Impressionistic

A few days ago I wrote about Wright's Ragtime piano album Breakin' Notes, and wrote that I thought the four Bix Beiderbecke's pieces were impressionistic. I swear the comment was merely based on my own impression: primarily the "in-between" tonality and melodies as well as the theme/context suggested by the titles -- "Candlelights", "Flashes", "In the Dark", and "In a Mist". It seemed to me pretty obvious that these pieces were each composed to convey a mood with reference to a particular situation. "Impressionistic" was, I felt in my gut, the best word to describe them.

Imagine my surprise when I finally sat down today and read Wright's extensive notes (printed in the accompanying booklet) about the pieces in the album regarding Beiderbecke's piano compositions:

...[M]any have pointed out that in both his cornet and piano solos, Beiderbecke betrays a keen interest in the Impressionists.

Shit, I swear I don't even know what musical Impressionism means! I only know a little about Impressionism pertaining to Monet and Renoir in art. Apparently, Debussy and Ravel are representatives of Impressionist music. I was completely ignorant of the concept, yet it is naturally obvious to me that Impressionism was Bix Beiderbecke's approach to composing these four jazz piano songs. No joke. Perhaps this coincidences implies a common pathway/process in the human senses and experience involved in music, art, and language (sound, sight, and abstract thoughts).

Toronto Film Festival

这件事我已经想了好几年了，九月去多伦多看世界上最大的影展。但是因为各种各样的原因，一直也没去成。

虽然身体不怎么样，今年 Roger Ebert 又精神很好地跑去了，还写大量的报道。又勾起了我的遗憾，好想明年跑去呆一个星期，什么也不干，光是从影院到影院的跑。

有朋友曾想去 Cannes，但我却没啥兴趣，还有威尼斯、Sundance、纽约Tribeca 其实都可以去但我没那么想。多伦多的名声，不仅是规模大，参赛电影多，还有其平易近人，对影迷友好（而不是象其他影展那样偏重工业内人士和媒体），没有正式评委会，以及参加影片类型巨广，等等，让我一直都很向往。

Kindle

昨天终于收到了 Kindle 。今天设置上 Wi-Fi connection 之后立刻先把福尔摩斯全集给下载了。

颇有一些因为版权过期而免费的老书，加上可买的新书们。暂时我还没想好要下点什么。

Charles Dickens? George Eliot? Wilkie Collins? Dostoyevski? (翻译的书可能不是免费的。）光想想都头昏了。

使用初期的感想：

Kindle 有几个缺点，第一，不能在上面直接写 notes，必须间接地通过旁注方式输入 text，我知道 Nook 是可以的，Sony 大概也可以。第二，不能代替 MP3 player。有声部分必须通过 Audible.com 的固定格式下载，而我从图书馆下载的书只能当作音乐来听，但是 Kindle 上处理 MP3 文件的功能仍处于试验阶段，非常简陋。第三，Kindle 带有自动查字典功能，如果把 cursor 移到某个字上，屏幕下自动显示此字在字典中的定义。不知为什么我觉得这个功能非常 annoying 。平时读页时倒不会出现，但是移动 cursor 插入 notes 的时候，以及翻目录的时候会出现。虽然只有两行字，但遇到很普通的字也会上来一个字典定义，我觉得好傻。而且这个功能是 default 的，不能取消。

好处是相当轻，长宽跟 trade paperback 差不多，但厚度很小，很薄。而且我喜欢这种没有 backlit （即电脑屏幕发光的类型）的字迹。

Breakin' Notes

出门之前订的CD，昨天终于收到了，拿出来一听，一点没失望，几乎每一首曲子都很好听。

演奏者 Bryan Wright 弹的主要是 Ragtime ，这里收集的曲子里有一半是纯 Ragtime，另一半是有 其他味儿的。例如 Bix Beiderbecke 的四首都有点抽象和现代---嗯，也不是抽象，而是 impressionistic。我大爱的 Ernesto Nazereth 的那首“七月九日”则是 Tango 和 Ragtime 的混合。

也不知为什么，Ragtime 很久以前就吸引了我，它的节奏很有规律，不象现代爵士那么自由浮动，天马行空，但是仍然跟传统的音乐节奏相左，并带有传统爵士乐复杂的和弦 ... 反正，我喜欢。

Bryan Wright 在照片上非常娃娃脸，看了CD上的说明才知道这孩子是82年的，难怪。而且难怪是在本地的电台上听到他的钢琴曲，原来他就是 Virginia 本地人，在当地的小电台也有主持爵士乐节目。这张唱片是 Wright 自己录制和制作，通过自己的独立公司（label）发行，在自己的网站上和通过Amazon中介出售。看CD标签，录音是在东京做的，大概跟当地的哪个录音室有熟人或其它关系，整张碟几天之内就录完了。

这种大公司/商业发行渠道之外的“地下音乐”还真是到处都有。说起来我还是从花样滑冰的音乐里间接发现的。Michelle Kwan 在2002年奥运会的赛后表演节目里使用了 Eva Cassidy 版本的 "Fields of Gold" （Peter Gabriel 的歌），令原本只在当地小范围内唱歌，在酒吧和小店里表演的 Cassidy 被更多人所知。美国青少年组全国冠军 Jason Brown 今年的短节目用的音乐 Baliwood，也是三藩市的一个西班牙风的“地下乐队”的作品。

厌腻了千人一面炒冷饭，无风险无个性的主流商业文艺，总还能找到千里之外（或者百里之内）毫无野心的小作坊制作的微量产品，这是还得感谢网络呀。

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.

伦敦奇遇记

今次去了马尔默，哥本哈根，伦敦三个地方。回家的路上问S同学喜欢不喜欢伦敦，他竟然说更喜欢哥本哈根，瑞典也很好，伦敦最末，让我大跌眼镜，气呼呼地说下次老子自己去伦敦住上一星期，天天看戏，你就在家孵着吧。不过想想也不是意料之外，这位纳德同学神经比较脆弱，太喧闹拥挤的地方呆一会儿即晕头转向，躲在人迹罕至的地方闷着最舒服。在马尔默的时候被Barb带着去Ystad的鱼店吃饭，和蔼可亲的大叔留下了很好的印象。下次带他去新西兰，周围更加是人人都友好亲切得不似真人，恐怕就不想回家了。

今次去伦敦本来只打算造访一下221B贝克街“遗迹”，结果没想到碰上各种巧合。先是第二天下午逛完西敏寺之后时间地点都差不多，就心血来潮地加入了London Walks提供的“福尔摩斯足迹”的步行旅。在步行旅中被导游带着路过各个小说原著里提到的地方：例如路过Charing Cross地铁站外面时告知The Bruce-Partington Plan里面的尸体是在此站的铁轨上发现的，路过Lyceum戏院时引用了四签名里的一段：Mary Morstan收到一封信，请她某夜在戏院外左边第三根柱子旁见面，还有一家Sherlock Holmes酒馆（不是221B贝克街），邻居就是某侦探常去的土耳其浴室，现在砖墙上仍可见伊斯兰花纹。然后在Lyceum与皇家歌剧院之间的路上，赫然看见一家小戏院贴了招牌"The Secrets of Sherlock Holmes"，正在上演这出话剧。

当天暴走完之后，把某同学打发回家，自己忍不住跑去临时买票看了。剧本是1988年作家Jeremy Paul 的作品，也不知为什么放在今夏revive，从七月到九月初，似乎跟电视剧也没啥关系。演员只有两个：Peter Egan和Robert Daws，前者有点眼熟，估计在BBC电视剧里见过；后者举止和念白有点象Nathan Lane。其实这个剧也就是so-so，情节卖点就一个：福尔摩斯觉得很闷，吸毒还不够刺激，就自己发明了黑社会幕后大boss Moriarty 教授。这个理论其实过去我也听说有人提出过，不过当然我才不信，就好象现在打出的“他是不是psychopath”的幌子话题一样，不值一驳。剧本太过依赖抄用原著中的大量对白了，新鲜内容不多---但是，我羞愧地承认，自己竟然看得津津有味，也还是因为他抄用了大量的原文。

当日下午还有个偶遇，坐巴士去St. Paul 教堂的路上忽然看见窗外的路标之一指着 St. Bartholomew Hospital 。好奇顺着路标走啊走，居然给我摸到了 St. Bart 的大楼。从街对面拍了一张有医院招牌的照片，角度跟电视剧里的外景镜头一模一样，因为能拍到墙上招牌的角度只有这一个。当然内部场景，实验室什么的，都不是真的在St. Bart里拍的。反正总之Dr. Doyle当时随手采集地名街坊，到处都是现实中的细节，也是让当时读者们看得发狂的原因之一。原著系列是冷峻的现实主义和哥特式神秘气氛的最妙结合，后人模仿随众但在这方面无人能及。

然后在伦敦第三天，去221B贝克街的伪“故居”参观。贝克街的名声远扬，地铁站出口的墙上也贴了很多瓷砖上印了那张让人一眼认出的侧影。隔壁一家是 Hudson's Restaurant，这倒也没什么，当然是故意的，但有趣的是隔壁门口挂了个黄铜牌子，说明楼上是Moffat Associates事务所，我疑神疑鬼地猜想跟Stephen Moffat有啥关联，难道Dr. Who的制作者真的跑到这里来开个小办公室不成？但是招牌灰不溜秋的，也不象是最近才挂上去的羊头/噱头。多半是巧合，但也真是个搞笑和奇异的巧合。

最后，当天下午去国家剧院看看有无可看之戏，在南岸转悠了半天才摸到。某同学本来还跟着跟着，忽然抱怨感冒恶化，又饿又累，闹着要回家，不肯等到晚上看戏，我只好带着他往外走，路过BFI 门口的旧书摊又徘徊半晌。磨蹭中发现不少人站在那里看小孩子玩滑板，就发现了电视剧第二集里的墙壁涂鸦艺术中心的取景处：我几乎可以肯定那片满坑满谷的涂鸦墙画所指此处。

回家鸟

累死了。从伦敦到纽约的飞机上背后坐了一个两三岁小男孩。呃，请自己想象吧... 他妈妈也不怎么管。我只好戴耳机看电影打发时光。看了一出澳洲的 film noir (The Square) 和半部法国文艺片 (Madamoiselle Chambon)。

晚上打算把拉下的 Mad Men 看一眼。