Haitch Kay

Do you mean....wait.....what?

2012-07-31T19:22:00.000+08:00

On my way to the local school to buy my heroin...

2012-07-27T08:17:00.000+08:00

...And they've run out!

Hong Kong T_____ Association

2012-07-25T19:57:00.001+08:00

Answers on a postcard to the usual address please.

King Parrot meet King Ludwig

2012-07-21T10:06:00.001+08:00

Went here last night. Great place, nice staff, heavy German food and
fantastic beer. And it's in Yuen Long. We were there early and by 830 the
place was heaving. Upsides: beer, food and price. Downsides: the band was
appalling. On the scale of 1 to would I go back I give it a B because its
fairly close and did I mention the beer?

American TV delivering the heroes the country deserves

2012-07-20T07:30:00.000+08:00

Recently I have through travel and DVD's been catching up on new American TV and I have noticed a strong shift in the themes presented. Shows like Justified, Longmire and Newsroom have stormed into America's (and so the world's) living rooms and look set to start a trend. What do these have in common and what's the change? Let me explain.

If you remove the dross of reality TV and talent shows the most watched TV drama of the last 10 years was, in no particular order, House MD, Heroes, The Mentalist, CSI (of various flavours) ER and Grey's Anatomy. Now with a minute exception, the shows were about either genetically freaked individuals (Heroes, the Mentalist (I know...)) or psychologically broken but intellectually impressive men (CSI leaders, House) solving normal problems in unusual ways. The point was how normal the world around them is making them seem even more freakish and yet successful.

Now for the difference - these new shows show normal people - Marshal Givens in Justified could easily be imagined to say "Well shucks there ma'am I'd just laaaak to raise babies and horses but then criminal done be naughty and Aaa gone have ta shoot em" - and in a normality we all recognise which is, when juxtaposed with the demonstrated saneness of these heroes - bent and broken - the meth lifestyle of the Dixie South, the toxic culture of modern politics, entertainment and news in Newsroom and the background Native American apartheid in Longmire. All of these shows demonstrate how twisted the 'norm' has become by simply placing decent (yet resolute) heroes in their midst.

And long may it continue. We can't all have superpowers or be Asperger like in our focus, but we can look around and and decide enough is enough.

And if you were expecting a review of these, as this blog has been known to do, they're all well worth a watch and Newsroom, IMHO, is set to be a classic hopefully on par with The Wire, or at least Sorkin's last great effort, The West Wing.

And say what you like about C.Y....

2012-07-19T12:51:00.001+08:00

But you have to admit the weather's been great under his leadership.

This was parked in the middle of 2 cars with the plates 'John' and 'Paul'

2012-07-19T12:44:00.001+08:00

Blurry bat-bike

2012-07-19T12:41:00.001+08:00

I got so excited seeing the bat bike I couldn't take a decent shot, sorry.

French fries made from... what?

2012-07-16T08:22:00.001+08:00

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

More like a number 2

2012-07-09T18:35:00.001+08:00

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

Tossr

2012-07-04T08:47:00.001+08:00

With thanks to recent hong kong emigre to Australia, Mr. Kan Gao Ru.
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Tezza's a hard ass

2012-07-03T09:01:00.000+08:00

From Slothy McBarby, our occasional antipodean contributor.
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No posts because I'm as busy as a bastard

2012-06-28T23:18:00.003+08:00

Not that I think bastards should be busier than anyone else, or are. But I am in a 'salesy' type business and at the end of a quarter I am waiting for ~~telegrams~~ ~~telex~~ ~~fax~~ email to tell me we have won the deal or, more usually, have not.

So that's why I haven't posted this week. Have a lovely wind blasted T8 of a weekend and enjoy your itunes..

Movie reviews for (and from) a 3 year old

2012-06-25T11:09:00.001+08:00

On rainy days when the playground is out of bounds, me and the winkles like to curl up and watch a movie. We don't have cable or watch TV really but we do let them watch DVD's like The Wiggles or some BBC kids stuff. What's interesting is their reactions to movies; they either get fully engaged or ignore and the first 10 seconds is all it takes. Below are a few with 2 scores; the first is how I imagine little M would rate it and the second one is my score.

About the scale: The scale goes to 11 ("that extra push over a cliff") and so Citizen Kane would be a 10 for me. A wonderful life a 9.5. Godfather's 1 + 2 a 9 (G3 would get a 5 from me). Colonel Blimp an 8. Star wars would get a 6.5. Avatar would get a 5 (and then for the FX). So I am a pretty usual cinema lover and largely inline with the ratings of IMDB et al. Anything below a 5.5 is a 'I would advise you to only watch this film if you absolutely have to'. Above that is a recommendation, pretty much. The "Repeat-ability Index" is my estimation of the number of times you will have to see this before really thinking far too deeply about the plot of the film - like wondering if Lightning McQueen and Sally use the exhaust pipes to...you know, or whether the toys in Toy Story age and die (I mean if they're plastic then would they age?). It's not the irritation of a repeated movie - that will co me after 2 or 3 times in a week - more the brain fart phase. Also note little M is a boy and so Princesses and romance, while appreciated, are trumped by fart jokes and cars every single time.

On to the scoring.

Movie	3M	M	Repeatability Index

The Incredibles	9.5	9.5	4000
Old Yeller	7.5	9	30
101 Dalmations (original)	5	7	5
Finding Nemo	9.5	8	100
Ratatouille	8.5	7	50
Cars	10.5	7	3999
Cars 2	7	5.500001	20
How to train your Dragon	8	7.5	40
Toy Story	3	8	10
Toy Story 2	3	5.5	2
Toy Story 3	3	6	2
Monsters Inc	7	6	10
Wall-E	2	9.9	NA
Mary Poppins	8	5	20
The Jungle Book	9	9	100
Babe	3	7	NA
Shrek	4	6	20



And a few we are cueing up
Up
Lion King
A bug's life
The Goonies
Brave - Our first trip to the cinema!
Bambi

Any others you recommend? Any scores you agree/disagree with?

Dymocks dog bowl to do list

2012-06-23T15:39:00.001+08:00

1. Eat food
2. Lick bum

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

When you're overtaken, its nice to be thanked

2012-06-22T15:59:00.001+08:00

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

Humour, wit and possibly a geeky rich boy charm. Struggling to say anything bad about this one.

2012-06-21T18:14:00.001+08:00

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Motown: the rhythm of the car factories making Dodge, GM and Mercedes. Wait, what?

2012-06-21T16:12:00.001+08:00

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

I'd do anything for you

2012-06-19T07:55:00.001+08:00

"Sent via CSL BlackBerry."

I am a god, get in and find out..Grrr

2012-06-15T17:32:00.001+08:00

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Her name was G, L, O, R IIIIAAAA....GLORIAOOOUUUUSS

2012-06-13T16:18:00.001+08:00

10 points if you can name the song I just butchered.

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How'd you like them?

2012-06-12T15:58:00.001+08:00

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Carlos Fandango wheels

2012-06-11T14:01:00.001+08:00

We may have. Had this one before. But it's great so no apology.
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Cos nothing says 'environmentally friendly' like a 7 series beamer

2012-06-08T17:30:00.001+08:00

Thanks to phil, original spotter!
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Anyone know what this is?

2012-06-06T10:54:00.001+08:00

It's big. And it flies like the wind.

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