I believe that every year about this time, one of the streets in Sai Kung is closed off and a giant pavilion is built for nightly performances of Cantonese opera. I wandered over there tonight after dinner to check it out.

Here’s the schedule:

The big signs erected in town:

Closer view of a single sign:

And the pavilion itself. I’m not good at estimating this sort of thing. My best guess is that it holds at least 500 people, maybe even double that. And the place was full.

All of the following photos were taken from the back of the hall.

I know nothing about Cantonese opera of course. Much to my surprise, I found myself almost enjoying it. Both singers possessed pleasing, strong voices and, as you can see, the costumes and make-up are fabulous. I stayed for about 15 minutes. If I’d had someone with me to translate, I might have stayed longer. As the only gweilo there that I could see, a number of people did turn around and look at me. Unfortunately, no one came over to ask if I had any questions or offer any explanation. Perhaps my Ramones t-shirt didn’t fit this venue?

Want to read full issues of magazines online for free? The Zinio Mobile Newstand was set up exclusively for people with iPhones. How to do it if you don’t have an iPhone (or you do but want to be able to do this from your desktop or laptop)? (Think I got this from Lifehacker as well.)

Download and install Safari. When you run it, go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced. Click on “Show Develop menu in menu bar.” Now that you’ve got Develop on the menu bar, click on that, click on User Agent, and select Mobile Safari 1.1.3 iPhone. You’re all set. Apparently you need to do that last step every time you run Safari. Then go to here.

The magazines available are scans of the entire issues, ads and all, and only the current issue is available. The choices at the moment include US News and World Report, Playboy, Penthouse, Popular Photography, Popular Mechanics, Car and Driver, PC Magazine, Elle, MacWorld, Esquire (UK edition) and NME.

I’m now searching for a way to be able to view sites like Hulu.com online. Can anyone recommend some good proxy servers for this?

3, a mobile phone company owned by Li “Boom Boom” Ka-Shing, he of the megabucks and moron sons, has announced that they’ve signed the deal for the iPhone for Hong Kong. Since 3 exclusively offers 3G phones, that’s further proof that the 3G iPhone is just around the corner, if you needed further proof.

What they did not announce: the date, the price or if they will offer a flat rate plan with unlimited internet. I’m still waiting to see what else the phone will include besides 3G.

Ah, who am I kidding, I’m going to get one. Trying to load web pages in Safari over the 2G network when I can’t find some free WiFi is an exercise in futility.

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Far right nutjob and Fox “News” commentator Michelle Malkin keeps proving there are no depths to which she will not stoop and that nothing is too stoopid for her.

This past week she attacked Rachel Ray. Rachel Ray????? I don’t particularly care for her, but she seems very apple pie and mom and USA, doesn’t she? But take a look at the photo below:

It’s a screen shot from an ad for Dunkin Donuts. Malkin decided that the scarf was the same type as worn by Yasser Arafat and the PLO and that in this ad, Ray is trying to signal support for Islamic Jihad.

Following Malkin’s tirade, instead of responding with a statement like, “she’s batshit crazy and no one with a brain pays attention to her,” Dunkin Donuts has yanked the ad off the airwaves.

I think I’d boycott Dunkin for yanking the ad except they don’t have any shops in our little SAR.