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Terry Richardson and Dov Charney

Terry Richardson, still orally fixated.

Don Charney, sexing up 100% cotton T-shirt since 1998.
Both ardent lovers of ugly eyeglasses.

This is what happened when I had too much Coke (the beverage) in the evening. I couldn't fall asleep. So at the risk of boring my readers (all 3 of them), I shall further litter the blogosphere with yet another uninspiring post.

I was talking about those Shuron retro looking eyeglasses with Sid and that reminded me of two guys who famously or rather infamously wear those glasses with great success. In my mind they are like evil twin brothers, pornographer-cum-photographer Terry Richardson and pornographer-cum-clothier Dov Charney. Both of them wear very 70s retro looking eyeglasses similar to Shuron's Sportivo. Their similarity doesn't stop at fondness for ugly looking eyeglasses. They also share a passion for no-fuss-head-on-flash-in-your-face photography. Terry Richardson has great success using point and shoot cameras for big name clients like Gucci, Calvin Klein and UNIQLO. Terry Richardson is living proof that you don't need a $10,000 camera (back) to shoot for a living. I read he uses a Yashica T4 or some similar Contax point and shoot. And Dov Charney routinely shoots for his company's ad campaign. Both of their works are infamously provocative.

Warning: NOT WORK SAFE. NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 18 or ADULTS WHO FIND NUDITY OR SEXUALLY CHARGED IMAGES OFFENSIVE.
More Terry Richardson and Dov Charney.

MacBook Pro Updated

More speed. And for the 15" model, no mercury-free LED display, more power efficient.

See it here from Apple.
More detailed article by Cisco Cheng from PC Mag.

Latest Obsession (as if you care)

I ordered two pairs of Shuron from some online retailer. If you are bored, you can check out their catalog and guess which two pairs I bought. Some or all of their models are shockingly dated or LLT (which suits me just fine, I drive a mini van ... so) if you will. Anyway, they don't have any logo on the outside of the arms, so I am sold.

iPhone Coming June 29

See the ads yourself from Apple.

It needs a 2-year contract with at&t wireless. So I am not sure if you can just buy the phone ....

Tilt and Shift Shoots Sports Events

This is a portfolio by Vincent Laforet, a contract photographer for The New York Times. He's a Canon and Apple guy.
Tilt and shift lens allows him to focus selectively and to create a very surreal atmosphere. Though he's not the first to use this technique for shooting sports but he certainly is one of the best out there in the field.
The portfolio is hosted here at the New York Times. It's a slide show with audio commentary by the photographer himself. The photographs are work safe.

June 4

This blog turns black to commemorate what happened in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Ubernerds

More nerd news ...

Gates and Jobs share the stage to scratch each other's back. Oh, yes, two guys who never bother to finish college have been shaping personal computing since the 1970s.

Serrefine

Mike Theiler/European Pressphoto Agency
The face of the uberbee who knocks out the other 285 bees.

Every year, the nerdy geeky kids get to embarrass adults like me that really can't write or spell. The kiddie blood sport that's called Scripps National Spelling Bee is carried live on ESPN and ABC, both owned by the Mickey Mouse company.

This year, the last nerd standing was 13-year old Evan O'Dorney from California, who beat the other 285 nerds to become the ubernerd that can spell words like "serrefine."

I can't spell any of the words mentioned in the last round.

Additional reading from the New York Times.

Coffee Table as Computer

Microsoft is announcing Surface, a coffee table like computer with a touch screen. Like iPhone, you operate the thing by touching it with your fingers (there is too much fingering and touching going on, it can't be a good thing, or can it?), unlike iPhone, you can't possibly carry it anywhere. The Surface project started in 2001 and was once prototyped in 2003 using an IKEA table.

It seems like a very cool futuristic product but in terms of marketing, the product just lacks the sex appeal that Apple products have.

Surface available Winter 2007.

From Popular Mechanics.
From Microsoft.

House Warming in Freehold, New Jersey

photo taken by Tony san.

Here is the backyard of my friend's mansion in Freehold, New Jersey. None of the handsome guys were me. I am the ugly guy who always has a bad hair day, see below.

photo taken by Tony san.

Here is the Grill Master working his magic on the grill.

It took me and my Odyssey no less than three hours to drive from Flushing, New York to Freehold, New Jersey. The Holland Tunnel was a mess. But for Tony, his free food and catching up with old friends and talking in Cantonese, it's worth the trip. Coming back home was a bit better, about 2 hours taking the Verrazano Bridge.

Latest Obessions

Shuron eyeglasses. I am sick and tired of those big logo eyeglasses. You pay through your nose to get them and then you advertise for them with their logo permanently and ostentatiously displayed on the arms. I am too old for that kind of shit. They may look good on you but I think they look stupid on me. Good old Shuron seems to be the only brand that don't fucking display any logo on the arms. Of course it's no name brand like those French and Italian designer frames. But I say fuck them.

Tripod. Did I ever own a set of tripod legs? I doubt it. I want to get a decent leg set and a ball head. So that I can take some family portraits the time I fly back to Hong Kong this July.

Off the camera lighting, PC cord and all those funky stuff, like silver umbrella and light stand. So I can take picture like a studio pro.

A friend of mine got himself a Canon 5D and 30D and a couple of constant f-stop lenses, I was like green with envy.

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Though it is not summer yet, but NYC is sure heating up. I really can't stand the heat and the humidity. It's very very uncomfortable and sickening once the mercury hits the mid 80s.

So far, this summer I manage not to see any blockbuster movie, mostly they aren't my type of movies plus they are super long, clocking in more than 2 hours 15 minutes. So that's really pushing my attention span which I sure lack.

Now that the TV season is almost over, 200 channels there aren't really that much going on. Actually I don't actually watch TV, sometimes I just leave it on and browse the screen occasionally while I am online. American Idol is over, so there isn't much new to pretend to look forward to. And the very convoluted hit series called Heroes also ended a week ago, not that I am a fan. If I don't have anything particular to watch which is often the case, I just settle between CNN and Food TV aka Emeril TV. I really don't know how many Emeril shows there are on Food TV, but it seems to me every time I switch to Food TV, Emeril will be there, like a trusted friend, whether you like it or not, he's there for you all the time.

Cannes Film Festival

Critics favorite "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 Days" captured the Palme d'Or of the 60th Cannes Film Festival.

"My Blueberry ... what?" Looks like Wong has lost his touch with the French since "2046."

Dell Gives You a Choice to Get Ubuntu

This is a watershed for Dell. Dell is now selling PCs and notebooks with Ubuntu installed.

Who would have thought that Dell would offer anything other than Microsoft Windows? Dell has been monogamous for too long for its own good, it's time to sleep around. Bedding with Ubuntu may just be a start. The price is not necessarily cheaper than their Windows counterpart. They are just for people who like to escape the tyranny, imagined or not, of Microsoft and yet not feel like to join the cult of Mac.

Buy T?

Rumors have it that that some AT&T or formerly Cingular stores, working against company policy, are taking pre-orders for the iPhones and some store in New York City has a waiting list with some thousand names. If this is true, the pent-up demand for iPhones may even exceed Apple's expectation. The iPhone is scheduled to launch in June, most likely end of June.

Maybe it's time to buy AT&T and Apple? My opinion is free, your money is not, so invest at your own risk. APPL and T close at 110.69 down 2.2, and 40.42 up 1 cent respectively.

UPDATES:
According to rumor site, macrumors.com, the iPhone is available in store on June 20th. And iPhone support training runs between May 30 to June 20th. Get your credit card ready.

Die Hard

When analog meets digital, we have "Live Free or Die Hard," internationally known as "Die Hard 4.0."

In this summer, good old analog guy John McClane (baldy Bruce Willis) is teaming up with hacker Matt Foster (Mac guy Justin Long) to fight online terrorists who try to hold the US hostage by shutting down the information superhighway.

This is probably the only summer movie I am looking forward to. I need some good old analog red meat fist fight, gun fight. I hope it gets an R rating.



Summer movies:
Spider-Man 3;
Pirates of the Caribbean;
Shrek The Third;
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix;
Rush Hour 3;
The Bourne Ultimatum;

and more.

UPDATES: Memorial day weekend is right around the corner. Unfortunately there isn't a movie that I really want to see. Pirates of the Caribbean, I didn't see any of the first two and the third one is almost 3 hours long. So I don't think I can sit through it. I check out the movie listing, there isn't really a lot of choices.

All About Erasers

By Alex Lai

Large or tiny,
all useful to
erase pencil marks.
No matter how crazy they look.
They can even erase Poems!

It's a trade -
eraser crumbs on paper,
pencil marks on eraser,
Just like magic -
mistakes are gone!

Pencil top erasers
get solid and die,
large erasers
live longer.

A kid will ask,
"Can I borrow your eraser?"
"Can I borrow your eraser?"
"Yes"
"Yes"
"One last time please?!"
"NO"

I wonder why
everybody doesn't have A BIG ERASER?

Masthead

A spring time one of a kind masthead.

You only need to ask. I give you my tulip masthead. The reason I took it off was because the template doesn't mean to have a picture there, though it sure has that feature. The reason being the jpeg graphics doesn't scale if you resize the browser. Without the jpeg, the title actually scale with the rest of the page if you resize the browser. So I thought it wasn't meant to have a picture there. But since you like it I will put it up just for you until ... I feel like to take it down. Enjoy.

PS: Those tulips were taken in Queens Botanical Garden. They weren't the prettiest, but they were available ....
P.P.S. It was taken with my trusty Nikon D70 and Nikon 80~200mm f2.8 IF lens. I fired up my GIMP, cropped and scaled the jpeg so it looks like it will fit the width of my template. It's really trial and error but I got it to work somewhat beautifully or not so beautifully.

Viagra: The Paradox.

Fighting jet-lag while keeping you up. What paradox.

Viagra in the sky:-
It gives cockpit a whole new meaning;
More leg room is needed;

Here is your Captain speaking ...

• Please fasten your seat belt while we are preparing to jerk off.
• Please fasten your seat belt and lower your gear, we are preparing to land.

Cum fly the friendly sky.

Ref: Viagra may aid jet-lagged travelers

Week in Review

Thank you for those who come visit every now and then. You know who you are.

Tony Blair came over to the States and did a joint press conference over at the Rose Garden at the While House. The guy is really eloquent especially compared to our President here. Too bad, if not because of Iraq, he probably would have come down in history as the smartest politician in modern history. The guy has this English kind of horsey good look, well at least we have Bill Clinton both are slick and smart.

Hong Kong is getting stupider every day. The CU Student pornspaper is much ado about nothing. I don't know about you but to quote series pornographer Picasso, "Good taste is the enemy of creativity." Plus who's to say that it's bad taste to talk about incest and bestiality in a school paper. Art and literature or supposedly art and literature in a scholarly environment is not meant to make everybody comfortable and feel good, it's not like it has to serve that purpose. It's not prime time TV entertainment. On the contrary, I think art and literature are supposed to challenge and reflect the kind of life that we are living, and in this context, the ubiquitous media coverage of sex and online porn. I don't see anything wrong for the university students to explore, exploit and even make light of the topics whether for pure entertainment or literary purpose. The media shit storm is just unreal. If one can't even be a bit liberal in a university environment I don't know where else can.

Pop artist Andy Warhol's Green Car Crash sold more than $71 million, a record.

Online ad agencies are hot. Traditional media companies are in a shopping spree. WPP, world's second biggest ad agency is going to buy 24/7 Real Media for $64 million, sort of a response to its frenemy Google which plans to pay $3.1 billion to acquire DoubleClick, another online agency. Microsoft is in a buying mode as well, it just announced that it is going to buy aQuantive for $6 billion. Publics Groupe, a France based global ad holding company is ahead of the curve, last year it paid $1.3 billion for Digitas, a leading online agency. Who would have thought Google turns out to a big threat to traditional ad companies? It's estimated that US online market can be as much as $40 billion as more print, radio and TV spots are moving online.

Hong Kong Shanghai-born director Wong Kar Wai is making his English language feature debut in Cannes. Blueberry pie is definitely not as Americana as apple pie is. Hope he is not making a distorted Americana, one that is embarrassing and too exotic as he himself has accused other foreign directors' take on Chinese.

Uncommon Places

"El Paso Street, El Paso, Texas. July 6, 1975. Stephen Shore/Aperture Foundation"

The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman, has this to say about the photograph:

Two years later Mr. Shore went to El Paso, Tex., and photographed, from the back, a slump-shouldered man, in an untucked white shirt, waiting on a street corner in the slanting sun of the late afternoon. Painted lines of the crosswalk before him recede toward the Capri theater at the center of the photograph, where the movie “Lady Kung Fu” was advertising itself in big red letters on the marquee. Like a Renaissance painting, the picture unfolds in one-point perspective. Everything is still, held in place by the strict geometry, while the colors — baby blue, yellow, red and avocado green — bounce and shimmy.

I am floored by the above description, by what Mr. Kimmelman can see.

I can sure take snapshots, everyone can. But I just can't possibly take what seemingly look like snapshots like Shore's or Winogrand's. My mundane is really just mundane and can never transcend and levitate to the level of great photography. I tend to like their aesthetics, their no nonsense approach to taking pictures. You know at least it's easy to execute their approach, going around taking pictures of the mundane and banal. It gives me hope at least.


Shore's Americana kind of makes me think of Wong Kar Wai's aesthetics. Wong is very immaculate, very organized chaos. Wong's take on Americana can be seen in his latest movie "My Blueberry Nights."

In a Cannes press conference, Wong says,

"All through the years we've seen a lot of films made about Chinese from foreign directors and sometimes it looks very embarassing and because a lot of these Chinese characters have been distorted and hmm ... it's too exotic. So, I always want to make a film in a different language but I (don't want) hmm .... want to avoid this problem."

I am sure his version of Americana will be very different from say Spiderman-3 as he jokingly and eloquently put it in another interview. Whether "Blueberry" is just another "Zzzz" or turns out to be a major art house success in addition to "Zzzz" like "In The Mood For Love" has yet remain to be seen.

Source: Passing Mile Markers, Snapping Pictures by Michael Kimmelman.

Live Blogging: AI final two is here

Spoiler: Melinda Doolittle doesn't get enough votes to go the final.

iPhone Delayed? Leopard Delayed?

Engadget retracted its news on iPhone and Leopard delay. Bloggers have no journalistic standards because you know bloggers are not journalists.

But things do look a bit hairy. The spoof email may well be a self-fulfilling prophecy of some sort. Apple PR denies any delay and restates that both iPhone and Leopard are on track for their delivery dates ... that is until they are not.

Meanwhile just hold on to whatever cellphones you have.

updates:
Apple receives FCC approval for iPhone.

Hop Won

I haven't been to Hop Won for more than a month. I miss the food even though some people think Chinese food can kill you.
The food stays the same, the cashiers stay the same. Except they put up a new signboard with new prices. Now for a cook to order of say Beef with Bitter Melon is $5 plus tax. What used to be $5 was just $5, now it's more like $5.43. It's still cheaper than a lot of other places. Midtown is getting more expensive even for my lowly Hop Won.

YouTube Tuesday

If you think Wong Kar Wai is too arty farty, perhaps this hardcore clip from Times Square is more for you. [WARNING: toddler performing a perfect somersault involuntarily. Bad Taste, bad humor.]
New York City is Dangerous For Free Range Toddlers



I know you and I are going to rot in hell for laughing at this.
Seen first at http://www.gawker.com

My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights is opening the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on May 16. This is Wong's first English feature film, starring singer-songwriter Norah Jones and Jude Law.

I wonder if the French got tired of Wong's self-indulgent bullshit since "2046."

A movie teaser can be seen here. (just sit tight, the teaser will play after a couple of ads)

UPDATES:

• Here is a Q&A piece from Jonathan Landreth, live from Cannes as reported via Yahoo! news. Wong says, Nights is very different from Spider Man 3. That's news to me.
  
• "Blueberry" an acquired taste for some by Jonathan landreth. The same can be said for all of Wong's films. Generally speaking, an "acquired taste" can't be good sign.
• 2-star review from Xan Brooks of the Guardian filed on May 17, 2007. So exit poll doesn't seem very promising even for the artsy fartsy set.
• Press conference (video) from mingpaonews.com
  

Apple Updates MacBook Line

It's a moderate upgrade, there is no LED screen, nor there is an upgrade to the new intel chipset called Santa Rosa.

The MacBook can be configured to max out at 2GB of RAM and 200GB harddrive.

In another Apple news, iPhone is just around the corner, selling $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model. There is no exact ship date yet other than a June shipment. It could be a phenomenal success like the iPod mp3 music player or it could be a tremendous blunder. When iPhone was introduced, the stock price was around $87, now it's more than $100.

http://www.apple.com

Amazon Acquires Dpreview

The world's chattiest photography site is acquired by the world's biggest store. Dpreview, founded by Phil Askey in 1998 as a hobby, shall remain in London. The site is extremely popular among people who enjoy discussing desktop photography as much as if not more than the actual activity of taking pictures. The public's insatiable demand for digital photography has fueled the growth of photography review sites, like dpreview.

Press regarding the acquisition.

Flowers

Week in Review

The porn provocateur 曾昭偉 (L) and his financial backer 李雅庄 (R). （曾國宗攝） from mingpaonews.com

"Guys calm down, it's only porn." Tsang is enjoying the media shitstorm.
This generation of kids grow up surrounded in sex and porn: sex education, safe sex, condoms, HIV, AIDS, and the ubiquitous online porn. Instead of enjoying sex and porn in private, they decided to bring them out in public and there lie the controversies: high education and porn don't mix well in lot of folks' mind; you do it enjoy it but you don't talk about it.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Student Pornspaper is suffering from premature ejaculation. Look like the porn is not going to last. The students are a progressive bunch, instead of letting mainstream media spoon feed them porn, they become purveyors of porn; it's akin to the spirit of Web 2.0, one produces the Web they come to enjoy by actively participating. Porn for students by students.

Tony Blair calls it quits. After some ten years in the office, Britons are generally considered better off than they were before. But his tenure as a prime minister might just be defined in one word: Iraq.

Insider trading is in vogue and it can't be a good thing. This generation of Wall Streeters are simply too young to have watched Wall Street when it came out in 1987, the the seniors are now too old to remember the go go 80s. It's about time to have another Wall Street to remind these masters of universe that greed is good except when it's bad. Let's bring back the suspenders.

UPDATES:
More Smut from Higher Education
Warning: NOT WORK SAFE, may contain sexually charged words and images.

• Boink, sex positive magazine founded by Journalism major Alecia Oleyourryk from Boston University
• SWAY, Sex Week At Yale;
• H-Bomb from Harvard;
• Vita Excolatur from University of Chicago;
• Squim at Vassar

Related Articles: (may require registration)
Go to college, learn the Skin Trade, By Eric Gibson, 2/12/2004
The Student Body, By Jodi Rodoren, 4/23/2006
Campus Exposure, By Alexandra Jocobs, 3/4/2007

What's Old is New Again

The purveyor of style says they are supposed to be cool this season so there you have it, faded blue jeans with an updated cut, and gingham shirts.

source: http://men.style.com

First Casualty of the Murdoch Takeover

The long arm of law enforcement reached across the ocean to charge a Hong Kong couple of insider trading. As reported by Reuters, SEC charged the couple Kan King Wong and Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung "engaged in widespread and unlawful trading activity" and stand to make an estimated $8.1 million in profit on the Dow Jones take over by News Corp.

Let the shitstorm that is called insider trading begin now.

UPDATES:

More names, including Michael Leung (not charged) and David KP Li (not charged), are disclosed as the transcontinental insider trading is unfolding rather rapidly.

It's 20 years since we have the last Wall Street. Let's bring back Mr. Zeta-Jones as Gordon Gekko flanked by suspenders. It's time to have another Wall Street. Greed is good and every dream has a price. A crime is not a crime until you got busted by the SEC and got butt fucked in the Big House. Good luck all insiders.

Face of the alleged insider trading

Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung, one of the two alleged insider traders, so far.

I think the SEC is still trying to figure out what the name is supposed to be, like what is the family name, the given names .... Let me help, Leung is her maiden name, Wong is her adopted family name taken from her husband, Charlotte is her English name, Ka On is her given name.

Week in Review

It's all about the girls.

Just when you think she is going to leave us alone, celebratard Paris Hilton up the ante by going to the Big House. Now she is in the same league as Martha Stewart and also Nelson Mandela. The Free Paris t-shirt should be coming out soon.

French Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal got royally screwed by the voters. If Royal, as pretty as any 53-year old can be, can't make it to be the first French woman president, what are the chances for our Hillary Rodham Clinton make it to the White House? Clinton really needs to run as a woman, instead of pant suit, how about some skirts?

Who needs a last name if you have a first name like Madonna, Cher or Bjork? This crazed [warning: violent content featuring Bjork goes berserk] woman is releasing her latest album on May 7. Bjork, no matter what she did or going to do stylewise, she will always be defined by her "swan dress" [warning: some consider it fashion faux pas] in the 2001 Academy Awards. I guess her equally crazy ardent fans [warning: real disturbing footage of delusional fan who committed suicide in the name of Bjork] won't be disappointed of her latest album, Volta.

Bad Handwriting is detrimental to your Job Application

A good job application letter and a good resume will get you an interview.

I was reading an article in mingpaonews.com regarding how fucked up university students are in terms of penning their job application letters (or how bad they are in modifying sample job app letters for their own use). In it there is a principal from some school who criticizes some applicants betrayed their poor penmanship by signing like a child. Apparently she is the boss, she can do anything she wants. Good thing I don't have to work for such anal-retentive person. I really think typewriter, keyboard and laser printer are the best inventions for people who has no or poor penmanship. Gosh, I think all her teachers probably write like those scripts in Hallmark cards.

Then the article goes on to say some applicants can't distinguish the use of "Yours Faithfully" and "Yours Sincerely." First, I don't think I would capitalize the second word (that could be the reporters' fault). All I know is I try to avoid using "faithfully" at all cost, it just sounds very anal-retentive but now I know why I didn't get no interviews, because most bosses are anal-retentive and they think they are the overlords and "sincerely" is never good enough for them. I think the usage is very much regional (and dare I say dated) as here I don't think people are so hung up on insisting people to be faithful. Here most employees are hired "at will," meaning no contract and employees can walk out anytime they want. If faithful is important to them, use faithful and just play by the rule. Because the goal is to score an interview, have some face time with your potential overlord.

One of the good things about job application here is you never ever have to send in any head shot unless you are applying for a model or something (that again explains why I didn't get no interview in Hong Kong). At least you are given a chance to meet your overlord purely based on your writing and your credential not your look. Of course, if your address is in some so called "estate" in some seedy neighborhood, that may turn off your potential employers too, you never know. Maybe it's a good idea to leave out the address, so they can't judge your upbringing, not that you are ashamed of it, you just want a level playing field. I don't know how acceptable it's that in the Hong Kong employment market. Maybe just leave it in, full disclosure, if they don't like it, fuck it, find another employer who can appreciate how far you came instead of where you came from.

Do applicants really wear scent to interviews? I say fuck it, leave your perfume, cologne, toilette or whatever fancy concoction you have at home or wear it when you go out on a date. Don't distract your interviewer.

YouTube Friday

WARNING: Read this first. THIS IS NOT WORK SAFE. 9-second Cantonese profanities referencing sex acts with one's mom in the most despicable yet common way only a Cantonese knows how. Watch with headphones.



It looks like this gentleman here is over compensating for his banal sex life. And he totally takes it out on the cops. His schizophrenic obscenities laden cursing is vulgar and at the same time hilarious. I laugh every time I watch it.

This is sourced from ESWN.

Seeing Double: Angel Hair Rip Off

© Gondola Veneziana

Ads of the World

©Jill Greenberg

More Greenberg's

Looks like O&M, Shanghai totally rips off Greenberg's style. The photograph, conceptually and stylistically speaking, is a carbon copy of what Greenberg did in End Times.

Source: Copycat Watch: That Cry Baby Looks Familiar, pdnonline, May 4, 2007 by David Walker.
[Editor's note: Fuck, as a z-list blogger, I feel totally ripping off the main stream media. My posts are pretty much rehash of what they say. And now I even pretend there is an editor, I guess I am hopelessly unoriginal.]

Tea With Lemon

There was this hottest post about lemon tea in the Hong Kong blogosphere about 4 days ago, which in Internet time is like 4 years. In a mad dash not to be light years behind this blog hype, I now shall litter the blogosphere further with my own lemon tea post. Most people have one, but this one is mine.

Here are my random thoughts about the whole thing written in the the wee hours, not an excuse for poor writing though. It's not like I write any better in the day or in the afternoon for sure.

The reason why this was hot was because it was one of the composition topics for a public exam in Hong Kong. What makes it interesting, for one thing, it's really an open ended topic, i.e. you need a bit of imagination or literary bullshit skill to crank out a short piece in the time alloted. And Hong Kong students are always perceived as lack of imagination so this seemingly innocuous topic is indeed very challenging for most of the brain dead students. The equally interesting but more controversial part is because one private tutor, a famous one I suppose, actually came up with this exact same topic prior to the exam and did a sample piece for his students. That I don't know if it's just pure luck or some shady business was actually involved.

If memory serves me well, I believe "Lemon Tea" and "Lemon Coke" were popular back in the days before Hong Kong was Starbuckazied. Cantonese usually say "lemon" first as I guess a qualifier for the tea, "lemon tea", and "milk tea." While here my experience is most people order coffee and some do like tea and we say it like "tea with milk" or "tea with lemon." One of the biggest difference I can think of is in Hong Kong, the lemon usually is cut in slices and already in the tea when served hot or cold. While here, the lemon is always cut in wedges and put on the side, so you can actually squeeze the juice. On the other hand, it's not that easy to juice a slice or slices of lemon but I guess there is some fun factor to use a spoon to pound on or rather to spear on the slices, I used to do that myself. For me, slices of lemon is more for garnishing than juicing. And sometimes if I think lemon juice is too much or hard core, I would just run the peel on the rim of the cup, the aroma of the zest and a hint of lemony flavor is just what I want. There are myriads of fruit flavored teas but I think tea with lemon is the only one that the fruit is served fresh, most others are just tea infused with that particular fruit flavor, rarely served fresh

Lemon is really a refreshing fruit but unlike other citrus, you almost never ever eat a lemon straight up. Orange, yes, grapefruit, yes, but I can't imagine one eats a lemon all by itself like eating an orange or an apple. You juice it, zest it, slice it and wedge it but you don't just eat it. Salad, seafood, meat, poultry (as tenderizer) and yes tea all can use a little lemon.

Lemon is like the best supporting actor, it makes the leading man look good. And once in a while, the supporting actor actually outshines the leading man. Errr ... sometimes, I feel like that at work too ....

Grey's Anatomy

This is a two-hour special. I have to say I can't believe I am writing this, but I just do. I can understand why it's such a success.

The series is full of hot guys and girls, maybe except Sandra Oh, she is actually a man ... just kidding I think she is cool. Sometimes you just can't help but get jealous on the characters, being young, energetic, good looking and being a doctor or a surgical intern. It's a bit hard to believe but my personal experience tells me that it can be true, there are indeed good looking doctors and nurses around in the hospital. It's just that as a patient you kind of have other important things in mind, like if you can walk out the place alive, than checking them out.

The two-hour special lays the ground work for the spin-off, Private Practice, which I read sometime ago, is going to be another ensemble with Dr. Addison from the original Grey's Anatomy (I just assume this is the lead-in to the spin-off as I really have no idea and I don't doesn't watch the show religiously). The place is going to be in LA, more sun and bitches beaches and less rain than Grey's Seattle. My assessment is the new characters are interesting or hot enough for a new spin-off. The 2-hour special doesn't disappoint. We have all the dramas all over the place and it does get a bit too busy but the good writing and acting play off on screen ... adultery continues, new relationships, somebody gives birth, somebody dies. In short, what great TV is supposed to be.

One of the things about Grey and the soon spin-off is that the cast is really multi-ethnic. You have Whites, African Americans, Asians and Latinos and they all play some roles in the series not just some racial tokens. (Seinfeld and Friends were great successes but were criticized for being lily white, I enjoyed them as they were though, especially Seinfeld) The writer and creator of the show is the young Shonda Rhimes, I don't know if her being an African American woman has anything to do with it. Apparently the show appeals to a lot of people and across demographics, mostly chicks I think.

Some supposedly hot shows I never really watch:-

• Lost, I just don't see how can a group of people LOST for so long and still alive, isn't that the premise, I really have no clue
• Prison Break, you either break successfully or you got locked up and got butt fucked again by some big guys in the prison. How could that last a whole season or two or three, I have no clue.
• 24, I always meant to watch it, even recorded an episode, just never really sat through it.
• Heroes, yeah, I saw a few episodes. I guess I like it or try to like it somewhat but I don't think I am really their target audience. it's like X Files in the 90s or so. If you were a teenager or have the mind of one, you tend to enjoy this kind of story a bit better. Now that I am a boring grown man, it's just a bit difficult for me to buy all those super power hero kind of crap. I was never a big fan of comics to begin with.

For some serious TV review, I think Television without mercy is the site to be, or so I read.

Of Fashion and Crap

Kate Moss with her new overlord, billionaire Sir Philip Green, mastermind behind the stunt that's called Kate Moss Topshop.

Topshop pandemonium. There is only one Kate Moss and everybody wants a piece of her.

Moss the dummy, reportedly got paid ₤3M for her collection for Topshop, not bad for a "working-class slag from a crap town."

Kate Moss is staging her own private British invasion this month.

The Topshop fashion collection attributed to Ms. Moss debuted in London on May 1 is making its way across the pond in Barneys New York, the quintessential upscale department store for the well heeled New Yorkers, on May 9, 2007.

Depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on, the Kate Moss Topshop collection can be smart or it can be a "snore."

Let's see how jaded New Yorkers vote the collection with their wallets.

Meanwhile ... our local brand, Gap is struggling. The latest gimmick taking a page from the playbook of H&M, is to add a designer collection of its staples of blue jeans and khakis. But unlike H&M, which got world class celebrity like Madonna or designers like Karl Lagerfeld to do a collection, Gap chose to use new and lesser known designers to re-design the so called iconic white shirt. The way I see it, it's not really working, the reaction is luke warm at best.

Further readings:-
Don't slag it off, The Economist. April 26, 2007.

UPDATES:
5/10/07. The New York Times has a piece on the collection as introduced yesterday at Barney's New York. There were less than 100 people waiting when the shop opened at 10A.M. A non event compared to the London introduction.

Reading Dav Pilkey

Because my boys like Captain Underpants so I end up reading them as well. The series is all about underpants, booger, poop, fart and toilet, mostly things kids love but adults consider taboo.

I think in one of the series, Dav Pilkey, creator of the series, I hope I remember it correctly, says something to the extent that in the first two years of children's life, their parents desperately want to talk about poop, pee, walk and talk. And then ironically after the children mastered those skills, the parents would spend the rest of the children's childhood years trying to make them stop talking about poop, pee and want them to shut up and stay still. No wonder some children are confused.

Captain Underpants is a series about poop, toilet and booger. I can see why kids or mostly boys love it.

Talent Show

MF Nikkor 50mm f1.4

Here is a picture I shot using the MF 50mm f1.4 lens. I forgot about the setting already. Chances are I was shooting at f2 and 1/80s at ISO 640, OR something. When used with this lens, my D70 won't meter. But fear not, you can always guess and the instant feedback you get from the rear LCD display helps.

I post process this JPEG using Picassa's "I am feeling lucky." That's it. There are a few more 50mm shots in my flickr account.

To Photoshop or Not To Photoshop

© Alan Kim/The Roanoke Times
JPEGs from pdnonline.com

The thingy potruding from victim Kevin Sterne's lap appears in the first picture and enlarged on the bottom picture was a tourniquet which was mistaken as the victim's penis and was so eagerly edited out by some publications, like People magazine (2nd picture) and The New York Post (3rd picture).

Publications Fumble With "Disgusting" Virginia Tech Photo, April 26, 2007 by Daryl Lang

April 25, 2007

• Got up, Breakfast: Oatmeal and 2 pieces of toast;
• [ mundane but joyful stuff goes here ...];
• Got a call from work. Solution: use some hex editor to edit a file; vpn and vnc to work. My boss got a handle of the problem, hopefully all is well;
• Dow cracked the 13,000 barrier. Now sky is the limit;
• Dinner: sauteed zucchini with dill weed with a splash of lemon juice, some fried rice;
• Played action figures with Harry ....
• Mindlessly watching American Idol and reading blogs.

Swimming

Except for the top one, the other two were straight from the camera JPEG, shot using Aperture shutter priority at f2.8 at 1/125s floating shutter speed and auto ISO camera set at 1600. [I was wrong, the bottom two were shot at shutter priority at 1/125sec, I usually shoot at Aperture priority, indeed some of them were shot at Aperture priority, just not these two. If you check flickr, you can see all the EXIF data for those JPEGs straight from camera, as if you care.]

The top one was shot in NEF and subsequently converted into JPEF using GIMP with UFRaw plugin just for the fun of it. Normally I only shoot in JPEG. For me ISO 1600 under fluorescent isn't great but hey I will take it. It's just that after sharpening (most often you should do USM, but I am too lazy to fuss with my pictures, I got to get on with my hobby ...) the noise got worse. But since I am not submitting my images to Getty, I guess they are OKAY.

All shots using AF Nikkor 80~200 f2.8D. I have been using my D70 for over a year or two, and overall I am pretty happy with the results. And the kit lens 18~70 really exceeds my expectation.

Nikon is doing pretty well in the amateur DSLR market with models like D80 and below. But for the pro market, I believe Canon takes the lead. 2008 Olympics is about a year from now. Hopefully Nikon will have the next pro models ready for the big game.

Soccer Ultraman

Alex as Soccer Ultraman. Ultraman T-shirt and cap from Hong Kong, courtesy of my sister and brother. Thanks.

$10 Haircut

Queens Botanical Garden. Harry, me, and Alex.

$400 Haircut

Credit: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press
John Edwards appearing at a public forum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 9, two days after one of his $400 haircuts. (caption from the New York Times)

Just when I thought $75 a pair of socks is out of this world, the latest closet (now outed) peacock Presidential candidate John Edwards shows the world his $400 haircut.

Further evidence how much this guy cares his hair can be seen here in "I am Pretty"



Sources: In the Beverly Hills Style: Candidate's $400 Coiffure by Adam Nagourney

Breaking: Cho sent out Multimedia Press Release Before Virginia Tech Massacre

Cho produced and sent out a multimedia press release to NBC in the 2 hours between his first shooting and the later mass murder and suicide on April 16, four days before Columbine.

UPDATES:-
Warnings: material may be upsetting and disturbing. You have been warned.

Source: NBC

Cho's plays Mr. Brownstone and Richard McBeef

Cho's "Oldboy" look. Here's the movie as from imdb.com.

(4/20/07) Dead man finally done talking, almost. After having milked dry Cho's message-from-the grave for a whole day, most if not all network TVs and cable outlets pulled the disturbing pictures and video from the air and their website's front page. This was really a test of freedom of press, the public's right to know and sensitivity to the victims' families and the larger question, what do those still images and video serve in the aftermath of all these?

(4/21/07) We had everything backward. Now the media, The New York Times included is calling the Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, instead of Cho Seung-Hui. The Cho family adopted the American way of writing given name then followed by surname instead of surname followed by given name as in their native country and most Asian countries.
Now perhaps we could understand why some Asian immigrant kids are like so confused. Is it last name first or last name last, is my two syllable given names hyphenated or not, or do I even have a middle name as opposed to a hyphenated given name?

Of Shopping and Groping

Picture Doug Kanter for The New York Times.

Groping is emboldened by some department store in Beijing. For most guys and some girls, shopping can be tedious and boring, so how about mix it up and kick it up a notch with groping? This is genius retail marketing.


No Spitting on the Road to Olympic Glory, Beijing Says, by Jim Yardley, April 17, 2007.

Leopard is Limping to an October Release Date

Apple formally announced that its next operating system codenamed Leopard won't be ready for Spring 2007 as previously scheduled instead it will be released in October 2007.

The reason? One word, iPhone. Apple blames the delay for limited resources being diverted to iPhone to make its June ship date. After dropping the Computer from its name, Apple Inc. really prioritizes accordingly.

$75 Socks

Mr. Tom Ford in a Tom Ford, a 3-piece suit, very anal retentive and very fitted look. Picture by Terry Richardson from the NYTIMES.COM

Tom Ford opened his "uberluxury" store on Madison Ave, where shoppers who are (a) oblivious to credit card debt, (b) rich, and above all, (c) gullible can shop for $75 a pair of socks and $5,000 bespoke suits. The economy can't be all that bad if you can see a store of this caliber blossoming in the Spring on Madison Avenue.

Money Does Buy Looks, Eric Wilson, April 12, 2007, The New York Times.

Of Fashion and Freedom

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Abedin Taherkenareh/Europen Pressphoto Agency

The freed 15 Britons with parting goody bags are waiting for their flight back to London. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dresses his captives just like himself, gray suit sans tie.

Fashion victims of ill-fitting 3-button gray suits.

Children's Zoo

Checking out the prairie dogs.

Lunch

Lunch outside the Dancing Crane Cafe. The Cafe was full so we had to eat outside. Alex, the sloppy eater.

Bronx Zoo

All superheroes gather to have a picture taken.

Egg Hunt At Bronx Zoo

It's good to be a child. Finding an Easter Egg could be so much fun and all.

Bronx Zoo

Egg Hunt.

It was unbelievably cold.

At the Met

This is the only section that captures their attention. All the knights, swords, and armors.

At the Met Cafeteria

Eating, best activity of the day.

The food is good but seriously expensive. The children have kid's meal, i.e. hot dog, French fries and apple juice. Jin has some chicken wrap and I have an chicken entree with grilled potatoes and tomatoes and some asparagus on the side and a soda. And the bill comes to a whopping $40.

I was supposed to have free company pass. But man, the cashier told me my company just dropped the corporate sponsorship. Anyway, the admission is supposed to be a recommended fee. As a matter of principle, I never pay the recommended admission fee. I believe it's $20 per adult. I will let the upper west side or east side well-heeled folks and the tourists pay full price. Me, no, never.

At the Met

Checking out Van Gogh.

Alex found out Mr. Van Gogh only lived to 37 years old. Alex was a bit shocked because his semi-illiterate Dad once told him Van Gogh probably died in his early 40s. I wasn't sure. But I didn't sugar coat what happened to Van Gogh. He was an absolute failure when he was alive. He never sold one painting or drawing when he was alive (OKAY, maybe one or two but that's about it).

The average American lives to 77 years old, give or take a few years I guess. And the average man dies earlier than the average woman.

Met

Kids don't care about Monet.

Of Sex, Love, Money and Happiness

Vincent told me the below quote by James A. Baldwin

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.

I think Iggy Pop once said sex is more objective. You always know if you have good sex or not, unlike love which is more subjective and may change over time. The same is also true between money and happiness. Money is more objective, you always know how much money you have. Happiness is more subjective and fleeting. If you can't have love and happiness, sex and money aren't all that bad a substitute.

Movie Review Double Feature

This also falls under old video review by yours truly.

Before there was Infernal Affairs, there was City on Fire.

City on Fire or Lung fu fong wan (1987) starring Chow Yun Fat as Ko Chow, and Danny Lee as Ah Fu and directed by Ringo Lam. I remember first seeing it in a movie house in Manhattan Chinatown in probably 1987 when human beings didn't exist and dinosaurs roamed the Earth...but that was another story.

I was immensely impressed by the movie. The direction, the story and the acting in general. I had to say, even by today's standard, Chow's on screen wardrobe was pretty impressive. The parka, the boots, and very narrow tie and even a bow, I mean it's over the top and if anybody, it would be Chow who could pull off that overall look.

City on Fire probably set the bar for all future undercover police stories, by and large.

******

Fast forward to 2003, we had this crap called Heroic Duo or Shuang xiong (2003), starring Leon Lai as Jack Lai, Ekin Cheng as Ken. Jack was a MIT educated hypnotist who of course didn't fail to put the audience to sleep with his wooden performance through out the entire movie. Jack was in jail for a murder. And now Inspector Ken has to enlist Jack's help to solve another case involving hypnotics. The scene where they tried to capture "mindhunter," Jack's alleged hypnotic master was a scene from Se7en, only minus the rain. The scene when Jack and Ken first met, the scene the cops are waiting for the elevator to come down remind me The Silence of the Lambs. The plot starts out mildly interesting but as it progresses it becomes more retarded and of course the final show down was just like 007 with tortured chamber and plenty of explosions.

To make matter worse, Ekin Cheng's Ken and his on screen love interest, Brenda, another cop, played by Kar Yan Lam, were like a three way competition to see who could give the most wooden performance through out. And I think, the first place is a tie between Leon Lai and Kar Yan Lam and the runner up is Ekin Cheng who has the advantage of a more action oriented role to spice up the role just a tad than the other two.

Overall the movie is silly but not funny.

Apple News

Apple iTunes offers DRM-free music downloads from EMI catalogs. Or so I heard. In the sea of piracy and places where there is no law, this is not very germane.

Apple offers its cheese grater with 8-core processors. Honestly, I don't know what it means anymore. The Mac Pro now has the power to run the entire world and probably beyond, that must be it.

Look like there are more good news and product roll outs as Winter turns to Spring. Ah Spring, the season of hope and rebirth.

Straight from the horse's mouth.