Hongkie Town Reducked

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Yesterday, at the HK airport, on that annoying train out to the far-away, gates, standing next to me an Asian woman. Towering over me. She's at least 5 foot 8 and wearing 5 inch platform shoes. I take a closer look. Is this a ladyboy? Adam's apple, nope. Excessively large hands or feet? Nope. Does she even glance in my direction? Nope. Against all odds, she's on the same flight as me. But not sitting anywhere near me. After landing, I lose track of her.

Last night at dinner, with a friend to a Japanese BBQ restaurant. Wagyu beef from Australia. Scallops from Hokkaido. Giant prawns from, um, Giant Prawnville? Forgot to ask. U-shaped counter, small buckets of charcoal in front of each person, everything grilled to perfection. No English menu anywhere but most of the staff spoke really good English (one told us he'd never even been to college, learned most of his English from listening to ICRT, local western style radio station with DJs with American accents and syndicated content like Rick Dees).

Aside from the delicious food, the view is delicious, as most of the female customers were at least cute and one was freaking gorgeous - flawless face and hair, thin, super short denim skirt, green button down blouse, sitting at the other end of the place with two other women talking in a mixture of Mandarin and English. "Let's send them some drinks!" I suggested to my friend (married). "Let's send them a plate of french fries!" "Do they even have french fries here?" "Let's send them something! Anything!" They finished before us and left and I grabbed our flask of sake and attacked it.

Oh, the place is called Da-Wan Yakiniku Dining Restaurant, 1F, No. 22, Lane 177, Section 1, Dunhua South Road. Highly recommend it. There are a number of similar places nearby that I'm told are also good. And on nearby Civic Blvd my friend points out a crab place that he says is similar to Under Bridge in Causeway Bay and also quite good.

Afterwards, it wasn't raining, not too hot though a bit humid, we walked the mile or two back to the hotel.

Some relatively optimistic business news from a source in L.A. last night. If I can believe it.

Off to Taichung tonight.

Redirected

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:36:00 +0000

In what I like to call my career, I've allowed myself to get off track twice. And each time, there was no going back.

#1

My university degree is in film production and as a poor (well, middle class, actually) kid from Da Bronx with absolutely no connections in the biz, I tried everything I could think of to get into the industry.

While still in college, I took a list of 500 production houses in NYC, arranged that by geographic location (and this was all done by hand, no PCs back then), knocked on every door, handed a resume to anyone who would look, and after knocking on 200 doors found myself with a summer internship as an assistant editor on weekly TV series CBS Sports Illustrated.

Years later, I was doing temp work for another production house. Coming in and putting together the house sample reel led to some production assistant work on shoots and somehow that led to my becoming the office receptionist. (I was newly married and grateful for any steady paycheck.) And a year later, they came to me and said that they were trying to decide whether to train me to be a producer or to take over from the boss's father-in-law, who was the business manager and wanted to retire. Of course they eventually decided on the latter.

The thought that at the age of 24, I was business manager for one of the top ten TV commercial director/cameramen in the country went to my head. Sure, I had no training or credentials in this area and of course it meant I never got anywhere near a film set. And of course they'd picked me not just because I'd shown some aptitude for the job but also because it was at least 50% cheaper to use me than to go out and hire a real business manager. Oddly enough, I was pretty good at the job. But they resented the fact that I'd go into the bank to negotiate loans wearing jeans and cowboy boots and come back with a lower interest rate than the father-in-law ever got.

And several years later, when I got tired of the director's binge drinking and his wife's binge drinking and pill popping and went out into the world to get another job, no one else wanted to hire me as a business manager because I didn't have the proper credentials for that and they didn't believe I'd actually been doing that job. And no one wanted to hire me to work on a film set because I hadn't been near a set in years.

So I ended up working in my cousin's TV repair shop by day and managing bands that were part of the post-punk scene in NYC by night and never really worked in the film production business again. From there I went on to driving a taxi and from there being a clerk in a video rental store and then opening my own record store.

#2

In 1998, I was a VP in the technology group of a major international investment bank in Hong Kong. (How I got from working in a record shop to VP in an investment bank is a different tale for another time. But yes, I am that good.) They decided that since I was an expat and had been with them in HK for three years, it was time to move me and they offered me the choice of India or New York. I didn't want either, was unable to find another job in HK, and moved to San Francisco and got a job with a major investment bank there.

But it was 1999 and the internet start-ups were going crazy. Soon I'd left the bank to work at one of those start-ups, a well funded one that lured me with a big salary and tens of thousands of stock options. But it was in a business space that had nothing to do with banking or finance.

Two years later, desperate to return to Hong Kong, I accepted my present job. Even though it also had nothing to do with the financial industry, it got me back to Hong Kong and the salary was and remains quite okay. And while the start-up had me working on bleeding edge web applications, my current job has me working with rusty old legacy crap. Annual bonuses are 90% less than in the investment banking industry and stock options? I'm under water on all my grants.

So now I'm looking around and, granted, the investment banks are kind of shaky at the moment but still hiring, but they're all telling me the same thing - I've been away from investment banking IT for ten years and they won't consider me.

#3

Is coming up. Will I take something that builds on the experience gained from seven years in my current job? Or will I be so desperate for a job that I end up taking whatever is offered, regardless of how it furthers or doesn't further the remainder of my career?

Stay tuned.

Died on the 4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:35:00 +0000

Science fiction writer and poet Thomas M. Disch committed suicide on July 4th at the age of 68. The obituaries I've read so far have not mentioned what led to this, if he was in ill health or depressed or simply bored, a la George Sanders. Back in the 70s, when I read very little aside from science fiction, his novels Camp Concentration and 334 were two of my favorites.

Ironically enough, two days before he died, he began a post on his blog about inflation by writing, "Short of succumbing to the madness of anorexia, I doubt I am likely to experience actual starvation before I die."

Several of my favorite writers committed suicide including two at the very top of my list - Ernest Hemingway and Hunter Thompson.

When I was younger, I used to believe that there was nothing that could ever cause me to commit suicide. That life was too interesting, that I'd always want to see what waited beyond the next bend. Now that my life is probably two-thirds (or three-quarters?) finished, the list of reasons why I might consider it grows longer.

On the other hand, things like this video (which has been extensively linked to throughout the blogosphere but I am also linking because everyone should see this) do make me feel a bit more optimistic:

And now, with no connection to the above at all, a few quotes from a writer who did not commit suicide, Oscar Wilde:

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. (Just think, he wrote that without ever having seen the SCMP letters page.)
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Do you really think ... that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not -- there is no weakness in that.
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.

... and so on ...

Tomorrow I'm heading to Taiwan. Hope my mood improves while there.

Kill Someone in Hong Kong, No One Cares?

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:48:00 +0000

This story in today's SCMP caught my eye:

Hong Kong Island traffic was thrown into chaos yesterday when a 39-year-old Malaysian motorcyclist died after being hit by a car on the Eastern Island Corridor yesterday.
The car's 31-year-old driver was arrested for drink-driving after the accident at about 10.30am near the North Point Ferry. The impact knocked Hew John Desmond off his motorcycle, parts of which were scattered across the road.

The rest of the article points out that the same driver had been involved in an accident in March and "fled the scene." No word on the severity of that accident.

However, the article goes on to mention this:

The driver was injured in the second accident and taken to hospital where he failed an alcohol test. He has been released on HK$10,000 bail and ordered to return to police at the end of the month.

His second accident in three months. He was drunk. He killed someone. That's murder in most countries. And he was released on minimal bail and told to come back in 4 weeks? This is justice?

Also in the SCMP, apparently they've decided to actually do some investigative journalism. And what did they choose to uncover? That love hotels in Hong Kong won't rent rooms to same sex couples. NINE reporters worked on this story. Yes, Bradley Crawford was one of them.

But the main headline for HK news in the SCMP is about a fight that broke out in the early morning hours at Lan Kwai Fong when 30 "blokes" decided to attack another group that turned out to be a group of kick boxing champions. A couple of witnesses are interviewed but very few actual details. One witness is quoted as saying, "I went outside for a fag." Perhaps he would have been better served joining the other reporters trying to check into love hotels?

============================================================

In other news, one of the worst human beings to ever walk our planet, U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, died on the 4th of July. Helms fought against federal funding for AIDS research and treatment, saying the disease resulted from “unnatural” and “disgusting” homosexual behavior. A self-described redneck who ran overtly racist campaigns, he opposed academic research, the arts, foreign aid, the United Nations, domestic and international public health efforts, and of course affirmative action and the Martin Luther King holiday.

What did President Idiot have to say about this?

Jesse Helms was a kind, decent, and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called 'the Miracle of America.' So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the 4th of July.

Yeah, that's right, Bush sees him as a "great patriot."

5:30 AM Sai Kung

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Up early this morning. Actually I was unable to sleep all night, for reasons I won't go into. Around 5:30, took a look outside, ran back inside and grabbed the camera. And here's what I got:

crap

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:06:00 +0000

Yeah, I know, saying "tgif" is about as bad as saying "someone's got a case of the Mondays." So freaking sue me. I'm glad it's the weekend. I need it. And next week in Taipei and Taichung, I need that too, especially chilling in Taichung for a night. Hotel One. Wein Lounge. National Museum. Pig Pen Bar. My kinda town.

Noted in Da SubStandard:

Someone who uploaded Edison Chen pictures - not the original guy but some guy who had them and then re-upped them to share with friends - has pleaded (pled?) guilty to distributing obscene material. A reminder that Hong Kong may have more freedom of speech than many of its neighbors but not all the way, not yet, a long way off.

Drivers Seek Probe Into Police Terror. "Professional drivers who took part in a slow-drive protest have lashed out at the police, describing the action officers took to break up the demonstration as a form of "white terror.'" Eh? White terror? WTF is white terror? I'm seriously not comfortable seeing that phrase in an English language newspaper here, even one as shitty as The SubStandard.

Look out the window and tell me if pigs are flying because "Mary Ma" has written a column that I almost agree with. She says it would be nice if Bruce Lee's former home could be turned into a museum. (Right now it's a love hotel. The owner put it up for sale but has temporarily taken it off the market pending a public outcry.) "It would be ideal if the property were to be donated for public use. But will that be too ideal?" Er, "Mary," is that the limit to your imagination? That the owner should donate it? Why not suggest that the government buy it and convert it into a museum? The government is all too eager to spend money to support the billionaires; would anyone get upset if the government spent some money to create a tourist attraction that people might actually want to visit?

Noted in the SCMP ....

If you get 15 points on your license, the government mails you a summons to appear in court at which point the judge suspends your license. How to get around this? Don't go! Then just say you never got it in the mail. Or don't update your address when you move with the Transport Dept, in which case they can never find you. And keep driving. Legally. Badly.

Last one for today. In the letters column. A Mr. or Ms. T. Narain expresses surprise at an earlier letter by a Mr. or Ms. G. Marques which stated that many domestic helpers do not receive their statutory days off. Mr. Narain disagrees with this. Mr. Narain's sole proof is that Statue Square is so filled with Filipinos on holidays. The question is, who is the bigger idiot? Dr. Narain for thinking that is sufficient proof and that this was important enough for her to write a letter? Or the SCMP, for thinking this letter was important enough to publish?

Free boobs

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:12:00 +0000

Everyone knows that social networking web sites are the current big thing. And aside from the various 800 pound gorillas (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) there are lots of niche players.

Looking at the list of social networking sites on Wikipedia, I see:

aSmallWorld - Euro jetsetters
Flixster - for movie fans
Library Thing - book lovers
Muxlim - social networking for Muslims
StoryMash - group story writing

One that's not on that list but really exists is My Free Implants. What is it? Women who want breast implants but can't afford them join the site and post their profiles and photos of themselves. Men join the site and can view the profiles and photos, chat online with the women and, if they choose, make "donations" towards implant jobs for the women of their choice.

I would guess that the people running the web site get money via advertisements and possibly a percentage of the donations, and since there's a section for implant doctor recommendations, they may receive a kickback from that as well.

All of the good ideas are already taken.

Sundown

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:04:00 +0000

Hmmm, in the mood to go out tonight, but need to be up early tomorrow, so maybe not the best idea.

Over at Crunchgear, they've said that HK is the cheapest place in the world to get the new iPhone. Seems like someone else agrees with my reading of the 3 website details.

Over at Amazonia, they now have two bands. The band that's been there for a year, Icebox, alternates sets with a band called Advent Call.

The set I caught from Icebox last night had them in a heavy metal goofy mood. They introduced lead singer "Brian Johnson," their drummer out in front in shorts and a cap and roaring through an AC/DC number. Then they introduced lead singer "Asshole Rose," again the drummer, this time with an American flag bandana and a skirt and a respectable version of "Sweet Child of Mine."

The other band, Advent Call is not as good. At least they're playing mostly rock and even try their hands at some punk rock. The keyboard player, who seems to be the band's leader, also does some blues harp. Neither Little Walter nor Magic Dick are gonna lose any sleep over this, but at least it's something different.

The real draw of Advent Call is probably their female singer. Very pretty, light skin, long hair, humonguous breasts. Last night she was wearing an extremely short skirt and a top that was only slightly more than a bikini.

(Get ready for the most sexist comment ever.)

I was watching her sing, turned to my friend and said, "That's the reason God invented penises."

Anyway, if you wanna hear them and see what they look like, it turns out they're on YouTube. This is an actual music video they did for what might be an original song, "Wonderful Things." Oh, wait, here's the goldmine, a YouTube video called "porfolio" (sic) of the female singer made up of various still photos of her in various sexy outfits.

And here's a video of them playing at Amazonia ... but Amazonia in Manila, not in Hong Kong.

Um, er, can you tell I'm really bored right now?

Hmmm .... for some reason if you click on the Youtube video embedded in the blog post, it says the video is no longer available. But if you click on the link in the text, it works. So I've removed the embedded video.

Hong Kong iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:37:00 +0000

Well, Hutchison's Three has announced their pricing for the iPhone. Web site 852signal has their analysis on the pricing, but I think they read the chart wrong.

Here's how I read it:

The maximum plan includes unlimited data and 2200 minutes of airtime (voice calls, I presume). With a two year contract, this plan costs $498 a month, which is well in line with US pricing. And with a two year contract, one year prepaid in advance, the 8 gig iPhone is free, the 16 gig is $138. Can that be correct?

Maybe I'm the one who is reading it wrong.

At any rate, I think I have a year left to go on my current contract with SmarTone. But maybe I'll give Mr. Li some of my hard earned cash.

argh

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Just fed up with this weather. Enough is enough. I'm going to write a letter to the editors of the SCMP. I'm sure that will have a large impact.

This afternoon, wanted to go out for lunch, wanted to bring the dogs with me. Get to SK town, park the car, get out to the street and it starts coming down. It went from zero to buckets in a matter of seconds. Stood under an awning, waited 15 minutes and finally the rain stopped, made it to Cru, sat and had lunch.

Tonight. 6 PM is doggie dinner time. It's raining, feed them, rain has stopped, get them outside again. Walking up to the road, water is pouring full speed through the drainage pipes, walk over a grate and notice it is filled with snakes, big ones, getting washed down the hill. Get about a kilometer down the road and it starts pouring down again. Run back to the house. All three of us - Spikey, Bogey, me - are soaked. Walk in the door, without thinking I grab one of the towels kept by the door for drying the dogs and use it to dry my own head. Now my head is dry - and covered in dog fur. Finish drying off the dogs and then jump into the shower.

Now it's time to think about my dinner. Stay in SK or head over to HK? Either way, guess I won't be driving with the top down tonight.

Note to self: don't panic, pick the right towel!

Was trying to look up some Ry Cooder stuff on the Rolling Stone DVD-ROM (thanks e@l) and my computer wouldn't read the disc. I thought, oh great, either another DVD-ROM drive down the drain or the disc has gone bad and I gotta see about getting a replacement. Then I noticed I had iTunes running. iTunes was so busy trying to figure out what disc was in the drive that it was just a few hertz shy of locking up the computer. Removed the disc, shut down iTunes, put the disc back in, worked just perfeckly.

Note to self: iTunes doesn't play nice in the sandbox with others.

Last but not least, among all the options I'm considering, thinking that if it were to come to it, I'd downsize my life (or at least my lifestyle) in order to remain in HK. And then saw today's Opus. (Click on it to see it full size.)

Note to self: Hide the sledge hammer.

odd

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:32:00 +0000

Friday night I stood outside on my patio and looked at the sky. The storms had blown away all of the haze and pollution. There was a crescent moon hanging low and more stars than I've ever seen in all my years in HK. I was able to forget the things that have been weighing me down for the past couple of days and just admire a beautiful night.

Today the storms were back and this afternoon the thunder was almost deafening. I slept through the afternoon, had no appetite for dinner, watched an absolutely dreadful movie all the way through to the end, and during those times when I allowed myself to hear my thoughts, contemplated a series of unattractive options.

There may be some changes in my life soon. Changes which could result in my leaving Hong Kong and possibly even Asia. I really can't go into any details about any of this, at least not at this point. Hopefully I have enough time to do something about it, but that's not guaranteed.

The best laid plans of mice and Spike can often go awry.

Thursday reading

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Who wrote this?

I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

Answer: Bill Gates. Read his entire email here. If he has these problems with Windows and Microsoft web sites, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Who wrote this?

You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, “Carlin does it.” I’ve heard it my whole career: “Carlin does it,” “Carlin already did it,” “Carlin did it eight years ago.”

Answer: Jerry Seinfeld. Read his tribute to George Carlin in the NY Times here.

Lucky 8

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:32:00 +0000

Well, it would be lucky, except I had two doctor appointments scheduled for this morning. I had to make each of them a week in advance and hoping that when I can reschedule I don't need to wait another week.

Here are the current warnings over at Weather Underground - a truly excellent site and I always keep a tab in Firefox for the site, which auto-refreshes every ten minutes.

As you can see, warnings for this morning - there's the Typhoon Signal 8, amber rainstorm, the third one is not getting attacked by flies, it's actually thunderstorm warning, the fourth one is landslide warning and the last one is, um, er getting licked by a cow warning.

How weird is this?

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:20:00 +0000

This is the garden area for the house next door to me. The ground floor, first floor and garden are occupied by one couple. The second floor and roof are occupied by a second couple.

On the right side of the photo, note the remnants of that darker, dead tree. They cut down all the branches and then just tossed everything right over the fence onto that public land in front of their house.

Here's a closer view:

It's just been sitting there, slowly settling down, for months now.

The couple on the ground and first floor have three dogs. Two golden retrievers and a smaller dog, perhaps a shih tzu. Here's a picture of the two golden retrievers:

The lighter one is insane. Barks constantly. Runs up the stairs barking like mad any time any person or any dog goes by. The darker colored one seems more normal but always follows the lighter one and starts barking too. And this sets off my golden, who normally never barks. Their golden starts barking and all of a sudden mine goes all feral, hunched down, barking and snarling. It's all I can do to control him when I have to take him past their gate for one of his walks (my dogs get walked four times a day).

These two dogs never go in the house and never get walked. They live their entire lives in that backyard. And that includes just going to the, um, toilet wherever they please back there. The shih tzu mostly stays in the house but comes out occasionally.

I was talking to the woman who lives on the second floor and she told me that at one point, this couple had 16 dogs and that all of them were from dog rescue organizations and that this probably explains the one dog's crazy behavior, that it was abused and rescued. "So that means they have good hearts then," I said.

This morning I told that tale to my maid. And when I got to the part about saying how they had good hearts, she then told me that last week the shih tzu died and they just threw its body over the fence.

Speechless.

George Carlin RIP

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:44:00 +0000

George Carlin died today, 71 years old, heart failure. One of the more original and influential stand-up comedians, best selling author and an okay actor. 7 Words You Can Never Say on Television remains a classic. This year he received the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. "Take a fucking chance! Put a little fun in your life! ... most Americans are soft and frightened and unimaginative and they don't realize there's such a thing as dangerous fun, and they certainly don't recognize a good show when they see one."

Sunday music

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:25:00 +0000

I love all of Ry Cooder's work, Buena Vista Social Club, his albums of duets with African and Indian musicians, his concept albums, his soundtracks, but I especially love his solo work from the 70s, albums like Into the Purple Valley or Paradise & Lunch, albums in which he delved into the roots of American music. It's been years since he's done what I would consider a relatively straightforward album of that nature, but now we have a new one. Okay, it has a concept, but a loose one, and the music is relatively straightforward for Ry. It's called "I, Flathead" and subtitled "The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns." Wikipedia says it's the third in his California trilogy and unfortunately, I got a "regular" copy, not knowing there was a deluxe edition that includes an accompanying 100+ page novella written by Cooder. Which I want, so if someone wants to buy this "regular" edition from me, let me know.

I never met Mr. Cooder, and yet it seems that on this album he wrote a song for me. It's called "Filipino Dance Hall Girl."

When the evening shadows fall I'm dreaming
Of a certain smile a secret rendezvous
When the day is past and gone I'll come creeping
Down the dark end of the street to you
In a dimly lit cafe as we go dancing
I try to smile and hide a love that's true
Then they play a lovely tune as we're romancing
And I can't pretend no matter what I do

Dark and different so they tell me
It's forbidden so they say
But I just tell them we're so happy
She's my Filipino dance hall girl

Good friends have all withdrawn their salutations
Good neighbors pause when I come down the street
Preacher has a look of scorn on Sunday morning
And there's a frown on every face I see

Que sera sera the Bible tells me
Novus Ordo Seclorum so they say
I just tell them adios muchachos
She's my Filipino dance hall girl

Then she whispers while we're dancing
In a language soft and low
I just tell her darling I love you
She's my Filipino dance hall girl

Also newly released is a 2 disc edition of Dennis Wilson's one completed solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue, originally released in 1977. Bonus tracks include the sessions for the album Bambu, which was in progress when Wilson died. Wilson of course was one of the Beach Boys, the "odd" one, the one who hung out with Charles Manson, the only Beach Boy who actually surfed. Many critics think of this album as a neglected masterpiece of sorts. I've only listened to it once so far and I'm not quite ready to rate it that highly, but it's clear that Dennis possessed ambitions every bit as lofty as that of brother Brian. Some of it is pretty quirky stuff. But it's definitely worth hearing.

Science faction

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:08:00 +0000

In case you haven't read it elsewhere, they have now found water on Mars. Ice, but ice made from actual H2O, not from something weird and alieny. And maybe not the first time either. Click here to see some photos of it.

This then is one step closer to confirming my theory that human life actually originated on Mars and then migrated to Earth once the eco-system there went belly up. As far as why we don't remember it or have anything in our history books about it or wreckage of Martian spaceships anywhere, um, I'm still working on that bit. Something to do with Zsa Zsa Gabor. Yeah, okay, that movie was set on Venus. So maybe it was Bill O'Reilly. Buddha knows he's not of this earth.

In related news, just what the fuck is this? Does it bite or sting? Is it poisonous? Did it come from Mars to steal our women?

I got in my car this morning, started driving, then noticed this thing walking around on the hood. At first I thought it was a stick until it started moving. I drove for about 5 miles, got out of the car, it was still there. Ran some errands, came back to the car 15 minutes later, it was still there. It walked over to the door handle and then stopped and stared at me, as if daring me to do something about it. There was a rag on the ground near the car; I picked it up and flicked this monster off.

The result of which is that I've had the worst freaking luck all day. And why I thought it was a good idea to stay home tonight.

frigging strange

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:05:00 +0000

Entertainment Weekly has hit its 1,000th issue and it's loaded with lists, including their choice of 100 best albums of the past 25 years. Stereogum has the list here. Here are the top ten:

10 Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
09 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (2007)
08 Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)
07 Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)
06 Green Day - American Idiot (2004)
05 Madonna - Madonna (1983)
04 Kanye West - The College Dropout (2004)
03 U2 - Achtung Baby (1991)
02 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
01 Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain (1984)

Yes, I have all ten of the above. As a matter of fact, I have 91 of the 100. But the entire list seems just completely weird to me. Purple Rain as #1? Achtung Baby over Joshua Tree? In Rainbows over OK Computer?

Look at the whole list. The most bizarre selection I've ever seen.

home

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:24:00 +0000

I was so tired last night and today. My muscles were aching like crazy. I eventually realized it was due to my tour yesterday. What I forgot to write about was the details about the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel. For those who have never done the tour, the deal is they give you a hard hat, you walk down a 350 meter ramp (at a steep angle) and then you're in the tunnel. You walk 400 meters down the tunnel to a wall that the South Koreans built - there are two more behind it, and a lot of barbed wire. The tunnel itself is about 6 feet high but not even, so I kept banging my head on the ceiling (thanks for the hard hat!) and that meant I had to walk the 400 meters stooped over.

So you walk all this distance and it's just a plain, rough tunnel that ends at a wall with barbed wire. I've seen tunnels before. I've seen barbed wire before. It was no big whoop - the existence of the tunnel, of course, is a big whoop. They claim that the North Koreans could have moved 30,000 troops per hour through this tunnel into the South. And at the time it was discovered, the southern end of the tunnel was just 52 km from Seoul. Can't imagine what it would have been like to be living there when this was discovered. But touring the tunnel itself - not so much. You're not allowed to take photos down there and, well, there's really not too much to take photos of.

And then, you walk all the way back. And that includes walking up that 350 meter steep ramp. Aside from being a heavy smoker, I'm a real slacker when it comes to exercise. (I know, I know, comments not necessary.) That walk back up, even with stops every 50 meters to catch my breath, left me exhausted and soaked with sweat. I asked the guide about the train thing that I saw down at the bottom. She told me it was just for senior citizens and handicapped. I said, but I'm senior! And she laughed and said that I made it and I was fine. And I suppose that's true.

(Aside: our tour guide was female and very cute. And she made a point during the bus ride back to the city of asking me if I was single and of course I assured her that I was. I was contemplating asking her out for dinner. Note: when you want to impress your female tour guide and the tour includes a stop by some shop selling garbage that you have no interest in but the guide probably makes some commission on sales, it's probably not a good idea to just stand outside the shop and smoke and not even go inside to take a look around. Her attitude towards me was a lot less friendly after that.)

But today my legs are killing me! Walking through the Incheon airport, sitting in economy for 3 and a half hours, everything hurts now. Tomorrow is definitely a day for massage. Or maybe even tonight.

I'm definitely feeling old and forgetful. Last night I did my next column for BC and even though it ran about 300 words longer than it should have, I realized today that I left out about a dozen things I wanted to include. Oh well, too late.

Didn't take many photos this trip aside from the DMZ tour but did just want to share these with you:

This is the COEX complex, as seen from my hotel room. It includes a convention center, four hotels, a Hyundai department store, the city air terminal and a huge underground shopping mall that includes a multiplex cinema, an aquarium, dozens of places to eat and even a book store with an almost decent selection of English language books.

The mall includes this open square (plastered with ads for Canon DSLRs) that features western food heaven (or hell depending on your perspective) including a Bennigans, a Baskin Robbins cafe, a Paris Baguette cafe, Dunkin Donuts, and a lot more. And among other things, it's a great place to grab a seat and watch the beautiful Korean women walking by.

One other thing to note. This corner is by the Samseung Metro station in the Gangnam district. I am told it is the most expensive real estate in Seoul, which makes it some of the most expensive in the world. The main street that you see in the photo is called Teheran-no. And look at all the trees and green stuff. That's not just on this corner, this greenery runs along all these streets all the way. That's how to plan a city.

And now ... I get to stay home for two weeks before my next trip (Taipei). Though a small chance that I might need to do a last minute run to the Sydney office.

DMZ

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:40:00 +0000

I know most of you won't believe this, but the main reason I decided to get blotto last night was so that I could fall asleep early. I had to be up at 6 AM for the DMZ tour. It worked. I was asleep by 10:30 and the first one downstairs to meet the guide. I've been coming to Seoul since 1995, have been here at least 20 or 30 times, but never took the tour. Till now.

Visually, it's not that interesting, to be honest. As a symbol, it's both sad and funny. Sad as a reminder of the war and a divided nation, of how the South is now trying to position this as the symbol of their hopes for future reunification. Funny because they've sort of Disney-fied it in spots, as the pictures show.

But I'm glad I went.

You're not allowed to take pictures at most points and it was too foggy a day to be able to see too far off into the distance, but here's some shots anyway:

All school kids get taken on this tour. Now they bring them here when they're in kindergarten. Here are some amazingly cute kids (and their teacher wasn't too bad either)

Ring the Bell of Peace. Only $10.

and here's the bell ...

This wall consists of stones gathered from battlefields all over the world. (Yes, that's my reflection. Go nuts.)

Standing at the photo line, camera held high, zoomed in, but too foggy to make out much.

It struck me as weird that they had a mini-theme park at the entrance. Come for the history, stay for the carousel?

Couple of cartoon-ized statues of Korean military guarding the entrance to the DMZ theater.

Yes, I can confirm, my crackberry worked just fine here.

The train station. George Bush attended the opening ceremony. "Not the last station from the South. But the first station toward the North." The train runs once a day in the morning, bringing workers from the south to a joint factory town in the north. Then there are three trains in the evening to bring them home.

Very curious mural in the train station

I'm dunk

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:01:00 +0000

tonight hadda have korea food. wandered around behind coex, looking for foreigner friendly places. found some spot, they didn't have ennglish menu but did have 1 guy spoke english, they said c'mon in. barbecue, kimchi, soju. SOJU!

is it my fault they sat me next two to young university female cute students who were so axnious to help me drink my soju and help tme through anothe rbottle? and who wanted to hear my tales about the internationla world of businss? and were aonly too happy to xchange email addresss and mobile phone numbers?

duedes i've had the worst licuk with women in seoul you could possilbly imagine but i ain't neer met no woman here sitting inside o' tgi friday.

okay, drunk, gotta be up early, as for what happens tomorrow night, that's not a tale for this blog. but the lesson is, get outside a your comfort zone. don't always go for what you know. go for the new stuff cause that;'s when the good tsuff happens to ya.

yeah

that soju's got a kick to it dno't it?

hic

Raining again

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Well, I was planning to go out tonight. But had to come home straight from work to get my car from the repair shop. By the time I was feeling up for going out, you guessed it, lightning and thunder yet again. Not so desperate to go out that I feel like driving in this rain.

Tomorrow I'm off to Seoul for a few days and hoping for better weather but apparently not going to be all that different from here. Which is truly a shame because I've allotted extra time to take the DMZ tour and if the weather is going to suck, then I might have to put that on hold yet again. (I've been going regularly to Seoul since 1995, have been there at least 20 or 30 times and have yet to do this tour.)

Things to mention:

New BC column is here. Rather pleased with this one (for a change).

Tomorrow should be the official release of Firefox 3.0. Lots of people have been using their "release candidate" releases (as have I) with excellent results. Here's the Field Guide to Firefox 3, written by one of the team, detailing all the new stuff.

An odd Facebook phenomena or am I just behind the curve? I've got two Facebook profiles, one as Spike HK and one under my real name. I see this happening on both accounts. Someone links to me as a friend. That person has friends who see the link, look at my profile and then link to me as well. I have links to people I have never met, in cities that I rarely ever visit. And then these people start inviting me to events in Paris, New York, Bangkok, everywhere but where I am.

Of course, everyone has their own reasons for adding strangers as friends, and actually I'm every bit as guilty. Three of the places that I go to in Bangkok (Q Bar, Bed Supperclub, Twisted Republic) have Facebook profiles. So I linked to them. And then browsed their other "friends." And then I sent friend requests to many of the women that I found there. And most accepted my request. Now, one would think that I would then follow up on that and try to meet some of these women when I went to Bangkok last week. But I didn't. Come to think of it, why didn't I? Damn!

Well, all packed, raining out, nothing to do now but lie in bed and watch a movie.

Sunday night

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Didn't blog much because I haven't done much the past few days. There was something on Friday night that apparently the other participants prefer I not blog about (no, it ain't what you think), otherwise just taking it slow and easy all weekend.

Movies: Only new-ish thing I watched was Be Kind, Rewind. I had huge expectations for this, seeing as how it's from Michel Gondry and I loved Eternal Sunshine so damned much. But expectations diminished because of Jack Black; like many others I'm tiring of his schtick. The movie was low key and had this oddball, almost amateurish sensibility to it and in the end quite charming indeed, almost Capra-esque. If you haven't seen it but know the basic plot (all the videotapes in a rental store get erased, the staff decides to do their own low budget remakes of everything), you might expect huge belly laughs but it's lower key than that. Worth watching if you like vaguely off-beat stuff.

Also gotta mention So I Married An Axe Murderer. The DVD says "special edition" but there are no bonuses on it at all! So what's so frigging special? One of the few times Mike Myers has put himself out there as an actor for hire and it's a charming but minor "rom-com" with nice cameos from Charles Grodin, Debbie Mazar, Steven Wright, Michael Richards, Greg Germann.

Music: Have not listened to Walter ("the other guy in Steely Dan") Becker's new solo album enough to comment on it yet but so far it sounds promising. Brit mags are raving over Fleet Foxes and I hear great harmonies but I don't hear songs. I'm impressed that Tom Petty's Mudcrutch album kicks off with the old Quicksilver song, Shady Grove. Sigur Ros have a new one coming out and I love those guys and what I've heard so far seems up to their usual standards.

And if you like some slide guitar, then by all means check out Sonny Landreth's new one, From the Reach. He's flown under the radar forever and shouldn't need to go the celeb-guest-gimmick route to get fans but if it gets more people listening to him, okay. The celebs on this include Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, Dr. John, Vince Gill, Jimmy Buffett.

Reading: The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain. An Oxford/Harvard professor is disturbed about some of the trends he's seeing lately. Needs to be read by anyone who works in or uses the Internet.

And, er, that's about all for now.

My new hero

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 09:23:00 +0000

For those who say there are no more heroes, may I introduce to you Tucker Max:

My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole.

I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.
But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way. I share my adventures with the world

Here's an excerpt from his Sushi Pants story:

1:18: The vomiting is over. I am now trying to stop the bleeding. A bright light hits my eyes. I am not happy. I tell the owner to "get that fucking light out of my face." The owner of the light identifies himself as an officer of the law. I apologize to the officer, and ask him what the problem is. A long pause ensues. The light is still in my eyes. "Son, where are your pants?" Remembering past encounters with the law, and realizing there is no one around to bail me out of the county lock-up, I summon every bit of adrenaline in my body to sober myself up. I apologize again, and explain to the officer that my pants are in the restaurant that is less than 50 feet away, and that I came outside to share my sushi with the bush. He doesn't laugh. Another long pause. "You're not driving tonight are you?", "Oh, NO, NO, NO...no sir, I don't even have a valid driver's license."

Start of The Most Disturbing Conversation Ever:

Him "I bet you've already slept with a man."
Tucker "Alright, come on man--I invented Tucker Max Drunk, but not even Tucker Max Drunk makes you switch teams."
Him "How many women have you been with?"
Tucker "I don't know, about [number]."
Him "Oh yeah, I bet you've fucked a man."
Tucker [Getting obviously frustrated] "How??"
Him "I have three words for you: Post Op Transsexual."

It took three seconds for the full meaning and significance of that statement to filter through my drunken brain. Then came the first stage of loss: Denial.

Tucker "What? Get the fuck out of here. I've never fucked one of those."
Him "You wouldn't know."
Tucker "Man, give me some credit."
Him "Have you ever slept with a woman who told you she couldn't naturally lubricate, that she had to use KY?"

Oh no.

Sadly, I've found him two months after he announced he's taking a break from posting new stories. Well, quite a backlog to work through.

Can't wait to read the whole thing

noreply@blogger.com (Spike) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Gore Vidal is one of the last of the old school, larger than life writers to still trod our planet. From Editor & Publisher, via Huffington Post:

In an interview for this Sunday's edition of The New York Times Magazine, famed novelist/essayist Gore Vidal appears to question Sen. John McCain's account of being imprisoned by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam war.

Asked what he thinks of McCain, Vidal calls him a "disaster," then tells Deborah Solomon, "Who started this rumor that he was a war hero? Where does that come from, aside from himself? About his suffering in the prison war camp?"

Solomon replies: "Everyone knows he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam." To which Vidal responds: "That’s what he tells us."

Why would you doubt him? Solomon wonders. "He’s a graduate of Annapolis," Vidal explains. "I know a lot of the Annapolis breed. Remember, I’m West Point, where I was born. My father went there."

Vidal's only reference to McCain's opponent is a fleeting reference to "the United States of America, as Mr. Obama likes to call it."

Asked how he felt when he heard about the passing earlier this year of his conservative nemesis, William F. Buckley, Vidal says, "I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred."

Vidal refuses to explain again how he is related to Al Gore, claiming that even he has forgotten.

On other subjects, Vidal says he has no interest in the gay marriage debate, suggests there was "no sex" in his 50-year relationship with one man, and calls Italo Calvino the greatest writer in his lifetime while dissing Norman Mailer and Philip Roth.