Akon's "White Party"

As promised, this is my report on Saturday's Akon concert at Hong Kong's AsiaExpo, a big convention hall. I hadn't really heard of Akon before, but was interested to see a concert here in HK, since I love music shows. In case you're similarly unacquainted with Akon, here's a link to one of his songs, Don't Matter.

I've never been to a concert with a theme before. This one was the "White Party," and the majority of attendees donned white attire, including my group. There were three ticket levels, $380 HKD (approx. $35 USD), $600 HKD, and $900 HKD. The room was divided by metal fences, with the high rollers in front of the stage. We were in the back, a.k.a. the cheap level.

Akon came on an hour late, and after the first song, the sound went out in the middle and back levels. We all raised our arms over our heads in an X shape to indicate our dissatisfaction, but we still went without sound for about 15 minutes.

Once the speakers were working again, it was a pretty good show. Akon seemed to feel badly about the sound problems though. With three or so songs left, he announced the concert was "for crazies." And that all the "crazies" should jump the fences and come to the front of the room. Thus ensued a mad rush of the crowd over the barriers-- people were running, tripping, and falling off the fences as they climbed over. It was definitely crazy.

I managed not to get hurt in the rush, though someone did somehow spill beer in my eye, and it kind of burned for a few seconds.

Before the last song, Akon made a little speech to the crowd that went something like this: "Hey all, I just want to say, I love you. And you know, when things get crazy, sometimes things go wrong. If any of you fell down or got hurt when things got crazy, I just want you to know I'm sorry."

I found this all utterly hilarious. I wonder if issuing a mass apology to concert-goers works to protect against litigation. Hey, it's working for doctors.

In other news, here's my latest IHT slide show creation: Earthquake in California.

More on the 'Cover Boys'... and why I've given up running

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the U.S. presidential candidates' appearances on magazine covers (See Cover Boys). A recent Romenesko post pointed me to a New York Post article that helps explain Obama's popularity (beyond journalists going ga-ga over him).

From the New York Post:

Love him or hate him, Obama covers seem to be selling better than celebrities or rock stars.

And in most cases, his covers are selling better than those that feature his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain.

Said a spokeswoman for Time, "Of our five covers featuring Obama and/or Hillary [Clinton] . . . this year, they either sold significantly above average or above average. And the McCain cover this year sold just below average."...

For Us Weekly, which is owned by Obama supporter Jann Wenner, the cover featuring Obama and his wife sold a lot better than the average celebrity cover, with estimated newsstand sales between 900,000 and 1 million, far above the magazine's typical week of selling 800,000 copies.

(As an aside, Romenesko is a must-read blog for journalists and those interested in the media industry. A warning though: many of the posts of late are a bit depressing with their focus on newsroom layoffs and declining newspaper circulation.)

In other, more personal news, I gave up running this week because of Hong Kong's pollution. The South China Morning Post called Monday "the blackest day yet for air pollution." A haze has been sitting over the city for the last few days. I've never seen anything like this. And apparently, it's even worse in Beijing. Poor Olympic athletes.

A Weekend of Vice

Weekends in Hong Kong tend to be more exhausting than the weekdays. This past one was no exception. Here's a rundown, along with a photo essay.

Though Hong Kong is a huge city, it tends to feel like a small one on the weekends, because everyone you know can be found in Lan Kwai Fong. (It's like 9th Street in Durham.) Yes, that would be the area that I said was "too heavily populated by expats for my taste." But, as all my friends are expats, I wind up there a lot.

Such was the case Friday night. I dragged my roommate out to Dragon I, where we met up with friends from last weekend's junk trip. In a night that went until the wee hour of 5 a.m., we also visited Volar and Prive. My roommate was laughing at me, remembering my first weekend here and my lamenting our being out past 2 a.m. as too late. HK changes your relationship with time fairly quickly. This is the scene at Dragon-I:

On Saturday, we woke up late, had delicious Korean food in Causeway Bay, and got foot massages at Happy Feet. On the way back up the midlevels escalator to our apartment, we spotted this commotion on Elgin Street. Check out the Mercedes fire trucks! And that would be a 7-Eleven to the right there. They are all over this city.

Saturday night, we saw Akon perform at AsiaExpo. I shall have to recount that experience in a different post.

Sunday, I went to Macau. Waiting in line for 2 hours to get through immigration processing made me hate the place initially, but seeing old Portuguese neighborhoods...

... and the ruins of St. Paul...

... and turning a profit on the craps table at the Grand Lisboa...

... made me like Macau more on the way out.

News to Amuse

Working in a newsroom requires a hyper-awareness of current events. I've never felt quite this plugged in to what's going on in the world, from cambodia-thailand border negotiations to knife violence in england to street eats in seoul. I spend a lot of time surfing various news sites to see what's getting the most attention. I was amused to surf over to BBC News on Monday and see the bottom right corner:

The juxtaposition of "spiritual desert" and a review of the next Lara Croft videogame is kind of classic.

I continue to gather sports scores for the print edition of the International Herald Tribune. Yesterday, I had a true "web producer" assignment. My web boss asked if there were any good stories in the world of sports. I pulled this story on the Federer-Nadal rivalry from the AP, rewrote the headline, found photos of the two of them, created the split shot for the article, and then published to the web.

While it's interesting to have so much leverage in news judgment working on web production, I much prefer doing actual writing and reporting. It's good to find that out now.

Photo searches continue to be fun. Images are so powerful in conveying information. I wish there were a slideshow for almost every article posted. It's especially interesting to see the multitude of photos of world leaders. You get to see who looks stiff and uncomfortable all the time versus those who ham it up. Bush and Sarkozy are prime examples of the latter. I also don't mind going through tons of photos of hot athletes. Bring on the Olympic swimming events...

THE WEEKEND: This past weekend, I did the classic Hong Kong excursion-- the junk trip. Many of the expats head out to beaches via boats (junk=Chinese for boat). I went with an IHT colleague and a mix of lawyers and financial folks to a beach in Sai Kung. I even got to water ski, though we had to avoid huge jellyfish while in the water.

I also checked out HK's club scene. The dance club Prive was fun, though all the music was from three years ago. Saturday, I checked out Dragon-I, which is super-chique. I'd recommend visiting both if you're looking for a good time in Hong Kong.

Olympics are no big deal?

Based on the countdown photo at right (taken in the MTR), you might think that Hong Hong is excited about the coming Olympics. In my experience, not so much. Part of the problem is that HK plays host to the equestrian events, and "dressage" and horse-jumping are not sports people get pumped about. They rank somewhere around speed-walking in terms of fan enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong: Horse-racing is super dramatic, but horse ballet not so much.

I think that another reason that HK is not super enthused is the disconnect between it and mainland China. Being in HK really does not feel like being in China most of the time, except for little hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Causeway Bay and walks through the northern/residential part of Kowloon. This is an international city with a very different culture from Beijing. HK observes Beijing from the perspective of other/outsider. People are not as excited about China's chance to shine as Olympics host, as about how well Beijing is going to handle the Games, the media, and any problems that arise.

Beijing has cracked down on visas, making it hard for people to get into the country, and has their police officers going through anti-riot drills in preparation for the Games. We hear that their hotels are only half-booked and that tons of cheap tickets remain for many events.

I was supposed to get a peek at the equestrian venue on Friday, but the media relations folks changed the media briefing from the afternoon to the morning. Apparently, IHT and the New York Times were the only media folks who did not get the message. I was a bit suspicious about that, but I may be seeing conspiracy where there is only incompetence.

My latest creation at the IHT is a slideshow: Beijing's preparation for the Olympics. I was seeing really incredible photos by Reuters from July 16's opening ceremony rehearsal. I ran the idea of an Olympics preview past my web producers, and they liked it.

Food victory of last week: The aforementioned hole-in-the-wall Shanghaiese restaurant in Causeway Bay, where I had Chinese doughnuts dipped in sweetened soy milk and some kind of preserved meat in sticky rice. All thanks to my food guru, W.L. She has been my guide to good eating in this town. Everyone needs a friend like W.L. in a new town-- someone who loves food and appreciates a delicious, cheap meal.

Cover Boys

With the time difference, it's hard for me to track the rise and fall of controversies back in the States. Are people still talking about THE New Yorker cover there? IHT has this piece from NYT on the difficulties comics are having poking fun at Obama. Which led me to write this post to spark conversation on Above The Law.

If this cover were on the front of the National Review, it would never fly. But the New Yorker can get away with it (I think) due to the nature of their readers (a bunch of Obama supporters) and their history of satire. This is the same magazine that depicted the leader of Iran on its cover in a bathroom stall a la Larry Craig. The problem is with the reaction to the cover outside of the New Yorker's subscription base, now that it's no longer an inside joke.

It made me wonder how other magazines have portrayed the candidates on their covers. This is far from an exhaustive search, but it looks like Obama is definitely the preferred "cover boy:"










McCain missed out on the media TLC that results from a protracted, bitter, and ground-breaking battle for a party's nomination. Loving Time's Highlander "There can be only one" reference.





The Atlantic wins the artistic award. McCain may even be in there somewhere.









This is a nice feel-good cover. "Either way America votes, we're happy with it. Just as long as there's no more Bush."







Everybody loves that face...





















...except for the National Review.













I wonder who Rolling Stone is voting for....

An (Expat) City That's Easy to Love

Back when I was weighing the decision to come to Hong Kong, I was apprehensive about the possible isolation I might face going to a city where I knew no one and didn't speak the language. On the upside, I thought it would be good "cave time" for thinking and self-reflection before starting grad school, not unlike my 2-week hiking trip and 2 days of solo fasting during Project WILD pre-Duke.

I had some solo time my first weekend here, but since then, it's been a whirlwind of activity and new people. There are loads of English-speaking expats here. My neighborhood (the Midlevels) often feels more like Europe than Asia.

All the expats know the "new in town" feeling and are very welcoming. Before coming, I e-mailed every friend of a friend I could find in Hong Kong. Since most of my friends in the States are journalists and lawyers, many of the people I contacted through them tend to come from the same circles. However, my roommate has extended my network to friends in the hospitality industry.

Hong Kong is not a domestic city (perhaps due in part to the ridiculously small apartments). Everyone is always out on the town. So when you e-mail people and say, "I'm a HK newbie. Could you advise me on how to get settled into this crazy town?", they usually offer to meet up within the next few days (or even the same day). I already have a respectable network of friends here, and it's been less than two weeks.

I also got really lucky in terms of my roommate. We've spent a good amount of quality time together. Despite the fact that she leaves for work at 7:30 a.m. and I leave at 11:30 a.m., we tend to get home around the same time. I've lived alone in my D.C. studio for over two years now, and had almost forgotten how nice it is to have a great roommate, even if she does occasionally confuse me by calling a purse a bag, and a wallet a purse. (I know she reads the blog sometimes, but I swear I am not sucking up!)

Do I Really Want to Go Back to the States?

From England's Daily Telegraph:

George Bush surprised world leaders with a joke about his poor record on the environment as he left the G8 summit in Japan.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Photo Essay: Dim Sum, Causeway Bay and Kowloon

I am happily coming off a weekend with (almost) no rain. With 4 a.m. nights on both Friday and Saturday, I think I am officially over my jetlag. Or at least no longer easily waking up at 7 a.m. On Friday night, I went with my IHT colleagues to Hong Kong's illustrious Foreign Correspondents Club. The oldest member is a woman who was on the Polish border when the German tanks started crossing, and essentially "broke" the story of WWII.

After that, I went to Wagyu Lounge with my roommate and her friends. We finished the night at the Flying Pan, an American diner. I had grits. In Hong Kong. Here's the rest of the weekend in a photo essay.

Dim sum Saturday morning at Dragon I with new HK friends:


Yummy dim sum. From left: soup dumplings, shumai, and steamed pork buns:

With very full tummies after brunch, my roommate and I went on a long walk from Lan Kwai Fong to Causeway Bay. We passed this Dark Knight poster on the way, with Batman looking out on Hong Kong. My roommate reports that the cast stayed at the Four Seasons while filming in HK. Comes out next week! I can't wait to see it.

Shopping in Causeway Bay. My roommate was amused by my looming above everyone else. I tried to buy shoes there. The shoe shop person took one look at my feet and said, "Too big. We only have Chinese sizes."

On Sunday, I went to Kowloon, the island across the bay north of Hong Kong Island. This is a statue of Bruce Lee on the Avenue of the Stars. The Hong Kong Island skyline is in the background.

A "cute" panda. Maybe they should have chosen a different Olympics sport to illustrate visually...

Knick knacks in Kowloon's night market. Interesting assortment of folks depicted... yes, that's Hitler beneath Jesus.

Comment Control

It's still raining here, but I got to see the sun briefly during my morning run. It was quite exciting.

New responsibility at IHT: creating discussions. I created this one about the U.S. response to Iran's missile test launch. We have to create a discussion in order to allow readers to comment on a story. The majority of stories do not have discussions, and thus do not allow comments. We also have to go through each comment, and approve it before it appears on the site.

Coming from the blogging world, this is strange to me. We allow comments on every post, and they're automatically published (though we do have to occasionally unpublish a comment if it's offensive). Comments allow readers to interact with the story and each other (and are also a great driver for web traffic). At the end of the day, journalism is all about sharing information and creating a community through the creation of common knowledge. Online news sites should embrace reader comments. But I'm a blogger... what do I know?

I know that the comments were hilarious on this post we did on Above The Law. A reader sent us to a North Carolina law firm's website, which has serious and fun bios for all of its attorneys. I did some photoshopping to combine the images (see left) and added some commentary, but the images really spoke for themselves. What a fun firm.

Though the comments on that post are mainly humorous/fun ones, there are some ATL posts where the comments contain really interesting debates and raise serious questions about the law and the legal industry. Comments are important for more than just building community.

Food victory of the day: I went to a grocery story in IFC mall and found mochi, one of my favorite foods in the world. It's a Japanese snack made of glutinous rice pounded into paste with a sweet red bean filling. So good.

Forecast: Rain, Rain and More Rain

Today marks the elapse of one week spent in Hong Kong. It is also day five of almost-constant rain, with no end in sight. See the forecast from weather.com:

Apparently, 60% translates to "all the time" in Hong Kong.

My newest duty at IHT is laying out the scores for the sports section of the newspaper. This is bizarre to me, due to my relative lack of interest in sports and the expected death of the physical page in journalism. (I have noticed that the Tampa Bay Rays haven't been doing so well, Dad.)

It's kind of quaint though, and nice to catch the tail end of this form of journalism (assuming it is the tail end). It's good to have "I remember when" stories. Mine will include, "I remember when..." there was no e-mail or instant messenger, people didn't have cell phones, call waiting was a novelty, Facebook didn't exist, we had to register for classes in person (high school) and by phone (college), gas cost 99 cents per gallon, and there was such a paper as the International Herald Tribune and I worked there.

For the web part of my internship, I have moved from finding one image per article to finding lots of images and making slideshows. See this series on a new world heritage site in Cambodia. The Preah Vihear temple sits along the Cambodia-Thai border; Thailand originally backed Cambodia's application to UNESCO, but then changed its mind at the last minute due to internal pressures. Too bad for them. Update: Thailand's foreign minister has been forced to resign over the hullabaloo. (I tracked down the photo of Noppadon Pattama for that article.)

The internship doesn't have built-in writing opportunities, but I would like to work on a few pieces while I am here. Some folks back in the States expressed interest in my freelancing for them and the IHT is open to pitches for possible online publication. The problem is coming up with ideas. All I can think about at the moment is the incessant rain.

Traveler vs Tourist

In preparation for NYU, I am reading The New New Journalism by Rob Boynton, my dean in NYU's magazine journalim program. He's a big part of the reason I chose NYU over Columbia and Northwestern. I received a personal e-mail from him back in February about my admission. We talked on the telephone in March and he answered all my questions about j school and whether it was a good move for me at this point in my career.

In contrast, Columbia and Northwestern were much colder, sending the standard "you've been admitted" letters in March/April and encouraging me to learn more through attending their open houses. Don't they realize that I'm Gen Y and expect to be loved and coddled? Columbia's initial admission e-mail was actually addressed to "firstname lastname" due to an administrator's misadventure with Microsoft mail merge. NYU's personal touch in the admissions process meant a lot to me, as an indicator of how I will be treated as a student there.

Anyway, so I am reading this book, which is a series of Boynton's interviews with "America's best nonfiction writers on their craft." The first conversation is with Ted Conover, a specialist in undercover journalism. For various books, he has ridden the rails with hoboes (Coyotes), worked as a Sing Sing prison guard for 10 months (Newjack), traveled around with Mexican illegal immigrants (Coyotes), and studied Aspen celebrities as a local cab driver (Whiteout). Boynton has since recruited Conover as a part-time professor; I met him when I visited NYU and found him inspiring and soft-spoken.

Boynton asked Conover about his need to live among and as the subjects of his stories, rather than gathering information solely from interviews. Given my current adventure in Hong Kong, I found this passage from his response particularly resonant:

I suppose what I am getting at is like the distinction between tourist and a traveler. The tourist experience is superficial and glancing. The traveler develops a deeper connection with her surroundings. She is more interested in them-- the traveler stays longer, makes her own plans, chooses her own destination, and usually travels alone: solo travel and solo participation, although the most difficult emotionally, seems the most likely to produce a good story.

I visited Hong Kong last summer for a few days, as a tourist. Settling into the city this time around feels very different, satisfying in that I expect it will become a comfortable place by the end of my two months here, but also intimidating as I don't have the luxury of breezing through without really getting to know it.

Being separated, emotionally and geographically, from friends and family is difficult, but I am appreciating the opportunity to leave my comfort zone. At least for a short period. I feel a sharpened awareness and increased sense of observation, as so many things are new and different, or, alternately, striking in their familiarity.

Speaking of my surrounding's familiarity, I met a friend this evening in Lan Kwai Fong, one of Hong Kong's nightspot districts. With people spilling out of its many bars and wandering the streets under the influence of alcohol, it bore a distinct resemblance to 18th Street in D.C.'s Adams Morgan. I've been known to compare 18th Street to one of Dante's circles; Lan Kwai Fong is not that bad-- it's just a little too heavily populated by expats for my taste.

Food victory of the day: Dim sum for lunch at Maxim in City Hall. My taste buds were in heaven. Fried taro, steamed pork buns, dumplings galore, some crazy ginger tofu soup... a dim sum dream come true.

Not Just Fetching Coffee and Dumplings

I spotted another great public service announcement/directive today on a digital sign on the Hong Kong MTR (aka the Metro). "Live healthy. Make sure you get adequate rest and sleep." I found it amusing, but it's certainly sound advice.

Day 2 of the IHT internship. My hours are going to be 12:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. I'm excited for long morning runs, though I was thwarted today by rain. I met the two editors with whom I'll be working on Olympics coverage. I admitted to them that, in the past, the sports section has been the only part of the newspaper that I immediately discarded. They just laughed. I will still be admitted to the "Olympics pod--" we'll be claiming an area of the newsroom for our team. My hours may be pretty crazy come August, as we'll be working with a 1 a.m. deadline for the Hong Kong edition of the paper.

As for the web part of the internship, my main responsibility so far has been finding photos to accompany stories. It's pretty fun, and reminds me of image searching for Above The Law posts... without the opportunity for creative Photoshopping. I chose a migrant worker/pollution/Bird's Nest photo from Reuters for this story on the month countdown to the Olympics. My second choice was a bunch of industrial excavators scooping algae out of the sea near Qingdao for the Olympics sailing regatta (See the New York Times story on this).

Food victory of the day: I've discovered a tasty Indian restaurant around the corner from my apartment building: Indian Village. I introduced myself and let them know they'd be seeing me frequently in the next two months. I doubt I'll be doing much cooking on my little two-burner countertop plug-in. And yes, our fridge really is two feet tall.

"Stay safe and have fun"

It's a rainy Sunday in Hong Kong. I went out for brunch (ricotta pancakes with strawberries and mango-pineapple juice) with my roommate, but am planning to stay in for the rest of the day. Brunch at the Peak Cafe was delicious, though I am definitely eating more Western food than I expected.

Being jetlagged has been good for my running. I woke up at 7 a.m. both days this weekend and went for loooong runs, as a result of getting lost a desire to explore. I found a great 5-mile route on Bowen Rd., with overlooks of the city and tons of other runners.

Yesterday, I hopped on a bus and went to Repulse Bay Beach. It was not repulsive at all! Haha-- bad joke. Hong Kong consists of over 200 islands, so there are lots of beaches for me to discover. I was very amused by announcements that came over loudspeakers in Cantonese and in English. One announcement encouraged people to check that their large umbrellas were firmly planted in the beach so they would not blow away and hurt people. Another gave instructions on safe swimming (e.g., stretch, don't rely on flotation devices, wait to swim after eating). It ended with "stay safe and have fun."

The announcements made me think about the idea of "careful cultures." I think the U.S. is often thought of as having excessive rules and procedures, due to a fear of litigation. Hong Kong and China seem to have a similar style; I am noticing that there often seem to be elaborate instructions and directions on how things should be done.

In contrast, I was thinking back on my 2001 Europe trip with Kate. In Interlaken, Switzerland, we went canyoning (think shallow canyon river, wet suits, big jumps and zip lines). I don't think the Aussies who ran the operation even had us sign a waiver of our right to sue if we got injured. As we drove up the mountain, without safety belts sitting on the floor in the back of a big van, the guides told us about a group that died the previous year when a storm came and the canyon was suddenly flooded. I asked if they worried about being sued. The guide said something like, "It's not like in America. Here, you assume the risk when you do something stupid."

So I guess my idea of a careful culture is one in which risk does not rest solely with the individual. So it's in the interest of those in power to issue lots of directives to help people protect themselves. It could be fun to put a bunch of countries on a "careful culture" spectrum. Which I would do if I were into that. Instead, I'll just show you a photo of HK dollars. I love the Monopoly money that other countries use.

Goodbye, D.C.; Hello, Hong Kong

Happy Fourth of July from Hong Kong. After 29 hours (door-to-door) of travel, I have arrived at my little apartment in the mid-levels of Hong Kong. (That's my bedroom at right.) My summer roommate is a manager at the Four Seasons; her staff helped me out at the airport, assisting me in buying a SIM card and a train ticket. My Hong Kong cell is 6214 6693.

My roommate met me at the train station and walked me to the apartment on Peel Street-- it's just a block from the escalator and in the heart of a great restaurant and bar district. (The escalator=the world's longest outdoor escalator which runs from Central Station, up through the Mid-Levels).

The apartment is cute, though super-small. Our bathroom sink is in the shower (see photo); our refridgerator is smaller than the mini-one I had in my college dormroom; and the "stove" is a little countertop 2-burner plug-in. A NYC apartment is going to seem luxurious by comparison. But my bed is comfortable and I slept a good seven hours last night, waking up at 5 a.m. today. I consider sleeping in until 5 a.m. to be a sign of jetlag recovery (as opposed to waking up through the night).

I feel excited to be here, though it's strange to be so far away from all my loved ones. The week or so of farewell events in D.C. helped me mentally prepare for the departure. The reality of "Goodbye" eventually sank in. At the same time, the sad farewells were strange to me. In the E-age, even if you're on the other side of the world, you're still hyper-connected. I'll be keeping up with everyone via Facebook and likely chatting with folks frequently via e-mail, Google talk, Skype, etc. The distance seems imagined in a way. Though the 29 hours of travel made it seem all too real.

Time to get ready for my first day of work at the International Herald Tribune.