Luo Hu Commercial City — Shenzhen, China
Next time you’re in Hong Kong, catch the train up to Lo Wu station, go through HK immigration and walk across the border into mainland China. Once you go through Chinese immigration and get though the thicket of taxi touts, … Continue reading
Postage Stamps
The current Hong Kong local postage stamp is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. For just $1.40 (20 US cents) you can have a tiny work of art, suitable for framing. The great thing is that if you send … Continue reading
China
China is so big and varied that a lifetime is probably not long enough to experience it all, much less understand it. I didn’t have a lifetime to spare, but 17 days was long enough to see, do and eat … Continue reading
Hong Kong Rugby Sevens 2004
We spent an entire weekend in Hong Kong Stadium watching rugby, as the world’s best teams (and several of the world’s mediocre teams) competed for the coveted HK Sevens Cup. England were the hot favourites, having won the Sevens for … Continue reading
Chet Lam + The Pancakes + Ketchup — live in Hong Kong
This was meant to be nothing more than a concert featuring three local Hong Kong singers. But it turned out to be lots of fun, if often incomprehensible, and had more strange, unexpected moments than you could shake a stick … Continue reading
Ella Minnow Pea — Mark Dunn
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. This fun novel is also a puzzle and a fairly impressive display of linguistic virtuosity. The book is a progressive lipogram – it starts off normally, but its alphabet shrinks as … Continue reading
Lost in Translation
I really liked this film. Affecting performances, likeable (but not too likeable) characters, and lots of funny, strange moments. A pretty accurate evocation of how Tokyo can appear to the newcomer. Ah, those were the days. Link to website Continue reading
Jan Garbarek Group — live in Hong Kong
I got this jazz saxophonist’s album Rites years ago, so I was glad to finally see him perform with his group. Some say his playing is evocative of vast snow-covered plains, but I think they just say that because he … Continue reading
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section — Art Pepper
Legend has it that Art Pepper, in the midst of one of his habitual drink and drugs binges, picked up his saxophone for the first time in months and recorded this classic album with Miles Davis’s rhythm section. Maybe not … Continue reading
REMO Global Community General Store
In the ’90s Remo was the coolest shop in Sydney. They disappeared for a while, but now they’re back and on the Web. The site is fun, because the people and the products are fun. Everyone should own at least … Continue reading