HEAVY WEATHER 2008: KAMMURI UPDATE

I should be reporting to you today from a wooden tub filled with fresh-roasted coffee brewed and poured from a hot spring. Then teh typhoonz came.

Yesterday afternoon we got a call from the travel agency right before we went to the movies to say they were canceling the package because we need to take a ferry to get to Gudou, and Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri was scheduled to smack Hong Kong about an hour before our boat set off.

Which it did. Woke up this morning to the sound of howling winds and torrents of rain pounding the building and a Signal 8 warning. Been doing it all morning. It’ll keep doing it until sundown at least. The good news is that we have three months to reschedule the trip. The bad news is we really only have a couple of weeks cos that’s when my China visa expires. So I’ll have to take a couple extra days off next week.

I know, poor me. Except that it IS a bit troublesome because the work I was supposed to be doing when I got back will pile up while I’m gone, and I have to convince The Powers that this won’t be a problem.

Anyway, this is shaping up to be a weird year, weatherwise. The last five years, we’ve barely seen any typhoon action, with most the storms going wide of the mark and more often than not clobbering Japan instead. This year, we’re three for three – anything that’s come close enough to raise a Signal 1 has elevated to 8 before it was over.

And there’s more where that came from, according to the experts.

What movie did we go see, you ask? The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor. Was it good? No. I didn’t really expect it to be, but KT was keen, so we went. Apart from some serious plot holes and Rob Cohen’s decision to adopt a Michael Bay style of action directing (lotsa shaky cameras and bad CG), it commits the cardinal sin of Foreign People Conveniently Speaking English At Times When It’s Not Called For. And the yeti business is just silly, even for a mummy film.

Too bad, in a way, since any film that has Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh and Anthony Wong in it shouldn’t have to be this bad. But then only a Hollywood director could make a sword fight scene between Li and Yeoh look clunky.

Okay. Back to the typhoons.

The wind cried Mary,

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I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN: AUGUST 2008 EDITION

The book reviews continue, cos the “to read” pile isn’t getting any smaller.

JUST FINISHED

Quantico by Greg Bear
Sometimes I think I keep reading Bear because Blood Music was so good. As a writer, he’s pretty wooden, but his ideas can be interesting. Here he looks at the near future of terrorism and bioweapons, and offers an alternate take on the anthrax letters of 2001 as part of a much bigger plot which in itself is actually rather clever. Some of it is a bit far out (especially his ideas on the fate of the FBI), and the ending seems a bit rushed, but overall it’s not too bad.

JUST STARTED

Little Heroes by Norman Spinrad
This is Spinrad’s take on the cyberpunk genre, as well as a satire of the music business. It’s tough to get into because, like with a lot of Spinrad’s work, he invents hipster slang so heavy it takes awhile to get into the rhythm of it, but anything that pits rock’n’roll against the Monolithic Record Company is worth sticking around for, so we’ll see how it goes.

( Recent titles and bioweapons? Right this way, sir ... )

Read ‘em and weep,

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