Running errands in Wanchai this afternoon. Decided I needed a folding table. I’ve got this soft light box, great for photographing small objects (like Zippo lighters), and the only place I’ve had to set it down is on the spare bed. Every time I try to use it, with a couple of small lights alongside (also on the bed, not on a flat surface), the slightest jar and the lights fall down and the bulbs break. After days of frustration, I just gave up.

So went to the housewares shop on Wanchai Road where they had the perfect size folding table for HK$189. Not too heavy, easy enough to carry. Get back to the car park and of course it’s about four inches too long to fit into the trunk of the car.

So, top down and I swing it into the back seat. Very carefully, not to let any of it come into contact with the outside of the car, don’t want to scratch the paint. So carefully that I forget the age-old adage, lift with your legs, not your back. And as I swing it around, up and over, my lower back just totally yanked out on me. Yes, I’m pissed off. At myself. Heating pad, hot bath, now if I can only wake up my gf for a massage. Yes, right now it hurts when I move, period.

Even so, I hobbled over to the Wanchai Computer Centre. The speakers I use with my computer have been dying for a long time, not that they were ever that great to begin with. A JVC 3 piece DVD player with two speakers (with gimmicky wood cones) and an all-important AUX input on the back. The DVD player started coughing up blood a couple of years ago, but I don’t use it so often anymore. But lately, something went haywire with the speakers, lots of distortion – termites?

Wasn’t really certain what I wanted but knew it had to have at least halfway decent sound and I wanted a 2.1 speaker system. I listened to some Logitech and Creative speakers, prices up to around 800, 900 bucks. The guy kept plugging in his (or the shop’s) ipod and I kept yanking it out and plugging in my iPhone and cranking up the Radiohead. Now my hearing isn’t the best in the world and I don’t think I’m the discriminating audiophile snob, but they sounded like toys to me.

I was about to give up and save it for another day, perhaps try the Bose shop (yeah, I know, don’t start, okay?). And then they suggested the Harmon Kardon Soundsticks II. I always liked the look of these beasts (clear plastic speakers) and knew they’d gotten some halfway decent reviews. There was an open set on the shelf so I thought they’d just plug that one in, but instead the guy yanked down a box, took ten minutes unpacking the box, plugged in his ipod again, I unplugged it again and cranked my stuff instead. Fortunately, these sounded fairly respectable and I figured that for the price, I wasn’t going to do much better so all the guy’s effort to unpack (and then repack) them didn’t go to waste.

At home, I note that these received an A- “highly recommended” review on iPodLounge. “… we wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to add a set of the Soundsticks to an iPod or computer setup. They look great, sound great, and won’t kill your wallet.”

More importantly, listening to music, and the sound is a significant improvement over my old JVC set-up, even at lower volumes.

And what am I listening to right now? I’ll mention in passing because no one seems to know about this, but look for a more complete write-up in BC in the near future. It’s a group called Seven Worlds Collide, an album titled “The Sun Came Out.” Oh, the group members include Neil Finn, Johnny Marr, Jeff Tweedy, K.T. Tunstall, Bic Runga, Lisa Germano, Tim Finn and others. It’s a charity album for Oxfam and it sounds great (and I’m not just talking about the new speakers). If you know any of those names and you like what they do on their own, you’re gonna like what they’re doing together.

Now I gotta get some pain pills and the heating pad running again.

Hongkie Town
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