Dreamsongs

It doesn't happen every day, but every so often, perhaps once a year, you run into (sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally) someone who seems like an open book to you. You know their thoughts and feelings like you know your own, you know the meaning of a chuckle, a wink, a line in the e-mail or a story he wrote.

Well, by a story he wrote, I mean GRRM. Big old uncle GRRM has gotten very good at hiding his feelings when he started writing his A Song of Ice and Fire series, but his short stories expose him like Roose Bolton flays an enemy.

I'm reading Dreamsongs, a comprehensive, 2-volume collection of his short stories, including a lot of early ones. His science fiction stories are actually somewhat anti-science, oddly enough, and are more about channeling his romantic disappointments and mythical meditations.

It is damned eerie for me to realize that, although I cannot judge the artistic merits of these stories, I know EXACTLY what he is trying to say in these stories. He is not as precocious a writer as Ray Bradbury, who can make me sob hysterically in a few strokes. With GRRM, however, I feel like I am in his head and heart and I can follow the traces of his thoughts like my own. That is scary! (in a good way.)

Round Midnight

One of the more accessible songs by Thelonious Monk is 'Round Midnight.

Monk's own version

Oscar Peter's version (more of a classical pianist's approach)

Miles Davis' version (with Coltrane)

For some reason I cannot articulate, the Davis version is more accessible than piano --- I don't mean "accessible" in a bad way, of course. I just prefer piano's sound is all.

Finally, a vocal version I also quite like ---
by Amy Winehouse

Safety Not Guaranteed

Apparently the ad in the movie was a real incident --- real as in a real joke. The ad sought a partner in time travel, in which there may be danger involved. "Bring you own weapons. Safety not guaranteed."

By the end of it I realized that there really is danger involved in the adventures of the characters: Not from time travel, however, but from romantic relationships, from love. Love carries the inherent danger of a broken heart.

The movie reminds me of Cold Weather. Both are genre movies adapted to the mumblecore style and set in the low-key beauty of Pacific Northwest. I don't recognize the faces of the main actors, who all talk in a very West Coast flat mumble. Both are a bit nerdy and totally cute.  And funny and adorable.

(Supposedly) Real Mob Story 1

There is a big mainline road that takes cars straight out of Chicago into ... the countryside. JT's grandfather owned a farm by the side of this road outside of the city limits. One day the old man was visited by a well dressed meaty guy.

"Me and my buddies want to rent your barn to park our cars occasionally," he said. "You'll get 10 bucks a month for your troubles." There was no other strings attached. Just parking a few cars in the barn.

Ten bucks a month was a lot of money in the 1930s. The old farmer accepted. For the next decade, his barn was frequented by many cars in Al Capone's fleet to avoid police surveillance.

Choreography -- Use of Space

今天在看 So You Think You Can Dance 第九季时忽然开窍了，对花样滑冰规则中关于 choreography 中的一条 "use of personal and public space" 有了感性认识。有些舞蹈者技巧和乐感都不错，但是跳来跳去局限于舞台的一角，或者只利用一半舞台空间，或者留在中心很少向两边动。当然，也不能机械地左一下右一下，或者漫无目的地满世界游荡而没有中轴。空间的利用还真挺讲究的，追求的是看似信手拈来但却自然平衡的美感。

鼠卫

刚买了第一本 Mouse Guard，正在看。虽然我平时基本完全不看画书，但是这一本自从在T同学的博上一见就喜欢了。果然没让我失望。可爱的老鼠形象和充满 action 的姿态和打斗混在一起形成奇异的效果。

Little Monster

I am sitting in the waiting room at the allergist. Opposite me sit a young couple and an older woman, obviously a family. In front of them is a baby stroller with its back facing me. The stroller shook violently with squeals coming out. A little hand, no tentacle, suddenly stuck out. "Hi! Hi!" The kid said to no one in particular.