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Mr. Kwan's Happy Printing with the Original Heidelberg

The other day I visited one of the remaining traditional print shop in Tai Kok Tsui (大角咀) together with a pro photographer.  "Can we take a look inside?" Shop owner for more than 35 years Mr. Kwan said "sure, help yourself!"

Very humble and friendly Mr. Kwan said "these are quite useless, I'm gonna sell them to junk shops in time".  He was talking about his collection of letterpress types.  "They used to be sold in pounds from 5-6 type making shops in Hong Kong, nowadays there is no such need anymore and these became obsolete."

Yet his Original Heidelberg kept running behind like a living and breathing workhorse, spitting out serialized invoices page after pages.

How often do you need to do serious maintenance of the machine? I asked.  "There is no such need, I bought the machine second handedly almost 35 years ago when I started Happy Printing (快樂印刷, his company).  It costed me about HK$30,000 at that time, a huge sum of money enough to buy me a flat, but this machine gave me a business and raised my family".

I wish there were initiatives like those in Taiwan keeping these treasures (the people, the machines, the stories) alive by giving them new purposes: cultural preservation and education.  "Don't throw them away!" we said, "I will give you a call when I decide to close for business" Mr. Kwan said.

A Photographer's Welding

It was a drizzling Friday when I got a call from dear old friend, professional photographer Mark Chung.  I knew him since the Hong Kong Newton User Group days.  We had a great lunch musing about his recent adventure of welding.  Welding?

 

 

Yes welding, he made a tricycle for his 2 years old kid from scrap materials auctioned from government auction house.  This nicely chromed tricycle is super handsome and I wish I could have a studio like his to play with building larger scale of things from scratch, or craps.

 

 

I've always had a feeling that most photographers are 2D persons (sorry that's what my stupid experience told me), but Mark's mind is definitely a 3D, creative and radial type.  I admire people who can interpret information and utilize them across dimensions.  We had so much fun together that day we are venturing into building a not so ordinary bike for the fun of it.  In the mean time, check out Mark's appearance on DigitalRev: Leica M9 vs. Konica Hexar.

 

Scription Posts Coming Up :)

Lack of posts?  Here's why: a lot happened in 2012, been to Vegas and Tokyo, will go Tapei and Shanghai shortly.  Dad's been in and out of hospital and his new home.  Kid had fever for the whole week now catching up with homework.  Dad came out of hospital today, last night he managed to speak repeatedly something until we figured out he wanted some tea, so we raced to the hospital's employee canteen and got him a bowl of nice hot Tieguanyin (鐵觀音) with help from a kind cleaning lady.  I'm quite sure his mind is not in sync with our time, but we were so happy we could give him this tiny pleasure.  I saw a chiropractor and my knee is fixed, will bring mom there to fix her back.  Now back to posts….

 

(Traveler's Notebook, Slip-on pen holder, Gizmon iphone case, Chronodex)

BTW, most up to the minute Scription news is on Flickr or Twitter, so do follow

 

Amazing MT Masking Tape Stop Motion

Forwarded from our MT Masking Tape friend in Japan, this cool little video is a cute stop motion animation created by artist Taijin Takeuchi (竹内泰人) in Shbaura House, a workshop space located in Tokyo.  It took him 11 days and 1700 photos to composite this 4 minutes video.  Great work!

 

Stealing Time

Time is like an invisible bottle of water, at the very beginning you suck up every drop you need, soon you find that sharing is rewarding and fun, then it become your responsibility to share and you wonder how much is still available for yourself, at this point if you can't figure a way cut down the demand, you will either break down, give up yourself or you have to steal.  I steal.

Today I stole a few hours between visiting Dad in hospital and family time to walk in Central with my camera.  A few cups of coffee here and there, taking photos in back alleys and checking out some cool shops.  I found an old books and stationery store in its closing sale.  The owner is also stealing.  The time has ran out for his shop to mean something in a district where more and more galleries and cafes are opening and rent is high, luckily he owns the place so he is renting out the place so that he can rent another space to continue the dying business.  He is stealing time by economics.

(very old copy books, gummed labels which you lick and stick, short stories and Standardgraph pen)

(China Book Company owner selling HK$15 pairs of old scissors)

(calligraphy nibs, old pencils, cutters and scissors)

(grip developer)

(Chinese chess)

(kids scissors, erasers, glue, pen tray covered with moss, music books)

(photo album, all sorts of erasers, sharpners, learning cassette tapes)

(crowded in its last day, China Book Company)

(look, changes ahead in this street)

My Dad stole too, he stole precious business time and brought back juicy cold watermelon so that we could gather at late night as a family enjoying something together, that was before air conditioning was common.  He stole time to look for other potential buyers when others were still considering his price offers (Chinese painting).  He stole sleeping time in exchange for quiet studies of the paintings' authenticities.  He stole sleeping time from a doctor and 'friend' he thought he could trust when I was terribly sick.  He stole my attention in small chunks when he demanded complete silence in the house for his studies.  I learned from a great man to steal.

I hope to be able to write more often and not disappointing Scription readers.  Been to Vegas and Tokyo in the past month, will visit Taipei and Shanghai in March, bear with me.