RAINY DAY IN TAI PO

So the bridal unit and I went to Tai Po yesterday to visit a Chinese medicine practitioner.



She’s been fighting a cold and she’s been having an allergic reaction to the antibiotics she’s been taking. So she takes Chinese medicine to counteract it.

The place we went to was one of those great traditional places that’s less like a doctor’s office and more like a flat, where you walk up a couple of floors, go through the metal security door and enter a room with a small couch and a teak-wood shrine. The doctor’s desk is across from that. Off to the side, his assistant/wife sits on a teak stool in front of a ten-year-old computer monitor watching translated Korean soap operas on VCD.

You get a prescription and go down to the street to a medicine shop with counters and shelves loaded with all kinds of herbs, wormwood, amaranth, garlic, something that looks like tree bark, etc. I like watching the guy and his wife using a handheld scale made of a chopstick, a small tray and a counterweight to measure out the dosage of each ingredient. Then the guy whips out a Chinese abacus made in the 1960s and with lightning-fast fingers that would make Steve Vai feel inadequate – clackity clackity clack clack clack! – adds it up and bills you.

Boring to most people who live here. but fascinating to me. But then I’m a fan of lost arts. How many of YOU could work an abacus?

Anyway, a nice way to spend the day, despite the rain. We had crispy pork and noodles for lunch, sharing a table with three old women who were very cranky about family issues.

And then we went shopping for a ceramic pot to cook the medicine in. Which is when we saw the cat in the mop-heads box.



We also saw a cat sleeping under a giant vat of turtle soup, but the picture didn’t turn out so good. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Heretical medical,

This is dF

SCRUB AWAY, SCRUB AWAY, SCRUB AWAY ...

Spent the morning cleaning the flat, and between that and the Hong Kong govt running PSAs on good hygiene to fight the Doom Pig Flu, this just seems appropriate.

Plus, I love Poly Styrene’s hat. So does the bridal unit. She wants one just like it.

PRODUCTION NOTE: That should be "Adolescents", not "Adolescence".

Clean teen,

This is dF

BUY THE BOOK, STEAL THE ALBUM

Danger Mouse (better known to many of you as one half of Gnarls Barkley and the producer of the last Gorillaz LP) has a new album project with Sparklehorse and (of all people) David Lynch. It’s called Dark Night Of The Soul, it’s coming out at the end of the month, and will include no music whatsoever.

That’s because EMI won’t let them release the music, due to an unspecified “legal dispute”. Consequently, EMI has effectively scrapped the album.

So Danger Mouse plans to release the packaging – which includes a 100+ page book of photographs by Lynch illustrating the 13 songs – along with a blank CD-R labeled thusly:

“For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”

The implication being that, seeing as how the album has already leaked onto P2P file sharing sites, you can buy the packaging and download the music separately.

Dead clever.

So, yes – suck it, EMI.

Mind you, the book + CD-R is going for $50, though you get a free poster with that. An alternate poster + CD-R goes for $10.

Meanwhile, NPR is also streaming the full album on its site, though it’s not clear how long they’ll be able to get away with it.

I’m listening to it right now. It’s pretty cool, deceptively dark stuff. If it helps, the guest list includes James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils.

Listen to it while supplies last.

EMI is killing music,

This is dF

HONG KONG’S BAD ACID TRIP

Oh, and while we were on our way back from Tai Po yesterday, this happened.



This is what we have instead of public mall shootings, you see.

The kicker: the same thing happened in the same district last December. They never caught the person responsible.

They're thinking it's the same person.

Watch the skies,

This is dF