free – Page 2 – bc magazine

Leisure Facilities Free Use Day For HKSAR’s 20th Anniversary

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) will hold a Free Use Day on 1 July. The aim is to encourage people of all ages to do more physical exercise and develop a healthy lifestyle and bring exercise into daily life.

Various normally fee-charging LCSD facilities will be open for free on 1 July. The facilities include:

Indoor facilities: badminton courts, tennis courts, basketball courts, netball courts, volleyball courts, squash courts, table tennis tables, American pool tables, billiard tables, sport climbing walls, bowling greens, golf facilities, fitness rooms, activity rooms, dance rooms, cycling track.

Outdoor facilities: tennis courts, tennis practice courts, bowling greens, batting cages, sport climbing walls, archery ranges, a rope course and golf facilities (excluding camp facilities, sports grounds and artificial and natural turf pitches); Public swimming pools (excluding Wan Chai Swimming Pool); and craft at water sports centres.

Bookings for land-based leisure facilities and craft at water sports centres on 1 July can be made at the Leisure Link booking counters at LCSD venues (except for self-service kiosks) from 9am on 24 June. Each person can only book one free session on a first-come, first-served basis irrespective of the type of facility.

No prior booking is required for public swimming pools where entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Leisure Facilities Free Use Day
Date: 1 July, 2017
Venue: LCSD Sports Facilities
Tickets: Free
More info: Bookings from 24 June. www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/freeuseday/index.html.

Emack & Bolio’s Fake Off Customers

By 4:30pm today’s hundreds of eager customers were lined up in the stifling heat outside Emack & Bolio’s store on Cochrane Street. Why, because on the 19 June Emack & Bolio’s sent out a press release and announced in their social media channels two hours of Free Ice Cream!

The exact wording of the press release was:
Free Ice Cream for Summer Solstice… celebrate the start of summer with a free scoop of your favourite Emack & Bolio’s ice cream!!! Just visit any of our stores between 5-7pm on Wednesday 21 June, and follow us on FB or IG.
Only one per customer, our decision is final.

Yet hundreds of customers left angry and frustrated because it wasn’t a 2 hour promotion as announced and advertised, it was a 200 scoop promotion. A fact the company didn’t bother to mention in it’s desperate desire for publicity.

This is not the the first time the company has hosted this type of giveaway but obviously they subscribe to the trump pr playbook of telling lies and using fake facts to get publicity no matter the cost or inconvenience to others.

By 6pm the branch staff were outright lying to customers who turned up saying social media had got it wrong. Social media spread the Free ice-cream promotion correctly, Emack & Bolio’s just failed to honour the offer as announced. Adding the extra condition once the promotion had gone viral. Sadly consumers have little recourse to duplicitous companies like this other than to take their business elsewhere.

Twenty-Five Minutes Older @ Art Basel

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2008/Twenty-Five-Minutes-Older-Art-Basel-21-March-2017/i-f2fBdkS

One of Art Basel‘s off-site exhibits this year is Twenty-Five Minutes Older by local artist Kingsley Ng. Ng’s ‘Twenty-Five Minutes Older’ turns two of Hong Kong’s iconic trams into moving camera obscuras, creating an altered reality and allowing passengers to experience Hong Kong in a new way – in reverse.

Moving images of the city, created via a ‘pin-hole camera’ in the side of the blacked out tram, are accompanied by spoken extracts from Liu Yichang’s famous stream-of-consciousness novella Tête-bêche. The live images of passing street life displayed inside the tram blend and flow alongside Liu’s poetic incantations. The familiar re-experienced in a completely new way – it’s quite surreal as the upside down world floats in the darkness as Liu’s words flow from headphones that remove the everyday sounds.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2008/Twenty-Five-Minutes-Older-Art-Basel-21-March-2017/i-Bqhp7Fs

‘Twenty-Five Minutes Older’, was first presented in 2016 as part of ‘Human Vibrations: The 5th LargeScale Public Media Art Exhibition’ that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Arts Development Council in Hong Kong, runs on the different parts of the tram tracks until the 28 March. Tickets are free, but must be booked in advance here.

https://youtu.be/4YltmPTlNB8

HKGCC Free Ride Day – 29 November, 2016

HKGCC Free Ride Day was launched in 2011 as part of events to celebrate the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce’s birthday, which was established on May 29, 1861.

Members of the public can ride on all Hong Kong trams and the Star Ferry for free on 29 November.

HKGCC Free Ride Day
When: 29 November, 2016
Where: HK Trams, Star Ferry
How much: Free

Hong Kong Women Prepare to Chase Rugby World Cup Dream

Hong Kong Women prepare to chase Rugby World Cup dream with “both hands” according to coach Jo Hull ahead of December’s key qualifiers against Fiji and Japan. Hull’s side host the three-team tournament that will determine the final two teams from Asia/Oceania at next year’s 12-team World Cup in Ireland.

Hong Kong begin their bid for a debut World Cup appearance on 9 December against Fiji, who beat Papua New Guinea 37-10 in the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship at the start of November to progress to the final stage of qualification. Japan face Fiji on 13 December before Hong Kong’s tie with the Asian champions completes the round robin fixtures four days later.

“It is an amazing opportunity to go to a World Cup that I don’t think the players have had before and there is a real belief in the team that it is not a dream anymore and we are trying to grab it with both hands,” said Hull. “These players know they need to get everything right against Fiji, which means our set pieces and most importantly the contact area and breakdown, are our key focus. The players are excited, but we know we will need to earn this.”

Hull has named an expanded 31-player squad in preparation for the December qualifiers, with Hong Kong entertaining Kazakhstan in two training games this week. Experienced forwards Royce Chan Leong-sze and Christy Cheng Ka-chi return to the squad while new additions include prop Wong Yuen-shan and back Jessica Ho Wai-on.

“We are looking at players who are performing at the moment” added Hull. “The squad has worked very hard over the summer with a series of training camps and strength and conditioning sessions to help minimise errors, but also to bring out the style of rugby we want to develop. We are very positive in our approach to the qualifiers and the Fiji game is everything as it is the first game and a win would position us very well to advance to the World Cup.”

The league-wide representative competition, the Super Series, kick-started the final preparations for the World Cup qualifiers. “The Super Series helped us draw a line in the sand as to how we wanted to play and the players were then able to take that into training,” said Hull. “It has also been encouraging to see the club games getting to a higher level, but we still need to prepare for that step up to international rugby.”

Ahead of the World Cup Qualification Tournament, Hong Kong will play two friendlies against Kazakhstan, who appeared at the 2014 World Cup in France, on 16 and 20 November as part of a key week of training and preparation.

“Kazakhstan are a tough, physical side who are good at running. We thought they would be good preparation for playing Fiji in that they will offer a similar competition to what Fiji will look like in terms of their physicality, and their desire to play an offload game and keep the ball in play as much as possible,” said Hull.

Fiji scored six tries in their win over Papua New Guinea in the inaugural Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship in Suva as the hosts played their first test in 10 years and the visitors their first ever.

“We saw that game and we are aware that rugby is in the blood in Fiji so they understand the game quite well,” added Hull. “Fiji are big and strong, so we need to go into that first game knowing how we want to play against them. We haven’t played them before in fifteens and that will pose some challenges in our preparations.”

In stark contrast, Hong Kong know Japan extremely well having lost 39-3 and 30-3 in a shortened Asia Rugby Championship earlier this year. “Japan are fast and like to play a high tempo game, but we are confident that we are approaching both games with the objective of finishing in the top two,” added Hull.

The next Women’s Rugby World Cup takes place in Ireland from 9-16 August 2017, with the winner of the qualifiers in Hong Kong going on to face the hosts, (fourth placed finishers in 2014) as well as France and Australia in pool C. The runners-up in Hong Kong will take on 2014 World Cup runners-up Canada, New Zealand and Wales in pool A.

Hong Kong Women’s XVs Training Squad:
Forwards: Karen So Hoi-Ting, Amelie Seure, Angela Chan Ka-Yan, Royce Chan Leong-Sze, Chan Tsz-Ching, Cheng Ching-To, Christy Cheng Ka-Chi, Chow Mei-Nam, Christine Gordon, Tammy Lau Nga-Wun, Lee Ka-Shun, Melody Li Nim-Yan, Sharon Tsang, Jasmine Cheung Shuk-Han, Winnie Siu Wing-Ni, Wong Yuen-Shan.
Backs: Adrienne Garvey, Candy Cheng Tsz-Ting, Chong Ka-Yan, Colleen Tjosvold, Jess Ho, Ivy Kwong Sau-Yan, Lau Sze-Wa, Lee Tsz-Ting, Lindsay Varty, Mak Ho-Yee, Natasha Olson-Thorne, Aggie Poon Pak-Yan, Rose Hopewell-Fong, Sham Wai-Sum, Cindy Yuen Lok-Yee.

Hong Kong v Kazakhstan
International Friendlies
Date: 7:30pm, 16, 20 November, 2016
Venue: King’s Park
Tickets: Free

Additional reporting and image: HKRU

Megabites: Street Food Markets

Street Food is the buzz word among food lovers in Hong Kong this April as there are two street food festivals starting this weekend. The Alley Street Food Market at PMQ starts on Saturday 23 April and will run every Saturday for initially 8 weeks, but if popular it’ll be extended.

The Lan Kwai Fong Street Food Festival is a weekend long event featuring ‘street food’ from restaurants in the area, live music and other typical LKF goodies.

Alley Street Food Market @ PMQ
The Alley Street Food Market offers an upmarket take on street food inviting well known restaurants to showcase their food and drinks ‘on the street’.

Up to 11 restaurants and bars will be participating each week, among those signed up already are: Beef & Liberty, Bread and Beast, Bread n Butter Café, Drunken Pot, First Floor, Moyo, Munchies, Nice Pops, La Paloma, Prancing Pony, Punch Detox, Topiary, VCNCY and Zuc.cch.ero

Each outlet will be offering three or four of their signature dishes and some created especially for the market. So for example you could pair one of Topiary’s fine cocktails the ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ with Moyo’s delicious Korean fried chicken and finish off your lunch with Bread n Butter’s Hong Kong crepe. After some live music or shopping, rejuvenate with a Bulleit Bourbon Sour and plate of raclette – melted cheese over potatoes and ham.

Entry is free and dishes are paid for in Guru Notes, with 1 Guru equal to HK$10, and dishes and drinks are expected to range between 4 and 10 Gurus.

Alley Street Food Market
Date: Noon-7pm, 23, 30 April, 7, 14, 21, 28 May, 4, 11 June 2016
Venue: Alley @ PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong
Tickets: Free

Lan Kwai Fong Street Food Festival
A mix of 50 local and international street food stalls serving a variety of food and drinks at prices starting from $25 will keep you fed and watered as you enjoy free live music and games.

Entry is free and dishes are paid for in cash.

Among those restaurants and bars confirmed to participate are Ciao Chow, Porterhouse by Laris, Brickhouse, Biorganic, Brick Lane, The Butcher’s Club, Bubba Gump, Common Room, Craftissimo, Divine Marinade, Eagle Wine, Get Fresh Soho, Gourmet Tasty, Greatnuts, Healthy Chicken, Hexapi, Hong Kong Brew House, Jin Juu, La Chouette & Soulite, Mango King, Munchies x Taboocha, Nosh, Nutastic!, Reverse Tap, Rover, Soul Bro Taste, Stacks Ice Cream, Sunny Day Kitchen, Superbowlking, The Roundhouse, 七桌子 Table Seven

Lan Kwai Fong Street Food Festival
Date: 23-24 April, 2016
Venue: Lan Kwai Fong
Tickets: Free entry
More info:
23 April – 1pm – 12am
24 April – 1pm – 10pm

SXSW 2015 – 8.42gb of Free Music

11 years. 11,000 songs. 55GB – The ultimate SXSW Music archive.

The SXSW (South by Southwest) music festival is one of the largest and most popular around. For more than a decade, the festival has been sharing DRM-free songs of its performing artists, 55 GB worth so far. This year’s release is the largest thus far featuring 1,291 tracks totaling more than eight gigabytes.

Since 2005 the SXSW music festival has published thousands of DRM-free tracks from participating artists – the first torrents were created by the festival organizers for the artist showcases themselves, but since 2008 this task has been in the hands of the public.

In 2014 SXSW replaced the MP3 files with Soundcloud links, which complicated the download process. Thankfully in 2015 all the regular SXSW showcase MP3s are again freely available on the festival site for you to sample the music of the bands that played at this year’s festival.

“These torrents include tracks that can be previewed on the SXSW website for SXSW 2015. This year’s includes 1,291 files totaling 8.42GB, making it the largest to date,” notes Ben Stolt the man who, as in previous years, has taken the time and effort to upload all of the MP3s onto BitTorrent with proper ID3 tags. “The torrents are provided as an alternate means to sample the songs available on the official SXSW site” continues Stolt. The 2015 release is out now and comes in two torrents containing a massive 1,291 tracks. That’s 8.42 gigabytes of free music in total.

All the tracks released for the previous eleven festivals dating back to 2005 are also still available for those people who want to fill up their MP3 players without having to invest thousands of dollars. The 2005 – 2015 archives now total more than 55 gigabytes.

Every year SXSW torrents are a great success, with many thousands of music aficionados downloading gigabytes of free music across virtually every genre from both established acts and upcoming bands.

This year’s SXSW music festival has finished but the music will live on for as long as there are people sharing.

www.sxswtorrent.com/2015
http://www.sxswtorrent.com/

Free Goethe-Institut Online Course for those interested in Arts Marketing

The Goethe Institute is offering a free three-month mentored open online course for those interested in Arts and marketing.

The Managing the Arts: Marketing for Cultural Organisations (MOOC) course has been developed by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with Leuphana University of Lüneburg and will be available worldwide for interdisciplinary further training of (aspiring) cultural managers. Chris Dercon, Director of the Tate Modern in London, will guide the course. Participants will join a global network to discuss and share with academics, cultural professionals, artists, students, experts, journalists and cultural policy-makers. With specially produced video case studies about cultural institutions in Bangkok, Berlin, Budapest and Lagos, the MOOC looks to build a bridge between academics and the practical demands of cultural management.

The course offers insights into practical work for the inexperienced and gives experienced cultural professionals the opportunity for reflection and networking. Students will be able to draw up concepts in the fields of cultural management and marketing in a dialogue with cultural professionals from around the world.

Participation in the course is open to all. Specific professional or formal training is not required!

Enrol here:
https://course.goethe-managing-the-arts.org/users/sign_up

Course structure
The online course is divided up into six phases, which will be conducted with motivations by Chris Dercon. In a multimedia and interactive online learning environment, video contributions by selected academics and experts convey the core terminology of cultural marketing and management. A comprehensive digital reader with academic articles forms the theoretical framework. In small interdisciplinary groups, the participants will work on one assignment per course phase in which they will discuss the knowledge they have acquired and apply it to actual case studies. The groups will have personally supervising mentors as well as the entire learning community at their disposal for feedback and expert support via the online platform. Cultural professionals from four renowned cultural institutions in Lagos, Budapest, Bangkok and Berlin offer a look at the challenges they face. Interviews and on-site impressions put tasks and strategies of cultural marketing, project management, audience loyalty, sustainability, digitization and finance in concrete terms.

The cultural institutions involved are the Centre for Contemporary Art in Lagos, which, as a centre for the development, presentation and discussion of contemporary visual art, pays special attention to photography, film, video, performance and installation art. In Budapest, the Trafó House of Contemporary Arts has made a name for itself with international productions in dance, theatre, literature and music. And we will gain insights into the Thai cultural scene via the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre (BACC), a venue for art, music, theatre, film, design and events in the centre of Bangkok. The Berlin HAU Hebbel am Ufer with its three venues for young, experimental theatre is the participant institution from Germany.

More information:
https://www.goethe-managing-the-arts.org/?wt_sc=mooc