Sleeping With The Television On

I know. It's been awhile again. Not too much is going on here. Once you read this, you might stop wondering why I haven't written in so long.

Just so you rest easy, we did get the news that Micheal Jackson has left the building. I'll admit, I've got the Greatest Hits on my iTunes - strictly up until the 80's. I completely wrote the man off beyond the early part of that decade. (By the way, I'm not biased; I have cut-off points for the material and the shenanigans of other lapsed, self-indulgent, once-loved artists. See song above, the good ol' days, Mr. Joel.) Personally, even as a 10-year-old I didn't buy the whole sequined glove gimmick, but that was just my taste. In the last 20 years, between the trials, the lack of entertaining music, the baby-dangling, the increasingly frightening thing that had once been a nose - I was always amazed that he retained so many fanatical followers. Well. He's pulled off the ultimate comeback, hasn't he? You can't top an untimely death. It's not so bad to hear his music played more often, but I have chosen to avoid coverage of the memorial 'extravaganza.' It is a shame that such a talented kid became such a deteriorating shell of a human being, and he did contribute to music history, but I'll have to leave it at that.

July 1 was Handover Day (anniversary of Great Britain handing Hong Kong back to China). Several thousand people took to the streets to rally for democracy. I could hear them at times but I stayed inside that day. Paul passed through the crowds on his way home from work. Most people have the day off, but as usual he worked.

July 1 was also the day that smoking officially became prohibited in bars and restaurants here. I think there was already a law in place, but supposed loopholes meant that a few places could still allow it until July 1. After living in NY where that law was passed years ago and then NJ which soon followed, it was odd to come home with the smell of smoke on my clothes once we moved here. Obviously it doesn't affect us, except that Paul lost his last hopes of smoking the occasional cigar out in a bar. There are still plenty of places with outdoor spaces so I'm guessing that smoking will still be permitted if you're outside. Of course, there's also some crazy legislative situation that, if not ironed out by next month, could ban outdoor dining in parts of Hong Kong. Now, that would be a shame. We don't smoke, but we do eat.

There weren't any 4th of July fireworks, but we did get to go to a BBQ. My friend Maura and her husband have an apartment with a HUGE outdoor terrace. Seriously, it's almost the size of our apartment. Maura's husband Paul is actually Canadian (shh!) but handled the traditional grilled goods rather well and gladly participated in the spirit of the day. There were also several Brits there enjoying themselves. I guess they've moved on from that whole matter of revolution and independence, blah, blah. Good sports. It rained in the morning and it rained at night, but we made it through the festivities without getting wet, besides the usual July-in-Hong Kong-sweat. And I happened to find some of the best cupcakes I ever ate. You see, cake and pastries here sometimes look appetizing, but they frequently disappoint. A bakery called Sift opened down the street from us a few months ago and they exclusively sell cupcakes, and they looked promising. I always intended to try them so when the opportunity arose to bring a dessert to the party, cupcakes called out. They didn't disappoint. At all. Anyone here got another party coming up?

I've been looking in on my friend Maggie's two cats for the last week or two while she and her husband are visiting the U.S. They're pretty cute - as far as cats go. (Sorry, there are dog people and there are cat people.) They hid from me the first day and by today, which was my last visit before Maggie returns tomorrow, they beg me to play and they nuzzle my hands until they get some head rubbing and neck scratching. She also has goldfish and it's funny to watch the cats sit by the bowl and stalk the fish. Poor fish.

In health news, I haven't felt well on and off since we got back from Borneo. For two weeks, my stomach was unsettled. Then one day I woke up feeling awful with nausea and headache and dizziness and that fun stuff. Paul kindly came home from work and accompanied me to a doctor at a nearby hospital. The doctor suggested I stay overnight so I did. I'm not sure how necessary it was, but I felt badly enough to agree to it at the time. I was sort of dehydrated so one advantage of staying was having I.V. fluids. I felt better soon and couldn't wait to go home the next morning. After another couple of days I felt normal again for a week or two. This weekend my stomach became upset again. Maybe I picked something up in Borneo and it is still hanging around. I will probably go to the doctor this week. I guess that "Don't drink the water" business is serious. Not that I drank any tap water while we were traveling, but I did brush my teeth with it at times. This is only a guess anyway. I'm not self-diagnosing; I'm just thinking. I don't typically have stomach issues.

We don't let little stomach bugs stop us! We're planning a short trip in August, something less adventurous than the last one. I haven't booked anything yet, but it looks like we might go to Lombok, an island just east of Bali in Indonesia. I'll fill you in once it's arranged. I had wanted to go to a scenic spot in China called Guilin because it's only a 90 minute flight from here and the two people I know who have been there both really liked it. Also, our China visas expire at the end of August and I don't know if we would bother to get another. But the temperatures there are in the mid 90's right now with heat indexes like that of hell. I also read of flooding from heavy rains in that province last week. So... We'll probably settle for having seen Beijing in China.

The only other thing we had been doing recently was watching The Wire on DVD. We finished all 5 seasons a couple of weeks ago. This set of DVDs from Shenzhen didn't work out as well as the two seasons of Mad Men. Who knew that copies of DVDs that come from some guy in China who's hiding in a ceiling would be of poor quality? The first three seasons ran smoothly, but by the fourth, episodes were skipping, stopping and generally frustrating us at the worst moments. I guess you get what you pay for. I ended up downloading a handful of episodes from iTunes.

Anyway, we really liked the show. It was an HBO series that I think ended in 2008. We liked it much better than The Sopranos in the end. The writing was better in that every incident served a purpose in the greater story. I didn't know what it was about when we bought it. Paul just heard it was good. If I knew it was about drug dealers and cops and politicians in Baltimore, I probably would have passed. But it transcended its crime drama genre and was very intelligent and realistic and moving - once you pick up the lingo of the Baltimore streets. No doubt (see also: mos def). There were some great characters, and I miss them since we finished the show.

So, we need a new show on DVD, especially since it's summer rerun time. I know Mad Men starts again next month and Entourage is back (a silly one, but entertaining enough). We just like to have DVD options now that we're spoiled by them. We would probably prefer cable shows over network shows. And it's true that we don't like about 90% of what most people consider "must see." Just some possibilities:

Dexter
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
True Blood

Any fans or detractors on these? Any ideas are welcome. Well, not just any actually. Good stuff.