I’m an idiot. I’ve done some lamebrained things in my life. Trips, slips and really dumb things. In work, not in work, in life. Said really stupid things. Done really stupid things. Sometimes all of them all together. Like today. I shall crawl back under my rock now. Have a nice day.
Here’s a song used in a commercial for Orange for their phone packages, which are named after animals (cool). Their ads always have such nice songs.
The Pre-Christmas Indulge In A Glamorous Season Sale. The Post Christmas Unbeatable Bargains Sale. The New Year’s Day Specials. The Pre-Chinese New Year Spruce Up Your Home Sale. The Post Chinese New Year Last Chance At Low Prices Sale. All for a retail client that’s especially well known for homewares, kitchen and beddings. I’ve never proofread the word “bolstercase” so many times as in the last two months. Hee. If only finding blissful slumber (or enough of it) was as simple as writing it.
Here’s a nice video. The frame by frame top view thing is not totally new — directors, film students and videography enthusiasts play around with it now and then — but this one sung and directed by Oren Lavie, together with Yuval and Merav Nathan, and photographer Eyal Landesman, is pretty well executed.
And also kinda pretty. I like.
Here’s some production trivia: The video was shot all stills — roughly 3,223 photos for the entire sequence, using one camera hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the video. Before shooting started, it took 4 weeks to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video using dummies for the characters. Shooting took only 2 days for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5-minute computer sequence, frame by frame.
But we don’t need to worry about all of that. We just need to let our thoughts wander and enjoy the moment. Sweet dreams.
It came to me the other day:
Were I to die, no one would say,
“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full
Of promise — depths unplumbable!”
Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes
Will greet my overdue demise;
The wide response will be, I know,
“I thought he died a while ago.”
For life’s a shabby subterfuge,
And death is real, and dark, and huge.
The shock of it will register
Nowhere but where it will occur.
- John Updike
I don’t know John Updike’s work, except that I’ve heard his name before, mentioned with renowned modern classic literature writers and essayists like Tom Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller and the likes. But it’s apt, and true, the requiem he wrote, perhaps for himself (that was printed in the NYTimes website) alongside an obituary. And the drawing is nice too. Rest in peace, sir.
It’s the new year on the Chinese calender. The front page headlines, except for a few weird ones (maybe they were slow news days), except for the few days of euphoria during the inauguration, seem bleak with no sign yet of improving.
But it’s not all bad. It’s the Year of the Ox (牛), which symbolises prosperity through fortitude and hard work. The sort where patience and going with the flow achieves steady progress and better results over aggressively charging forward. Think building to last. (I sound like an old man.)
Hang in there. Happy Niu (牛) Year. Now get back to work.
Day One. Logistical task of coordinating visits to relatives’ homes become tricky as my mum’s siblings have scattered to do duty at their in-laws’ side of relatives.
Lunch at grandma’s HQ mildly disturbed when our party encounters my cousin’s bratty son. Protocol prevents my mum from giving the boy a smack on the back of the head (though she did adopt the use of strongly worded hints to tell my cousin off for spoiling his son).
Red alert. My younger brother encounters interrogation by an auntie — was he, as a member of the group “young people today”, saving enough instead of squandering everything on material goods? And what did he think of, quote, “the institution of marriage”?
Potential hostility (not that my brother would be so disrespectful, but just in case he gets snippy) is averted when my mum steps in, abruptly changes the subject, and declares we were late going to our next checkpoint, and hustles us on our way.
Moment of peace at my uncle’s home.
His daughters and their families arrive, fostering a scene of humour and good cheer. In one corner of the living room, kids and toddlers are playing. In the other corner, the elders are swapping tips on what brands of supplements/medication/multi-grain bread/brown rice is good.
My uncle is on a diet, doctor’s orders, as he is at high risk of high blood pressure and diabetes. Hence, he tries to convince my brother and I to eat as much as we can now while we still can, before we become like him and cannot eat a lot of rich foods. I couldn’t figure out if he was serious or kidding. His daughter didn’t know either.
Still, this family is still a fun bunch to hang out with.
We regroup with my mum’s brother and his family at another relative’s home. The strength in numbers tactic fails when my auntie looks at my two cousins, both teenage girls, and amongst the “they grow so fast” comments, lets slip a “this one is the one with the nicer nose.” It wasn’t intentional on my auntie’s part, but I’m thinking: “Great, now the other sister will grow up with the ugly nose complex.”
At this point, I would’ve attacked a stranger for a glass of water. I could not take another glass of soft drink, even though I’ve only had one (I wanted to, but at the last moment couldn’t make myself tell my old auntie no thanks for the 7-Up Raspberry). I need my water. Waaat-*gasp*-ter… Resorted to making a few furtive trips to the kitchen sink to refill my glass.
Return to homebase with a major headache. So tapped out. All I could do was nap, eat a bit of dinner (I don’t know why, I’ve eaten enough for two days), nap, shower, try to write something, eyeballs hurt, go to bed, sleep till day two.
Day Two. Needed some R&R. Went out to get a latte.
The supermarket didn’t have as good a range of magazines as I’d have liked, but I wanted something to read. I discover that Time and Fortune add up to twenty bucks. Hmm.
Went to Chweets’ place after lunch. I didn’t even know she was back till that morning (she flew off after Thanksgiving to Seattle to check out the schools there coz she may go further her studies, then went skiing with relatives, then went to Hawaii to chill and check out the schools there too), and her email got lost in spam limbo. But I should’ve known.
It’s a tradition for as long as I’ve known her. Second day of Chinese New Year is open house at her place and we all go there to hang out and chat and joke and laugh while her mum feeds us all afternoon.
Then it was off to Dave’s place to lou yusheng. And gamble a bit. And watch a movie (he’s got a serious DVD collection). And though I didn’t plan to stay late, I ended up watching with K, of all shows, Enchanted. I still don’t know if the film is meant for adults and is a satire, because I’m not entirely sure if young kids can fully appreciate some of the parodies. Maybe it’s targeted at ‘tweens. Anyway, it had McDreamy in it (I think that’s why K chose it), albeit with a distracting flop of bounteous hair.
Anyhoo, even with the unexpected shot of Disney saccharine to the system, I survived the crucial first two days of Chinese New Year. Yay. Except for yusheng, which is technically salad (that’s healthy) and raw fish (that’s healthy, too), I may not eat for the rest of the week. Hah.
Thirteen more days to go.
The pussy willow is on display, and the little trinkets hung. The flowers are cut and arranged in the vase. The couplets are on the wall. The auspicious 福 (fú) symbol has been hung by the door. The mad rush is almost done (though I scratched my manicure a little; sometimes I wonder why I bother). And in an hour or so, my relatives will slowly arrive. It’s noisy, sometimes I don’t look forward to it, but it’s not really that dysfunctional. At least I get to see my cousins again. And there will be some serious eating. That said, it isn’t a proper Chinese celebration if there isn’t some gambling involved. We will clear the table and gather around it for a second time in the evening, and break out the cards. This is when the aunties will win all my money.
It’s Chinese New Year, also known as 春节 (chūnjié) or Spring Festival, on Monday, 26 January.
The most important event on the Chinese calendar, people return to their hometowns to celebrate the occasion with their families, and visit kin, relatives and friends.
It’s a major holiday (hence the absolute chaos in China last year when weather thwarted the migration of Chinese from the cities back to their homes; China’s railway ministry estimated they would carry 178.6 million passengers over the holidays).
It’s like a Chinese Thanksgiving, only the festivities last for fifteen days.
It’s also a celebration steeped in symbolism and traditions. Before the new year, homes have to be spring cleaned, sweeping away bad luck and getting ready for a new beginning. Then on the first day, you absolutely positively DO NOT sweep the home — that is totally taboo because you’d be “sweeping away good luck”.
Homes are decorated liberally in red the colour of good luck and prosperity. Red banners, red couplets, red lanterns — and this is just the entrance of the home. Inside, more red decorations adorn the walls. Pussy willow is displayed, decorated with trinkets like red ribbons, fans, tiny lanterns and golden ingots. Pots of kamquat plats and lucky bamboo are also good symbols to usher in the new spring.
Chinese have to purchase new clothes to wear on the first day. Some extend this practice to include new undies as well (and some say they have to be red too). I know one guy whose family has to wear new clothes for the first ten days. New bedsheets and bath towels are also encouraged.
There are way too many traditions to list out. On food alone, the list is long. But of all of them, food or otherwise, the most important tradition would be the reunion dinner, which takes place on New Year’s Eve.
There may be a recession happening, but any belt tightening will only begin seriously after Chinese New Year. It would not be be good portent to practice austerity during the most important meal of the year.
Following Teochew tradition, my family gathers around the steamboat, where ingredients are cooked in a simmering pot of broth (like a hot pot or fondue), communal style. Aptly, the steamboat symbolises family bonding and togetherness. My grandmother also used to steam pek tor he (rabbit fish), which symbolises prosperity (as this would be the period when the fish is fertile and full of roe).
Teochews also believe that cooking excess on New Year’s Eve is auspicious because it means the new year will be one of abundance.
When I was young, I used to be fascinated when my grandmother and aunties prepared a veritable feast to offer and pray to our ancestors and Tua Pek Gong, a Taoist deity. The veritable spread would cover an entire table in front of the altar. There would be vegetables dishes, soup and three types of meat: braised duck, steamed chicken and fish. After their rituals were done, our family would consume all that food for a meal.
Our family doesn’t do the offerings thing any more (maybe one of my aunt still might, at my grandparents’ old home, I’m not sure). But my dad’s relatives will descend tomorrow evening at my place for steamboat.
For a meal where most of the ingredients are raw, there’s still heaps of preparation to be done. Tomorrow’s gonna be packed. (Today already was, running around buying flowers and pussy willow and baking and last minute cleaning.)
All in the name of good fortune, happiness and a prosperous and abundant new year.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! 恭喜发财!
Yo-yo Ma, world renowned cellist, didn’t start out with that instrument. He began studying the violin, and later the viola, but took up the cello in 1960, when he was four. (Which isn’t all that surprising if you come from Chinese family.) But he proved to be a true child prodigy. By five, he was performing before audiences. When he was seven, he performed for President John F Kennedy.
So last night, when he performed in the quartet, it was far from the first time he’s played for Presidents. For that matter, he might be quite a regular guest at the White House too; he’s at least played for President Reagan, the First Lady, and the Crown Prince and Princess of Japan in 1987. And even the pretend White House, where he performed for my favourite pretend President in the West Wing. One of my favourite pieces, and by Bach, a part of the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, which contain some of the greatest works ever written for solo cello.
One (very sexy) instrument, one very passionate, very talented musician. Love how the rich, deep melodic notes fill the room late at night.
After Joe Biden had been sworn in, and while the world waited with bated breath for the big moment, Sen. Diane Feinstein introduced the musical interlude — a composition specially arranged for the inauguration by John Williams. (I remember thinking: John Williams the guitarist, or John Williams of Jaws-Star Wars-Superman-ET-Indiana Jones-Schindler’s List-Jurassic Park-Harry Potter fame? Needless to say it was the latter; the former is Australian-British.)
The composition was played by a quartet made up of Israeli-American Itzhak Perlman, Chinese-American Yo-yo Ma (马友友), Venezuelan-American pianist Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill on clarinet. It was a surprise and a joy to see Perlman and Ma playing together, I kinda grew up mesmerised by the violin virtuoso (I think he was on Sesame Street), then discovered Yo-yo Ma around the time I started working.
Titled “Air and Simple Gifts”, the song was a gift from John Williams. Starting out pensive, the melody evoked images of serene nature and pastoral landscape, of bald eagles soaring over majestic purple mountains and seas of amber grain, before picking up to a joyous celebration filled with confidence and hope. If the refrain sounded familiar, the song was inspired by an old Shaker tune that was popularised by Aaron Copland in his 1944 ballet “Appalachian Spring”.
In the face of the daunting times ahead, these are the unsung lyrics:
‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
Standing in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln at his Memorial on a family field trip, as the account goes, reading an inscribed copy of the 16th President’s Second Inaugural speech, President Elect Barack Obama’s 7 year-old daughter Sasha asked her father if he would be giving a similar speech at his inauguration. To which, Malia, his 10 year-old daughter, later adds, “First African American president — it better be good.”
I’m sure it will be. The world is watching. Thirty more minutes…
