in China, dakou (to make a hole) + surplus from the West led to experimental music & art exposure @ http://bit.ly/8ZWnb1 ... "One could find collected works of Andy Warhol or Stan Brakhage or Leni Riefenstahl next to Disney or James Bond" ... "probably an average Chinese person saw more experimental, cutting edge cinema then most well educated people in the West."
notes from:
The Sound of the Underground
An Overview of Experimental and Non-Academic Music in China
by Zbigniew Karkowski & Yan Jun http://bit.ly/8ZWnb1
Dickson Dee -> label Sound Factory -> NoiseAsia
Wang Fan -> created arguably China’s first real experimental music work: a mysterious 40-ininute lo-fi piece
Sound artist, curator and critic Yan Jun -> Subjam label in Beijing
Taiwanese composer and contemporary music theoretician Dajuin Yao -> Post-Concrete label
I came downstairs today to a red carpet lined by staff at the Shangri-la Hotel, and I asked who's coming? and one of the staff said the King. he was actually leaving, or maybe it was his wife? it was hard to understand what they said. I heard clapping then a group was whisked outside to the awaiting cars. the staff then stood and waved good-bye to the cars. then they came inside, clapped briefly - almost as a sigh of relief that things had gone well. the red carpet was rolled up and things returned to normal in the hotel. you could hear a distinct change in the sounds - whilst everyone was waiting for the President (Hu Jintao - he's not the King) there was a tenseness / anxiousness in the air and everyone was very quiet. afterwards, there were loud conversations as people greeted each other and congratulated one another. the children were allowed to run around again too
so it's the end of week one in Shenzhen, and this is a tldr kind of post! (& some/most is already in separate posts too) most of the time I've been at work.
last night: there's a really crazy electrical storm happening outside right now. thunder & lightning flashes every few secs. hardly any rain. woke me up. I've never seen anything like it. not even evening summer Queensland thunderstorms. it's a bit scary actually. all that power in Nature. woke up due to noise + light flashing coming in the window. realized it was from outside.
you can't really hear the thunder in the video but it's loud and rumbling and constant. the flashes of lightning are quite regular
this is the view from my bed of the curtains. there's heavy curtains on the side and light gauze type curtains in the centre of the room. the light is flashing into the room and thunder is growling at the same time (though I don't think you can hear it on the video)
early morning 12-12:45am 09/09/2010
and the view from the window looking over the city
I do love the sun umbrellas that the women walk around with in Shenzhen (southern China). they're lighter & smaller than rain umbrellas (from what I can tell). usually they're light coloured, or have little flowery patterns, and the handles are much smaller. the women flip them over and carry them when not expanded above their heads, and sometimes the cover hangs below and swishes whilst they walk. they always seem to have something in their hand, yet they seem to carry them so effortlessly. both young and older women carry them around town. I tried my (rain) umbrella today, whilst also carrying a coffee & bag of toast and of course I caught every gust of wind and had the umbrella flipping all over the place. (it also has a broken handle so I have to hold it on the metal shaft rather than the handle, which makes it even more awkward to carry). you really need them here as it's so hot during the day walking around outside - 35 degrees today & really humid. I end up all red-faced and sweaty even after a few minutes outside (especially coming from winter back home - my body hasn't adjusted slowly to the heat yet) and the Chinese women seem to be cool, calm and collected. they're needed here for shade. though the skin whitening ads here are just as disturbing as other parts of asia.
a video - catching the Shenzhen metro - line 4 from Convention & Exhibition station to Civic Centre.
yesterday I walked to the Civic Centre and it took me about half an hour and I was really hot, sweaty and dehydrated afterwards. the metro does the same trip in 3 minutes! it's so fast, and clean and there's not many people on the trains. you buy a token (1 trip) or top up your metro card with cash. on the way down to the station you swipe the token over the sensor at the gate, keep it for the ride, then at the other end you deposit it into the slot on the gate (near the sensor) and it keeps it & lets you exit the station. I bought another token (2RMB) as a souvenier
I was trying to film the video / led screens on the buildings then I noticed the sounds of the construction nearby so kept recording
the workman who were working in the gardens must have finished work because they rode past me on their bicycles whilst I was recording this video - you can just see the tops of their heads as they ride past. they gave me a strange look as if to say, “what’s so interesting there that you’d want to record it” - or so I imagined anyway
I've been traveling for work for the past six years, though for the last 1.5 years I have been back home in Australia. I thought it was time to start a separate space for notes and thoughts that come to mind whilst on the work trips. This time I'm in Shenzhen in the South of China.
The South China Morning Post newspaper headlines on Thursday September 2nd 2010 were "Warning as city's credit card debt rises". It talks about HongKongers spending too much on credit, and having multiple credit cards and only paying back the minimum amount, despite the warnings from the GFC (global financial crisis).
This is an issue in Australia also, though we have mostly escaped the clutches of a recession caused by the GFC. I wonder if it's an issue in Shenzhen also. In the city - at least in the Futian District that I've been exploring, every city block seems to have an indoor, air-conditioned, multi-level shopping centre. I've been to one called Coco Park, where we had lunch at the foodhall on Friday, and Central Walk, where we had lunch on Thursday and where I caught the train to Civic Centre today. I must admit I did go to Starbucks there and have a coffee and raison toast for brunch, but the place was pretty crowded - at least more crowded than the streets outside. It makes sense - many Australians do this too - during summer the shopping centres are the place to go to escape the heat and sun outside. Escape the humidity here also, which is a killer.
some links on downsizing your life and house. I moved from a large 2 bedroom place to a 1 bedroom which is a start. it's not the same as having one suitcase + work backpack that I had whilst working overseas, but it's a step towards 'living smaller', though I do still have way too much "stuff".
trying out python - to make a little windows gui that builds xml files (hopefully - that's the plan anyway..)
I haven't used python before so not really sure if these are the correct steps
- downloaded python 2.6.5 - initially I downloaded 2.7 but then when I downloaded the windows extensions it said it wanted version 2.6 : python-2.6.5.msi (python-2.7.msi) -> C:\cdrive\_apps\python265
- downloaded python windows extensions : pywin32-214.win32-py2.6.exe
IDE
- downloaded Wing IDE 101 - a free windows ide
also tried these but got too lazy to set them all up when they didn't work first go as they were missing other things/versions :
If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell.
Just like an old time movie,
'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.
In a castle dark or a fortress strong,
With chains upon my feet.
You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
hipstamatic camperdown - walk home after guitar lesson today. another warmish winter's day which is great as I don't need my jacket any more. there's a new development going up nearby. they're pulling down some of the heritage listed council flats and putting up a new building for housing commission tenants. it's called the 'camperdown project' which is ironic as my friend who came to stay earlier in the year called the o'dea building "the projects" - he was referring to those in USA though. the remainder of the heritage buildings are staying. they're not pulling down the o'dea building, though some think they should. the hipstamatic filter makes it look nice - maybe they should have used this on the development proposal flyers. the old biscuit factory has been converted into (really nice, though rather expensive) apartments. had lunch at the wonderful Love#3 again - they had my favourite - eggs benedict - as the breakfast special. then later today I took another walk to the hidden garden - such great fresh fragrances as you walk along the paths, and the birds were very vocal again today
31/07/2010
[ still getting used to the framing on the iphone camera... ]
