IT’S JUST THAT SONG

Good morning, children.

It’s Monday morning. Consequently, you may not feel like dancing.

But Sherilynn Fenn does. So long as Angelo Badalamenti’s on the jukebox.

Sway with me,

This is dF

ON AN ISLAND, PART 1: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES

I spent Sunday on a day trip out to a couple of Hong Kong’s outlying islands – specifically, Tap Mun and Tung Ping Chau. The HK Professional Teachers Union (of with my mother-in-law is a member) had a special price for it. And I haven’t been island-hopping for awhile.

Plus, Tung Ping Chau just happens to be where the bridal unit spent the first few years of her life on this planet.

So I just had to look.

There’s much to show and tell, and you are all busy people with better things to do, so I’ll split the narrative up into episodes. A few generalities:

Island-hopping in Hong Kong can be grueling, as it involves lots of long, slow open-air ferry rides (the shortest one being around 45 minutes). In this specific case, it involves catching yr ride at the Ma Liu Shui Pier near Chinese University in Tai Po – which is about 90 minutes worth of bus and train rides from our flat. Which meant we had to get up at 5am in order to make it on time.

Then there the massive thunderstorm we had wade through just to get to the bus. And that was nothing compared to the eventual sunshine and 36ºC heat we experienced while hiking along the countryside or rocky shorelines for an hour at a time. Each way.

On the bright side, it was educational. Which is always important.

I confess I have a mild fascination for remote islands with shantytowns and abandoned buildings. And Hong Kong’s remote islands are full of those. The newest building is usually at least 30 to 40 years old, made of concrete and corrugated sheet metal with lots of additional improv from the local fishermen who sell cold drinks and dried seafood to tourists to get by. By no coincidence, there is always at least one seafood restaurant. (The best seafood restaurants in Hong Kong, incidentally, are on the outlying islands. Fact.)

You can’t imagine anyone actually living there. And yet they do. KT and her mom did almost 40 years ago. Her mom in fact taught at the local school. Granted, everything was newer then. And as usual, I’m overselling it. These days, they’ve got enough of the basic conveniences – electricity, plumbing, telephones, mobile network coverage, Internet access, etc. So it’s not like they’re living in mud huts wearing fig leaves.

But still, it feels 100 times more removed from civilization than the average American small town or farming community. Hence the appeal. At least for a day.

Pictorial coverage begins tomorrow once I sort through the pics and upload the better ones.

Land ho,

This is dF

I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN: JUNE 2009 EDITION

You want to know what I’m reading. And I want to tell you. What could possibly go wrong?

JUST FINISHED

After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Not so much a novel as a sort of fictional meditation on how the nature of the city changes when the sun goes down. The basic story revolves around the events of one night that involve the beating of a Chinese hooker in a love hotel, and a young woman whose sister – who has been asleep for the past few months – has a strange encounter with the dream world, neither of which is ever explained. But as usual it’s well written, and Murakami captures that night-owl lifestyle strikingly well without delving into the usual cliches. So if you don’t mind novels where mood and imagery are more important than the plot, and if you’ve ever worked the graveyard shift, you might get something out of this.

JUST STARTED

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
On paper the idea of melding cyberpunk and noir detective fiction sounds gimmicky and not all that clever, but a number of people have recommended Richard Morgan to me, so I figured I’d start here to see what the fuss is about.

( Recent titles? We has them ... )

Hit the bricks flatfoot,

This is dF

WE CAN TAKE THESE DEADITES, MR PRESIDENT, WE CAN TAKE 'EM! WITH SCIENCE!

ITEM [via Def Agent bedsitter23 ]: Was this inevitable?



Possibly.

Welcome to the 21st century,

This is dF