Tequila Time!
It may come as a bit random but hey, I'm pretty excited about 'Stranglehold', a new video game hitting the shelves this season.
What's so excitable? A game presented by John Woo and starring Chow Yun-fat?! That should get your blood tingling.
Based on the legendary HK-made 'Hard Boiled', you play probably one of the best movie-to-game characters detective Tequila of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force... now of course, just named Hong Kong Police Force. Story-line's a bit cheesy - partner gets killed, vengeance etc - plus a lot of body count along the way.
Granted it's a spitting image of Max Payne but come on, big up Hong Kong!
I played the demo, eagerly waiting to hear Chow's lines. Man was I dissapointed. First of all, if you're not a decent Chow fan, you won't recognise his voice. Secondly, it's clear that he dead-reads his lines, like he didn't give two shits about it. Or recorded in his spare time while taking a shite.
He's that bad.Labels: chow yun fat tequila strangehold game
Mooncake season is upon us...
Visited a mooncake factory today - which will go un-named - and while I'm not a big fan of the lard cakes, it was fun looking at it made manually by hand since they're made by machines nowadays... another long-lost cultural tradition of Hong Kong perhaps?
A raw, naked mooncake before it's wrapped in pastry... draw your own imagery folks.
Let's all support So What
But how?
We can't even by their album or pay to see them perform... Yes unlike most bands and musicians (especially in Hong Kong where commercialism is all the rage), all-girl rock trio So What is releasing their debut EP 'Happiness' via their
website.A note though, they sing in Mandarin. And I gotta admit they did convince me that mandarin songs sound way better (and easier) to listen to than Cantonese.
Their staging a CD release party this Thursday night at Club Cixi where it's no charge, and you even get a free CD! Charity's welcome - all proceeds go to Orbis.
Hopefully I'll get to go but ya never know with my crazy hours.
Honoured to have met them as they graced our office last week for a vidcast interview, so here it is:
Labels: scmp vidcast so what band music hong kong rock
Fan-made MV of Tarantula is fucking brilliant!
How about this - The Pumpkins gave out a green-screen copy of Tarantula for a competition and this was crowned number one. And I'm sure most agree, it's wayyy better than the original.
It actually makes me wanna learn motion graphics, well at least improve on it.
Labels: smashing pumpkins tarantula fan made music video winner
RIP - Anita Roddick
Promoting and engaging in Fair Trade and eco-friendly business practices may not have been the first order of business for Anita Roddick and The Body Shop, but hell, they've done much more than any company in that industry.
One of the first books I read on global warming and fair trade policies was produced by Dame Roddick, so I thanked her for that.
She was one of the few that injected some sort of humanity and compassion into the great capitalist and globalisation machine; and no doubt spawned a new type of entrepreuneur that saw globalisation as a means to better the lives of poor people who were disconnected from the frantic world of global trade.
Another day, another flare-up
Thought I would've never had to wear my notorious black gloves again, but in these few days I had to.
After several months of abstaining from medicine for my goddamn skin condition, I thought I could ride it out as time went by.
My hands have been pretty bad lately - hence the gloves. And this is after my feet had gotten better... I'm sure it's not going to last for long either.
A close relative of mine, who's studied the fine arts of Chinese mysticism, feng shui or whatever you want to call it, concoted this set of numbers after some research and consultation with masters in this field - 0002050 - which he says if I mutter it to myself like tantric meditation long enough, it can heal my liver, hence bettering my skin condition.
Now, when I heard this I was completely turned off by the idea that something so ludicrous would work. My relative also has his own skin affliction, and he says his set of numbers worked for him in the past few months. And I can vouch that he's no fool.
And I just don't understand myself, but I found myself muttering the numbers when I had some alone time, or as I stared aimlessly outside the bus windows. I'm amazed I bought into all this, but I do feel after all the different types of medication and doctors I've tried, why not amuse myself eh?
I'm just so tired and sick of trying to find ways to heal myself, after all I've been through and the money I've (and my parents) spent. Do good things come to all those wait? I guess I'm waiting for something to fall on my lap and bam, here's what I gotta do to cure this thing. I cannot let myself get used to my cyclic condition though; I cannot keep suffering on-and-off like this because I have big plans! I want to travel, climb mountains, go on treks, lug a big camera around and go film amazing scenes around the world... I can't do all that knowing I have this demonic skin condition always lurking within me, ready to flare up again.
You know what's worse? No mongoloid doctor so far has yet to give me a genuine diagnosis. Fucking worthless.
Interviewed a rather down-to-earth musician for a vidcast yesterday.
Anabel, aka 'Ama', is a Chinese musician with Odyssey Music Group with a jazz/soul taste.
While she says she does have worldly influences like Chet Baker, she does admit fitting into the category of a 'pop star'.
Which is a shame, considering her knowledge of painting/fine art propels her further than most dim Cantopop stars. Luckily she went to international school and studied abroad, so her English was pretty good.
But what impressed me most - and also impressed her - was that after I told her I was Irish, she claimed her dream was to go to Ireland, and have a pint in an Irish pub!
That automatically scores points with me.
Visit
OMG's website for my details about her.
Vidcast will be published along with Young Post's article on 21st September.
Labels: scmp young post ama musician hong kong
There must be some sort of donor card to give parts of my body for artists when I die.
