This has got to be one the best clips of Hong Kong I have ever seen; and I’m not just saying that because it looks absolutely stunning viewed full-screen on my iMac.
While the title say “Hong Kong tilt shift” it was not shot using a tilt shift lens.
Cheers to Fershad Irani for the clip. Several of the Victoria Harbour views, like the one in the Vimeo viewer below, were shot from just outside my window.
Bruce Fowler from the Southern African Association in Hong Kong (SAAHK) is inviting all Springbok rugby supporters in Hong Kong to watch Victor Matfield celebrate his 100th Rugby Test today (Saturday August 28, 2010).
The Blue Bulls’ Matfield will become only the third-ever Springbok Rugby player to achieve this milestone after John Smit last week (number 2) and Western Province’s Percy Montgomery (number 1).
The Springboks will play Australia in their penultimate Tri-Nations Test at Loftus Verfeld later today.
South Africans in Hong Kong are urged to head to the ironically Aussie-themed WoolooMooloo Restaurant in Central.
WoolooMooloo is also the workplace of Bruce’s girlfriend so needless to say happy hour prices will probably prevail. Just turn up will you?!
The Athlone cooling towers were imploded this morning… a full 4 minutes ahead of schedule, catching the local radio stations and the assembled crowd totally off-guard.
As we reported earlier this week, here at Howzit-HongKong.com HQ we were poised to watch the event via a LIVE internet feed courtesy of Zoopy.com
However, when we attempted to log on to the feed, all our attempts came to nothing. Instead we were met by the following screen:
Thankfully, we found the following clip on YouTube:
News24.com reader Mitchell Wong Ho took this stunning picture. For more images click here
On Wednesday (18 August 2010) we reported on the impending implosion of Cape Town’s Athlone Cooling Towers.
South Africa’s very own media-sharing platform just announced a brand-new addition to their online offering: Zoopy Live.
Zoopy Live is a streaming video service that will be broadcasting interesting views, news and events to web and mobile users. This adds to Zoopy’s current multimedia offerings of a user-generated environment (where users upload and share videos, photos and audio) and Zoopy TV, where videos are produced especially for the web and mobile across a number of genres, from games and news through to fashion and movie reviews.
Zoopy Live’s very first offering will be the implosion of the Athlone Cooling Towers at 12 noon this Sunday (August 22, 2010).
Zoopy CEO Jason Elk explains that this event was chosen because it especially highlights the extra dimension that live streaming will bring to the Zoopy audience. “As we continuously strive to build a living archive of content, Zoopy Live gives us the additional opportunity to deliver the excitement, suspense and instant gratification that many users are looking for, before adding the recorded media to our permanent archive for those who missed the live event. The towers imploding before our eyes is a perfect example of this and a great start for Zoopy Live.”
Interactivity remains key to the social aspect of Zoopy says Elk, and a new live chat feature below the live stream adds to the experience of viewing with others in real time. “With Zoopy Live, we get to turn comments into chat so that feelings and thoughts can be expressed at the exact moment of viewing something that users want to talk about and share.”
To access Zoopy Live online, go to http://www.zoopy.com/live or if you’re watching on your phone, go to http://m.zoopy.com/live. Take note of the start times of upcoming events, as a ‘watch this stream’ link will only activate at the time that the event is scheduled to begin. Zoopy Live also offers a Remind Me option that sends an email or SMS reminder 12 hours and 2 hours before the start of an event.
As a born-and-bred Capetonian, I will be tuned in…
The Springboks will take on the might of the New Zealand All Blacks during a historic rugby test at the FNB Stadium in Soweto.
Bruce Fowler from the Southern African Association of Hong Kong (SAAHK) invites all Saffas to join them at WoolooMooloo in Central. The test will be broadcast at around midnight (1 hour delay).
In addition to the fact that history will be made with the first-ever rugby test being played in a township, some other milestones will/may be reached on Saturday:
* Springbok captain John Smit is set to become only the second South African to play in 100 Test matches when he leads the Boks onto the field
* Should John score a try, he will equal the Springbok record for most tries in tests as a hooker
* John will be playing in his 26th Vodacom Tri-Nations test as captain, the most capped captain in the tournament.
* This will be the first Test match at this venue since the stadium’s completion in 1988. For the duration of the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament the stadium was known as Soccer City
* This test will be the 81st between South Africa and New Zealand and the 34th Vodacom Tri-Nations test between them
* South Africa’s Vodacom Tri-Nations record against New Zealand is: Played 33; Won 10; Lost 23. Tries scored 60 and tries conceded 84.
* Victor Matfield will play his 23rd test against New Zealand, the most capped Springbok against New Zealand. This test will also be his 40th Tri-Nations test, the third most capped player in the tournament with George Gregan (48) and George Smith (41) being the top two players.
* Bryan Habana needs one try to become South Africa’s most prolific try scorer in tests. Bryan currently shares the record with Joost van der Westhuizen with 38 test tries. Bryan will become the most capped Springbok wing (63) in this test.
Our sister-site, BlitzBokke.com made the following tribute video to Bok Skipper John Smit. The video was subsequently featured on Sport24.co.za:
Growing up in Cape Town, the Athlone Cooling Towers were very significant to me.
Situated next to the N2 highway on the way to Cape Town, as a little boy traveling into the city in the back of my Dad’s bakkie, the towers signaled that Cape Town is only about 10 minutes away and that I could finally stretch my weary body.
Later on my life, traveling the same route, this time around looking out for the towers as a sprinter (100m,200m,4x100m relay) in my high school’s athletes’ bus. Seeing the Athlone towers meant that the Athlone stadium was a mere 5 minutes away and increased the butterflies in my stomach.
Fast forward another few years and the towers signaled the start of a grueling 10-20 minutes stuck in the crawling N2 traffic en-route to the city.
On Sunday 22 August 2010, around 5 minutes after noon, the Athlone cooling towers will be no more.
The Mayor of Cape Town, Dan Plato will push the button that will see the towers implode into a heap of rubble and dust.
The 2 sentinels in Athone (Pic: travelblog.portfoliocollection.com)
Read more about the Cape Town suburb of Athlone here
The Canny Man‘s posters all read “An oasis in WanChai” but I personally like the one I saw on a video today:
“A football-free zone.”
OK, so South Africa just recently hosted a very successful football World Cup but man… a month of football is probably as much football as I can take! Truth be told, I’ve probably seen enough round-ball “action” to last me till the next World Cup. Which is probably a good thing, what with the RUGBY WORLD CUP in Zealand looming in 2011.
I am currently teaching a bridging course for new Secondary 1 students in Lok Fu and one of my colleagues is none other than the former Hong Kong rugby captain Semi Iafeta. Apologies to Semi, but I didn’t recognise him until I did a bit of “research” online today. However, in my defense Semi, your hair used to be a lot longer! Like most international rugby boys here in Hong Kong, Semi Iafeta is a semi-professional who makes his living teaching in Hong Kong.
Semi Iafeta with ball in hand, playing for Hong Kong
It seems that the big Number 8 is also quite the video producer, having produced the video about The Canny Man I mentioned earlier:
I am starting this category off with a young man from my “hood”… the Cape Flats of South Africa’s Mother City:
Cape Town.
His FaceBook Profile reads (sic):
Im a crazy guy who loves making muziq…thats right im a MUZO! Its in my bones and i cant shake it… Im a nomad,gypsy whateva you wanna call it…
Im Proudly South African…But now live wheva i can set up a stage!
Charl “BabyBoy” Pilwan is probably most known by those of you who used to frequent a quaint champagne bar in Central’s SoHo district called Soiree.
When I first got to know Charl, he was part of the resident band at Soiree called Choklit Soul comprising of Charl and Denver Damons from Cape Town as well as Rickie from Indonesia.
While the outfit has since disbanded with the departure (from Hong Kong) of Denver and Rickie, Charl Pilwan is very much partying up a storm, these days as part of a musical outfit playing at various party venues around Macao including the world-famous Venetian.
Choklit Soul’s Rickie, Denver and Charl partying up a storm at Soiree (Pic: Mike Jansen)
While they played mostly covers at Soiree, Choklit Soul has since recorded a successful album of original songs in Hong Kong. Here is Charl singing their song “My Home” included in the Choklit Soul CD. The video is made up of footage of his recent trip back home:
My Home. Charl & Zoe Pilwan on a recent trip back home to Cape Town.
Zoe & Charl atop Table Mountain with Camps Bay in the background (Pic: FaceBook)
Musical rebel with a Cause: Charl Pilwan and his Missus Zoe (Pic: FaceBook)
Here is a more recent video clip of Charl with an outfit he performed with at Soiree called The Mark Chapil Project:
The Mark Chapil Project consisted of Charl on vocals, Troy (hidden) on keyboards, Fernando on drums and guest artist Michal on trumpet.
Check out more of the Mark Chapil Project in England here
South Africa, and indeed Cape Town has so many talented, experienced and highly trained musicians and artists. Unfortunately, their ability to perform and make a living is very limited and many of them choose to seek employment abroad. This is a record of those musicians and singers who chose Hong Kong as their home-away-from-home.
For the love of Music.
If you liked this post about Charl Pilwan PLEASE nominate this blog:
