Scenes From Hong Kong III

It is really two years to the day since my first Hong Kong photo post? Well, yes it is. Now I'm back from my second trip to Hong Kong, which was just as good as the first, with more snapshots of urban life to share with you. Enough talk, let's get started.

A typical, and dare I say iconic, sight of Hong Kong harbour: one of the many junks that regularly cross the waters. Their red sails are something that sets off the scenery, day or night.

It's Pikachu! In a shirt and tie on a Canon advertising poster! Well, I think it is, anyway. The makers of Pokemon might think otherwise.

It's nice to see old-fashioned signage on store fronts in 2013, given the short turnaround time some of these shops have. I also like the idea of there being a "knitting factory". Is it a big room full of old women, knitting all the garments, wrapping them up tight, and sending them off to the Lee Kung Man Knitting Factory (H.K.) Ltd.?

Note that the Chinese characters for "Lee Kung Man" are written right-to-left – something that isn't too common these days.  

"I Resurrect The Destructed", proclaims this oddly-grammared advertisement. Well so do I, but you don't hear me bragging about it.

More HK fun next post.

Hong Kong Paintings

I'm on holiday in Hong Kong and having a great time, but I've also been doing the occasional painting. Here are the three paintings I did while here – photographed via Photo Booth for that extra-distorto effect. What a good way to wrap up the 34th year of my life. When I get back home there'll be more stuff posted, including sketches and a photo bonanza!

"Immortality"

poster/acrylic on canvas 60x45cm 

"Junk"

acrylic on canvas board 25x20cm 

"Possession"

acrylic on canvas 45x60cm

Eurovision Infographic III

Here's my third annual Eurovision Song Contest stats map following the win by Denmark, their third,  in the 58th Contest, held in Malmö, Sweden. This is the second time Denmark has won immediately after Sweden!

If you saw my previous two maps for the 2011 ESC and 2012 ESC, you'll see this one looks similar. If you can't be bothered churning through the data, here are three stats of note. The number of countries singing in their native language was 17 (up from 12 last year), good to see; only one country sang in a mix of English and their native language, and only ONE country improved on its previous best result. This was San Marino, who placed 19th in the 2008 semifinal, 14th in last year's semifinal and 11th in this year's semifinal. Keep trying, San Marino. You should have been in the final this year.

Hope you enjoy checking out the map. Good job Sweden on hosting the event (great host too) And as I said after posting last year's Euro map – here's to not using Illustrator for another 12 months!

Top Ten Flashback: May 15, 1993

Join me once again, music fans, as I go back in time 20 years and see what Australia's top 10 singles were. This week was notable for me as one of my favourite bands hit number 1 for the second time. There was also a top 10 debut, a brother and sister both in the top 10, and two covers. Twenty years ago today I was 14 years old – it was the week ending Saturday, May 15, 1993. Got it sorted yet? Let's go.


10.  Southern Sons – "You Were There"

Hmmm, another ballad. This must have been off their second album, which went largely ignored on the charts. That doesn't mean it wasn't any good though, I just have no recollection of it.







9.  East 17 – "House Of Love"

I liked this song a lot and the dog motif worked well, but I can't help but laugh when watching the video 20 years later, mostly because of the idiotic dancing on display and those stupid hats. In East 17's defence, I'm sure they look back and cringe at this too, and have certainly moved on. Fun fact: East 17 were named after their London postcode, the area of which is Walthamstow, where I lived for the first year of my life.




8.  Arrested Development – "Mr. Wendal"

Third single by these guys. I liked them, they had something relevant to say without bashing you over the head with social consciousness. In 2014 I went to the Sydney Festival and they were performing a free show in the city, attended mostly by people who weren't even born when this single was released, to the exclusion of those actually old enough to remember it. Bummer.




7.  2 Unlimited – "No Limit"

"I'm makin' techno and I am proud". So you should be, mate. It was another monster hit for the Dutch duo, or foursome if you count the producers, which you ought to, of course. There would be one more top 10 single in Australia for them before the jig was up. Ostensibly filmed inside a pinball machine, the video could have been a bit more energetic, but I'm just nit-picking. I still like this one a lot.






6.  Michael Jackson – "Give In To Me"

Released during an era of his life which I'm sure he would rather forget, MJ nevertheless had another big hit. I quite liked it for its rockier sound, although I haven't heard it in 20 years.







 
5.  Peter Andre – "Gimme Little Sign"

I'll give you a sign, pal – it involves just one finger.








 
4.  Janet Jackson – "That's The Way Love Goes" ºº

Janet debuts at number 4, her first hit in ages. It was the lead single from the janet album and would have to stay here for two weeks before hitting the top for only one week, then being dethroned by Snow – who hadn't even shown up in the top 20 yet! Fairly low-key stuff here; I preferred later single "If".






3.  Ugly Kid Joe – "Cat's In The Cradle"

The first of two cover versions from yesteryear, this one came with a suitably creepy and typically early-'90s video, with weird random footage of dogs and swimming pools and stuff. A decent cover, for some reason Rage always used to cut the last 5 seconds of its video out. I could never figure out why. If you know, comment below and help ease my mental instability.






2.  Lenny Kravitz – "Are You Gonna Go My Way"

Come on, Leonard, it's "Are You Going To Go My Way", with a question mark at the end. Don't make me have to lecture you on proper grammar and punctuation. And don't think I didn't notice your missing apostrophe, Ugly Kid Joe.





1.  Faith No More – "Easy"

FNM seemed to have luck with four-letter titles starting with 'E', as this was their next – and so far, last – number one single in Australia after "Epic". It also continued their tradition of putting totally random crap on singles' cover artwork. Great cover and all that, but I never bought the single back in 1993. I should have. Why? Well, when Triple J did a J-Files special on Faith No More in 1997, they opened the show with "Das Schützenfest", one of the B-sides on this single. I turned on the radio too late to start my tape recording and missed the first two minutes of the song. Even though my crappy taped copy was half missing, I was addicted to the track, a weird polka soundalike sung in German. I had to have that song! From then on I scoured second hand shops for this single before finding it at the now sadly-defunct Compact Disc Library in Perth in 1998. And I played it really loud at uni in a lecture theatre and somehow didn't get into trouble. Happy days.

Ads From The Old Days – Part 2: Cookery

In this second post in this series looking back on old magazine ads, we look at these food, drink and cooking-related ads from the mid-1980s. All of these came from two issues of A La Carte, an up-market British cookery and gourmet magazine, one from 1985 and one from 1986.

I found these ads interesting because they had one thing in common. Back then, apparently, ad writers favoured lengthy copy. Sometimes whole pages full of paragraphs. Huge blocks of text for the shoulder-padded public to wade through. Perhaps in the '80s people had more time to peruse lengthy writings about each product. Perhaps ad writers now are just lazy and slap a web address in, figuring the potential customer will find out the product gen in their own time. Both theories have their adherents.

I've arranged the ads below in order from least to most wordy. The word count for each one is given. (Yes, I'm sad enough to count all the words.) Also the photos aren't great. What, you expect me to scan all these?

Only 32 words in this ad for a brandy-like drink but I included it purely for the photo of the couple at the bottom. This is how sophisticated people hooked up in the '80s, kids.

This bacon ad has only 95 words, quite brief for the '80s but still too verbose by today's standards. I only included it because it's worded in such a strange way. Perhaps bacon brought out the copywriter's poetic side?

95 words again, and they're all in French, which is unusual – or maybe the readership were assumed to be bilingual. Hey, it was 28 years ago, what do you want? I like the expression on the woman's face as she listens to Monsieur Beaujolais there bang on about dejeuner. People were more polite in the '80s, too.

With that huge tagline at the top, the paragraph doesn't look much, but it's still 140 words all in. Ah, clean electric power. I wish my stovetop looked like that.

A 'wedding photo album' format gives this ad for falling-down juice some charm. More charm than those who consume the product, at any rate. Only a small paragraph at the top, but the photo captions bump the word count up to 142.

I had to include this close-up of one of those pics above. Saucy stuff, eh? Of course, weddings are boring, but at least you might see things like this once the ordeal's over.

Amidst the rows of teacups the eye has to run the length of this double page spread and back four times to get through this 150-word essay. Is it worth it? Well read the thing and find out!

Now we're into 'more text than images' territory – something that is almost non-existent now. 163 words to get through here.

The photo dwarfs the copy but there's still 166 words about bread here. Hey, I made some bread today. Ain't that somethin'.

The 168 words here take the form of a poem. A unique approach, and this was on the inside cover, but would you read it all? (I did.)

Big pic on the left, 178 words on the right. The whole 'flowers' thing is just odd.

Another one from Cook Electric; 183 words. You do use an electric cooker, right? I hate cooking, so don't ask my opinion.

Ouch, diving into a grapefruit would sting your eyes to buggery. Don't try it. Despite a very eye-catching large image, they crammed 201 words into this one.

Interesting copy, but very long at 233 words. Most of the items being touted here are de rigueur these days. Everyone's got one of those cheese slicer things. I still like it though; there's a certain charm in the way this ad cheerfully extols the virtues of various kitchen utensils. This could also be the only place where the word 'aluminiuming' appeared in print.

As you get through this 316-word essay, try not to get hungry by looking at that cake.

Get comfy, you're up for a 442-word story about tea. I find it interesting, but then I drink tea every day, and don't mind learning about how this company got started. Also, really old photos draw the eye. The one here is from 1902.

And clocking in at a massive 461 words is this ad giving all the info you ever needed about this whisking blender thingy. Everything it does is plainly stated here, if you've got the time to get through it. Can you imagine a print ad with this much text now? No, everyone's too busy playing with themselves to take the time to get clued in on a product they are considering buying. Must distract them with brightly-coloured fluff. Also, iPhones really aren't all that great. Buy a blender instead.