The Rolling Stones Coming to Macau

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.

Hong Kong Has Sex Parties in Shopping Mall Staircases?

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I’m always the last to know. From the SCMP:

Police have smashed a suspected sex club said to have used Facebook and WeChat to lure people, including teenagers, to wild sex parties at hotels and even in shopping mall staircases.

The organiser was arrested on suspicion of crimes including procuring a woman by threat, living on the earnings of prostitution and publishing obscene articles. The 40-year-old was arrested on suspicion of attempted buggery with a girl under 21.

Chief inspector Law Kwok-hoi of the New Territories North regional crime unit said the King Sex Club was set up in April and five parties had taken place since then.

“The organiser set up private groups on Facebook and WeChat with restricted access to communicate with members. Videos and photos of previous sex parties were updated there,” Law said.

He said the organiser charged membership fees of HK$500 to HK$2,000, with an extra HK$300 to HK$500 charged per party.

While venues included hotel rooms, police said public places such as staircases at shopping malls had also been used.

“The organiser would take pictures and videos of the sex acts and put them up on the internet,” said Law. It is believed that absent group members could watch the parties live on the internet.

The group was said to have about 60 members, and the organiser had already made more than HK$100,000.

QuizUp – My Latest iPhone App Addiction

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I saw QuizUp mentioned in someone’s Twitter feed and decided to check it out. Two days later I’m hopelessly addicted.

I’ve always loved trivia games. I played a lot of Trivial Pursuit and You Don’t Know Jack, but for some odd reason I never hunted down this sort of game as a mobile app.

Anyway, they claim to have 250 different topics available. I’ve mostly been playing “Classic Movies” and I must have played at least 50 rounds so far (7 questions per round, all multiple choice) and have seen probably under 10% repeated questions.

What these guys have done is amped up the social potential here. You play against someone. You can add friends and challenge them (or be challenged by them) or the app will make random pairings. (The downside here is if no one else is looking to play the topic you want to play, you could end up waiting awhile.) You can text chat with your opponent before or after a match. And you can earn Foursquare-style badges.

Currently I’m rated “best in Hong Kong for classic movies.” I kind of suck at questions like, “What year was The Iron Horse released” but otherwise I’m pretty good. I’m also ascending the ranks in Classic Rock (no big shock there, eh?).

The app, which is iOS only, comes from a company called Plain Vanilla, which is located in Reykjavík. Checking out their company page, they note that all staff get the following perks:

Apple hardware as needed
Gym membership (most of us train at Mjölnir)
Flexible workings hours and vacation policy
Office with a great view
A chef from Argentína Steakhouse prepares lunch 4 days a week
Friday lunch at a local restaurant
Fruit delivered weekly and kókómjólk in the fridge
Instant membership in our clubs

Trivia Question: How many Hong Kong companies offer perks like those?

Answer: It.Is.To.Laugh.

I have no idea what kókómjólk may be but I think I’d like to try it.

Anyway, writing this, hoping more people will play this so I’ll never have a shortage of opponents.

Little Burro – Mission Style Burritos in HK? Not So Much

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A long time since I’ve posted any sort of restaurant review. I wish this could be a positive one.

I wanted something different for dinner tonight and since my gf was on HK island, I figured I’d go meet her and we’d try a new place that I’ve been hearing about, Little Burro. They’re saying they’re doing San Francisco Mission-style burritos and since I lived in San Francisco for 2-1/2 years (and lived on burritos while I was there), I wanted to see if they at least came close to my memory of the great burritos to be found all over SF.

First of all, you have to want to go there to go there, because the location really isn’t convenient to very much. They’re towards the northern end of Leighton Road in Causeway Bay, a very long walk from the MTR.

While they offer other things on the menu, I was there for the burrito, and the burrito I miss the most is carnitas – pork. So that’s what I ordered. My gf went for the “smoked chipotle bbq chicken.”

To make a long story short, it will probably be a long time before we go back there. I found a review on Open Rice that for a change exactly echoes my feelings so let me grab a few quotes from that:

To my very surprise, I heard a familar sound when the staff was preparing my burrito, then I knew they microwaved my burrito!

The beautiful foil packaging could not deceive us from the fact that the burrito was microwaved as it was partially cold and partially hot.

The tortilla was quite thick and rough in texture and very sadly with some parts of it harden. The beef was extremely hot as it was being microwaved. The texture was alright but the taste was weak. The rice tasted flat and a bit too dry to me. The black beans were okay, but was not as fat and juicy as the ones I used to have in Chipotle. The salsa verde which the waitress describe as ‘hot’, was very bland in taste and not spicy at all! The burrito overall tasted pretty dry and I could not taste any sour cream in it. I ended up adding a lot of the spicy salsa sauce to it to give taste.

Now I hate to give a bad review to an actual independent shop (rather than a part of a restaurant chain) that’s trying to do something vaguely different. But I felt really let down by this meal. Keep in mind that I came to Causeway Bay all the way from Tai Po just for dinner. I wanted a dinner that was going to be worth that long trip. This one wasn’t it. I think I might have been better served heading to Central to try new American bbq place 85 South (well, next time).

My gf and I were so busy talking that I wasn’t watching them prepare the burritos at the counter, so I never noticed a microwave. What I did notice was:

The taste of the rice and beans seemed vaguely authentic. The pork behind the counter was in some liquid and there were no crispy, carmelized bits of pork, which I always thought was the best part. Some of the chunks of pork within the burrito were way too large. The tortilla was exactly as described in the review above – dry and some parts beginning to harden. I couldn’t taste either the salsa or the sour cream at all, not even a tiny bit. Cheese was not on offer. Guacamole was only available as a “side”, a tiny cup for $25 – this tasted fresh and was really good. But getting the guac in the burrito itself was not an option so I had to dab little forkfuls on top for each bite, along with some hot sauce. But overall I found it dry and lacking in the distinct strong flavors I associate with a real burrito.

So that’s me. What about my gf, who never had a real burrito in her life? Since she’s going crazy dieting for the wedding, she’s off rice. She took a couple of bites, thought it tasted okay, but as soon as she realized there was rice inside she asked for a plate, unwrapped the thing and started playing a game of Find the Chicken. She also couldn’t taste – and we couldn’t see – any salsa or sour cream and eventually said that without the side of guacamole it would have been inedible.

Neither of us finished our food (although I got at least 80% through mine). In the end I was full but the only good thing was that 2 burritos, a side order of guac and 1 soda came out to under HK$170 – cheap for HK but double what this would cost in SF (at least a dozen years ago, anyway).

I think Hong Kong is really crying out for a decent burrito. I’m convinced that a stall doing burritos (or maybe banh mi) near the bars in Wanchai or Lan Kwai Fong that stays open all night would really clean up – a real alternative to Ebeneezer’s, something you can hold in your hands and smush in your face as you’re standing there in the street. Someone should give it a shot.