Play List: Jennifer Van Dale, Lawyer

What I’m listening to:  Bruce Springsteen. There are always several hundred Springsteen songs on any device I own. If I had to choose a favourite song it would be "Mary Mary," mostly for the strings. It was released on an EP in 2014 to support Independent Record Store Day. I also love side B of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. AC/DC has also been involved in every speeding ticket I've been issued. The rest of my ipod ranges from Duke Ellington to Queen Latifa, to classic rock to Johnny Cash. I like clever lyrics and love Lyle Lovett and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

The other thing that is always on my ipod are podcasts. I have been listening to them since  2007.  Whenever I got my first ipod. I listen to work-related things in the morning (Harvard Business Review, Get It Done Guy, Planet Money) and fun stuff on the way home (The Moth, This American Life, The Splendid Table, and StoryNory, which is a story telling podcast for kids, but they serialize books as well. I'm currently waiting for the next installment of the Hounds of the Baskervilles.

What I’m reading: There are about five real (i.e. paper) books on my bedside table at any one time, but it might take me months to get through them all because I tend to fall asleep within 10 minutes. Right now I've got an O Henry collection, Poor Richard's Almanack (yes, the one by Ben Franklin and yes that's how it's spelled), One Night at a Call Centre, Humans of New York (the first one), a Lou Reed biography and Peter Carlin's Springsteen biography. I'm also re-reading "Redefining Girly" by my friend Melissa Atkins Wardy and The Gift of Fear (both highly recommended for all parents).  My favourite authors are Elmore Leonard and JK Rowling for their ability to tell a good story and their use of language.

My favourite books are There was a Horse, which is a collection of Russian and Eastern European fairy tales with horses that was published in the 1950s. I grew up with it in the house and at some point it went missing. My sister and I searched for over 15 years for it but it was out of print. I finally found a copy online and gave it to her for her birthday. Best.Gift.Ever! The Education of Little Tree, which is the story of a part Native American boy growing up in the 1930s. It's presented as semi-autobiographical and I was hugely disappointed when I found out the author was in fact a white supremacist, because the book and its lessons are anything but.

What I’m watching:  I loved Justified (based on an Elmore Leonard story). I blew through five seasons of Downton Abbey on some long plane rides this year. Last week I watched Season 1 of Les Revenants and loved it, which is funny because technically it's about zombies and I hate zombie anything. I have zero interest in the Walking Dead.



What artists I’m following: My favourite photographer hands down is Gordon Parks. His work records such an important part of US history that's often suppressed, and his fashion photography is some of the most elegant art you'll ever see. Unfortunately he died about 10 years ago, but his works are very re-visitable. I follow two south African theatre and TV actors: Chantal Herman and Jai'Prakresh Sewram, who are also friends. I love live theatre and will try to see a show whenever I can. I also follow Bastian Baker, a Swiss singer who was performing in a town square one Sunday in Bern once when I happened to be having lunch outside. The tunes were catchy and I've followed him ever since. I have a very dear relative, John Murdock, who performs comedy and political theatre in NYC whose day job is a balloon man in the park. I see him perform every chance I get.

Where I’m surfing: I spend way too much time on Facebook. I control my news-feed very tightly and I use it as a source of alternative news that I wouldn't get through most newspapers or TV news. Its also very useful for monitoring Sai Kung Traffic! Tumblr has great memes. I also spend a lot of time looking at food websites. I subscribe to the Cooks Illustrated site, and regularly check The Kitchn (not a misspelling)


As told to P. Ramakrishnan
Portraits by Tse-Wei (http://www.limtsewei.com)
Tse-Wei is a Photographer/ Video Director based in SG/HK

 

UPDATE: It is with such grief that I end my run with the column - I always got to meet and chat with interesting people in Hong Kong via Play List (and earlier in the column 'Almost Famous' that ran in SCMP years ago).

Jen is one of my favourite people in Hong Kong - and after the above, I think I know her a lot better. Or she wants me to think I know her better... all a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, packed in a puzzle.