(no subject)

Last night at Stanford Lively Arts: the cellist's intonation of Shakespeare in one of the segments of Ghost Opera brought to my mind this clip from Laurie Anderson (just the first 1:30):

I don't know why i like contemporary experimental music, nor do i think one could really tell. It's possible i like it because no friend indoctrinated me in it. I remember reading about Philip Glass in Time in high school, Peter Gabriel leading me to Laurie Anderson. We arrived in San Francisco just in time to be steeped in Michael Tilson Thomas' Mavericks concert series.

Overhearing some chatter, at least one member of the Stanford audience is resistant to appreciation.

PROGRAM
TAN DUN: Ghost Opera (1994)
INTERMISSION
A Chinese Home (2009) (West Coast premiere)
Part I. Return
Part II. Shanghai
Part III. The East Is Red
Part IV. Made in China
Played without pause

I loved the opening, the very experimental Ghost Opera. We have the CD but i was captivated by watching them perform: some of the sounds came from combinations of instruments with water: seeing how the sounds came about transformed the piece for me.

A Chinese Home was far more theatrical: a four part journey through China's last century. I was less captivated, and wonder if this piece, with video footage and theatrical costume changes, would have been better if you were just listening to the culture shift from the traditional sounds due to the western influence, the Communist, Maoist influence, and the modern boom.

The "modern boom" auditory experience was a wall of cacophony on which the graffiti of Wu Man's electric pipa was sprayed. It was LOUD, painfully so, beyond rock band loud. Supporting that wall of sound was the mechanized whirrs and clatters of dozens of flashing mechanical toys, let loose on the stage by the Quartet. I rather think that Wu Man and her other Chinese collaborator probably don't care for the post Mao opening of China to the huge shift in construction and Westernized consumption.

I know from my brother that the Western luxury good items are being sold with a advertising subtext that communicates Western=luxury. He regrets that a culture with such a deep set of traditions has turned to import the luxury items and rejects the traditional luxury items. I suppose it takes a time of forgetting before one can return to appreciate the artisanal developments of indigenous craft.

Remember in the old Star Trek when they'd have to find new dilithium crystals

[Unposted from Sunday]

I'm not a basket case, but i wager i've got a frame of what's going on in my mind that is sucking some energy away. I think i've done OK at not making that worse, give the lousy sinus pressure i've been experiencing all day. Long waves of dullness with occasional glimpses of clarity, things that should take moments taking too long.

I keep wandering into the kitchen and bathroom, to realize that i'm hoping if i just ate something, took some pill, i'd be restored. I keep working on hot lemonade and analgesics, knowing i'd taken an antihistamine last night.

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There's meetings with out of town colleagues planned most of the week, plus two committee evenings and a Friday commitment. I looked at the comments i want to reply to and decided i won't be able to until too much time, for me, has passed. Thank you all, particularly kibbles, bobby1933 , laughingrat and seawasp for your comments.

Which reminds me, kibbles, i said i'd do that MLK reading with you and have been struggling through Letters Across the Divide: Two Friends Explore Racism, Friendship, and Faith. There are ways in which their theology intersects with their discussion which i find frustrating. Sorry i couldn't have helped chat with you before your discussion tomorrow. I'll be thinking of you.


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Yesterday i had a lovely lovely time with my brother's family. Christine joined us for lunch, and then i went with them to a nearby park to give the boys time on a playground. I have always romanticized what being in one of those paddle/peddle boats would be like. Now i know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-nBxYtHPg It's not for my leg length, at all.

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( Other scribbles from throughout the day )