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The Waterfront
Reopened
As many will know, The Waterfront now has a nice new
kitchen after a total refit. |
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Is Steve Getting
Unplugged?
Lammaites Steve Cray
(Red Star Rising) & Sue Shearman play bc Magazine's
unplugged night, tomorrow, Thu, July 16.
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Best Documentary
Award:
Save the Human!
Sincere congratulations to Bobsy & co. for just
winning the "SCMP Documentary Award". |
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Welcome to
Neusimmaxia, Irrastejats, Grdonatkos, Lymbordildity,
LofeEffeny &
Dathawattebum?
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L-G, a Health &
Fitness Nut?
Today, Sunday morning, 7:30am, in the Football
Pitch, you could have witnessed a really strange and
unusual sight: |
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Most Scenic Road on
Lamma?
Cable Road #1!
Today, I've been
biking the first Cable Road from the upper Power
Station gate all the way to....
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Emission Reductions
@ Power Station
HK Electric has marked the completion of the first
of a two-phase emission reduction.... |
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Alba Wins the Heart
of England
Lamma movie Masks has
won the BEST SHORT INTERNATIONAL Tammie Award at
the....
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Exclusive party:
Friday, July
17, 10pm-4am:
Open Space, Tai Ling (half-way up to Lamma Winds on
the Snake Path below the Kindergarten, just
after the bridge under the 1st Cable Road; or
follow your ears and go
up via the 1st and 2nd Cable Road, Yung
Shue Wan):
DJ party with Lamma's DJ Nipper.
$100 entry (includes 1 drink & Mix CD).
Website,
Facebook,
MySpace,
email,
poster.
|
Nick the Bookman -
Official Court Music Reviewer: |
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DJ Nipper
plays Open Space - June 19, 2009
 It's coming up to 22:00 and I'm puffing up the Cable
Road towards Open Space - the small village house and
garden near the wind fan [Lamma Winds]. DJ Nipper
and Oz are struggling with a trolley load of gear that
keeps getting caught in the ruts on the road - the part
that looks like a concrete waffle overgrown with weeds.
Music fills the air, getting louder as we combine forces
and achieve a sweaty final thrust to the summit. This
road never gets any easier. Be slow, my beating heart.
There's an overnight party to get through.
Open Space has been the site of numerous gigs in the
past decade. Early performances with Beat Suite and Oz
on percussion. Kumi lived there for a while and hosted
many drum jams. Occasional DJs have shown their trickery
on the wheels of steel. Now it's Nipper's turn to
showcase a set celebrating the launch of his Punk Pussy
Records internet label. About 40-50 people should be
coming. Nipper's been doing the biz for nigh on two
decades. His career has embraced various styles and
genres from rap/hip-hop to deep house to minimal electro
and a side order of indie rock and funk. Keep it varied.
Keep it interesting. He's done a few of the beach
parties and brought Peter Hook here for his second DJ
gig in 2007. That was the last time I saw a full set by
him and it's time to refresh my memory.
Tamara (ex-dreads) has taken over Open Space and the
plan is for community-based activities to occur at
regular intervals. Jim, her beau, is the warm-up DJ.
He's using a laptop with several thousand songs to
choose from and playing a wide-ranging set. The
"performance area" is inside the house adjacent to an
unused drum kit. Oz has his percussion on the patio
opposite. I've got a small table to the left to write in
comfort. Almost everyone is chatting outside where the
sound is bouncy and crystal clear. Jim has a small Korg
Kaoss pad which is touch sensitive and emits strange and
wonderful electronic noises and belches over the tunes
that he seems to be mixing through two CD decks. The set
wanders through sweet trance, trip-hop, seventies chart
pop, drums, some scratching and videogame soundtrack
freak-outs. There's various vocals and soundbites dotted
through the mix. Not to mention a brief KK workout from
me, so I won't. (But it was fun.)
Who's here? I can see Tamara, Clivus Nondog, Dave
(the gutted zombie from Isle Be Damned), Oz, Phil and Al
and especially Cassie who deserves her very own
sentence. She's pretty much a full partner with Nipper
in the design and running of the PPR site. She handles
the graphics, flyers, invites to the show etc. All the
unheralded donkey work to keep things flowing behind the
scenes (that's three sentences, but she's worth it.)
Meanwhile, Phil's soundbite of the night is "Vivid
vibrations in Tamara's Open Space with the Punk Pussy".
There's Lloyd (who's the last DJ on the bill) and his
lovely anonymous other half. Plus Swiss Charles who
wrote something memorably incomprehensible in my
notebook. Probably due to the "Rumple" cocktail (white
rum and apple juice) that I've made him drink.
It's about 23:45 and a brief hiatus occurs as Nipper
switches the CD players to two "digital vinyl" records.
They look like 12" records, but are linked to the
computer to enable Nipper to scratch and stutter and
jump-hop throughout his set. At one point he sounds like
a one-man band version of the trio, The Scratch
Perverts. There are soaring beatific breakdowns studded
throughout his four-hour showcase. There's old classics
like "Ride on Time" by Black Box, "Superstyling" by
Groove Armada, and a storming remix of "Sweet Dreams" by
the Eurhythmics. New Order (and Peter Hook) get a look
in now and then. Some teasing hints of "Blue Monday"
mashed into other stuff and the stunning Lee Coombs
remix of "Crystal". There's some fiery rock and some
soppy a cappella vocals. Someone called "Rick Rude"
weighs in quite often with some blinding
hard-cum-minimal-cum-melodic deep-electro that would
have given Timo Maas pause for thought.
The Canadian producer/remixer DeadMau5 engages my
attention with a new version of "Tiny Dancer".
Basically, the highs just kept getting stratospheric and
the lows ripped my innards apart. Deep bass in Open
Space and... Dave Parker has finally arrived with fresh
supplies.
The lacunae are drifting apart and it's suddenly
about 04:00. Lloyd is on the attack. His arms are
weaving like an ecstatic octopus. The minutiae of
knob-twiddling and sliding faders is enthralling. It's
like watching a possessed Candace Hilligoss freaking out
on the church pipe organ in the seminal twisted thriller
"Carnival of Souls" (1964). It inspired segments of
George Romero's NOTLD among other films and is a cult
classic must-see. It will haunt your dreams. Nipper's
unwinding with Pat and I ask him how much of the set was
pre-programmed. He says it was all free-form. Just
winged it. Bloody well played, mate. You win the Man of
the Mix and Match Award.
As for me, I contributed some electronic sounds,
banged some drums quietly, mixed some cocktails,
finished Roy Keane's biography and wrote some notes. A
superb musical night. For those who missed it, there's
some good news. The next show is on 17/7/09.
Leave now and remember to drink plenty of fresh oxygen
for the hill climb. See you wheezers there. ntb. |
|
Management and Staff - THE
WATERFRONT: |
|
 As
many will know, The Waterfront now has a nice new
kitchen after a total refit.
Up and running fully now, the kitchen is
able to prepare and serve the full menu whilst test
running a few new ideas to be incorporated into the menu
shortly.
During the period of weeks whilst the
kitchen was being renovated Kumar and the kitchen staff
came up with some great ideas to keep the restaurant
open. With the aid of a BBQ, new recipes were tested and
subsequently served as a limited menu.
Salmon steaks, rib eye and other steaks,
lamb chops, ribs and even chicken in goat's cheese sauce
were featured alongside melanzane parmigiana for the
vegetarians amongst us. Accompanied by a salad and great
crunchy potatoes they made quite a feast. And for those
die-hards there were the ever-popular all-day breakfasts
also prepared on the BBQ.
 
Feedback has been very good so by
popular demand we plan to run a
BBQ evening on the first Monday of
August. That’s Monday August 3rd, by the way.
Watch this space for a list of what will be presented.
Oh yes, finally and MOST importantly, a
BIG THANK YOU to those of you who gave your support by
coming to The Waterfront during what was a very trying
time for all of us!
 
(Advertorial, photos
by L-G) |
Lammaites Steve Cray (Red Star
Rising) & Sue Shearman
play bc Magazine's unplugged night, tomorrow,
Thu, July 16, along with Joey and Jingan Young.
Show starts at 9.30pm. The Wanch, 54 Jaffe Rd,
Wanchai.
Website,
poster.
Click for RTHK interview with Sue
Shearman & Steve Cray.
 Sincere congratulations to
Bobsy and
co. for just winning
I Shot
Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post Documentary
Award" for their short film,
Save the Human! Don't Eat
the Planet! (YouTube video),
featuring numerous talented Lammaites. There's a very
informative video interview with Bobsy on the SCMP website (Save
the Human!) and a
blog story as well,
Cafe owner's documentary targets carnivores.
I was watching this professionally
produced video promoting vegetarianism in The Grand Cinema in
the Elements shopping mall as part of the screening of "I Shot
Hong Kong" finalists, together with another Lamma movie featuring
the total opposite of vegetarianism: cannibalism! Unfortunately,
the Lamma zombie movie,
"Isle Be Damned" (click for Nick's review
w/screen shots),
didn't win in its category, even though I voted for it after the
screening.
Isle Be Damned:
Part 1
(7:23min) &
Part 2 (7.28 min).
My photo gallery of Save
the Human! campaign launch:
These usernames and many similar ones have been
trying to register in our forums recently,
dozens of them per day. As they're very unlikely
to be real, new user names, linked to
"promotional" websites and had suspicious info
in the registration forms (for example, *cheap
Viagra!*), it was obvious that a new wave of
spam registrations has hit our forum recently.
The anti-spam measures I programmed into the
registration program a few months ago have
obviously stopped working and it's another round
in the never-ending war on spammers, hackers,
worms, viruses and other Internet attacks that
are part of life as a Site Administrator running
an open and public forum like ours. I'm already
approving all new registrations manually,
activating them only if I suspect them to be no
spam. None of the attackers ever got a chance to
post any spam in our forums and I've deleted all
of them.
 Our
forums remain completely spam-free against all
the odds, thanks to the daily vigilance of our
moderators reading all posted messages,
detecting potential spam or offensive messages
usually within hours and then taking action.
Most other forums suffer from infestations
of spam and are often disabled or killed off by it, kind
of like Mikania (Mile-a-minute weed) strangling
and overwhelming some of Lamma's
vegetation during these hot and wet days of
rapid growth.
I need to program (PHP language) a new
simple registration question that only a human
interested in Lamma could answer, but not a spam
robot program. The current question, "Which
island is this forum about?", has worked for a
surprisingly long time. Any suggestions for a
new, easy-enough Lamma-related question? Click
on the blinking "Comments" in the weekday
headline ("MONDAY") above!
 Today,
Sunday morning, 7:30am, in the Football
Pitch, you could have witnessed a really
strange and unusual sight:
Lamma-Gung working out
hard in the weekly Bootcamp 2 session,
organised by the Island Life Studio. It includes a wide range of physical exercises
pushing most of the physical limits of the
handful of participants who sweat buckets,
before continuing in the air-conditioned Studio.
A strange & surprising transformation is taking place
in the life of the Lamma-zine editor. I'm a
former couch potato spending up to ten hours a
day on his (still big) butt in front of his computer
and have never ever worked out regularly since
my schooldays before my recent massive weight loss. This
former Biggest Guy of Lamma has turned into the
Biggest Loser of Lamma, weight-wise, and has started to work
out every single day, becoming a regular in the
Island Gym and also in the community space of the Island Life Studio.
He can also be spotted
frequently on Lamma's hills speed hiking and
biking, but usually before 7am during these hot'n'humid days.
 What's going on? Have I
finally gone crazy? Maybe... Doggedly determined to
get into the best shape and reach my lowest
weight in decades (16 pounds to go), I've embarked on a
comprehensive health and fitness programme, with
daily 1+ hours of exercise, 7 days per week. Yes,
I've become one of those people that I was
making fun of just a year ago, those health & fitness-obsessed people who fuss over
their strict
nutrition, frequent hydration and varying their
daily fitness regiments, being able to name
their major muscles.
I've been trying to perform exercises
with scary names like supine & prone sequences, glute side-kicks, hamstring curls, speed
ladders, jumping jacks & burpees, volleyball
vertical jump drills, skip rope and plank
position wheelbarrows, with initially very mixed
results and streams of sweat. But I've actually
started to enjoy the Endorphin highs
afterwards, despite often totally exhausting and
tiring myself, feeling sore for days in muscle
groups I couldn't even name just a few months
ago. But the improvements in my fitness,
strength and energy levels have been quite
astonishing and worth all the efforts so far.
 Well, quite a number of
the tough activities in the Island
Life Studio are actually kind of fun, like
Pilates on the Ball and T.R.X. (see right). The other (mostly female) class
members are all lighter, younger, prettier and
fitter than me. Well, I may still be FOGLY
(fat, old & ugly) but at least I'm slowly
becoming fitter & healthier and that's more than
enough to make me very happy! I plan to start
yoga and swimming next. And you're most welcome
to call me a Health & Fitness Nut to my face,
even a FOGLY Health & Fitness Nut!
Today, I've been biking the first Cable Road from
the upper Power Station gate (see above)
all the way to the farthest end of Pak Kok
Village where the massive power cables below the
Cable Road dive under the Lamma East Channel to
power up all of HK Island. Thanks to HK Electric
who built and maintains this road and planted
trees along most of its length.
This is THE most beautiful road on Lamma, IMHO,
just stunning to bike or hike
right now; so green and luscious, partially
overgrown due to almost no traffic of any kind.
It's mostly shaded by trees and you'll rarely
meet another human, even on a Saturday morning
like today. It's all paved or grasscreted (see below right), so not too much to worry about in
terms of dangerous wildlife.
The small, non-threatening
wildlife is just spectacular to watch while you
walk or bike by. Occasionally you might even
pick up a little, harmless hitchhiker, a flying
bug or one of these 1-inch-long, bright-green,
cute caterpillars that are seen abseiling on
their own silk threads from low-hanging tree
branches these days.
Some great news from
 Lamma's
#1 "icon", HK
Electric's Power Station:
"HK Electric has marked the completion of the
first of a two-phase emission reduction
programme at Lamma Power Station with the
commissioning of a flue gas desulphurization (FGD)
plant and a low Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) System for
its coal-fired generation Unit 5 earlier this
month.
"With the commissioning of all of the
additional installations and the increased use
of natural gas, it is expected that in 2010,
over 95% of the electricity generated at the
Lamma Power Station will be by gas and
coal-fired units fitted with FGD and low NOx
burners."
Read the SCMP story,
Lamma Island power station cleans up its act to
meet pollution reduction targets (copied
from the subscription-only SCMP website) and
HKE's own press release:
HK Electric Completes First Stage of Emission
Control Programme [6 July 2009]
Lamma movie Masks has won the
BEST SHORT INTERNATIONAL Tammie Award at the
Heart of England International Film Festival
in Tamworth, England, June 8-13! All the best
congratulations from the Lamma-zine and myself to
Director & Lammaite
Alba Rayton and
her many on- and off-Lamma friends & family who
created this movie together! Read more about this
fine movie
and its premiere in these former Lamma-zine stories:
Feb 19: Masks -- Lamma Stars in a Movie
(by Jay Scott Kanes)
Jun 2: Further Fun in Filmland: Masks Premiere
(by Nick the Bookman)
Alba submitted the
pictures below from the festival's Gala Awards
night. By the way,
the Lamma premiere of Masks will be the
highlight of Lamma-Gung's & Lamma-Por's
housewarming party in our new rooftop flat next
month.
Submitted by JAX:
"Attached photos of the python found outside
my neighbour's lawn. It had half of a cat in its
mouth when found. But I didn't get the photo
though, but the cat was saved at the end.
"The Police arrived & they are waiting for the experts
from Lantau to capture the beautiful creature.
"Post the photos on Lamma website if you like."
bicolor writes:
"A Burmese Python - probably
Hong Kong's largest native snake and apparently quite widely
distributed locally."
A blast from the past, submitted by Mark
Burns:
"Dear All,
"Only 14 and a bit years years late, attached
for your delight and delectation, is the
December 1994 edition of The Lamma Bugle
featuring:
* the most recent exploits of the
new Lamma Cricket team,
* the infamous DickStock Chili of 1994,
* yours truly and other 'Lamma Loonies' who did the Macau Marathon,
* latest from the Lamma Ladies Dragon Boaters,
"as penned by Bob Biro, aka John Fox. Enjoy
the trip!"
P.S.
For an even
more historic relic, check out the
Lamma Gazette #1, 1988.
Click above for comprehensive photo gallery!
(all photos &
scans by Lamma-Gung)
|
Jay
Scott Kanes - Lamma Author/Publisher:
(Photos & captions by Jay) |
|
A new book, A Stray Cat
on Lamma (Susanna Ng, 2009, Chinese, English and
Japanese, 112 pages, HK$88) boosts Lamma Island's
reputation as a haven for animals and their human
admirers.
Author and publisher
Susanna Ng, one of the island's most-adoring
pet-owners, has written the story of Bobo, a
multi-colored stray cat whom she adopted from the
roadside near her home in Tai Ping. The theme revolves
around how greatly Bobo and Bobby, Susanna's
previous cat, enriched her life.
The two felines placed
Susanna in a "happy together" family of three. "Everyday
my two children would wait for me to come back from
work. Bobo slept next to me, rain or shine, while Bobby
would only join us in the cold weather. Bobo was my
alarm clock. If I failed to wake up in the mornings, she
would pat on my face. However, once she got the message
that I did not want to get up at that time, she would
jump down from bed, do her business, play a little and
then keep an eye on me from the door. She was my
guardian angel."
Such human-animal kinship
leads to good and bad times, the latter often involving
veterinarians. Sincerely and eagerly, Susanna shares the
moments of quiet satisfaction, camaraderie, laughter and
tears that most pet-owners experience. "Right, Bobo is
the best and the most precious gift I received from
God!"
Ultimately, Bobo falls
gravely ill, but that's part of having pets too. In
Susanna's case, grief inspired the book. She honors Bobo
by writing about their treasured nine years together.
Few readers will complete
the final pages without shedding tears too. As for the
author, she must have needed windshield wipers for her
eyes to see properly when writing.
Susanna says she loves
children, animals and nature. Her previous books include
My Student Life in Japan, Interesting
Cantonese and My First Teardrop.
As much as Susanna adores
cats, she appreciates Lamma similarly. "I moved to Lamma
from Hong Kong Island back in 1992," she said.
"Almost
immediately, I fell deeply in love with its natural
environment, every flower, every twig, each view and
each happenstance."
A Stray Cat on Lamma
mixes formidable strength with a few weaknesses. Most
impressively, Susanna's passion for her pets punctuates
every paragraph and page. For this labor of love, she
used quality paper and many color photos of the cats and
Lamma.
Surprisingly, the book is
trilingual. Rosalind Lee translated into English
and Takehara San into Japanese. Susanna wanted
three languages because her research suggested that Bobo
came from "a Japanese tri-color breed".
Unfortunately, the English
translation has grammar problems, which may explain why
the book will sell mostly in Chinese bookshops. Also,
some photos, especially of the cats, have focus
problems. But with Susanna's motives being so pure and
admirable, who wants to complain?
As a bonus, the awkward
English adds some welcome (albeit probably
unintentional) humor. "My home sweet home is situated
upon a slope in Lamma Island, with as many foreigners
residing here as cats and dogs of all sizes, running
free in the open without any worries of the city traffic."
Gosh! Why are the foreigners allowed to "run free"? That
sounds dangerous.
The book benefits from
strong design work and an eye-catching cover by Alex
Ng, one of Susanna's neighbors on that Lamma
hillside. Alex has done outstanding work before, and his
reputation continues to grow.
Sentiments in A Stray
Cat on Lamma suggest that some of the locals prefer
the company of pets over people. Contrary to what a few
surly critics may say, there's nothing wrong with that. |
English book cover
Japanese book cover
Author Susanna Ng takes more than a passing interest in
Lamma's animals.
Bobo and Susanna meet for a late meal along a Lamma
pathway.
Once adopted, Bobo enjoys the high life.
Bobby (left) and Bobo:
Susanna's cherished children. |
 New
chapters in the serialisation of Emily the Ice-Cream Lady's
memoirs have been published! Life on Main Street as told by a
true insider running her shop in the midst of it all, granting
her unique insights into Lamma life & people:
Anything Goes on This Tropical Isle
- #16 - Jul 6,
2009
Serious Shivers in a Money Chill
- #15 -Jun 29,
2009
Will Powers Prevail?
- #14 - Jun 22, 2009
Tiny Tot Hides Behind the Soap
- #13 - Jun
15, 2009
Foul Language Wrong Flavor
- #12 - Jun 8,
2009
Village Gossip Runs Rampant
- #11 - Jun 1,
2009
Here's a
little, quite controversial excerpt from chapter #16 of
"Memoirs of an Ice-Cream Lady - A Semi-Autobiography":
Illegal
Island
"Emily isn't sure if Lamma Island is another
"home of the free, land of the brave", but it's certainly an
island of irregularities.
"Most Hong Kong people consider Lamma too remote
as a place to live. Maybe the government of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (so named since the British
handover to China in 1997) agrees. Its policies hardly reach the
place.
"Some people operate unlicensed food stalls for
decades. Patrons smoke in restaurants where smoking is banned.
Illegal immigrants work at construction sites. Landlords dump
industrial waste on government land. Southeast Asian domestic
helpers work in bars. Chinese housewives gamble at illegal
mah-jong parlors. Western residents do drugs with their friends
at beach parties. No one worries until troubles erupt.
"Emily wonders: If all the irregularities were
cleaned up, would half the residents then be unwilling to live
on Lamma?
"Most civilized places have regularities on
nearly everything -- from haircuts to pedicures. There, people
have more protection, but lose some freedoms to do what they
want, even / especially harmful things.
"Maybe Lamma is too civilized for
regularities."
|
Angela Leary - Media
Manager,
AnimalsAsia:
(Photos by Angela. This is NOT an advertorial but a
free review.
To review YOUR shop, restaurant or business,
contact L-G the Editor.) |
|
Maybe it's an innate wanderlust mixed
with her fierce independence that's seen Lamma's
Maria
Soares live much of her life on the road.
Even since "setting up shop" on Lamma 13
and a half years ago, Maria has moved locations four
times. She started selling her wares from a simple stall
at the crossroads, and most recently moving 12 months
ago to her recently named boutique,
Tigra da Lua
(Tigress of the Moon) at Tai Wan To. (The shop was
formerly called "Jax" and Maria still sells some of the
former proprietor's stock, including some great
havaianas and bikinis).
Maria grew up in Happy Valley, speaking
Cantonese and English. Her dad was Macanese and her mum
of Scottish/ Irish/ English descent. Maria took to travelling from an early age. She backpacked around
South America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia in the
seventies and eighties, paying her way by making and
selling jewellery, mostly intricate beadwork.
Now settled on Lamma, Maria still likes
to live life at her own steam. She travels regularly to
Thailand, scouring wholesale showrooms for unusual,
interesting pieces to bring back to sell. Mainly, she's
hoping to tempt the hordes of visitors that descend on
the island at weekends.
"Price and quality are obviously
important, but what I'm really looking for is something
a little edgy and unusual," Maria says. Tigra da Lua
stocks an array of items from beaded flip-flops and
funky tops to delicate silverware and hand-painted
sarongs.
So what is it that keeps Maria on our
little island? "We've got the whole world right here!
Lamma is such a melting pot of cultures," Maria
says. "I've heard that at one point there were more
than 60 nationalities living on Lamma. Maybe that's why
it's such an accepting, tolerant place."
But Maria admits she'll probably never
truly lose the travel bug. While she loves living the
Lamma life, she still enjoys her frequent buying trips! |
 |
|
Andy Maluche -
Official Court Photographer (Photos by
anonymous guy): |
|
 The
early morning sun casts its golden rays over Yung Shue
Wan bay.
A large White Egret slowly glides in from the west
and joins a few other Egrets sitting on various small
fishing boats calmly anchored in the middle of the bay.
A majestic Black-eared Kite slowly circles high above
the whole scenery observing his kingdom.
Closer by me, near the beach, a tall Grey Egret
stalks between the crustacean-covered rocks keeping a
watchful eye on the Anchovies in the shallow water.
 Tiny
brown Sparrows hop between tables and chairs, picking up
crumbs of food dropped by the early breakfast crowd.
Mynas fly in from all directions, annoying the large
Egret who gracefully takes off to a more relaxed fishing
ground.
A beautiful Spotted Dove has landed on the beach and
started picking through the gravel. The Mynas, ten by
now, gang up on the Dove like a bunch of juvenile thugs.
A small grey bird landed on a big rock and hops all over
it seemingly without aim or purpose.
Swift as an arrow, a small Swallow darts by and
almost instantaneously cuts back again to where it came
from. Then the harassed Dove retreats with loudly
flapping wings as the big Kite dives down like a comet
to pick an unsuspecting fish out of the water. The Mynas
are bored now because they had nobody left to stress
out, flew off in pairs into every direction of the wind.
Damned, what is it with this place!? I came here to
eat breakfast and not visit a fucking zoo. I didn't know
that dim sum now comes with the bird watcher's special,
didn't I?
Give me a break! |
P.S.
If you think that the title of this story has a
typo then you're wrong.
But to find out what "romanitical"
really means, you'll have to ask the artist,
maybe even join one of his Lamma-based, low-cost
wildlife photo workshops.
Best way to find him would be in
a bar, via Mr. DickStock or
email him.
Many of us have seen the photo galleries that
Lamma visitors put up after their usually
one-and-only trip to our fair isle. You know,
the "Hiked the Family Trail - had great seafood
- isn't my gfriend/bfriend cute? - look at those
funny expats! - hope to return but probably
never will" type of repetitive and
none-too-impressive photo galleries of amateur
snapshots all over the Internet?
What would happen if a truly professional
photographer would do exactly the same thing,
take the same route, shoot the same old views so
familiar to us residents? How much more
attractive and impressive would the results be?
Check out the
"Lamma Album" by Swapan Mukherjee to see
how to breathe new life in these familiar scenes
and how to wait for just the perfect moment and
find the best viewpoint, angle and lighting for
each shot. I still have a lot to learn....
More photos from this
professional photographer of many years, see
his website. Thanks for submitting your photos to the
Lamma-zine, Swapan!
 P.S.
After seeing this story above, Swapan emailed me back:
"WOW!!! Never thought you would do something
like this - a full fledged feature! Thank you so much for those
kind words about my pictures.
"Those few hours spent in November 2007 were
enough to make me fall in love with the island. Hopefully in
September/October this year I shall be there for a longer
period.
"Many thanks once again to showcase my work in such a
splendid fashion."
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Read last month's stories...
Lamma-zine Blog
started on Sep 1, 2004, and will be updated frequently with anything
vaguely related to Lamma
Island or its residents, be it news, stories, events, photos, videos, etc.
Contact Lamma-Gung with anything relevant to Lamma or Lammaites that you'd like to see published on this home page!
 All
text, photos & graphics by Lamma-Gung, if not otherwise credited.
Click on button on left for Creative Commons license.
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All materials and photos © 2009 Lamma-Gung.
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2004: Aug,
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2005: Jan,
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2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2007: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2008: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2009: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul
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