First of all, the organisers of this year’s festival deserve credit for a great series of fixtures, with some smart and courageous decisions on artists and staging. Second, they seem to have done a good job with ticketing, with far fewer of the good seats at events going empty (and seat alloca...

Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is a bleak and challenging modern opera, which although originally read as a sharp satire of Pre-Soviet Russia, soon fell out of favour after Stalin’s criticism of it’s dissonance and social chaos. This staging brings the opera into a modern, ...

Thursday night saw the Hong Kong Arts Festival move to the unusual venue of St John’s Cathedral in Mid Levels. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir gave a performance that was in equal measures assured, kinetic and brilliant. They overcame the limitations of the space and drew the audience ...

Last week I mentioned that we are, at least in the short term, not attending church. Like a lot of people who find themselves in this situation, ours is not a conscious or active decision. We haven’t “lost our faith,� succumb to any major conflict, or radically changed our outlook on church li...

I’m calling these preliminary thoughts because the distribution of films here in Hong Kong means that I’ve been unable, as yet, to see many of the films nominated for key awards. Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Rachel Getting Married, Okuribito, The Wrestler and Frozen Rive...

If you think he looks grumpy and worried, wait till you read what he has to say. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Renowned investor George Soros said on Friday the world financial system has effectively disintegrated, adding that there is yet no prospect of a near-term resolution to the crisis. Soros said the t...

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7897034.stm Women are prouder than men, but men are more lustful, according to a Vatican report which states that the two sexes sin differently. A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only sur...

The Chinese government is facing a massive unemployment crisis, far worse than in the late 1990s, when lay-offs of more than 30 million workers from state enterprises led to a wave of militant protests. This time, the growing army of unemployed mainly consists of internal migrant workers from the co...

The Greater London Authority (GLA) have recently produced a damning document critising the plans for ARK to build on the Wembley Park Sports Ground at Brent. However, some at Brent Council are still determined to drive this forward, in the face of enormous public opposition. The following demonstrat...

They play with our money we play in the snow! Rumours are abounding about a mass snow ball fight between The People and The Banksters in the City of London tommorow....