Making an exhibition of yourself

I haven't written many new jokes this month - this is perhaps a flaw with spending my weekends hurling myself down hills or going to weddings.

(Actually, hurling suggests rather more commitment and determination - it's been more like hanging off the back of a bicycle trying not to die, but let's leave that aside for the moment.)

Let The Bullets Fly

I haven't seen Chow Yun Fat since he was in Shanghai. The slightly ponderous John Cusack film, that is, not the city. It's always odd to see him not sliding backwards down a flight of stairs, firing two pistols while some doves fly past in slow motion, but I guess as a man ages he finds such a descent more perilous.

He also makes a pretty good bad guy, mouth stuffed full of gold teeth, in Let The Bullets Fly, a Chinese Western. I suppose that's really an Eastern, but the same tropes remain: a town full of cowed peasants ruled over by the criminal mastermind until the bluff anti-hero rides into town and ... starts bluffing, I suppose.

Shanghai'd

After yesterday's furnace-like heat, there was a brief respite today when the rains came.

Not really. When it rains in Hong Kong, it remains hot, but there's an increased chance of somebody taking your eye out with an errant umbrella.

Still, I don't want to complain too much about my lot; I mean, imagine if I'd been in Shanghai 70 years ago. There was a lot more to worry about back then, like rogue John Cusacks running around the foreign concessions. As you might imagine from my deep and meaningful reference to historical events, last night I went to watch the Weinsteins' Chinese epic, Shanghai.

How to get ahead in Chinese politics

Apparently a civil servant in China has published a self-help book for would-be apparatchiks, explaining the secret unexplained rules you need to get along.

Except now they're not unexplained, or secret.

Coming soon

Off to the comedy club tonight, to do my first set (as opposed to hosting) this year.  Good grief, where is 2010 going.  Think I'll open with some new stuff.  After all, that's the best way to get going.  Start strong fresh.

I guess people are now getting over the excitement of the iPad, and are now preparing for the next exciting thing: Chinese New Year.