Nice of Hong Kong to make the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah a holiday. Maybe next year, both days?

I’m trying not to think about what’s going on in Washington and in the stock markets right now. Wish I was successful at not thinking about it.

Also in depressing news – it seems that Kenneth Branagh will be directing the feature film version of the Marvel comic, Thor. I really loved this comic book when I was a kid. And it’s not exactly like Branagh’s had this huge string of hits recently. But still, from Henry V to Marvel comics in a span of 20 years does not strike me as a step in the right career direction. As if I was an expert on that.

Also depressing, news that there will be a sequel to Blade Runner.

Tina Fey returns to SNL as Sarah Palin. “I went to Times Square to see a movie called The Bush Doctrine. But it was not about politics.”

Nice article on Gizmodo about how Criterion restores films for DVD. If you don’t own any Criterion titles, you don’t own any DVDs.

Lifehacker writes about a program that will download for you from 50 video sharing sites including YouTube, store the file in your choice of flv or avi.

Also on Lifehacker, why renting makes more sense than buying?

SI is releasing an all-Marisa Miller calendar. I knew there was a reason for sports.

Happy new year!

Back home from Manila now. My first time to fly Cebu Pacific and it was not bad. All you get for your plane ticket is a seat – no video, no movie, no food, not even a bottle of water – carry it on or buy it on the plane. And as long as it keeps the price of the ticket down, why not? For a short hop like that, I don’t need a lobster bib or cashmere socks.

The only downside to the trip is that when you’re there for a short time and don’t have time to go somewhere else and you’re not interested in sightseeing or shopping malls and not wanting to stray too far because of the traffic and not interested in the girlie bars, there’s fuck-all to do there. Maybe we should have gone to Boracay or I should have booked a fancier hotel with a pool.

Then I killed myself on Saturday night, first by having way too much dinner at the branch of Nanbantei at Greenbelt (my gf wasn’t too hungry and so I thought some place where you could order food stick by stick made sense) and that would have been okay except that, frankly, it wasn’t very good. I’ve been to Nanbantei in Tokyo at least a dozen times and while I know it’s not the best yakitori in Japan, they have an English menu and everything is okay. I’ve been to the Nanbantei in Hong Kong and it’s not too bad. (Oh, look, the web site says they now have a branch at “Couseway Bay.”)

But the one in the Philippines wasn’t very good at all. I sat there thinking that while being a yakitori chef doesn’t require the same skills as a sushi master, it’s still a very precise thing and I wondered how they managed to train local people to do that level of precision and that answer, I suppose, is that they don’t. Almost everything was overcooked, burnt, dried out. It was kind of sad looking at the shiitake mushrooms stuffed with chicken and knowing how they’re supposed to look and taste and then seeing what this local attempt was like. And for some reason, I ate it all.

Following that, we went over to the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, chocolate served by the bald man or something like that. My gf may be a choco-holic but she ordered cheesecake and iced tea. I ordered chocolate cake and hot chocolate and seriously went into a chocolate coma, barely able to make it back to the hotel.

Saturday afternoon, in a taxi, the driver asked if I ever had more need for taxi services. Since I had to leave super early on Monday for the airport, I asked if he could pick me up that early and how much he’d charge. The amount was not unreasonable so I said okay. Sunday night he sent a text to my gf asking her to “ask sir if it is okay for him to give me some more money because I am in Alabang and have to meet him early in the morning.” The amount he requested was the amount I’d already decided to tip if he was on time, but c’mon, a deal’s a deal, isn’t it? Maybe not.

Flying home this morning, Cebu Pacific told me my bag was too heavy for carry-on so I had to check it. They offer a 200 peso discount if you fly with no check-in luggage, so I thought I would have to pay 200 pesos, which is about US$4 or so. But they told me I needed to pay 300 pesos. It was 6 in the morning, I was barely alive, I didn’t have the energy to make a fuss.

That new terminal 3 at Manila NAIA is nice to fly into but shite to fly out of. The smoking room is closed, the monitors displaying flight status aren’t working, there’s only one tiny shop there.

Two things I noted about the Philippines this trip …..

In job ads in the newspapers, they can still specify an age range and gender for open positions. Like junior accountant, female, age 24-28, include a 2X2 photo with your resume and photocopies of your school transcripts. Hello 1960!

Flipping around on the TV Sunday night, one channel was showing cockfights. Not some movie with fake stuff (like Monte Hellman’s 1974 film Cockfighter, starring Warren Oates and well worth your time if you can find it), this was the real deal. And on TV. Sunday Night Cockfight! or something like that. I watched for a few minutes, briefly fascinated but quickly nauseated. I’m probably not eating chicken for the next few days.

Dear Spike,

Greetings to you and god Bless you in all goodness ways and health. My name is Henry Paulson. I am the Secretary of the TreasSury of a country called the United states Of America, a small country on the North aMerican continent which you may be familiar with. I am writing to you to ask your assistance in a proposal I have.

The aMeriCan banking system has died. As it has no relatives to claim the body, I am about to come into possession of 700 hundred BillIon dollars. I propose to put you forth as the nearest living relative to the Mericann banking system as I have discovered that you have actually hold one or more bank accountts with these banks. In return for your participation and agreement, and if you agree to cast your vote for President Palin and Vice President MCCain, I will give you 5% of this money.

All you need to do is to send me the account numbers and names of your AmeRican banking accounts, a blood sample, your voter registration slip and your firstborn child. If this email has reached you in error, please return to pResident Palin on my behalfs.

Thank you and may the lord Bernanke bestow his blessing upon us both.

Love and kisses,
Henry Paulson

Flying to Manila this evening, back on Monday morning. Probably won’t have email access while there except if I can find some free WiFi hotspots.

Hey, here’s a question for you. If McCain was so hot to nominate a woman for the Veep slot, why didn’t he pick Condoleeza Rice? Whether or not you disagree with her stance on the issues – she’s smart, capable, attractive, female and black. Wouldn’t she have gone great on the ticket? So why not her? Apparently because she might be gay.

“It was the persistent rumors about her sexuality that ultimately killed her chances and removed her from the list,” says the mid-level RNC official. “In Washington circles, it’s just assumed Rice is gay and nobody really cares. But in the glare of the media spotlight, those rumors were bound to get magnified a thousandfold and the mainstream media would have had an excuse to reveal the facts that would have caused conniption fits among the Republican base.”

I don’t think that’s interfered with her performance on her current job. But then, just think about this for a moment … female, black, gay and Republican? What alternate universe have we stumbled into here?

(Then again, that same blog claims that Elvis was both gay and Jewish.)

Who knew Colbert would look so cute with a ‘fro and no glasses?

Excerpts from NY Times article:

On the “CBS Evening News” on Thursday, Katie Couric asked Ms. Palin, Senator John McCain’s running mate, what she meant when she cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as foreign affairs experience.

“That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land — boundary that we have with — Canada,” she replied. She mentioned the jokes made at her expense and seemed for a moment at a loss for the word “caricature.” “It — it’s funny that a comment like that was — kind of made to — cari — I don’t know, you know? Reporters —”

Ms. Couric stepped in. “Mocked?” Ms. Palin looked relieved and even grateful for the help. “Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.”

Ms. Couric pressed her again to explain the geographic point. “Well, it certainly does,” Ms. Palin said, “because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of.”

Ms. Couric asked the governor if she had ever been involved in negotiations, for example, with her Russian neighbors.

“We have trade missions back and forth,” Ms. Palin said. “We — we do — it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.”

Ms. Palin, looking at Ms. Couric intently, kept on going. “It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to — to our state.”

After Ms. Palin attacked Senator Barack Obama for saying he would meet with leaders of Syria and Iran without preconditions, Ms. Couric reminded the governor that she recently met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who supports direct diplomacy with both countries. “Are you saying Henry Kissinger is naïve?” Ms. Couric asked. Ms. Palin replied, “I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.’ ”

After the interview, Ms. Couric faced the camera and added a postscript. “Incidentally, we confirmed Henry Kissinger’s position following our interview,” she said, explaining that Mr. Kissinger supports talks “without preconditions.”

Also in the NY Times:

At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, according to people in the meeting.

The situation was evolving so rapidly that it was all but impossible to judge the political implications; with the government under intense pressure to avoid another breach in confidence in the global financial markets, it was possible that a deal could be struck without further reshaping the campaign and that Mr. McCain could still be able to claim a role in a positive outcome.

Still, as a matter of political appearances — a key consideration for Mr. McCain less than six weeks from Election Day and at a time when some polls suggest he is losing ground against Mr. Obama, especially on handling the economy — the day’s events succeeded most of all in raising questions about precisely why Mr. McCain had called for postponing the first debate and returned to Washington to focus on the bailout plan — and what his own views were about what should be done.

At the very least, Mr. McCain’s actions have shaken up the campaign and the negotiations over the bailout package. It has put him at center stage, permitted him to present himself as putting his country ahead of his campaign — a recurring theme of his candidacy — and put him on deck to, if not help orchestrate a deal, at least be associated with one.

But Mr. McCain is certainly seeing the risks of making such a direct intervention. He now finds himself in the middle of an ideological war that pits conservative Republicans, loath to spending so much taxpayer money on Wall Street, against the Bush White House, which, with the support of Democrats and a sizable number of Republicans, sees a bailout package as essential to averting a potential economic disaster.

Just released, David Gilmour Live in Gdansk.

Is this overkill after last year’s live DVD? Nope. And there’s lots of reasons why. Probably the last video we’re gonna get with Richard Wright, who just passed away. Wright truly shines (no pun intended) on a 25 minute live version of Echoes. Also in the band? Phil Manzanera. Also, on some songs, the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

The overkill is that they’ve released so many different configurations of this that you can get dizzy. The “top” is a 3 CD, 2 DVD boxed set. The first two CDs are the Gdansk concert, the third is songs from the On An Island tour DVD. The first DVD is the Gdansk concert, the second DVD has 11 live tracks from various sources including an acoustic version of Echoes and a three track “barn jam.” And then the box is filled with crap like a replica guitar pick, backstage pass, concert ticket and poster.

I’ve always preferred Gilmour over Waters, so this set is just fine by me.
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I’m really happy to see that former Bonzo Dog Band co-leader, Rutles co-leader and occasional Monty Python composer Neil Innes might finally be getting the recognition he deserves.

Dita Von Teese is single and dating, in case anyone’s interested.

This one ain’t going away over night …. well maybe it will

This is Patcharapa Chaichuea, also known as Aom. She looks lost and in need of help.

Janet Woo, bite your lip, get up and dance!

Last night, John McCain was scheduled to be a guest on David Letterman. He called Dave before the show and said he couldn’t make it, the economy is crashing and he needs to suspend his campaign and fly immediately back to Washington. And then he went over to a different CBS studio in New York and did an interview with Katie Couric. As you might imagine, Dave was not happy. Watch it here, at least until someone tells YouTube to yank it.

As far as I’m concerned, McCain showed his contempt for the United States by selecting the grossly unqualified Sarah Palin as VP choice. And now he’s just dropped his pants and mooned the entire country with this suspend the campaign bullshit.

McCain has been in Congress 26 years. He was one of the Keating Five. He helped lay the groundwork for this disaster. Two weeks ago he was giving speeches about how great the US economy is. And now he’s too busy to campaign? Or too busy to answer questions and debate?

He was heroic in the past, 30 years in the past. Now he’s the punchline to a bad joke.

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Pic of the day … something to take my mind off this other stuff for a few minutes. Argentinian model Yesica Toscanini. Yes you can conduct my orchestra any time you want, Yesica. (pic stolen from celebslam.com)

Yes, the headline is true. No wonder the place went into the fucking toilet; that’s what happens when you decouple performance and compensation.

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In the NY Times, Aaron Sorkin provides the dialogue for a meeting between Obama and President Bartlet.

I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story ….

… the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it. …. You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist?

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From today’s SCMP:

A debt-ridden teacher was sent to jail yesterday for what a judge called a “very lenient” 20 months for ripping off HK$630,000 in so-called sincerity deposits from parents desperate to get their children into an elite school.

Lau had paid the price by ruining her future and bringing shame to her family, (the judge) said, adding that he sympathised with her five-year-old son, who would be deprived of his mother’s love and care while she was in jail.

(Lau) had admitted having fraudulently obtained the money by telling the victims they could pay the deposits to express their sincerity and reserve a place in the queue. She also told them the money was not a guarantee of a place and would be refunded in a month regardless of the outcome of their applications.

She induced one parent to give her HK$580,000. Two other parents were induced to pay her HK$20,000 and HK$30,000. A fourth parent reported the case to the Independent Commission Against Corruption when Lau attempted to solicit HK$70,000 from him.

From what I can see, the only smart person here is this Lau, but not smart enough to get away with her scam in the long run. Idiot parents who think they can buy success; that’s certainly the Hong Kong way!

As for the judge, one Deputy Judge Rickie Chan Kam-cheong, first of all, what the hell kind of name is that for a judge, Rickie? Rickie is a name for a little boy, not an adult. Second, who is this Judge Rickie, who thinks that the guilty party “ruined her future” and so shouldn’t serve a reasonable jail sentence? Is there some reality game show program on TVB where the winner gets to be judge for a day and Little Rickie was the winner?

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Walter Mossberg’s first look on the Google phone. Doesn’t sync with Outlook. But overall, “In sum, the G1 is a powerful, versatile device which will offer users a real alternative in the new handheld computing category the iPhone has occupied alone.”

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Speaking of Outlook, Harvard Business Review asks the musical question, is Outlook the world’s biggest social network just waiting to happen? (The answer, in case you couldn’t guess, is “yes.”)

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Alejandra Espinoza at some party in Miami. I have no idea who she is. Doesn’t really matter when she looks like this.

Winds have died down a bit. Internet is sorted out.

Here’s a wonderful picture of Anna Kournikova.

I watched Bourdain’s recent episode from Spain and it made me really want to go there. And tonight I found this picture of Estefania Luyk, who apparently is a Spanish model, and now I really really really want to go there.

(both pics stolen from celebslam.com)

And while I’m at it, Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and her huge tracts of land at the Emmys (stolen from theblemish.com)(holy crap, we share the same birthday, plus or minus a couple of years decades).

Jeez if I couldn’t sleep before, how is any of this supposed to help?

Most people I know in HK live on HK island. They live in buildings that are in Wanchai or in Mid Levels or in North Point. They say stuff like, “that last typhoon didn’t seem so bad, I barely noticed any wind.”

I live on the side of a mountain facing due east. There is nothing between me and the sea. Yes, fabulous view, yes. But my house gets the shit blown out of it during every one of these storms. I’m amazed, given the overall condition of the house, that the windows have yet to get blown out. Two storms back, the satellite dish, mounted on a ten foot steel pole on the roof, came crashing down. The last storm knocked the crap out of the garden fence.

Tonight I got home at 7 PM. The winds have been blowing non-stop. Just looked on Weather Underground. As usual, Ngong Ping is getting the worst wind, gusts up to 192 kph. Which makes Sai Kung’s 99 kph seem light. Though I wonder from where in Sai Kung they take their measurements?

I’d go outside and take some pictures but I don’t think my camera would survive. Can’t wait to wake up in the morning and survey the latest damage.

And why does my DSL speed always go down by 80% during a storm? Have tried resetting my modem and router but to no avail. Good ole PCCW.

For those who enjoy typhoon days off, this one has been no help. Signal 8 didn’t go up till 6 PM and the current estimate is that we will go back down to Signal 3 at 6 AM. No rest for the weary.

My hope is that having a typhoon midweek means clear weather for the weekend and I’m off to Manila on Friday night.