Word: curio
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...show openings spring up as if spontaneously. Yet even without an event on the cards, the compound's motley venues offer plenty of diversions. It's hard not to find joy within the expansive Grand Thrift House, tel: (63) 920 962 3079, run by a family of antique and curio collectors - expect vintage Elvis posters, brick-sized cell phones and secondhand photography books (if you're lucky, you'll find one that features a youthful Imelda Marcos cavorting with Madame Mao). Pop-culture fiends will delight in Sputnik, tel: (63-2) 709 1867, which sells local and international comics...
...urban legend about Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac, 86, was that she was really Amy Camus (spelled backwards) from Brooklyn; another was that she had a five-octave range. Neither was true, but Sumac's unusual voice and multinational repertoire made her a popular 50s curio. She was an exotic singer the way other women were exotic dancers...
...Hong Kong native Joel Chan is one of the pioneers. When not scouring the curio and antique shops of Shanghai, the 38-year-old collector frequents online forums such as those at Watchuseek.com to satisfy his time-consuming but affordable craving. The website's Chinese Mechanical Watches forum is a learned gathering where Chan and his fellow aficionados politely compare and praise each other's recent discoveries, discuss dial typography and intricate case engravings, and generally provide encouragement to other members of their growing band. Chan also writes a blog at micmicmor.blogspot.com, and generously - in fact surprisingly, given the secretive...
...seconds a day. But these unreliable prototypes, Chan explains, provided the basis for the mass-produced A581 - launched in July 1958 and adorning many Chinese wrists until its discontinuation in 1967. Millions of A581s were made, which means that today they are relatively easy to pick up in Shanghai curio stores from about $15 (variations in dial color and casing style will affect the price). Chan is also a fan of the A623, launched in 1963 and the first Shanghai watch with a calendar function. The A623 was not available to the general public but only provided to high-ranking...
...between December and February. The Kenya Tourist Board estimates that $75 million will be lost in revenue for January and another $90 million in February. Mutie says that most of his beach colleagues have returned home in northeastern Kenya to take up farming. "Mombasa people are starving," says curio seller Elias Gitonga. He sits on a carved ebony stool surrounded by miniature carvings of elephants and giraffes. "We couldn't imagine all the tourists going away and us being left alone...