UST Band Society Annual Performance 2011: Post-Show

DL and I went to the UST Band Soc Show on Saturday night, and it was one of the most negative university shows I've ever been to. We came prepared with alcohol, obviously, and painkillers on my part, as well. DL was sure that you weren't allowed to bring alcohol in, but I didn't ever have any problem with the other university shows, so I pooh-poohed her concerns.

Well, it turns out that I should have listened because we were accosted at the door by a bunch of really rude chicks. I mean, dudes, I'm old enough to be their mother, and they were giving me the "OMG YOU ARE SUCH A DELINQUENT" attitude.

They wouldn't allow me to bring in my WINE COOLERS (don't laugh, I'm doing an entry on them, they're these amazing Thai wine coolers, very lame and embarrassing I know, but so delicious and only 5% alcohol so I can drink 4 in a row and not feel anything). Wine coolers...! There's more alcohol in my morning pee than in a dozen of those! But I played nice and said, "Let me leave them here at your desk so I can go inside and pick up the tickets first."

I was gone for less than a minute, and when I got back, the wine coolers had disappeared. They had actually asked someone to hide them, and DL told me later that one of the girls had had a hissy fit and tried to get them to throw the wine coolers away.

Jesus fucking Christ, it's so true that if you give someone a little bit of authority or power, they'll seriously go nuts with it.

So DL and I had to spend some time outside the Hangout drinking up all our alcohol. Not really a problem with me, although DL wasn't sure if she wanted to drink all of hers up in one go and was thinking about just smuggling it in. Since I didn't bring a bag, I wanted to accost a young'un and bully them into bringing the drinks in. Also, I was convinced that they would try to search us. However, we ended up drinking everything anyway.

This is where we stayed:

And here's the other shitty part. We went to the toilets first to pee, and WE GOT FOLLOWED. What the fuck? Like they were expecting us to do what in the toilets? Snort cocaine? I mean, EW, how tacky is that shit? I don't do dirty-ass street drugs. I was raised to be a fucking lady (I'm not joking) and no classy dame walks around with coke boogers in her nose.

Seriously, getting stopped and searched by the cops is one thing, but being treated like a criminal by CHILDREN is just insulting. I guess I should be flattered that I look young enough to be treated like a peer, but COME THE FUCK ON.

Anyway, so this kind of ruined our mood, and it was not helped by the first band we saw perform. We'd missed out on two other bands while drinking outside, but if they were worse than the one we saw, then we dodged two bullets.

I'm not going to write mean stuff about the bad bands since it's just a waste of time. Shit is shit, no matter what smell or texture or colour it is. Instead, I'll focus my energies on praising the two good bands that we saw.

The first band that put a smile on our faces was Die In Velvet. DL had seen them perform 4 years ago, and she was excited to see them again as they had apparently broken up and only recently reformed.

They're a hardcore band, and you can listen to their music on MySpace here. Loved their performance, even though it was very short. So much energy, and the lead singer, Ian, is extremely charismatic onstage. He chatted with us after their performance as he was passing out flyers for another show. What a sweet, humble kid!

The other band that made us dance around was Tonick. Ah, what a fun performance! I'm so glad the show ended with them because they really made me happy. They are a pop punk band, kind of like Richie Ren meets Blink-182. DL and I kept raving to each other how likable the singer was onstage. Just charming and cute, and the band looked like they were having so much fun together, which is so important.

This is what the Hangout looks like when the lights are on. They had a raffle draw at the end of the show.

Holy crap, this dude plays in one of the bands (don't know which one), and he has got some crazy fucking style. I only took a picture from the back, but dude can DRESS. In fact, there were a lot of really styling kids in the show, DL and I were very impressed.

ps. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of growing up listening to Richie Ren, here's a live video of one of his silly, fun songs. I loved this as a kid.



I know Richie looks dorky and sweet (and that's part of his charm), but man, when he got together with Johnnie To (along with Wong Kar Wai, my favourite film director), he turned into a fucking BADASS. Here's his scene in Exiled that made me go on a huge smoking bender. My poor lungs! He starts in at 4:00, and to put a context to this, the movie is about a bunch of hitmen who have to do one last job in order to save the life of their buddy, but the van full of gold that they're supposed to rob gets ambushed by another gang first. Richie plays one of the security dudes in charge of defending the gold. Ah, just watching that scene again makes me want to pick up a pack of Marlboros and a rifle.

By the way, if you haven't seen the movie (and you should!) it will spoil the hell out of it. He was also really fucking cool in Breaking News, another Johnnie To film. You really have to respect Johnnie To for turning Richie from the gentle boy next door to a motherfucker.

玉葉粉麵甜品

Before I begin, I should really explain a little bit about dai pai dongs (大排檔). They're basically outdoor cooked food stalls like the one in Fotan. They have a really interesting history that you can read about on their Wikipedia page here.

I have a particular fondness for dai pai dongs because it has something to do with the reason I moved to Hong Kong in the first place. I came here because of Wong Kar Wai, and I stayed because of Johnnie To. These two film directors, I feel, really capture everything about Hong Kong that I love, including dai pai dongs. (In fact, I'm wondering if I should do a bunch of entries on Wong Kar Wai and Johnnie To movies and their set locations. Would this interest anyone at all?)

The film that really prompted me to decide to live in Hong Kong was Chungking Express. It's not actually my favourite film from Wong Kar Wai, but it was the one where I could imagine living the same life as the characters. In fact, I ended up moving to Soho, close to the escalator and huge dai pai dong where part of the film was shot. Of course, Soho is ruined now because of the bars and restaurants for expats, which is really sad.

Anyway, when I lived in Soho, I used to frequent the 玉葉粉麵甜品 dai pai dong. The meals there are cheap, delicious and filling, and they are usually open quite late, often till 1 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights. They also have desserts like tapioca in coconut milk and sesame syrup.

Since I had to go to Central to do some errands, I thought I'd stop by 玉葉粉麵甜品 since I hadn't been in a while. I guess I was also feeling a bit sentimental because it was raining, and I didn't bother taking an umbrella and just put on my security guard cap, and it made me think of Tony Leung's character in Chungking Express, Cop 633, eating at a dai pai dong. I love Tony Leung, especially after what he said about Tiananmen. His momma didn't raise no fool.

Taken from here

玉葉粉麵甜品 has been around for more than 80 years. In fact, it originated on Stanley Street (where the dai pai dong scenes for Chungking Express were filmed. However, the two brothers who ran the dai pai dong had a disagreement, and so one of them moved to Elgin Street and opened up 玉葉粉麵甜品.

The selections include fish/pork/beef balls, trotters, brisket and dumplings in noodle soup (HKD18) or dry noodles (HKD22). A plate of vegetables and brisket with dry noodles will set you back HKD45, and the desserts are usually between HKD5 to HKD10 each. For takeaways, add HKD1.

I once tripped so badly here, I ripped my knee open.

I guess if you don't like to use these chopsticks, you can bring your own. I don't really care, though.

Even though the beef brisket is really famous here (it's under the entry "Stewed beef" -- in other restaurants, you'll see it referred to as beef flank), I decided to get a bowl of beef ball noodles. You get six beef balls, three of which are normal and three have lots of pepper. The meatballs are all handmade, you can tell because of the texture, which is quite rough and chewy.

My homage to Cop 633. Er...that's a septum ring, not a silver booger.

See the pepper bits?

During nice days, they set up the chairs on the street itself. Once, when I was having dinner here with my ex-husband, I sat with my back to the bottom of the hill, and for some reason, I ended up tipping over and sliding partway down. It was pretty funny.

So, how to find this place? It's kind of messed up because it's on Elgin Street, except that there are 2 Elgin Streets in Soho. If you're coming from Soho, then walk down Staunton Street away from the escalator, and then on your right, you'll see a bunch of little fruit stalls. That's the Elgin Street where 玉葉粉麵甜品 is on.

Alternatively, if you're walking on Hollywood Road towards Sheung Wan (ie. away from the escalator), keep walking until you see this 7-11 on your left. 玉葉粉麵甜品 is right across from it.

And of course, no mention of Chungking Express should go by without a couple of photographs of possibly the most beautiful man in the world, Takeshi Kaneshiro, who was in the film, as well.

Taken from here

I think the difference between these two pictures is close to 10 years, but he's aging beautifully. I can imagine him as one of those elegant older gentlemen. I just like how he seems so calm and remote, like an unopened book.

Taken from here

I wish guys would grow their hair long and wear hanfu again.

Broadway Cinematheque and Kubrick

I'd originally wanted to do separate entries for Broadway Cinematheque and Kubrick, but as usual, I was crap at taking photographs. Broadway Cinematheque is where a lot of independent and art house films get shown in Hong Kong. My friends and I popped over there to watch the film version of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood  even though we're not huge fans of the book. I really much prefer A Wild Sheep Chase-- a marvellous, funny book that feels completely effortless, even though I'm sure it was painstakingly written. As I read A Wild Sheep Chase, I kept gasping out, "The audacity!" because of just how fantastic it is. I really recommend it.

Anyway, we were there for Matsuyama Kenichi. Oh, this gorgeous boy!

Photos below courtesy of Oh No, They Didn't.

I found the movie incredibly beautiful. The cinematography was just stunning. Everything looked gorgeous and dreamy, even the rubbish. However, the narrative was just terrible. If you hadn't read the book previous to watching the movie, I don't know how you could piece it together. Also, what a waste of a great composer! Jonny Greenwood did the music, but you wouldn't be able to tell because it was so badly edited into the film. The music would just cut off at random points or start  up at the strangest moments. Very distracting!

It was really such a fucking shame because the actors were so excellent, especially Matsuyama Kenichi. He is just terrific! He has an innate vulnerability to him, which helps, but he is fearless as an actor, his emotions seem so raw. There was a scene where he's crying, and I felt like Pauline Kael watching the then-unknown Marlon Brando onstage for the first time. (Brando had been so authentic, so real, that Kael had thought he was actually having a breakdown and had to avert her eyes in embarrassment before realizing that he was just acting. I felt the same, dudes!)

Anyway, watch the movie for the visuals, but otherwise, sad to say, it's kind of a shitty film. I should have expected it because the director is Tran Anh Hung, who did the beautiful but plotless The Scent of Green Papayas. After watching it, my first ex-husband commented, "That director needs to watch some Korean dramas."

Anyway, I wanted to take pictures of the Cinematheque because the interior is really uniquely designed, but then, you wouldn't know from the photographs I took because we didn't have time to linger as the movie started as soon as we arrived. The fancy stuff is on the second floor, but we had to rush to our seats, so I didn't have a chance to take any pictures.

I did manage to photograph a bit of Kubrick, which is a bookstore and DVD shop. This is the DVD portion of the shop. The bookstore portion has a little cafe attached to it. They stock mostly arthouse DVDs -- I still have my eye on Ninagawa Mika's Sakuran, except it's so damn expensive. I've also given up on the Johnny To film soundtrack set. I just can't afford it. I think Volume 1 alone is around HKD1,500! The bookstore focusses mostly on film-related publications.

Broadway Cinematheque is in Yau Ma Tei, just around the corner from Mido Cafe.

Hong Kong Film Archive

I went to the Hong Kong Film Archive to watch Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, one of the films they're showing for the Hitchcock Retrospective. Rebecca was one of the banned books when I was studying in convent school in Manila. After I managed to get my hands on it, I was kind of puzzled as to why. There wasn't anything remotely sexy in it, especially compared to those bodice rippers that we were allowed to read, for some reason, that contained phrases like "pulsating rod" that really make you confused about human anatomy.

Still, I enjoyed the book, even though I didn't quite like the narrator, who seemed like a wet rag next to the evil Rebecca (who I imagined looked like Joan Collins -- one of my aunties loved Dynasty so I got to watch it, as well).

Anyway, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed with Hitchcock's version. I don't know if the copy that the Film Archive has is just messed up, but there were a lot of dodgy cuts and weird editing. Also, I didn't like the music that was chosen -- yeah, I'm acting like I know better than Hitchcock -- and I felt like Joan Fontaine's acting was really lacking next to Laurence Olivier and, especially, Judith Anderson.

My experience was also slightly marred by these two loud middle-aged bitches sitting next to me who wouldn't stop talking. I kept shushing them, and they would actually turn their heads to stare at me in shock for having the nerve to shush them. Finally, I issued a really loud "TSK!" which seemed to work for a little bit. So annoying!

I have a couple more films that I got tickets to: Psycho and Vertigo, which I will be watching next weekend. Psycho has special significance for me because it was the first film I ever watched. When I was around one, I think, my father took me to a special screening, and apparently, I was so scared that I was ill for a week or something.

I highly recommend checking out the regular offerings of the Film Archive over here, especially for the rare Chinese and Hong Kong films that they show. When else would you get a chance to see some classics on a big screen? Plus, I really like the staff there. They are really friendly and don't laugh at you when you trip as you look for your seat.

Vintage Hong Kong actors and actresses.

I have no idea what this is, but it's on display in the lobby. I know it's some kind of film equipment, but it also looks like it belongs in the military.

The exterior of the Film Archive. To get to this place, exit the MTR at Sai Wan Ho Station Exit A. Get your ass to the McDonald's and you'll see two flyovers. You'll have to cross the street below the flyovers and keep walking left. DON'T TRUST THE SIGNS POINTING YOU TO THE FILM ARCHIVE. Those signs are liars! Maybe I should write a letter of complaint because those signs will lead you to a residential block where old people will be frightened of you as you walk around in the rain cursing and looking for the Film Archive.

If you see this plaza, you'll know you're heading in the right direction. The Film Archive is around the corner from the building at the end.

Since Rebecca is somewhat Gothic in tone -- or at least, the book is -- I thought I'd recall my university years and dress Goth-y, too. Also, I'd just finished making a crown of thorns, and I wanted to test it out to see if it was comfortable.

You know, one of the things I love about cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo, no one gives a shit about how you look. No local will say anything to you (maybe an occasional glance, but that's it) and people will let you live your life unmolested. I don't get why people say New York is like this when there is always some stranger who's going to make a comment, whether positive or negative. In Hong Kong, people genuinely leave you alone and are really tolerant.

I think I've gotten really complacent because I just go out wearing whatever I feel like, but sometimes, shitty things happen that remind me of how much I take Hong Kong people's open-mindedness for granted.

I went to a birthday barbecue after the film (which I might write an entry about). The party was in Happy Valley, so I decided to take a streetcar up. I sat down across two Filipino tourists(?) who looked at me and then started laughing derisively and mocking me in Filipino, which they obviously didn't know I spoke.

I glared at them, and I had a few nasty remarks I so wanted to say, but I held my tongue. I'm trying really hard to be a good Buddhist and part of that is removing your anger and not extending misery onto others. I'm still not completely satisfied, but I guess, in the end, what does it matter what two people I don't know or care about think of me?

I'm just going to take this as a reminder to appreciate how lucky I am to live here.