Wise Words:
When life gives you lemons -- PUCKER UP!
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Thursday, May 29, 2003
another notch in the wall...
Yep, it's that time again, and it passed without occasion... the way it ought to be. I celebrated by staying at home and doing nothing, which in effect means that I did nothing out of the ordinary; the parental unit, being its usual festive (and hungry) self, wanted to have a bloomin' onion in commemoration, but I would have nothing of it. I didn't feel like eating a huge slab of muscle tissue, and I'm never in the mood for fake Aussie accents.
We have family friends who fixed me a nice steak dinner, and that was decent of them; but it makes me wonder if they're being too nice. Sure, it could be that we're some among their handful of friends, and they wanted to be nice to me, but to me it smells of something scarier. When I asked my mom why they did this (I truly wasn't expecting it), she said that they just remembered it was my birthday -- and of course, ya see, these people likely wouldn't have remembered my birthday if they hadn't remembered that I'm the same age as one of their daughters. To me, it's just a little freaky, since they have so few friends and thus they're left with few possibilities to marry their daughters off. Y'all getting my drift? All I can say is: Arranged marriages, anyone?
Moving on... let's see, what else is new... well, in continuing with my recently developed interest in manual languages, and like a good, scholarly citizen of ol' Uncle Sam, I've borrowed a book from the LOC. It's, um, fun reading -- reading in the sense of stopping to look up every other word. Earlier in the spring I had borrowed a CSL book from an SCSDB (co-?)worker, a collection of basic and useful shou yu shi. This, on the other hand, leans much more heavily on the literary side. (Here's a hint: the book is listed in the catalogue, and I quote, as: "Zhongguo shou yu yan jiu.") Considering I have only an intermediate understanding of the written language in question -- an intermediate understanding among native elementary speakers, to boot -- I'm more or less drowning in the text, but hey, immersion's the best way to learn a language, right? Yeah, right. Leave me my scuba gear, please. At least the looks I get from people at the liberry are enjoyable. And I'm learning to recognize more characters than I ever, ever wanted to know. Ever.
Ah, yes. I must mention that the BBs are back in town -- back in the country, at least. Here they came a-waffling with pesetas but sadly no Hevia. (When I noticed they were empty-handed I was ready to send them back to "No Man's Land.") "2" is coming back, too, but without any Attraction or Union. And with "2" should come a mandolin, haha.
One final note: with good things come bad things, of course, and on that hallowed day when my age became once again a prime number, we received word that the company that was so happy to hire His Hineyness (otherwise known as "my brother") has decided to lay off his royal butt. To those of us in the know -- ie, the nuclear family unit -- this makes no sense whatsoever, seeing as he hauled ass to get his stuff done last year. (According to les parents, His Hineyness put in so much overtime last year that he more than doubled his salary. Just ponder that.) I guess one's loss is another's philosophical, non-monetary gain, for while we were discussing this news, the patriarch dropped this gem of a proverb:
san shuai liu wang
My Glossary of Common Cantonese Colloquial Expressions gives its translation thus: "Three times unlucky and six times prosperous." Better than "one step forward, two steps back," right? Sometimes even the pessimism of America to which I subscribe needs be superseded by centuries of experience.
And with that happy thought . . .
22:38
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Music & Me, Recently
It's been a while since I've spoken about the subject of that hated aural art -- after all, I did spend four freakin' years of my life devoted to that pointless waste of time.
So, of late I've been taking advantage of the fact that I'm back at home, and that at home there's a school known regionally for its music programs. This would be the same school where Yana, whom I've mentioned before, has her lessons. And so she invited me to her recital, the student recital of the semester.
Now, with that all taken care of, here are my opinions of the performances and their scores (out of five claps):
- The first person who performed, a vocalist, had a voice so quiet that I couldn't even hear her over the piano. clapclap (or 2clap)
- Next on the list was a violinist -- who, of all things, couldn't tune her freakin' instrument. Yours truly pulled a Botelhian grimace quite a few times while she was on stage. En plus, she had no idea whatsoever how to play Baroque music. Trills, anyone? I feel sorry for those kids she'll be teaching -- if she actually gets her BM Ed, that is. clapcl (otherwise known as clap 1/2)
- Our good friend Yana was up next, playing the first movement of the Beethoven -- and I have to say she did a better job than I did when I performed it. (After a sojourn on the subcontinent it was hard to get back into the performing mindset, and I ended up wrecking the first phrase, all eight bars, all the way to the half cadence.) And I could tell she was nervous. Thus, for a decent performance and out of sympathy, I give a score of clapclapclapclap.
- The flautist on the list was good. For one thing, she was a freshman and she played some damn hard pieces -- including Griffes' "Poem," a piece that gave me a kick when I heard it performed at DC. (And who performed it? One of the six winners of the concerto competition -- but we won't go there.) I guess I enjoy it so much for its Japanese-ish flavor. But anyways... really, the flautist was quite a bit the star of the show, as her performance took up about half the time of the entire recital. Later she was to participate in the last performance, a show-stopper (literally) of a trio. clapclapclapcla (for the mathematically inclined: 3clap 3/4)
- The sole graduate student on the programme certainly had the attitude requisite of an MM -- she stomped onto the stage. Whether the shoes or the wearer of them were at fault, I'm not sure. In any case, her show was decent. clapclapcl, or 2clap 1/2
Moving on... since I am seemingly stuck in sparkle city indefinitely, I've been meeting people. (I know, it's a huge shock, but I might as well have people around that can share my pain, right?) I befriended a grad student who told me he was doing his graduate recital, and among the works performed: Schumann's Dichterliebe. Remembering how enjoyable it was to listen to the pouting, tongue-in-cheek chords of Ich grolle nicht (whoa -- an enjoyable moment from music history?! may we have a moment, please?) I knew I couldn't miss out on the performance. The programme included not just one song cycle, but two -- the second being the rather long Clarières dans le ciel, by Lili, the sister of Nadia the Baker. (Nadia, of course, was that all-influential woman of the 20th century who taught, among other prominent composers, our own beloved Copland.) The best part of the evening was the extra flair the performer added to Benjamin Britten's folk songs: The Plough Boy and Oliver Cromwell -- he left the stage and the poor pianist actually had to "hee haw, sing it" herself!
Sadly, those two recitals have pretty much been my current forays into what once took up 15-20 hours of my days. Sure, I played the infamous "Ode to Joy" on handbells; yeah, I've marched a little to "Yankee Doodle" -- but somehow, I'm not sure those experiences quite count.
Anyway, if anyone can help me write an email involving "elvis, tea, and post-its (must involve all three)" I'd be much obliged. In the meantime, I'll get around to answering all those emails... someday. :)
17:11
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
This quiz is THE WORST -- I mean, just look at my results. If anyone wants me I'll be Benedict-ing myself.
United States Of America -
The most well-renouned country in modern day times.
The militaristic superpower, the United States
of America are also known as the bossiest nation.
Positives:
Known Worldwide.
A Beacon to Others.
Powerful.
Fast Food.
Negatives:
Bossy.
Despised by Most Others.
Elitest.
Which Country of the World are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
12:20
Sunday, May 11, 2003
I've just finished cleaning out my inbox a bit and found this link. Don't remember posting it here before, and I'm not sure if I forwarded it on -- it's still funny no matter how trashed Iraq is, or how fast America is falling into the pits.
http://winstars.free.fr/english/bush.html
17:07
Linkage! Linkage! Ain't it fun... but I spent too much time having too much fun, instead of composing a post. I guess that'll have to wait. In the meantime, enjoy what's at the left.
(Note: some - actually, all - of the sound links require RealPlayer.)
14:57
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