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PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 7:00 pm 
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Location: Pak Kok Village
Annual Report, Aug 6-7, 2016 ~ Jungle Jim HQ (Open Space)
by Nick the Bookman
~ Pictures

Jeezly goobers! (I read it in a book somewhere. Seems a suitably inscrutable way to sum up this Weird Year 2016). I've just arrived at Green Cottage to write this story, having heard on the BBC news that there has been a record turnout for yesterday's Legislative Council elections. Yesterday being 4/9/2016. Today's SCMP (owned by Chinese mega-company Alibaba) reports that it's "the most politically critical and bitterly fought poll since the city's 1997 handover". And there appears to have been an almighty anti-establishment backlash with the opposition Democrats seizing the day. Vote counting is continuing s-l-o-w-l-y while frantic attempts are being made to try and find a positive spin to the result. The people's wrath has been partly caused by the "filibustering LegCo that severely impacted the Government's operation and people's livelihood". That comment came from HK's first Chief Executive post the 1997 handover, Tung Chee-hwa, who added that he was voting with "a heavy heart". Should be an interesting face-to-face between Chinese President Xi Jinping and new British Premier Theresa May at the concurrent G20 Summit in Hangzhou...

Like I said, it's a Weird Year. America is faced with an extremely unpalatable choice of candidates for the Presidential Election 2016, There's the Republican Nominee, Donald Trump. Considered by most of the civilised world to be The Donald The Mad. Running against him is the Democratic Nominee, The Billary The Bad. Can't separate The Hill from The Bill there. She has a galactical sense of grievance best described as You Owe Me! She's Teflon coated as in her private behaviour and her term as Secretary of State. Basically she prostituted the Post, cutting private deals and using her influence to secure dubiously legal contributions to their Foundation. One reported case in The National Enquirer involved her using her influence to secure 20% of the world's free uranium reserves for President Vladimir Putin in exchange for a cheque of $US 2.5 million. Way to Go Mrs. First-Female-Presidential-Nominee! Nuclear empower your enemies! Both Clintons are averse to putting their hands in their pockets. They mooch Premier Class around the country and the world, disdainfully expecting their mega millionaire friends and acquaintances to stump up for their costs. The Donald is gaining on her in the polls and quite a few pollsters believe he could be POTUS 45. The best-case worst case scenario could be that He wins the election and is promptly assassinated, leaving his Veep (?) in charge. Can't remember the Veep's name offhand. Mike something or other? Anway, the Veep isn't on the record as advocating building a Wall on the USA-Mexico border and making them pay for it. Nor is he publicly calling for mass deportation of illegal immigrants and executing anyone who mocks the DT's Special Effect Teflon-hair/wig/

Europe is a basket case in waiting. The successful Brexit result forced Dapper Dave Cameron's resignation as Prime Minister and the surprising ascension of Theresa May as his successor. The first Femier since Margaret Thatcher embarked on a three-win eleven-year term as Supreme Leaderene. George Osborne was contemptuously sacked as Chancellor. The former Mayor of London Boris Johnson who led the Brexit Campaign became the new Foreign Secretary. Cripes Almighty! Can't wait to see the joint photos of BoJo and The DT on a Private Eye Cover. Suggested joint speech balloons could include "Love YOUR wig" or "Who does YOUR hair?" Anyway, Britain was only in the Common Market/EEC/EU for a touch over four decades (1973?-2016) and all the rest of its noble history, it remained implacably adrift across the English Channel. Britain was invaded numerous times over the past two millennia + but never really conquered. A policy of assimilation was the preferred result and if that resulted in some 300 years of German monarchs and their warped offspring, well so be it. Since George 1, the Royal Family bloodline has been overwhelmingly Germanic. World War One could be seen as a private dustup between cousins. King George V, The Kaiser and Tsar Nicholas II. But the British Stiff Upper Lip has remained resolute throughout. The best and funniest summation of Britain vs The Common Market is the Yes Minister episode entitled "The Devil You Know". Watch it and weep with laughter.

What else. There was The Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Came off reasonably well, despite being one of the cheapest on record. About US$11 billion I think. Most of the money was lost in the upper stratas of what passes for Brazilian society due to greed and corruption. President Dilma Rousseff has just been impeached for illegally manipulating the State budget to cover up huge losses from a corruption scandal involving Brazil's national oil industry. Russia should have been thrown out of the Olympics for systemic drug cheating. Sanctioned at the highest levels of the Government. But the IOC didn't have the guts to ban the country outright. Only offenders proven guilty of drug cheating were turfed out. Russia has been banned in toto from the Paralympic Games which have just started in Rio. Putin's response was two fingers up and a hasty decision to hold his own version of the Partial People's Parade/Performances simultaneously with the other Games in Rio. I read that PPP/P quote somewhere. On reflection, it seems a bit mocking and discourteous. These people can't help being the way they are. On the other hand, Oscar Pistorius won't be taking part. He's doing six years hard graft for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp three years ago.

Just to put things into perspective: Scientists say Life on Earth is older than we first thought. Fossil stromatolites have been unearthed along the edge of Greenland's Ice Cap. They've been dated back approximately 3.7 billion years. Which is about 220 million years older than the previous record holders in Australia. This discovery proves that life emerged fairly shortly, in geological terms, after Earth's formation some 4.55 billion years ago. And chances are good that this discovery could be matched by evidence of very basic life on Mars, That's if you discount the Sinister Secret History of our planet which claims that homo sapiens is an alien gengineered species and that Mars and The Moon are inhabited by humans, hybrids and ETs of some 11 different species. Check out the films "Moon Rising" and "Aliens On The Moon: The Truth Exposed" if you want to have your mind and reality sense completely boggled. Phew, enough of all that. Let's Party.

It's Jim's birthday and a quality crew of local DJ's have converged on Open Space to pay homage and basically let their hair down with some splendidly eccentric sets. Jim let me know I could kick off the show if I got up the hill early enough. But kind people kept coming and buying books and I had a pretty good day so didn't pack up until quite late and trundled up the hill even later. With my trusty bag of CDs natch. Because I haven't found any U.S.P in using USB's. A big hi to some friendly Dutch travellers who stopped by my stall and were overjoyed to learn that there was a "rave" on tonight. Let's hear it for Camille,, Kimberley and Timo who explained it's their first time in Asia. They opted out of ascending the Peak because of huge crowds at the Peak Tram Station and came to Lamma instead. Timo says they made their way up the road to the Windmill, jumped a "small canal" and found the party where they enjoyed the freedom and "immersed themselves in the vibe". Did quite a bit of dancing in between chatting with me on the sofa,

Anderson, The Groove Thief, is unravelling a fine skein of ska sounds and rootsy reggae. Warming the Party Animals up little by bit. I've received a copy of his new compilation which is a delightful saunter along the meandering boundary 'twixt country and dub reggae. Doesn't seem to play any of it tonight, but I must express my appreciation for his remix of "Jolene". The old Dolly Parton tune. Fair warning. I'm gonna blend it into one of my latest mix CDs any time now. Anderson is followed by Julia who ups the digital reggae with some rap perhaps, but keeps the pace a-going. More of the same excellent vibe, but slightly different, I'm having to wing some of these memories because my notes appear to have gone walkabout while I'm ensconced in the power seat looking through the door at the furiously frugging funksters flip-flop-flapping frenziedly on the tiny sweaty dance floor, Next up is Ray, from across the water, who kicks the pace up a notch higher even though some of his songs are more of a mellow sounding soulful vibe. Don't recognise any of the major tunes, but that's usually to be expected of me and my antiquated tastes.

Danny, the drum and bass maestro from Sai Kung and one fourth of Lamma's DJ Super Collective tag team band Quadrant, is on next. My, my. Hey, hey. Dee and Bee is here to stay. (With apologies to Neil Young). This is the third time I've had the immense pleasure of hearing Danny strut his stuff. This is a masterclass in sounds and texture and weaving incredible patterns of musical motifs. The drums and percussion are concussive and the BPM are near supersonic. There are haunting vocals. Evocative chamber music-cum-blisstrance sections and then another world speed record percussive chaos collision of melody, noise and blippage. Truly a mega-blast of a show and my favourite performance of the night, Bar none. That doesn't mean any one else was bad by comparison.

The DJs are getting about an hour each to strut their showmanship. Just because there quite a few of them lined up and salivating. Makha is up here and it's a pleasure to see him. And a big hi to his mates. Was it Maho and Zena? Apologies for the incorrect names, but you know who you all is. Meanwhile Caspar has taken off behind the decks. Does a fine hi-energy mix, most of which enjoyable passes over my head. Then it's the turn of Mike, who started as a white boy homey playing in a black dance club somewhere in the USA. I'm not a huge fan of his musical style. But that comment IN NO WAY reflects on his skill at laying down his set. There were even a few trance bits that I did enjoy. But mostly, it was turn of the century smooth black music for the masses. Jim's done a huge rapid paced, randomly evolving segue through some odd byways and highways of music history. And I'm wondering if I'll get a chance to shine. Seeing as it's closer to dawn than midnight by now. The hardcore headcases are here by now and I finally get a chance to follow on from little Nick.

I play something by Ozric Tentacles which goes down all right and start edging into d' n' b territory when Jim and Julia return to the fray and suggest we all do some DJ team tag. They both think I've already played a reasonable set (of about 15-20 minutes) and it's fair game. So being sporty I go along with the flow. With mixed results. Nick comes back on and plays a wonderful unknown trance tune. Moody, good drums and keyboard spacechords, So I whack DJ Moshic (a dark tribal Israeli DJ on) and start fucking about with the faders. Moshic's Mideast track with bombs and "hello teacher refrain" blends beautifully... (well for 0500ish) and I've got a nice dub flow rhythm going on the mixer. Then Matt (MJ) whose got a night pass while Shelby looks after little Clover and another Matt. with a bushy brown beard, are watching Always got time for fellow beardies. Life's too important for the daily notch carving in one's chin. Anyway, they both tell me that I'm "tripping" them out. Gone are the clear clean digital rapid fire mixes. T be replaced by a Grateful Dead sort of space/drums weird concoction. I'll gladly take the compliment guys and glad you enjoyed the truncated set. Other people are clamouring to play, and it's almost light enough to walk down the hill back home and so I take my leave. My last sight is of Jim spark out on the floor.. Huge smile on his face. Sort of sleepily enjoying the maelstrom. Got home safely. A quick kip for a couple of hours and back to the books for another day in Lamma Paradise. Cue encore: Jeezly goobers indeed.


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