RogueTrader
04-02-2001, 10:05 AM
I've just gotten back from Hong Kong. God I love that city. It's so much more vibrant and alive than Tokyo. The place is permanently jacked up and going at full throttle. It's tough to take for long periods, I suppose, but my little weekend getways are just what the doctor ordered
This time it was the Hong Kong Rugby 7's. I strongly recommend to everyone that you go. It is just the ultimate event. If you are a Rugby fan like me, it's got all the intensity of the World Cup but crammed into 3 days. It's tough on the firld and even tougher in the stands. My liver is over in the corner of the room having a cigarette as i type and is nodding it's head in painful agreement.
Apart from that though it was great. I managed to sign some large sized business for the firm which will keep me happy and busy for the next year or so, but that's what I'm there for. I think it's the assless chaps. They really seem to go down with the female executives. Another good thing bout HK is the fact that it is pretty easy to pick up a spare hot pink thong when you spill beer on yours.
Anyway....the reason I am writing before jumping into bed to go to sleep.....
The second night of the event, as myself and my colleagues were getting off the childrens rugby team bus that we had hi-jacked (the kids are fine and thought the funny men singing songs were part of the adventure, although we did have to buy off the supervisng mum with some hefty dough.....and the chaps got a few worried looks) close to Lan Kwai Fong, I noticed that there was a CD store open.
Hong Kong is full of these little knooks in the wall where guys have set up particle board shelves and they sell CD's.....or rather, copies of CD's. They have everything and all of it at HKD15 per CD or 3 for HKD40 (the current HKD / USD exchange rate is 7 / 1). I stride in to this knook while one of the other guys is getting some money out of the ATM. The jangling of my spurs and the 44 gallon hat i was wearing immediately set me aside from the other patrons and drew the attention of the irrate opperator, who started babbling at me in a mixture of Cantonese and.....well....babble.
Before he and a few of his Triad buddies bundled me out into the street, i happened to notice that he had all of the 2000 tour bootlegs. I got a couple of my friends to divert the owner and his goons (it wasn't Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but they got the job done) and snuck back into the cubby hole to investigate further.
This guy had at least 5 or 6 copies of each of the 72 bootlegs available for purchase. That's at a rate of about USD2 per boot. Drunk as I was, I was overwhelmed by a a wave or irony. The fact that Pearl jam seeks to put out all of these bootlegs to avoid the high prices paid by US fans for bootlegs of their shows, and now they have to worry about some guy with a CD burner taking things to the other extreme.
I started to laugh, and then I stopped. I started to get angry, and then i stopped.....i didn't know what to do. There was never any question of me buying them, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, but I also knew that the band didn't have a problem with this stuff being distributed on Napster and the like..
In the end, My friends and i settled on the only thing that we could do in the situation. We launched into an accapella version of Rearviewmirror in front of his shop. 3 guys in Viking Helmets and Kilts, Two in dresses and me in my black assless chaps, lime green thong, silver cowboy boots (with spurs) and 44 gallon hat standing on Victoria road singing this song, was enough to kill his business for the evening. The people of Hong Kong regularly see shit that would send most people crazy, but even this was too much for them.
M
cc Synergy
cc CJWM
cc SOLAT
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Howard Roark laughed......
This time it was the Hong Kong Rugby 7's. I strongly recommend to everyone that you go. It is just the ultimate event. If you are a Rugby fan like me, it's got all the intensity of the World Cup but crammed into 3 days. It's tough on the firld and even tougher in the stands. My liver is over in the corner of the room having a cigarette as i type and is nodding it's head in painful agreement.
Apart from that though it was great. I managed to sign some large sized business for the firm which will keep me happy and busy for the next year or so, but that's what I'm there for. I think it's the assless chaps. They really seem to go down with the female executives. Another good thing bout HK is the fact that it is pretty easy to pick up a spare hot pink thong when you spill beer on yours.
Anyway....the reason I am writing before jumping into bed to go to sleep.....
The second night of the event, as myself and my colleagues were getting off the childrens rugby team bus that we had hi-jacked (the kids are fine and thought the funny men singing songs were part of the adventure, although we did have to buy off the supervisng mum with some hefty dough.....and the chaps got a few worried looks) close to Lan Kwai Fong, I noticed that there was a CD store open.
Hong Kong is full of these little knooks in the wall where guys have set up particle board shelves and they sell CD's.....or rather, copies of CD's. They have everything and all of it at HKD15 per CD or 3 for HKD40 (the current HKD / USD exchange rate is 7 / 1). I stride in to this knook while one of the other guys is getting some money out of the ATM. The jangling of my spurs and the 44 gallon hat i was wearing immediately set me aside from the other patrons and drew the attention of the irrate opperator, who started babbling at me in a mixture of Cantonese and.....well....babble.
Before he and a few of his Triad buddies bundled me out into the street, i happened to notice that he had all of the 2000 tour bootlegs. I got a couple of my friends to divert the owner and his goons (it wasn't Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but they got the job done) and snuck back into the cubby hole to investigate further.
This guy had at least 5 or 6 copies of each of the 72 bootlegs available for purchase. That's at a rate of about USD2 per boot. Drunk as I was, I was overwhelmed by a a wave or irony. The fact that Pearl jam seeks to put out all of these bootlegs to avoid the high prices paid by US fans for bootlegs of their shows, and now they have to worry about some guy with a CD burner taking things to the other extreme.
I started to laugh, and then I stopped. I started to get angry, and then i stopped.....i didn't know what to do. There was never any question of me buying them, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, but I also knew that the band didn't have a problem with this stuff being distributed on Napster and the like..
In the end, My friends and i settled on the only thing that we could do in the situation. We launched into an accapella version of Rearviewmirror in front of his shop. 3 guys in Viking Helmets and Kilts, Two in dresses and me in my black assless chaps, lime green thong, silver cowboy boots (with spurs) and 44 gallon hat standing on Victoria road singing this song, was enough to kill his business for the evening. The people of Hong Kong regularly see shit that would send most people crazy, but even this was too much for them.
M
cc Synergy
cc CJWM
cc SOLAT
----------------------------------------------
Howard Roark laughed......