Leaving for 四川北川

I'm off today to earthquake-stricken 四川北川 for five days. I've been invited as a guest photographer to accompany a charity group which is raising funds to support the children there. Eleven people in all will be going including a professional photographer, a video crew and other charitable folks. I'll let you know about the trip after my return.

Then on Saturday, one of our kids Beethoven is scheduled to go under the knife with a serious spinal operation. Three of his discs are extending into his spinal canal pressing on ...Read more

The mark of a great actor?

I was watching a television program and they mentioned micro-expressions. Since watching that program, I've come to realise that micro-expressions could very well be one of the significant distinguishing qualities of a great actor, especially a screen actor where everything is up close and personal. Micro-expressions are extremely small expressions, perhaps lasting one fifth of a second or even less. Consciously, we don't notice them. Unconsciously, we do and we're very much affected by them.

Most actors can rep...Read more

Finally; my first showreel

After nine months of research, selection, editing and education in Final Cut, my first showreel is finally ready. I hope you enjoy it.

Note. It's entirely in Cantonese except for two scenes in English, and one scene in Mandarin.

If you have difficulty loading and viewing the video, it's now also available on YouTube here.

Interview on RTHK 2 晨光第一線 細味歷練 2009年1月

Last week, RTHK 2 broadcast a multi-part (Cantonese) interview in the 「細味歷練」 segment of their morning program 「晨光第一線」.

The original recording was around 40 minutes long. Alyson 侯嘉明 did an excellent job of editing and splicing to produce the five segments.

Here it is for those of you who missed it.

晨光第一線 細味歷練 2009...Read more

Persian hurts!

I have slowed down somewhat for various reasons, but I'm still progressing with the five languages I set out to learn in August last year. It's not easy. My brain does tire but that's to be expected when you're trying to absorb alien pronunciations, grammar and words. There are differences in difficulty between the languages.

Hebrew has a lot of 'sh' sounds, but the grammar is very similar to English so that makes it a lit...Read more

Where can you buy/sell LDs in Hong Kong?

I have quite a collection of LDs (LaserDiscs); over 600 of them. I'm considering letting them go although I'll keep them if I can think of a way to get my friend's 35kg professional LD player from Sydney to Hong Kong.

Does anyone know of a place that buys and sells LDs?

Update

Our neighbour (who at one stage had over 1000 LD discs) has informed me that there's a repair service in Shatin that repairs LD players. Our Pioneer ...Read more

An honourable kill?

From TwinCities:

The famous Field and Stream buck won't set a world record, but the antlers of the deer downed two months ago by Bob Decker, of Eau Claire, Wis., will bear another significant honor.

Wouldn't it have been more honorable to let the buck live and watch it thrive? Where's the honour in killing an innocent non-threatening creature? I'll never understand these people...

Upda...Read more

The saliva test

Last year when melamine-spiked wheat gluten killed thousands of pets in the U.S.A., a list of pet food manufacturers was released by the F.D.A. What was interesting about that list was the fact that one or two manufacturers were producing multiple brands of pet food. Producing two or even three brands could be explained by a manufacturer wanting to produce an expensive spec...Read more

Keanu's latest movie

We saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" yesterday. My wife had been looking forward to this movie, probably because there hasn't been a good movie showing for quite some time. The summer releases were overall quite disappointing with Batman being the one exception.

We watched the movie at The Grand Cinema in The Elements Plaza. It's probably the best cinema in Hong Kong. The seats, the screens, and especially the audio are all top notch.

The movie was believable (to me) albeit a little slow in the beg...Read more

Attention all Vancouverites

Unless you haven't heard yet, I'm going to be one of the MC's at this year's Miss Asia Vancouver Pageant. That means that I'll finally get to visit Vancouver (and Canada for that matter).

I'd like to meet any of you who have time but I'll be busy. The only practical time I can do this will be on Thursday night, December 18. What I'd like to do is meet everyone at a coffee shop with great coffee and fabulous cakes (because fabulous cakes are not so easy to come by in Hong Kong). Please sugges...Read more