Hey baby! It’s the 4th of July! I’m celebrating by going up to Shenzhen today for a massage and maybe some Sichuan food. It’s been at least a year and a half since my last visit. I don’t imagine much has changed.

Woke up to the news that Sarah “Boom Boom” Palin, governor of a state whose citizens are so bored they’ll vote for the biggest idiot for entertainment value, has quit her job. In her resignation speech she mumbled something about preferring to be a lame fuck instead of a lame duck.

Back in Hong Kong, the SCMP reports that one supermarket chain, Ka Hing, is getting around the plastic bag levy by not selling items that require the levy. Rather than continuing to sell unimportant crap that people don’t need like, um, medicine, they’ve taken it off their shelves. So now they don’t have to charge 50 cents per plastic bag. Which is further proof that the law was poorly thought out, improperly written and poorly presented to the citizens of our little SAR, who of course have no say whatsoever in the establishment of laws.

And ya know, writing the previous paragraph on this auspicious date does make one think back to the founding fathers who decided that taxation without representation (and perhaps other less politically correct motivating factors) was a no-go and then did something about it. I’m certainly not suggesting a revolution – that’s a no-win scenario for all involved. And whereas England in 1776 had Mad King George, I think the leaders of China are quite sane. We’ve got Mad King Donald, but that ain’t quite the same thing, is it?

I stand by my assertion that Hong Kong has a lack of charismatic leadership on the pan Democratic front, someone who can convincingly present the case and move the hearts and minds of the people. (And no, don’t tell me about Long Hair. He’s not The One.) There’s no Abraham Lincoln, no Franklin Roosevelt, no Barack Obama. There’s no Bob Dylan singing protest songs, just Cantopop. Does anyone think that China is just going to hand democracy to Hong Kong on a silver platter? I think not.

So, here’s X’s classic 4th of July:

She’s waitin’ for me
when I get home from work
oh, but things ain’t just the same
She turns out the light
and cries in the dark
won’t answer when I call her name

On the stairs I smoke a
cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July

She gives me her cheek
when I want her lips
but I don’t have the strength to go
On the lost side of town
in a dark apartment
we gave up trying so long ago

On the stairs I smoke a
cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July

What ever happened I
apologize
so dry your tears and baby
walk outside, it’s the Fourth of July

On the stairs I smoke a
cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shootin’
fireworks below
Hey baby, it’s the Fourth of July
Hey baby, Baby take a walk outside

And John Mellencamp’s Pink Houses:

There’s a black man with a black cat
Living in a black neighbourhood
Hes got an interstate runnin through his front yard
You know, he thinks that he’s got it so good
And there’s a woman in the kitchen cleaning up the evening slop
And he looks at her and says: hey darling, I can remember when you could stop a clock

Oh but ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America something to see baby
Ain’t that America, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

Well there’s a young man in a t-shirt
Listening to a rock ‘n roll station
He’s got a greasy hair, greasy smile
He says: lord, this must be my destination
cuz they told me, when I was younger
Boy, you’re gonna be president
But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

Oh but ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America were something to see baby
Ain’t that America, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

Well there’s people and more people
What do they know know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ohhh yeah
And there’s winners, and there’s losers
But they ain’t no big deal
cuz the simple man baby pays for the thrills,
The bills and the pills that kill

Oh but ain’t that America for you and me
Ain’t that America were something to see baby
Ain’t that America, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

And finally, Bob Dylan, it’s still as true today as it was 47 (!!!!) years ago:

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

So after a week filled with bad news for me, one final bit to end the week. Though I suppose in this case some would see it as good news.

See, a year ago, when I first got word that the company would be drastically scaling back in the region, I predicted that I would be gone at some point thereafter, and that’s proven to be true.

Why did I choose to stay? Well, first and foremost, because none of the opportunities that came my way were that interesting. And second, because I was hoping that when the time came for them to dump me, there would be a golden parachute, which has proven to be true.

I also correctly predicted who would replace me. Knowing which territories were shutting down, which were remaining, it was easy to predict which one of my staff would get the nod – someone already in one of those remaining territories, so they wouldn’t have to pay relocation costs. And someone whom they thought would be capable of doing my job – although I don’t believe he is.

The thing is – even though my last day is November 1st, this guy will be taking over my position on August 1st. “So what do I do for three months?” I asked my boss. “Um, er, uh, ah, help him out if he needs anything?” So you can tell they thought that through about as well as they think anything through in this company.

Of course, one way to look at it is to say that for three months I will continue to get paid and have nothing to do except fill out my time sheet on Monday mornings. And I probably don’t need to go into the office. Mobile phone, Blackberry, VPN – what little I have to do I can do just as easily from home or from Timbuktu as there. I can focus in on making plans, doing a job search or writing a business plan for a start-up, and I can do it all while sitting at home in my underwear and chain smoking.

But for reasons that I just can’t (or maybe don’t want to) put into words, the whole thing pisses me off. And since I can’t drink, the only thing I do when I’m pissed is I shop. A thousand bucks at City Super today on pata negra and cheeses and sun dried tomatoes and they even had ONE package of Hebrew National hot dogs. And next week if I’m still in a lousy mood I’ll probably pop for that Nikon lens.

Anyway ……..

Latest issue of BC Magazine is out. My latest column, a review of Neil Young’s Archives Volume 1 can be found here.

And my second feature article for the mag, a look back at the Beatles concerts in Hong Kong in 1964 combined with an interview with Uncle Ray is here.

The pic at the top of the article is mine, too. Here’s another shot from that evening at RTHK’s studios.