bottles of distilled water. A fund set up to help the strikers has already reached HK$360,000.

The strike pits employees against bosses. Nothing new there.

But a little bit of history might help: in 1997, the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) negotiated pay cuts down from a daily wage of HK$1,200 to the grand sums of between HK$500 and HK$800 a day.

Now, ten years later, the pro-democracy labour group Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) has got behind a workers' campaign for a pay rise: a uniform daily wage of HK$950 (that's the same rate as paid in 1994).

Plus a cut in working hours from nine to eight hours. Plus backing Nepalese construction workers who are calling for equal pay, saying their HK$450 daily pay is discriminatory. Which it is.

The two union groups have been competing to represent the interests of the striking workers. Meanwhile, the Government is desperately trying not to get involved. And the employers' representative group, the Hong Kong Construction Association? It says there isn't the money for a HK$950 daily rate. But they would say that, wouldn't they?

Anyway, to put some flesh on those numbers . . . a poem by Mr. Xin, a metal worker:

My wrath is on government-business collusion,
As we laborers toil through sweltering heat and fierce rainstorms.
Our deeds are done on dusty sites and we often work right into the night.

For the rest of Mr. Xin's poem and its literary antecedents: Alice Poon

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

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At five am this morning, the now totally uneclipsed full Moon shines silent and bright in the west-northwestern sky. (Mister Bijou currently keeps erratic hours.)

So bright the Moon its brilliance washes out all its own features: no Man in the Moon, no craters nor seas. Instead, a mute white disc shines at the centre of a faint corona. (Sadly, the photo does not do the corona justice.)

Bathed in pure light, some inhabitants of a little island in the South China Sea gear down from the night as others gear up for a new day. Still others, fitfully awake and gloriously alive, try to keep at bay niggling dawn thoughts.

Those thoughts about existence and non-existence, thoughts like the ones in Philip Larkin's poem Aubade.

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

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The view from Tung Wan beach at seven pm did not look promising. Thin high cloud was slowly sweeping in from the southeast blanketing out the sky above.

But through the thin cloud a faint, rusty red orb came into sight, low in the east.

As the pale disc slowly rose further above the horizon, the thin cloud passed on. To reveal in the distance a succession of twinkling navigational lights.

Airliners, one following after the other, each making their slow descent along the same flight path to Chep Lap Kok airport.

And above and beyond them, that Moon.

In restless silence divested of its pale rust hue, become a sliver of crescent brightness.

While some us watched from Tung Wan beach.

Hong Kong: total eclipse of the Moon

Tomorrow evening, weather permitting, a total eclipse of the moon will be visible from the comfort of a little island in the South China Sea.

According to Hong Kong Observatory, the earth's shadow will start to cross the Moon at 3:52pm and the total eclipse will begin at 5:52pm (Hong Kong time).

Hereabouts, none of this will be visible, however, until moonrise at 6:43pm. Which is six minutes after the middle of the total eclipse.

Still, that leaves a good forty minutes before the total eclipse ends. After which there will be a further two hours as the Moon wordlessly moves out of the shadow and back into the light. Confused? Maybe this will help: diagram

Looking to the east will help, too. Weather, as they say, permitting.

Reading matters

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-east Asia, by Joe Studwell (excerpt, part 1; excerpt, part 2)

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Saiwan: Hungry Ghost festival

In the traditional Chinese calendar, today is the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month. Which means the Hungry Ghost Festival, and the burning of red candles and paper offerings.

Reading matters

"The Parallels!" Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges, by John Barth: context

You Don't Know Jack [Kerouac], by Matt Weiland: NYT

Mose Allison: I'm Not Downhearted But I'm Gettin' There

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Allison wonderland:



Have a great weekend!

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Out-patients Department

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Building site

Reading matters

Reminiscing (part 2): Alice Poon

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More rain, more umbrellas

Bob Dylan: I'm Not There

Here's the trailer for the upcoming Bob Dylan bio. Directed by Todd Haynes and starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin all as Bob Dylan:



Todd Haynes: senses of cinema

Haynes's first film (1987) used Ken and Barbie dolls to tell the story of the Carpenters, Richard and Karen. Soon after the film was premiered, Richard Carpenter made sure it got buried. However, for the time being, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is viewable. It's 43 minutes long: video google

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Harbour reflexion

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Pak Tai football pitch

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Restaurant

Gotan Project: Queremos Paz

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Tango electronico:



¡Hola!

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Late night cooked food stall

Elvis: the King is dead! Long live the King!

It was thirty years ago today, that a drug-addled and seriously overweight Elvis Presley was found dead in a bathroom at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Presley may have live (and died) in Memphis but he was born and raised in Tupelo, Mississippi. So no surprise that he performed at an outdoor concert at the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair & Dairy Show in Tupelo in June 1956. Down at the end of Lonely Street:



Of course, it all ended in tears.

Elvis's Grilled Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich:

Spread peanut butter on one slice of bread and mashed banana on the other. Press the slices gently together. Melt butter (or Elvis's preferred bacon fat) over low heat in a small frying pan. Place sandwich in pan and fry until golden brown on both sides. Eat it with a glass of buttermilk.

Pig out on a dozen or more such sandwiches and also chuck down a large handful of prescription uppers and downers. Repeat until dead.

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Tristes tropiques

Reading matters

A Blow To Hong Kong's Toy King, by Shu-Ching Jean Chen: forbes
The Forbidden City of Terry Gou, by Jason Dean: Wall Street Journal

Reading matters

Reminiscing: Alice Poon
The Big Hotel: Learning Cantonese

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Waterfront cooked-food stall

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Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Reading matters

Best and Edwards: Football, Fame and Oblivion, by Gordon Burns: Guardian

The Road to Clarity, by Joshua Yaffa: NYT

Konono No.1: Mama Liza

For the weekend, a guilty pleasure.

Bazombo trance, Kinshasa congotronics:



Have a great weekend.

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Ferry pier: commuters stream home

Hong Kong: severe tropical storm Pabuk (part 2)

Tropical depression Pabuk over and done with? Not any more. Things have changed. Tropical storm Pabuk is heading back this way:

At 2 p.m., the centre of tropical storm Pabuk was estimated to be about 40 kilometres west of Hong Kong Observatory (near 22.3 degrees north 113.8 degrees east) and is forecast to move northeast at about 8 kilometres per hour skirting Hong Kong on the west.
Pabuk is now very close to western part of Hong Kong. The Observatory will issue the no. 8 gale or storm signal shortly.
The rain bands of Pabuk are also bringing heavy rain with squalls to Hong Kong.
Winds at seas of southern Hong Kong were significantly higher than the general wind condition over the territory, reaching gale force. In the past hour, winds of about 94 km/h were recorded respectively. People in that area/those areas should exercise great care if they are out in the open.

Moreover,

The Hong Kong Observatory announces that the tropical cyclone warning signal number 8 is expected to be issued at or before 3:30 p.m. today (10 August 2007). Winds locally will strengthen further.
The government advises members of the public with long or difficult home journeys or having to return to outlying islands to begin their journeys now. The government is now making arrangements to release its employees accordingly.

Stay safe, whoever and wherever you are.

Update:
No.8
issued at
2:48pm

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Street cleaner

Downgraded from a severe tropical storm to a mere tropical depression, Pabuk is heading west and skirting the western coast of Guangdong province. At 11am this morning Hong Kong Observatory lowered the No.3.

Hereabouts, the winds have died down. But there is the occasional bout of torrential rain. It's like the major downpours in any film by Kurosawa or that short story by Somerset Maugham. . . awesome. Forecast for the weekend? Rain, of course.

The local street cleaners are paid a pittance, work in all weathers, do a wonderful job, and for the heavy rains use the tools of their trade to rig up their own Darth Vader costumes. Respect.

Hong Kong: severe tropical storm Pabuk

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Late this afternoon, Hong Kong Observatory raised the No.1. The Obs says it will "consider issuing a No.3 during the overnight period". Weather by numbers? What those numbers mean and what the Obs says we should do: Tropical Cyclone Warning Signals

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The endless patience of light