Classic Hong Kong. Minibus strays into tram lane without looking, gets hit by tram, screws up tram and car traffic. Just stuck camera out the window as I was driving past.

This is in Hang Hau. Town, green mountains, yellow sun, and steel gray sky. Pretty accurate. And some asshole had to tag the sign.

Sai Kung town during Chinese New Year. The town center is filled with these huge lit up signboards and banners.

Every district has a flower market for CNY and Sai Kung is no exception. 51 weeks of the year this is a basketball court, for one week it’s like this.

Long day …..

Dinner at Dog House, the new bar on Lockhart. They still don’t have their liquor license which is typical HK. But it does mean that you can go to 7-11, buy a can of beer for $15 or whatever they charge (or even a bottle of cheap wine for $75) and then bring it back to the bar and sit there and drink it and enjoy their music, food, comfortable seats, friendly service.

Oh, also, bought a MacBook.

Went for the MB instead of MB Pro for a variety of reasons, two of them being size and weight, also I think the MB will be powerful enough for what I plan to do.

Still in the process of setting it up but it is one beautiful, elegant piece of machinery.

So, Mac fans who read this blog, your recommendations on must have Mac-centric software and accessories (already got the mini-DVI to DVI adapter and upgraded the RAM to 4 gig).

Once upon a time, and for a long time, Italy was one of the undisputed centers of the cinema world. I’m thinking Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rossolini, Sergio Leone, Lina Wertmuller and so many others.

I don’t know that Matteo Garrone belongs in that same pantheon, but Gomorra is as disturbing and thought-provoking as it is difficult to watch.

It’s based on the book by journalist Roberto Saviano, detailing the activities of the organized crime group Camorra in modern day Naples. Saviano’s book was supposedly so accurate that he was forced into hiding after its publication.

The film, running two and a quarter hours, isn’t a single cohesive narrative. It’s a series of intercut sketches, following half a dozen or a dozen people, most of whose lives don’t intersect. It’s set in a housing project that is, well, look, I lived in The Bronx in the 70s. I worked in Harlem in the 80s. And the places I saw seem like Eden next to this place.

That’s the strength of the film. The locations, the camerawork, the acting – it reminds me of classic Italian neo-realist cinema updated to the 00’s. It may be fiction but it seems completely real. The violence is random, horrible, never once even remotely glorified. These are ugly people leading hopeless, desperate lives. It’s the Anti-Godfather, the Anti-Sopranos.

At first, I was impatient watching this film, waiting for it to settle down into a conventional narrative. It never does. The only film I can think to compare it to offhand, in terms of its realism, in terms of the way it presents a problem with seemingly no possible solution, might be the Brazilian City of God (Cidade de Deus) which, in truth, I probably “enjoyed” more. But this is one that will stay with me.

Gomorra won grand prize at Cannes last year. It was also nominated for the Golden Palm, though it didn’t win that. It’s difficult, thought provoking, not for everyone, but it does seem to me like a huge accomplishment.

Link sent by a non-blogging friend.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall by Errol Morris.

Whether you love or hate Bush, this is a stunning piece of work.

The traveling pool of press photographers that follows presidents includes representatives from three wire services — AP (The Associated Press), AFP (Agence France-Presse) and Thomson Reuters. During the last week of the Bush administration, I asked the head photo editors of these news services — Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP) and Jim Bourg (Reuters) — to pick the photographs of the president that they believe captured the character of the man and of his administration. There are overlapping pictures — of the president with a bullhorn at Ground Zero, of the president looking out the window of Air Force One over New Orleans, of the president receiving the news on the morning of 9/11. It is interesting that these pictures are different. They may be of the same scene, but they have different content. They speak in a different way.

It’s not just the photos, it’s the interviews with the photographers, what they have to say about their subject, about recording history …..

Some of the images in the article:

Yes a picture is worth a thousand words but the words that describe these photos are well worth your time to read.

Take a look at this iPhone app:

It does one thing. You press the onscreen button and it makes the sound of an explosion.

It’s a free app. The developer, someone with a lot of experience, set himself a challenge to create an iPhone app in under an hour. He made it cheap, fast, crappy. The shop was already filled with fart, belch and vomit sounds but no grenade sound, so that’s what he picked. Put it on the iPhone app store. And within days, it was the #2 downloaded free app in the store.

So he upgraded it to make it “advertiser sponsored.” Still free, but every time you use it, an ad banner would appear.

Soon he was grossing US$200 per hour based on clickthroughs from one million ad requests. $200. PER. HOUR.

(Click over to this on Apple Insider. It’s worth reading the full story.)

“The App Store is not like any other software market we’ve ever seen. If it could be compared to any other market, it’s like the Billboard Charts for Music. A good pop music producer can take someone with minimal talent, get them to sing some lyrics, and then run it through auto tune. Bam. Number one song. That’s all it takes with the App Store. Do some market research, work out that most of the people that download free apps are immature and seriously uncool. Then wrap an average idea that you think will appeal to immature and uncool people with some average graphics, and boom, top 10 app. Like the pop market, it’s hit or miss; sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t.”

(bold lettering mine)

Now he’s just added this one. Sound Grenade Pro. Cost? US$0.99. Somehow I think this will make the top ten as well.

Holy christ. I need to get the iPhone SDK and come up with my own stupid idea.

The iPhone app store seems to have introduced a new paradigm. Applications that are useful are so yesterday.

Hmmm, farts, belches, vomit, hand grenades …. need some public domain sounds and images … getting an idea ….

Wednesday funnies.

Well, they’re not from Wednesday. But today’s Wednesday. And I find them funny.

First … the dilemma faced by all whose friends are bloggers (which means almost everyone these days).

Second, too many of my friends, and maybe me as well, soon ….

Blech.

Monday all I ate was some Italian salami on a baguette, followed up by a piece of blueberry cheesecake that my maid had stashed in the fridge.

Okay, aside from the fact that this is probably an ungodly combination, I think said cheesecake was sitting in the fridge a bit too long. It didn’t taste right and I didn’t finish it.

I was supposed to go out Monday night to the soft opening of a new bar in Wanchai, Dog House (maybe it’s 2 g’s?), the manager an old friend.

But by 6 PM, when I gave my dogs dinner and took them for a walk, I started feeling dizzy and cold. Decided to stay home. Around 9 PM, projectile vomiting, pardon the bluntness. This continued on and off for several hours.

My gf is away, but she called my maid and asked her to come back home and take care of me, which she did.

In between puking, I slept for about 18 hours. I never sleep well, and in those 18 hours I woke up at least 20 times, but each time I decided to stay in bed, just grabbing some Tylenol and a lot of water and then sleeping again.

Debated on going to the emergency room – which would have meant a taxi ride to Tseung Kwan O, as I wasn’t feeling strong enough to drive. But since I no longer had a fever, didn’t want to deal with it. Just more water, more Tylenol, some soup. Couldn’t manage to finish one can of chicken soup, even splitting it into two meals, some left over.

Now I’m feeling more myself. Sitting upright in front of the computer. Drinking lots of water.

And what better thing to do after having food poisoning than watching food shows?

Just watched Spain …. On the Road Again, a US PBS series. Mario Batali, chef, author, larger than life (in more ways that one) TV personality and Mark Bittman, writer of the NY Times column “The Minimalist” and cookbook “How To Cook Everything” (which I got last week and is FANTASTIC), take a road trip through Spain. Of course these two guys ain’t the most photogenic, so add into the mix American actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols, a gorgeous multi-lingual Spanish actress. They’re driving around in two Mercedes convertibles, investigating fish markets, artisanal cheese makers, and watching famed Spanish chefs cook signature dishes. And some sightseeing as well.

I like the show, but the ratio of good info/b.s. is just not high enough and don’t know if I’ll last through the entire season. Too much of “Bitty” asking Claudia how to say something in Spanish. Too much of Batali making fun of Paltrow for being recognized more often than he is. And it doesn’t help that Batali contracts food poisoning in the first episode, after eating a bit of “partridge sushi”. But it feels like therapy, it’s building up my appetite again. But maybe not in a good way. Can I eat some plain boiled rice after watching this? A burger with nothing on it? Or do I want some amazing paella infused with saffron, some spice and herb, maybe some seafood …. sigh.

Hope your Lunar New Year break went better than mine ….

And the answer is, “Having a 5 day holiday weekend and being sick.”

(sigh)

Clint Eastwood is 78 years old and directed two pictures this year, which is amazing all by itself. If the pictures were total garbage, it would be enough. I suppose he’s figured out that if he’s going to be making films at an age when most people are in retirement homes, he should spend his time wisely.

That being said, Gran Torino is not a great film, even though it is a mostly entertaining one. It asks some tough questions and doesn’t supply easy answers, even though much of it is so predictable that if Eastwood’s name wasn’t attached, this would have debuted on the Hallmark or the Lifetime channel (well, aside from the liberal use of language). (One spoiler a few paragraphs down.)

If you don’t know the story, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a 70-something year old man whose wife has just died. He’s a veteran of the Korean War and decades on the Detroit assembly line. He seems to hate everything (including his family) except for beer and the 1972 Ford Gran Torino in his garage. He’s not so much a racist as he is a product of his era – and when he calls his new neighbors (a Hmong family) chinks and gooks, there doesn’t seem to be any more anger behind it than when he calls his barber a wop. It’s the way he was brought up.

A series of events brings him closer to that next door family and it’s all somewhat contrived. There’s a surprising amount of humor in the film that’s more honest than the violence. And when the end comes, expected as it is, it still has power. I enjoyed that the Hmong family won him over with their food – he could say no to almost everything else but those chicken dumplings sure smelled good. But beyond that, he’s a traditional guy and I think he can’t help being impressed with how the Asian family follows their traditions so closely, right down to the kids. And so it’s little surprise that he develops more of an interest in them than in his own family.

A lot is being made of the fact that Eastwood also acts in this film, his first time on screen in four years. And while he does a good job with the growls and grimaces, his presence is distracting. You’re watching him and always aware that it’s Clint Eastwood; it’s kind of like looking at Mount Rushmore or the Washington Monument. And because it’s him, you know that the character he portrays will be redeemed in the end, though exactly how might remain a mystery. I wonder how the film would have played with a different, lesser known actor in the lead. But then again, a film about the friendship between a 75 year old guy and a Hmong family wouldn’t exactly have ignited the box office – it took an image of Eastwood standing in front of the car, holding a shotgun, playing to the nostalgia of his 70s films, to help it hit number 1 in the U.S.

The car itself symbolizes the movie. Kowalski installed the steering column on the line and has kept it pristine for more than 30 years. The Gran Torino was never the Mustang or the Firebird, but it’s a symbol of its time, when Detroit reigned supreme, when Nixon was president, when there was no such phrase as “politically incorrect.” And while it’s old, it’s still strong, just like Eastwood and just like Kowalski.

So I liked it – there’ve been very few Eastwood films I haven’t at least liked. While this is not on the level of Million Dollar Baby or Mystic River, at least it’s far better than Blood Work.

Oh, one warning … Eastwood himself “sings” the title song over the closing credits for a minute or two before letting Jamie Cullum take over. It’s not “cover your ears” like when Stallone sang the theme song for Paradise Alley but he does make Tom Waits sound like Tony Bennett.

Any recommendations for a hotel in Boracay? Planning to go there for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks.

Lots of people have told me Friday’s, but that’s over US$200 a night and don’t want to spend that much.

#1 on TripAdvisor is Dave’s Straw Hat Inn, which isn’t right on the beach and anyway they’re fully booked for the days I plan to go.

What about Two Seasons, Real Maris, Nigi Nigi, One MGM, Isla de Boracay, Regency Beach, Beachcomber?