Hollywood Bowl: KCRW's World Festival Featuring Feist

...I distinctly remember reading a Bill Simmons column on EPSN in the first few days after the Lakers lost the NBA Finals. He said what I've found to be the most empty and disappointing part of my favorite west coast city. To paraphrase, even during the Lakers' home games, fans didn't seem to care; the fans with enough clout and money to sit lower-level wouldn't show up until mid-second quarter, and they'd spend the rest of that comparing handbags, sunglasses and looking for the backs of celebrities' heads. The worst of it was when, late in close games, people would leave just to get to their cars first and beat traffic.

As soon as Feist left the stage before her encore people started trickling down the stairs and out of the bowl. Even though the lights didn't come on and she eventually came back on stage, people kept finding the exits like rainwater finds gutters. Maybe you have season passes to the bowl, or whatever, maybe you think she blows, but please explain what the big rush is to get out on the 101. I'm half-surprised I don't see people getting up and leaving near the end of movies only halfway through the denouement.

Let me preface the next sentence by saying that I love this city, and people don't all suck here. I think this LA-apathy (heretofore "lapathy") is just part of what you get though with flaky, non-committal and often fake people. Red Sox fans may be mostly douche-bag-band-wagon-free riders, but at least they care. The best fans are the ones apparently in cities not distracted by the glimmer of plastic (see: Steelers, Raiders, soccer fans).

When her set started and she played Mushaboom we got on our feet, like the people in front of us, kind of standard procedure at a concert we thought. After a few seconds the thirty-something couple behind us pulls on my shirt and matter-of-factly says, "I can't see anything." I didn't know what to do so I respectfully sat down out of confusion and started thinking about how lame I'll be once I turn thirty. Oh, I'm sorry for trying to enjoy myself. Maybe our section E seats were too close to the stage, and these people, like celeb-hunting Lakers fans paid too much money to stand.

I understand that the Bowl is a different kind of venue. First of all there's no standing room and it's a variety of ages, making it ideally suited for seated-music (whatever that is), but this isn't church--wait I can dance at church if I want to. I know general admission usually sucks at big shows; you start wearing other people's sweat and hardly have the room to scratch your head, but it is the best way to enjoy live rock/pop/indie/hip-hop. You probably meet more selfish people pushing and blocking your view when you're on your feet, but no one is trying to stop you from having a good time.

I love the Bowl, I love the atmosphere and how friendly everyone is. We shared alcohol with a group of complete strangers sitting next to us. But I know I'd rather have seen my indie queen from Canada at the Wiltern.

The Time My Hair Was Murdered

One time on a trip to Vietnam in the summer of 2008, I traveled to the small hillside town of Sapa in the Northwest part of the country. I had already learned on that trip to never become to trusting of the people you meet in this country, and although I tried not to learn such a thing, the lesson only became more apparent the more I thought it a crude stereotype. There were many stories that I could tell to show this sad truth, but the one that would tell it best is the one about the time my hair was cut like shrubbery.

On this particular cool afternoon the clouds moved quickly in front and away from the sun, so that in the sunlight you could break a sweat in an instant, but in the shade you shivered as the breeze came through you. In preparation for my flight back home, I thought that it would be prudent to give my shaggy head a trimming. It had been afterall several months since I had a proper haircut, and at least two weeks since I had shaved. Some people think that I'm cheap for not going to a barber shop more regularly, but the truth is that I'm actually terrified of being in the hands of someone I don't know. Strangers don't tend to do what you ask necessarily, and they always don't care how you look afterwards.

It was on the recommendation of my hotel that I picked a place, and with the help of a girl at reception I had written on paper, the phrase "cut a little bit." I walked into the shop and explained exactly what I wanted to a nice girl who seemed to understand my English quite well. She relayed my wishes to a guy standing beside her who nodded in agreement. Their long dialogue between every word of mine inspired my trusting heart and gave me confidence enough to turn the chair to the mirror and allow the bib to placed.

Then seemingly out of the floor appears a small, dark-skinned, goateed man in my mirror. The surprise must have taken me a moment, because my memory cannot reason his abrupt appearance or impossible understanding of what I wanted. I showed him the phrase from reception again and he nodded violently before I could even finish a single sentence; exactly in the way that everyone in Vietnam does before they give you something you didn't ask for.

The first cut was on the back of my head so I couldn't see it, but the second was right on the left part of the top of my head. It was so deep that I pulled my head away saying, "too much!" I tried again to show him how little I wanted to cut, which he again seemed to understand, and so I sat back again, like a fool. The next cut was no different, and I pulled away nearly begging, explaining to him to go sloooooww. But it was all to no avail. I've never seen anyone open and close a scissors so fast, I've watched people cut grass slower than this! I rested my head on my hand and looked at myself with chagrin. When I finally made him stop it was too late, all I could do was let him finish cutting it all the same half-inch length. In its entirety it took five minutes.

When he finished he told me where the bathroom was and went outside for a smoke. Apparently he was in a rush. Vietnam has taught me the disappointing reality that here, you always get what you pay for, and you never get what you pay for. Oh, and nobody gives a shit about you once they've separated you from your dollars.

bombay dreams, central

I've always wondered if the Indian buffet was actually an Indian concept or if it was invented by imperialistic gluttons who proliferated them throughout the world like army bases. I've been to a good number in my day, most recently one in Wan Chai that was cheap (68HKD) but mediocre, but that's not why we're here...

Bombay Dreams has a fantastic buffet--the best I've seen in HK. The back room is so full with food that when you walk in to get a new plate it feels like a masala steam room (these don't exist yet, but they surely should one day). They have all the standard buffet dishes as well as some less common ones like fish curries to go with many small foods that I didn't even recognize. There was also a huge fruit plate and several kinds of Indian sweets. Granted, I'm not eating Indian food as frequently as Thai or Chinese here, the masala was the best of recent memory. For reference, it's better than at the Dickens curry buffet at Excelsior. Drink choices also included mango lassi, where most buffets only offer soda or juice. At one point, a guy made what looked like (pardon my ignorance) crepes and the servers passed them out to everyone--nice touch. And although they wouldn't let us sit at the window, it's a nice setting that doesn't feel tacky the way most buffets do.

We ate so much here that we took a taxi three blocks to my friend's apartment to pass out. We probably all looked like we'd taken a bullet in the spleen trying to save someone's life. It was worth it, but I did it for the glory.

4.5 of 5 for lunch buffets

bombay (wet) dreams

1/f 75-77 wyndham st central

2971 0001

100HKD lunch buffet

totally off topic itunes tip

I apologize in advance for digressing from food, but it took me so long to find this that I wanted to share it and save others from re-inventing the wheel again.

I'd been trying to make album playlists on my iPod for ages. Whenever I get new albums on my iPod, I like to see them grouped by album title rather than listed alphabetically by title. This way I'm reminded which albums I need to pay more attention to. A Mac forum suggested clearing the genre fields on all tracks and then putting all new albums into a new genre. This way there's only have one genre in the list, and when selected it shows all of the albums within this new genre... but then you can't use genre searching anymore.

The better way is to go into track info and make all new songs part of a compilation. Then when you go to compilations under the music directory of your iPod, it will show a playlist of albums (assuming you don't already have any compilations). Hope this is as useful to you as it has been to me. Let me know what you think.

mi ga korean (cwb)

I never usually go by myself to restaurants that aren't on street level. I'm ashamed of this, but it's so easy to get roped in by the bright lights and pushy hostesses on the street. I've never been crazy for Korean food, but when my aunt said that her Korean clients always go to this place across the street from Sogo I was happy to check it out. I actually liked it so much after the first time that I came back by myself the next day; the meal at Jin Luo Bao was still fresh in my mind, so at least I could make some sort of comparison.

I really liked the way that Mi Ga looked, the seats looked new and less like the diner that was Jin Luo Bao. All the Korean small dishes were essentially the same, there were a couple new ones as well. I had the mixed stone pot rice which was very good, I thought a little better than JLB. Unfortunately they don't give black sesame ice cream for dessert here, instead you just get a syrup drink--probably the only spot where JLB is better. Lunch prices are about half of dinner prices, so it was only 50HKD for my stone pot and all the smalls.

4 of 5, good value, pretty restaurant and a great lunch.

mi ga korean restaurant

9/f goldmark

no. 502 hennessy road

causeway bay

2576 2078