”We gonna lock ah-lound da crock to-niiight…” - Elvis Chan, Jailhouse Rock, The Garage circa. 1997
Well, to while away the lonely hours of catching up with admin on front desk, all by myself (yah, I know, boo hoo, poor me and so on) I’ve been listening to Hong Kong Radio and have somehow got everyone else listening to it too. We’ll be having Faye Wong tribute nights in the conference room soon and start bopping around the photocopier to godawful Cantonese boy bands. The music is feckin’ terrible – I’ve always hated the stereotype that Chinese people have no musical rhythm and now I hate that stereoptype even more: Chinese people actually have no musical taste. However, the talkie bits are training my ear to take in a bit more Cantonese than normal, especially trying to follow the news which is always read in a very different register than conversation. After speaking the language all my life, I may actually, eventually, become fluent...In other news, I heard a very good song at Brave New Word last Sunday (as well as some pretty darned good poetry too…) and may be embarking on a slightly different Elvis tip from now on. Are there any Chinese Elvis Costello impersonators out there? If yes, I’d like to see that, oh yes, I would…
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