Big Smog

TEDtalks have become somewhat of a phenomenon since launching in the 1980s, sharing “ideas worth spreading” and providing knowledge and inspiration to the world. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and TEDx events were developed as local, self-organized talks that bring people together to share TED-like experiences.

This Saturday sees TEDxWanchai at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, running with the theme of 'Charitable Impact'. Brilliant, talented and successful speakers will share their real-life experiences about how they strived to make the world a better place. We’re particularly looking forward to the TEDx talk from Freddy Law – he left his job at Google to become a social entrepreneur and now trains students to start social projects in their local communities. The lovely Jocelyn Luko, Time Out’s cover model from our 3rd anniversary issue, will be MCing the event.

Note that TEDxWanchai is by invitation only, but email ticketing@tedxwanchai.com to try and request a pass to their 2012 event. If you were lucky enough to attend, let us know which TEDx talk you enjoyed the most.

August 6, 9am-1pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre – agnès b. CINEMA
www.tedxwanchai.com

Lourine Jennifer

Asia-Pacific’s best fighters. A sell out crowd at a packed arena. City of Dreams at the Asian Sin City. Could you ask for more?

Macau played host to Legend for the first time in its 5th installment on the 16th of July. Nine bouts between eighteen fighters took place before the champions for this series were decided – Korea’s Bae Myung Ho took the Welterweight award from Rod MacSwain and Yao Honggang took the Bantamweight division title.

It was hard enough getting there – an indoor passage through the City of Dreams underground walkway meant Time Out took several detours before finally arriving just in time for the event.

First up, Hong Kong representative Vincent Siu was against Sung Ming Yen from Chinese Taipei. Vincent trains at Impakt Gym in Hong Kong, where Time Out had previously engaged in a rigorous training course, and we were told that despite his background in kyokushin karate, it was the first time Vincent would be appearing in a proper mixed martial arts tournament, having recently trained in Brazilian jiujitsu. Vincent didn’t last long in the ring, losing in the first round by submission in 1:49, much to the disappointment of the large Hong Kong populace at the arena.

Most of the fights went to three rounds and finished with decisions. One exception was the fourth fight between Ken Hamamura from Japan and Wang Sai from China. In an even match up, Hamamura buckled in the second round as his leg gave way, allowing Wang to land enough blows to finish the match. Wang was declared the winner by TKO, sadly cutting the intense match up short.

In the most controversial match of the night, Philippines’ Mark Streigl was declared a split decision winner over Japan’s Yusuke Kawanago, to several jeers from the crowd who felt that Yusuke had dominated the match. Mark tried to take Yusuke down several times, knowing Yusuke’s dislike for a ground game. But Yusuke defended himself well and when it did go to the ground didn’t let Mark dominate him on the floor. The third round completely belong to Yusuke, who threw several combo punches and kicks cornering Mark in the process. It seemed like a clear enough decision, but the judges thought otherwise, much to the surprise and several gasps from the crowd.

The seventh fight between South Korea’s Nam Yui Chul and Australia’s Rob Hill was not a contest for the faint-hearted. Unlike the previous bouts which were largely based around trying to win points or going for a submission on the floor, the two went right at it from the start, dealing in punches and kicks, no holds barred. Nam’s deadly blows were too much for Rob Hill, who was left bloodied and wounded as the referee called a halt to the bout with 1:12 remaining in Round 2.

In our MMA and Muay Thai gym feature, we had asked several top trainers around the city who would win between Rod MacSwain and Bae Myung Ho. All the trainers went for Bae Myung Ho, declaring him a clear favourite to snatch the title from the New Zealander. And so it proved to be true – despite an even first round where MacSwain managed to thwart Bae’s attempts to take the game to the ground and landed some counterpunches, Bae won over eventually in the following two rounds – finishing it off with a ground and pound, earning a unanimous decision from the judges. Bae Myung Ho, who had to pull out of Legend 4 due to injury, will hopefully defend his title at Legend 6 in Macau in October.

Fight 1: Sung Ming-Yen (Chinese Taipei) beat Vincent Siu (Hong Kong) by submission.
Fight 2: Yang Hae Jun (South Korea) beat Gareth Earley (New Zealand) by unanimous decision.
Fight 3: Fransino Tirta (Indonesia) beat Wu Chengjie (China) by unanimous decision.
Fight 4: Wang Sai (China) beat Ken Hamamura (Japan) by total knock out.
Fight 5: Mark Streigl (Philippines) beat Yusuke Kawanago (Japan) by split decision.
Fight 6: Li Jingliang (China) beat Alex Niu (China) by unanimous decision.
Fight 7: Nam Yui Chul (South Korea) beat Rob Hill (Australia) by total knockout.
Fight 8: Bantamweight Championship: Yao Honggang (China) beat Jo Nam Jin (South Korea) by unanimous decision
Fight 9: Welterweight Championship: Bae Myung Ho (South Korea) beat Rod MacSwain (New Zealand) by unanimious decision.

The weather gods weren’t in our favour, but partiers prevailed by the Hard Rock Hotel poolside, making the best of it. After all, if you’re in a pool, you’re going to get wet anyway, right? DJs Gruv, Frankie Lam and Ryan Ash spun techno and dance tracks as the sun went down. Luckily, by the time headliner Judge Jules emerged, the rain subsided and the party truly kicked off. Time Out chose to stay warm and cosy in the nearby hot tub with our bubbly and brews, but we were soon ejected by the MTV Asia Team filming a spot. Sadly, we missed the 24 Herbs performance, but we hear the show was well received, and spotted the 24 boys hanging out by the poolside afterward.

After drying off and making ourselves dance-floor ready, we headed indoors to Club Cubic to catch Eddie Halliwell’s DJ set. It was our first visit to Cubic, a huge space with an impressive sound system. The crowd was an interesting mix of curious casino room revellers and SPLASH partiers with hair still wet from the pool, but everyone seemed to be enjoying the tunes, ourselves included.

June 30th saw the 14th anniversary of Hong Kong’s momentous handover from British to Chinese sovereignty; more importantly June 30th also saw the 1st anniversary of the city’s equally momentous weekly booze-fest, Hong Kong Pub Crawl. With a healthy dose of free shots, dangerously cheap drinks deal, the odd birthday cake going round and a casual magician thrown into the mix as well (what exactly they thought Paul Daniels could bring to a night out is anyone’s guess) it would have been downright foolish not to jump on the bandwagon.

The night opened with the surreal announcement from the Insenses (13, Lyndhurst Terrace) barman at just 9.45pm that they had completely run out of beer. But then again given that Insenses closely resembles a small cave with the 175 birthday revelers crammed inside surely exceeding the legal capacity several times over, and beers being priced at a cool $40 for 2 it was hardly surprising.

Moving on to Senses 99 (99F, Wellington St) and Makumba (48, Peel St) a combination of organizer Warren’s infectious enthusiasm, more ludicrously cheap drinks deals and some pumping African beatz ensured spirits remained high before the collective tramp down to fresh Sheung Wan hotspot XXX (212,Wing Lok St) to finish things off. Some would have questioned the club’s complete lack of any form of décor, some why the hell the toilet is outside and halfway down the road and others slightly confused by the bar managers decision to not stock any form of martini… But a refreshingly eclectic music selection, a lack of interior decorators on the crawl and the fact the Hong Kong Pub Crawl
crew had looked after us so well that no one really needed any martini, shone through. Hopefully one of many anniversaries to come…

Time Out Hong Kong and The Peninsula recently held our very first Open Mic Night at Salon de Ning. Nine talented constestants dazzled a packed and passionate audience with their singing (backed by a live band) and took home some fabulous prizes, including dinners, spa treatments and hampers. Look out for the next Open Mic Night on July 27!

Free house pours all night for participating performers and complimentary shots for their friends!

For more photos check out our facebook page: www.facebook.com/timeouthk

It is not often that we will promote a sale, but in this case we couldn't pass it up.

Announcing the “10,000 Yen in Japan for Kizuna 10-Day Sale”
The recent tragedy in Japan has shown that the Japanese people are unified in spirit with a great sense of national pride. This is also evident at Preferred Hotel Group’s ten hotels in Japan who has collaborated to bring visitors back into Japan by offering an amazing sale, hence the use of ‘Kizuna’ meaning “bonding” in Japanese. The 10,000 Yen in Japan for Kizuna 10-Day Sale offer is only open for booking for 10 days between July 6 – July 15, 2011 for stays until December 31, 2011. Each of the 10 hotels are offering a super rate of JPY10,000++ per room night with more benefits at Sterling Hotels.

Participating hotels include:

Preferred Hotels & Resorts
· Hotel New Otani “The Main”, Tokyo
· The Capitol Hotel Tokyu, Tokyo
Summit Hotels & Resorts
· Grand Pacific LE DAIBA, Tokyo
· Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, Tokyo
· Hotel New Grand, Yokohama
· Royal Park Hotel, Tokyo
· Yokohama Royal Park Hotel, Yokohama
Sterling Hotels
· Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo, Sapporo
· Oriental Hotel Hiroshima, Hiroshima
· Royal Park Shiodome Tower, Tokyo

For more information on the hotels and to book, visit www.PHGoffers.com/kizuna starting July 1.

Cultural Centre, Concert Hall, Saturday June 18

For the first installment of HKPO’s Tchaikovsky Festival, the orchestra offered the crowd pleasing Piano Concerto No. 1 and the potent Symphony No. 4. Joyce Yang, the soloist for the concerto, came to international attention when she took the silver medal in the 2005 Van Cliburn International Competition and became the youngest prizewinner in the competition’s history. In 2010, she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Yang’s technical ability was impressive. In the outer movements, the chords and octaves were handled with weight and depth of tone; and in the slow movement, the finger-work was dazzling. At a technical level, Yang's playing will not ruffle any Tchaikovsky purist's feathers.
However, it takes more than these qualities to make this heavily-played concerto fly. What was lacking was a distinctive interpretation of the piece, spontaneous inflections and calculated surprises that subtly colour without breaking the musical thread. The HKPO on the other hand, led by maestro Edo de Waart, played in equal partnership with Yang and unabashedly pushed the orchestra to the full-blooded boundary of the romantic manner to good effect.

After the intermission, de Waart once again displayed his command for musical narrative in Symphony No. 4. Throughout the first movement, the tension held beautifully, an important feat with one of Tchaikovsky’s longest symphonic movements; the slow movement opened simply and almost proceeded on autopilot; the Scherzo made the most of the balalaika pizzicati with subtle graduation and perceptive use of colors; and the finale was unavoidably exciting. Tchaikovsky’s splendid string writing and resonant brass scoring is such that, when played well, the effect truly excites and the end culminates with visceral power as it did here. It was a fine performance.

Photo: Oh Seuk Hoon
 

Our favourite musical body part is coming to Hong Kong. Elbow, the Mercury Prize-winning, ever-present sound of credible post-Brit pop, bring their wistful melodies, hymn-like rock anthems and the smoky, soaring vocals of Guy Garvey to KITEC on Friday July 22, thanks to the folks at Untitled Entertainment.

Their latest album, Build a Rocket Boys, was released earlier this year, going high on world-wide charts. Along with the super 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid, the album just confirms that, even 20 years after they started up on the streets of Manchester, Elbow is only just getting started. [Insert your own tennis elbow gag here].

Tickets are $480 and will be available on HK Ticketing (3128 8288; hkticketing.com) from June 16. 

Time Out will have an interview with the band in coming issues. In the meantime, enjoy some of these. Boom!

The Venetian Macao, May 25-27

From May 25-27, the Venetian Macao held its inaugural Venetian Carnival, bringing the taste of Brazil's massive party to our neck of the woods. And, naturally, they went all out in a way only Macau can. Masks galore, human bubbles on the lagoon, flowing caipirinhas, capoeira performers and lots of T+A (of course) were all on abundant display. We checked it out, here's how it went down.

Friday

Fireworks, dancers, jugglers, carnival artists and plenty of fire-twirling bandits all graced the opening on Friday. The party encompassed the whole resort, with stalls setup around the exterior of the Venetian, but the main event was at the poolside Samba Party, a high-energy bash that celebrated the spirit of Brazilian Carnival The Beija Flor samba group from Rio de Janeiro turned up and generated a fair amount of samba heat with their booty-shaking ways. Here's a tip, if partying by the poolside, book one of the bungalows.

Saturday

The Carnival atmosphere continued for the whole weekend. But when at the Venetian, it's almost mandatory to check out the latest crazy thing on offer.
 

And what could be more bizarre (in a sub-tropical, humid environment) than their latest attraction IceWorld, a wonderland of sculptured, coloured ice that features a glassy Ruins of St. Paul’s and the Guia Lighthouse. There's London’s Big Ben clock tower, Rome’s Coliseum, New York’s Statue of Liberty, India’s Taj Mahal and Paris’ Eiffel Tower. Some 118sq.m. is devoted to scenes from the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West, and 196sq.m. to Beijing’s imposing Temple of Heaven. It's cold, damn cold. We advise against wearing sandals. Luckily, jackets are provided. 

KITEC, Thursday May 26

We get that The Drums are cool. Like super, hipster cool. Just how cool, however, became clear when the hot, hyped New Yorkers brought their dance-saturated indie pop ditties to KITEC. They’re so cool, they can pull off denim jackets; so cool, they make their agitated, restless, non-rhythmic dancing infectious; so cool, they can pull off a memorable gig with less-than-amazing sound.

Their catchiness of their groove-inducing tunes played a small part. Hits Let’s Go Surfing and Best Friend received the most frenetic fan reception, but it was the dark ballad, Down by the Water, that was perhaps the highlight, where the vocals of frontman Jonny Pierce pierced through the hum, backed by a more than willing crowd.

Stage ejections, crowd surfing, and a general dancing air abounded. It was that kind of gig. We put it largely down to the fact that The Drums are cool. Like super, hipster cool.