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!)