Just 16 days before I leave Hong Kong and fly off to Manila.

Most of the important stuff is done – movers booked, including the export service that will help me bring Bogey (my dog) with me. Service flat is arranged, so we’ll have a place to stay until we get the basics installed in our home. A good percentage of the things we’ve been trying to sell off have been sold, we (and when I say “we” here I actually mean “my wife”) started the packing, and we’re also giving away and throwing away stuff like crazy.

But there’s too much that I didn’t start on soon enough. I won’t have my resident visa done for the Philippines for at least another month. I should have my taxes all closed out but won’t be able to collect my MPF funds that soon either. (The banks want to snail mail checks in HKD to me in Manila. Great.) I haven’t even started to deal with PCCW yet – I’m sure that will be fun.

Not to mention that things at my day job are so busy that I don’t have as much time yet to help around the house getting ready for the move as I’d thought. I’m going to have to take off the entire week before the movers arrive.

This week I did my sworn declaration that I’m leaving Hong Kong for good. And I went to the Certificate of No Criminal Conviction Office, which is located in the same place as the Sexual Conviction Record Check Office. I made certain not to sit near anyone else while I was waiting for my number to be called. Next I need to figure out where to do the medical check required for the Philippines visa, or maybe I’ll just get it done there.

I was supposed to shoot Avenged Sevenfold tomorrow night but that won’t happen. I may go to one more Underground event before I leave – Girls With Guitars, this Saturday night at Orange Peel.

I’ve been removing most HK blogs from my RSS feeds and adding in Manila blogs. Sad to say that most Manila food bloggers appear to be as useless as most HK food bloggers – badly written rave reviews about meals they got for free. Quotes from a review I read today, yes this is all from the same review: “Crystal Jade Dining IN is known for truly authentic yet contemporary Cantonese cuisine … I go for a refreshing Grape Shake … Our feast started with a uniquely Singaporean dish … the combination of ingredients also presents unique and rich flavors … The dish is prepared by Crystal Jade Dining IN’s staff [who the fuck else is going to prepare it?????] … the feast rises up another notch as we eagerly await with anticipation … a rich and contrasting blend of crisp fresh vegetables and soft and chewy preserved vegetables. The diversity of flavors reflect the rich culinary traditions of Cantonese cuisine, recreated in every dish at Crystal Jade Dining IN … Hearty and comforting noodles for long life, prosperity and abundance … ” Was that a review or was it just retyping a poorly written press release?

Anyway, as I said, just 16 days to go. Tons to do. Can’t wait till it’s over and done with.

And when I’m gone, I’ll stop following the SCMP and will miss nonsense “news” like this thing they published today:

A prominent businesswoman and close friend of Li Ka-shing, Solina Chau Hoi-shuen, has made rare comments about Hong Kong politics – as well as Asia’s richest man, who she believes is too open-minded to ever enter politics.

On a political role for the tycoon, she said: “Mr Li has often said he might try to enter politics to make a greater contribution if he had a choice. But he is an unusual person. He must not enter politics. He is too open-minded. He never cares about criticism against him.”

He’s 86 years old and he’s going to “enter politics”? And her English name is Solina. Presumably because she’s so lina? (Solina is a village in Lesko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the former seat of the gmina called Gmina Solina.)(Voivod was a pretty decent band I must say.)(I wonder if Solina is a fan.)

The businesswoman echoed Li’s hope that lawmakers would pass the electoral reform package, which she believed would create a platform to overcome political disputes.

And just what is that belief based on, pray tell?

Chau said: “It is important for Hong Kong to be part of the political progress of China. I personally want to see the reforms passed, and I think they should be passed with all legislators voting for them.”

Because everybody voting the same is real democracy, eh? Yes! We’re all individuals! Yes! We’re all different! Yes! We’ve got to work it out for ourselves! Now what was that bit about blessed are the cheese-makers? What’s so special about the cheese-makers?

“If the reforms are passed … it can encourage more of those who want to serve Hong Kong to run for [chief executive].

“Without [a platform of universal suffrage], every day when we watch TV, there is only noise and lies … It is like almost all people are telling lies. Aren’t you tired of it? Don’t you want to turn off the TV? … These things repeat and repeat.”

It’s almost like Solina is telling lies, saying that universal suffrage combined with a system where the only candidates on the ballot are those approved by the CCP would be a cure-all for Hong Kong’s woes. The thing is, plenty of people believe this. And she might actually be one of them for all I know.

Put one million Dr. Seuss’s in a room with one million typewriters for one million years and they still wouldn’t be able to come up with blather like that. Who needs Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck when you’ve got this?

Music – The Stuff I Liked in 2014

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(UPDATE: Somewhere the proper version of this post has fallen in between the cracks. This one here is slightly different and closer to what I intended than the post that got published a week or so back. One thing I need to add, among others, is that I’ve finally gotten around to listening to War On Drugs and it’s fricking wonderful.)

And now for something completely different. I’d meant to do this post up all nice with album cover photos and affiliate links to Amazon that no one would click on, but with my move now less than 3 weeks away, I’ll never get to it. So here it is, raw.

I spent far less time listening to music in the past year than I probably should have, and much of that listening time was devoted to stuff that was familiar and comfortable rather than exploring the new. So here’s my quirky list of new stuff, reissues, things I have marked as “spend more time listening to this” and other bits and bobs.

Adam Cohen – We Go Home – this past year I’ve been re-obsessed with all things Leonard Cohen. Adam is one of his kids and may not be as exceptional as his dad but works a similar vein and doesn’t insult your intelligence.

The Allman Brothers Band – The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings – great to get all of these complete sets and sounding so good, but one thing it makes clear is that they picked the right versions of these songs for the original release.

Annie Lennox – Nostalgia – I was depressed thinking that after a gap of so many years, the best she could come back with was this album of 12 covers, most of which are songs that have been covered too many times already (Georgia on My Mind) or seem inappropriate for a wealthy white British woman to be singing (Strange Fruit). But I’ll say this – she sings the hell out of these songs.

Beck – Morning Phase – A sort of sequel to Sea Change, this album of quieter songs (with arrangements from his dad) really resonated with me. I’ve played this more than any Beck album since, well, since Sea Change

Black Keys – Turn Blue – a huge success but I didn’t care for this as much as its predecessor.

Bob Dylan and The Band – Basement Tapes Complete – Like so many others, I’ve obsessed over the Basement Tapes for decades. Now we get everything (so they say) and we get it with the mid-70s overdubs removed. Add to that the best packaging of the year. The challenge is to find time to edit this down to a playlist of my favorite tracks – or just go with the 2 CD version, which consists of the tracks that made up the original mid-70s release.

Brian Eno – Nerve Net – a whole series of expanded Eno reissues, this one is the highlight because the bonus disc is My Squelchy Life.

Brian Eno & Karl Hyde – Someday World/High Life – the first album sounded as if they were stuck in the 90s, the second a bit of an improvement.

Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes – a patchwork and I find I’m no fan of XXX’s guitar work here.

Bryan Ferry – Avonmore. As good as any solo album he’s ever done. Ten originals, two covers and his cover of Robert Palmer’s John and Mary is worth hearing – several times.

Crosby Stills Nash & Young – CSNY 1974 – I know there are fans out there for this document of their 1974 tour but for me only the Neil Young stuff here still holds up. Everything else just seems to be dueling egos.

Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots – This is his first proper “solo” album and it didn’t disappoint me.

David Bowie – Nothing Has Changed – the 3 CD deluxe edition is the best career retrospective from Bowie yet. It runs in reverse chronological order, starting with his new collaboration with Maria Schneider. I really like the James Murphy remix of Love is Lost.

Eric Clapton – The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale – I have very low expectations of any Clapton album. This one didn’t put me to sleep and did get me to dig out Cale’s records again.

FKA Twigs – LP1 – Everyone loves this. Guess I’ll go back and play it again.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Inside the Pleasuredome. I won’t try and defend my love for everything and anything ZTT. This 7 LP set seems to collect every possible permutation of FGTH’s first album, which I still play far too often.

Gary Clark Jr – Live – His debut album was all over the map, this is more focused. He’ll be a great guitarist one day and he’s got a terrific voice. This might have been better as a single disc though.

Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours. Retro ballads from a former member of …. Kind of early Scott Walker-ish. I played this a lot but it’s not consistent – the first few tracks are the best.

Howlin’ Wolf – The Complete RPM & Chess Singles As & Bs 1951-1962 – because every record collection should have this.

Jack White – Lazaretto – I never really got the White Stripes but I’ve always admired White as “authentic” – I only became a fan after the movie It Might Get Loud – and I like his two solo albums a lot more than the WS stuff.

Jenny Lewis – The Voyager – I’ve only played this once so far but it sounded great and I need to get back to it.

Jessie J – Sweet Talker – I have no idea why, but Bang Bang is one of the few singles from 2014 that I like. I haven’t listened to the rest of the album though.

Joe Bonamassa – Different Shades of Blue – You can always count on Bonamassa to try something different and here there are more original songs and different backing musicians but in the end it’s not as good as his previous album, Dust Bowl.

John Hiatt – Terms of My Surrender – Hiatt’s got a real late-career renaissance going.

John Mellencamp – Plain Spoken – Mellencamp stays in his Okie folkie range and I played this more than his previous couple of albums.

Johnny Winter – True to the Blues – Nice to get a definitive Johnny Winter compilation, sad that he died this year.

King Crimson – The deluxe reissue overkill continued this year with 20+ disc sets for Starless and Red. My favorite era of Crimson but I just don’t have time for all of this so I’ve concentrated on the Steven Wilson remixes.

Lana Del Rey – Ultraviolence – In which she not only shows that the last album wasn’t a fluke, she improves upon it.

LCD Soundsystem – The Long Goodbye – great recording of their farewell concert. This is where I finally realized how good James Murphy has been for so long.

Led Zeppelin – the super deluxe reissues from Jimmy Page. Frankly I’m not knocked out by most of the bonus material. It leaves me wondering “is this really all there is?” But the remastered sound is splendid and the accompanying hardcover books in the super deluxe box set are nice to have.

Leonard Cohen – Live in Dublin – While this duplicates a lot of the Live in London set from four years ago, there are new songs and there’s still that great band, yielding truly definitive versions of many of his classic songs.

Leonard Cohen – Popular Problems – Worth the price of entry just for Almost Like the Blues, but plenty of other good new songs to listen to and ponder over.

Michael Bloomfield – From His Head to His Heart to His Hands – Al Kooper put together this splendid retrospective, 3 CDs plus 1 DVD, with key tracks from Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, Super Session and his solo work. One of the most important guitarists ever and yet all but forgotten. Anyone who loves electric blues guitar should have this in their collection.

Muddy Waters – The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-1962 – just like the Howlin’ Wolf set mentioned above, essential.

Neil Young – Storytone – Sorry, I think he’s lost the plot. I share his environmental concerns but I think most of the song writing is far below his best.

The New Basement Tapes – Lost on the River – T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, one of the Mumfords and others put music to a bunch of Bob Dylan lyrics from the 60s recently discovered in a trunk somewhere. When I listen to it, I’m just too conscious that it’s Dylan throw-aways and while some of them are good all I can think of is, “Is this how Zimmy would have done it?”

Nils Lofgren – Face the Music – massive boxed set that makes the case that he’s not just a great guitarist and not just a great backing musician for Springsteen and Neil Young. Even if he never stepped on stage with anyone else, he’d still be worth following.

Pink Floyd – The Endless River – unreleased mostly instrumental studio jams from 20 years ago, remixed and edited, some new instruments added. It sounds like classic era Floyd but it meanders and is less than essential.

R.E.M. – A good year for them, big collections featuring both of their MTV Unplugged appearances and “rarities” from both the IRS and the Warner Bros days.

Robert Plant – Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar – I admire Plant so much for what he’s doing here. He’s still a great singer and the arrangements are inventive across the board. I just wish the songs were a little stronger.

Robert Wyatt – Different Every Time – fabulous two disc compilation that omits I’m a Believer and still seems close to definitive.

Robyn Hitchcock – The Ghost in You. Hitchcock used to be a major fave. I stopped listening to him a few years ago. This gorgeous album has me loving him all over again.

Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams – This sounds like great mainstream classic rock and I think it will sound good for years to come.

Santana – Corazon – the big guest name approach yet again, but this time on a mostly Latino album, so it’s different enough and it works. I really love his take on Bob Marley’s Iron Lion Zion, featuring Ziggy Marley.

Scott Walker & Sunn O))) – Soused – I should give this a listen.

St. Vincent – St. Vincent – I should give this a listen.

Swans – To Be Kind – A big noise, A huge fucking noise. I didn’t think I still liked this kind of challenging music but in this case, I still do.

Taylor Swift – 1989 – I’ve never listened to her before but gave it a couple of spins since it made so many year’s best lists. I’m not sure that I’d know it was her if I didn’t already know it’s her. All this Max Martin stuff sounds alike to me.

Tom Petty – Hypnotic Eye – Wow, did the media hype this album, a return to rocking 70s form for him, they said. Not really.

Tweedy – Sukirae – I should give this a listen.

U2 – Songs of Innocence. Rolling Stone magazine named this the best album of the year. I stopped paying attention to Rolling Stone’s album reviews years ago precisely because of stuff like that.

The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground 45th Anniversary Edition – Magnificent. Three very different mixes of the album. Two more CDs of live stuff and another CD with the scrapped 4th album (most of the tracks made it out over the years but they never sounded this good).

2014 was a good year for collectors as record companies continued to churn out massive box sets offering the complete output from a varied selection of artists. Often no-frills packaging and no bonus tracks but still a nice way to grab everything at once from everyone from Emmylou Harris to Rick James.

So not that much music on my list from new acts under the age of 30. I don’t listen to as much music as I’d like now because I don’t use music as background noise when I’m working or reading. When I listen to music, I listen to music. But my time for listening frequently occurs in venues where I want to hear something I already know I like – on the bus going home after a long day at work, as one example.

Plus, let’s face it, the dominant popular music remains hip hop, and as near as I can tell the dominant lyrical theme in hip hop remains “I’m so great” and “I’m so rich” and that doesn’t hold any interest for me. The indie and alternative rock bands mostly strike me as either too derivative or too discordant.

I get it. My tastes are becoming more mainstream as I get older. I used to thrill to new releases with song titles that read like calculus. Now I simply don’t want to work that hard.

Hong Kong is Now Fucked Into a Cocked Hat

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Is Hong Kong going to hell?

Surely you don’t need me to tell you about what happened in Paris with Charlie Hebdo magazine – about the murders there and then the all-out police response that brought the murderers to justice in less than three days.

So what about Hong Kong, where unknown pieces of shit firebombed the office of Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily and the home of its publisher? And now, a police officer was run over by a man in a van after attempting to stop what appears to be a coordinated effort to steal copies of this newspaper from stalls in early morning hours as the paper is delivered.

Fortunately no one was killed. At a very basic level, isn’t this the same thing as the Charlie Hebdo attack? A publication exercising the right for freedom of speech finding itself at the receiving end of violence because some people disagreed with what was written and were unable to respond in any way other than Neanderthal? Is the timing of this series of attacks pure coincidence? Or were the triads/billionaires/CCP inspired by events in France?

The cars that the firebombers used have been found, license plates removed. The police response to date has been, “the motive for the attacks was still under investigation.” Given recent history in Hong Kong, one might safely assume that the firebombers were hired, that the firebombers might eventually be caught and sentenced, that those who hired them will never be known or revealed or tried in a court of law.

Meanwhile, Regina Ip, on the short list of people who might become the next governor (Chief Executive is such a stupid name) of Hong Kong and surely on the short list of biggest idiots in Hong Kong (which is how she got on the former list) has said, “oh, wait, we can’t assume that just because someone threw firebombs at a newspaper office and at the home of the newspaper’s owner and then sent people combing the city to steal copies of that newspaper that this is an attack on press freedom. Maybe it’s a, oh, I don’t know, a personal grudge.”

By the way, Article 27 of the Basic Law states, “Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike.”

But that hasn’t stopped Chinese authorities from telling HK companies that if they advertise in newspapers that support democracy that they may not be able to conduct business in China.

All of this violence and intimidation is disgraceful. It’s shoddy. It’s cheap. It’s small-minded. It is unbecoming to “Asia’s World City” and a global power. And these are not isolated incidents. They are part of a pattern of growing violence against media that does not toe the pro-Communist Party line.

Jimmy Lai’s aide Mark Simon:

“It’s just extremely disappointing that basically the only thing they got left is violence; that’s the case being made against peaceful democracy and civil disobedience. Nobody is making the argument anymore. They’re just throwing firebombs.”

It was less than a month ago that a top ranking CCP official said that Hong Kong is in need of “re-enlightenment” on “national identity”. In the past, “re-enlightenment” in China usually meant prison or forced labor. So there is that to look forward to.

This whole one country, two systems thing has been utter nonsense from the outset. President Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan: “If the system is good, then we believe it should be ‘one country, one system.” We have one country, two systems because one of those systems fucking sucks sweaty donkey balls, it always has sucked and it always will suck. China doesn’t have a clue as to how to manage Hong Kong and the world will keep its mouth shut as long they’re dependent on Chinese consumers to keep their economies afloat.

One of my favorite quotes from the film Ronin:

So what could have been conducted in collegial atmosphere is now fucked into cocked hat.

Hong Kong Tax – A Bit More

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A quick follow-up to a previous post.

From the SCMP:

The government has again made a gross underestimation of its budget surplus, according to accountants who put the figure at more than HK$58 billion, compared to the government’s estimate of HK$9.1 billion.

In separate press conferences, the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants and PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong respectively predicted the government would post a HK$60 billion and HK$58.1 billion surplus in the fiscal year ending on March 31 – more than six times the figure forecast by Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah in February’s budget.

The accountants put the huge difference down to higher-than-expected stamp duty and income tax payments.

Stock market transactions also incur stamp duty and, along with property sales, big transactions here have contributed to the rise in stamp duty receipts, said the accountants.

“It is common to see a difference between the estimated and actual surplus, but the government has underestimated its surplus over the past five fiscal years, showing its conservative approach,” said Florence Chan Yuen-fan, of the institute’s taxation faculty executive committee. The gap between estimated and actual figures ranged from HK$26.7 billion last fiscal year to HK$100.3 billion in 2010-11.

In November, the city’s fiscal reserves stood at HK$768.6 billion, up from HK$710.2 billion the previous year.

The way I see it, John Tsang is either incompetent or evil – and I’m not saying that the two are mutually exclusive. Just what does the Hong Kong government need to have US$100 billion in reserve for? Basically they’ve got more than HK$1 million per person in Hong Kong.

I’ll take my million in $500 notes please. No $1,000 bills, might be counterfeit you know.

More Idiots in Hong Kong

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So an anti-gay-rights pro-bigotry pro-hatred group called up 611 people and got 415.48 of them to agree with them. I wonder how those 611 were chosen and I wonder how the questions were phrased.

From today’s SCMP:

Almost 70 per cent of people believe society should tolerate anti-homosexual attitudes

The Family School Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance Concern Group, an anti-gay-rights group which commissioned the research, said the Equal Opportunities Commission should respect people’s opinions and halt a review of anti-discrimination laws which could extend protection to gay couples in a “de facto marriage”.

The survey, based on interviews with 611 adults, was conducted by Polytechnic University researchers in November.

Some 68 per cent of respondents agreed that society should tolerate different opinions, including those against homosexuality, while only 15 per cent disagreed, the study showed. And 57 per cent disagreed with the idea that schools should teach pupils that “both homosexual and heterosexual love are beautiful”.

At present, the city has no law against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Roger Wong Wai-ming, the head of the family school group, said the government and the EOC should not “deprive” people of their “freedom of speech” by passing laws to protect gay rights.

Yes, idiots should have the same right to freedom of speech as anyone else. But not if they are using those freedoms to deny the same freedoms to others.

A Short Rant About Hong Kong Taxes

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I just paid my Hong Kong income tax for what will likely be the last time (because I’m leaving Hong Kong).

On the one hand, it’s easy to think about how low Hong Kong taxes are relative to most other places. It’s a flat tax, the entire form is four pages and most people do not need to hire an accountant to complete the form for them.

On the other hand, I think about John Tsang and where our tax dollars go and don’t go. (Tsang, btw, earns more than HK$3.6 million per year, as of 2013. He certainly doesn’t earn it.)

Hong Kong has amassed equity reserves that are the envy of the world. Every year, those reserves grow, because Hong Kong taxes are too high. It goes to the ludicrously unnecessary Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge. It goes to that high speed rail that has gone way over budget and that no one needs. It went to that ridiculous new eyesore of a cruise ship terminal that even the cruise ship companies wouldn’t pay for.

It does not go to the elderly who scrounge through garbage bins looking for discarded beer cans and bits of cardboard that they can bring to a recycling center so that they can afford a tin of cat food for dinner. It does not go to the people in Hong Kong who are so poor that they live in cages in Sham Shui Po.

Taxes should be lowered – Hong Kong is in no danger of running out of money as the government makes huge amounts on real estate transactions and doesn’t need to spend money to support a military force – or the spending should ensure more equitable distribution. Raise the floor so that the minimum income for paying tax is higher and/or take some of those tens of billions of dollars sitting around and do something for the poor for a change.

Advice Needed: Selling a Car in Hong Kong?

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A lot of you have given me some great advice and tips in the past. Maybe someone can help me out here.

As you already know, I’m leaving Hong Kong soon and moving to Manila. One thing (among many) that I need to do before I leave is sell my car. Obviously I want to try and get as good a price as possible for it but when it comes right down to it, one way or another it needs to be sold within another month and hopefully sooner.

So I’ve got the post on this blog. I’ve got an ad on Chinese language web site Car8. (I was unable to post one on the other major Chinese site that I know of, 28 Car, because Google Translate doesn’t handle that site so well. I’ve got an ad on Craig’s List. I’ve posted the ad to the Facebook Hong Kong Buy & Sell group. I’m a bit hesitant to post on Asiaxpat or Geoxpat because they charge for ads (relatively small amounts though).

Given the (lack of) response I’ve had so far, I may have to bite the bullet and try to sell the car to a dealer. The problem with that is that I’ll get a lot less money – I’m assuming anywhere from 25-50% less than doing it by private sale. But I may have no other choice.

So my question is, which dealer or dealers would give me the fairest deal? I don’t want to spend weeks going around from dealer to dealer, automall to automall, to get the best possible price. Years ago I sold off some cars to European Motors up in Sai Kung and I know they gave me a good no-bullshit deal, but the guy who had that business passed away.

So – used car dealers along Kam Tin Road? Automalls in Kowloon Bay? Wanchai? Tsuen Wan? The used car shops in Tin Hau? Consignment via CarCity? An ad in the SCMP? Can anyone recommend (or recommend avoiding) anyone?

Thanks for any tips or ideas!

My Best Photos of 2014

The numbers aren’t good. If we’re talking sheer quantity, in 2012 I shot 18,455 photos, 12,031 in 2013 and just 7,228 in 2014. I put the blame on a full time job, a really long daily commute and a few personal issues – not the least of which was fracturing an ankle and doing major damage to an elbow in a fall in September. All of this added up to shooting far less than I would have liked. Also 2014 was the year in which I totally walked away from trying to do any kind of street photography – I just saw so many horrendously bad examples of street photos on various groups on Facebook that it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Even so, I did come away from the year having shot a few fun events and having some images I quite like. So here’s my year in photography.

In January the band Operator had a CD launch party at Backstage in Central. They were supported by Bank Job and The Sleeves.

Also in January I had a chance to shoot with Hong Kong model Yumi at PASM. Recently she seems to be having some success as a DJ.

In February one of my photos of Hong Kong singer Faye Wan (taken late 2013) was displayed in a photo exhibition in Soho.

I had this idea for a year-long photo project, Hong Kong Women With Tattoos – or Hong Kong Ink, perhaps? It ended up being far more time consuming than I had expected and I was also having trouble finding women with larger tattoos to model for me. I shot Hui in March and this was a fun shoot.

At the end of March, there was a festival of local bands called Friday Night Rocks timed to coincide with the annual Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.This show featured a large variety of terrific Hong Kong bands along with one band from Korea. Below – Hey Joe Trio, Shotgun Politics, Galaxy Express (2), Dr. Eggs.

In April, also for my tattoo project, I shot Ines in the studio. A strong woman with a great story.

Also in April, guitar great Robben Ford played a show in Shatin and I was able to get a “three songs, no flash” pass for that.

At the end of August, I attended Hong Kong’s 2nd International Tattoo Convention.

Just last week, I shot some of the bands appearing at the Wanch at a memorial concert for Hong Kong singer/songwriter Sue Shearman. Sue died from cancer at a crazy young age and the evening was called Well Fuck You Cancer and once again highlighted the amazing diversity of the independent music scene in Hong Kong. Below – Dark Himaya (2), Kestrels and Kites.

So there you have it. I’m hoping that my move to Manila in 2015 will provide more opportunities for shooting. I won’t have a studio affiliation there as I do in Hong Kong but I’m hoping to meet many of the local photographers and to find some clubs that present some unique local bands.