It’s just started raining again.  It’s also pretty dark out for 2 in the afternoon and it may be 18 degrees but I’m feeling cold.  Maybe it’s just the letdown after a fabulous week in Macau but right now I feel as if I can’t be arsed to do much of anything.  Come to think of it, the only time I got out of the house this weekend was Saturday morning when I met someone over at Sunshine City (ha!) in Ma On Shan who bought one of my old camera bags.  The only “real” meal that I had was on Sunday, when my gf cooked a great lunch with some of the truly wonderful pork chops I’d picked up at Shek Kee Frozen Meat Co. in Sai Kung – she always does her sauces in an impromptu fashion and can be hard pressed to remember later what she tossed in the pan, but along with the Sauce of Unknown Origins were green beans, yellow pepper, carrots, red onion – great color and taste combination.

Among the movies we watched, there was the tremendously entertaining Zombieland.  Yeah, if you’ve got a weak stomach for gory special effects, it does get a little gruesome in the first half hour, but overall it’s a nice take on an overworked genre.  Maybe I’m telling you too much here but Bill Murray’s in it and his appearance is more than worth the price of admission (or a DVD).

My gf seems to really enjoy classic Hollywood musicals – not sure she even realizes how much she digs the genre but I put on one of these and it’s practically guaranteed that she will not lose interest or fall asleep.  Yesterday afternoon we watched The Music Man.  On some levels it’s incredibly hokey and creaky and plays out like a much older film.  But there are still a lot of joys to be found in this film, from the amazing costume design to an expert supporting cast that includes Buddy Hackett, Paul Ford, Hermione Gingold and dozens of other faces you will at least recognize even if you don’t know the names.  And of course there’s Robert Preston.  (And Shirley Jones, too, I suppose.)  And little Ron Howard with hair and a fake lisp.  Most of all, Meredith Wilson’s melodies are insanely catchy and his lyrics are kind of clever at times.  Let’s not forget that even the Beatles covered a song from this film.

The rest of my time this weekend was spent “in” Lightroom and, as previously noted, I’ve uploaded new galleries to Flickr, one for last Friday’s Fallen Angel shoot at PASM and one from our Macau trip.  There will be more to come.  Looking back at photos from 6 to 9 months ago, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned in the past few months – both in terms of shooting and also in using Lightroom, though a big part of the improvement also comes from spending the bucks on the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens, expensive as hell but well worth the money.  I’m so in love with the results that it gives me that I find that I have no desire to go out with my Panasonic GF-1 anymore and I’m thinking about selling it off.  If and when I do get another job, one of the first things I plan to do to celebrate is to get the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VRII lens, a huge and expensive beast.

Speaking of getting a job, with Chinese New Year just a week away, things have hit the doldrums.  I’m sending out CVs, making follow-up phone calls (perhaps not as many as I should) and while I’ve managed to generate some interest, I don’t think I’m being egotistical when I say that I don’t think I’m getting the level of interest or the quality of offers that I believe I deserve.   It could be that the kind of job I’m looking for doesn’t exist in Hong Kong at the moment – or it doesn’t exist for someone my age or for someone who is not multi-lingual.

If you take a look at my profile on LinkedIn, you’ll see that I’ve received recommendations from the co-inventor of the DVD as well as an SVP, an EVP, a VP, a Managing Director and 3 Directors and some of my former staff from my previous job.   I think that stands as darned good evidence of my skills and accomplishments.  So excuse me if I’m feeling a little frustrated at the moment.

Sorry, don’t mean to whine.  Probably need to drag myself out of the house tonight and have a couple of drinks somewhere.

I’ve just uploaded more than 200 photos from our Macau trip to Flickr.  You can view the set here.   There are a lot of photos there that haven’t appeared on the blog, and many of the ones that did have been re-edited or “re-developed.”  Please take a look and let me know what you think!

I’ll be adding some more sets to Flickr soon and re-organizing my Photography page here in the near future.

Friday night was another party at the PASM Workshop.  As always, I had a blast.  Now you might well accuse me of being prejudiced (after all, I am a part owner) but one of the things I enjoy the most is the people who show up for these parties – so many talented people all of whom seem to “leave their egos at the door.”  Everyone there is completely supportive of everyone else and especially willing to share great tips and tricks.  I think I learn a little bit more each time I go there.  The model for the shoot was Christy Yan and she really gave 110% – having to work outside in that negligee in cool weather and in some uncomfortable positions, she still managed to hit some nice poses and really connect with each photographer.   As I was getting ready to go home, I saw that they had set up inside the studio with another model, Daisy (sorry, don’t know her last name) and so I stopped to get a few shots of her before leaving for the night.

I shot over 300 pictures in the space of an hour and on first pass knocked it down to 150 “keepers.”  My gf helped me knock that down to just 60 and here are 22 of those – I’m sure someone with a more critical eye might make fewer or different selections.  Whatever.  I’m pretty happy with these.  Hope you enjoy!

(By the way, the thumbnails below do not show the entire photo, WordPress crops them to fit into the square thumbnails.  To see the full photos, you have to click on each – and I hope you do!)

Been so busy since I got home, I haven’t had a chance to upload a selection of pictures from our final day in Macau, so here they are. I confess there are a couple of pictures below (notably numbers 1 & 3) that are out of focus and I am kicking myself over that but I am sharing them anyway because I think the feeling still comes through in those pictures.

Overall, this was my best visit to Macau in many years and I’m looking forward to a repeat in the (hopefully) near future.  (Of course, now that I’ve had a couple of days to review the pictures, I also know what I’ll do differently and hopefully better the next time I go.)  I also have some new favorite restaurants for those nights when I feel a strong desire for Portuguese food and don’t mind a long night out.  Hope you enjoy the photos!

Taken me 2 days (on and off, of course) to go through the thousands of bits and pieces that piled up in my RSS while I was away.  Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

One thing that Apple’s iPad has already succeeded in doing is killing off the $9.99 eBook.  Three publishers have now successfully forced Amazon to raise their prices – a move that I suspect will only serve to prevent wider adoption of eBooks but will not protect the physical book market in return.  The question is, if Apple was so successful in forcing record companies to price their e-albums at $9.99, why not do the same on books?  The answer seems to be that Apple’s sole concern here is to fuck Amazon in the ass.

Color touch screens coming to the Kindle later this year?

There are links and YouTube videos all over the place for Jon Stewart’s massive appearance on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor.  I guess it’s open to interpretation but my take on it is that Stewart beat O’Reilly into the ground and all but danced on his grave.  Some nifty quotes from Stewart

• On Fox News:  Fox News is the most passionate and sells the clearest narrative of any news organization, if that’s how you’re still referring to it… Here’s the brilliance of Fox News.  What you have been able to do, you and Dr. Ailes, have been able to mainstream conservative talk radio.  Here is what Fox has done, through their cyclonic perpetual emotion machine, that is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week … they’ve taken reasonable concerns about this president and this economy and turned it into a full-fledged panic attack about the next coming of Chairman Mao.
• On Iran’s nuclear program:  Thank you guys for ratcheting up the fear on this. Here’s what we can’t do.  Our strategy for battling terrorism can’t be that you overthrow governments and then make the United States military commit 150,000 troops to those lands until they can somehow stabilize the governments long enough so that you can prevent ten people from plotting destruction in a basement.
• On holding terrorism trials in New York:  One of the valid concerns isn’t that it makes us a terrorist target and emboldens the enemy.  [BO - How do you know?] Because we’re already a terrorist target.  It’s better to have them go through a system where you can show the world that the American judicial system has the integrity to withstand even the most vile creatures.

Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 (which has the entire unedited interview), Link 4, Link 5, Link 6 (I may have been a bit sloppy and repeated a link or two)

From here, this one too funny not to share:

From the letters to the editor section in the SCMP, from Mark Peaker who lives, where else but on The Peak.  But which is funnier?  That a westerner doesn’t know proper English or that the paper couldn’t properly edit the letter before publication.  “I was not surprised to hear their collective tails of woe from their respective airlines.”  (Or perhaps all of his friends are marsupials.)

Comic books will look great on the iPad.  Agreed.  Magazines too – though I won’t be able to tear out the watch ads and bring them to Shenzhen to buy the knock-off version.  (Which reminds me, I was in this watch store in Mong Kok on Saturday – they had this limited edition Omega that I really love; I have the knock-off version.  The salesman comes over, starts telling me about the watch, I tell him, “Yeah I know” and show him my wrist.  “Ohhhh!”  “Nah, I bought it in Shenzhen!”  “Ahhhh!”   The watch sells for HK$39,600 and for a half a second I actually considered buying it.  Of course I didn’t.  I was looking for this new Casio watch from Japan, obviously much cheaper, no one had it yet.

Too hot not to share – Anne Hathaway in the new UK issue of GQ, from here.

Too tasty not to try?  Gonna try out this recipe for a Guinness-marinated steak sandwich soon.  And what looks like a dynamite fried chicken recipe here.  And a recipe for chili.

Speaking of food, UK newspaper the Telegraph reviews the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world, Tim Ho Wan in Mong Kok.  Just a three hour wait for a table.

The Ultimate Guide to science fiction for February – books, movies, etc.

Complete list of nominations for the 2010 Razzie Awards.

Very un-Razzie, many Criterion DVDs are about to go out of print and are on sale while the existing supply lasts.

Monster bought HotJobs from Yahoo.

That guy in Ho Chung building a house over the only access road in the village has agreed to hold off for an unspecified period of time.  “Attempts to break the impasse, including a meeting on Tuesday between the residents and officials from seven government departments, have so far failed.”  Maybe that’s the problem, seven government departments at once each more interested in jockeying for position rather than solving the problem.

A web site streaming current TV episodes with no geo-blocking.  Probably won’t last long!

Get Drew Friedman’s amazing Kippy Spagenbusch print here, only 40 bucks.  There’s also a Facebook fan page for Kippy.  Of course I’m a member.

Okay, that’s probably more than enough!

Going through my photos from last night’s shoot at PASM.  More to come on that later on.  Just playing around with Lightroom presets here.  In order:  no preset, Aged Photo, Antique Grayscale, Antique Light, B&W High Contrast, B&W Low Contrast, Cold Tone, Cyanotype, Direct Positive, Selenium Tone, Sepia, Grayscale.

Which of these effects, if any, do you prefer? (And why?)  Some of the differences are subtle – click on the images to view them larger size before deciding?  As for me, I can’t decide!

The only negative in our Macau trip was First Ferry, both coming and going.

I didn’t want to pay $1,000 to park by the ferry terminal for four days.  And didn’t want to deal with dragging luggage through the MTR and the city streets.  I figured that the taxi trip to China Ferry Terminal in TST would be much cheaper than a taxi to Shun Tak Centre.  And so …

Ferry to Macau – the trip there took 75 minutes and it was rough all the way.  Something was clanging loudly in the front of the boat for the entire ride.  And the rough seas in the HK harbor had my girlfriend reaching for the puke bag.

Ferry to TST – the trip back took 85 minutes.  No clanging but the boat was bobbing up and down, back and forth the entire way.  This time my gf managed to keep her breakfast in but people all around me were diving for the puke bags.  It seemed that even the wake from row boats was setting us off.

Talk about your slow fucking boats to China!

In 15 years of going to Macau, this was by far the most uncomfortable, “when the fuck will it be over” trip I’ve taken there.  I will not be using First Ferry again.  I’ll pay the extra $50 or $100 each way to Shun Tak.

Like so many other bullshit second rate services in Hong Kong, First Ferry is owned by a property company, in this case New World.  HKCEC, First Bus, Citybus, Chow Tai Fook and more.  In terms of their ferry service, they’ve accomplished the extraordinary rare feat of making Stanley Ho look good.

I don’t normally get hangovers but this morning I’ve got a whopper.  Waiting for my gf to wake up and let me know where she’s hidden the Panadol.

Yesterday we walked for about three hours, starting off in the Senado square but heading in the opposite direction from St Paul’s, towards the fort and towards the Sun Yat Sen memorial house.  We passed along some amazing buildings on side streets (photos later), some old schools, a collection of buildings in a gated courtyard where there was an exhibition of work by architecture students, another couple doing wedding photos on the street, a huge public square that included the main branch of the library, a cultural center and an art gallery.  Yes, we ran into that same couple from Malaysia again!  I remain stunned by how much of Macau there is to see and explore, how much of it I’ve missed over the years.

Back to the hotel.  We did the buffet lunch – not one of the better buffets I’ve ever had but at $100 per person at least it was a decent enough value.  We slept the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, we walked back (AGAIN!) to the Senado square – my gf was in shopping mode and wanted to buy a watch she’d spotted earlier and then somehow managed to spend 30 minutes in Bossini.  Some Chinese woman who told us she speaks Tagalog grabbed our palms without asking and told us our fortunes – she said my gf was a good person, I’m bad, and we’d make a better couple if she was the man and I was the woman?  I think that’s what she meant – she may have spoken great Tagalog but I had trouble with her English.  And then as suddenly as she appeared, she waved goodbye and ran off.  Was it something she read?

None of the restaurants along Rua de Felicidade caught our eye but we did stop at a small shop where they were singing Cantonese opera accompanied by 8 musicians – I stood outside taking photos and they invited us to come in, have a seat and enjoy.

Hungry, we walked another 30 minutes until we reached Litoral, a Michelin one-star Portuguese restaurant near A Lorcha.  Started with our now usual plate of grilled chorizo and then went for curry prawns with crabmeat – seemed to me like there ought to have been more prawns in there but no shortage of crabmeat and a definite kick to the curry – also some quail eggs in there and some rice on the side.  And then what was probably the best African chicken I’ve ever had – very rich sauce with a wonderful combination of flavors, served with thick sliced grilled potatoes.  Accompanied by a bottle of, hmmm, Esperao Reserva, I think it was called, very drinkable.  Going to be looking to get more of this wine at the duty free on the way home.

Back to the hotel by 10:30, dropped off the bags, and off to the Lion’s Bar at the MGM Grand.  The Amazonian Filipina hostesses in our hotel told us this was their favorite bar, that it had a good band and they did not lie.  The 7 piece multi-ethnic band would put most of the cover bands in HK to shame and the place also had a world-class sound system.  The bar also charged $70 for a glass of the very average house red wine.  Some of my readers may care to know that after 11, we spotted at least a dozen girls at the bar who appeared to be eager to make friends – both Filipina and Chinese.  By midnight the bar was full, the band was wailing, a nice way to end a good day.

And then, boom!, up this morning, at first just my neck aching but now a full-blown headache.  Must be from that house red.  Check-out here is at noon and we’ll head back to HK at some point after that.

All in all, this trip has been great.  Total relief from stress for a few days, some great food, good long walks in new-to-me areas, lots of photos to process once I get home.

Feeling lazy, not going out yet, here’s a bunch of photos from yesterday, very minor editing and touch-ups.

See the full list of Oscar nominations here.  I think expanding the list of best picture noms to 10 was ridiculous.  This year it seems to be between Avatar and Hurt Locker; my choice would be Hurt Locker.  I’ve actually seen 7 of the 10 nominated films and pretty much liked all of them.

Director – the DGA already crowned Kathryn Bigelow, she should win easily here.

Actor – The consensus seems to be for Jeff Bridges, haven’t seen that film yet.  Renner’s performance in Hurt Locker was strong.

Actress – haven’t seen any except Julie & Julia.  Sandra Bullock is seen as a front-runner here.  How odd.

Supporting – Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique the front runners.

Adapted screen play – District 9?  Really?  I think Jason Reitman could get a nod.

Original screen play – I’d go for the Coen Bros myself but maybe Tarantino stands a chance here.

Animated film – between Up and Coraline, I think Up will win – people love Pixar and it’s also nominated for best picture, which it won’t win, so this will be its “consolation.”

Cinematography – Avatar?

Editing – Hurt Locker should get this

Make-up – Star Trek, Il Divo, Young Victoria?  WTF?

Original song – yet two more nominations for Randy Newman, I’m guessing he won’t win

Sound editing – Hurt Locker, Sound mixing – Avatar

Visual Effects – Avatar, does anything else even stand a chance?

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Funny how “important” things fade into insignificance when one is otherwise busy.  3,000 unread items in my RSS reader, all the stuff piling up in Twitter and Facebook, no time for that now but probably lots of time to catch up after I get back home.