Soundpocket press release:

(Photos by soundpocket)

AROUND is a month-long sound art festival about listening. Internationally renowned artists stay in Hong Kong on a 10-day residency, developing original live performances and installations at the tranquil Tung O Beach in the south of Lamma Island and in old Chinese brick houses in Motat village nearby. Sound objects and audio works are concurrently presented in multiple venues in the city. Public talks and workshops on sound in different cultural contexts take place throughout the month.

AROUND is grounded on the place-making potential of the aesthetics of sound. The unprecedented festival brings visitors out of the routines of urban space and back, enabling extra-ordinary and lasting listening experiences.

AROUND is a direct and positive response to the domination of visual culture and noise pollution in the city, the numbing of our sense of hearing as a result, and the growing interest of artists working with sound. AROUND is an occasion for ear cleansing and deep listening.

AROUND presents international A-list artists and emerging sound art talents from Hong Kong. They are:

Mike Cooper (UK), Kawai Shiu (USA/ Singapore/ HK) with Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (HK), Phoebe Hui (HK), Jerome Joy (France), Jaffa Lam (HK), John Lee (HK), Jason Lim (Singapore), Simone Merli (Italy/USA), Donna Ong (Singapore), Beatrix Pang (HK), Kacey Wong (HK), Patrick Shek (HK), Su Hei (HK), Akio Suzuki (Japan), Anthony Yeung (HK), Yan Jun (PRC), Miki Yui (Japan/ Germany)

Presented by soundpocket,
curated by Yeung Yang. Co-organizers – SEE Network, The Bookshop by MCCM Creations, aco_books, kapok, hulahoop, Hong Kong Architecture Centre, Friends of the Earth.

Supported by: Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Le French May, Consulate General of France, Dawei Charitable Foundation Limited, alive not dead, San Miguel.

Donna ONG - Project Waterfall 1

Akio SUZUKI performance
(photo by Catherine Grout)

HKNME Rehearsal

Anthony Yeung -
Listening Workshop

Jason LIM - Last Drop

Angela Leary & Bernadette Carney - AnimalsAsia:

(Photos by Angela)

Lamma (formerly Munchkin) before integration

You'll remember "David" the sun bear rescued by Animals Asia from a bile farm in Vietnam and named by Barbara Kerr after her brother long-time Lamma resident, David Kerr. David, who died in 2006, had left instructions for a generous donation to be made to Animals Asia.

I thought your readers might like to read this lovely update about David meeting his new girlfriend, another sun bear whom we've named "Lamma" because of David Kerr's love of his island home. This was written by Animals Asia's Bernadette Carney (also a long-time Lamma resident):

Our big sun bear David arrived at the rescue centre in Vietnam in September 2008, one of the first sun bears to join our family. Soon afterwards, Lamma, a small, angry little sun bear arrived. Long alone and trapped in a double cage, Lamma was suspicious and defensive, lashing out at all who came near. David on the other hand, has never been anything but relaxed and gentle since his arrival, and in size and temperament these two bears couldn't be more different.

Recently housed next door to each other, the preliminary interaction between these bears has been a pleasant surprise, with David keen to connect from the first moment he saw Lamma. He often waited at the top of his hanging basket for her to join him on the other side, where he would gently paw, sniff, lick and play through the separating bars. David has never had any aggressive vocals or behaviours towards Lamma during the eight weeks they have lived side by side, and was often seen taking enrichment toys full of fruit and placing them against the bars for Lamma to help herself to.

David (left) and Lamma meet

Lamma (left) and David

A little slide show about David & Lamma cavorting, from AnimalsAsia...

Lamma wasn't quite so keen at the beginning, and was nervous when David moved into the den next to her. Previously having a neighbour who avoided contact, it came as quite a surprise to suddenly have this great, lumbering male come straight to the bars keen to get to know her, and Lamma avoided him for the first day. Her first contact with him was swiping and growling, and she kept a very close eye on him wherever he moved, but David was oblivious to her defensiveness, and continued to pursue his new friend. By day two, Lamma was much more relaxed and did not show any aggression but continued to watch David closely. Finally she began to play and was very soon happy to flirt, nibble, paw, and even steal his food through the bars.

After the development of such a successful new friendship, the bear managers and vet team in Vietnam decided the time had come this week to do a full integration and no longer keep these two bears separated. David's calm, almost dopey, demeanour was predicted to be a good match for Lamma, who is feistier and a little nervous about new people and situations.

And the outcome of the integration? Senior Bear Manager, Bec reports, "Both bears were walking on their hind legs before meeting, then instantly wrapped their arms around each other, with not a moment of aggression. There was no hesitation from either bear to engage in play, bear hugging one another and play biting. David had never been in this den before, so he wandered in to check it out, interested in sniffing and exploring, only to be wrestled by Munchkin [Lamma's nickname before receiving her official name] every step of the way. He is very gentle with her, which is comforting to watch, as he is much larger, although a lot of him is excess skin, with Munchkin is using to play-bite and pull! The first hour was non-stop wrestling, with no aggressive behaviours or vocalisations displayed."

Throughout the day, their obvious joy continued, with even a lot of enrichment items ignored in the pursuit of cementing their friendship. David and Lamma did however, share a large fruit ice-block, pawing, biting and licking at it without any aggression shown towards each other. With all this play tiring them out, they retired together to one basket later in the afternoon to rest up before carrying on the game.

Sharing enrichment again later in the day and eating close to each other, David ventured over to Lamma once he had finished his own food, where he casually joined her to eat. Lamma allowed him to eat her food, but very slightly raised the corner of her mouth, which David saw and took to mean "back off", which he did. "It was a very cute, and very tiny, display of aggression over the evening food" said Bec. "David's reaction definitely suggests that Munchy [Lamma] wears the pants in this relationship!"

With release into the great outdoor enclosures planned for the future, David and Lamma look set for a lifetime of friendship together.

Dan & Sharon - Island Bar - 25 April 2009:

(Photos by Dan Peterson, click to enlarge)

El Destroyo builds on previous success

By an amateur reviewer (in the absence of resident sage and scribe Nick the Book)

The Lamma music scene was once again enlivened with another rip-roaring Friday night session at the Island Bar. Lamma's own The Curs (formerly YSWankers) opened the show with their typically crowd-pleasing performance, this time accompanied by drummer Babatunji Heath from El Destroyo. The Curs performed their usual fantastic job on a number of great tunes with vocals mostly by lead singer John Hutton, more than ably accompanied by Harry Harrison. With Ollie on banjo, Roy on slide guitar and Gareth on bass, they closed off to great acclaim with a U2 hit favourite 'Still haven't found what I'm looking for'.

Feature band El Destroyo then played a return engagement to a very appreciative and enthusiastic crowd. Dean, Maggie and Tunji, who play together often and wonderfully well, were great as always with a tight routine executed smoothly and professionally. Despite some early glitches with the vocals caused by the equipment gremlins, El Destroyo performed to their full capability and to the delight of all in attendance.

El Destroyo are billed as a rockabilly band but they have a wide range of musical genres and certainly have the talent to make it all sound great. At one point they even branched into some country music to the delight of the crowd – and the amazement of John Hutton, who later joined in vocals for a couple of numbers.

The whole evening got off to a rocking good start with early dancing by a few people and as the collective enthusiasm and numbers grew the Island Bar staff cleared away the alcove table and chairs to let some of the more boisterous party-goers let rip.

After El Destroyo finished to boisterous applause and then departed as planned on the infamous 11:30pm ferry, the evening mellowed into a friendly jam session with the addition of some big bass accompaniment, keeping the mood in place and the audience satisfied.

The renovation works, which were supposed to have been started on the garden area opposite the IB, dampened the atmosphere to a minor degree since those people who would have liked to have sat outside could not. But generally the audience were in such a good mood they just worked around it. During the latter part of the evening several people spilled over into the neighbouring restaurant area and we all thank the folks at the Man Fung hugely for their patience and cooperation.

So all in all, another fun evening at the Island Bar with big thanks to The Curs and El Destroyo for making it possible and to the customers who made it all so worthwhile. THANK YOU.

An important footnote:

Since the garden area is closed, this did create a bottleneck when the ferry crowds were coming in, mixed with customers spilling out from the Bar. This will be an ongoing problem until the work is finished and if we're not careful could mean the end of live music at the IB until the work is concluded.

We must urge customers to leave a walkway space for commuters when it is required, and also to refrain from using the neighbouring property as a sitting/ spreading out area since it does cause a disturbance to the family who live there and to their business.

Sorry to end on this note, but it is quite important for community relations between the IB, commuters, the neighbourhood and the police. Thank you again from the management of the Island Bar.

Lisa Stella - Lamma Ladies:

(Photos by Lamma-Gung, click to enlarge. Click above for photo gallery!)

An excellent start to the 2009 dragonboat race season saw the Lamma Ladies take Silver at the Sha Tin Hong Kong Club Championships, with nearly half the boat new paddlers! Well done, guys! Our next race is Boracay in the Philippines. Then we fall off the plane and compete in the Lamma 500. This is one fast, furious, action-packed race schedule.

A record-breaking $30,000 was raised at Cirque Du Soleil Du Lamma on Apr 4 for Lamma Dragons Dragon Boat Club.

As the pictures shows, tremendous effort was put into costumes by the party-goers and The Island Bar was transformed into a miraculous Cirque du Soleil Stage Set.

The Beer Garden, decorated for the first time, was festooned with coloured lights and sprinkled with hand-decorated umbrellas - a ubiquitous feature of a Cirque Show.

We gave out over 30 prizes on the night and this could not be done without the generous donations of our sponsors and contributors. Many businesses in the village give every year and we could not raise the kind of money we do without their help. We would like to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to:

The Island Bar, Hipfish, Dymocks, Beer & Babble, New Holiday Mood Rest., Diesel's, Lamcombe Seafood Rest., Deli Lamma, Banyan Bay Cafe, The Amber Shop, Best Kebab, Pizza Milano, Forget Me Knot, Emily's Ice Cream Parlor, Sun Salon.

For a list of Door Prize winners, click here.

This has been a fantastic season so far with great attendance at practices which bodes well for the competitions. The men are doing really well, having a solid core of experienced paddlers as well as keen newbies. We have more team members this year than ever before - between the two teams, we have 70+ paddlers all hailing from Lamma!

For more photos, see L-G's & Julian's photo gallery.

Coming races confirmed:

1 & 2nd May - Boracay International Dragonboat Competition: men's team, mixed and women's!

10th May - our very own LAMMA 500: nearly certain we will be able to field 2 women's teams, men's and mixed!

24th May - Men's and mixed only, fishermen's race at Green Island.

28th May - Tuen Ng Day - Disco Bay - women defending champs, but also hoping to do well in men's and mixed.

30 & 31st May - Hong Kong Internationals - women, mixed, men.

Katie Flowers:

(text & all photos by Katie Flowers)

Eco Arts Are the Way Forward

Cutting edge Eco Art teachers Katie Flowers and Claire Kirk have developed an innovative new approach to educating young minds on how human activity impacts on our local Hong Kong Oceans. Their latest creation at Hong Kong International School lower primary school is Operation Pinky, named after the Gavin Coates novel about Hong Kong's Pink Dolphins. The story was used as basis for creating a giant installation, which spans four floors of the Lower Primary school to express the images of Hong Kong Oceans rich past and the sad plight of oceans present.

Through the creation of artworks, students have learned about the richness of local seas in the 1950's, the abundance of life and diversity of species that used to flourish here and the current state of play for those creatures who still do inhabit our seas, and the impact of man and pollution on the marine habitat.

Katie and Claire have worked on various projects alongside the local WWF group and this time they have used the WWF Oceans 10 list to show the most endangered marine species in our sea. Which of course includes our very own Green Turtles, which have not been seen on Sham Wan South Lamma for 3 years.

The project not only raises awareness for the 180 students grade 2 (7-8 years old) who worked for 4 months on the creation, but also for the whole of the rest of the HKIS students from 4 years to 18 years who visit the installation.

The project is pertinent, crucial and cutting edge and has already been visited by various local conservationist groups, such as the Hong Kong Living Seas group, Ark Eden group and Project Kaisei. It will feature on the Living seas website as a flagship project.

Katie Flowers has been studying an Ma Ed in Environmental Education for 3 years, stimulated by her years of leading the Lamma Island Earthkeepers groups.

She is PASSIONATE about the need to educate young people of all ages about every aspect of our beautiful natural world in Hong Kong.

As Katie states, The urban environment in which we live has made it difficult to learn about or appreciate how to just 'be' in the countryside, so taking to caring steps towards environmental nurture may not seem obvious. Believe it or not Green environmental attitudes are not built into our hard drive...we need to learn how to load those in!

Having intimate and exciting encounters with nature in large and tiny ways needs to come first.

It is vital to feel powerful & excited & even intrigued about our wonderful world!!!

There is so much out there right now concerning Environmental Problems both locally and globally. It can be hard to know how to act and respond. In Hong Kong, we are being told daily that our planet is heading quickly into crisis; films like the Inconvenient Truth tell us what lies up ahead if we don't make some right choices.

It's easy to feel over whelmed and uncertain as to how we can help. The news can be very negative, but we have to balance that with some kind of affirmative action. We have to help ourselves and our kids look for the positives and the possibilities. If we and our children realise that we can each be part of the solution then the problem becomes way more realistic!

• We can celebrate our "Place".
• We can help our children learn to develop connection with the natural world inside the city and out beyond the housing estate and therefore develop a sense of care for that.
• We can foster a better understanding of the world around us.
• We can contribute to the voice for sustainable development.
• We can protect and restore the environment around us.

We need to be as feisty and tenacious as nature teaches us to be!!

Public Affairs Dept., HK Electric:

(Photos by Lamma-Gung)

Emission-free vehicle to be used to Lamma Winds

HK Electric has taken on board Lamma residents' suggestion to use an emission-free electric cart to provide, on a need basis, special transport trips for visitors to Lamma Winds.

An application has recently been filed to Lands Department for permission to use a 4-seater electric cart to take visitors from Lamma Power Station to Lamma Winds in the event that transportation is required. This electric cart will only be used when special arrangements have to be made for visitors who may not be able to travel on foot, in particular the elderly and physically-challenged. All other visitors will be asked to walk up.

When HK Electric applied for the same service with a minibus with Euro IV emissions standards back in February 2008, Lamma residents expressed concerns even though it was the cleanest available diesel vehicle on the market at the time. We have since explored the feasibility of using an emission-free electric cart for the purpose.

We believe the proposed arrangement represents a balance in respecting the environment on Lamma while at the same time, allowing visitors with special needs to travel to Hong Kong's only wind power station.

We will exercise extreme care and prudence in the event that the vehicle has to be used. Support by Lamma residents is highly appreciated.

Lamma Winds hikers

Jay Scott Kanes - Official Court Correspondent and author:

(Story & photos by Jay)

Rubbing sticks together starts fires. Hitting people with sticks constitutes assault. And by a special brand of building magic, tying sticks together means it's time for Chinese opera here.

Each year, workers on Lamma Island bind together thousands of bamboo poles to create an impressive, but temporary, opera house bigger than some sports stadiums. Again this year, the bamboo opera house rose like a mythical phoenix, "setting the stage" for popular Cantonese-opera shows.

The Celebrate Tin Hau (Goddess of the Sea) Festival runs from April 16-20. As the main attraction, the "HK-renowned" Hing Fung Ming Cantonese Opera Troupe performs.

Starting in late March, piles of bamboo poles arrived at a village soccer pitch. Agile and skillful, busy builders added one pole at a time to create a large stage, partial walls and a sloped roof.

Now, the "culture palace" dwarfs nearly every other building on the island. Colorful flags flutter outside. Rows of chairs wait on the surface where soccer balls usually bounce.

Despite such elaborate preparations, the bamboo opera house operates for less than a week. Once the final costumed performer sings, the workers return, cut loose the bamboo poles and carry them away. Within a few days, the huge structure vanishes until next year.

This unusual opera house lacks the grandeur and permanence of the famous Sydney Opera House. But it's even more fascinating.

For a lot more of Jay's photos, click here.

Jay Scott Kanes - Official Court Correspondent and author:

(Story, photos & captions by Jay. Ferry pier photo below left by L-G)

City Hordes Conquer
by Force of Numbers

When too many thousands of big-city folks arrive on an outlying island like Lamma, the place deteriorates lickety-split. That happened on the Easter weekend.

As a sparsely populated place without motor vehicles, Lamma usually offers quiet serenity, a welcome refuge from the crowded, tumultuous urban districts a short ferry ride away. Not at Easter.

On those few days, long queues formed at the Lamma Pier in the Central Business District. There, city-dwellers jostled for places on the Lamma ferries. Some prospective day-trippers saw the backlog of fellow travelers and turned away. Any Lamma Islanders reaching the city gawked in amazement at the unusual sight of such queues. Then they wondered how best to battle through the masses on the way home.

Ferries filled to capacity brought thousands of extra visitors pouring into Yung Shue Wan, Lamma's largest village. They clogged the narrow Main Street and streamed along the popular hiking trail.

Leisurely strolls or vigorous hikes amid nature's splendor, the prospects for which attracted many of the visitors, turned problematic. Human chatter drowned out singing birds. Time spent waiting for gaps in the crowd caused delays and frayed tempers. Lineups to buy popular snacks nullified the pleasures of eating. The outlying paradise descended into aggravating congestion, no better than urban areas.

Why did so many people visit Lamma on the same few days? One theory is that the global recession has taken a terrible toll. People wanted to enjoy the holiday weekend, but no longer could afford trips to Beijing, Bangkok or Singapore. So Lamma became a cheap local alternative.

Another theory blames a popular Chinese TV show that recently interviewed a few leading Lamma Islanders about why they love the place. One big reason cited was the island's friendliness and how its residents routinely greet each other on the street.

Hopelessly outnumbered, Lamma's 5,000-plus residents spent much of Easter hiding, avoiding the marauding hordes by ducking down side-streets and along back-alleys. There, they met friends and neighbors doing the same.

When day-visitors invade in such large numbers, Lamma Islanders react with mixed emotions. Most mutter, moan and curse, resentful that "city influences" sully their home turf. But those with shops or restaurants sniff gold in the flood of traffic.

If the sun shines next weekend too, city dwellers will invade Lamma again, but hopefully in lesser force. Too many more days like those on the Easter weekend may erode the island's friendly hospitality.

Thousands too many city folks clog Lamma's narrow streets.

Waiting for gaps in the crowd delays strolls and frays tempers.

Do most visitors find space to even notice the greenery they came to enjoy?

For restaurants and shops, the influx means potential profits.