Foxymoron

Sure, I'll have more wine

I haven't been writing much, I know. It's not that I've been too busy, I just avoid the task because I don't feel like I've got anything to say. Maybe it is busyness that has kept me away because I can't string together sentences or thoughts to create a coherent entry. Instead, I've been reading other people's words and stories. I consider this a little victory since I've previously written about wanting to read more.

The book club is to thank, in part, but the irony of the club is that we speak very little about the book and more about food, public vs. private education and who we should kick out/admit into the group. Still, I'm encouraged to read even outside of our reading list. I've admitted myself into Vincent Lam's Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, a book I've always wanted to read and finally am because I want to better understand Helena's med school experience. Last month, I read Rex Pickett's Sideways for pleasure and because I found it in the Chapters bargain bin for $5. Incidentally, my wine intake has increase since the purchase.

I guess this is all a step towards becoming the person I want to be. Someone who is better read, organized, more frugal and cooks healthy and fulfilling meals. I do miss my music. I've been spending less time searching for mp3s and more time researching recipes. I blame my external hard drive which has kidnapped my iTunes library and refuses to negotiate. I'm only really sad about it when I want to make mix CDs. The rest of the time I'm enjoying CBC Radio podcasts and the occasional Jazz FM programming.

Stay warm.

Talking 'bout my generation

I've been mulling over the Globe and Mail's story "Flirting with Disaster" from today's Focus section. The article, by Alexandra Shimo discusses the increasing number of unambitious 20 to 30-somethings who sponge off of their parents and remain in their homes rent-free. I think Shimo makes some good points, but failed to go into the detail and explanations I'm looking for. For example, the fact that we're living in an increasingly immigrant Canada, and many ethnic families encourage their offspring to stay at home until they get married. Or how about how much we all owe in student loans. I think the problem is that this article paints these slackers as the rule of our generation rather than the exception.

[mp3] Green Day - Longview
[mp3] David Bowie- All The Young Dudes

The global soul

People have been asking me if I miss Hong Kong. I've been saying that aside from the few important relationships I've developed, no. I agree it's a great place for young people to make money, travel through, eat and shop but I never really felt at home there.

In Pico Iyer's The Global Soul, he introduces the concept of what a "Global Soul" is by talking about himself. Iyer was born to Indian parents in England, moved to the U.S. when he was a boy, schooled in the U.K. and now lives in suburban Japan. He says:

"The country where people look like me is the one where I can't speak the language, the country where people sound like me is a place where I look highly alien, and the country where people live like me is the most foreign space of all. And though, when I was growing up, I was nearly always the only mongrel in my classroom or neighbourhood, now, when I look around, there are more and more people in a similar state, the children of blurred boundaries and global mobility."

I read this and immediately empathized with Iyer's experience. Although my parents are from Hong Kong, I never felt like I belonged there. It didn't help that I also looked "mixed" to the average Hong Konger, (OK, so I am actually a blend of Chinese, Malaysian and Indian,) and therefore a pre-determined outsider, regardless of how well I spoke Cantonese. But in Hong Kong, despite its claim to being a world class international city, there is a general unacceptance towards everyone that isn't a "real" Hong Konger, be it towards domestic helpers, mainland Chinese, and even, Caucasian expats (masked by its appreciation for expat money). There was always an "us vs. them" attitude that made me uncomfortable.

Iyer continues his exploration of the Global Soul as he tackles migration by living in LAX. He even devotes a chapter to the global marketplace by examining (where else?) Hong Kong. But exactly 101 pages after Iyer tells us of his confusion with space and identity, he describes Toronto as a New World city for Global Souls:

"For a Global Soul like me--for anyone born to several cultures--the challenge in the modern world is to find a city that speaks to as many of our homes as possible. The process of interacting with a place is a little like the rite of a cocktail party, at which, upon being introduced to a stranger, we cast about to find a name, a place, a person we might have in common: a friend is someone who can bring as many of our selves to the table as possible.

In that respect, Toronto felt entirely on my wavelength. It assembled many of the pasts that I knew, from Asia and America and Europe; yet unlike other such outposts of Empire--Adelaide, for example, or Durban--it offered the prospect of uniting all the fragments in a stained-glass whole. Canada could put all the pieces of our lives together, it told me (and others like me), without all the king's horses and all the king's men."

Devoting 55 pages to discuss multiculturalism through Toronto, Iyer reminds me of the main reason why I love this city. Yes, my heart flutters with excitement every time I open the listings pages of our weekly papers but it is the open acceptance of difference that has made me feel more and more at home here. There is no us vs. them. Here, everyone is an insider. It's not yet a national thing, as my negative experiences in London, ON proved, but a Toronto thing. Iyer acknowledges that Toronto's multicultural landscape is not perfect, but he agrees, as many of my fellow Torontonians will as well, what we have here is a beautiful thing.

[mp3] Air - People in the City
[mp3] Josh Rouse - Scenes from a Bar in Toronto

Cover cover

New York Magazine cover, July 17th, 2006
Headline: "How To Be Happy"


HK Magazine cover, October 6, 2006
Headline: "How To Be Happy"

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, New York Magazine must be so honoured.

Back in July, I planned on discussing Jennifer Senior's article, "Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness" from NY Magazine, but never got around to it. It is one of the most interesting articles I've read all year and I highly recommend it. It's a fascinating look into happiness research.

As for HK Magazine, it's not really known for its thoughtful journalism is it? Apparently, it's known for its covers according to, well, HK Magazine. According to its art section in the latest issue:

HK Covers: For more than 15 years, HK Magazine has been the trusted source of news and information about life in Hong Kong. Through the scandals, the revelations and the epiphanies, HK Magazine has been there with a comment — and a great cover. To celebrate 15 years of the magazine, some of the best covers will be shown at the Fringe Club. Oct 11-20, Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Rd., Central.

Yeah, right.

With all this talk of covers, here are some of my favourite odd covers:

mp3: Final Fantasy - This Modern Love by Bloc Party (this is a live mp3, quality OK)
mp3: Final Fantasy and Gentleman Reg - Fantasy by Mariah Carey (from the same show as above)
mp3: Paul Anka - Wonderwall by Oasis
mp3: Emm Gryner -  Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard

NB: I scanned the NY Mag myself, sorry about the crinkled cover.

There's Only Music So That There's New Ringtones

I'm late on this but Sasha Frere-Jones wrote about Brit Pop's forumla for success in America. Why is Coldplay and that awful James Blunt popular there while the Arctic Monkeys and Robbie Williams remain unrecognized relative to their success in the UK?

On what works:

Nevertheless, they have several crucial things in common: their lyrics tend to be uplifting; they lack identifiably English accents, and they avoid British slang unfamiliar to Americans. These attributes are what distinguish their music from another strain of mainstream English pop, which rarely makes it big in the States, even when it should.

And what doesn't:

Logistical factors—the comparative ability of independents and majors to promote acts, the tight strictures of radio—are partly to blame, but the bigger problem is one of accents and attitude. If your songs are cynical, ironic, or misanthropic, and loaded with references to Tesco or “tracky bottoms tucked in socks,” Americans may simply turn the dial.

I'm not sure what the real definition of Brit Pop is anymore. Some might argue that genre in its truest sense left with Blur and the best days of Oasis. All I know is that I prefer my music with drama, saddness and attitude, which is why British music comes second only to CanCon on my iTunes. SFJ is right on when he describes Coldplay's better songs as miniature epics. "Everything's Not Lost" is my favourite of the band's discography. At more than five minutes just like my favourite Embrace song's "Out of Nothing" (5:31), both songs are not simple declarations of one idea or feeling but they are bouquets of emotions, multi-layered in lyrics and composition.

Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance (The "tracky bottoms" song and my favourite Monkeys song)
Coldplay - Everything's Not Lost
Embrace - Out of Nothing
Embrace - All You Good Good People (A happy Embrace tune for the Americans)

Photo: Taken on Lantau Island on the Wisdom Path during a hike in Western Hong Kong.

City Rain

My sunglasses are gathering dust. It's rained for days, but it's seems like weeks. While the gloomy weather has encouraged me to stay inside (and "work"), it's left me unmotivated to get out of bed. Self-discipline is the key to a successful stay-at-home career and while I've had a couple of weeks to feel out my new found freedom, it's hard to get a routine down.

Earlier this month, I interviewed travel writer Polly Evans for The Standard. We spoke about her daily writing routine and I was impressed by her strict daily schedule. By no later than 8:15 she is down the hall in her study writing. After a few hours of solid writing, she'll go for a jog, come back, have lunch and do administrative things like respond to e-mails, send mailouts, make phonecalls, etc. I've been thinking a lot about what she's said, not as a model of how I should work, but as a reminder of the need for structure. Afterall, she's currently writing a book about dogsledding in the Arctic and I am a freelance journalist who writes feature articles. We still have to research and write, but the process is different.

I will have a routine down soon and things are slowly falling into place. Thanks for your support.

If you find yourself under grey skies, here's some more summer music that might help:

Manic Street Preachers - Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

Ryan Adams - City Rain, City Streets

Photo: I took this photograph from a balcony in the building I lived in when I first arrived in Hong Kong. It had just rained and the clouds were clearing just in time for us to see the sun going down. I couldn't see it though, I only had a view of the east.

College!

An e-mail all the way from London, Ontario arrived in my inbox tonight. It reminded me that my student newspaper, The Gazette is celebrating its 100th anniversary in September. It took me back to the hilly campus of the University of Western Ontario, where I, like many others, majored not in our chosen degrees, but the student paper. I have positive memories of that rag. It was ridiculously tiring at times but man, it was so much fun. Where else could we get the editorial board drunk
and forced to pick up bar/club patrons for the sake of journalism?

The anniversary party takes place at the end of September on Homecoming weekend. I don't know if I'll be able to make it but it would be nice to see familiar faces. The problem with homecomings is they're hard to leave happy. If you liked the place enough to return, there will always be the feeling of emptiness because no matter how great the reunion is, it's never quite the same as it was before and you leave knowing that it will never be ever be like that again. Regardless of how content you are with your current life, it's always a bittersweet experience.

Photo: My balcony at The Senate, where I lived for my last two years in London. Those cases of empties were there when we moved in and I think they were there when we moved out...

For All the Doubters, Non-Believers, The Cynical That Once Were Dreamers

This is my view from my new office. Friday was my last day at The Standard. I decided to leave for many reasons, the main one being I want more time to freelance.

As I handed out the customary "last day" cakes and told my colleagues of my freelancing plans, some reacted with  envy. "Take me with you!" they said with a half-serious laugh. Others reacted to the word "freelancing" with raised eyebrows and an unconvincing nod. Why in the world would a young journalist leave her fulltime reporting job with benefits, steady salary, etc. for the uncertainty of freelancing? Good question.

It's quite simple really. I'm 25 and while I consider myself organized, driven and completely reliable, I don't want the security of a job I don't fully love. I want to write more features; write for other publications; and explore Hong Kong. So I decided it was time to move on.

I realize this change is risky. I know I could fail miserably. "Freelancing doesn't pay," one editor said. "It's better if you have an organization to write from," another said, making no effort to hide his doubt. They may be right, but I will be working very hard to prove them wrong in the next few months.

For the supportive majority, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Bonus love for those who can name the song quoted above (without search engines).

Review Raves

This year's National Magazine Awards were announced this morning and three articles from the 2005 issues of the Ryerson Review of Journalism were nominated! How exciting!

Keren Ritchie's "Rough, Tough & Ready to Rumble" and Leigh Doyle's "So Long" were both nominated for the best student writer awards. Keren's article was also nominated for the Politics & Public Interest writing award. Our colleague, Talia Maze's "Addicted to Hype" was nominated in the Health and Medicine category and Dafna Izenberg's portrait of Jim Bell in her article, "The Conscience of Nunavut" was nominated for best portrait photography. This is very cool. Congrats to all!

I have very fond memories of my days at the RRJ. Even the moments when we though we'd never make it, I loved every second of making that magazine. And now, the Summer 2006 issue of the RRJ is out on newsstands. You can read the articles online but I strongly recommend the hard copy. Young journalists poured hours of their time, sweat and likely tears and blood into the layouts and design. It's worth the $5.95 newsstand price.

Museology

For those of you outside of Hong Kong, this is a picture of what West Kowloon, the government's proposed HK$40 billion (US $5.2 billion) cultural center might look like if it is finally built in a million years. The highlight of the conceptual design is a glass canopy by Norman Foster. It's pretty, eh? Yeah well, pretty comes at a price and it could cost more than HK$10 billion (US$1.2 billion) alone. The cost (and some argue, the impossible design) of the canoopy was part of the reason the government's original proposal for the cultural hub was scrapped in February.

So they're starting all over, this time with a consultative committee and advisory groups which will recommend what core arts and cultural facilities should be in the 40 hectare district. One is the museums advisory group which has the difficult task of deciding which museums, if any, will be built. I personally, think it's inevitable that there will be museums in the cultural district but the government spokeswoman I spoke to was reluctant to say anything.

That said, given the Audit Commission's critical report of government-run museums which cited severe operating deficits for the past four years with little revenue (and some say, little interest), the museum advisory group and consultative committee should look at the audit report for some important information.

Here's my artilce in today's paper about museums in West Kowloon.