Yangsho, Guilin, Chickens, Geese, ducks, hot weather, the beautiful Li River.. and more, tomorrow…

The predictions about typhoons was wildly exaggerated… Unexpectedly, the weather has been really great. Tropical and humid, but no storms or rain.

Beijing 2008: Olympic Qualifiers.

August 13, 2008 – Hong Kong – Sha Tin

I’m lucky to attend this Olympic event in Hong Kong. Beijing wasn’t a safe place for the horses, as they couldn’t guarantee their quarantine, so Hong Kong proudly got to co-host the Olympics by holding this event.

This Olympic torch burns so brightly, that you could feel its heat, even on this hot tropical night!



More cool pictures to come!!!

To any place with stairs, any good grinds the world was theirs, uh
And they four wheels would take them there…
Till the cops came and said “There’s no skating here.”
[Chorus]
So they Kick, Push Kick, Push Kick, Push Kick, Push Coast…
And the way they roll just a rebels without a cause with no place to go.
So they Kick, Push Kick, Push Kick, Push Kick, Push Coast…

“Hello, Yau Ma Tei” art exhibit on Shanghai Street. Street Pictures.

Pictures to come.

Macau is becoming the Asian version of Las Vegas gambling haven. The large hotels that shoot skyward and many are still under construction, are a bit disturbing.
But went and saw Cirque du Soliel’s new show called “Zaia” in the Venetian Macao. It’s about a little girl’s dream /journey into space, where she to gains a better perspective on her and humanity’s relationship to Earth’s environment. A perfect story for a polluted part of the world, no?

Small review and a strictly tourist pictures from Macau, soon.

Macau – Olympics Fuwa creatures

Cirque du Soliel in Venetian Macau

This place is way too opulent, but a great show. I’ll write more about it soon.

Venetian Hotel Macau China

did they spare any expense when building this place? It’s sort of ironic that it is so over the top while the “Zaia” show is about being more in touch with our natural environment.

Coloane and the black sands

Dinner, beach, moon, bus.

The morning started out with tasty Dim Sum. Lunch was a fantastic Vietnamese spicy beef stew and dinner was amazing Indian food, found in a hidden walkup in TST. All was amazing and all was very affordable. I like this town already.

Kowloon Cultural District – “Our Life in West Kowloon II” exhibit

Went to an exhibit that was closing this weekend. The building was evicted and is being redeveloped, so organizers filled each floor with photographs and installations that highlighted how the living conditions are for poorer residents. One room housed twenty people, all strangers. And another room had one of the infamous cage homes (basically a cage a large as a simple twin-sized bed). It could be called home and locked up when not around. Hong Kong has been getting rid of the Bed cages, but from what I was told they do still exist.The organizers where chronicling the way people live in Kowloon, not the disappearing building. “The spirit of Sham Shui Po exists in the people and their lifestyles, not the buildings..”

Our Lives in West Kowloon II — Society for Community Organisation’s exhibit in a building set for redevelopment this month on 55 Kweilin Street.



Another item that is disappearing from the Hong Kong streetscapes are the individualistic letter boxes.

Hungry Ghost Festival, Temple

The burning of paper figures are helpful to warding off the hungry spirits. I like this temple shot of 14 day incense coils and the paper maché horse in front of the temple.

Sham Shui Po street scenes

Lots for sale on teh streets here: clothes, electronics, funky re-furbished CB radios, “new” mobile phones, and cheap tasty food – like pudding-on-a-stick and tea.

Chungking Mansions (“Chungking Express”)

Late night at Chungking near TST.. Wong Kar Wei where are you? What room are you in? Hello? Hello?

A long appreciative day, Zzz Zzz

Here I am at the Hong Kong airport arriving just a hour or so after the Olympics have begun.

The international airport in Hong Kong has become very modern and efficient. My bag was waiting for me right after immigration swiftly checked me through. The photo was taken after I picked up my bag and reads 2 hours and 14 minutes after lucky start time of 08-08-08 8:08pm.

Here is a photo of me, taken in front of the Omega timekeeping board and a large screen of the opening ceremonies and a proud display of Chinese Olympic pride everywhere. Everyone in the airport seemed happy and I feel ready for a shower and some sleep.

The National, was at BAM in late Feb…

But this song is  so good that it is actively being used in the Barrack Obama campaign. “YES WE CAN”. The campaign remove the lyrics because of the dark-ish content. But the effect is equally elegiac for a sad-lame-duck presidency, and evocative of a possible “Obama restoration”. It’s sad and happy. It is like gourmet salt on top a sugary brownie, so wrong but also tasty-weird.

At any rate, the lyrics are really good as well. But the lyrics are darker than any campaign could endure, so they use just the instrument tracks. The song does work as a positive soundtrack, but also and as a political & personal song. All the best songs have more than one meaning. It’s one quality that allows them to stay fresh over the years.

FAKE EMPIRE

The National

Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders

we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

I like the apple-pie line and the overall optimism. I hope to do some more volunteering for the campaign later in the summer.