Nananananananana...
Hey, guess what I'm back! Yesterday was my last day in Hong Kong. Or was it yesterday? I left on Thursday Hong Kong time (it's Saturday there right now) travelled 10.5 hours to Vancouver and arrived 5 hours earlier than when I had left... Wheee, time travel! But I lost all those hours again sitting in the airport, without wireless internet which is apparently no longer free at YVR at least on the domestic side. Anyway, my trip was a great experience. Now it's time to get back into the groove of things. What am I saying? I'm unemployed, ha ha. I'll have to make arrangements soon to finally FINALLY make my move to Vancouver after months of just talking about it. Enough about that, let's talk Batman!
Last week I found out that The Dark Knight (AKA the new Batman film) would be filming right in Hong Kong! I'm a big bat-fan myself, so this was obviously very exciting news to potentially catch a glimpse of the most anticipated film next summer (sorry Indy!). Unfortunately since I left November 8th, I'm missing the bulk of the filming which is scheduled for the next two weeks or something. My only hope was to sneak a peek at a planned fly-over by the Hercules C-130. Batman's been making the headlines not just in HK but internationally because of heavy pollution in Victoria Harbour scuttling a proposed stunt (Christopher Nolan denies this). Further kerfuffle arose when producers asked the downtown buildings to leave their lights on all night to facilitate filming.
I've posted some pics on Facebook from my wild goose (bat?) chase. Check them out here.
There was a big press conference with Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, and Morgan Freeman at some hotel yesterday confirming among other things that there will be scenes taking place at the IFC-2 tower. Batman crews have already been spotted the past few days scouting out potential shooting locations in the Central district and I was told that there's a big stunt planned on some bridge (according to a sketchily translated radio broadcast). Some spy photos have already surfaced of Freeman and Bale shooting scenes in the SoHo district. Man, it would've been so cool to see some actual shooting while I was there, but alas 'twas not to be. I'll just have to wait until my move to Vancouver so I can watch the Watchmen...
And now one of the only Batman theme covers worth talking about:Skavoovie & The Epitones - Batman [originally by Danny Elfman]
UPDATE: An interesting development in the post comments... Get this, you know our friend Boyhowdy from Cover Lay Down? Skavoovie & The Epitones were his brother's band! That's like some sort of cover synchronicity or something.
If you're bored, by coincidence it's almost one year to the day since I wrote up a Batman-themed post called Batman vs. Taxman. The song links are dead, but it's still vaguely entertaining to read and way more effort than I put into a regular post.
6 comments:
Welcome back!
Elia
San Luis Obispo
Hey thanks! I've had some future posts brewing in my head during my trip as I was plugged into my iPod and look forward to getting back to blogging.
Here's some irony, Fong:
That Batman cover you like? By Skavoovie and the Epitones?
That's my brother's band.
Now, sadly, defunct after three albums, with the ten bandboys scattered to the winds. Alas - but it was a great show while it lasted. My bro's now an artist in Brooklyn, but I'm sure he appreciates the mention.
Oh, and welcome back!
Wow, that's awesome and completely bizarre! Right about now a cover of "It's a Small World" is floating through my head. That Batman cover has long been in my playlists, but I wasn't able to properly identify the artist until I found it on eMusic last year. Again, a great cover. Kudos to your brother and bandmates! Did they do other covers too?
Small world, indeed...
The boys of skavoovie covered a few other songs on their first two albums, but none so well known as the batman theme. Covers included:
- Old Man Of The Mountain (Cab Calloway)
- Subway Joe (Joe Bataan)
- Cornbread (Bobby Capers)
- Solomon Grundy (?)
- Bli-Blip (Duke Ellington)
- Drunk (Jimmy Liggins)
Let me know if you want a few of these, or if you want me to write a guest post on defunct third wave ska band covers, or something.
- Boyhowdy, Cover Lay Down
Guest post on defunct third wave ska bands, eh? I dig, I dig. Ha, I'm enjoying this guest-posting thing Kurtis has kicked off. Whenever you're needin' a break from the folk covers, by all means venture on over here. I'll send you an e-mail... and maybe we'll all be hearing some more Skavoovie on here sooner than later.
By the way, nice post on Beck folk covers. Now I'm tempted to post some covers of Tropicalia, my all-time fav Beck song. In fact, I think I'll do that right now.
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