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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Snooze

Because of reverse jet lag, I have been dozing off since returning from the trip, especially in the evening. Yet I need to write something, if only to prevent my fingers from rusting. This is one of the most important reasons I write this blog. I need to get keep writing, no matter how little I have to say, just to lubricate the keyboard, eh? It's important for me to keep writing now that I'm no longer constructing coherence, whole articles at work, now that I'm drowning in memos and e-mails and other crap utterly devoid of imagination. The keys yielding softly under my fingertip is a heavenly sensation.

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Every time I return from Europe, it would take a week or two to claw my way out of the nadir that inevitably follows. It does not help that this time I came home to discover even worse bus service in my commute thanks to the city government's budget cuts. This, after the frequent and impeccable public transport in Copenhagen and London, is even more disheartening than usual. I don't know how long I can take this shit.

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The collection at Victoria and Albert Museum is kind of crazy, a mishmash of everything. Theoretically it is supposed to be all about art and design, but throwing together jewelry and Italian Renaissance sculpture replicas, Samurai swords and modern fashion, it's enough to give me a whiplash.

But I was pleasantly surprised by their Chinese export porcelain collection. Not that it makes much sense in the grand scheme of things, but that I actually knew something about it. Just last month I read SJ Rozan's first mystery novel China Trade, which centers around this very subject. Export porcelains were made in Chinese workshops in the 16th and 17th centuries to the orders of European merchants.

According to Rozan, who apparently did a lot of research, export porcelain was the step child in the world of antique porcelain collection in comparison with 官窑 productions, which were intended for 进贡。 Sometimes the western merchants would present western designs to the Chinese workshops, thus creating an interesting mix of styles. Some of the pieces have paintings of bare-breasted European women with Oriental facial features. I chuckled at the mirth of those Chinese artists upon seeing those indecent gweilos' blueprints for their orders.

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I think I'm falling in love with Vitaly Solomin's Dr. Watson. I didn't think it was possible, but the Russian Watson is even more of a doey-eyed cute puppy than Martin Freeman! The writer/director Igor Maslennikov and the actor Vasily Livanov conspired to create a warm, caring, expressive, and funny Sherlock Holmes in this adaptation, while preserving the eccentricity of the character from the Canon. But I am most touched by the lovely Watson --- innocent, sentimental, sweet, and so very handsome. Livanov and Solomin are adorable together.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

V和A两口子的品位本来就有些奇怪。

你不是在考虑搬到伦敦住吧?What about those horrid boiled peas? :-)

Little Meatball said...

别提了,搬到欧洲住我已经想了十几年了,因为各种原因没走成。现在拖家带口的更走不成了。

Victoria 时代是 globalization 的浪潮,她大概觉得样样都新奇吧?不过那满屋子的意大利雕塑的复制品有点诡异,有些是原来的尺寸有些是微缩尺寸,感觉好像进了迪士尼。

Unknown said...

皇家的人都有收藏僻,稍不留神就流入杂货铺范畴。V自己对艺术的爱好是跟在德国丈夫后面的,两个人青少年时代都不幸福,成年有权后可以随心所欲大买特买。

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