yes, there are many things I miss about new york, but this one is about the music, how every band passes through at some point or another.
missing this one hurts. rural alberta advantage. catch them at bowery on oct 7th, or just buy their album.
I recently found out that Handsome Furs (the side project of Dan Boeckner [of Wolf Parade fame]) was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago and I didn't know! oh the agony. Seeing British Sea Power later in October helps, but hk has a long way to go before indie can even begin to peek out from under the all-encompassing canto-pop.
a neat clip of handsome furs:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Hong Kong so far...
What can I say about living in Hong Kong these almost two months? Even though I'm not from here, I strangely feel more at home here than just about anywhere else, with a couple areas in New York City and Tokyo being the notable exceptions.
Finding a job wasn't that hard; finding the right job has proven to be much harder, with many educational hoops to jump through, and my current rate of movement is closer to a kind of awkward forward tumble.
But Hong Kong...I'll try to do the abbreviated version, because really, all we've been doing is furnishing our apartment the last month (for that, see cole's blog).
So, here goes:
Actually this is a bit of a jump, since this is the building that we live in now, and will live in for at least the next two years. Not the largest or tallest, but it is newly renovated and located in the old school neighborhood of Aberdeen.
The view of Aberdeen Harbour from our first apartment here, the serviced apt/hotel. Aberdeen used to be one of the largest communities in HK, especially before the Brits arrived. Even these days, there's still a fishing village of sorts.
Taken during a scouting trip for cole.
All of a sudden, my birthday crept up on me. Oh twenties, you're leaving so soon.
Perhaps the best mango cake I have ever had. From Taipan Bakery, which has branches in New York, but the ones here don't resemble the ones back home that much. For one, they don't serve milk tea (oh the milk tea! probably the only reason I haven't become a gaunt, wasted away shell. I will devote at least a couple posts to HK milk tea) and their buns taste different. Still good, but different.
Cole's first day of school
A ferry ride...hmm...where. Maybe to Lamma Island.
At this point I was still interviewing for jobs, and I had some free time so I borrowed the hotel's xbox 360 and played Tiger Woods Golf all day. Here is the electronic golfer version of me I made. Eerie.
The elevator door of a place where we like to get pho. Yum cigarhotdog.
Yangzhou fried rice at a cantina in Causeway Bay. They serve the one of the best chicken congees I've ever had.
The view from our new apartment.
One day, we decided that we needed to get out, and by out meaning out of the Hong Kong Island vicinity. Since the Hong Kong Culture Museum is located in Shatin, it provided us with the perfect opportunity to leave our little daily enclave.
The history of the New Territories was actually pretty interesting. All of these giant planned communities, created either out of literally nothing (with reclaimed land) or total wilderness.
Shatin was also where I used to spend my summers with my family when I was younger. Back then, there wasn't as much around, but now there are all sorts of malls and parks. Even so, the quiet and peacefulness of the suburb was striking in comparison to the usual activity we see on the main island and Kowloon.
The clarity of the water, the blue surrounding us, above and below. Everything coincided, and I realized that there was a very real chance that we may never leave Hong Kong.
The serene scene was broken up by this outdoor karaoke party. People sitting, dancing spontaneously (the man pictured dancing with his little Pomeranian), all to popular Cantonese songs from the sixties and seventies.
Sushi place in Shatin, near a bus terminus.
That night I think, the sky turned violet. For ten minutes our apartment was pink hued from the strange light streaming in.
Then, it rained, and lightening flashed near us, so near that cole, with a yelp, leaped from the balcony onto our coach, a distance of at least four feet. Perhaps the most impressive athletic feat I've ever witness from her.
I'll finish this with our first "home-cooked" meal, meaning we bought dry soba and boiled it up, and I picked up some salmon and cucumber maki rolls from the local Park n' Shop. It wasn't much, but it was good, and it was the first meal that we had made and eaten together in our new apartment.
(sorry about the long delays between posts. "serious" writing is taking up more time, and work and going back to school [of all things]. i'll make sure to update at least once a month).
Finding a job wasn't that hard; finding the right job has proven to be much harder, with many educational hoops to jump through, and my current rate of movement is closer to a kind of awkward forward tumble.
But Hong Kong...I'll try to do the abbreviated version, because really, all we've been doing is furnishing our apartment the last month (for that, see cole's blog).
So, here goes:
Actually this is a bit of a jump, since this is the building that we live in now, and will live in for at least the next two years. Not the largest or tallest, but it is newly renovated and located in the old school neighborhood of Aberdeen.
The view of Aberdeen Harbour from our first apartment here, the serviced apt/hotel. Aberdeen used to be one of the largest communities in HK, especially before the Brits arrived. Even these days, there's still a fishing village of sorts.
Taken during a scouting trip for cole.
All of a sudden, my birthday crept up on me. Oh twenties, you're leaving so soon.
Perhaps the best mango cake I have ever had. From Taipan Bakery, which has branches in New York, but the ones here don't resemble the ones back home that much. For one, they don't serve milk tea (oh the milk tea! probably the only reason I haven't become a gaunt, wasted away shell. I will devote at least a couple posts to HK milk tea) and their buns taste different. Still good, but different.
Cole's first day of school
A ferry ride...hmm...where. Maybe to Lamma Island.
At this point I was still interviewing for jobs, and I had some free time so I borrowed the hotel's xbox 360 and played Tiger Woods Golf all day. Here is the electronic golfer version of me I made. Eerie.
The elevator door of a place where we like to get pho. Yum cigarhotdog.
Yangzhou fried rice at a cantina in Causeway Bay. They serve the one of the best chicken congees I've ever had.
The view from our new apartment.
One day, we decided that we needed to get out, and by out meaning out of the Hong Kong Island vicinity. Since the Hong Kong Culture Museum is located in Shatin, it provided us with the perfect opportunity to leave our little daily enclave.
The history of the New Territories was actually pretty interesting. All of these giant planned communities, created either out of literally nothing (with reclaimed land) or total wilderness.
Shatin was also where I used to spend my summers with my family when I was younger. Back then, there wasn't as much around, but now there are all sorts of malls and parks. Even so, the quiet and peacefulness of the suburb was striking in comparison to the usual activity we see on the main island and Kowloon.The clarity of the water, the blue surrounding us, above and below. Everything coincided, and I realized that there was a very real chance that we may never leave Hong Kong.
The serene scene was broken up by this outdoor karaoke party. People sitting, dancing spontaneously (the man pictured dancing with his little Pomeranian), all to popular Cantonese songs from the sixties and seventies.
Sushi place in Shatin, near a bus terminus.
That night I think, the sky turned violet. For ten minutes our apartment was pink hued from the strange light streaming in.Then, it rained, and lightening flashed near us, so near that cole, with a yelp, leaped from the balcony onto our coach, a distance of at least four feet. Perhaps the most impressive athletic feat I've ever witness from her.
I'll finish this with our first "home-cooked" meal, meaning we bought dry soba and boiled it up, and I picked up some salmon and cucumber maki rolls from the local Park n' Shop. It wasn't much, but it was good, and it was the first meal that we had made and eaten together in our new apartment.
(sorry about the long delays between posts. "serious" writing is taking up more time, and work and going back to school [of all things]. i'll make sure to update at least once a month).
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