Right on the heels of news of the death of Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni also died on Monday. The influence of L’Avventura, Red Desert, Blow Up, Zabriskie Point, The Passenger and other films cannot be understated.

From the late 50s through the mid 70s, there was this explosion of astonishing cinema from titans in Europe. Almost all of them are gone now – Fellini, Truffaut, Fassbinder, Malle, now Bergman and Antonioni- and yet it hardly seems that long ago to me that these guys were in their prime. Fuck I’m getting old.

And I’m already in a fucking lousy mood, thanks for asking. For no reason other than just me being me.

Ingmar Bergman died yesterday. To say that he was one of the greatest film directors to have ever walked our planet doesn’t seem like enough. Seventh Seal, Cries and Whispers, Persona, Smiles From a Summer Night, Scenes from a Marriage …

I remember watching Wild Strawberries in college and thinking that it was total perfection.

TV and radio host Tom Snyder also died yesterday. Dan Aykroyd used to do a wicked send-up of him on SNL. But Snyder, chain smoking, plaid sports jackets, sometimes clueless but always enthusiastic. He put John Lydon on his show and Lydon acted the way he is prone to do and it was classic TV. As straight as can be, he also gave air time to the Clash, Plasmatics, Paul Weller, Charlie Manson and Ayn Rand. I loved his show – some episodes are on DVD.

And last week Lazlo Kovacs died. One of the great directors of photography. His films include Easy Rider, New York New York, Ghostbusters, Shampoo ….

Well, my first time to see The Cure. My reactions are kind of mixed.

They played for over two hours barely pausing between songs. Smith never really spoke to the audience, except to say thank you at one point. After awhile, it all started to get kind of samey for me, one song basically blending into another. Smith’s voice, the ripsaw guitars, great rhythm section. But the pacing of show was off and I don’t think I’m the only one who noticed this. Because looking at the crowd, at roughly 90 minutes in they were all bouncing up and down, fists pumping in the air. And at 120 minutes in, they were mostly just standing there. I didn’t feel this building towards anything.

Smith himself, aside from the make-up, is not the most theatrical of performers, mostly just standing there singing and playing guitar. During two songs he picked up a hand mike, walked to either side of the stage and just sort of faced the audience while he sang, not doing any typical rock star moves to pump up the energy – and I suppose there are some who would appreciate that.

But for me, it started to just wear on. And mindful of the crush to get to the train at the end of the concert, we decided at 130 minutes in to beat the crowds and head out.

Overall they sounded great and I’m glad I went. But something was missing for me. Really good, yes. Transcendent, no.

One of the highlights of the night for me was looking at the guards trying to deal with this guy who went to the front of the seated section, placed his briefcase on the railing, and just stood there bopping up and down. One guard came over, tried to get him to move, shined his flashlight in the guy’s eyes, but the guy wasn’t budging. So the guard called over guard #2 and they both stood there asking the guy to leave, both shining the flashlight in his eyes, and he still wasn’t budging. (Not to be racist here, but will mention just in passing that the guy was Asian.)

Neither guard laid a hand on the guy. They tried to get him to move for about 15 minutes, he wouldn’t move, and they eventually just gave up and left him there. Back in the days when I worked rock concert security, we would have been a lot more physical about it. But either times have changed or these were clearly the politest security guards in the business.

My friend (I think she’s my girlfriend now but still not 100% sure) really got into the show from the very beginning, yelling after the second song that “they sound really good!” And about an hour in, we were both up and dancing. But I think after two plus hours she was also getting a little bored – she’d gone back to just sitting there, watching, tapping her feet.

So we got to the train, got seats, decided to head over to Causeway Bay for a late supper and then, well, around midnight and (sigh) separate taxis to our separate homes. Which is why I’m blogging now and why I expect to have trouble falling asleep ….

I watched the pilot for a new US sitcom called Caveman. It’s based on a series of TV commercials, believe it or not, for an auto insurance agency. Those commercials depict cavemen in our modern society and everything about them is unremarkable – they speak good English, have educations, hold jobs, have families – except for the fact that they’re cavemen. The point being that the insurance company’s procedures are so simple, even a caveman can understand them. The series is scheduled to start airing in October but the pilot appeared on torrent sites over the weekend.

So in this new series, there are three cavemen who are roommates – two brothers and a best friend. One of them is engaged to the beautiful blonde-haired daughter of a rich businessman. And they’re very aware of prejudice and cavemen’s media image. (At one point, one says, “they still show Flintstones six times a week, what’s that all about?”)

The writing seems vaguely clever enough that I’ll watch a few more episodes to see how they string this out – nothing knee-slappingly funny but not overly obnoxious either. The thing is, I was sitting there watching this and I was thinking to myself, “This is the 21st century, is this still a message that needs to be delivered to the public, not to judge people based on their race?”

Well, I guess I forgot how long it has been since I lived in the US, because just a few minutes later, I came across this news item over at Yahoo:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Before Boise State running back Ian Johnson married the girl he proposed to on national television, the couple prayed to end prejudice.

Johnson and Chrissy Popadics, the cheerleader he proposed to after scoring the winning points in the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma, were married Saturday in a traditional ceremony at Cathedral of the Rockies First United Methodist Church.

Johnson, who is black, has said he received phone calls and about 30 letters, including personal threats from people who objected to his plans to marry his white fiancee.

I guess we haven’t come as far as we should have by now.

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This has been a very quiet weekend for me. The only times I went out were for dinner and to join a friend for a couple of (non-alcoholic – yikes!) drinks Sunday evening. The US Navy’s in town. Apparently LKF has been mobbed every night because of some weekend carnival event there. I’ve chosen to steer clear.

Most of the Wanchai bars would like to hold similar events. But the last one was several years ago. They keep trying to do new ones but the District Council keeps turning them down. They refuse to shut down a stretch of Lockhart Road for a Sunday afternoon – “streets are for cars, not people” seems to be their philosophy.

It just strikes me as so freaking odd that so many major cities in the world don’t think twice about doing these kind of street festivals. People enjoy them and they generate great business for sponsors and local businesses. So why not here?

At this point all I can ask is what century is the Wanchai District Council living in?

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Another theme I’m planning on developing more fully later. Two albums I continue to play almost weekly for decades illustrate this theme. These are No Other by Gene Clark and Starfish by The Church.

Gene Clark was an original member of the Byrds. In 1974 he poured his heart and soul into an album, “No Other,” that was a total commercial failure. Decades later almost everyone who hears it agrees it is one of the great albums of all time. But in 1974 it only got up to number 144 on the Billboard album charts. It’s said that Clark never personally recovered from the failure of this album. He died from a bleeding ulcer at the age of 46.

In 1988, I saw the Australian band The Church play at the Bottom Line in NYC. They knew the audience was packed with music industry bigwigs and backstage, before the show, they said that they were going to go out and prove to them that they were the best band in the world. And that night they really were. It remains in my memory as one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. The album Starfish yielded a hit single, Under the Milky Way. They really deserved to conquer the world but they didn’t. 20 years later they’re still together but their time has passed and they never quite scaled the heights that they expected.

Not only do you not always get what you want in this life, sometimes you don’t even get what you deserve.

All of the following found via links on Boing Boing.

David Mackett, president of Airline Pilots Security Alliance:

There is simply no deployable technology that has a prayer of keeping a motivated, prepared terrorist out of the system every time — even most times. TSA misses more than 90% of detectable weapons at passenger checkpoints in their own tests, and it is not their fault, because of the limitations of technology and the number of inspections they must conduct. This doesn’t count several classes of completely undetectable weapons like composite knives and liquid explosives.

What is TSA’s fault is their abject failure to embrace more robust approaches than high visibility inspections, and their accommodations to the Air Transport Association’s revenue interests at the expense of true security, while largely ignoring the recommendations of the front-line airline crews and air marshals who have no direct revenue agenda and are much more familiar with airline operations than are the bureaucrats (remember government ignoring the front-line FBI agents who tried to warn them about 9/11?). Deplorable amounts of money have been wasted on incomprehensible security strategies, while KISS [Keep It Simple, Stupid] methods proven to work have been ignored.

Almost six years after 9/11, it is inexcusable that — in an environment where TSA misses more than 90% of weapons, RON aircraft are not secured, and ground employees are not screened — fewer than 2% of our airliners have a team of armed pilots aboard, fewer than 5% have air marshals, and the flight attendants have no mandatory tactical or behavioral assessment training. $24 billion dollars later, we are not materially safer, except in the areas of intelligence that prevent an attack from getting to an airport. Once at the airport, there is little reason to believe the attack won’t succeed.

On Youtube, the trailer for No Country For Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy book, from the Coen Brothers:

Next, more Japanese shenanigans, from Japan Probe. A shop in Akihabara, aka Electric Town, where you can pay $100 an hour to take photos of scantily clad women wearing anime masks. I assume that when Skippy-san returns home he will check it out and report back to us.

And a very nice comic. (Click to see full size.)

Some stuff upcoming from a certain company that I’m looking forward to adding to my already over-sized collection:

December 18th – The Ultimate Blade Runner. A five disc set, available in Standard Def, Blu-Ray and HD, packaged in a “Deckard Briefcase.” This includes 5 different versions of the film, including a new “Final Cut” that has some new footage shot by Ridley Scott in the past year. The set also includes a three and a half hour documentary that goes into the history of the film and exactly why there are five different versions. There will also be 45 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes, featurettes on special effects, abandoned sequences, conceptual designs, Philip K. Dick and other bits.

Not to confuse you, but there will also be a 4 disc edition in standard packaging that will have the five versions of the film and the documentary but not the other bonus features. There will also be a 2 disc edition that features just the new Final Cut plus the documentary. The five disc set in the metal case will retail for US$80, the four disc for US$35 and the two disc for US$21. Prices for the BR and HD versions have not yet been announced.

Said Sir Ridley Scott: “The Final Cut is the product of a process that began in early 2000 and continued off and on through seven years of intense research and meticulous restoration, technical challenges, amazing discoveries and new possibilities. I can now wholeheartedly say that Blade Runner: The Final Cut is my definitive director’s cut of the film.”

The Final Cut version will also screen theatrically in selected cities in the US in October.

Coming on October 23rd is a new 10 disc Stanley Kubrick collection. This version includes new 2 disc editions of 2001, Clockwork Orange, Shining, Eyes Wide Shut – each of which will also be sold separately – plus a new single disc “deluxe edition” of Full Metal Jacket only available in the box set and the Stanley Kubrick – A Life in Pictures documentary. This will also see Blu Ray and HD release as well as standard def release. Eyes Wide Shut includes both versions of the film – the uncensored European version as well as the digitally censored US version. List price on the standard def version will be US$80.

No, not that kind. Just some windows I left open earlier today, putting off going to bed so sharing these with you.

Back when I was studying at Fudan University, it mildly peeved me that they didn’t teach us food until the third week. Most of the local restaurants didn’t have English menus and I was frustrated at only being able to point at dishes on other tables or pictures on the wall. Had I known about these two sites back then, it would have helped a lot!

How to Order Chinese Food. Web site by an American (I think) living in Fujian. You get a picture of each dish, its name in both simplified Chinese and pinyin plus an English description of the dish. (You’ll need to have Chinese fonts loaded on your PC to see the simplified Chinese characters.)

Mei Wah aka Mei Hua (because the name in the window is different from the name in the window title bar). Another American who likes Chinese food. This site is all about showing you Chinese characters and giving their meaning in English – albeit without always giving you the Chinese words. The Chinese characters on this site are .gifs so you don’t need Chinese fonts loaded on your PC to see them. The guy is a good writer and gives some nice info with each word. “CLOUD SWALLOW is “won ton” – in Cantonese. Bet you always wondered what that meant. Eating won tons is like swallowing clouds.” 45 “pages” of text and graphics here.

And now for something completely different … an indepth review of the upcoming HTC Kaiser, which will probably be my next phone. My current HTC phone, the Dopod 838pro, has been frustratingly slow ever since I upgraded it to Windows Mobile 6. The Kaiser (hate the name) has a cpu that’s twice as fast, which should solve that problem. It also has built in GPS and a much better camera.

Last but not least, this from Huffington Post:

“A correction, sir. The new polls do not show that support for you is down to 25 percent —it’s 25 people.”

I’m surprised they could find that many. I’m not surprised that talk of impeachment is getting louder, just that it’s taken so long.

Yesterday, some last minute arrangements that had me jumping on the train in the afternoon to Shenzhen. For me, most trips there are pretty much the same, this one had one or two significant variations.

My first stop is generally the HSBC ATM at the train station to load up on cash. It was closed for maintenance. And this didn’t appear to be a short, one hour thing.

This meant I had to trudge in the 34 degree heat up to the New Century Hotel. This means running the gauntlet just past the Shangri-La, people offering hotel rooms, massage, sex. “Hey mister, you want young girl, pussy? PUSSY? Come take look! PUSSY!!!!” This results in me walking faster than I would prefer, which on hot days like yesterday results in me being drenched in sweat after just a few minutes on the street.

Got there only to find that HSBC was no longer there.

I was meeting my friend in the lobby of the Shangri-La, so I walked the gauntlet in reverse. Now I wasn’t merely dripping, I was soaking. I got there before my friend, made an enquiry at the front desk, and found that HSBC was no longer at the New Century because they are now in the back of the Shangri-La! Could have saved myself all that walking and bullshit had I known.

We had dinner at the Shang Palace. An expensive option, yes, but you would be hard pressed to beat the quality of the food and the amazingly good service there. An entire Peking Duck is $190, every bit as good as the one that costs several times more at Maxim’s Peking Garden in Central. And they actually do all the work there – not just slice up the duck but roll up all of it into pancakes for you – we had at least a dozen. And it’s something I haven’t had in ages. We also had some prawns steamed with garlic, minced pork with salted fish, mixed veggies, soup.

After walking my friend’s mother over to the train station, my friend and I went to the San Dao (Sunday) sauna. I’ve been going there for five years. When my (now ex-) wife found the place, a two hour massage with tons of extras cost just 80 RMB. Then they rented out two additional floors, renovated the entire place, and every time I go there, the price has gone up a notch. A two hour massage now costs 168 RMB.

So first my friend got a pedicure while I did that deep ear cleaning thing, which I love. I’m convinced it helps my iPod sound better. They had a new wrinkle for the massage, using hot smooth rocks, very nice.

The massage finished around 1 AM. They left, we pushed the beds together, covered up with the down blankets they provided, and eventually went to sleep. Yeah, that’s right, a two hour massage for 168 RMB includes keeping the room all night instead of booking a hotel room, no extra charge.

We woke up around 9:30 and went downstairs for the free buffet breakfast and then off to the train station and back home.

So … ear cleaning, fruit and drinks, two hour massage, all night stay, breakfast and it came to less than 300 RMB each including tips. But this visit no shopping mall, no DVDs. Even so, ya gotta love Shenzhen.

Oh, “my friend”? Yes, it would seem that I now have a girlfriend. Someone whom I did not meet in Wanchai. Someone who travels as much as I do and so it took a long time for things to slowly come together for us, but it seems to be happening now. No, I don’t know how long it’s going to last. But she’s very different from other women I’ve dated and right now I have a very good feeling about this. We’re going to see the Cure on Monday (unless she has to do a last minute trip) and she has no idea who they are but I am happy that she’s open to trying it and excited about going.

Wanchai lunch time, two Red Bull promo girls.

Seen from Bulldogs … yowza

From the 33rd floor lift lobby in my office, taken on the 19th (shot through a window).

Ah summer time, that time of year when businesses offering private tutoring for kids (or for their parents, worried about their kids making it into the right universities) send their teachers to stylists and promote them like rock stars. The ads are on billboards all over town, on the sides of buses and filling up magazines. Maybe I’ll scan some of these ads and upload them. This is a billboard opposite Times Square.

This year, two perfectly good apartment buildings on my street were demolished to make way for new ratholes and shitboxes that will be cheaply built and for which people will line up to spend millions of dollars in hopes of profits from gouging tenants.

The new foundations are being “dug” now. They are using piledrivers. Even though the now-vacant lots are several buildings away, the sound of these machines smashing into the ground every five seconds is omnipresent. Today they’re even causing my flat to shake from a series of small earthquakes.

I may be mistaken, but my belief is that Hong Kong is one of the last so-called civilized places in the world where these machines can be used in residential neighborhoods. That’s because here the get-richer-quicker mentality of a few landlords outweighs the needs of thousands of ordinary people.