A Long Shadow

A Mix Tape You Made - Cheer Chen / 陳綺貞 (HK)

2005-04-14T15:07:00.000-04:00

Well, after a break of a week or two, I'm back. Did you miss me madly? Rhetorical questions aside, it's time to put up some new music under the guise of 'it's new if it's new to me'.

That being said, introducing 陳綺貞, which I believe means 'Cheer Chen'. After hearing my share of J-Pop, and a smattering of Hong Kong pop, which pretty much of the same saccherine variety, this is the polar opposite - a pretty folk pop songstress whose quite and clear voice brings me back to The Gentle Waves, the side band of then-Belle and Sebastian-er Isobel Cambell. While Cheer Chen's voice has much more authority, it's so simple and clear it makes you want to sway in a seat as you look at those old high school yearbooks.

The folk twee factor picks up beyond the acoustic guitar strumming, when a lonely horn floats in with some playful children 2/3rds of the way through, picking up the backdrop of the guitar as it peters out itself. A fairly simple track, but the pretty vocals and minimalist nature stay with you for a bit, and goes great with the kids frolicking outside school in the spring sun.

Tag: One is the lonliest number
RIYL: Julie Dorion, Isobel Cambpell
Track: Cheer Chen (陳綺貞) - After 17

Housekeeping Note

2005-04-06T13:01:00.000-04:00

My apologies...I'm right in the middle of exams, and that's taking up far too much of my time. Expect posting to be light for another week, but anticipate a move to a new website not long after that.

Good times will be had by most...

No love for the Gwai Lo

2005-03-31T09:56:00.000-05:00

Reading Big White Guy, I've found the sad truth is that, while it seems that Chinese women love the forigners, that love may not be everlasting. A choice quote:

(While) nearly 63 per cent of Chinese citizens would like to marry a foreigner, according to a survey … of contemporary Chinese attitudes towards international marriage...Marrying a foreigner is no guarantee of long-lasting happiness, said the paper, citing a separate survey showing that international marriages tend to have high divorce rates.

The survey by the Shanghai municipal government showed 60 per cent of marriages between Chinese and Canadians failed.

While I know this isn't Hong Kong per-se, I don't know if I should be setting myself up for love or heartache. See, none of this would be an issue if I could pass for a Hong Kong local. Hey, look at my picture. If I walked in that perpetual blue shadow all the time, I could pass...

Yet, maybe I should do the real foreigner thing and fall for a local. Ok BWG - I see you article, and I also see the subtle hint for your very own BWG Personals. I get it, I get it...

知半解: Avril Lavigne loves Japan? Or Hong Kong?

2005-03-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

According to Hanzi Smatter, Avril Lavigne was spotted playing a concert in Hong Kong with writing on her arm stating something to the effect of 'Japan is the Best!'

While it looks like the photo was indeed taken from Japan (but likely used to promote the show in Hong Kong through chinese newspapers), the possiblity of it being true just makes it blog-worthy.

And she's Canadian. So everyone wins...

Hong Kong University Residential Halls...advice?

2005-03-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

Does anyone have any advice on which HKU residence I should stay in? I'm debating between Starr and Swire...and if I can, I'm going to change it to St John's Graduate hall...but I could use advice.

Or even more general advice. Do I want a private room or a more sociable hall with kids in their 20's? Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Hello Kitty iPod mini

2005-03-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

As reported by Gizmodo, the new Hello Kitty iPod is soon to be on the market.

This comes complete with a 6GB iPod, plus Bearbricks, the new fad sweeping Hong Kong and Asia, and slowly making their way towards North America. Basically, it's like collecting sports cards or something similar, but in cute plastic bear form - or Kitty form.

While I want to hate the consumerism of it, I really don't. I mean, if I like bunnies, then there's no justifyable reason not to love Hello Kitty, right? But I wonder, is the stereotype true that all girls from 10 to 25 in Hong Kong are in love with Hello Kitty? Maybe someone can enlighten me...

Bunnies! (and classy fine art...)

2005-03-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

Yes, maybe I'm a sap. But between learning to love Manet, despise the YBA art movement, and develop my own sense of style of what makes fine art, I've found myself drawn to some simpler, almost amateurish art.

Not to devalue the work of Mr. Clement, but it's hard to take it seriously. That being said, there's something I love about his mix of the fantastic and his use of real life - best seen in this photo set. It has a playful asthetic to it, yet does more than just tell a story - it draws you close with some sort of warmth I can't just pinpoint. For some reason, he reminds me of the humour of David Shrigley (whose website featuring his more subtle photo work has died a horrible death as of last check), yet much more subtle. More meaningful is for you to decide.

And he also does music posters and great 'on the street work'. Again, featuring bunnies. Maybe I just like bunnies...Eh, to each his own.

A Mix Tape You Made - The Decemberists (USA)

2005-03-22T20:54:00.000-05:00

I swear, I was planning on posting another HK band or two before the US hit the chart again, but I couldn't pass this up. There's a great video up by a band called The Decemberists called 16 Military Wives (torrent). (you'll need a program like Bit Torrent for PC or Tomato Torrent for Mac to download the file)

It's a tale that may hit a bit close to home for the American readers...a thinly disguised track about America marching off to war, the reasons behind it, and the price that may be paid. That being said, it's not a downer of a track my any means...

In fact, the song comes bouncy with quirky, Neutral Milk Hotel-sounding vocals, and a toe tapping structure that for some reason, evokes memories of The Beatles 'Life Goes On' (Ohblah dee, oblah dah...excuse me if I've got the wrong name). The required marching band horns and choruses including 'Lah de dah de dah de ditty ditty dah' go along with the dictatorial vocals exclaiming that America...well, you'll just have to hear it for yourself.

And bravo to the video, both for tongue-in-cheekily using a Model UN to show how the hurtin' goes down, and for sneakily tossing a copy of copy of Craig Thompson's Blankets in the locker of Luxembourg. You'll understand when you see the video. Anyway, those looking fora mature loo at childhood love in graphic novel form, Blankets is one to check out. I've bookmarked a couple pages for possible framing in my future-hopeful-big-boy-house...

Well, didn't bookmark the pages. Didn't wanna crease them.

Stay tuned for some Hong Kong music from Cheer Chen and the Keh Leh Feh recommended Eason Chan in the near future...

Candid Cameras and Tourist Traps

2005-03-22T15:41:00.000-05:00

After checking out the Flickr photo set by Siu Tung, a fellow Hong Kong blogger who is currently living outside the city (or so it looks), and thinking back to my favourite photos, I started thinking about what makes tourism photography worthwhile.

If you go back a couple posts, you see a happy family posing in front of landmarks, and obviously staged photos of local women - who may or may not have been paid for their images, I can't help but think of the photos from my past trips.

When I was a kid, while I never enjoyed being photographed, I always managed to find myself in front of the Empire State Building, or at a baseball game, or something like that. The images hold up over time, basically as an artifact not of the trip, but me growing up alongside my family.

However, when I travelled alone, I loathed asking to get my photo taken. I always tried to take candid shots of locals, shots of beautiful scenery, lush greenery or frosty mountains - and I often found myself passing on tourist photos of landmarks, except for anything Gaudi-related (Flickr link). I find that, in retrospect, looking at the random photos of other people's everyday lives and beautiful vistas that I have explored stand up much more over the smiley, happy photos of yesteryear.

This just makes me want to go buy myself a nice digital camera. Something with some weight, at least 5 or 6 megapixels, interchangable lenses, and the like. Basically, a normal camera, minus the film. Suggestions are appreciated, and I'll update you on the search...

Spandex!

2005-03-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

Spandex: A Father's Tale

This short film was made by a friend of mine from NYU, and has been accepted into a number of film festivals. Anyone in the NY area should head off to support local comedy.

NYU First Run: Saturday, April 2 at 8:00 PM (Main screening, room 200)
NYU First Run: Sunday, April 3 at 12:30PM (Alternate screening, room 102)
Tribeca Film Festival: Friday, April 22 at 2:00PM (Regal Battery Park Theater 4 )
Tribeca Film Festival: Saturday, April 30 at 5:15PM (Regal Battery Park Theater 10)
Tribeca Film Festival: Sunday, May 1 at 2:45PM (Regal Battery Park Theater 11)

Movie Preview here.

On Yuen Long and Tourism Authenticity

2005-03-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

Quite impressive, actually - after speaking to a few kind people from Icered, I'm now a bit more equipped with ideas of how to meet people, and where I should go once I get there. One place of note is Yuen Long, an area off the beaten path of normal HK travels, but seemingly just what I'm looking for. It's a small little market town, with areas to wander and get lost, and a few intriguing cultural artifacts.

The area that looked the most intriguing was Kat Hing Wai - a walled city with narrow passageways and a nice local flavour. Some great photos can be found here, though I must admit, a bit of extra research started to turn me off on the city.

One of the major attractions seems to be the Hakka women and their, um, furry hats? I got the impression that they would wander the streets waiting to get their photos taken, and then the tourists would pay them. Any city, no matter how intriguing, where the locals hit the streets for photo-ops disturbs me to some extent. Can't we just live out lives normally, so I can take your photo when you're not looking, you can get pissed off, and I can run down the street panicing? Oh wait, that was my trip wandering through the Old City in Jerusalem.

I guess I'd better save the photography to the real photographers...

(Thanks to Qyrus from Icered for the tip)

Architecture from Different Angles...

2005-03-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

I've lived in a few different styles of places. I've lived among the skyscrapers of New York, the city but with more greenery in Toronto, in the romantic flow of Paris, through winding cobblestone streets, and a few more big cities not worth mentioning now.

I'm not sure if I'm prepared for a city like this, though:

This fantastic image is taken from Michael Wolf's Hong Kong photography site. Every close up building shot looks like a post modern artwork, without any reference to the fact it's just a huge apartment building. I imagine Hong Kong built up to the sky, apartments towering over the people wandering. But, for some reason I don't imagine it to be generic or sterile. I just imagine the beauty in the smallest things that locals take for granted.

A few weeks ago, a group of Chinese tourists were taking pictures of my law school, which is just an old building to me. It's called Falconer Hall, and it looks like this:

To me, that's every building. To my friends from China, this was a masterpiece. And yes, I took their picture...because I expect everyone from Hong Kong to take my picture when I pose in front of a building that is nothing special to you...

A Mix Tape You Made - Iron & Wine (USA)

2005-03-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

While I'm going to focus on music from HK, I might as well introduce readers from across the world to some local music. As such, this is Sam Beam, leader of Iron and Wine. He fronts a folk/country type band, who can slay you with a whisper.

The song in question, The Trapeze Swinger, is a hushed lullabye, maybe to someone almost forgotten, maybe a funeral goodbye, or a plea for comfort. He dreamily rambles through memories of life, painting eloquent pictures of how life once was. It's either the happiest sad song you'll ever hear, or the saddest happy song. But it makes you want to call all those people you haven't heard from in 10 years, just to tell them how much you loved that time with them, sitting alone at the swingset, where nothing could bring you two apart...until it did.

Tag: Sad Happiness, And Everything in Between
RIYL: The Shins, Songs: Ohia
Recommended Track: The Trapeze Swinger (link takes you to another site)

Icered, Well-Read

2005-03-18T01:41:00.000-05:00

It's 1:37am Toronto time, and I've made my first proactive step to meet strangers. Yes, it's true, an online posting to this site called Icered. Seems to be the happening place for the University set, or maybe I just read wrong. Any visitors coming to my site from there? Write me a comment and tell me about Icered. Any nice people out there? Don't want to make any enemies on a first post...

And a bonus for me, the post seems to be smack dab in the middle of the afternoon HK time. I guess I'll be waking up early to call the family at night. Or maybe they'll just check the blog...

On Freedom and Action

2005-03-16T10:41:00.000-05:00

Enough of the frivolous stuff. In searching for the creme de la creme of Hong Kong blogs, I stumbled across Glutter, which moves gracefully from incredible local photography to political insight on the idea of what it means to be free. A heady topic, no doubt.

As an ex-writer myself, and someone who likes to believe that, now that he has a blog, he's a 'young media professional,' it's hard to not want to argue for the free speech and democracy advocated by most outside of the situation, as well as the vast majority inside it.

Personally, I've never witnessed firsthand the pull of an authoritarian government, the silence effects of those trying to keep the masses in order. With the turnover, I'm honestly not sure where on the spectrum Hong Kong would be in terms of relative freedoms. I believe that, for the most part, the freedoms that I take for granted would be there. But for neighbours to have to watch their words and debate their actions on a less-personalized scale is a frightening prospect.

Interestingly, in some perverse way, writing about it has such an underground, yet positive effect on the situation. Not people like me, but people in general - discussion breeds more discussion and analysis, and often it is words before actions that start the wheels in motion in larger political change. Well, maybe Gandhi would probably agree, but I'm not sure what those in Tiananmen Square would have to say on the matter...

Robbie C. saves the day!

2005-03-15T11:19:00.000-05:00

...but of course, in a musical setting.

Looking for The Roots/The Seed Remix? | Ask MetaFilter

Yay for me - I helped someone get the right answed on AskMeFi today. I love that this qualifies as an important experience in my life...More on HK today, after I finish writing an essay due at 4pm.

Would the small guy make me look even taller?

2005-03-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

Don't know why I found this video amusing...maybe it's just my fear/excitement about being the big dumb foreigner, but maybe it's solely the excitement of seeing my future hometown on the internet. Who knew? You can learn about other countries on the net?

This is just a simple ad showing how much you can save with a credit card company, but if features foreigners acting foolish prominently. This may become a theme as well...

A Mix Tape You Made - False Alarm (HK)

2005-03-13T15:45:00.000-05:00

One of the features of this learning process of mine is going to be learning all I can about the music coming from Hong Kong - the more underground, the better.

First on the list is False Alarm, who I'm thinking is as indie as they get - and that's not meant in the best way, sadly. They're a fun little group who tinkers around with pop music with english lyrics, but they need to get out of the garage and polish up a bit. The lyrics may lose something in the translation, though you have to love any song that details the warmth of love, romance and bringing that one close into your life, with the touching lyrics of 'Eat and Sing': "I say I love you and I fuck you and I will go away".

Seriously, while a bit sophmoric at times, their tunes reminded me of a rough around the edges version of Yo La Tengo's poppier tracks, which isn't a bad start, but they still have a ways to go.

Tag: After-School Specials
RIYL: Yo La Tengo; The Flashing Lights

Standout track:Unknown Festival

Others: Kenny's Dream Song
Eat and Sing

Rejected Names

2005-03-13T01:36:00.000-05:00

Other names I considered for this blog 'o mine included:
Fever Dream
The Places You'll Go
Lost Little Boy

If you notice, these are all titles of songs. Yes, I am predictable. Yes, this will likely be a reoccurring theme. I apologize in advance.

I should also note that these names were not rejected by me, but they were all taken by others. Not only am I predictable, but I'm already redundant.

I will soon be posting photos of my 74 cats.

A Long Shadow

2005-03-13T00:58:00.000-05:00

So we begin again... My name is Robbie C., and this blog, if I find the time, patience, desire and such, will be the chronicle of my trip from my hometown of Toronto, Canada, to Hong Kong. Might as well start filling you in now, no?

Yesterday, after meeting with my University Student Exchange advisor, I was told that I was going to be recommended to do an exchange in Hong Kong for the Fall 2005 semester. While I'm still awaiting word from the University of Hong Kong, it's looking likely, so they say - they've never rejected anyone before, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So, just so we're on the same wavelength - we, meaning me and my illusory readers - my knowledge of Hong Kong is limited to flipping through my Lonely Planet, surfing the web, albeit quickly, and a love of all things Dim Sum. Beyond that, there's not much. So this will be part of my quest to educate myself on the things to come. I hope to post new tidbits of information as they come to me - and anything interesting that you know of, please fill me in.

So, where does that leave me? Excited, not that afraid, and wondering what life'll hold for me - along with the realization that this trip is 6 months away, and I still have a handful to go through here before I make it there. Anyway, we'll see if I make it past this inaugral post, but either way, it's time to look ahead.