Lamma-zine Blog - February 2006

Feb 28: A Lamma Boy Becomes Emperor

CCTV just mentioned that filming on Chow Yun-Fat's new movie, "The City of Golden Armor", has just started filming in Beijing. Directed by Zhang Yimou, he'll be playing the emperor, with Gong Li as the empress and Jay Chou, a Taiwanese star, as his son. Quite a career for a country boy growing up barefoot in a very poor Lamma Island family, attending the local primary school!

Charlotte - Official Court Correspondent on Chow Yun-Fat Matters in her excellent "Chow Yun-Fat of Hong Kong" website & blog:

Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat to "Wear Golden Armour" with Zhang Yimou

Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li

(L to R): Director Zhang Yimou, Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, ...

Tuesday, February 21, 2006:

Film will begin shooting tomorrow:

In a letter sent to the Chinese media today, Beijing New Picture Film Co. has revealed that shooting of this film will begin tomorrow at Beijing Film Studios. The first scene will be made at a palace interior built inside a soundstage. Both Chow Yun-Fat, playing the emperor, and Gong Li, playing the empress, will be in the scene. Chow Yun-Fat arrived in Beijing yesterday with a very nicely trimmed beard. According to IMDB, this film's English title is "The City of Golden Armor" and its Chinese title remains as "Man Cheng Jin Dai Huang Jin Jia" (To Fill the City with Golden Armors).

1/13/06: Zhang's movie has a new name:

CRI Exclusive By Li Rui - Chinese director Zhang Yimou is preparing to begin shooting his latest movie "The City of Golden Armor". It is a new work following the hit drama film "Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles".

The new movie is inspired by the modern Chinese play "Thunderstorm," a classic from famous playwright Cao Yu . Before planning this movie, Zhang Yimou made a name for himself with "Red Sorghum" and "To Live". Both these previous films were also based on classic works.

Producer Zhang Weiping has revealed that the story of his new movie is set in the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907). The theme involves a power struggle between the emperor, the empress and a general. There will be several large war scenes which will be shot with tens of thousands of extras � real people rather than computer graphics.

The script has been planned over three years, and during this time the group of creators has been changed three times. Zhang Yimou says this is the most satisfying of all the dramatic works he has created. Together with leading actors Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li , Zhang Yimou will start filming in February. The location will be Chongqing Wulong Sky Hole, a place of interest in southwest China.

"The City of Golden Armor" will be wrapped up at the end of year, to hit Chinese screens before 2007. The producer says the budget is about US$ 44.6 million, making it the most expensive Chinese movie production to date. They intend to earn big for this movie, not only in box office revenue but also in praise from audiences and critics.

For regular updates from Charlotte on Ah-Fat's other new movies, click:


The City of Golden Armor In production In theaters 2006/07	The Aunt's Postmodern Life In post-production In theaters 2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Uncharted Waters In theaters 2007

Feb 27: Obituary of Ronnie Norton

From Ronnie's family:

Ronnie Norton, dearly beloved son of Pamela and brother to Sharon, Tanya and Ashley died Thursday 23rd Feb after a very short and sudden illness in Hong Kong. He will be greatly missed by his family, his dog Snapper, numerous friends, colleagues and shareholders of Bacardi Ltd. May he rest in peace with a Bacardi and Coke in hand.

All friends are invited to attend a wake at Spicy Island, Lamma Island on Saturday 4th March from 4pm to celebrate his life. Only happy faces please.

Feb 26: The Golden Voices of Africa and Lamma

Monsieur de Plume - ("nom de plume" of a new, anonymous contributor)
(all photos above & below by Steve Cray)

Golden Voices

Lammaite musicians - and fans - were out in force on Friday night, many of them on the stage with top African star Salif Keita, who played an amazing set at City Hall.

The star, from Mali, described as "The Golden Voice of Africa", mesmerised with a two-hour set that included a number of his classic compositions. The level of musicianship was matched only by the sound engineering, which produced as powerful and crisp a sound as is possible in the City Hall auditorium.

During his finale, Salif invited members of the audience, who were up on their feet anyway, on to the stage to dance alongside the band, and there were a disproportionate number of Lammaites among them . . . see if you can spot the faces.

Meanwhile, "The Golden Voice of Lamma" was belting it out down the road at The Wanch. "Wot, they're still alive?" the poster for The Bastards' gig joked. Oh yes! Dan and the boys, who have to snatch a rare opportunity to get together these days due to work commitments and travel, played a storm at Wanchai's favourite rock bar.

"Give us Guantanamera", one die-hard fan shouted out. "We don't often get out to strut our stuff these days," Dan replied, "We need to practise on the other numbers first". And practise they did . . . with tunes by The Stones, Clash, Sex Pistols and Jimi Hendrix among others. Back from the dead? The Bastards sounded more live - and alive - than ever.

For more photos, have a look below at Steve's "Golden Voices" photo gallery!

Feb 25: Leaving Lamma... for Dubai?

Lamma-zine Blog contributor and French "bloggeuse" Marie Margault is leaving Lamma Island for Dubai. Dubai? Moving from our lush, subtropical island to the desert? She wrote that "Why Dubai? Because I am crazy about the desert and 4x4 adventures. I have created one for females in Morocco and I am definitely an "oriental" person. ;-)"

Well, I've asked her to write a farewell to her many friends here, her reasons and emotions of leaving behind Lamma Island and HK:

Marie Margault - Bloggeuse Extraordinaire
(all photos above & below by Marie; click here for her Lamma Photo Album)

Leaving Lamma

It's the season of changes, just after Chinese New Year and I'm no exception... I am leaving Lamma but I won't say "for good" as we never know.

I would like to say it's "for good" as that will mean that my new life in Dubai will be a success...

Of course, I am sad to leave this island but, honestly, that's sad for the people I leave.

My contract was ending in HK and I found a great job in Dubai, so I decided to move. As I have no kids, I am free to discover the world so no reason to stay in a place where I am not 100% happy.

Traveling like a crazy those last months I started to get bored by the ferries (the slow ones were the only ones I could catch at night) and pulling my suitcase and computer to my place started to become a nightmare for me.

The last example was just 3 days ago when I had to fly to Dubai. I thought that I could catch the earliest one on the morning, but checking my e-ticket at 6pm one last time, I realised that I could not make it! So I had to prepare everything in a rush to be able to spend the night on Hong Kong side...

I found a great idea: booking a lounge at the airport where I could (almost) sleep and have a shower and breakfast as I did not want to spend 1,600 HK$ in an airport hotel room. But my lounge was after the customs.

As Emirates did not want me to check in at night, I had to spend the night on a bench.........................

So! This island is great, especially the people living here (except a couple of bad stories but that's the same thing in every village). I recommend that people who want to live here to have a flexible schedule or be freelance or work from home!

An hectic Hong Kong working life is not really compatible with this quiet life here, even if the balance was perfect for me. I will come back soon, at least to see my family again, as my friends here ARE part of my family. I will come back in 3 months to pick up Lumix and Leica, my 2 kittens born on the island.

I will never forget Lamma, as it has been a second birth for me. I think that's the first time I have felt myself in... pfffff... almost 40 years. I needed this time in my life to take a break, think about my past and my future and Lamma has been perfect for that! I have some friends on this island who I'll never forget... never!

What I will miss the most, except people?

my coffee on the way to the ferry at Green Cottage
the smile of my mate taking care of the shop at the ferry pier
the non-smiling face of the lady cashier at the ferry pier
the Island Bar and its celebrities
Granny race every morning to have their dim sum
Nick and his books
The Deli and its people
Diesel's (see right), and my best friends.

Feb 24: Nick the Bookman - Historic Photos Discovered

I've just updated Nick's website and added a large number of new photos from several of his zillions of friends & fans worldwide:

a lot of historic photos, even some beardless and sexy ones, plus lots of celebrities photographed together with Nick, our local celebrity.

3 press clippings & interviews featuring our Bookman have also been added. If you need a hands-on mover or somebody to organise your entire move on or off Lamma, here's his name card. Click on it to email him, to be printed and hand-delivered by Yours Truly, Nick's personal volunteer email postman. He's never had to use any computer in his whole life, lucky guy...

Here are some of the new & ancient photos. Click here to view all, w/captions:

Feb 23: Lamma Winds of Change

Opening ceremony of HK Electric's "Lamma Wind Power Station" today.
New official name: "Lamma Winds"

Looking mightily proud, officiating at the commissioning ceremony of "Lamma Winds":

Managing Director of Hongkong Electric, Mr. Tso Kai-sum
Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr. Sarah Liao
Chief Engineer of Projects, Mr. Cheung Nai-yik
Chairman of the Energy Advisory Committee, Mr. Otto Poon
Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, Mr. Roger Lai.

Primary school students on Lamma Island join in the celebration of the launch of Lamma Winds.

Lamma Winds, the first commercial-scale wind power station in Hong Kong.
(all photos by HK Electric)

Yes, finally, Lamma's "wind power station" is operating officially and has been opened to visitors and tourists. Get close to the spinning action and be duly impressed by HK Electric's new credentials in renewable energy, about which you can learn in exhibition panels. A $1 million "Clean Energy Fund" has also been set up to sponsor schools projects.
Read more...

Remember the naming competition for finding an official name for "our" wind turbine? HK Electric didn't like any of the suggestions from Lammaites, like "Magical Spinney Thing", "Quixotine", "Le Moulin Blanc", etc. My own suggestions ("Tower of Power", "Peace, Love & Warm Wind", "Smart Winds Powering Our Future", "The Sweet Whoosh-Whoosh Sound of Progress") also did not receive a Honorable Mention.

Maybe it's my own fault, not being a native-English speaker, but I don't get the "Lamma Winds" reference. Is it a clever pun, an acronym, an inside joke, a poetic reference to the "gentle winds of Lamma", or are they Winding us up? "The Winds of Change", perhaps?

Well, it was selected as the very best, top-most, most clever and ultimate nickname, chosen from over 3,800 (!) contest entries. 8 people, obviously all of them much smarter than me, sent in this name and shared the $10,000 first prize.

Wait, there's more! An online "Making of..." video with catchy music, all filmed on Lamma! Click on the left.

Read the entire press release with more pictures.

Lamma Winds has its own website, of course. It even has a live webcam! Click on the right for live video!

On one of the many very informative pages with many photos and illustrations, I found this controversial quote:

"In Harmony with Lamma:

"Hongkong Electric (HEC) aims to maintain a harmonious relationship with the environment where it operates. Lamma Island, home to our power station and wind power station, is one of them.

"Our wind turbine has been carefully color-coordinated to blend into the local environment. It not only serves a functional purpose, but has also become a unique landmark for Lamma that will attract more visitors and enhance the ecotourism value of the island.

"HEC�s other initiatives on Lamma Island include Lamma Fund, tree planting, greening and landscaping."

Feb 22: 'Don't throw litter from vehicles'

Something completely different today, but just next door to yesterday's story on Bolly-Dollies & Bling-Kings: our fancy public toilet, renovated for $1.5 million just a year ago. I usually try to refrain from toilet humour, but using the facilities recently, I was amazed about the sheer number (12!) of government-issued warning signs and stickers "decorating" almost every free surface in the male toilet area.

I almost forgot to zip up after doing my business, feeling visually assaulted and distracted by all these dire, stern warnings of high fines! Nanny state instructions, on Lamma? Nobody here has ever been hit with the quite recent $1,500 littering fine, but these signs/posters are all over the place!

Taking my camera everywhere, even into the loo, I shot all of the signs and stickers. Fortunately, nobody else was around, so I didn't have to answer any awkward questions. Besides the obvious ones ("Please flush after use"), there are also some truly bizarre ones ("Please wrap spittle", "Don't throw litter from vehicles"). Click to enlarge any sign:

P.S. Check out more Seriously Silly Signs on Lamma.

Feb 21: Bolly-Dollies & Bling-Kings

Where did Lamma's Bolly-Dollies & Bling-Kings congregate last Saturday to have way too much fun? Yes, in the Island Bar once again, HQ of the Lamma Dragonboaters where they seem to spend more time than in the water. But comparing the harbour's water quality with the quality of the water, e.g. drinks, in the bar, it's no wonder they prefer the bar!

This fundraiser for the "so-PINK, so-POWERFUL and so-PICKLED ladies Dragonboat team" managed to collect an astonishing $10,000!

3 photos above courtesy of Dan Peterson (Lamma.com.hk/islandbar), plus loads of fun photos and flippant comments in the great Lamma Ladies Blog.

Read all about "Lamma's international women of mystery", including "Finland's finest export", the "bolly-dancing twin-set", "Shannon Doherty's evil twin", the "evil queen of the beasts" and "some less scrupulous dragonettes"!

Wow, quite an exotic, fascinating menagerie we've got here in the "Zoo of Lammaites"! Click here to read also about their "incessant references to bosoms and paddles", plus lots of revealing and potentially embarrassing photos. On the left: Dragonettes Anna, Li, Karen and Michelle.

The most titillating tidbit was a fundraiser donation of a Happy Kitty vibrator (Do read this link and interview ONLY while in the office!). This brand-new "rather special" device was designed, patent-owned and sold by one of Lamma's imported sons! Sycophantic celebrity interview with him coming up in this blog as soon as I can locate him! Jon, get in touch with me!

P.S. 4 more photos from Peter Berry, submitted as traditional, old-style, analog, chemically processed and printed photos. Wow, they still make those?

Feb 20: 'A woman, a rooster and a love that couldn't be' - The Sequel

Remember that tragic story about an old widow keeping chickens, ducks, pigeons and even a rooster in her home? Her public housing neighbours complained about the rooster's crowing. "A botched castration operation to stop its crowing left him with one testicle." The widow was forced to give him away. Fortunately, someone here on Lamma took "Ah Lui" in and she was nicknamed "Rooster Woman" for her troubles.

Unfortunately, the pet rooster died a few months later, probably from a snake bite; but the old lady found out about it only recently. Ah-Lui's life generated several stories in the SCMP (Walk on wild side proves fatal for coddled cock), a cartoon by Harry (see above), even an Ode to an Unfortunate Rooster.

As HK's ban on backyard poultry keeping also affects her, the widow will have to give up all her remaining pet ducks and chickens soon, being all alone. A sad ending to a sad story. Let's hope she'll be able to switch to more common, "still-legal" pets, like cats or dogs, but her public housing estate doesn't allow any pets. Maybe she could be convinced to move to pet-friendly Lamma? Here's the recent SCMP story, republished here as the SCMP website is paying-members-only:

Dikky Sinn - SCMP, Fri, Feb 17, 2006:

Love is for the birds, says a lonely widow

A 63-year-old widow has vowed to hold on to the pet chickens and ducks that share her home in defiance of the government's ban on keeping backyard poultry.

She said yesterday that she treated the two chickens and two ducks that live in her public flat on eastern Hong Kong Island as if they were her own children after she was abandoned by her daughter 10 years ago.

"Of course I'm not turning them in. I have kept them for more than 10 years," said the woman, who asked not to be named. "I'm alone, facing four walls in the flat, that's why I am keeping small animals."

The ducks are survivors of a flock of eight she bought more than a decade ago. She also has a silky chicken and a yellow chicken which she bought from a wet market for more than $40 each nine months ago, after the death of a pet hen. She said she was heartbroken to learn only yesterday that the hen's partner - a rooster she called "Ah Lui" - died two years ago, soon after she was forced to give it away because of complaints about its crowing. "I didn't know he had died. It's very sad. I loved him very much."

She now kept only female birds, as these were quieter than males.

After the government's ban on backyard poultry was announced this month, the woman began keeping her pets in a large cardboard box during the day, to keep them from view. Previously, she would let them run about in her small kitchen, with newspaper spread on the floor.

She said she sometimes shared her bed with one of the chickens while she allowed the ducks to wander in the kitchen at night.

The former hospital steward said she was not worried that her pets could become infected with bird flu as they were always kept indoors.

"I've kept them for over 10 years. If they have the virus, I would have died long ago. Of course they don't have it, they are kept at home, not outdoors. If they were outdoors, they might touch bird droppings."

She said she kept her pets healthy by feeding them fresh fish and fish oil every day.

Her bird-keeping has come to the attention of officials before, when inspectors tried to seize pigeons that she kept in her flat some years ago. "I released them from the window before they came to catch them."

Feb 19: Lamma-ramas Galore!

Click to zoom (most photos in this Blog are zoomable)

Wingman, a recent arrival on Lamma, has submitted these fantastic 360-degree panoramas of Yung Shue Wan. But how did he create them?
He explains in our Pictures & Movies forum:

"I have a camera with a 12mm wide lens mounted on a panorama head tripod, which helps me to shoot 3 horizontal "rolls" of images which cover more or less the entire surroundings, from the zenith to the ground, without any distortions.

"The time-consuming part is the stitching, because I have to stitch all 36+ images into 1 huge panorama instead of a single-roll, ring-shaped panorama. It usually take me 12 hours to stitch, touch up and render. The more moving elements in the panorama, the more time it takes, because I need to tell the program what to show (and what to hide). For example, a busy street is way more difficult to stitch than a quiet, windless lake."

Just one more of these very labor-intensive but truly amazing images, reserving the very best for last: an interactive QuickTime Virtual Reality scene of a 360-degree panorama, where you can move around in and zoom in and out.

Click here! (requires Quicktime 6+)

Here are a few more older Lamma-ramas from Wingman. More to come soon!

Feb 18: 'Paean to Peace, Prosperity and (no) Pollution'

Which Lammaite would write a proud, portentous and pretentious phrase like this?

No, it's not me, even though that might be a good guess.

Take a bow, Nick the Bookman, semi-official Underground concert reviewer! His latest reviews - plus loads of great photos by Willem Van Der Merwe - of Lamma bands Over a Dogma and Garoupa's performances can be found here. They're republished here courtesy of Underground concert organiser bbChris who's also the long-term moderator of our Music forum. (photo left by Mr DickStock)

Enjoy these brand-new reviews by the guy who's more knowledgeable about rock music than anyone else I know personally. Stop by his bookstand and ask any rock question! Also ask him, "What the heck is a 'Paean'?"

Nick Lovatt - The Bookman, Laudable Lamma Luminary & Mascot of Lamma.com.hk (see left navigation and his own website (courtesy of L-G)).

Over A Dogma

Good funky world fusion from Over A Dogma. Closer to Nude in spirit and style of strummage + sort of call and response on vocals. Track 3 sounds like Chris Rea goes on the road to Morocco with fluid guitar work. Track 4 sees them starting off in a slow reggae style then moving into a bassy jazzy funk - cheers of approval from the crowd as the bass player dances on and off stage.

Dancing breaks out in the audience and lead vocalist Hamada gets the crowd to sing along in mumbo-jumbo (or was it Moroccan?). Quite clearly this line up with congas and a bouncing bass player works for Over A Dogma. Love world music? You'll love Over A Dogma.

Garoupa

There's a heady rush of expectation as Garoupa take to the stage. Garoupa have that psychedelia sound in a peculiar English way. From one song by Garoupa which sounds like an early Pretty Things at their most whimsical to "Where's Daddy Gone" refrain which haunts me for inexplicable reasons...

The audience are up and dancing. This is hard for me to write now as I'm up and having a good time carried away by the music and the brilliant atmosphere. Their encore had beautiful Hendrix wahwah (Midnight Lamp) meets Beatles (Come Together) and yes we begged for even more.

I've been toying with the idea of a Lamma Bands Update on this website, with latest news, updates, links, gigs, photos, reviews of the numerous Lamma bands. There seem to be more and more local bands, performing all over HK and some are even working on CDs to be released soon.

I'm trying hard to keep track and give them all the free publicity they deserve in this blog, the forums and the Events Calendar. Several musicians have agreed to supply materials and updates for this list. Would you be interested in something like that? If there's serious interest, we might get it online soon. Let me know!

Feb 17: Lamma Casanova vs. Official Court Poet

One more poem from the Official Court Poet who's been more prose-minded recently. He seems to spend much of his time in our Fight Club feuding with other members of Lamma's tippling classes. After a few stiff drinks in a boring bar, some of his poems actually start making some sense occasionally, as I'm told. See "Bored Stiff" below for a prime example:

Fortune Chan - Official Court Poet & Official Court Tourism Ambassador

Would you be kind enough to publish this poem on the blog, please:

Bored Stiff

We live on Lamma, we are happy.
We live on Lamma, I wish in the tepee.

We get drunk, with no need of a shirt,
We get drunk, and with the maid I do flirt.

We live on Lamma, we are happy,
We live on Lamma, and with the maid it makes three.

Then his feuding buddy Casanova chimed in:

I can speak German
What do you think of that
I can speak German
and I speak it like a Twat.

(This taunt refers to Fortune Chan's recent annoying habit of running all his forum posts through the Google English-German translator before posting them, turning them into almost totally unintelligible pseudo-German gibberish.)

P.S. These poems proves that even on our "Artists Island", poetry is definitely a dying art form. After the mysterious and unsolved disappearance of Lamma's famous Haiku Kitty, our rhyme smiths have never really recovered from this great loss.

Feb 16: 10,000 Views for Lamma's Top 10 Birds

While we see new anti-domesticated-bird posters like this one in the village, Lamma's intrepid bird photographers are soldiering on. They constantly post new and improving photos of wild birds, not afraid of Avian Flu. It hasn't been found on Lamma yet, even though a handful of cases have been found elsewhere in HK. But even on Lamma wild birds are very wary of all humans and it takes a very long lens for most of these wonderful shots, so our bird-o-graphers can feel safe.

The top topic in our forums - Lamma's Top 10 Birds - has just surpassed 10,000 views for a single thread/topic! Congratulations and many thanks to Guy Miller, HarryLi, LYC, Yi Gou and the others making this such a great topic, the pride and joy of our forums! Let's honour our new Lamma bird-o-graphers (except Guy whose fantastic photos have been featured in several dedicated blog stories already) by showcasing some of their most recent photos on this home page! Enjoy!

HarryLi: Chin. Bulbul, Chin. Pond Heron, Sandpiper, Teal

LYC: Grey Heron, Little Egret, Reef Egret

Yi Gou: Tailor Bird, Black-Collared Starling, Magpie Robin, Drongo

One last item, a little true story by F-X:

"I have a magpie robin (see above, 2nd from right) knocking on my door quite a few times a day. The door has a chrome finish like a near-perfect mirror, and the robin aggressively pecks at his reflection, sounding exactly like a visitor knocking.

"He even takes running and flying pecks at the door, as his mate looks on in admiration. The dives shake him up a bit. Once in a while she'll jump down and throw a peck or two to show solidarity."

Feb 15: 'Commonly Confused Words Test'

Getting lost in Cyberspace can be so much fun sometimes, and sometimes (rarely) even educational. Starting from my daily read Wired News (for Cybergeeks only) via several clicks I somehow ended up on the OkCupid dating site, just in time for Valentine's Day.

Surprisingly, the most popular among their 10,000 online test is the Commonly Confused Words Test: 40 multiple-choice questions to check your English proficiency. I did it and was surprised at my almost-perfect results. Quite a little ego-booster for somebody who had his first English lesson at age 15 and didn't speak English on a daily basis till age 31. Writing emails, stories and blogging has helped a great deal, but my accent will be hopeless forever.

Quite a fun test to do and highly recommended. Try it! More than half a million people have already taken this test so far. Here are my own results, but it seems that there are quite a few "English Geniuses", judging from their statistics below. American-style grade inflation at work:

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced,
and 86% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it!

For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog:

My test tracked 4 variables. How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 59% on Beginner

You scored higher than 38% on Intermediate

You scored higher than 61% on Advanced

You scored higher than 61% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test.

Would you like to see some more of their 10,000+ tests? I've selected a few that seem well-suited for different segments of the Lamma population.
They even let you make your own test! How about The Are You Suitable for Lamma Life Test?

The Are You An Alcoholic Test

The Microwave Destruction Test