Welcome to the eastern edition of the online studio of Francisco Mattos, built w/ printed pieces, design endeavors, personal projects, experiments.
-| May 2019 |-
❛
Here’s a stain of perfume on an old ball gown.
❜
— poem by Yukio Mishima
CORNERS OF HONG KONG
✶|Tiger Balm Gardens
██ Built back in 1932 to act as the backyard to a tycoon's mansion, the Tiger Balm Gardens in Happy Valley is a one-of-a-kind folly. On the steepest hillsides imaginable, inhospitable to real estate development, Aw Boon Haw ("Gentle Tiger") envisioned a human-size depiction of a moral Chinese universe. At the top of all this is the all-white seven-storey Tiger Pagoda, presiding over the phantasm at its base. On the lower right there is a crop of clouds known as the Blue Mountain.
██ The Blue Mountain in this psychedelic park is a sculpted scenario, based on Daoist descriptions, whipped up w/ plaster-of-paris applied to the cliff-like mountainside. Staircases in the clouds and elsewhere act as bridge btw. situations.
██ Natural ledges and spurs were leveraged by stonemasons for passageways and platforms, galleries and lookout points. Artisans working w/ chicken-wire and cement shaped natural forms found only in dreams. Where none existed before, shortcuts and crossings accrue bringing forth altitudinal alcoves, blessed benches, and rooms w/ scenic views.
██ This garden of steep and narrow steps enhances the mystical acts of ascension and descension: to the Shangri-la of heaven or the stockades of Hell . Vistas retreat, and suddenly destinations take on labyrinthean lengths, up and down, from one scenario to the next.
Entrance to the Tiger Balm Gardens, where the first steps already beguile.
██
—|“Dumbell” Island
|• • |
In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, under terms of a peace agreement, 200 small islands around Hong Kong, and an even larger area on the mainland, were leased to the United Kingdom by China for a period lasting 99 years. One of these islands is
Cheung Chau, 12 miles southwest of Hong Kong Island, nicknamed “Dumbell” Island due to its shape, giving it not one but two cove beaches. In those early times, it was a fishing village, and settled by Hoklo (fishing folk), Hakka, Chiu Chau, and Yue Ca people. Over time the vessel-friendly harbour coalesced into a commercial hub for local fisheries shopping for fishing gear or needing a boat repaired. (Cheung Chau is an isle sandwiched btw. larger islands Lantau and Lamma.) They were soon joined by other island dwellers, running fisheries and small farms, who sailed there to do business. To this day the island (長洲 in Chinese, "long state") pays heed to various cultural practices by putting on full-fledged festivals, showing what it was all about. There are eight.
TRADITIONAL FESTIVALS
| 1. |
THE
Lunar New Year Festival on Cheung Chau, held the first day of first month of the new lunar calendar, is total old-school.
| 2. |
NIGHT TIME is when the Lantern Festival gets going, held on the last full day of the new year festivities, and somewhat akin, in symbolism, to Valentine's Day. As the sun sets, folks carrying red lanterns w/ riddles written on them parade around town, in search of riddle-solvers.
| 3. |
MARTIAL ARTISTS GATHER every year to celebrate the
Birthday of Yuen Mo, a high-ranking deity in Taoism (黑帝 Black Deity).
| 4. |
DEITY TO SEAFARERS and a sea goddess in her own right, the
Birthday of Kwan Yin is observed by sailors who know that her miraculous interventions protect them.
| 5. |
A RURAL FESTIVAL w/ Taoist roots. Villagers would wander the island decked out as divines. Inside a contraption depicting their avatars as giants, they would re-enact a ceremony to ward off evil spirits. The lineup always will incl. the goddess of mercy (Kuan Yin), goddess of the sea (Tin Hau), god of the south (Hung Hsing), and a revered divinity named Pak Tai. Together they get to sponsor the annual
Bun Festival, which takes place over four days and three nights.
The original band of prime movers is nowadays attended by a parade of floats, and the majority of them feature children performing acrobatic mojo. The centerpiece of the celebration – and its highlight – is a competition to see who can scramble to the top of a high tower that has been festooned w/ buns, the object being the first one to snatch the very top bun. The core tradition being an example of exorcism, only vegetarian fare is served.
| 6. |
A ROWBOAT RACE happens around Chinese summer solstice and takes place during the
Dragon Boat Festival, to remember a poet and minister, who drowned himself when he was accused of treason. Festival food is a tamale Chinese style: glutinous rice cradling meat and either peanuts or yellow beans, wrapped w/ lotus leaves an steamed.
| 7. |
MODEL OF CONFUCIANISM, present at the Battle of Red Cliffs, a battle that ended the Han dynasty, then after many exploits became fictionalized in prose, and went on to attain immortality as emperor deity of Chinese folk religion. Buddhists and Taoists alike are welcome, during the
Birthday of Guang Gong celebrations.
| 8. |
HARVESTING TIME is when mooncakes, made w/ sweet bean or lotus seed pastes, and only available during this period, are a good way to fatten up for winter. Welcome to the
Mid-Autumn Festival.
And if one can agree that films too are festivals, there once was an on-going one, Cheung Chau Theatre, an
outdoor cinema
.
TODAY
Fishing still happens, and Cheung Chau is the place to go for seafood. Tourists now know "dumbell island" and its swimming beaches. Ferry from Hong Kong takes 55 minutes, 20 less if its a high-speed, running every 30 minutes or so depending on hour and day. There are no roads to speak of, it's a land of lanes. Walking the one square mile island is easy enough; and bycicles are a common sight.
—|Stanley Prison
|• • |
In the 19th century, on the ample spur of a large peninsula jutting south to the South China Seas, the British government established an ideal military barrack w/ a naval base, on flat terrain. By 1937, it was enlarged w/ steel, concret and stone, and became the Hong Kong Prison at Stanley, its second oldest security site, still in use today.
|• • |
This model prison became renowned as one of the finest in the British empire, w/ six cell blocks behind an 18-foot wall. And, until it was abolished in 1993, the place for executions. During World War II, the Japanese turned this prison itno an internment camp.
|• • |
Today, Stanley Prison has capacity for 1,714 inmates and a staff plus officers numbering 800. It is one of six maximum security sites in Hong Kong, and the largest, housing male inmates serving medium-, long-term, and life sentences.
|• • |
A cell is 80 square feet, and has a bed, desk, chair, sink and toilet; one toilet roll is given out every three weeks. Wakeup is 6:30a, lunch midday, dinner is 4:30p, bedtime 10p.|• • |
One hour of free time every day, and the yard is available. There is no internet access, but letter writing is allowed, as is ten minutes of phone time once a month. ██
Today
In all, there are now 29 security sites in Hong Kong, w/ a capacity for 8,400 inmates. In correctional institutions, half-way houses, and custodial wards in public hospitals, psychological treatments are offered as a part of the care.
|• • |
Inmates who are violent, dangerous or criminally insane go to Liu Lam Psychiatric Centre.
For women there is either Wu Correctional Institution, which is minimum- to medium-security, or Tai Lam Centre for Women, a maximum-security site.
The elderly inmates, those 65 or older and who are of low-security risk, get housed at Tai Lam Correctional Institution.
‒|Walled City
██
When the Japanese brought the war to Hong Kong in 1941, they commandeered a Chinese military base in Kowloon district, and that was their heaquarters. After the war, squatters began moving in, sparking a territorial dispute btw. China the the British colonial government. Overnight, this six-acre enclave relapsed into the everyday kind of lawlessness of a Chinese life, and British law did not apply. Kowloon Walled City was finally demolished in the 1990s, but not before some 300 high-rise apartments and an estimated population of 33,000 roamed about its rubbish-filled alleys, where sunlight never penetrates. (Photos by Greg Girard, Ian Lambot)
██
Instead of a whole chicken, this home recipe is for cut-up pieces, making an Asian comfort food that much easier to eat.
| Rub pieces of cut-up chicken (leave skin on) w/ sugar and set aside. | In a deep pot add 4 cups cold water, 3/4 cup of Shaoxing wine, 3/4 cup of dark soy sauce, 2 large pieces rock sugar (wong bing tong), 2 star anise. Add in 4 cloves of smashed garlic, and peeled and smashed fresh ginger.
| Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
| Immerse chicken pieces and cook covered for 10 minutes. | Turn heat down and simmer for half an hour and let stand 5 miunutes uncovered.
| Remove chicken parts and brush w/ sesame oil while still warm. |
Sprinkle w/ chopped scallions. |
No salt, pepper or dressing. However, time-sensitive.
| One and a half cups watercress leaves (only).
| One cup chopped and pitted Italian black olives.
| Peel and dice 4 or 5 Fuji apples, toss w/ lemon juice.
| Combine well the three ingredients and serve in chilled bowls. | No dressing needed. Do not salt and pepper.
| Serve w/ homemade croutons (chopped stale bread tossed in a skillet w/ one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon oilive oil, garlic (one clove per person), and lots of black pepper).
Fry quarter pound of cod (or sea bass) w/ cumin, coriander, saffron powder, salt and pepper. Let cool when done. Knead into pastry dough:
2½-lb flour
1½ cup sugar
16 egg yolks
2 egg white
13 oz. shortening
2 tsp salt
¼ cup of Chinese cooking wine (sheung jing)
5 chopped olives
Two tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
| Shape dough in pie pan, and leave enough for top.
| Fill w/ fish, cover w/ dough and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until brown. | Serve at room temperature. |
•
Recipe
mackerel entrails
anchovies
oysters
sea urchins
sea nettles
crabfishes
lobsters
livers of sea barbles
Add salt to various combinations of above ingredients, mix well, and store until fermented. Also known by the names garum, liquamen, muria, and allec.
“ … As a result of its popularity, the production, consumption, importing and exporting of the
traditional Roman fish sauce was a not insignificant aspect of the Roman economy. Surviving records tell us that citizens complained about the thick stench of fish parts being liquefied and fermented in a potent brew of salt and spices; as a result, fish sauce factories were moved to the outskirts of town — and outsourced to places like Spain.…”
A medicinal beverage, also called
tumeric milk.
In a small pot add one cup of milk, one pitted date, tsp tumeric powder, tsp ghee (or coconut oil), ½ tsp fresh ginger, pinch of cinnamon, one cardomon pod, black pepper. | Place pot, covered, over medium heat and then low heat, for 15 minutes.
The crown of Chinese cuisine is called many things, incl. century egg ("
pidan"), hundred-year, thousand-year, pine-patterned, and millennium.
Here is a recipe by Salvador Dali.
1 dozen eggs
1-1/2 quarts of water
5 whole cloves
4 tea-bags
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of vinegar
2 lemons (cut in 8 pieces)
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 teaspoon of thyme
Tabasco sauce
First, boil the eggs for ten minutes in salted boiling water. Then take them out, put them under cold running water which will make it easier to shell them. In the same water in which the eggs had boiled, add the cloves, sugar, vinegar, a lot of Tabasco sauce, the lemons (cut in eighths) and thyme. Boil for 15 minutes. Shut off the flame, dip in the tea-bag and let them steep for 10 minutes. | In a jar, put the diced onions and garlic. Add the shelled eggs, and pour the broth so that the eggs are completely immersed. Close the jar and keep it on the lower shelf of your refrigerator. | Be patient for three weeks before opening the jar and serving. These eggs go well with cold meats and fish.”
A simple Portuguese
soup that can be dressed up w/ ham hocks and become similar to Italian wedding soup.
| Fry up 2 or 3 chorizo (no oil needed) until slightly crispy and et aside. | In a heavy pan melt half tablespoon unsalted butter, then onion, garlic, olive oil, one thinly-sliced leek and cook five minutes. | Add one cubed potato, salt and paprika. | Cook for a few minutes then add hot stock (vegetable or chicken), teaspoon of tomato purée, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until potatoes are almost done. | Add one and a half cups of shredded kale w/ the stems removed, and cook 30 minutes or until done. Season to taste. | Top w/ chorizo and a good drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
When bottled sauce doesn't cut it.
Mix together: one tablespoon vinegar, two tablespoon ketchup, two tablespoon sugar, heaping teaspoon soy sauce, pinch of salt, 5 to 10 drops Tobasco.
A Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Mix together one finely sliced bird's eye chili, one crushed garlic clove, tbsp fish sauce, tbsp fresh lime juice, and tbsp (dissolved) sugar.
Osaka
A confluence of cities and suburbs in the Kansai region of Japan, where 19 million inhabitants call home, is the megalopolis of Osaka, known as the “nation‘s kitchen.” With an extensive warren of underground shopping arcades as well as the largest slum in the country, it sits by the
Yodo River where it empties into Osaka Bay before reaching the Pacific Ocean.
✈¦ Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea
A country swept by periods wherein high levels of rape, robbery and murder is Papua New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and Port Moresby is its capital city. Amongst a rampant gang culture, the Raskol, the population cope w/ poor healthcare and poverty, and a squatter camp that stretches six miles. Currently Port Moresby ranks as the worst capital to live in in the world. Photo is of Port Moresby Harbour looking southeast and the Coral Sea beyond. In his autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways", Errol Flynn describes seeing Port Moresby for the first time in 1930:
"We piloted our ship into the rather fine harbor of Port Moresby. We arrived during the rainy season and the whole area was brilliant green. The region seemed beautiful to me and I poked around searching its resources. About thirty miles from the port the Laloki River flowed through an emerald countryside. I fell in love w/ it. My partners made their way back to Australia, but I decided to settle there. ... Around me, from Laloki to Port Moresby, was a territory plentiful w/ nutmeg, rattan cane, the okari nut, bananas, mangrove, coconuts, and sandalwood. There was fish in the river, and the natives brought food to my door. For a pence or two I could have the fruit of the region."
OBIT
Pamela Rita de Oliveira Mattos Zauberer
❝Great cook, talented at crochet, creative, child-like, excruciatingly honest, tenacious, compassionate and sensitive; my mother was all these things.❞ — Jasmine
5.2.1940 – 5.3.2016|-Pam led a glamorous life as a 1960s airline stewardessfor Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong, where she was born and raised. At work she would be pulled into photo shoots when film and television stars flew in. | Chosen to represent the airline, she participated in fashion shows, ad campaigns, and public relations as the face of flight. She traveled around the world, accruing trinkets from all cultures and a lifelong admiration of all cuisines. She traveled to all the airports in Asia, and in her suitcase out would pop magazines from everywhere else. | After landing in America, she struck out to be on her own and moved to New York, abandoning us all here in California. She dated the house photographer at Mad magazine, and lived a stone’s throw from Maxwell’s Plum, a “…flamboyant restaurant and singles bar that, more than any place of its kind, symbolized two social revolutions of the 1960s — sex and food,” located at 64th and First Avenue in Manhattan. Her walk up had a bathtub in the kitchen, sharing a hot faucet w/ the sink. |While helping a friend (wo)man a street fair booth, Pam met many people, including a man who immediately offered some helpful advice. Pam shot back and challenged him to come around to the other side and manage the booth himself, since he “...clearly knew what to do.” Laszlo disappeared and came back w/ two hot dogs and a lemonade, walked around the booth, and sat down next to her; two weeks later they were married.
|Laszlo Zauberer, native of Hungary, was driving a cab in NYC when he met Pam on his one day off. An accomplished painter of the school of naive art, and the love of her life, they remained inseparable for the next 40 years. | After the birth of their daughter, Pam and Laszlo made the move to upstate New York. Never one to shy away from conflict, her generosity, thoughts and sometimes vengeance were doled out as she saw fit to those who crossed her path. Whether it was redeeming a raincheck at a grocery store or haggling over an item at a yard sale, her sense of fairness and authority got her into heated debates. | On the night of May 3 2016, Pamela Rita de Oliveira Mattos Zauberer passed away at home and in her bed w/ Laszlo and Jasmine by her side. In true stoic fashion, she had no complaints of pain. She had just celebrated her birthday the day before, and ate carrot cake, her favorite. She was 76 years old. -|
Benjamin Leung Gok Wing
2.7.1944 – 9.4.2013|-Ben visited Hong Kong at the beginning of 2013. What he must have thought about his hometown he is not aorund to tell me, but I know it’s the first vacation he’s had in a while. | It was there that Ben met my sister Sylvia, when they were both young and working in the same office. At that time my sister was learning to drive a stick-shift car and for hours and hours after dinner she would be out taking driving lessons w/ an instructor to god knows where. | Ben would also go off on his own as a young man, but where he went you can always find on a map: a local swimming pool, or the nearby basketball court. He left these pursuits behind when he came to San Francisco, and eventually took up gardening: on 44th Avenue, and later out on Bay Farm Island. Both had sandy soil, hard to take care of. | On Bay Farm he had a wisteria in ground next to a loquat tree in a pot. Ben was fearless and grew everything. And those that took to his care, he made green. -|
The Ashes of Time
Time to rely on self-confidence, to turn away from self-contemplation, and greet the gathering ends of a twelve-year cycle, imparting eddies of karma for the next cycle, and the ability to discern benevolence from malevolence in oneself.
CORNERS OF HONG KONG
✶|Tiger Balm Gardens
██ Built back in 1932 to act as the backyard to a tycoon's mansion, the Tiger Balm Gardens in Happy Valley is a one-of-a-kind folly. On the steepest hillsides imaginable, inhospitable to real estate development, Aw Boon Haw ("Gentle Tiger") envisioned a human-size depiction of a moral Chinese universe. At the top of all this is the all-white seven-storey Tiger Pagoda, presiding over the phantasm at its base. On the lower right there is a crop of clouds known as the Blue Mountain.
██ The Blue Mountain in this psychedelic park is a sculpted scenario, based on Daoist descriptions, whipped up w/ plaster-of-paris applied to the cliff-like mountainside. Staircases in the clouds and elsewhere act as bridge btw. situations.
██ Natural ledges and spurs were leveraged by stonemasons for passageways and platforms, galleries and lookout points. Artisans working w/ chicken-wire and cement shaped natural forms found only in dreams. Where none existed before, shortcuts and crossings accrue bringing forth altitudinal alcoves, blessed benches, and rooms w/ scenic views.
██ This garden of steep and narrow steps enhances the mystical acts of ascension and descension: to the Shangri-la of heaven or the stockades of Hell . Vistas retreat, and suddenly destinations take on labyrinthean lengths, up and down, from one scenario to the next.
Entrance to the Tiger Balm Gardens, where the first steps already beguile.
██
—|“Dumbell” Island
|• • |
In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, under terms of a peace agreement, 200 small islands around Hong Kong, and an even larger area on the mainland, were leased to the United Kingdom by China for a period lasting 99 years. One of these islands is
Cheung Chau, 12 miles southwest of Hong Kong Island, nicknamed “Dumbell” Island due to its shape, giving it not one but two cove beaches. In those early times, it was a fishing village, and settled by Hoklo (fishing folk), Hakka, Chiu Chau, and Yue Ca people. Over time the vessel-friendly harbour coalesced into a commercial hub for local fisheries shopping for fishing gear or needing a boat repaired. (Cheung Chau is an isle sandwiched btw. larger islands Lantau and Lamma.) They were soon joined by other island dwellers, running fisheries and small farms, who sailed there to do business. To this day the island (長洲 in Chinese, "long state") pays heed to various cultural practices by putting on full-fledged festivals, showing what it was all about. There are eight.
TRADITIONAL FESTIVALS
| 1. |
THE
Lunar New Year Festival on Cheung Chau, held the first day of first month of the new lunar calendar, is total old-school.
| 2. |
NIGHT TIME is when the Lantern Festival gets going, held on the last full day of the new year festivities, and somewhat akin, in symbolism, to Valentine's Day. As the sun sets, folks carrying red lanterns w/ riddles written on them parade around town, in search of riddle-solvers.
| 3. |
MARTIAL ARTISTS GATHER every year to celebrate the
Birthday of Yuen Mo, a high-ranking deity in Taoism (黑帝 Black Deity).
| 4. |
DEITY TO SEAFARERS and a sea goddess in her own right, the
Birthday of Kwan Yin is observed by sailors who know that her miraculous interventions protect them.
| 5. |
A RURAL FESTIVAL w/ Taoist roots. Villagers would wander the island decked out as divines. Inside a contraption depicting their avatars as giants, they would re-enact a ceremony to ward off evil spirits. The lineup always will incl. the goddess of mercy (Kuan Yin), goddess of the sea (Tin Hau), god of the south (Hung Hsing), and a revered divinity named Pak Tai. Together they get to sponsor the annual
Bun Festival, which takes place over four days and three nights.
The original band of prime movers is nowadays attended by a parade of floats, and the majority of them feature children performing acrobatic mojo. The centerpiece of the celebration – and its highlight – is a competition to see who can scramble to the top of a high tower that has been festooned w/ buns, the object being the first one to snatch the very top bun. The core tradition being an example of exorcism, only vegetarian fare is served.
| 6. |
A ROWBOAT RACE happens around Chinese summer solstice and takes place during the
Dragon Boat Festival, to remember a poet and minister, who drowned himself when he was accused of treason. Festival food is a tamale Chinese style: glutinous rice cradling meat and either peanuts or yellow beans, wrapped w/ lotus leaves an steamed.
| 7. |
MODEL OF CONFUCIANISM, present at the Battle of Red Cliffs, a battle that ended the Han dynasty, then after many exploits became fictionalized in prose, and went on to attain immortality as emperor deity of Chinese folk religion. Buddhists and Taoists alike are welcome, during the
Birthday of Guang Gong celebrations.
| 8. |
HARVESTING TIME is when mooncakes, made w/ sweet bean or lotus seed pastes, and only available during this period, are a good way to fatten up for winter. Welcome to the
Mid-Autumn Festival.
And if one can agree that films too are festivals, there once was an on-going one, Cheung Chau Theatre, an
outdoor cinema
.
TODAY
Fishing still happens, and Cheung Chau is the place to go for seafood. Tourists now know "dumbell island" and its swimming beaches. Ferry from Hong Kong takes 55 minutes, 20 less if its a high-speed, running every 30 minutes or so depending on hour and day. There are no roads to speak of, it's a land of lanes. Walking the one square mile island is easy enough; and bycicles are a common sight.
—|Stanley Prison
|• • |
In the 19th century, on the ample spur of a large peninsula jutting south to the South China Seas, the British government established an ideal military barrack w/ a naval base, on flat terrain. By 1937, it was enlarged w/ steel, concret and stone, and became the Hong Kong Prison at Stanley, its second oldest security site, still in use today.
|• • |
This model prison became renowned as one of the finest in the British empire, w/ six cell blocks behind an 18-foot wall. And, until it was abolished in 1993, the place for executions. During World War II, the Japanese turned this prison itno an internment camp.
|• • |
Today, Stanley Prison has capacity for 1,714 inmates and a staff plus officers numbering 800. It is one of six maximum security sites in Hong Kong, and the largest, housing male inmates serving medium-, long-term, and life sentences.
|• • |
A cell is 80 square feet, and has a bed, desk, chair, sink and toilet; one toilet roll is given out every three weeks. Wakeup is 6:30a, lunch midday, dinner is 4:30p, bedtime 10p.|• • |
One hour of free time every day, and the yard is available. There is no internet access, but letter writing is allowed, as is ten minutes of phone time once a month. ██
Today
In all, there are now 29 security sites in Hong Kong, w/ a capacity for 8,400 inmates. In correctional institutions, half-way houses, and custodial wards in public hospitals, psychological treatments are offered as a part of the care.
|• • |
Inmates who are violent, dangerous or criminally insane go to Liu Lam Psychiatric Centre.
For women there is either Wu Correctional Institution, which is minimum- to medium-security, or Tai Lam Centre for Women, a maximum-security site.
The elderly inmates, those 65 or older and who are of low-security risk, get housed at Tai Lam Correctional Institution.
‒|Walled City
██
When the Japanese brought the war to Hong Kong in 1941, they commandeered a Chinese military base in Kowloon district, and that was their heaquarters. After the war, squatters began moving in, sparking a territorial dispute btw. China the the British colonial government. Overnight, this six-acre enclave relapsed into the everyday kind of lawlessness of a Chinese life, and British law did not apply. Kowloon Walled City was finally demolished in the 1990s, but not before some 300 high-rise apartments and an estimated population of 33,000 roamed about its rubbish-filled alleys, where sunlight never penetrates. (Photos by Greg Girard, Ian Lambot)
██
Osaka
A confluence of cities and suburbs in the Kansai region of Japan, where 19 million inhabitants call home, is the megalopolis of Osaka, known as the “nation‘s kitchen.” With an extensive warren of underground shopping arcades as well as the largest slum in the country, it sits by the
Yodo River where it empties into Osaka Bay before reaching the Pacific Ocean.
✈¦ Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea
A country swept by periods wherein high levels of rape, robbery and murder is Papua New Guinea, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, and Port Moresby is its capital city. Amongst a rampant gang culture, the Raskol, the population cope w/ poor healthcare and poverty, and a squatter camp that stretches six miles. Currently Port Moresby ranks as the worst capital to live in in the world. Photo is of Port Moresby Harbour looking southeast and the Coral Sea beyond. In his autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways", Errol Flynn describes seeing Port Moresby for the first time in 1930:
"We piloted our ship into the rather fine harbor of Port Moresby. We arrived during the rainy season and the whole area was brilliant green. The region seemed beautiful to me and I poked around searching its resources. About thirty miles from the port the Laloki River flowed through an emerald countryside. I fell in love w/ it. My partners made their way back to Australia, but I decided to settle there. ... Around me, from Laloki to Port Moresby, was a territory plentiful w/ nutmeg, rattan cane, the okari nut, bananas, mangrove, coconuts, and sandalwood. There was fish in the river, and the natives brought food to my door. For a pence or two I could have the fruit of the region."
E A S T
Welcome to the online studio of Francisco Mattos, built w/ printed pieces, design endeavors, personal projects, and tryouts for web layouts.
On seeing Hong Kong for the first time
Excerpt from “Hongkong” by W.H. Auden, Collected Shorter Poems 1927-57. In 1939, W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood traveled to China and wrote a book about it.
1871
Theme Park
In 1871 Hong Kong fell under the sway of a Victorian conception of a rebuilt Eden, gaining clout since the 18th Century, one that can be classified – and caged – for the edification and education of humankind. It is one of the oldest gardens of its kind in the world; and in its turn has been tendered to, coddled at, and dissected every one in a while.
Thirty years after the island, a stone’s throw from the mainland of China, was established as a royal crown colony by Britain, in 1871: a large parcel of land on Government HIll, 500 feet above sea level, where construction was going on to build Government House (begun 1860) and where the sitting governor was temporarily housed, conducting official business all the while puttering in his backyard w/ the young science of botany, applying his office to re-create the first garden; and w/in sight of the eastern realm of the celestials.
Within a few seasons, the appropriated space became enclosed ground, under the guidance of careful hands and inquiring minds. Flowerbeds and paths w/ gas lamps. Stonework and grand staircases. Even an animal enclosure (one of the first in the world). Here, and elsewhere in their colonies, the Victorians set up yet one more living laboratory, studied the flora and fauna, forget to look at themselves.
Since it began life in 1864, when still tendered personally by the governor, until today, the gardens have always been open and free to the public. In 1975 it was renamed, but locals have always known it as (in English) the Botanic Garden. The Chinese call it, have always called it, 兵頭花園 (bing tau fa yuen), “commander-in-chief’s garden”.
Eden In the East
In 1871, a Victorian laboratory was set up by the British Botanic Society in Hong Kong. It began as a garden behind the Governor‘s House, halfway up the Peak.
By the time the first governor of Hong Kong laid down the beginnings of what will become the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, his wife had a hand in the planning. And subsequent governors carried on the work. And their wives too, as well as gardeners, builders, and laborers, all took charge and began to tame the unfriendly slope, sweeping upwards to meet the Peak. Into the ground went palm and trees from near and far. Banyans were tucked about to create backdrops. Ferns sheltered the much-sought-after sensitive plant, a natural wonder. The only india rubber tree for miles around can only be found within these grounds. Indigenous plants met their tropical and sub-tropical selves.
1841–1941 Avenue of Gum Trees, early 20th century. A bronze statue of KING GEORGE VI was erected in the Old Garden in 1941 on the 100th anniversary of British colonial rule. + Sketch by Gary Yeung. + Photo by Lau Ching Ping [verification needed].
The first superintendent of gardens was a British botanist by the name of Charles Ford. The front entrance is on Albany Road, right side, which became the Old Garden. His domain extends over to the left side of the road also, the New Garden, a space of about equal size. The whole surrounded by Robinson Road, Upper Albert Road, Garden Road, and Glenealy.
Ferns took to the site very well and produced profusely, offering shade and, more importantly, privacy. Overnight, this open air conservatory had turned into a living paradise for Adamses wanting somewhere to take their eager Eves. The helpful illumination of the paths and staircases w/ gas lamps that stay lit until midnight offered even the animals in the zoo some measure of a safe haven.
It was deemed safe enough that late into the evening, dating couples took to strolling among evening shadows, listening to birdsong and holding hands. Here was where the norfolk island pine can be seen, nodding its airy fingers at the royal palms. Over there a white jade orchid tree perfumes the nearby, grateful, bench. Roses, mock lime, orange-jessamine, sweet osmanthus, and the “kwai-fah” add other scents. And other paths.
• Visible Invisible
Jules Verne in Hong Kong
At the invitation of botanist Charles Ford, Jules Verne travelled to the colony in 1865 to help document the life aquatic. Verne was doing research on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and spent six months learning the local language and taking down oral history. Sadly, going to the best sources for authentic information on the underwater world of HK didn’t make it into the final book; set in 1866, it came out in 1870. An article on his searchings and findings finally appeared, in the June 15 1884 issue of L’Algerie magazine, featuring artwork by Alphonse de Neuville, Édouard Riou, and Macau-based George Chinnery.
The Old Garden, w/ its shady boulevards and flowerbeds, came w/ an aviary and a green house, where ferns, bromeliads, orchids, climbers and house plants lived contentedly.
The focal feature, the Fountain Terrace Garden, had a fifty feet wide circular pond, raised just so to allow sitting along the rim, w/ fountain works in the center, and home to water lilies. The terrace was edged on four sides w/ herbs and year round flowering shrubs. Around the bend a children’s playground could be heard [need photo].
On the western side of Albany Road is the New Garden, started in 1876 to house animal enclosures, ending up chock-a-bloc w/ uncomfortable mammals (none larger than an ape) and reptiles commingling their noises and odors. All came in carted, and unbidden: the american flamingo is left to woo the hawaiian goose, the red-crowned crane steers clear of the greek tortoise, a young burmese python hiding from the too-curious emperor tamarin.
Mimosa Pudica — The mimosa is a creeping annual or perennial herb of the pea family Fabaceae, often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched, defending themselves from harm, and re-open a few minutes later. The species is native to South America and Central America, but is now a pantropical weed. Grows mostly in undisturbed shady areas, under trees or shrubs.
After a hundred years of ignonimity, major renovations were undertaken in 1976, and the beleaguered beasts given new digs and modern zoology practises. Forty new or renovated enclosures to separate the reptiles from the mammals, and everyone from the birds, on the other side of Albany. Twin programs were established to study captive- as well as conservation-breeding techniques; and co-existence can once again have try-outs.
A pedestrian tunnel under Albany Road has always connected the two sides, creating a grotto where none had existed. Today 900 species live side by side and learn how how to get along in a very crowded city.
| BOTANICAL GARDENS FOOTNOTES
[1]
In 1975, the garden complex was renamed the HK Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It is second in size, after Victoria Park, in public space; together they cover 215 acres of parks and playgrounds.
[2]
Native plantings include carpnell’s camellia, grantham’s camellia, the rare yellow camellia, the local ailanthus, the dawn redwood, and the amazing orchid tree.
[3] Based on reporting by
Gene Gleason,
Jan Morris,
chinahighlights,
lonelyplanet,
travelchinaguide,
HK Government Report for the Year 1961,
and Wikipedia.
Queen of Tea
The popularity of tea in England, it may be remarked, was due to a Portuguese infante, Queen Catherine, whose predilection for that beverage rendered it fashionable. In an ode to her, Waller sings: The best of queens and best of herbs we owe / To that bold nation who the way did show / To the fair region where the sun doth rise, / Whose rich productions we so justly prize. (‘Historic Macao,’ by C. A. Montalto de Jesus, Oxford University Press, 1984.)
The must-dos for brewing a proper pot of tea, and how a constitutional drinking game, made palatable w/ sugar and milk, calmed a nation’s nerves.
CREAM OR LEMON —
A steadfastness in dutiful habiting is a core definition of Britishness in all matters related to tea, and it’s now due for a review:
Manchester, England
11|13|15 — Middleton officer Andy Richardson: “Just dealt w/ a 95 year old couple, called and said they were lonely. What else could we do?” He and a fellow offer ended up going over to the couple’s house and sharing a cup of tea over a 30 minute visit, and later tweeted about the call. “We’ve got to look after people as well. It’s not just fighting crime, it’s protecting people in whatever situation they find themselves.” FRED THOMPSON, the elderly man who made the call: “You feel somebody cares and oh that does matter … simple things they talk about, nothing very special but they showed that they cared by being there and talking to you.”
… the official six-page specification for how to make a cup of tea, is officially "under review". But don't panic. It is standard procedure for the British Standards Institution (BSI) to do a "systematic periodic review" of each of its many specifications which, piecemeal, define nearly everything British. Belying stereotypes of peremptory rigidity in anyone or anything that officially tells the populace what’s what, the BSI is nice about what it does”. British Standards are voluntary in that there is no obligation to apply them or comply with them," it says. The standards are "devised for the convenience of those who wish to use them". That sentiment appears in the 44-page specification, copies of which are available free of charge.
In 2013, Christopher Hitchens gave an account of the golden rules of George Orwell for making tea:
… Just after World War II, during a period of acute food rationing in England, George Orwell wrote an article on the making of a decent cup of tea that insisted on the observing of 11 different "golden" rules. Some of these (always use Indian or Ceylonese—i.e., Sri Lankan—tea; make tea only in small quantities; avoid silverware pots) may be considered optional or outmoded.
Garden tea party game called Sardines
1. Pair up.
2. One pair is designated to hide.
3. All other pairs who find them must stay put, aka hidden.
4. Last pair to find them is the loser.
But the essential ones are easily committed to memory, and they are simple to put into practice. If you use a pot at all, make sure it is pre-warmed. (I would add that you should do the same thing even if you are only using a cup or a mug.) Stir the tea before letting it steep. But this above all: "[O]ne should take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours." This isn't hard to do, even if you are using electricity rather than gas, once you have brought all the makings to the same scene of operations right next to the kettle. It’s not quite over yet. If you use milk, use the least creamy type or the tea will acquire a sickly taste.
Ruggles of Red Gap In the 1935 movie Ruggles of Red Gap, Charles Laughter is a British butler transplanted to America, where he instructs the town spinster on the importance of making tea properly:
She: (looking at water) It's hot! ¶
He: Can I be of any assistance? ¶
She: Oh no. Men are so helpless in the kitchen. (Picks up kettle, proceeds to pour into teapot.) ¶
He: Oh no. Always bring pot to the kettle, never bring the kettle to the pot. ¶
She: Well listen... I've been making tea for longer than I can remember- ¶
He: Don't let's get into difficulties about this. But you must listen to an Englishman about tea ... we're making tea: When making tea, always bring the pot to the kettle and never the kettle to the pot. ¶
She: Oh, your knowledge is surprising. ¶
He: Don't see why you should say surprising ... the best cooks have always been men. I myself have pronounced views on the preparations and servings of food.
She: Have you? ¶
He: Oh yes. ¶
She: You know something nice that would go w/ tea? ¶
He: Eh yes, yes. The ingredients are quite simple. Do you have a little flour? ¶
She: Oh would you ... ¶
He: Flour, butter, milk and salt. ¶
She: Oh ... you seem so at home in the kitchen. ¶
He: Ah ... it would be difficult to describe the intense satisfaction that I've always derived from cooking.
And do not put the milk in the cup first—family feuds have lasted generations over this—because you will almost certainly put in too much. Add it later, and be very careful when you pour. Finally, a decent cylindrical mug will preserve the needful heat and flavor for longer than will a shallow and wide-mouthed—how often those attributes seem to go together—teacup. Orwell thought that sugar overwhelmed the taste, but brown sugar or honey are, I believe, permissible and sometimes necessary.
In 1997, Morrissey was asked in a sit-down interview: Do you ever get sick of drinking tea? Given the moment, he expounded on how this custom is still practised:
I absolutely never get sick of drinking tea. It’s a psychological thing really, it’s just very composing and makes me relax.’ It’s just so much a part of your culture. ... ‘Oh yes yes, I’m very avid, I have to have at least four pots a day.’ ...
For those of us who don’t know how to make a pot of tea, what do you do?
'Well you really have to put the milk in first which many people don't.' Put the milk in with the water, before you boil the water?
Morrissey strikes a pose in a scene cut from the film The Collector. In the film, Terence Stamp is holding a chloroform pad. This has been replaced w/ a glass of milk.
'No you're confused already no, you put the milk in before you pour the water in or the tea, whichever.' Well I would do that without even thinking about it. 'Right and also you have to use real milk you can't use the UHT fake stuff, you have to use proper milk.' Okay, so what about the actual brewing of the tea? ‘The brewing of the tea, it’s very important that you heat the pot before you put the water in, if you use a pot. I know most people who just throw a teabag into a cup but in England of course you have to make a pot of tea and you have to heat the pot first with hot water and then put the teabags in—I can’t believe I’m saying this—and then put the hot water in and then just throw it all over yourself, rush to Out Patients and write a really good song.
|TEA TIME FOOTNOTES
[1]
Excerpt from “The correct way to make a cuppa is being reviewed,” by Marc Abrahams The Guardian 4|29|2013.
[2]
“How to Make a Decent Cup of Tea: Ignore Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and heed George Orwell’s tea-making advice” by Christopher Hitchens, slate.com, 7|5|2013.
Letters to the Editor
Banner used for Strange Adventures comics published by DC Comics, beginning in 1950, and over the years has housed the continuing exploits of such folks as Adam Strange, Deadman, the Enchantress, Immortal Man, Animal Man, Star Hawkins, Captain Comet, Darwin Jones, Chris KL-99, the Star Rovers, the Atomic Knights, the Space Museum, and the Faceless Creature from Saturn.
More.
TIME TRAVEL
“That Human Wilderness”
LONDON 1908 — The protagonist of H.G. Well's novel, Tono-Bungay, has come up from the provinces to work in London, and here gives an account of his train journey into the city:
“ … I got London at last with an exceptional freshness of effect, as the sudden revelation of a whole unsuspected other side of life. I came to [that human wilderness] on a dull and smoky day by the South Eastern Railway, and our train was half an hour late, stopping and going on and stopping again.
I marked beyond Chilselhurst the growing multitude of villas, and so came stage by stage through multiplying houses and diminishing interspaces of market garden and dingy grass to regions of interlacing railway lines, big factories, gasometers and wide reeking swamps of dingy little houses, more of them and more and more. The number of these and their dinginess and poverty increased, and here rose a great public house and here a Board School and here a gaunt factory; and away to the east there loomed for a time a queer, incongruous forest of masts and spars. The congestion of houses intensified and piled up presently into tenements; I marvelled more and more at this boundless world of dingy people; whiffs of industrial smells, of leather, of brewing, drifted into the carriage; the sky darkened, I rumbled thunderously over bridges, van-crowded streets, peered down on and crossed the Thames with an abrupt eclat of sound. I got an effect of tall warehouses, of grey water, barge crowded, of broad banks of indescribable mud, and then I was in Cannon Street Station – a monstrous dirty cavern with trains packed across its vast floor and more porters standing along the platform than I have ever seen in my life before.
TIME TRAVEL FOOTNOTES
[ 1 ]
Herbert George Wells was born on the 21 of Stepember, 1866. The cusp of Virgo into Libra, he is blessed by a pair of angels, holding his hands as he sought a possible reformation of society, a "new system of ideas". science + humanity = future. He was born into a poor family, one of four children. Through luck and chance, his father eked out a livelihood while his mother did occasional domestic work.
[ 2 ]
1908 map of London Underground.
[ 3 ]
Excerpt by Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells, 1909.
[ 4-VIDEO ]
02|19|14 — A Solitary World — Dir: James W. Griffiths – Published on Feb 19, 2014 – Narration adapted from the works of H.G. Wells. Excerpted from the following: The Time Machine (1895) – The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) – The First Men in the Moon (1901) – In The Days of the Comet (1906) – The World Set Free (1914). Director, Producer, VFX Artist & Colourist: James W. Griffiths – Director of Photography: Christopher Moon – Editor: Marianne Kuopanportti – Sound Design & Mix: Mauricio D'Orey – Composer: Lennert Busch – Narrator: Terry Burns – PBS Digital Studios Original Shorts Series Producer: Matt Vree.
Buried under sand for hundreds of years, slowly being dug up going on years now, is Qatar’s largest archaeological dig, and a very fine example, preserved, of a merchant town c.1800s. This site is the ruined coastal port famous for its walls and known as Al-Zubarah. Founded by merchants in the late 1700s, this settlement had thrived as a pearl-fishery industry and also as a trading post — it is centrally positioned on the main sea route in the Persian Gulf.
In 1811 there was a successful siege and what remained was abandoned and eventually was covered by sand. The property Al Zubarah Archaeological Site which comprises the 2013 UNESCO World Heritage Site is a fortified town, built w/ traditional Arab technqiues, that faces a harbor, w/ an original sea wall (exists still in part). A second, inner wall came later. The original fort still stands, there is another fort, two more walls, and a canal to the sea.
The largest domestic structure dug up gives a sense of the wealth enjoyed by the town’s richest, and why so coveted by its attackers: Nine inter-connected courtyards inside a building complex, surrounded by a high wall and having corner defense towers. Water fountain features are to be found, incl. ponds where a game played by children, called turtles-&-pearls, takes place underwater. Using a pet turtle, each player attempts to shoot a colored pearl into a row of different-colored pearls, w/ an aim of hitting out another pearl of the same color, all the while not disturbing the rest.
Instead of a whole chicken, this home recipe is for cut-up pieces, making an Asian comfort food that much easier to eat.
| Rub pieces of cut-up chicken (leave skin on) w/ sugar and set aside. | In a deep pot add 4 cups cold water, 3/4 cup of Shaoxing wine, 3/4 cup of dark soy sauce, 2 large pieces rock sugar (wong bing tong), 2 star anise. Add in 4 cloves of smashed garlic, and peeled and smashed fresh ginger.
| Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
| Immerse chicken pieces and cook covered for 10 minutes. | Turn heat down and simmer for half an hour and let stand 5 miunutes uncovered.
| Remove chicken parts and brush w/ sesame oil while still warm. |
Sprinkle w/ chopped scallions. |
No salt, pepper or dressing. However, time-sensitive.
| One and a half cups watercress leaves (only).
| One cup chopped and pitted Italian black olives.
| Peel and dice 4 or 5 Fuji apples, toss w/ lemon juice.
| Combine well the three ingredients and serve in chilled bowls. | No dressing needed. Do not salt and pepper.
| Serve w/ homemade croutons (chopped stale bread tossed in a skillet w/ one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon oilive oil, garlic (one clove per person), and lots of black pepper).
Fry quarter pound of cod (or sea bass) w/ cumin, coriander, saffron powder, salt and pepper. Let cool when done. Knead into pastry dough:
2½-lb flour
1½ cup sugar
16 egg yolks
2 egg white
13 oz. shortening
2 tsp salt
¼ cup of Chinese cooking wine (sheung jing)
5 chopped olives
Two tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
| Shape dough in pie pan, and leave enough for top.
| Fill w/ fish, cover w/ dough and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until brown. | Serve at room temperature. |
•
Recipe
mackerel entrails
anchovies
oysters
sea urchins
sea nettles
crabfishes
lobsters
livers of sea barbles
Add salt to various combinations of above ingredients, mix well, and store until fermented. Also known by the names garum, liquamen, muria, and allec.
“ … As a result of its popularity, the production, consumption, importing and exporting of the
traditional Roman fish sauce was a not insignificant aspect of the Roman economy. Surviving records tell us that citizens complained about the thick stench of fish parts being liquefied and fermented in a potent brew of salt and spices; as a result, fish sauce factories were moved to the outskirts of town — and outsourced to places like Spain.…”
A medicinal beverage, also called
tumeric milk.
In a small pot add one cup of milk, one pitted date, tsp tumeric powder, tsp ghee (or coconut oil), ½ tsp fresh ginger, pinch of cinnamon, one cardomon pod, black pepper. | Place pot, covered, over medium heat and then low heat, for 15 minutes.
The crown of Chinese cuisine is called many things, incl. century egg ("
pidan"), hundred-year, thousand-year, pine-patterned, and millennium.
Here is a recipe by Salvador Dali.
1 dozen eggs
1-1/2 quarts of water
5 whole cloves
4 tea-bags
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of vinegar
2 lemons (cut in 8 pieces)
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
3/4 teaspoon of thyme
Tabasco sauce
First, boil the eggs for ten minutes in salted boiling water. Then take them out, put them under cold running water which will make it easier to shell them. In the same water in which the eggs had boiled, add the cloves, sugar, vinegar, a lot of Tabasco sauce, the lemons (cut in eighths) and thyme. Boil for 15 minutes. Shut off the flame, dip in the tea-bag and let them steep for 10 minutes. | In a jar, put the diced onions and garlic. Add the shelled eggs, and pour the broth so that the eggs are completely immersed. Close the jar and keep it on the lower shelf of your refrigerator. | Be patient for three weeks before opening the jar and serving. These eggs go well with cold meats and fish.”
A simple Portuguese
soup that can be dressed up w/ ham hocks and become similar to Italian wedding soup.
| Fry up 2 or 3 chorizo (no oil needed) until slightly crispy and et aside. | In a heavy pan melt half tablespoon unsalted butter, then onion, garlic, olive oil, one thinly-sliced leek and cook five minutes. | Add one cubed potato, salt and paprika. | Cook for a few minutes then add hot stock (vegetable or chicken), teaspoon of tomato purée, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until potatoes are almost done. | Add one and a half cups of shredded kale w/ the stems removed, and cook 30 minutes or until done. Season to taste. | Top w/ chorizo and a good drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
When bottled sauce doesn't cut it.
Mix together: one tablespoon vinegar, two tablespoon ketchup, two tablespoon sugar, heaping teaspoon soy sauce, pinch of salt, 5 to 10 drops Tobasco.
A Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Mix together one finely sliced bird's eye chili, one crushed garlic clove, tbsp fish sauce, tbsp fresh lime juice, and tbsp (dissolved) sugar.
❝Great cook, talented at crochet, creative, child-like, excruciatingly honest, tenacious, compassionate and sensitive; my mother was all these things.❞ — Jasmine
5.2.1940 – 5.3.2016|-Pam led a glamorous life as a 1960s airline stewardessfor Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong, where she was born and raised. At work she would be pulled into photo shoots when film and television stars flew in. | Chosen to represent the airline, she participated in fashion shows, ad campaigns, and public relations as the face of flight. She traveled around the world, accruing trinkets from all cultures and a lifelong admiration of all cuisines. She traveled to all the airports in Asia, and in her suitcase out would pop magazines from everywhere else. | After landing in America, she struck out to be on her own and moved to New York, abandoning us all here in California. She dated the house photographer at Mad magazine, and lived a stone’s throw from Maxwell’s Plum, a “…flamboyant restaurant and singles bar that, more than any place of its kind, symbolized two social revolutions of the 1960s — sex and food,” located at 64th and First Avenue in Manhattan. Her walk up had a bathtub in the kitchen, sharing a hot faucet w/ the sink. |While helping a friend (wo)man a street fair booth, Pam met many people, including a man who immediately offered some helpful advice. Pam shot back and challenged him to come around to the other side and manage the booth himself, since he “...clearly knew what to do.” Laszlo disappeared and came back w/ two hot dogs and a lemonade, walked around the booth, and sat down next to her; two weeks later they were married.
|Laszlo Zauberer, native of Hungary, was driving a cab in NYC when he met Pam on his one day off. An accomplished painter of the school of naive art, and the love of her life, they remained inseparable for the next 40 years. | After the birth of their daughter, Pam and Laszlo made the move to upstate New York. Never one to shy away from conflict, her generosity, thoughts and sometimes vengeance were doled out as she saw fit to those who crossed her path. Whether it was redeeming a raincheck at a grocery store or haggling over an item at a yard sale, her sense of fairness and authority got her into heated debates. | On the night of May 3 2016, Pamela Rita de Oliveira Mattos Zauberer passed away at home and in her bed w/ Laszlo and Jasmine by her side. In true stoic fashion, she had no complaints of pain. She had just celebrated her birthday the day before, and ate carrot cake, her favorite. She was 76 years old. -|
69|Benjamin Leung Gok Wing
2.7.1944 – 9.4.2013|-Ben visited Hong Kong at the beginning of 2013. What he must have thought about his hometown he is not aorund to tell me, but I know it’s the first vacation he’s had in a while. | It was there that Ben met my sister Sylvia, when they were both young and working in the same office. At that time my sister was learning to drive a stick-shift car and for hours and hours after dinner she would be out taking driving lessons w/ an instructor to god knows where. | Ben would also go off on his own as a young man, but where he went you can always find on a map: a local swimming pool, or the nearby basketball court. He left these pursuits behind when he came to San Francisco, and eventually took up gardening: on 44th Avenue, and later out on Bay Farm Island. Both had sandy soil, hard to take care of. | On Bay Farm he had a wisteria in ground next to a loquat tree in a pot. Ben was fearless and grew everything. And those that took to his care, he made green. -|
93|Regina Maria de Oliveira Mattos DaSilva
2.28.1921 – 11.28.2013|-
My father’s youngest sister. She ran the concession stand on the Peak, and took the Peak Tram to work everyday, after crossing the harbour by ferry from Kowloon side. -|
87|Renee Lym Robertson
8.4.1928 – 1.4.2015
❝I bowed 3 times at the casket of Renée Lym Robertson. Auntie Renée died at the age of 87 in her stunning Nob Hill apartment. She was the daughter of Art Lym, the founder and head of the Chinese Air Force under the Nationalist government. She was born in Shanghai and fled to Hong Kong in 1949 as a refugee after the Communist Revolution. She was a noted beauty in her day and was a fixture in the international Hong Kong society that centered on the Peninsula Hotel; where she caught the eye of Clark Gable and became his girlfriend and lover. I will miss her beauty, her style, those jungle red nails and lips, the jade and diamonds, her stories and her wicked wit and wisdom. Auntie Renée was my Auntie Mame.❞
– Wylie Wong
33|George Choy
2.6.1960 – 9.10.1993|- George was rocking a mohawk, so I took a pix, to remember our Passage through a rather brief moment in time. He now has one of the many plaques lining Castro Street. -|
Blessed by superb symmetry, taking on its shape five thousand years ago, locus for ascetic buddhism of the shinto blend, standing alone in the center of the country, source of artistic inspiration since the 11th century, Mount Fuji’s conic silhouette has been copied by Japanese potters down through history and in due course has left blueprints on mid-century kitchen gadget design, chockful with its ergonomic effortlessness and sensuous surfaces. The designation by UNESCO of this mountain as the 2013 World Heritage Site Sacred Space Recipient consists of 25 properties including the mountain itself, shinto shrines, five lakes, and a haunted forest.
Shinto has been practised in Japan since at least the 7th century, and its cosmos is populated by a kami (diety) living in every imaginable natural formation unto a blade of grass. Mount Fuji’s kami is the Princess Konohana-sakuya, the shinto embodiment of nature, and you will know of her presence by the sight of cherry blossoms on the way up a very attractive mountain. The fujiko school of shinto adds a soul and believes the mountain to be a being. While all this bonding is going on, the buddhists sit back and regard the mountain as a gateway to another world. The crater is ringed w/ eight peaks and a walk all around takes a couple of hours, could this be what the buddhists had in mind?
The area around Fujisan-konohana-sakuahime (“Fuji causing the blossom to brightly bloom”) also contains other mystical marvels. Five lakes, the Fuji-goko, ring the mountain.
The northwest quadrant is a 14-square mile pine forest, the Aoki-ga-hara-jukai (Sea of Trees), which can be alarmingly dark during the day, forming a half moon around the base. This forest is home to goblins, demons, ghosts, and has been a destination suicide spot for many years.
It has come to pass and for as long as anyone can remember, there is and always has been a choice of only four trails leading pilgrims to the summit. All things here being of a magical quality, these four paths might very well allude to the Four Elements in a cosmic setting: rarefied Air at the summit, plentiful fresh Water within reach, Earth in its proudest seasonal garbs are all visited by the fire goddess Fuchi once a year, taking off her buddhist beads for a powwow w/ the princess. This takes place end of summer at a trail stop in the village of Yoshida, rife w/ rustic rumors insisting on a peculiar religiousity shared by fire festivals everywhere including the most famous, Burning Man,
although it must be noted that the Yoshida Fire Festival is done and over with in a night and the following day, involving ceremonies to conclude the climbing season.
Sunrise as seen at the summit by all-night climbers has its own dedicated name, goraiko, as in “my goraiko was obscured by clouds with rain blotting out the horizon.” For the fortunate ones, though, words like "awesome" and "bright red" and "a figure" readily roll off their tongues when recalling the alpine sight of the sun peeking over a watery horizon, the shedding of darkness around the self, the wonderment that immortals are hovering nearby, a palpable sense of alignment with gravity again, maybe even new eyes for the descent. It has been likened to something we all know happens regularly and “see” but not see; kind of shinto. It is one of Japan’s three Holy Mountains, together with Mount Haku and Mount Tate, and is on the island of Honshu.
Fuji is an active and relatively young volcano 62 miles south-west of Tokyo. It sits on a “triple junction” radiating techtonically down to the Filipino Plate, west to the Eurasian Plate, and east towards the North American Plate, the Okhotsk. It has erupted 21 times, the last was on October 26, 1707 (an 8.4), and destroyed 72 houses and three buddhist temples. It was powerful enough to blow a scoop out at the tip, becoming an actual new crater on the eastern flank. On February 4, 2013, a metereological ticker tape came through the wires:
The volcano remains calm. However, an increased number of small quakes near and under Mt Fuji are visible on our latest data plot of nearby earthquakes (within 30 km radius). While all of these are very small and the number is certainly not alarming, the volcano remains interesting to watch….
| MT FUJI FOOTNOTES
[1]
Four views of Mt. Fuji.
[2]
The Princess Konohana-sakuya is patiently gazing around wondering what is taking so long for her date Fuchi forever to arrive.
[3]
(top left) The Sea of Trees.
[4]
Four photographs taken from the summit at sunrise – a goraiko; anime of a sun goddess by Jayne Aw.
[5]
Mt Fuji in fact and fiction.
| Fujisan (富士山). Names of the five lakes: Kawaguchi, Motosu, Sai, Shoji, Yamanaka. The four trails are Yoshidaguchi, Subashiri, Gotemba, Fujinomiya. Photos by Brian Chu, Daisaku Ikeda + screen captures.
In 1871 Hong Kong fell under the sway of a Victorian conception of a rebuilt Eden, gaining clout since the 18th Century, one that can be classified – and caged – for the edification and education of humankind. It is one of the oldest gardens of its kind in the world; and in its turn has been tendered to, coddled at, and dissected every one in a while.
Thirty years after the island, a stone’s throw from the mainland of China, was established as a royal crown colony by Britain, in 1871: a large parcel of land on Government HIll, 500 feet above sea level, where construction was going on to build Government House (begun 1860) and where the sitting governor was temporarily housed, conducting official business all the while puttering in his backyard w/ the young science of botany, applying his office to re-create the first garden; and w/in sight of the eastern realm of the celestials.
Within a few seasons, the appropriated space became enclosed ground, under the guidance of careful hands and inquiring minds. Flowerbeds and paths w/ gas lamps. Stonework and grand staircases. Even an animal enclosure (one of the first in the world). Here, and elsewhere in their colonies, the Victorians set up yet one more living laboratory, studied the flora and fauna, forget to look at themselves.
Since it began life in 1864, when still tendered personally by the governor, until today, the gardens have always been open and free to the public. In 1975 it was renamed, but locals have always known it as (in English) the Botanic Garden. The Chinese call it, have always called it, 兵頭花園 (bing tau fa yuen), “commander-in-chief’s garden”.
Eden In the East
In 1871, a Victorian laboratory was set up by the British Botanic Society in Hong Kong. It began as a garden behind the Governor‘s House, halfway up the Peak.
By the time the first governor of Hong Kong laid down the beginnings of what will become the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, his wife had a hand in the planning. And subsequent governors carried on the work. And their wives too, as well as gardeners, builders, and laborers, all took charge and began to tame the unfriendly slope, sweeping upwards to meet the Peak. Into the ground went palm and trees from near and far. Banyans were tucked about to create backdrops. Ferns sheltered the much-sought-after sensitive plant, a natural wonder. The only india rubber tree for miles around can only be found within these grounds. Indigenous plants met their tropical and sub-tropical selves.
1841–1941 Avenue of Gum Trees, early 20th century. A bronze statue of KING GEORGE VI was erected in the Old Garden in 1941 on the 100th anniversary of British colonial rule. + Sketch by Gary Yeung. + Photo by Lau Ching Ping [verification needed].
The first superintendent of gardens was a British botanist by the name of Charles Ford. The front entrance is on Albany Road, right side, which became the Old Garden. His domain extends over to the left side of the road also, the New Garden, a space of about equal size. The whole surrounded by Robinson Road, Upper Albert Road, Garden Road, and Glenealy.
Ferns took to the site very well and produced profusely, offering shade and, more importantly, privacy. Overnight, this open air conservatory had turned into a living paradise for Adamses wanting somewhere to take their eager Eves. The helpful illumination of the paths and staircases w/ gas lamps that stay lit until midnight offered even the animals in the zoo some measure of a safe haven.
It was deemed safe enough that late into the evening, dating couples took to strolling among evening shadows, listening to birdsong and holding hands. Here was where the norfolk island pine can be seen, nodding its airy fingers at the royal palms. Over there a white jade orchid tree perfumes the nearby, grateful, bench. Roses, mock lime, orange-jessamine, sweet osmanthus, and the “kwai-fah” add other scents. And other paths.
• Visible Invisible
Jules Verne in Hong Kong
At the invitation of botanist Charles Ford, Jules Verne travelled to the colony in 1865 to help document the life aquatic. Verne was doing research on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and spent six months learning the local language and taking down oral history. Sadly, going to the best sources for authentic information on the underwater world of HK didn’t make it into the final book; set in 1866, it came out in 1870. An article on his searchings and findings finally appeared, in the June 15 1884 issue of L’Algerie magazine, featuring artwork by Alphonse de Neuville, Édouard Riou, and Macau-based George Chinnery.
The Old Garden, w/ its shady boulevards and flowerbeds, came w/ an aviary and a green house, where ferns, bromeliads, orchids, climbers and house plants lived contentedly.
The focal feature, the Fountain Terrace Garden, had a fifty feet wide circular pond, raised just so to allow sitting along the rim, w/ fountain works in the center, and home to water lilies. The terrace was edged on four sides w/ herbs and year round flowering shrubs. Around the bend a children’s playground could be heard [need photo].
On the western side of Albany Road is the New Garden, started in 1876 to house animal enclosures, ending up chock-a-bloc w/ uncomfortable mammals (none larger than an ape) and reptiles commingling their noises and odors. All came in carted, and unbidden: the american flamingo is left to woo the hawaiian goose, the red-crowned crane steers clear of the greek tortoise, a young burmese python hiding from the too-curious emperor tamarin.
Mimosa Pudica — The mimosa is a creeping annual or perennial herb of the pea family Fabaceae, often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched, defending themselves from harm, and re-open a few minutes later. The species is native to South America and Central America, but is now a pantropical weed. Grows mostly in undisturbed shady areas, under trees or shrubs.
After a hundred years of ignonimity, major renovations were undertaken in 1976, and the beleaguered beasts given new digs and modern zoology practises. Forty new or renovated enclosures to separate the reptiles from the mammals, and everyone from the birds, on the other side of Albany. Twin programs were established to study captive- as well as conservation-breeding techniques; and co-existence can once again have try-outs.
A pedestrian tunnel under Albany Road has always connected the two sides, creating a grotto where none had existed. Today 900 species live side by side and learn how how to get along in a very crowded city.
| BOTANICAL GARDENS FOOTNOTES
[1]
In 1975, the garden complex was renamed the HK Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It is second in size, after Victoria Park, in public space; together they cover 215 acres of parks and playgrounds.
[2]
Native plantings include carpnell’s camellia, grantham’s camellia, the rare yellow camellia, the local ailanthus, the dawn redwood, and the amazing orchid tree.
[3] Based on reporting by
Gene Gleason,
Jan Morris,
chinahighlights,
lonelyplanet,
travelchinaguide,
HK Government Report for the Year 1961,
and Wikipedia.
View of Victoria Harbour from a Peak tram ride
Early 20th century photograph showing Victoria Harbour and the mountain range known as the Nine Dragons, separating Kowloon from China.
TEA TIME
One Lump or Two
Queen of Tea
The popularity of tea in England, it may be remarked, was due to a Portuguese infante, Queen Catherine, whose predilection for that beverage rendered it fashionable. In an ode to her, Waller sings: The best of queens and best of herbs we owe / To that bold nation who the way did show / To the fair region where the sun doth rise, / Whose rich productions we so justly prize. (‘Historic Macao,’ by C. A. Montalto de Jesus, Oxford University Press, 1984.)
The must-dos for brewing a proper pot of tea, and how a constitutional drinking game, made palatable w/ sugar and milk, calmed a nation’s nerves.
CREAM OR LEMON —
A steadfastness in dutiful habiting is a core definition of Britishness in all matters related to tea, and it’s now due for a review:
Manchester, England
11|13|15 — Middleton officer Andy Richardson: “Just dealt w/ a 95 year old couple, called and said they were lonely. What else could we do?” He and a fellow offer ended up going over to the couple’s house and sharing a cup of tea over a 30 minute visit, and later tweeted about the call. “We’ve got to look after people as well. It’s not just fighting crime, it’s protecting people in whatever situation they find themselves.” FRED THOMPSON, the elderly man who made the call: “You feel somebody cares and oh that does matter … simple things they talk about, nothing very special but they showed that they cared by being there and talking to you.”
… the official six-page specification for how to make a cup of tea, is officially "under review". But don't panic. It is standard procedure for the British Standards Institution (BSI) to do a "systematic periodic review" of each of its many specifications which, piecemeal, define nearly everything British. Belying stereotypes of peremptory rigidity in anyone or anything that officially tells the populace what’s what, the BSI is nice about what it does”. British Standards are voluntary in that there is no obligation to apply them or comply with them," it says. The standards are "devised for the convenience of those who wish to use them". That sentiment appears in the 44-page specification, copies of which are available free of charge.
In 2013, Christopher Hitchens gave an account of the golden rules of George Orwell for making tea:
… Just after World War II, during a period of acute food rationing in England, George Orwell wrote an article on the making of a decent cup of tea that insisted on the observing of 11 different "golden" rules. Some of these (always use Indian or Ceylonese—i.e., Sri Lankan—tea; make tea only in small quantities; avoid silverware pots) may be considered optional or outmoded.
Garden tea party game called Sardines
1. Pair up.
2. One pair is designated to hide.
3. All other pairs who find them must stay put, aka hidden.
4. Last pair to find them is the loser.
But the essential ones are easily committed to memory, and they are simple to put into practice. If you use a pot at all, make sure it is pre-warmed. (I would add that you should do the same thing even if you are only using a cup or a mug.) Stir the tea before letting it steep. But this above all: "[O]ne should take the teapot to the kettle, and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours." This isn't hard to do, even if you are using electricity rather than gas, once you have brought all the makings to the same scene of operations right next to the kettle. It’s not quite over yet. If you use milk, use the least creamy type or the tea will acquire a sickly taste.
Ruggles of Red Gap In the 1935 movie Ruggles of Red Gap, Charles Laughter is a British butler transplanted to America, where he instructs the town spinster on the importance of making tea properly:
She: (looking at water) It's hot! ¶
He: Can I be of any assistance? ¶
She: Oh no. Men are so helpless in the kitchen. (Picks up kettle, proceeds to pour into teapot.) ¶
He: Oh no. Always bring pot to the kettle, never bring the kettle to the pot. ¶
She: Well listen... I've been making tea for longer than I can remember- ¶
He: Don't let's get into difficulties about this. But you must listen to an Englishman about tea ... we're making tea: When making tea, always bring the pot to the kettle and never the kettle to the pot. ¶
She: Oh, your knowledge is surprising. ¶
He: Don't see why you should say surprising ... the best cooks have always been men. I myself have pronounced views on the preparations and servings of food.
She: Have you? ¶
He: Oh yes. ¶
She: You know something nice that would go w/ tea? ¶
He: Eh yes, yes. The ingredients are quite simple. Do you have a little flour? ¶
She: Oh would you ... ¶
He: Flour, butter, milk and salt. ¶
She: Oh ... you seem so at home in the kitchen. ¶
He: Ah ... it would be difficult to describe the intense satisfaction that I've always derived from cooking.
And do not put the milk in the cup first—family feuds have lasted generations over this—because you will almost certainly put in too much. Add it later, and be very careful when you pour. Finally, a decent cylindrical mug will preserve the needful heat and flavor for longer than will a shallow and wide-mouthed—how often those attributes seem to go together—teacup. Orwell thought that sugar overwhelmed the taste, but brown sugar or honey are, I believe, permissible and sometimes necessary.
In 1997, Morrissey was asked in a sit-down interview: Do you ever get sick of drinking tea? Given the moment, he expounded on how this custom is still practised:
I absolutely never get sick of drinking tea. It’s a psychological thing really, it’s just very composing and makes me relax.’ It’s just so much a part of your culture. ... ‘Oh yes yes, I’m very avid, I have to have at least four pots a day.’ ...
For those of us who don’t know how to make a pot of tea, what do you do?
'Well you really have to put the milk in first which many people don't.' Put the milk in with the water, before you boil the water?
Morrissey strikes a pose in a scene cut from the film The Collector. In the film, Terence Stamp is holding a chloroform pad. This has been replaced w/ a glass of milk.
'No you're confused already no, you put the milk in before you pour the water in or the tea, whichever.' Well I would do that without even thinking about it. 'Right and also you have to use real milk you can't use the UHT fake stuff, you have to use proper milk.' Okay, so what about the actual brewing of the tea? ‘The brewing of the tea, it’s very important that you heat the pot before you put the water in, if you use a pot. I know most people who just throw a teabag into a cup but in England of course you have to make a pot of tea and you have to heat the pot first with hot water and then put the teabags in—I can’t believe I’m saying this—and then put the hot water in and then just throw it all over yourself, rush to Out Patients and write a really good song.
|TEA TIME FOOTNOTES
[1]
Excerpt from “The correct way to make a cuppa is being reviewed,” by Marc Abrahams The Guardian 4|29|2013.
[2]
“How to Make a Decent Cup of Tea: Ignore Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and heed George Orwell’s tea-making advice” by Christopher Hitchens, slate.com, 7|5|2013.
LONDON 1908 — The protagonist of H.G. Well's novel, Tono-Bungay, has come up from the provinces to work in London, and here gives an account of his train journey into the city:
“ … I got London at last with an exceptional freshness of effect, as the sudden revelation of a whole unsuspected other side of life. I came to [that human wilderness] on a dull and smoky day by the South Eastern Railway, and our train was half an hour late, stopping and going on and stopping again.
I marked beyond Chilselhurst the growing multitude of villas, and so came stage by stage through multiplying houses and diminishing interspaces of market garden and dingy grass to regions of interlacing railway lines, big factories, gasometers and wide reeking swamps of dingy little houses, more of them and more and more. The number of these and their dinginess and poverty increased, and here rose a great public house and here a Board School and here a gaunt factory; and away to the east there loomed for a time a queer, incongruous forest of masts and spars. The congestion of houses intensified and piled up presently into tenements; I marvelled more and more at this boundless world of dingy people; whiffs of industrial smells, of leather, of brewing, drifted into the carriage; the sky darkened, I rumbled thunderously over bridges, van-crowded streets, peered down on and crossed the Thames with an abrupt eclat of sound. I got an effect of tall warehouses, of grey water, barge crowded, of broad banks of indescribable mud, and then I was in Cannon Street Station – a monstrous dirty cavern with trains packed across its vast floor and more porters standing along the platform than I have ever seen in my life before.
TIME TRAVEL FOOTNOTES
[ 1 ]
Herbert George Wells was born on the 21 of Stepember, 1866. The cusp of Virgo into Libra, he is blessed by a pair of angels, holding his hands as he sought a possible reformation of society, a "new system of ideas". science + humanity = future. He was born into a poor family, one of four children. Through luck and chance, his father eked out a livelihood while his mother did occasional domestic work.
[ 2 ]
1908 map of London Underground.
[ 3 ]
Excerpt by Tono-Bungay by H.G. Wells, 1909.
[ 4-VIDEO ]
02|19|14 — A Solitary World — Dir: James W. Griffiths – Published on Feb 19, 2014 – Narration adapted from the works of H.G. Wells. Excerpted from the following: The Time Machine (1895) – The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) – The First Men in the Moon (1901) – In The Days of the Comet (1906) – The World Set Free (1914). Director, Producer, VFX Artist & Colourist: James W. Griffiths – Director of Photography: Christopher Moon – Editor: Marianne Kuopanportti – Sound Design & Mix: Mauricio D'Orey – Composer: Lennert Busch – Narrator: Terry Burns – PBS Digital Studios Original Shorts Series Producer: Matt Vree.
██ The Blue Mountain in this psychedelic park is a sculpted scenario, based on Daoist descriptions, whipped up w/ plaster-of-paris applied to the cliff-like mountainside. Staircases in the clouds and elsewhere act as bridge btw. situations.
██ Natural ledges and spurs were leveraged by stonemasons for passageways and platforms, galleries and lookout points. Artisans working w/ chicken-wire and cement shaped natural forms found only in dreams. Where none existed before, shortcuts and crossings accrue bringing forth altitudinal alcoves, blessed benches, and rooms w/ scenic views.
██ This garden of steep and narrow steps enhances the mystical acts of ascension and descension: to the Shangri-la of heaven or the stockades of Hell . Vistas retreat, and suddenly destinations take on labyrinthean lengths, up and down, from one scenario to the next.
Entrance to the Tiger Balm Gardens, where the first steps already beguile.
██
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