| Tian's profileBoundless T-zonePhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
November 14 Section retreat - VermontLast weekend, four sections of RC went to retreat; as far as I know, three went to Vermont
It was my second time to that State, but different places, and totally different feelings
Staying in a colonial style house, in the middle of nowhere, for the whole weekends, with deer section mates
It seems back to those college days (青葱岁月,一个我很喜欢的词,用来形容那些懵懂的,无知的,疯狂的年少时光)
Drinks, games, skydeck show-time, dances, and drinks again
The tour to a nearby lake and the later drive tour was the highlight of my two days
I am not a party animal, a word most HBSers would be proud of; nor a good drinker/dancer
But I enjoy the fresh air and the true farm America
How rural is it? Can you imagine you cannot buy your basic necessity in the nearby store 20min driving away?
Besides that, the nowhere place was a fantastic location for urban people to escape from metropolitan life for a while
It already becomes my routine life here in Boston, that is getting out of Boston at least one day on weekend
It doesn't matter where to go, just need to get out of campus, and breathe some fresh air, and get rid of the daily ants life, hoho
p.s., I saw llama for the first time. So embarassed that I didn't know what llama is when I saw them. And I shouted out "horse, horse", haha
Then I went back and checked the wikipedia and finally found out llama is the American breed camel. Che, why not just tell me it is another type of camel. At least I know what camel is ;-P Anyway, good to know another new English word ;-)
String Chamber Music - the Ying QuartetFirst time going to a string chamber music (too many first times in the US, first time auto show, first time Thanksgiving turkey-expecting...). It was a Quartet by Ying siblings, two violins, one viola, and one cello. I didn't know the performers are American-born Chinese until I went there. At first, I felt little bit awkard, as seeing four Asian faces expressing western music using western instrument. I always had the steorotype that Asian and Western cultures are just too different to be converged. How can an Asian understand the history, background, and feelings by the composer at that time? One can easily overcomes the technical challenges, but understanding and expressing the music takes a long time and greater effort. However, not until the end, only half way through, I was totally caputured by their superior performance. The programs they chose are not those "pop" ones, except the Mozart Clarinet Quintet. The other two are works of Dmitri Shostakovich and Mieczyslaw Weinberg, both spent many years in Russia and East Europe. Living at the world war II periods, both works convey a feeling of deep depression, while still holding the hope for furture. To the contrary, Mozart's Clarinet Quintet is the typical cheerful palace music (宫廷靡靡之音) as usual. Violin or cello, the string music, are wonderful. They are my favorite musical instruments as to the diversity in expression, either sorrow or joy.
During the intermission, I heard the high praise of the performance from other audiences, mostly senior American people. At the end, people stood up and applaused for long time. Though I know the Yings are not Chinese, I still felt very proud of them, representing "Asian faces". Below is some introduction of the quartet:
Natives of Chicago, the Ying siblings began their career as an ensemble in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa (population 2000) as one of the first ensembles involved in the Chamber Music American (then NEA) Rural Residency Program. The Quartet participated fully in the community, performing on countless occasions for audiences of six to six hundred people in a residency so successful that it was widely chronicled in the national and international media, including features in The New York Times and STRAD magazine and on CBS Sunday Morning.
With "Musical Dim Sum," the Yings continue to extend their repertoire of innovative programming concepts while celebrating their own cultural heritage. On these programs, the Quartet includes a selection of short works by Chinese American composers in the framework of a traditional concert, giving audiences the treat of a diverse sampling of this music. The Quartet plans to commission new works by composers of Chinese background living around the globe to join existing pieces by Chou Wen-Chung, Zhou Long, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, and Chen Yi.
They will come back to hold another chamber music with new program in the coming March. Highly recommended ;-)
 New England Auto ShowAutomobile in the US is just a living neccessity
no more than a coffee machine, a TV set, or a grill set
Cars are so cheap here, not only in absolute value, but also in relative sense (in terms of purchasing power here)
Though today's US market is so-called sunset industry, China's auto market still gets a long way to be saturated |
|
|
