Monday, December 29, 2014

Living with Livia


Living with Livia


Christmas may be over, but there is no reason you can't get everyone you have ever met a belated gift. What better than a book that might be a little dark and hopefully has some funny parts as well.

Living with Livia is the best thing I have ever written. If you think my writing sucks, then that probably won't mean much. And why would anyone read a blog that they hate? If you have ever found anything I have done to hold at least some worthwhile quality or seen any flicker or amusement, then you should like this one.

People have called me brave and/or reckless for Hailey's Bali Diary, but Living with Livia is more revealing, as far as I'm concerned.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas


Christmas Medley
Judy Garland, Mel Tormé, Jack Jones, Liza Minnelli, Tracy Everitt, Lorna Luft, Joey Luft



Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Carpenters

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Wonderland


White Christmas
Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra



Winter Wonderland
Dean Martin

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Christmas Songs


The Christmas Song
Nat King Cole & Frank Sinatra



Sleigh Ride
Ella Fitzgerald

Monday, December 22, 2014

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year


It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Andy Williams



Wonderful Christmastime
Paul McCartney

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Hong Kong Protest part 5

The big democracy protest is now officially over. Thousands of people camped out in the streets demanding something from their government that they were never going to get. China has historically not had the most open government in the world. Killing people is preferable to them than listening.

In the beginning, the protests were interesting. People were excited to be involved. Local and international media were excited to see some action. Then everyone got bored. With instant everything these days, several months of protests are never going to hold everyone's attention. The international media left soon after they arrived. Even the local news stopped talking about it, except to complain that the protesters were blocking traffic and interfering with sales. Since most local Hong Kong media is owned by people with business connections to Mainland China, they were never going to be in favor of the protests. Most simply chanted the Chinese government mantra.

The world basically ignoring the protests is exactly what the Chinese government wanted. They could always block content in China. Even this blog was blocked after I mentioned it, apparently. But there was never anything they could do about the rest of the world. Fortunately for China, the rest of the world had its own problems. The protests in the United States were always going to be more newsworthy, and they turned out to be far more violent. The protests in the Arab world were always going to be more violent. Say what you will about Hong Kong protesters or Hong Kong police, but they are far more polite to each other than you get in most countries. There were a few minor issues with police assaulting their own people, but it was nothing compared to American and Arab police killing their people.

When Hong Kong officials started clearing the protest sites, not a lot of people outside Hong Kong even noticed. When they closed down the protests at Admiralty and Causeway Bay, most of the people I know who don't live in Hong Kong thought it had all ended a long time ago.

In the end, the government agreed to nothing. The new election laws that started the protests are still in place. CY Leung is still in charge. Some of the protest leaders are in jail. Some will probably quietly disappear. I was hoping that more would come of it, but at least it ended peacefully. There was no Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong.

Monday, December 8, 2014

John Lennon

1940-1980


Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Say you want a revolution
We better get it on right away
Well then get on your feet
And into the street

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

A million workers working for nothing
You better give them what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

I got to ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Pearl Harbor

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

“The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

“It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

“The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

“Yesterday, the Japanese government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine islands. Last night, the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island. Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

“As commander in chief of the army and navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

“I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

“Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

--President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 12/8/1941



National Pearl Harbor Memorial

Thursday, December 4, 2014

The Tooth Fairy part 4

By the time the dentist finally came into my little cubicle, I was ready to go home. Before she even looked in my mouth, she showed me the x-rays. The good news was that the rest of my teeth are still in great shape. The dentist was actually impressed by how good they looked. I still don't know if that was supposed to be insulting or not. Maybe she just sees so many bad teeth all day that good teeth are a rarity.

The bad news is that she wants to tear out my wisdom teeth. She said that they are going to cause nothing but trouble in the near future. I don't even notice them now, but she seemed pretty certain that I would when the time came. I decided that we should just concentrate on the crown for now.

She took a mold of my teeth and put on a temporary cap. I have to go back when the crown is ready. It was all pretty much the same as when I did the first crown a million years ago in Minnesota. Either the technology has not changed much or Hong Kong is behind the times. The hospital is as modern as can be and none of the equipment looked especially old. The only disappointments I had with the facility were the cubicles instead of rooms and the long wait time.

Four hours after my appointment time, I went home.

I went back to finish the crown, but I'm definitely going to a different dentist about this whole wisdom teeth issue. In Hong Kong, or anywhere, you should get a second or third opinion before you let anyone cut into you. I know that I should go to the dentist more often, but nothing about this visit gave me any enthusiasm to do so.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

Ryan came to Hong Kong for Thanksgiving and we all went out to dinner. By we, I mean Lily, Kevin, Ryan and me.

We went to Aqua Roma, a trendy Italian/Japanese restaurant at Tsim Sha Tsui. We mostly went for the mix of Italian and Japanese, but the views were not too bad either. We all like Italian food and we went to Tokyo this summer, so we have all been looking at Japanese food more.

The food was good enough, but nothing exceptional. Most people go for the views. The restaurant is close to the harbor and has famous views of the Symphony of Lights. Several movies have been filmed in the bar. I remember seeing something with Morgan Freeman there, but I don't remember which movie that was.

Overall, I would probably never go back. Like most trendy restaurants, the emphasis is on the restaurant's design and how hip everything is. I prefer restaurants where the emphasis is on the food. Aqua Roma looks nice, but ultimately, you go to any restaurant to eat, not to look out the window.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Tooth Fairy part 3

I live reasonably close to the hospital where I had my dentist appointment, and I had plenty of time, so I went home rather than sit in the waiting room and stare at the wall for at least an hour, or more.

You don't have to stare at walls in waiting rooms around here. There are TVs everywhere. Every waiting room, train station, bus station, government office has a TV to placate the masses. Given the choice, I would rather go home.

Almost exactly one hour after I left the hospital, I was back. I knew that one hour meant more than an hour, but I like to be punctual. Had I thought it would actually be an hour, I would have arrived earlier.

About 15 minutes later, I was sitting in the dentist's office.

Calling it an office is a bit generous. It was a cubicle with all the usual dental equipment sitting around a dentist chair. The room had at least 20 cubicles. Privacy was not much of a consideration for whoever designed the place. You could hear everything that was going on in the nearby cubicles. While I sat in my chair with a little paper bib on my chest, I listened to the person in the cubicle next door being tortured. I could very clearly hear that distinctive drill sound that is the same in every country, and I could hear how much the patient was not having an enjoyable afternoon. I think this reason, above all others, is why there should be individual rooms.

These are not welcome sounds when you have not been to a dentist in four years. Since this was my first visit to a Hong Kong dentist, it was even worse. I was not expecting any drilling, but replacing a crown almost has to involve sharp machinery in your mouth.

I don't know how long I sat in that chair, but it seemed to take longer than any of the other waiting times. Most likely because I was focused on the public pain and suffering of the people around me.

Monday, November 24, 2014

24th Birthday

Some of my friends were going to throw a surprise party for my birthday, but Lily gave away the surprise. That worked out pretty well, I think. Instead of filling the apartment with people, some of whom I probably would not have known, we just had a few people over for a nice dinner. It was like an early Thanksgiving with friends, which is the way I like it.

Saturday night, after both Ryan and I were home from work, I got to see my real present. It was on Skype, so it was more pixelated and smaller than I remember, but it is the thought that counts.

Since Ryan will be in town for the actual Thanksgiving, we will go out to dinner with Lily and Kevin. We have not picked out a restaurant yet, but it's not like there is any mad rush to book all the best pies around here. I gave up on trying to have a real Thanksgiving dinner a long time ago. Now we just find a nice place to eat.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Mike Nichols

Mike Nichols died on Wednesday. Though mostly known as a film director, he directed more plays than movies and won far more Tonys than Oscars. The funny thing is, he started out as an improv comedian with the great Elaine May. As an actor, you never would have guessed where he was going to go as a director.


Broadway Productions:

Barefoot in the Park
written by Neil Simon
starring Robert Redford, Elizabeth Ahsley

Luv
written by Murray Schisgal
starring Alan Arkin, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson

The Odd Couple
written by Neil Simon
starring Walter Matthau, Art Carney

The Apple Tree
written by Jerry Brock & Sheldon Harnick
starring Barbara Harris, Alan Alda

The Little Foxes
written by Lillian Hellman
starring Anne Bancroft, Richard Dysart, Margaret Leighton, EG Marshall, George C Scott

Plaza Suite
written by Neil Simon
starring George C Scott, Maureen Stapleton, Bob Balaban

The Prisoner of Second Avenue
written by Neil Simon
starring Peter Falk, Lee Grant

Uncle Vanya
written by Anton Chekhov
starring Barnard Hughes, Julie Christie, George C Scott, Lillian Gish

Streamers
written by David Rabe
starring Terry Alexander, Paul Rudd, Dorian Harewood

Comedians
written by Trevor Griffiths
starring Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Rea

The Gin Game
written by Donald L Coburn
starring Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy

Fools
written by Neil Simon
starring Richard Shull, Florence Stanley, Pamela Reed, Harold Gould

The Real Thing
written by Tom Stoppard
starring Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon

Hurlyburly
written by David Rabe
starring William Hurt, Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Sigourney Weaver, Cynthia Nixon

Social Security
written by Andrew Bergman
starring Marlo Thomas, Ron Silver, Joanna Gleason, Olympia Dukakis

Death and the Maiden
written by Ariel Dorfman
starring Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman

The Seagull
written by Anton Chekhov
starring Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Goodman, Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman

Spamalot
written by Eric Idle
starring Tim Curry, Michael McGrath, David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, John Cleese

The Country Girl
written by Clifford Odets
starring Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher

Death of a Salesman
written by Arthur Miller
starring Philip Seymour Hoffman

Betrayal
written by Harold Pinter
starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Rafe Spall


Films:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
written by Ernest Lehman
starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis

The Graduate
written by Buck Henry & Calder Willingham
starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Buck Henry, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley

Catch-22
written by Buck Henry & Orson Welles
starring Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Norman Fell, Art Garfunkel, Charles Grodin, Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Austin Pendleton, Orson Welles

Carnal Knowledge
written by Jules Feiffer
starring Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Art Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, Rita Moreno, Carol Kane

The Day of the Dolphin
written by Buck Henry
starring George C Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Edward Herrmann

The Fortune
written by Carole Eastman
starring Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Stockard Channing, Florence Stanley, Richard Shull, Scatman Crothers, Dub Taylor, Christopher Guest

Gilda Live
written by Anne Beatts, Rosie Shuster, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Gilda Radner, Michael O'Donoghue, Alan Zweibel, Don Novello, Paul Shaffer, Lorne Michaels
starring Gilda Radner

Silkwood
written by Nora Ephron & Alice Arlen
produced by Mike Nichols & Michael Hausman
starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T Nelson, Fred Ward, Ron Silver, Tess Harper, Bruce McGill, David Strathairn, M Emmet Walsh

Heartburn
written by Nora Ephron
produced by Mike Nichols & Robert Greenhut
music by Carly Simon
starring Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Stockard Channing, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara, Joanna Gleason, Richard Masur, Maureen Stapleton, Mamie Gummer, Mercedes Ruehl, Kevin Spacey

Biloxi Blues
written by Neil Simon
produced by Ray Stark
starring Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Michael Dolan, Corey Parker, Markus Flanagan, Matt Mulhern, Penelope Ann Miller, Park Overall

Working Girl
written by Kevin Wade
produced by Douglas Wick
starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis

Postcards from the Edge
written by Carrie Fisher
produced by Mike Nichols & John Calley
music by Carly Simon
starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Wickes, Conrad Bain, Simon Callow, CCH Pounder, Dana Ivey

Regarding Henry
written by JJ Abrams
produced by Mike Nichols & Scott Rudin
starring Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Mikki Allen, Bill Nunn, Rebecca Miller, Bruce Altman, Elizabeth Wilson, John Leguizamo, Robin Bartlett, James Rebhorn, Jeffrey Abrams

Wolf
written by Elaine May, Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick
starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer, David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin, David Schwimmer, Allison Janney

The Birdcage
written by Elaine May
produced by Mike Nichols & Neil Machlis
starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, Christine Baranski

Primary Colors
written by Elaine May
produced by Mike Nichols, Jonathan Krane, Neil Machlis
music by Ry Cooder
starring John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates, Larry Hagman, Maura Tierney, Diane Ladd, Paul Guilfoyle, Rebecca Walker, Caroline Aaron, Rob Reiner, Allison Janney, Robert Klein, Mykelti Williamson, Tony Shalhoub

What Planet Are You From?
written by Garry Shandling, Michael Leeson, Peter Tolan, Ed Solomon
produced by Garry Shandling, Mike Nichols, Neil Machlis
starring Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, Greg Kinnear, Ben Kingsley, Linda Fiorentino, John Goodman, Judy Greer, Richard Jenkins, Caroline Aaron, Nora Dunn, Janeane Garofalo, Octavia Spencer

Wit
written by Emma Thompson & Mike Nichols
starring Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra McDonald, Harold Pinter

Angels in America
written by Tony Kushner
starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Patrick Wilson, Mary-Louise Parker, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, Simon Callow

Closer
written by Patrick Marber
produced by Mike Nichols, John Calley, Cary Brokaw
starring Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen

Charlie Wilson's War
written by Aaron Sorkin
produced by Tom Hanks & Gary Goetzman
starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty, Emily Blunt, Om Puri

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The Tooth Fairy 2

I went to my first dentist in Hong Kong. I have been here for almost four years, so obviously I need to see the dentist more often. I heard too many bad stories about the way Chinese dentists do things. Some of them turned out to be true.

My appointment was for 2:50, so I showed up at 2:35. I filled out the form, in Chinese, and showed them my insurance card. I was a little proud of myself for filling out the form in Chinese. After I turned it in, they told me that there was also an English version. There is no reason there would not be. Hospitals in Hong Kong have English all over the place. I have never seen a Hong Kong doctor who could not speak English.

They checked my temperature and blood pressure, for some reason. I can understand the blood pressure if you are going in for some kind of dental surgery, but I was only there to let the dentist poke around and figure out what to do. It was essentially a check up when you know there is something wrong. Blood pressure is irrelevant.

After sitting in the waiting room for a good three minutes, I went in and they took a full series of x-rays. The problem is only one tooth, but they went ahead and scanned them all. If nothing else, now there are dental records in Hong Kong if my unidentifiable corpse ever shows up somewhere.

I was about to tell myself that Hong Kong dentist offices are more efficient. I had spent very little time waiting and everything was moving along quickly. Taking the x-rays took less than five minutes.

Then I sat in the waiting room for an hour. When I asked how much longer it would be, I was told about an hour. So I went home.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Birthday Surprise

Lily told me that everyone was planning a surprise party for my birthday Saturday. It's not that Lily is no good at keeping secrets. It's that we tend to tell each other everything, so it was hard for her to keep that secret from me.

I don't want a big party anyway. Saturdays are a good day for a party, to people who don't work on Saturdays, but we just had a party on Halloween. I don't think we should throw a party at every opportunity just because we finally have an apartment that is big enough. It's one thing to go to parties at every opportunity, but when they are in your house, you have to clean up.

The perfect birthday to me would be going out to a nice dinner and not having to go to work. Having that dinner at a nice café in Paris would be even better, but it does not look like that is going to happen in the next few days.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

The Tooth Fairy

When I was a child, I always had good teeth. All except one. Every other tooth behaved and did as it was told. It was one errant troublemaker who was responsible for all my dental pain. The only cavity I have ever had in my entire life was filled and life carried on.

Several years later, that filling fell out and the tooth cracked. I probably should have gone to a dentist right away, but I was busy. Dental appointments have never been at the top of my list of priorities.

Unless there is no other choice.

I was eating some steamed rice and I bit into something harder than you should ever get with steamed rice. It turned out to be part of my tooth. The rest of the tooth was intact, but there was a segment that decided not to stick around anymore. This was a back molar, and the missing part was facing in, so I was ok cosmetically. I was never in danger of looking like a hillbilly, but I figured I should probably go to a dentist anyway.

The dentist was nice enough to give me a root canal. That is always a fun day. What was left of the tooth was completely killed and they put on a shiny silver crown. A week later I had a permanent crown that looked surprisingly like my real teeth. This tooth is far enough in the back that very few people will ever get to see it, but the dentist still made an effort to make it look natural. I went from having an obvious filling to looking as if my teeth had always been as good as they should have been.

Several years later, I was eating some fried rice and I bit into something harder than you should ever get with friend rice. I was just as surprised to find my crown as I had been to find a chunk of tooth all those years ago.

The big difference is that now I'm in Hong Kong. The system is a little different here. I have heard stories about dentists who don't believe in novocaine. I'm not entirely sure what they have to do to replace a crown, but I know that I don't especially want to feel it.

I will be going in next week to get it fixed. I should probably go sooner, but I have other things to do, and it seems like a purely cosmetic situation to me. I don't know if not having the crown is causing any damage, but I don't feel anything, and since it is in the back of my mouth, no one can see anything. It would be hard to do my job if I was missing a front tooth, but no one ever sees my molars.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Coming Soon

My latest book is finished, at least as far as I'm concerned. It still has to be published, printed and posted on all the websites, but my work is done. The rest is out of my hands. It seems to take about six weeks before they are available, so it should be ready in time for Christmas. This is not a Christmas book by any stretch of the imagination, but that's just the way it worked out.

In my opinion, this is the best thing I have ever written. It is more subtle than anything I have ever done and I put in a lot of little bits that people should get a kick out of when they notice. A lot of people have mentioned some of the little bits about the last one to me.

The funny thing about the publishing world is that my opinion does not matter in the slightest. I just wrote the thing. It is the sales figures that count. According to sales, the book that I think is my worst is actually my best. It is too soon to say if what I think is my best will be considered my worst. We will have to wait and see.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Halloween 2014

Hong Kong Halloween parties have become a bit of a tradition for us. Our first Halloween party was in the tiny apartment of one of Lily's friends. Ryan and I did not know most of the people there. There were so many people in that crowded apartment that even Lily and Kevin did not know most of the people there.

Ryan had a lazy zombie costume. Kevin was a pirate. Not quite as lazy as Ryan's costume, but not all that original either. The originality prize went to Lily, who dressed as Lady Gaga. She wore a garbage bag that she decorated and a bad wig. It was the kind of thing the real Lady Gaga might actually wear. I was a devil. Not as good as Lily's, but not nearly as bad as Ryan's. The most popular costume of the night was Harry Potter. This was a few months after the last movie came out, so Harry and Hermione were more popular than ever.

The highlight of the party for some of us was when Lily took off her garbage bag. It was already pretty hot with all of those people in that small apartment, and the garbage bag was steaming her to the point where she started dripping from the seams. She took it off and spent the rest of the party in that wig and her underwear. She still looked like Lady Gaga though.

Our second Hong Kong Halloween was at a larger apartment with fewer people. That and the fact that I knew more of the people there made it much better. Ryan was in Fuzhou by this point and said that no one there did anything for Halloween.

Kevin wore a zombie costume, but it was better than Ryan's zombie from the year before. The best costume, as usual, was Lily's. She wore a wedding dress with a pillow down the front. The look on Kevin's face when he saw her as a pregnant bride was priceless. My costume was pretty lazy. I just wore a traditional Chinese dress, which is nothing special around here. At least I was not one of the million Johnny Depp pirates.

Our third Hong Kong Halloween party was at the house of one of Lily's friends. This was a different friend from the first Halloween and a bigger house. It was still too small for the amount of people that showed up.

Lily & I dressed as Minnesota Twins. The last game of the World Series was on October 30th, so it seemed like a good costume idea. The Twins were not in the Series, but no one at the party noticed. Kevin had the worst costume of the night. He came straight from work, so he wore his business uniform. As always, there were more than a few pirates and zombies.

This year was the best Hong Kong Halloween ever. Lily, Kevin and I moved into our new apartment in April, so this was the first year that we could host a Halloween party. Our apartment is bigger than the places where all the previous parties were held, and we have an enormous balcony, which is ideal for parties on warm October nights.

Ryan came to Hong Kong for a few days, so he was there. It's always nice when he is around for Halloween, especially when his costume is not lazy. This year, he went as a doctor. He had the scrubs, surgical mask and stethoscope. Since it was Halloween, he also had a large splatter of fake blood on the front of his scrubs. His costume went with mine since I was an Ebola patient with some of his fake blood.

Someone told me that my costume was in poor taste, but that made me wonder when Halloween was supposed to be about good taste. I pointed out to her that there are always pirates at every Halloween party. When she asked how that was in poor taste, I reminded her that pirates were murderers, rapists and thieves. They did not sing songs and win over the girls. They butchered people and destroyed lives. They were terrorists without the religious fanaticism.

Kevin dressed as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. That was a pretty funny costume, even though most of the people at the party had no idea who he was supposed to be. He wore a lot of padding in his oversized suit and had a Rob Ford mask with white powder around the nostrils. Since no one knew who he was anyway, he took off the mask early into the party.

Lily was Wonder Woman, which was not such an original costume in and of itself, but she had a protest sign around her neck that read “where's my movie?” on one side and “4 Thors and no Wonder Woman?” on the other.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Gutter Oil

Taiwan's gutter oil scandal found its way to Hong Kong, for some reason.

Gutter oil is the appropriate description for recycled cooking oil that some cheaper restaurants and even a few high end places like to use to save a few pennies. It is less expensive for the restaurant, but they can still charge whatever they want because no one will ever know what type of oil they use. At least until there is a big scandal and government investigation.

The scandal comes not from the fact that gutter oil is repulsive and will make your stomach feel about as good as if you drank the water in Victoria Harbour. Surprisingly, gutter oil is actually illegal in Hong Kong. Most restaurants will try to use the cheapest oil they can find, but somewhere along the line, the Hong Kong government decided that cooking oil that literally went down the drain and has been shown to cause various types of cancer is probably not ideal. I don't know if it is illegal in Taiwan, but they are in the middle of a big scandal, so someone there is obviously upset about having poison in their food.

Restaurants cutting corners to save money is nothing new around here. If Hong Kong had a restaurant health inspection ratings system, millions of places would have a big F posted in their windows. What is unusual is that the Hong Kong restaurants caught up in this latest investigation bought their gutter oil from Taiwan. I would assume that illegal poison oil would be cheaper to get from China. Most things from China are cheaper, and it's easier to import Chinese products. The Chinese government would definitely rather have Hong Kong restaurants serve Chinese poison over Taiwanese poison. Beijing does not like Hong Kong very much right now, but they have not liked Taiwan for a long time.

Hong Kong has banned the import of all products made from the company in Taiwan that is getting the most attention, but it does not seem like they are doing anything about any of the other companies that sell gutter oil. In typical Chinese fashion, if they only concentrate on the most infamous troublemaker, they think no one will notice that so many other troublemakers are still making trouble.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Hong Kong Protest part 4

The Hong Kong police finally started to clear the barricades in the streets and force some of the protesters to let traffic through. Not so much at Central. The street that the police cleared was Nathan Road in Kowloon, close to my old tiny apartment in Mong Kok. If I still lived there, I might see the protests as an inconvenience, or I would have gone out to join them every night. As it is, they are not close to my current apartment.

The main bulk of the protests are at Central, and that is the area that's getting all the media attention, but there are also smaller satellite protests going on in other parts of the city. The one on Nathan Road was a surprise to me. Not only because I used to live right there, but also because Nathan Road is easily the busiest street in Kowloon. On any given day, there are about a million tourist buses going up and down that street. I don't know where they all went when the street was blocked off.

Staging a protest outside the Central Government office is a good idea. That is where the people you are protesting against go to work. That's also where a lot of other people go to work. Shut that area down and you essentially shut down the government, more or less.

Nathan Road seems like a strange place to block traffic. It hurts tourism, which in turn hurts the economy, but it does nothing against the government. The leaders of this city probably don't even know that Mong Kok exists. Hurting the economy will only hurt the protesters. Instead of forcing the government to listen to their demands, it will drive the opinion polls away from the protests. Most people in Hong Kong would agree that the protest should have been allowed to happen, but as soon as it affects their paycheck, most will say that the protesters have made their point and now it's time to go home. Chinese people have been living under emperors and dictators for 5,000 years. Democracy is not a high priority.

By Friday, there were a few hundred people camped out on Nathan Road. This particular protest site was clearly dying down. In a week, or less, it would have emptied out on its own. Then the police came in and cleared the road with the subtlety of a Chinese driver trying to parallel park. Images of police officers in riot gear beating an unarmed 18-year-old protester were all over TV news stations. By Saturday morning, there were about 9,000 protesters on Nathan Road.

If the Chinese authorities want this to end, they should leave it alone and let it die out as people lose interest. The more they charge in like a dragon in a China shop, the larger the protests will grow. Antagonizing people on the weekend is especially stupid. Many of the protesters are students. They have an inherent need to get rowdy on weekends.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

San Francisco 4

The best part about my short trip to San Francisco was the food. I like Chinese food as much as the next person, but sometimes you need a little variety. Hong Kong has a lot more than just Chinese food, but there seems to be at least a hint of Chinese in everything. In San Francisco, I could eat any kind of food I wanted, even Chinese food. San Francisco has one of the largest Chinatowns in the world, but I stayed away. I can see authentic Chinese anytime.

My two Canadian roommates wanted to try a popular vegetarian restaurant at Fort Mason. I was expecting the stereotypical California salads and sprouts, but Greens Restaurant had a more upscale menu than I expected. I had the chick pea tagine with potatoes, green olives and pickled fennel. My American roommate had a curry and coconut risotto with eggplant and squash. The Canadians had pasta dishes filled with all kinds of summer vegetables. For an appetizer, we all shared some pupusas with squash and cheddar cheese. They came with a big bowl of avocado, salsa and pickled vegetables. The restaurant had nice views of the Marina, but we could see all that from our hotel. The best reason to go to this restaurant was the insanely fresh food. Every vegetable we ate was most likely picked that day.

On the opposite end of the healthy spectrum, our hotel was two blocks from a fast food place called In-N-Out Burgers. Though it looks no better than McDonald's or Burger King, Californians practically worship the food. In-N-Out is only in a few western states, so we never had any in Minnesota, but I have even heard expats in Hong Kong reminisce about how great it is. I only went in because I was walking by and wanted a light snack. I got some French fries expecting them to be no better than any other frozen fast food fries. I could not have been more wrong. This is a fast food place, but the fries were cut from actual potatoes right there in front of me. I never ate anything else there, but with those French fries alone, I can see why Californians who live abroad miss this place so much.

A few blocks east on Jefferson Street was the Boudin Bakery. If sourdough bread is the symbol of San Francisco, this bakery is supposed to be the place to get it. I knew I would be eating plenty of bread in San Francisco. When you live in Hong Kong, you take any chance to get good bread that you can find. I absolutely love sourdough, which seems to be impossible to find in Hong Kong, and this bakery did not disappoint me at all.

Across the street from Boudin Bakery was the Rainforest Café, a jungle themed chain restaurant. The food was nothing special, but the atmosphere almost reminded me of Disneyland with all the artificial trees, artificial rocks and artificial ambience.

One tacky theme restaurant I absolutely refused to go to was Ace Wasabi's Rock-N-Roll Sushi. The name alone told me that this was not the kind of place I wanted to be.

When it came to great American food like pizza, tacos and strudel, I was spoiled for choice. There are two places to get good pizza in Hong Kong, but any kind of Mexican food or pastries have always eluded me. My goal in California was to eat things I can never get in Hong Kong. In that regard, I succeeded marvelously.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

San Francisco 3

My California roommates and I went to Baker Beach in San Francisco because it was just on the other side of the Presidio. There is a larger beach on the west coast of the city, but it is much farther away and, something only two of my roommates knew about at the time, Baker is a nude beach.

I'm not sure why people are always trying to get me to go to nude beaches, but this time it was more of a case of the two Canadians wanting to get naked. It had nothing to do with me. The other American and I were only along for the ride.

What none of us knew at the time was that the north end of Baker Beach is the nude part while the southern end is just like any other beach. The bus to get there stops at the southern end and when we walked to the beach, the Canadians were disappointed to see that no one was naked. There were plenty of people on the beach. It was a great day to be there. The sun was out and it was not too hot or too cold. Summer was pretty much over, but it lasts longer in San Francisco.

People think that Mark Twain said, “The coldest winter I even spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco”. He never said that, but people always mention it because San Francisco summers are much cooler than summer in other American cities. People who don't know anything about Minnesota think it is an ice box, but Minneapolis summers get 20 degrees hotter than San Francisco. Mark Twain lived in Connecticut and New York. He obviously saw winters that were much colder than any summer in San Francisco.

San Francisco is not exactly a frozen wasteland. Their summers may not be very hot, but their winters are not very cold either. It rarely dips below 40 degrees. While the rest of the country is complaining that summer is too hot, it is quite nice in San Francisco, and when people complain that winter is too cold, it is mild in San Francisco. For people who like a relatively steady temperature, San Francisco might be the perfect city. I would go crazy because I like different seasons, but I'm sure plenty of people love it.

One of the reasons Baker Beach is so popular is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. You have to climb on some rocks to see the entire bridge, but it's nothing challenging. You don't have to be a serious climber to get there. Even if you only stay on the beach, you are going to see the bridge. You can't miss it.

To get to the best views of the bridge, you have to go to the north end of the beach. That is where all the naked people are. The Canadians were happy about that and took off their bathing suits as soon as they saw other naked people. The fact that almost all the other naked people were older men did not bother them at all. I think they wanted to be seen more than they wanted to be naked, so older men were actually a good thing. Younger men might be too friendly. Older men will mostly keep their distance and just stare at you. That might be creepy to most of us, but for the Canadians, that was perfect.

My limited experience with nudists told me that they are not exhibitionists or voyeurs. Most of them simply want the freedom to get naked at places like a beautiful beach on a nice sunny day. The two Canadians were not nudists. They wanted to be seen. They were not complete attention whores. They did nothing outrageous to be the center of attention. They simply got naked. They would have been the center of attention on the clothed end of the beach, but on the nude end, few people even noticed. That was their biggest disappointment of the day.

None of us could understand why these two attractive, and very naked, young women were not more popular on this beach. There were a few other naked women, but they were all older and not exactly the kind of women most men lust after. Most of the naked men were older, but that does not mean they were all attracted to older women. Older men are not generally repulsed by naked young women.

We only found out later that the north end of Baker Beach is also the gay end of the beach. Apparently, Californians like to segregate themselves on the beach by sexual orientation. I had never heard of such a thing, but the more people I talked to, the more I learned that any nude beach in California will have a gay side and a straight side. This makes no sense to me since the point of a nude beach is supposed to be relaxation and enjoying the sun and water without clothes getting in the way. It should never matter what gender they sleep with since sex on any beach is illegal. For some reason, it matters in California.

We never saw anyone having sex on Baker Beach. The way the beach is set up, it would be impossible to do so without an audience. It is a straight beach without any coves or hiding places. You would have to climb the rocks on the north end, and that has to be a terribly uncomfortable place to have sex. It is also not at all private since people go there all the time to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It occurred to me while we were there that this was the first time I had ever been to a nude beach with different types of naked people. My first nude beach was just Ryan and me. No one else ever showed up. My second beach was Lily, me and a bunch of lesbians. No men ever showed up. This time there were men, women and children on the clothed side. All genders, ages and races were on this beach. That's the way it should be. It was nothing like Hong Kong. This was the American way.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Hong Kong Protest part 3

Lily & I went back to the protest site at central on Monday, about ten days after it all started. I could say that the protest was still going strong ten days later, but it was infinitely weaker. Last weekend, there had to be at least 100,000 people there. I still have not seen any official figures, but there was a massive crowd of people filling the streets. A week later, there were still crowds, but they were not nearly as large. There were probably thousands of people, but it was much easier to walk from one end to the other.

The mood seemed to be the same. The impression I got was that everyone was optimistic that their demands would be met. I'm not really sure why. The optimism was understandable the week before. There is safety in numbers. By this point, it should be obvious to everyone, including Beijing, that this protest is not as popular as it used to be. The hardcore protesters might be in it for the long haul, but the longer this drags on, the less support they will have from the general population.

Last Sunday, when the police shot tear gas into the crowd, the protesters had most of Hong Kong on their side. Whether the average Chiang agreed with the protest or not, they were vehemently against the police using tear gas against a peaceful Hong Kong assembly.

Hong Kong is not a Middle Eastern dictatorship where most of the people are living in poverty under the oppressive thumb of a ruthless tyrant. The people protesting in Egypt and Syria were obviously willing to kill and die for the changes they wanted. The Hong Kong protesters are not looking for a civil war and are not about to kill anyone. I never heard anyone talk about dying for their cause. A civil war in Hong Kong would never work anyway. China would surround the city and put an end to that quickly and with a terrifying amount of bloodshed.

The Arab Spring may or may not still be going on. No one talks about Syria's civil war anymore because they are all talking about terrorist groups trying to take over. But this protest in Hong Kong will never be a Chinese Autumn. The governments in China and Hong Kong will not topple any time soon. Terrorism here will never be much of an option.

By this Sunday, much of Hong Kong was ready to go back to work. The protesters are starting to wear out their welcome. Instead of becoming the harbingers of true democracy in Hong Kong, they run the risk of becoming a nuisance to people who need the use of this large road to get to work. Freedom to vote is an abstract concept in China. Paychecks are more tangible.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

San Francisco 2

Meanwhile, back in San Francisco.

I don't think I was the best roommate for the other three girls on this trip. They wanted to spend most of the day shopping and most of the night clubbing. I have little to no interest in either activity. We had limited time in the city, and I wanted to explore what little of it I could. Shopping malls tell you almost nothing about a place and you can't see anything in dark and noisy clubs.

When I suggested we all go to the sea lion colony at Pier 39, they thought I was crazy. I thought it would be interesting to see hundreds of sea lions living side by side with humans in peace only a few minutes from our hotel. They thought buying more clothes was a better idea.

When I wanted to go to Alcatraz, they could not understand why anyone would want to see an old dirty prison, especially when you have to get on a boat to get there. The department stores at Union Square were an easy cable car ride away, and our hotel was right next to one of the cable car terminals.

In the end, I never went to Alcatraz because I wanted to explore the city and Alcatraz is more of a museum than anything else. It shows a unique historical perspective, but going there would have told me nothing about what it's like to live in San Francisco.

Something I knew I would always be doing alone was taking an early morning jog or bike ride along the marina. The weather was great while we were there and it was nice to take a morning run in the brisk morning air. The fog over the bay only made it more beautiful. Since I'm from Minnesota, I think mornings are supposed to be colder than the rest of the day. You don't get that in Hong Kong. At 6 am, it is already hotter than it needs to be.

My roommates were not exactly morning people. Since they stayed out late at night drinking and doing who knows what, I was the only one who woke up before noon. Being alone in the morning is something I'm used to since I seem to always surround myself with night owls.

When they wanted to go to the beach, I decided I should probably go along just for the sake of harmony. I thought lying out on the beach was a waste of time, especially since there was so much we were never going to see, but this was only the beginning of the trip and I did not want our differences to make the rest of the trip uncomfortable.

We all brought bathing suits with us, for some reason. My two Canadian roommates were determined to get some sun since we were in California. Hong Kong is not exactly the best place in the world for sunbathing. I brought a bathing suit because I assumed, or hoped, that at least one of the hotels would have a nice, clean swimming pool. I never get to swim in Hong Kong, so if I'm going somewhere that has a pool without Chinese people using it as a toilet, I'm in.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Two Systems

Lily & I both had the day off today, so we went to Central to observe more than participate. Neither of us can vote in Hong Kong, whether the elections are democratic or not, but we are both sympathetic to the protesters' cause. Since we are from Canada and the United States, we see voting as a basic right. Other than losing face, I can't see any reason for the Beijing government to oppose Hongkongers voting for their own leaders. It's not like the Chief Executive can make Hong Kong independent from China. The most he could do is disagree with official state policy.

I can't say if Sunday was more crowded than Tuesday. There was a considerable crowd both times. Sunday was the more eventful day with the tear gas and everyone expecting something big to happen. It was in the air. You could feel the anticipation. I think a lot of people thought the Chinese government was going to Tiananmen Square this thing. No one seemed to expect anything to happen on Tuesday.

Despite the enormous crowd, it was all very peaceful for a protest. There were some minor scuffles with the police over the weekend with a few minor injuries, but everyone – protesters and police – remained remarkably calm. We could walk across the street and feel safe the entire time we were there. It took far longer than usual to move around. This is Hong Kong, so it always takes too long to get anywhere with all the crowds, but this street was wall to wall people. It was even worse than the MTR on a Saturday night.

I would be hesitant about walking through a protest of this size in other parts of the world. In the United States, you have to think about getting shot. In Egypt, you have gang rape. Protesters in too much of the world have to worry about pepper spray. The big concern in Hong Kong was whether or not the police would bring out a water cannon. I'm sure that's not so fun when you are near the front of the crowd and take the full force of the high pressure stream, but everyone else just gets a little wet. Considering the options, I would vote for the water cannon. A spray of water in Hong Kong in September is not the worst thing in the world.

By the time we left the protest, it was still going on. No one seems to know when or how it will all end. Unlike most protests in Hong Kong, this one does not want to simply evaporate.

Some of the experts and people who talk too much on TV are worried that China will bring in the military and end it Chinese style. That would be a mistake. Hong Kong might not be as important to China economically as it was ten years ago, but it is still very important. Hong Kong is important to financial markets all over the world. The communist leaders in China are some of the most capitalist people in the world. They are more than aware of money and what it can do for them. It seems unlikely that they will want to throw so much of it away just to save face. Losing face is a big deal in China, but everyone seems to find a way to rationalize it whenever it happens and make up excuses that explain why they did not, in fact, lose face. Saving face is important in China, but saving money is even more important.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

One Country

Earlier this year, the Chinese government decided that from now on, candidates for Hong Kong's Chief Executive would have to be pre-approved in Beijing. This outraged more than a few people in Hong Kong, even though the Chief Executive has never been elected by the people. He is elected by a committee of people who are appointed and elected by other committees, almost like the American Electoral College.

A lot of people have been trying to get democratic elections in Hong Kong for some time now, and this new policy only makes that pretty much impossible. Previous Chief Executives could have theoretically been in favor of democracy and tried to pull Hong Kong away from China. Now that Beijing has to approve all candidates, that is far less likely to ever happen.

People are supposedly going to be able to vote directly for candidates in 2017, but all of those candidates have to be selected by Beijing. So China is giving Hong Kong the right to vote, but not the right to vote for whoever they want.

The protests started pretty much right away, but they were small in the beginning. Chinese people are used to being told what to do by their government and it takes a while for any indignation to set in. But Hong Kong has a level of freedom unlike any other Chinese city, and the people of Hong Kong are very sensitive when it comes to China trying to take any of that freedom away.

After about a week of student protests, it all came together on Friday. Student groups and other protesters set up camp outside the Central Government office on Connaught Road and vowed to stay there until their demands were met. Barricades and temporary fences were set up to keep the protesters from interfering with business as usual. That did not last long. When more people showed up on Saturday, Hong Kong police came out in full force with riot gear and rubber bullets.

This only enraged the protesters more, and probably made more moderate Hongkongers sympathetic to the protests. Someone is always protesting something in Hong Kong, but riot police on the streets are a rare sight.

By Sunday, there were far more protesters. I don't know how many people filled the streets, and I'm sure each side will claim a different number. The protesting groups will aim too high while the government aims too low. But there were a lot of protesters on the streets outside those government offices and the thought of them shutting down the city on Monday led the police to action.

No one expected the tear gas. This is Hong Kong, after all, not Missouri. That only outraged protesters even more. Hong Kong police generally keep their distance when people protest. This new active role has a lot of us wondering if this is the shape of things to come.

I had to work Saturday night and Sunday during the day, so I could not go and check it all out until Sunday night. I got there after the tear gas incident. I never saw any of that. What I saw was a very large crowd of protesters completely covering the street. Connaught Road is pretty big and there are wide open spaces in front of the government buildings. It was all filled with people.

What struck me was how civilized it all was. If this were any city in the United States, there would be a lot of bodies on the ground right about now. Protesters were chanting, but no one seemed to hold any animosity toward the police. The protests were against the government in Beijing, not the police officers from Hong Kong. Likewise, the police were exceptionally restrained considering how many protesters were out there. The police were seriously outnumbered by the protesters, yet none of them panicked and started shooting, American style. I don't think anyone even had any guns without rubber bullets. Hong Kong riot police seem to operate on the belief that people will generally obey the law. This is a highly unusual city.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

San Francisco 1

We stayed at the Argonaut Hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. Despite being dangerously close to the most touristy part of the city, it was a nice hotel and surprisingly quiet at night. The hotel is across the street from the Maritime Park, so there is less traffic than one might expect.

Even though most of the area's attractions – Pier 39, the aquarium, Madame Tussauds – were east of the hotel, I often wandered west. The park was a nice place to walk around and had a pedestrian pier with great views of Alcatraz and the bay without all the tacky souvenir shops. There was also a tiny beach that always seemed to be crowded. Just south of the park was Ghirardelli Square, the one place in San Francisco where every chocolate lover has to go. Right after we left the city, they had their annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival. Talk about bad timing.

The Argonaut is a boutique hotel with a nautical theme. The area used to be San Francisco's main fishing village and the hotel is close to the working part of the wharf, so that makes sense. Some of the rooms have views of the Golden Gate Bridge, but ours faced the ships in the marina. There are a couple of old World War II ships and some even older 19th century boats that you can visit nearby, but we never had enough time.

One of the best things about the hotel was that they had free bicycles for guests. San Francisco is probably not the best place in the world for a bike ride, but the Fisherman's Wharf area is flat and the Golden Gate Bridge is a reasonable, and beautifully scenic, ride away. Between the hotel and the Golden Gate Bridge was the Palace of Fine Arts. It was built for the World's Fair, but does not seem to have any real purpose today except as a nice place for a picnic.

Even better was the service at the hotel. Living in China, I have grown accustomed to some pretty lousy customer service. This was my first trip back to the United States since Ryan and I went to Minnesota in 2012. We stayed at his mother's house that time, so I had not stayed in an American hotel in quite a while. I think I was expecting it to be just like a Chinese hotel, for some reason. I was pleasantly surprised. The staff at the Argonaut was genuinely friendly, as opposed to the usual pretending to be friendly, and they not only knew what they were doing, but they actually seemed to want to do their jobs. Chinese hotel managers should take a class or two from this hotel.

My only complaint with the hotel was that we had to leave so soon after we arrived. The main point of the trip was Los Angeles. San Francisco was essentially a long layover. If I ever go back, and I hope I do some day, I will definitely try to stay at this hotel.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Los Angeles Audition part 2

Going to Los Angeles was probably the most unusual trip ever. We supposedly went for an audition, but most of the time, we looked around and took in the sights. We even went to Disneyland. Before Los Angeles, we stopped in San Francisco for a couple of days. That had absolutely nothing to do with the audition at all. This was more of a vacation with an audition thrown in.

What surprised me was how nice the hotels were. My agent booked us very good rooms in Santa Monica and San Francisco, and San Francisco was not even supposed to be part of the trip. We only added that later, and my agent still paid for it. I have to say, this guy really went above and beyond. When I become a big star and forget all the little people who helped me to the top, I hope someone in my entourage reminds me to send him a fruit basket or something.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Los Angeles Audition part 1

About a month ago, my agent got me an audition at MGM in Los Angeles. Even though I just got back from a big vacation in Tokyo, I'm taking more time off to go to California. I was not even sure if I wanted to go at first. If I get the part, that presents a serious problem. I live in Hong Kong, not Los Angeles. Taking a week or two off of work here and there is one thing, but to film in the United States, I would probably have to take even more time off. Unless it is a very small part. Then I have to wonder what is the point of flying to the other side of the world for a one day walk-on part.

I decided to go because it seems like a bad idea to turn this down. It is a pretty good opportunity. It could lead to bigger and better things. Even if it does not, I'm getting a free trip to Los Angeles. That's not too shabby.

My agent originally booked a flight for me and the three other girls I'm going with from Hong Kong to San Francisco to Los Angeles. I figured as long as we are landing in San Francisco anyway, why not spend some extra time there. I don't know the other three girls, but it did not take much to convince them. Two of them are Canadian, but they don't need visas to go to Los Angeles. I don't know if going to San Francisco first would have caused any problems, but if they get the part, they are going to need work visas anyway.

Our agent already booked the hotel in Los Angeles, but then he had to find one in San Francisco after we changed his plans. He did it all a lot faster than I would have. If it were up to me, I would probably still be looking at hotels. Hopefully, he did not simply book the first hotel he saw. He says they are both very nice hotels, so we will see.

I'm leaving for California tomorrow. Today is the Moon Festival, so I did not have to miss it at all. That worked out conveniently. The holiday means nothing to me, but I like a good moon cake.

When I come back, I will be an internationally famous movie star. Or not.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Moon Cake Day

Monday is the Moon Festival. This is a big party day in Hong Kong. It's a national holiday and feels almost like Fourth of July in the United States. The origins are different, but it's a day of eating barbecue and lighting fireworks. People can't legally set off fireworks here. They let the government do all the heavy lifting, but everyone can light a red lantern. Those never explode. At least not if you do it right, but they look pretty good floating away into the sky.

Two Moon Festivals ago, Lily, Kevin and I were at the big house at Clear Water Bay. That was a great place to have a party. This year, we are at our new apartment, which is a million times better than the old apartment, but not quite as good for parties as the big house. We have an enormous balcony, which is a great place to watch fireworks and light red lanterns, but we decided not to have a party.

Lily is working a lot right now and I'm leaving the country on Tuesday. I just unpacked from the Tokyo trip when I had to pack again for a different trip in another direction.

We might go to someone else's party, but that is still up in the air. All I know is I'm getting some moon cakes one way or another.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 9

Just north of Yoyogi Park is Shinjuku, which is a completely different type of neighborhood from Shibuya. It might as well be a different city. We almost chose a hotel in Shinjuku before we found the Shibuya apartment. Ryan and Kevin liked the red light district in Shinjuku, but Lily & I thought it looked like some kind of cartoon neighborhood. It was more like some weird Disney Toon Town than a sexual haven. It was funny because other parts of Shinjuku were more of a serious business area while a lot of Shibuya was like a cartoon town. I thought they should have put the red light district in Shibuya and our apartment street in Shinjuku.

Shinjuku also has one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, the Metropolitan Government Building, which is probably a great place to see views of Tokyo. Unfortunately, we went in between storms, so we never saw Mt Fuji. Supposedly, you can see it very well from the observation deck, which is completely free to enter, but only on a clear day. We almost went to the Tokyo Skytree, which is the second largest tower in the world, but it was too cloudy to make it worthwhile. We would have had great views of fog.

We went to other areas of Tokyo, of course, but we spent most of our time in Shibuya and Shinjuku.

We spent a tiny amount of time in Chiyoda, home to the Imperial Palace. You need a reservation to go inside the Imperial Palace, and there are a million blackout dates, so we just looked at the outside. It is probably far more impressive inside.

Minato is an enormous district with far more than anyone can see in one trip. Even if we had stayed in a hotel there, we would barely know the place. The main tourist sight is Tokyo Tower, a slightly taller version of the Eiffel Tower. Everyone told us the views are better from the Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, though again, only on clear days.

Chuo is a tiny district, by Tokyo standards, but home to the Ginza. By day, the Ginza is a shopper's paradise. It is Tokyo's version of New York's Fifth Avenue, Paris' Champs-Élysées and Amsterdam's PC Hooftstraat all rolled into one. By night, it is an epileptic's worst nightmare. The sensory overload from the lights alone is enough to give you seizures. Tokyo has about nine million people. The lights and noise of the Ginza make it feel like all of them are on a single street at any given time.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 8

The neighborhood we were in could not have been better. We stayed in Shibuya, which is famous for shopping and food, but our apartment was on a quiet street away from all the excitement. We were only a few blocks away from everything, but once you turned onto our street, life immediately moved slower. It was like being in a quiet residential neighborhood right next to all the downtown action.

We were an easy walk to the Shibuya JR station, but we were also pretty close to the Harajuku station. I think our apartment might have been right in the middle of the two, but we mostly used Shibuya because it was a bigger station that went to more places.

I'm not really sure what is south of Shibuya, but just north of our apartment was Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Shrine. The first time we went there, we took the JR from Shibuya to Harajuku, but then we quickly found out that we could easily walk to the park. The front entrance to the park was about the same walking distance as the Shibuya station.

The Meiji Shrine was very interesting. Ryan thought it looked like a Chinese temple, but I thought it was completely different. Chinese temples seem louder. Not only in the noise made by all the people, but in the design. This shrine was calm and relaxing. Chinese temples are rough and jagged. The Japanese people at the Meiji Shrine were far more reverential than I have ever seen anyone at a Chinese temple. You can easily walk around a Chinese temple without being the loud American because Chinese people are, by and large, far noisier. At the Meiji Shrine, we were effortlessly the loud Americans, even though half of us were Canadian.

It's interesting that Canadian's have no bad reputation anywhere when most of the world probably looks at Canadians and assumes they are American. I wonder how many obnoxious Canadians have wandered around, letting everyone assume they were American.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Robin Williams

We heard about Robin Williams when we were in Tokyo. Celebrities die all the time. Usually it's cancer. Sometimes they simply live a very long time. Every once in a while, there is a celebrity death that takes everyone by surprise. The only thing more shocking than the fact that Robin Williams is dead is how he died. I'm rarely surprised when rock stars overdose, but I'm still surprised that someone who made so many people laugh could end his life the way he did.

More often than not, when a movie star gets their start in TV, everyone remembers the movies and forgets the TV. Especially if it was only one show. Everyone knows a hundred Tom Hanks movies. How many people talk about Bosom Buddies anymore? But even after Robin Williams played hundreds of memorable characters, and was a memorable character on his own, people still call him Mork.

His movies were not all classics, but look at the directors who wanted to work with him. Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, Barry Levinson x3, Paul Mazursky, Penny Marshall, George Roy Hill, Kenneth Branagh, Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, Danny DeVito, Harry Shearer, Christopher Nolan, Peter Weir, Gus Van Sant, Barry Sonnenfeld, George Miller, Lee Daniels, Michael Ritchie, Chris Columbus x3.

He played Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Oliver Sacks (more or less), Adrian Cronauer, Patch Adams, TS Garp, Alan Parrish, Euphegenia Doubtfire, John Keating, Jakob Heym, Rainbow Randolph, Parry Sagan, Osric, Popeye, Peter Pan and John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.


Popeye
directed by Robert Altman
written by Jules Feiffer
produced by Robert Evans
music by Harry Nilsson
starring Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Paul Smith, Paul Dooley, Richard Libertini, Linda Hunt, Ray Walston, Klaus Voormann, Dennis Franz, Bill Irwin, Sharon Kinney, Van Dyke Parks

The World According to Garp
directed & produced by George Roy Hill
starring Robin Williams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, John Lithgow, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Plummer, Jenny Wright, John Irving

The Survivors
directed by Michael Ritchie
starring Walter Matthau, Robin Williams, Jerry Reed, Kristen Vigard, Annie McEnroe, John Goodman

Moscow on the Hudson
directed & produced by Paul Mazursky
written by Paul Mazursky & Leon Capetanos
starring Robin Williams, María Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks, Alejandro Rey, Savely Kramarov, Elya Baskin

The Best of Times
directed by Roger Spottiswoode
written by Ron Shelton
produced by Gordon Carroll
starring Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, Pamela Reed, Holly Palance, M Emmet Walsh, Dub Taylor, Kathleen Freeman, Kirk Cameron, Anne Haney, Tracey Gold

Club Paradise
directed by Harold Ramis
written by Chris Miller, Harold Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray
starring Robin Williams, Peter O'Toole, Rick Moranis, Jimmy Cliff, Twiggy, Joanna Cassidy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Brian Doyle-Murray, Joe Flaherty, Robin Duke, Mary Gross

Seize the Day
directed by Fielder Cook
starring Robin Williams, Jerry Stiller, Glenne Headly, Richard Shull, Jo Van Fleet

Good Morning, Vietnam
directed by Barry Levinson
starring Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby, Robert Wuhl, JT Walsh

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
directed by Terry Gilliam
written by Terry Gilliam & Charles McKeown
starring John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese, Jack Purvis, Charles McKeown

Portrait of a White Marriage
directed by Harry Shearer
written by Martin Mull & Allen Rucker
starring Martin Mull, Mary Kay Place, Fred Willard, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Conchata Ferrell, Robing Williams

Dead Poets Society
directed by Peter Weir
starring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Norman Lloyd, Kurtwood Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle

Cadillac Man
directed by Roger Donaldson
starring Robin Williams, Tim Robbins, Pamela Reed, Annabella Sciorra, Fran Drescher, Lori Petty, Lauren Tom

Awakenings
directed by Penny Marshall
written by Steven Zaillian
starring Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, Julie Kavner, Penelope Ann Miller, John Heard, Max von Sydow, Anne Meara

Shakes the Clown
directed & written by Bobcat Goldthwait
starring Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie Brown, Adam Sandler, Blake Clark, Kathy Griffin, Robin Williams

Dead Again
directed by Kenneth Branagh
starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, Andy García, Hanna Schygulla

The Fisher King
directed by Terry Gilliam
written by Richard LaGravenese
produced by Debra Hill & Lynda Obst
starring Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter, David Hyde Pierce, Harry Shearer, Kathy Najimy, John de Lancie, Tom Waits

Hook
directed by Steven Spielberg
starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, Gwyneth Paltrow, Phil Collins

FernGully: The Last Rainforest
directed by Bill Kroyer
starring Samantha Mathis, Tim Curry, Christian Slater, Robin Williams, Grace Zabriskie, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Robert Pastorelli, Kathleen Freeman

Aladdin
directed, written & produced by Ron Clements & John Musker
starring Scott Weinger, Linda Larkin, Robin Williams, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried

Toys
directed & produced by Barry Levinson
written by Valerie Curtin & Barry Levinson
starring Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, Jack Warden, Joan Cusack, Robin Wright, LL Cool J, Donald O'Connor, Jamie Foxx, Yeardley Smith, Wendy Melvoin, Debi Mazar

Mrs Doubtfire
directed by Chris Columbus
produced by Marsha Garces Williams & Robin Williams
starring Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Matthew Lawrence, Mara Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Polly Holliday, Martin Mull

Being Human
directed & written by Bill Forsyth
starring Robin Williams, John Turturro, Bill Nighy, Vincent D'Onofrio, Theresa Russell, William H Macy, Lorraine Bracco, Hector Elizondo, Ewan McGregor, Lindsay Crouse

Nine Months
directed by Chris Columbus
written by Patrick Braoudé & Chris Columbus
starring Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, Jeff Goldblum, Robin Williams, Ashley Johnson, Alexa Vega, Kristin Davis, Zelda Williams

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar
directed by Beeban Kidron
starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Chris Penn, Melinda Dillon, Alice Drummond, Robin Williams, Julie Newmar

Jumanji
directed by Joe Johnston
starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten Dunst, Bebe Neuwirth, David Alan Grier, Jonathan Hyde

The Birdcage
directed by Mike Nichols
written by Elaine May
produced by Mike Nichols & Neil Machlis
starring Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Calista Flockhart, Hank Azaria, Christine Baranski

Jack
directed by Francis Ford Coppola
starring Robin Williams, Diane Lane, Jennifer Lopez, Fran Drescher, Michael McKean and the evil Bill Cosby

Aladdin and the King of Thieves
directed by Tad Stones
starring Scott Weinger, Linda Larkin, Robin Williams, John Rhys-Davies, Gilbert Gottfried, Jerry Orbach, CCH Pounder, Frank Welker

The Secret Agent
directed & written by Christopher Hampton
starring Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, Gérard Depardieu, Christian Bale, Jim Broadbent, Eddie Izzard, Peter Vaughan, Robin Williams

Hamlet
directed by Kenneth Branagh
written by William Shakespeare
starring Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Richard Briers, Kate Winslet, Nicholas Farrell, Michael Maloney, Rufus Sewell, John Gielgud, Judi Dench, Robin Williams, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon, Brian Blessed, Billy Crystal, Charlton Heston, Rosemary Harris, Richard Attenborough

Fathers' Day
directed by Ivan Reitman
written by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel
produced by Ivan Reitman & Joel Silver
starring Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nastassja Kinski, Bruce Greenwood, Charles Rocket, Patti D'Arbanville, Mary McCormack

Deconstructing Harry
directed & written by Woody Allen
produced by Letty Aronson & Jean Doumanian
starring Woody Allen, Paul Giamatti, Mariel Hemingway, Hazelle Goodman, Kirstie Alley, Amy Irving, Judy Davis, Elisabeth Shue, Caroline Aaron, Eric Bogosian, Richard Benjamin, Tobey Maguire, Jennifer Garner, Stanley Tucci, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robin Williams, Demi Moore, Billy Crystal, Bob Balaban

Flubber
directed by Les Mayfield
written & produced by John Hughes
starring Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Clancy Brown, Wil Wheaton, Edie McClurg

Good Will Hunting
directed by Gus Van Sant
written by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
produced by Lawrence Bender
starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, George Plimpton

What Dreams May Come
directed by Vincent Ward
written by Ronald Bass
starring Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr, Max von Sydow, Rosalind Chao, Werner Herzog

Patch Adams
directed by Tom Shadyac
written by Steve Oedekerk
starring Robin Williams, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harold Gould, Michael Jeter, Richard Kiley, Peter Coyote

Jakob the Liar
directed by Peter Kassovitz
written by Peter Kassovitz & Didier Decoin
starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Liev Schreiber, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Michael Jeter

Bicentennial Man
directed by Chris Columbus
written by Nicholas Kazan
starring Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Oliver Platt, Kiersten Warren, Stephen Root, Bradley Whitford

Get Bruce
directed & written by Andrew Kuehn
starring Bruce Vilanch, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Carol Burnett, Robin Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall

AI Artificial Intelligence
directed & written by Steven Spielberg
starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson, Robin Williams, Ben Kingsley, Meryl Streep, Chris Rock

One Hour Photo
directed & written by Mark Romanek
starring Robin Williams, Michael Vartan, Connie Nielsen, Gary Cole, Eriq La Salle, Nick Searcy

Death to Smoochy
directed by Danny DeVito
written by Adam Resnick
starring Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Danny DeVito, Catherine Keener, Jon Stewart, Harvey Fierstein, Vincent Schiavelli, Robert Prosky

Insomnia
directed by Christopher Nolan
written by Hillary Seitz
starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Paul Dooley

The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch
directed & written by Eric Idle
starring Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Ricky Fataar, John Halsey, Bill Murray, Catherine O'Hara, Robin Williams, Carrie Fisher, Steve Martin, Mike Nichols, Kevin Nealon

The Final Cut
directed & written by Omar Naim
starring Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, Jim Caviezel, Joely Collins

House of D
directed & written by David Duchovny
starring David Duchovny, Anton Yelchin, Robin Williams, Téa Leoni, Erykah Badu, Frank Langella, Orlando Jones, Zelda Williams

Noel
directed by Chazz Palminteri
written by David Hubbard
starring Susan Sarandon, Penélope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, Robin Williams, Chazz Palminteri

Robots
directed by Chris Wedge
written by David Lindsay-Abaire, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
starring Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Greg Kinnear, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, Paul Giamatti, Chris Wedge, Lowell Ganz, James Earl Jones

The Big White
directed by Mark Mylod
starring Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Blake Nelson, Woody Harrelson, Alison Lohman

The Aristocrats
directed by Penn Jillette & Paul Provenza
starring Lewis Black, David Brenner, George Carlin, Tim Conway, Phyllis Diller, Carrie Fisher, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Richard Lewis, Bill Maher, Martin Mull, Kevin Nealon, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Rita Rudner, Bob Saget, Harry Shearer, Sarah Silverman, David Steinberg, Jon Stewart, Rip Taylor, Dave Thomas, Bruce Vilanch, Fred Willard, Robin Williams, Steven Wright

The Night Listener
directed by Patrick Stettner
written by Armistead Maupin, Terry Anderson, Patrick Stettner
starring Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Bobby Cannavale, Sandra Oh, Joe Morton

RV
directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
starring Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Chenoweth, Joanna Levesque, Josh Hutcherson

Everyone's Hero
directed by Christopher Reeve, Daniel St Pierre & Colin Brady
starring Rob Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, William H Macy, Brian Dennehy, Mandy Patinkin, Forest Whitaker, Robert Wagner

Man of the Year
directed & written by Barry Levinson
starring Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, Jeff Goldblum, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler

Happy Feet
directed by George Miller
starring Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Anthony LaPaglia, Miriam Margolyes

Night at the Museum
directed by Shawn Levy
written by Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant
produced by Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
starring Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Kim Raver, Ricky Gervais, Paul Rudd, Anne Meara

License to Wed
directed by Ken Kwapis
starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, John Krasinski, Christine Taylor, Peter Strauss, Grace Zabriskie, Mindy Kaling, Wanda Sykes

August Rush
directed by Kirsten Sheridan
written by Nick Castle & James V Hart
starring Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Robin Williams, Terrence Howard, William Sadler, Marian Seldes, Mykelti Williamson

World's Greatest Dad
directed & written by Bobcat Goldthwait
starring Robin Williams, Alexie Gilmore, Henry Simmons, Morgan Murphy, Toby Huss, Bobcat Goldthwait

Shrink
directed by Jonas Pate
starring Kevin Spacey, Saffron Burrows, Robert Loggia, Gore Vidal, Robin Williams

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
directed by Shawn Levy
written by Thomas Lennon & Robert Ben Garant
produced by Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant

Old Dogs
directed by Walt Becker
starring John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston, Lori Loughlin, Seth Green, Rita Wilson, Bernie Mac, Matt Dillon, Luis Guzmán, Ann-Margret, Amy Sedaris

Happy Feet Two
directed by George Miller
starring Elijah Wood, Alecia Moore, Ava Acres, Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Sofia Vergara, Anthony LaPaglia, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon

The Big Wedding
directed & written by Justin Zackham
starring Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, Susan Sarandon, Amanda Seyfried, Robin Williams, Christine Ebersole

The Butler
directed by Lee Daniels
written by Danny Strong
starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Terrence Howard, Vanessa Redgrave, Cuba Gooding Jr, Lenny Kravitz, Robin Williams, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, Nelsan Ellis, Jesse Williams, John Cusack, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda

The Face of Love
directed by Arie Posin
written by Arie Posin & Matthew McDuffie
starring Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Robin Williams, Amy Brenneman, Jess Weixler, Linda Park

Boulevard
directed by Dito Montiel
starring Robin Williams, Kathy Baker, Roberto Aguire, Bob Odenkirk

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn
directed by Phil Alden Robinson
starring Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, Melissa Leo, James Earl Jones, Sutton Foster, Richard Kind, Jerry Adler, Louis CK

A Merry Friggin' Christmas
directed by Tristram Shapeero
starring Joel McHale, Robin Williams, Lauren Graham, Candice Bergen, Oliver Platt, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jeffrey Tambor

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
directed by Shawn Levy
produced by Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe
starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Ben Kingsley, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Martin

Absolutely Anything
directed by Terry Jones
written by Terry Jones & Gavin Scott
starring Simon Pegg, Kate Beckinsale, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Robin Williams

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 7

Tokyo was amazing. I can see why Americans like it so much. Japanese culture seems a lot more accessible than Chinese culture, from an American perspective, at least. I'm not saying Japan is like the United States. They are very different places in a million different ways. But from what little I have seen, I think it would be far easier to be an American adapting to Japan than to be an American adapting to China. I would love to know how Chinese people feel about adapting to life in Japan, or about Japanese people in China.

Going to another country with Ryan, Lily and Kevin was more than interesting. I have gone to a few countries with Ryan, so there were no surprises there, but this was my first trip with Lily & Kevin. We have all known each other for a few years, but we never really thought about taking a vacation together until now. We talked about it, but not seriously.

Staying together in a hotel would have been interesting. We have all lived together, more or less, but a hotel is different from an apartment. Unfortunately, I can't say anything about that experience since we stayed in an apartment on this trip. It was not someone's actual apartment, but one of those apartments that travelers can rent for short stays. There's a name for it, but it escapes me right now.

The great thing about staying in an apartment is that you have a lot more room. We had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a small kitchen. We could have had the same amount of space in a large suit at one of the better hotels, but that would have been far more expensive. Tokyo is not the cheapest city in the world. The apartment we rented was beyond reasonable. I think they charged less because most people don't know about it, unlike a national hotel chain that everyone knows about.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 6

We are going to Tokyo tomorrow. The plane tickets are confirmed and the hotel/apartment is finally booked. We have some idea of what we want to see and where we want to go, but we are also leaving plenty of room to improvise. The last thing I ever want to do on a trip is plan every little thing down to the last hour. I want to know how to get around, but where I go is often open to last minute choices. Luckily, I'm traveling with people who pretty much feel the same way. The four of us have never traveled together to a different country, so it should be interesting.

As if that's not enough traveling, I'm also going to Los Angeles next month. That trip is easier for me since I don't really have to plan anything. My agent already booked the plane tickets. I'm not even sure which airline it is. I should probably look into that. I don't know if he has found a hotel yet. I'm going with three other girls, whom I don't know. Hopefully, he will book at least two rooms. I should probably look into that as well. Right now I'm concentrating on Tokyo. I will deal with Los Angeles later.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 5

We finally decided on a hotel. That's good news since we are leaving on Monday. I was a little worried that we would still be arguing over hotels when our plane landed in Tokyo.

We went with Shibuya for a few reasons. The Shinjuku hotels are probably more luxurious, but we all decided that we are not going to spend all that much time in the hotel anyway. Since none of us have ever been to Tokyo, we want to see Tokyo, not some hotel. In Shibuya, we found a place that is more like an apartment than a hotel. It will not have all the room service and housekeeping that you get in a hotel, but it seems like a nice apartment. Hopefully, it will give us a better experience, more like the way people live there instead of tourists staying at a hotel.

Shibuya seems to have more for all of us. From what I can tell, Shinjuku is a business and party area, with a lot less in between. Shibuya seems to have a little bit of everything. We also had to consider our luggage. Lily & Kevin don't know how to travel light. I'm not really sure why that is, but they always bring more than they ever need on trips. The Shibuya apartment is close to the train station. The Shinjuku hotels would require some extra walking time, which is always more of a chore when you are unfamiliar with the neighborhood and have to drag along suitcases on choppy roads. For whatever reason, the luggage companies design their wheels for the smoother airport floors, not for the uneven surfaces beyond the sliding glass doors.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Tokyo Trip part 4

We have narrowed our hotel options down to the Shibuya Excel Hotel in Shibuya and the Hilton or Hyatt in Shinjuku. The two Shinjuku hotels are right next to each other and very expensive. We can get a suite at either one and have a very nice time in Tokyo. The Shibuya hotel is less expensive and does not have suites, but I think it's in a better location.

The Shinjuku hotels are farther away from the metro, though they are probably an easy enough walk. They are in a business area and I'm sure it's a great place to stay if you are on a business trip. Your meeting would probably be close by, if not in the hotel itself.

Ryan and Kevin want to be closer to the non-stop Shinjuku nightlife. The neighborhood they want to stay in is northeast of the metro station, but the better hotels are west of the station. The station itself seems to be massive, so just getting from one end to the other might take a while. I don't know how long it would take to walk from either hotel to the red light district, but in August, even thirty minutes might be too much.

The Shibuya hotel is right next to the train station. It's literally across the street and connected by a walkway. You can probably walk from one to the other during a typhoon and never get wet. I think that's terribly convenient. Typhoon or not, I'm sure we will use the trains a great deal, so the closer we are, the better. We could also avoid the famous crosswalk, which probably gets pretty old pretty fast, especially if you have to walk through thousands of gawking people just to cross the street.

There are practical considerations we need to think about. Tokyo, unlike Hong Kong, has Krispy Kreme. Needless to say, I'm sure I will go there at least once a day. The Shinjuku hotels are eleven blocks from the nearest Krispy Kreme. The Shibuya hotel is about a block away from the nearest Krispy Kreme, with another one six blocks in the opposite direction. Clearly, Shibuya has the advantage.

Ryan likes to get as much authentic American food as he can when we travel. Most people don't go to Tokyo for American food, but most people who were raised on American food probably don't live in Fuzhou either. There's nothing close to real American food where he lives and very little where I live. Tokyo should have more options.

So far, we know about a Sizzler in Shinjuku and Outback in Shibuya. Sizzler is terrible. It has killed people. I don't know why they want it in Japan. There's a Hard Rock Café, but that is farther away from Shinjuku and Shibuya. McDonald's is everywhere, but I'm not counting that because, while authentically American, it is also as appetizing as a giant plate of dog shit. Hopefully, there is an independent restaurant owned by an American expat somewhere. Authentic food should not have to be garbage.