This Picture Shows Why I Still Don’t Have PCCW

So after waiting 8 months, PCCW put up a pole next to my house. Hooray! RIght? Maybe not so fast.

It’s been two weeks and they haven’t run any wires to this pole and they haven’t called me up to schedule an appointment for installation.

Then I noticed this sign taped to the pole. I asked someone to translate it for me and it basically says:

Telecommunication Engineering Department Technician to note (stop work) / This is a private property; house construction will commence soon / this antenna pole is inside the property / Any questions, call

I think this means that PCCW will have to take the pole down. (Though why the Lands Department would give approval for it if it’s one someone’s private property is rather odd.)

And that means they’ll need to figure out a new place to put the pole. And then apply for another permit. Which will take at least another 3 months. So we are never going to get service.

And the never-ending ineptitude of PCCW continues …

Google Abandons Hong Kong Data Center Project

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I take this news as further evidence of the ineptitude of C.Y. Leung’s administration.

The SCMP reports this morning:

Google has scrapped plans to build a data centre in Hong Kong.

The decision came two years after a groundbreaking ceremony at its site in Tseung Kwan O – and the land still remains a piece of barren land.

Google said lack of land availability could stop it taking advantage of the lower costs that arise as operations get bigger.

“While we see tremendous opportunity and potential in Hong Kong … we will not be moving ahead with this project,” Taj Meadows, Asia-Pacific policy communications manager, said yesterday, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“To keep up with the rapid growth in users and usage across the region, we need to focus on locations where we can build for economies of scale.”

The Hong Kong government confirmed Google’s “decision to surrender the site”.

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation granted the 2.7 hectares to Google for its data centre, which would have housed computer, telecommunications and storage systems. And in 2011, the internet giant said it would be investing US$300 million in the centre.

Google operates 12 data centres globally, and it has announced an investment of US$300 million for a data centre in Taiwan and US$120 million for a facility in Singapore.

Both centres were scheduled to be operational before the new year.

A government spokesman said the surrender request was processed in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the lease, and the corporation was working with Allied Trade Holdings – the name under which Google obtained the site – on the final arrangements of the surrender agreement.

Paul Fung Tak-chung, who runs data centre Photon Link, said: “Google makes use of natural winds instead of air-conditioning in its new data centres overseas. It is environmentally friendly, but hard to replicate in Hong Kong due to stringent plot-ratio requirements.

“I don’t believe the government would relax building regulations for Google no matter how innovative its design is,” Fung added.

Information technology lawmaker Charles Mok blamed Leung Chun-ying’s administration for letting the deal fall through.

“Why didn’t Leung make a call to Google CEO Eric Schmidt?” said Mok.

“I’m sure [Taiwanese President] Ma Ying-jeou or [Singaporean Prime Minister] Li Hsien Loong must do that,” he said.

Back in 2011, Google had announced:

In September 2011, we announced that we had acquired 2.7 hectares of land in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon, with plans to build a data center.

Building this data center in Hong Kong is an exciting step for us. More new Internet users are coming online every day here in Asia than anywhere else in the world. They are looking for information and entertainment, new business opportunities, and better ways to connect with friends and family near and far. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users in Hong Kong and across Asia have the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services, so they can do just that.

We are also really excited about the facility itself. At a long-term investment cost reaching USD 300 million, this data center will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia, built to the same high standard we use around the world. It will also provide jobs for around 25 full time Googlers and a number of part- and full-time contractors in a variety of roles, from computer technicians and electrical and mechanical engineers to catering and security staff.

Hong Kong offers an ideal combination of reliable energy infrastructure, a skilled workforce and a location right in the center of Asia, which has made it a trading powerhouse and a great place to provide services to our users around the region and globe. As with all of our facilities around the world, we chose Hong Kong following a thorough and rigorous site selection process, taking many technical and other considerations into account, including location, infrastructure, workforce, reasonable business regulations and cost.

(The page has been taken down but is available in a cached version.)

Over at GigaOm, they suggest that it might be more than just a matter of available space:

But, given U.S. concerns over Chinese censorship, and more recent tensions between China and the U.S. over Edward Snowden’s disclosures of NSA snooping, there might be more than real estate prices at play here.

Venture Beat agrees with GigaOm:

Sure, some people are worried about cloud security when it comes to Google. Leaks courtesy of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have only made people think more about security of data in the cloud. Such reflection could affect the use of Google’s cloud services.

And it’s possible that geopolitical issues played a role in Google’s steps back in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is part of China, which has been ensnared with allegations of hacking along with the U.S. (A Google spokeswoman did not respond to a question about that.)

But as a rule, Google’s spending on data center infrastructure has been consistent — and vast.

So was this fall-out from the NSA? I don’t think so. Google broke ground at this site two years ago, long before anyone heard of Snowden. Under normal circumstances, construction should have completed by now, or at least have been well under way. Yet the SCMP reports that the site is still “barren.”

I think (although I have no proof, this is a pure guess) is that Google was told that certain things would be allowed and so they went ahead. Then they broke ground and were told, “No, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” And then, guessing further, while C.Y. Leung might have interceded since there is US$300 million at stake for construction and some jobs, he didn’t try to save it because China hates Google and Leung didn’t want to be seen as standing up for Google – though in fact it would have been standing up for Hong Kong as well.

Whatever actually happened, this is a definite black eye for Hong Kong as a global tech capitol.

We’ve Got a Pole! Also, Village House Demolition

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I don’t really have a photo of the pole, except in this picture below. I’ll explain the dual significance of this photo in a sec ….

First off, that pole on the right-hand side of the frame is new; it went up this week. This means that PCCW service should be just around the corner for us – a wedding gift from them? Well, they haven’t called yet to confirm an installation date and a few days later, there are still no wires running to the pole. But I guess it’s soon. My wife will once again get her daily dose of Eat Bulaga.

Now note the guy on the roof of that house. It’s an abandoned house and I thought perhaps someone had decided to repair it and make it livable again. It turns out the guy was “harvesting” the roof tiles before the house was demolished. Here’s the tiles, all ready to be re-used or recycled, I guess.

And today, I woke up to the sound of the other houses in that row being demolished. The funny thing is – these are the houses that PCCW wanted to run a wire over, but neither they nor me were able to contact the owner to get permission and the people in my village told me the owner had moved to the UK and no one knew how to contact him.

The other thing that strikes me as funny is that in other parts of the world, people would have preserved these houses and completely modernized the insides and then rich kids would pay a premium to live in something charming and authentic like this. But here they’re simply being torn down and will more than likely be replaced by the same 3 story rectangles that you see everywhere else. I suppose a three floor village house can bring more money than these smaller old houses.

Anyway, I’d never seen one of these being demolished before, so I shot some photos before heading out to work. A man who identified himself as “the builder” came over to ask me why I was taking the pictures. I pointed out my house, told him I looked at these old houses every day, and just wanted to capture some final pictures. “Oh, for your memory!”

Here’s a few shots of those houses being torn apart:

Can you see the blue graffiti on the interior wall? Kind of cute. It’s gone now.

And then, the worker stopped and leapt out of his cab. He spotted something in the rubble.

Looks like a teapot. He looked around, as if he was hoping no one saw him grab this treasure. He may have whispered “My precious!” for all I know.

Well, for a short while we’ll have a very open view until the new houses go up.

Someone has also started construction on a new village house in the empty field behind our house. This may also be vaguely interesting to watch as the weeks go by. First they cleared the field, then they dug down only around 3 or 4 feet, levelled it out and poured a concrete base. Now they’re getting ready to do the walls.

The Rolling Stones Coming to Macau

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The Rolling Stones are heading east. Dubbed “14 – On Fire,” they’ll be doing concerts in Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, Macau, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Their web site says that “a further 2 big concerts in Asia will be announced soon.” Mick Taylor will be joining them as a “special guest” on the tour.

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So – The Stones at Macau, at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian, on March 9th, 2014. Pre-sales start on Thursday, December 5th (but I don’t know via which outlet or what “pre-sales” means in this case) and general sales are on December 6th. Cotai Arena often sells tickets through the execrable HKTicketing web site, a site that crashes any time any interesting act goes on sales. I’m expecting an instant sell-out.

The Stones did their first and only Hong Kong shows at Harbourfest, appearing on November 7th and 9th, 2003. I went to the show on the 7th and it was not too shabby (though to my way of thinking it was dwarfed by Neil Young’s amazing set the night before.

I also saw them at Madison Square Garden in 1969 – footage from these shows was in Gimme Shelter. They did two evening shows and one matinee (believe it or not) and I was sitting all the way up top in the back for that matinee show – the only one of the three shows in which Ike & Tina Turner didn’t appear, drat. I’ve seen them several times since then.

The thing is, in 2013 tickets were frightfully expensive and I shudder to think of what they will go for in Macau – especially once they get into the hands of scalpers. I may have to content myself with just watching their Sweet Summer Sun – Hyde Park Live video, which is well shot and a decent show but mostly you sit there going, “Well, they’re pretty good for their age.”

Yes I’m Married

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Yep, I did it. No, I’m probably not going to be posting wedding photos here, but I will share some of the details with you after the fact. I’ll preface this by saying that while my gf wife was married once before (and me twice before), she was very young and very poor the first time she got married, and the marriage was kind of bare bones. This time she wanted to go all the way. A fancy formal wedding dress, bridesmaids (and me in a suit and tie).

The day started with all of the bridesmaids arriving at our place to get their hair and make-up done. It was insanity in our living room for hours! One friend drove over to pick up the two of us (he’s getting married next month, so I’ll be able to return the favor), which meant the others had to get taxis to make their way from Tai Po to Central, which led to the only real problem of the day.

We arrived at the Cotton Tree Marriage Registry about 45 minutes early. We waited till 15 minutes before our scheduled time to go in to do the final paperwork. And … some of the bridesmaids hadn’t yet arrived, including the woman whom my wife wanted as her witness. But this marriage registry, located in Hong Kong Park, is always fully booked and has to run on schedule. So we had to ask another woman to stand in.

And then the ceremony, a simple civil ceremony but nicely performed by the magistrate. I didn’t try to count how many people showed up for the ceremony – at least 50.

After the ceremony, we did the posing for pictures thing in the park. One very minor annoyance – they have this perfect spot right outside the registry for taking photos, and this day – a Sunday! – it was roped off and there was a guy working away at the concrete with some electric tool, throwing up dust everywhere. So we found another spot. But construction work in Hong Kong Park on a Sunday? Then back into the car – our friend had a bottle of Moet and two glasses so we could toast and giddy for the drive to dinner.

Our dinner was at Anthony’s Ranch in Sai Kung. Why there? Because we have known “Anthony” and his wife for years and the place has been a hangout for us and many of our friends. (We’d arranged for a bus to pick up our guests at Hong Kong Park and take them to the restaurant – it’s cheaper than you’d expect and it made things much easier for everyone.) We knew they’d do right by us – and they did. A huge buffet dinner, plenty of booze, no live music but I had already prepared a playlist, going with straight classic rock love songs.

That’s tougher than you’d think. I didn’t want anything too obscure and I didn’t want anything that’s not rock & roll. And a lot of the bands I really love haven’t done that many love songs. Think about it. Dark Side of the Moon? Not a lot of love songs there. Rolling Stones? Well, of course I threw in Keith’s Happy but most of their other songs tend to take a dark turn (Wild Horses? Wild horses couldn’t keep me away? Try, “I’ve watched you suffer a dull aching pain, now you’ve decided to show me the same.”) Zeppelin? Does anyone really know wtf Stairway to Heaven is even about? Nevertheless, I managed to come up with a few hours worth of stuff. I recall that I did sing along with the Springsteen songs – perhaps a bit loudly, but if I can’t do it on my wedding day, when can I do it? I can’t carry a tune for shit but no kids cried and no adults went running for the exit.

No honeymoon yet. I figure we’ve been living together for more than 5 years already, so there’s no rush. I’ve got a business trip to the UK next month and we will probably do something in Europe right before or after that trip, if everything works out.

Postscript: This morning, the motherboard on my computer decided to die. We had to go to Wanchai anyway so I brought it in to the one shop that I trust there to be diagnosed and fixed. As long as we were there, I figured we should go someplace nice for lunch and opted for The Pawn.

I’ve run hot and cold on The Pawn ever since it first opened but today, everything there was as good as it could be. Not to mention that it was a sunny day and warm enough for us to sit on the balcony and take our time through the three courses.

Tomorrow back to work. But with a big smile on my face and very happy memories of a great day.

Holiday Gift Giving – CD Boxed Sets

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(Hey, want to get me a wedding present? Clicking on any of the links below and then buying anything from Amazon will send a couple of bucks my way without costing you anything extra.)

If you need to buy someone – or yourself – a gift this time of year, CD boxed sets are a great gift. Here are some of the latest ones available and some of my recent favorites. In completely random order….

King Crimson – The Road to Red – Starting off with something amazingly obscure, Red was King Crimson’s last studio album in the 70s and features the song, Starless, my second favorite (and sometimes my favorite) Crimson track. I saw them live twice around the release of this album and those were amazing shows. This is a 24 disc boxed set containing 16 concerts, a new stereo mix of the original album (by Robert Fripp and Steven Wilson), the original mix of the album, a 5.1 stereo mix, and DVDs and Blu-rays with uncompressed audio. It costs over $200 but is well worth it for any fan of progressive rock.

Bob Dylan – Complete Album Collection Vol. 1 – Dylan has spent almost his entire career on Columbia, and they later managed to snag the albums he released for other labels. So here you have a 47 CD box that contains every Dylan studio album (even the Christmas one), 6 live albums and 2 discs of rarities along with a hardcover book. Nothing from the Bootleg series is included – I suppose that could be a Volume 2 release down the line. So you get 50 years of Dylan at an average price of $3.82 per disc. Not too shabby.

Humble Pie – Performance – Rockin’ the Fillmore – The Complete Recordings – Humble Pie was a super group of sorts, featuring Steve Marriott from Small Faces and Peter Frampton from The Herd. Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore was the live album that broke them in the U.S.. “I Don’t Need No Doctor” was an FM radio mainstay. This four disc set gives you all 4 concerts complete.

Bill Withers – The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums – After John Legend and The Roots did a cover of Withers’ “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” I’ve been going back and rediscovering just how consistently brilliant this man was. This nine disc set includes Ain’t No Sunshine, Grandma’s Hands, Who Is He (And What Is He To You), Use Me, Lean On Me, Lovely Day – and what you’ll find is that his talent was rich enough to make even the deep album cuts worth hearing.

Ry Cooder – 1970-1987 – A great guitarist, this covers the period when Cooder was primarily focused on Americana (my favorite period), before he started wandering internationally. These are all terrific albums for fans of folk and blues – Paradise and Lunch being my favorite, while Bop Till You Drop holds the dubious distinction of being the first digitally recorded album released by a major studio.

Eric Clapton – Give Me Strength – The 74-75 Recordings – 5 CDs plus 1 Blu-Ray covering one year in the life of Clapton. This period includes his 461 Ocean Boulevard album. There’s some 5.1 stereo mixes, some quad mixes and most interestingly (to me) some extended jams with the great Freddie King.

Donny Hathaway – Never My Love – The Anthology – Donny Hathaway was a brilliant and influential artist who died way too young. It’s hard for me to believe but it’s now more than 40 years since I saw him live at the Fillmore. This 4 disc set has one disc of hits, one disc of outtakes, one disc of live tracks, and one disc of all his duets with Roberta Flack.

Harry Nilsson – The RCA Albums Collection – A long time ago, someone asked John Lennon who his favorite band was and he answered, “Harry Nilsson.” Someday someone will make a film of Nilsson’s life and it will be the stuff of Shakespearean tragedy. Until then, these 17 discs include all 14 of Nilsson’s RCA albums plus 3 discs of outtakes and rarities.

The Who – Tommy – Super Deluxe Edition – There was a deluxe edition of Tommy in 2008. Five years later, we get this “super deluxe” version. Disc one is the original album, disc two is the original demos, disc 3 is previously unreleased live performances, and then there’s a Blu-Ray with a 5.1 mix. I’ve always liked Townshend’s original demos.

The Band – Academy of Music – Rock of Ages was always one of my favorite live albums, in particular for the way that Allen Toussaint’s horn charts took the Band’s songs one notch higher. Now there’s this 4 CD/1 DVD set. The first two discs contain one version of every song performed during the 3 night stand; the second two discs are the complete New Year’s Eve concert (with special guest Bob Dylan) and the DVD has surround mixes and a bit of video footage. Great stuff – and yet there’s too much repetition here to really justify the over $60 price.

The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat – Following the excellent 6 disc reissue of their first album comes this 3 disc set of their equally influential second album. This is where punk really started. Remastered original album, mono mixes, outtakes and a 1967 concert.

Duane Allman – Skydog – This seven disc set is the collection that Allman deserves. Of course it covers his high points with the Allman Brothers and it also includes every major session he played on – Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis, Boz Scaggs, Derek & the Dominos – even a live track with the Grateful Dead!

Stephen Stills – Carry On – Buffalo Springfield, CSN, CSNY and all the key solo recordings. The question is why was he so brilliant a singer, songwriter and guitarist in the 60s and 70s and so unessential for the past 30 years?

The Clash – Sound System – 5 Clash studio albums (everything but the last one that they’ve since tried to disown), 3 discs of rarities, a DVD, posters, badges, stickers – well, at least I don’t think they put any refrigerator magnets in the box.

Van Morrison – Moondance – Deluxe Edition – Surely Morrison’s best-loved album, now this has been expanded to 4 CDs – the original album plus 3 discs of studio outtakes – and a Blu-Ray with a 5.1 mix and an uncompressed stereo mix.

There’s a couple of things not coming out till early 2014 that I thought were worth mentioning:

Michael Bloomfield – From His Head to His Heart to His Hands – The first major white American blues guitarist, this set is a true labor of love. The 3 CDs cover studio and live tracks – on his own, with Paul Butterfield and Electric Flag, jamming with others – while the DVD has a feature-length film biography. I met Michael once (we played a bit of four-handed piano together) and I can’t wait to get my hands on this!

Small Faces – Here Come The Nice – Listed as an Amazon “exclusive,” this 8 disc set from my all-time favorite Britpop group contains all of their albums and EPs, previously unreleased recordings, vinyl, photos, a hardcover book, a poster, post cards, “art prints” and more. At $144, it ain’t exactly cheap, but I loved these guys and hope to pick this up.

I haven’t covered anything jazz here because this post is already more than long enough. There’s no shortage of great recent jazz boxed set releases. Maybe I’ll get to them in another post.

(Hey, want to get me a wedding present? Clicking on any of the links above and then buying anything from Amazon will send a couple of bucks my way without costing you anything extra.)

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Hannukah!

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U.S. Thanksgiving and the first day of Hannukah occur on the same day for the first time in a very, very long time.

Last night was my gf’s hen night (she’s still recovering) and my pre-bachelor party. Tonight will of course be Thanksgiving dinner, at a friend’s place. Friday will (hopefully) be my real bachelor party. Nothing on Saturday because I don’t roll on Shabbos. (Well, not really true.) Sunday is the wedding and wedding party. Need to figure out plans for an after-party too. (Honeymoon will be pushed back to January.)

With all of this going on, it’s a good thing I’m taking a few days off from work!

Anyway, for those of you who take note of either or both of these holidays, hope you have a great one!

Monty Python Reunited!

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The five surviving members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam) are reuniting for a series of 5 live shows to be held at London’s O2 Arena July 1st through 5th, 2014. The first show in the 14,500 seat arena sold out in 43.5 seconds. Carol Cleveland will be joining them for the shows – that’s obviously her with them in the picture below.

Python disbanded in – wait for it – 1983. They reunited for a brief appearance at the Aspen Comedy Festival in 1997.

There’s talk of an additional show at the Hollywood Bowl and even rumors of a full-on world tour (which I’m sure will omit Hong Kong).

Anyway, this video is the entire press conference in which they announced their reunion:

While I’m sure there’s no way I’ll get to see them live on this tour, at least I got to see them live in their prime, when they appeared at NYC’s City Center in 1976, and I’m sure there will be DVDs and all other sorts of odds and ends available to buy eventually.

Coming Soon – New Springsteen Album

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Just coming off one of the largest, if not the largest, tours of his career, (and yes, Hong Kong was passed over yet again), Bruce Springsteen has a new album coming out on January 14th.

It’s called High Hopes, which is also the name of the first single from the album – and curiously enough was not written by Bruce (but it’s not a cover of the old Disney chestnut either – it’s written by Tim Scott McConnell of the Havalinas).

Here’s a link to the video just in case you can’t see the embedded video here.

It does sound as if, at the age of 64, Springsteen is still willing to shake up his sound a little bit – not a lot but at least a little.

From Springsteen’s web site:

High Hopes finds Bruce in a number of different musical settings, and includes the members of the E Street Band as well as guitarist Tom Morello and many additional players.

Clarence Clemons, who passed away in 2011, and Danny Federici, who passed away in 2008, also appear on several songs of what Springsteen calls “some of our best unreleased material from the past decade.”

There’s one other cover song on the album, Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream,” which Springsteen occasionally performed live on the last tour.

I’ve been a Springsteen fan since 1973 and this January will mark 40 (gulp!) years since I first saw him in concert. I have zero expectations of his albums now making a difference in my life the way those first few did, but this is one of those few times that I’ll be buying atoms as well as bits.

There Will Always Be An England

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Here’s the headline:

Premier Inn guest hurled racist abuse with fire extinguisher hose up his bottom

(found via BoingBoing)

The full story gets even ~~better~~ ~~worse~~ somethinger

A hotel guest emerged naked from a storage cupboard of a Premier Inn with a fire extinguisher hose up his bottom, a court was told.

Joseph Small, 20, stripped off and grabbed the appliance on the fourth floor corridor of the budget hotel.

He then put the hose between his buttocks and began touching himself, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

Small also urinated on the carpet before a hotel worker wrapped him in a towel and escorted him down to reception.

He then hurled abuse at the Bangladeshi member of staff, telling him: ‘This country has been taken over by al-Qaeda – go back to Pakistan.’

In the lobby, Small again urinated in front of tourists, shouting: ‘I come from Sheffield in England.’

He caused £450 damage, the court was told.

Small admitted criminal damage, racially aggravated harassment and outraging public decency at the Leicester Square, central London hotel on October 31.

Prosecutor Izolda Switala-Gribbin said: ‘A member of staff by the name of Hassan could see a naked man in the corridor on CCTV. He went with a towel and then escorted him down to reception.

‘Hassan then watched CCTV showing the defendant coming out of a storage cupboard, naked and urinating on the lift door. The defendant could also be seen on CCTV placing a fire extinguisher hose and masturbating at the same time. Hassan called the police.’

Small racially abused the two police officers who arrived.

The court was told Small had travelled from Sheffield to make a deal on a used car.

Sentencing was adjourned until December 3 for reports.