Lou Reed 1942 - 2013

Very sad to hear that Lou Reed has died at the age of 71.

I grew up with the music of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.   In my hometown of Dunedin in the 1980s The Velvets were acknowledged as the coolest band ever.  Despite being 15+ years old their music was a huge influence on most of the the local bands that we followed.   I owned several of their albums and listened to them frequently.

"The famous quote from Brian Eno that “only thirty thousand people bought the Velvet Underground’s début, but they all started bands” is not wrong; if anything, it is conservative, though we have to range over many albums to size up Reed’s impact. “What Goes On” gave us the Feelies; “Sister Ray” gave us Spacemen 3; the third, self-titled Velvet Underground album gave us Galaxie 500, and maybe a chunk of the independent rock music made in New Zealand during the late nineteen-eighties. "    Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker (link)

What I hadn't realized was that about the same time us kids in NZ were listening to his old music, Lou Reed took up martial arts and eventually studied Chen Tai Chi under Ren Guangyi, a disciple of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang.    He became an enthusiastic promoter of Tai Chi and composed music for Tai Chi and meditation.    Some people were surprised that he made it to 71 - although it turns out he did much less drugs than you'd think from his songs - but he publicly attributed his later good health and vitality to Chen Tai Chi.

In this interesting interview in Kung Fu Magazine (link), Lou Reed thoughts and experiences neatly parallel my own, although at a much higher level.   See also this article from Examiner.com (link). and these 2 videos Lou Reed and Master Ren at Sydney Opera House,   Lou Reed tai chi set to original music.

As an aside, another very popular band in my hometown was the Violent Femmes, an alternative rock band from Milwaukee.   It turns out that their founder and bassist, Brian Richie, became a shakuhachi player.  So that is two obscure hobbies I have in common with my former Rock Gods.

Kam Shan Country Park

One of the benefits of living in the New Territories is the terrific hiking nearby.  Once the heat of summer had eased off I was keen to try a family walk.

Our first (and last) walk of 2013 was Section 6 of the MacLehose Trail.  This starts at the top of the Tai Po Road on the pass between West Kowloon and the Shatin valley, and goes north for 4.6km through Kam Shan Country park, past the Kowloon Reservoir, up over Smugglers Hill and down to the Shing Mun Reservoir.

Kam Shan Country Park is famous for its colonies of monkeys and sure enough there were many of them waiting for tourists at the start of the trail, right next to the signs saying 'do not feed the monkeys'.

Monkeys in the forest

Looking south to Lion Rock (pouncing on the left horizon).

In order to sell the trip to Hannah we'd agreed that I'd carry her uphill and she would only need to walk downhill.  It was quite tough carrying Hannah on my shoulders up the road in the sun.

Video:  Monkeys near the summit of Smuggler's Ridge.

Near the top of the ridge was a lovely lookout spot with a picnic pavilion, although it reeked of monkey poo.  We were able to watch the cute little things systematically emptying the litter bins, checking each piece of trash for edible traces before dumping them on the ground.

Video:  monkey picnic

From there the trail wound around the west side of the ridge with good views to the west across Tsuen Wan town and north to the mountain of Tai Mo Shan (957m)

Looking west over to Tsuen Wan.

Near the end of the trail we looked at the remains of the bunkers and tunnels of the Shing Mun redoubt, which defiantly held-up the Japanese advance into Hong Kong for about 15 minutes during WW2.

Video panorama:  view from Shing Mun Redoubt panning west-north-east

Journey's end at Shing Mun reservoir.

Looking north over the Shing Mun reservoir to Lead Mine Pass and Grassy Hill.