Out East

by chimpden on January 30, 2010

There’s snow on the ground outside our house in London and it’s so quiet that the smallest noises catch my attention. Everyone else is sleeping early on this Saturday morning. Not me. Having just returned from a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, my internal clock is still eight hours ahead. Sadly, I was sans famille for this trip; there was too much work planned to be able to take J and M along. A lack of company can make the days a bit longer, but also has its own charms.  I grew up in rural northern California and only once travelled outside the United States during my childhood, so the ability to wander solitary around unexplored bits of some of the world’s great cities is a privilege I fully appreciate.

Commuting on the Mid-levels Travelator, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is truly wondrous in this respect. It is in many ways a modern titan of commerce, with gleaming office towers lining the streets of Central, the main business district. It is also a city of extreme verticality. Built on an island peninsula facing Kowloon, the city slopes quickly up on the rise of Victoria Peak behind it. Streets running north south are steep indeed, and peppered liberally with steps set into the concrete to ease the climb. The city’s mid-level travelator is uniquely Hong Kong–a famed system of escalators and moving walkways (the longest such concatenation in the world) it transports people to work down from the “mid-levels” to Central. If you’re in the area, you can see people standing on an escalator reading a newspaper as it whisks them along on their daily commute. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Tidbit: Letters from Iceland

by chimpden on January 9, 2010

Tears fall in all the rivers. Again a driver
Pulls on his gloves and in a blinding snowstorm starts
Upon his deadly journey: again some writer
Runs howling to his art.
–W.H. Auden, “Journey to Iceland,” Letters from Iceland

{ 0 comments }

Notes on “A Gate at the Stairs”

November 21, 2009

I read Lorrie Moore’s latest novel, “A Gate at the Stairs,” a couple of months ago and came away less than impressed. This was not expected. I’ve enjoyed Moore’s past work immensely. And by “Moore’s past work”, I mean “Birds of America.” So, take what follows with that considerable grain of salt.
Don’t misunderstand me. A [...]

Read the full article →

Bite me

August 20, 2009

Reading about the healthcare debate from afar is hard to take, but probably better for my own health than actually being Stateside. Here’s where I gather we are so far: The right wing is avoiding issues and instead working to frame the debate as fascism vs. independence. They appear to have fooled people into thinking [...]

Read the full article →

Tidbit: Unpacking My Library

August 16, 2009

“I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you [...]

Read the full article →

Back among the living….

August 15, 2009

So, between being posted to Amsterdam for a while, launching an important new product at work, and moving house, I’ve had no time for anything but a few brief Twitter posts recently. OK, that’s not entirely true. I have spent oodles of time with my lovely wife and dear son and I have been reading [...]

Read the full article →

Minor Rant: Hotel Internet Service

April 25, 2009

I travel frequently for work, most often in Europe and Asia, with the occasional jaunt to Africa or the States.
More and more, it strikes me that hotels just don’t “get it” when it comes to the Internet.

Read the full article →

Memory and Technology

April 20, 2009

As I was finishing “Old & Rare: 40 Years in the Book Business,” Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern’s fabulous book on their adventures in the antiquarian book trade, I came across a prescient bit on the dangers of technology as they saw it.
A brief digression: If you love books,

Read the full article →

In Africa

April 18, 2009

I once again have let far too much time elapse without posting here. Part of the problem is work. The other is that this remains an unshared slice of my life as far as the family is concerned, so I can only write here in small slivers of leftover time. Finally, Twitter is an unexpected [...]

Read the full article →

The Class

March 8, 2009

I saw “The Class” last night and thought it was extremely good. Not “Milk” or “Waltz with Bashir” good, mind you, but good. The film is a pseudo-documentary set at a Paris junior high school, and portrays the tensions that arise as a young French teacher, François Marin (played adroitly by François Bégaudeau, the author [...]

Read the full article →