It has occurred to me that I have not gotten dressed, not set foot outside the front door, since Monday night. This is likely to continue for awhile.

One way I’m keeping busy – my mother gave me all her old photo albums since she no longer has space for them. I’m scanning them, trying to finish off before my trip. Then I’ll burn them to a DVD and install Picasa on her computer when I get there.

Came across this – July 9, 1951, their 3rd wedding anniversary, they celebrated by seeing a Broadway show, Guys & Dolls with the original cast. My mom pasted the Playbill into a photo album. Here’s one of the ads inside, John Wayne for Camel non-filter cigarettes:

Prepping for my NYC trip, compiling a list of foods I need to eat, noticed that the 2009 Vendy Awards were given out in NYC over the weekend. Hong Kong makes street food illegal, New York gives out awards for it, complete with corporate sponsors.

Lest you think that NYC street food consists solely of dishwater dogs, competitors included street cards selling falafel and gyros, traditional Indian, Chinese dumplings, Jamaican jerk chicken, traditional Mexican, the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, waffles, cupcakes, Taiwanese food, schnitzel and smoked barbecue.

The awards went to

• Vendy Cup: Country Boys (Fernando & Jolanda Martinez)
• Grey Poupon People’s Taste Award: Biryani Cart (Meru Sidker – second year!)
• Dessert: Wafels & Dinges (Thomas DeGeest)
• Rookie Vendor of the Year – Schnitzel & Things (Oleg Voss & Jared Greenhouse)

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a choice of food like this on the streets here? Or even places with street-side counters offering more than just curry fishballs and McD’s fake ice cream? About the best I can come up with is that little stretch on Luard where you get Thai Hut, Ebeneezer and Cul de Sac. All we seem to be able to do here is conduct debates on how many Mister Softee licenses should be allowed.

Hmmm, wonder what kind of negative comments I’ll receive by posting this excerpt from today’s post on Big Lychee on the upcoming celebration of the Communist Party’s 60 years in power in China:

There is nothing to celebrate about what happened in China from 1949 to 1977. In the name of ideology, millions of innocent people were killed or tortured because of their families’ social status; then millions (as in 30 million or so) were starved so officials could pretend there were food surpluses; then millions more were killed or tortured or sent to pig farms just to be sure. Since 1978, the government has gone with whatever works, and a once-impoverished people now find themselves up at El Salvador’s level in terms of GDP per capita and inequality. That’s a drastic improvement, but does it really merit that much excitement or pride when coming from such a wretched and artificially low base? This is simply where they should have been all along. If the country had 2% of the world’s population instead of 20%, we would never have noticed. It’s the scale rather than the substance of the achievement that makes it hard to be indifferent. And the fact that it’s a day off.

A friend recently got the iPhone and I was showing him some of the apps I rely upon. I’ve downloaded 137 iPhone apps but of course only a handful have become a part of my life. Thought I’d also share that here – both in an attempt to be helpful and also to solicit recommendations from readers on apps they use and love.

Evernote is for notes, duh. But not just text notes, photos, web clips, voice clips, a variety of different content. You can access your notes anywhere in the world on their web site. Notes that I enter or modify on my PC or on my iPhone are then synced to the web and then synced to whatever other devices (Mac, PC, iPhone, Blackberry, others) I’ve installed Evernote on. So whatever notes I’ve got, I’ve got them everywhere.

In a similar fashion, Remember the Milk is a freebie that manages your task lists and allows you to get at them in a variety of ways. I upgraded to pro to get the bit that integrates with Gmail – I get a plug-in for my Gmail page and it integrates with my contact list there. Lots of options and repeating tasks, something I use often, are a snap to set up and manage.

mSecure is a password manager. This one costs $3 but gives you templates for storing a variety of different passwords – for the web, work, credit cards, dates, frequent flyer cards, etc. – all encrypted and password protected. Unfortunately, the only way to access the data is on the iPhone but they provide a free mBackup utility that runs on Windows and Mac.

I’ve had PushGmail (99 cents) for less than a week and already moved it to my home screen. When you get an email, you’ll get a pop-up window that not only notifies you of incoming mail, but also the sender, subject and first line of text. You can then choose to let it take you to the iPhone’s native email app or Gmail’s iPhone web page, where you can do a lot more than with the iPhone email app. The only drawback here is that I have to remember to shut off notifications before I go to sleep or the phone will be beeping all night.

Dropbox’s iPhone app was only released yesterday and I haven’t tried it yet, but based on initial reviews, this will also end up on my home screen. Dropbox synchronizes files among multiple computers (and also has some sharing options), so that files you think you may need and that you’ve placed into the Dropbox folder are available anywhere. 2 gigs of storage is free, 50 gigs of storage will run you ten bucks a month. I just ran a test – putting a jpg and a pdf into the Dropbox folder on my PC and was able to access and view both documents perfectly on my iPhone. The pdf file is not searchable so I may shell out for a PDF reader (which I’d use in combination with AirShare) since I want to have my Nikon D300 user manual – 448 pages – on my iPhone.

I think here are about a billion conversion apps in the app store and I’ve tried a lot of them, Convert (99 cents) is the only one I’ve kept. You get currencies, length, pressure, speed, temperature, time, volume, weight, computer stuff (bits, bytes, etc.) and all wrapped up with the easiest-to-use interface of all of them.

Hong Kong Weather is so much better than the Yahoo applet on the phone that I’ve banished that one to my very last screen (and would delete it altogether if I could). It connects to the HK Observatory web site and reformats the data for the iPhone screen, supports both English and Chinese.

I use the free version of iTalk Recorder whenever I have to conduct an interview for an article. Griffin provides a free utility to transfer the recordings via WiFi from the iPhone to the PC.

Skype works so well on the iPhone that I’ve binned the USB handset that I bought for my PC a couple of years ago. The only drawback on this is that since the iPhone doesn’t allow background processes, you have to actually be running the app in order to receive Skype calls. (When traveling, I send an SMS to my gf to tell her to run Skype, then I run it, wait till I see that she’s online and can then call her for free.)

There are several flashlight apps in the app store, Torch is free and does what I need it to do. Run the app and it turns on the screen’s backlight – bright enough for me to navigate the bedroom in the dark without having to turn on any lights and wake up my gf.

Not going to get into games or some of the more esoteric iPhone stuff (like Brian Eno’s Bloom which is wonderful) but food is a fun category.

OpenRice is of course the #1 restaurant guide for Hong Kong. The web site is Chinese only (some reviews are written in English – many addresses in English as well) as is the iPhone app. I know enough Chinese characters to be able to navigate the web site pretty easily but I’ve found the iPhone app confusing to use, although occasionally useful.

I tend to forget some of my favorite dim sum dishes … or at least forget their names in Cantonese. I’ve got two apps for Dim Sum, but haven’t used these enough to choose between either so far.

Yum Yum Dim Sum sorts a variety of dim sum types by either English or Pinyin (Cantonese) names, provides a photo, brief description, the name of the dish in Chinese characters and even a “say it” button to hear the correct pronunciation.

Yum Cha is slightly different, providing the name in English, in Chinese and Pinyin (Mandarin) and a button to push to hear it spoken in Cantonese, along with photo and description. This one also allows you to build a list of your favorites.

I’ve also got these three apps for sushi but again, haven’t used them enough to choose just one so far. All allow you to build lists of your favorites. Sushipedia is the only one of the three that provides the name in Japanese characters. SushiMonger lets you rate each type on a scale of one to five stars and allows you to attach your own text notes to each description. SushiTime is probably the weakest of the three.

In the news today:

A flower shop in Graham Street in Central was dismantled yesterday. The shop, in business for three years, was illegally occupying government land. The thing is, this woman rented the space from a hawker who that the stall next to hers. Over the course of three years, she paid him more than $100,000 in rent.

A Lands Department spokeswoman said it did not plan to follow up on who charged the shop owner rent illegally because it was a “personal dispute”. Ng said she would like to claim her rent back through the courts, but that she lacked legal knowledge.

And she probably lacks the funds to hire an attorney. Seems like you can get away with almost anything in HK if it involves real estate.

Couple of days back, the SCMP ran a report that notes that the actual usable size of an apartment has shrunk in the past 20 years. By that, they mean that if you purchased or rented a flat 20 years ago that was advertised as being 700 square feet, it was actually 665 square feet – the rest being so called “common areas.” But developers have broadened the definition of common areas to include lift lobbies, clubhouses, “architectural features, planters, space for watchmen, rooftops, pathways to car parks and covered walkways.” So if you get a flat advertised as being 700 square feet today, all you’re really getting, on average, is 530 square feet. Seems like you can get away with almost anything in HK if it involves real estate.

A related article tells the story of a man who bought a 717 square foot flat. Like so many in Hong Kong, he bought it before construction was finished to take advantage of “off plan” pricing. Once it was finished and he moved his family in:

He found the bay window of the master bedroom was 6.5 feet long and 2.5 feet deep and ate up a significant portion of his bedroom area. The rest of the room was too small for normal-sized furniture and the kitchen was so tiny it was barely able to accommodate two people. Leung’s 717 square feet includes the 20 sqft bay window, the 22 sqft balcony, a 16 sqft utility platform and a 150 sqft portion of the development’s “common areas”. A clause found in the sales brochure says the gross floor area may also include curtain and non-structural prefabricated external walls.

And it’s all legal. One might say it’s this poor schmoe’s own fault for not studying the plans more carefully, though he is claiming that the model flat shown to potential purchasers was deceptive. Either way, seems like you can get away with almost anything in HK if it involves real estate.

(The first two places I lived in HK were both rentals in new buildings. I learned my lesson and every building I’ve been in since then has been at least 30 years old. That seems to be the only way to get a human sized apartment.)

Think all English teachers in Hong Kong earn meager salaries and live in stone huts on Lamma? Not if you’re one of the “famous” ones working for one of those “colleges” that spend millions on advertising. A “famous” English tutor died in a car crash last night. Yes, it’s a tragedy. No, the SCMP doesn’t bother to note if he was married, had kids, or anything of that nature. He was driving a car purchased for him by the school he worked for. A Porsche. A HK$1.65 million (approx US$215,000) Porsche. I am SO in the wrong line of work.

And now for something completely different. Eric Clapton jamming with Carlos Santana and the 1970 edition of his band. 45 minutes in a recording studio.

And now for something completely, er, differenter. Some might say that the Gordon Ramsey that stars in the American edition of Hell’s Kitchen is a cartoon parody of the real Gordon Ramsey. Now he’s going to lend his image and voice to star in an actual animated TV series, “Gordon Ramsey, At Your Service.” We’re told that it will be a MacGyver meets A-Team food-inspired comedy. You can’t make this shit up.

Not that that’s become an unusual situation for me, huh? Slept like crap last night, as usual, but with more vivid and stranger dreams than usual – some of which, no surprise, involved me going to my soon-to-be-ex employer’s head office and not knowing anyone there. I don’t think I need Dr. Freud or Dr. Phil to tell me what that one means. And the other stuff, a bit more intimate, I can figure that out as well. Not that it really helps any.

Some people lose mobile phones, I lose headphones. I used to have the Shure E500 ear buds. Some would say they are the best around and they’re certainly priced up there – US$500/HK$3300 or so. But they were fabulous. A year and a half ago, when my car got broken into, they were in the bag that was stolen. They were so good that, after just a moment’s hesitation, I replaced them with the same ones.

But I’ve lost them and spent two weeks tearing the house apart with no luck. I’ve got big headphones but these were my only decent earbuds. But I knew this time I wasn’t going to fork out that kind of dough for another replacement. Checked out some reviews online, couldn’t really narrow it down too much.

And then, much to my surprise, one of the shops at the Wanchai Computer Centre was more than willing to let me test drive several sets. Some were already open and they had alcohol wipes at the ready to clean them before and after I tried them out. I tried Sennheiser, Ultimate Ears, some brand I never heard of but the guy swore was famous Westone(?) and Shure – all models in the HK$1,000 to $2,000 price range. I listened to a variety of music with each – everything from Radiohead to Lady Gaga. And you know, the other three didn’t sound anywhere near as good as the Shures. One was too flat, one too bright, one no bass – and the Shure SE310 sounded so much like my old 500s, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell them apart in a blind test, so for less than half the price of said 500s, I am rebudded.

With my New York City trip just about a month away, I’m compiling lists for possible shopping, entertainment and eating. And of course one thing on my list is a slice of proper New York pizza. Lucky for me, I’ve chanced across Slice Harvester:

I am going to eat a slice of pizza at every pizzeria in New York City. I’m going by neighborhood, starting in Manhattan, getting a plain slice at every place. I am fucking sick of the current trend in Pizza Journalism that’s all about fucking artichoke guacamole tahini pizza on rice dough. That shit isn’t pizza. Sorry. The only instances where “not pizza” actually is pizza are Zante’s in San Francisco on like, 27th and Mission that makes Indian Pizza, and the Turkish Pizza places in Berlin. The rest of it, not pizza. Brie cheese with prosciutto bits and a horseradish mustard, cooked to perfection on flat dough in a hot oven? Sounds delicious, not pizza.

Here’s a shot of a slice he considers “solid.”

That looks like the pizza I grew up with. And yes, I will definitely be having a proper pastrami sandwich as well – I’m relatively certain I’ve tried all the pastrami in Hong Kong and no place has ever come close. And lunch one day somewhere in the East Village, which seems to have undergone a restaurant renaissance in the past few years.

Someone asked me today about the whole Roman Polanski thing. Normally, a 44 year old guy seduces and rapes a 13 year old girl, I’m the “throw the book at him” kind of person. And while I’m a massive fan of Polanski’s films, I know firsthand that great artists can be complete assholes as people.

This case strikes me as something different though. For one thing, it happened more than 30 years ago (and as far as I know, there have not been any accusations of repeat offenses). The girl in the case revealed her identity when she was an adult, sued Polanski and got an undisclosed sum in an out of court settlement, and has said on more than one occasion that the government should drop the entire thing.

Polanski originally pleaded guilty in a plea bargain deal, though after he entered his plea, the judge backed off from the deal – that’s what caused Polanski to flee the country. His lawyers have repeatedly claimed judicial misconduct during his trial. And of course Polanski has not returned to the U.S. in more than 30 years.

At any rate, the weird bit about all this is that he was arrested on arrival in Switzerland at the request of U.S. authorities, but he has had a house in Switzerland for 15 years, he’s been in and out of the country and very visible there. Not only that, but this particular arrival was him coming there to attend a film festival at which he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. Films Polanski directed include Knife in the Water, Repulsion, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Tess and The Pianist (for which he won the Oscar for best director).

The reaction in Europe on Monday appeared to be one of astonishment. Nearly 100 entertainment industry professionals, including the movie directors Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar Wai and Wim Wenders called in a petition for Mr. Polanski’s release, saying: “Filmmakers in France, in Europe, in the United States and around the world are dismayed by this decision. It seems inadmissible to them that an international cultural event, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by the police to apprehend him.”

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, said that for Europeans the development showed that the American system of justice had run amok.

While Mr. Polanski had committed “a grave crime,” Mr. Lang said, “he is a great creator and artist, and there’s a sentiment here that pursuing someone for a crime committed 30 years ago, in which the victim has decided to drop the case, is unreasonable, a kind of judicial lynching. In Europe, it would be unimaginable to punish someone in a situation like this.

Why does someone in the judicial system decide that now is the time to go after him again? How would justice be served by taxpayer money going towards the cost of an extradition battle possibly followed by a high profile trial? The answer to my mind is that justice would not be served, that this is the action of some schmuck DA trying to make a name for him or herself and this is how they’ve decided to do it.

Let it go.

One thing I didn’t know about the Star Aquarius cruise: the three buffet restaurants there are included in the price of the room – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although they stop serving dinner at 8:30.

Also, the name of the female singer is Wong Wai Yee, in case that means anything to any of you.

“It is strictly forbidden and extremely dangerous to burn incense, lucky paper and similar products in your cabin.”

NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes about two new books, “Speech-less” by former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer and “The Clinton Tapes” by Taylor Branch.

One day, W. was told that a joint appearance in Phoenix with McCain, designed to show the two men could stand to be on the same stage together, was going to be closed to the press.

“If he doesn’t want me to go, fine,” W. snapped. “I’ve got better things to do.”

Then the president was informed that the event was going to be closed because McCain was having trouble drawing a crowd. Latimer writes that an incredulous Bush mordantly asked: “He can’t get five hundred people to show up for an event in his hometown?”

Happy he wasn’t the only political wallflower, W. drove home the point: “I could get that many people to turn out in Crawford. This is a five-spiral crash, boys.”

Like W., Bill Clinton had an awkward final act supporting Gore, even though Gore was distancing himself from Clinton, and Bubba was chafing at the misguided Gore campaign. Like W. with McCain, he felt a Gore defeat would be bad for his legacy.

In his new book, “The Clinton Tapes,” Taylor Branch describes an explosive meeting between Clinton and Gore after the election characterized by Clinton as “surreal.” Gore said people around him blamed Clinton’s scandalous shadow for the defeat. And Clinton, who told Branch that W. was “an empty suit, meaner than his dad,” shot back that if Gore had used him more in the last 10 days in places where he was still popular, he could have swung the election. He chastised Gore for not running on bigger themes and for dropping the issue he was most passionate about: the environment.

Gore asked Clinton for an explanation of Monica Lewinsky; he wanted an apology. Clinton blew up. Focusing on his mistakes, he told his V.P., demeaned voters and ignored the public’s business.

Branch summed up Clinton’s bottom line to Gore: “By God, Hillary had a helluva lot more reason to resent Clinton than Gore did, and yet she ran unabashedly on the Clinton-Gore record” for the Senate and won handily. Gore, Clinton said, was in “Neverland.”

Nancy Franklin in the New Yorker on Jay Leno’s new prime time show:

The forensic evidence so far indicates that a kind of death is taking place before our eyes; the only question is whether what we’re witnessing is an accident or a crime scene.

Saturday night was spent on the Star Aquarius, one of the cruise ships from Star Cruises. Covering certain things for BC Magazine so will only go into certain other things here.

This one does a nightly cruise to nowhere – out into international waters so that people can dive into the casino and gamble all night long. (I lost HK$20 in a slot machine and was finished. I’m not a good gambler and I work too hard for my money to just throw it away like that.)

We had fun. It’s not too expensive for what you get – the cheapest rooms cost around HK$870 per person for a small cabin on a lower deck. Upper deck suites with balconies can run into the thousands though.

Here’s a shot through out cabin window before the ship pulled out.

Touring the boat, looking back at HK island as we make our way through the harbor.

Champs Bar – with a little combo entertaining – well, the seats were empty. Note that raised wooden thing to the right of the stage? On each side of the stage there’s a jacuzzi, sit and schvitz while you drink and listen to the band.

This is just weird – an outdoor pool bar that’s shut down because no one in Hong Kong likes to use it. I’m told it’s huge in Singapore – when the boat fills up with Singaporeans and Australians (hi Phil!) they like to party, but people in HK don’t.

Looking down at the car park at Ocean Terminal, where people line up daily to take photos of the HK island skyline. But the light was really crappy all day – very hazy – not sure what these people are gonna get.

And a look over at the still-under-construction ICC.

Nice pool.
Piano player in the lounge bar.

The entertainment kicked off with – I kid you not – two members of the housekeeping staff demonstrating creative towel folding techniques.

The star attraction on this cruise, a Malaysian singer whose name escapes me. But the lounge was full when she was onstage and she went through the audience and said hello and shook the hand of everyone who was there. (You don’t see a band? There wasn’t one – she was singing to a pre-taped backing track.)

This is why I was there – the Hong Kong Gaming Club was holding their first poker tournament at sea.

Some of the dealers were quite cute.

Of course Spiderman was there.

The Captain of the Aquarius and his first mate – of course the Captain’s the one with the beard.

The thing is – once the ship hits international waters, they cut the engines and just drift. And even such a big boat starts seriously rocking, and not in a good way. My gf started feeling seriously seasick and it was getting to me a little bit too. So we had to leave the tournament and go to the top deck and outside, stretch out in the fresh air for awhile till we got our heads back.

Following that, we were in need of refreshment so back down to the lounge bar, where the trio we’d seen earlier at Champs was entertaining a small crowd with pop songs in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

After they finished, we hit the duty free, got some snacks for the room, and an early end to the evening. Not sure that we’d rush to do this again, but I’d been curious about it for years and we did have fun.

Miles Davis – The Complete Columbia Album Collection

70 CD + 1 DVD boxed set. To be released on November 24th.

Exclusive to Amazon.com, Columbia/Legacy presents Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, a deluxe, limited edition retrospective of the iconic music Miles Davis created during his 30 years with Columbia Records.This exquisite package, comprised of 70 CDs and 1 DVD, contains all 52 of Miles’ Columbia recordings in Japanese-styled mini LP jackets and includes a 250-page book with a biography, a fully annotated discography, a complete song index, and rare photos.

Appearing on DVD for the first time in this box is Live in Europe ’67, shot in Stockholm and Karlsruhe during the Miles Davis Quintet’s European tour of 1967. Completely remastered from the original broadcast tapes, these performances feature Miles with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. In addition to the DVD, there will be a first-time audio release of the full performance from the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. Bonus tracks and other rarities that have been added to the CD reissues of individual albums in past years are also included.

US$300. That works out to just $4.20 per disc. Seems reasonable enough.

If everyone who reads this blog sent me a dollar ….

Friday afternoon in Mong Kok. Was planning to take more pictures but quickly gathered packages … heavy stuff, hot and sweaty, back home early.

On Sai Yeung Choi South Street, this little girl ran outside to do her business while her mother continued to shop inside. I would have grabbed better shots but people around her seemed more upset with me taking photos than with her stripping and peeing in the street.

Otherwise, just a collection of shots showing how these ads for private tutors are taking over. Clearly this is a really huge business, second only to slimming centers.

This school seems to have the cutest teachers. I’d sign up with some of them! But where the hell do they come up with their English names? Enfany?

Found this huge wrap-around billboard in two locations. The home of K O’ten and Frenda So.