It's like beating a dead horse now, but I've wanted to ask for a long time. When someone intrudes a celebrity's privacy it does not matter who the victim is. Seeing the two press conferences, I really want to know exactly why Hong Kong's public seemed to demand an apology from Gillian, Edison. What are they apologizing for exactly? For being sexually active? For being well-known/ Because for some reason your child decided to choose an entertainer, of all people, to be a role model? How does that make any sense? I do not care about the celebrities as much as how much this scandal has shown about Hong Kong: the public somehow believes that entertainers are their slaves; everyone must report to them, the police have nothing better to do, and headline news is always regarding pop culture.

And that just saddens me.

I just wanted to show why I hate the whole touchscreen/analog control schemes that new devices seem to be adapting. I found this post and it sums up the idea:

"Lack of manual controls on the [ipod] touch itself that, IMO, makes the design of the Touch really inconvenient. When I'm walking on campus and somebody says hi to me I can very quickly and easily find the pause button on my Zune. On the touch I'd have to take it out my pocket, unlock it, confirm to unlock it, pause, lock it again, then have my conversation. Then once the conversation is over I get to repeat those steps. Not fun. Yanking out the headphones would work to, but I'd rather not resort to that."

I want to be able to change volume, skip to the next track, and turn the mp3 player on/off without having to take it out. I already hate that my Zen doesn't have the volume deal, but having to stare at any device for ANY function whatsoever is just stupid design for users like me who want music anywhere, anytime. Same with phones and what not: i don't want to have to hit any buttons whatsoever to start dialing. I don't want to have to hit anything except for one or two buttons to find the exact number I want. Why are companies making EVERYTHING way too complicated?

The new Zune (2nd gen) seems to be going in the right direction: you can use the pad as a d-pad or you can swipe it like you do with the ipod or Zen. Good idea.

I ripped this from a forum post I made... because I'm actually saddened by some words I heard today.

I'm actually in Hong Kong right now for I am still young enough to have a summer vacation. Most of my relatives are here so I hang out with them a lot. I made sure long before I came here that I would accomplish two additional tasks: support local cinema and go to band shows. Of course this is about the former.

I have watched several HK films in theaters in the past two years and I've noticed something... generally, when  HK people watch an HK movie, they [b]deliberately[/b] try to find spots that needs some level of improvement and just laugh out loud, as if to prove their superior intelligence. The attitude is always, "I'm too smart for thsi shit..." and so a lot of the people aren't even really watching the movie.

Second part is a little more personal, but it seems to represent the general new-generation attitude. I try to encourage my cousins (slightly older than me) to support local media in order to help HK production in multiple fields. I felt so hurt today when I saw a commercial for Invisible Target on TV, and tried to convince two of them to see it with me in theaters next week. The response? "It looks pretty cool... but I don't want to waste money on a [i]Hong Kong production[/i]". What??? Playfully I replied "Fine... I'll get someone who appreciates HK cinema to watch it with me". "Haha... you won't find anyone like that". Major attitude problem and it is NOT uncommon, as you can see from sources such as the fan commentary in Dog Bite Dog.

Finally, I asked them what they [i]wanted[/i] to see, which was Harry Potter, and why. The answer was special effects. But I clearly remember, last year when we saw Re-Cycle in theaters, they came out saying the visuals were great but the movie was shiiite. What?

The only glimmer of hope I have is one of my cousins is graduating from a local college under media, and actually appreciates Johnnie To and Wong Kar Wai. He knows Kim Ki Duk, etc. etc. Someone who is open minded. Even then, when I asked him about his classes, he said that the courses focused on Japanese and Korean cinema. Why not HK cinema? He had no clue.

How can you expect Hk to come out with quality film when the current generation thinks it's shit before it even comes out?

Sorry, I just had to rant. I don't know why people can be so defensive about being "HK people" yet absolutely refuse to spend even $10 on a real DVD for a good movie.

I have not spent more than a total of several years in Hong Kong (most of which was before I was three), but starting in sophomore year of high school I developed a strong interest in Hong Kong culture... the real stuff. Not so much the trends and fashion, which may also be part of it, but really the alternative to the materialistic lifestyle that the majority of Hong Kong citizens embrace. I still love the special aura I feel when I enter the city, but each time I return it feels a little more empty. Historical landmarks are disappearing, "entertainment" is pitiful without the heart of the 70's 80's and early 90's (when the lack of equipment or funding required creative techniques and whatnot), and one could find nothing under the surface of just about anything.

I started noticing the "counterculture" with the only mainstream hip hop group to truly breach the mainstream barrier, LMF. By the time they dismembered I had barely known them. I wondered to myself then, were there really no other bands in HK? Thank goodness for search engines. I found Kinglychee and a new world opened from there.

To get to my point, the HK underground has come a long way since then. There is no unanimous opinion on the quality of music and other forms of art emerging, but the community has certainly grown. Asia realizes now that Beijing and Wuhan are not the only Chinese cities to have punk music, etc. AlivenotDead is a huge step forward in this ongoing growth and I am glad to be a part.