A Giant Squid……

is pictured on the tiscali homepage. I am appalled. The giant squid, poor thing should have been left alive if at all possible. In the text there is no hint of regret at the giant squid having been caught!

Surely any science that is not detached observation is bad science – ignorant science. Poking a dead mass is not very clever. Its wonderful to imagine how such a creature would look beneath the waves, did it have regular habitat, did it ever encounter other giant squid, what was its level of cunning and self preservation? I wonder how developed its vision was, its brain would process a vast amount of sensory input. Would it find another to procreate?

I find the pictures sad and sickening.

 

Chinese Cinema.

In response to ‘lactatingbookworm’  – quite by chance I have found and regard as quite good two books:

‘Chinese Cinema – culture and politics since 1945′ author: Paul Clark. ISBN 0 521 32638 9   Readable, not heavy going, tho not a lightweight either.

‘Perspectives on Chinese Cinema’. Edited by Chris Berry. ISBN 0 85170 272 4 pbk.  More like a PhD theses.  Enjoyable and not that heavy going, tho took me a while to get into it.

Postscript: Its a habit of mine to add bits to the last one or two posts. I need to find someone in China that can provide the information we need. I’m keen to know what happened to the Chinese film industry during the years of Mao and his evil twisted wife Jiang Qing. She had been a minor player in films and with gaining influence decimated the industry. Cui Wei and Zhao Dan suffered badly and died of their ill treatment during the Cultural Revolution. I have an e-mail from an expert and hope to learn more.

I see now a distinct difference between this blog of mine (here since Jan 2008)  and my older (Feb 2007)   http://kllrchrd.livejournal.com over on the slower tho still loved lj. The latter seems more coherent wheras here I seem to be a bit of a mess. Tho its nice to receive comments.

Both have only tiny mentions of the films and artists referred to so far in this blog so far. I am in touch with a Chinese penpal to find more. Its early days in my exploration, so far I’m very impressed with Zhou Xuan 周旋 , Zhao Dan, Cui Wei (Hong Qi Pu) and Tao Yu Ling (Liu Bao de Gushi).

I had forgotten abt the very useful www.chinesemirror.com website, devoted to the history of Chinese cinema. From that site here is an interview which includes recollections of the terrible days for the Chinese film industry during the merciless persecution by Maos wife Jiang Qing. http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2007/02/silent_film_sta.html

I’ve known of this excellent site http://bystander.homestead.com/bashan1.html……for a year now. Click on his home page and see the other poems. An excellent read bringing out the humanity and warmth that can be incorporated in a Tang poem. I have the little book ‘170 Chinese Poems’  by the great scholar Arthur Waley. First pub in 1918, my edition 1940’s.  Got it off ebay for £2. Wonderful wonderful little word vignettes of personal outlook and regret, hope, whatever.

However a more recent book, cost me brand new price (I don’t have very much spare money) was to me a dissapointment. ‘Poems of the Masters’ by Red Pine. Sorry Bill I say this, no pinyin is a real drawback. I prefer to choose my own fluid translation, or see perhaps the not rigid possibilities of the translation (most important) and the fixed English translation laid down flat and bare on the page do not open the poem up. These poems are famous as subjects of cogitation and to ponder on.  The characters need to be larger, my sight is not as good. The characters are of great beauty in themselves – they need to be seen.  I’ve never looked at this book since I bought it. This highlights the pitfalls of buying books unseen and believing vacuous Amazon praise.  Still, its got a pretty front cover…..

We need some art here….

……so here is an absolute stunner:

Paul Uccello painted this around 1455, can now be seen in the National Gallery, London. :

If only I could paint like that……

And here is an interesting blog just found after ten minutes googling : http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/01/more_thoughts_on_haw_par_villa.html

Well worth reading.

Animal cruelty.

I’ve blogged previously on my feelings re needless suffering. Tonight while driving to the horses a maniac driver came flying towards us, I froze, on the narrow country road I could see him in the rear view mirror bounce hideously as he went ‘off road’.  After we had fed the horses we took our usual tootling route back toward the mainroad. We were so sad, some piece of crap had killed a pair of ducks, a drake and his mate. At this stretch of very B road we saw the pair most nights. Waddling along like an old married couple. Now no more. Its highly likely it was the same piece of crap that passed us earlier at high speed. Feathers were scattered, most likely hit at speed. It fits.

We stopped and I put the pair of them on the verge. Both dead yet still together. These roads once or twice a year are used as a rally circuit. Something I detest. One year I gave a marshall a bloody good talking to. I hope he felt very frightened, it was pitch dark, because thats the emotion I wished to instill in him. There are hares which could be killed, ducks, moorhen, owls (lots), rabbits, sometimes lots of toads. I wonder if this piece of crap at high speed was timing the circuit? If there is a ‘rally’ within a week or two then I will do my best to disrupt it.

Postscript. A day later I am still upset and will always remember these two poor creatures being needlessly killed. As a dog walker I DO NOT want idiots careering about in cars, its getting dangerous. Luckily my hearing functions okay to hear their approach. They always get the old RAC one fingered salute!

Learning Mandarin…..

…is a good excuse to play Rainie Yangs ‘Jue Jiang’ many times. I stumbled upon this ravishingly beautiful singer a week ago. She is from Taiwan, born 1984 and is ‘big’ throughout Asia.  A lot of her work till now has been bubblegum pop, probably because her young looks mean she can continue to capitalise on that market. Yet this vid is her new more mature direction, an incredibly good song, very well produced and sung by a very talented Rainie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNSIEflsQPQ

Here is pinyin for the song  ’Jue Jiang’, characters (hanzi) to follow:

ni zeng shuo yu xiao shi hou bie di xia tou
yao deng hou qi ji jiang luo
wo bu dong ceng xiang yi qi yong bao de can hong
wei shen me zhi sheng xia wo

*yuan lai ya ai qing shi bu hui liu xia shen me
zhi liu xia can que de meng
neng bu neng ba ni de ai jie dian gei wo
hao rang wo ji xu piao liu*

**wo de jue jiang – feng kuang – wu fa – cheng qiang – liu lang
shi fou zhi sheng yi ge ren zai ji mo zhan chang
ni de mo yang shuo huang – yan guang – zhuang sha – duo chang
wo tao wang**

*Repeat
**Repeat

wo de jue jiang – mi wang – qu chuang – pang huang – bei shang
shi fou ying gai bu ji yi qie qu di kang

ni de mo yang bu xiang – yi wang – piao dang – yao huang
wo tou xiang

I hope to find the characters/Hanzi somewhere.

 

She co-starred in the film ‘Spider Lilies’ which resulted in an appearance at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007. There are lots of Rainie Yang youtube clips. Heres a clip of the ‘Spider Lilies’ lesbian embrace, Rainie has certainly left the bubblegum behind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55WWN1HVmZ4

I hope she can control her life, find genuine real people and take time out to be quiet and re-charge. I am very impressed with her looks, yet an old gaff re Sino-Japan war on a shallow trashy quizz show in 2003 continues to haunt her and impedes any appreciable activity in mainland China. I hope this silly error on a silly tv show is forgotten as time passes.

Good luck Rainie – real name Yang Cheng Lin.

 Oh yes, just found http://chinat0wn.blogspot.com excellent for pop lyrics in Mandarin.

Here are a few pics less easy to find on youtube:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnb2veoABo0

POSTSCRIPT: A REQUEST TO AORIJIA HAS RESULTED IN HER POST WITH FULL PINYIN AND CHARACTERS.  I am so happy – this song rates as one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. For Rainie Yangs ‘Jue Jiang’ which means ’stubbornness’:

http://chinat0wn.blogspot.com/2008/04/rainie-yang-stubborness.html#links

Thankyou so much Aorijia

Tao Yu Ling, actress ‘Ninety Nine Sunny Spring Days’.

 

Tao Yu Ling is the wonderful female lead in ‘The Liu Bao Story’ ie in Chinese pinyin is ’Liu Bao Ge Shi’. This is where the song ‘Ninety Nine Sunny Spring Days’ is from.See my previous post for clips to view:

http://kllrchrd.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/more-chinese-cinema/

My Chinese penpal Zhang Jia Ying has managed to find this for me, I am delighted!

Here is the introduction I find on the internet:

陶玉玲:中国影视女演员。1934年生于江苏镇江。1949年入华东军政大学文艺系戏剧队学习。1951年到华东军区文艺干部训练班学习。1952年任南京军区前线话剧团演员，演出过《东海最前线》、《刘莲英》、《霓虹灯下的哨兵》等话剧，获第四届全军文艺会演优秀演员奖。１９５６年因在影片《柳堡的故事》中演二妹子出名。1972年任南通市文工团团长，1975年任前线话剧团任演员队长，1978年任八一电影制片厂演员，先后参加《二泉映月》、《归宿》等影片的拍摄。因电视剧《张培英》的表演创作获全军第五届电视剧最佳女演员奖。多次获各种奖励，并于中国电影诞生90周年之际获表演艺术成就奖杯。于2005年获得中国电影表演学会授予的“百位优秀演员”称号、国家人事部广电总局授予的“有突出贡献电影艺术家”荣誉称号。

I also found some pictues about her.

More pitures:http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&lm=-1&cl=2&word=%CC%D5%D3%F1%C1%E1&t=12

Enjoy!!

I think you will be like to see this film:我的父亲母亲（wo2 de1 fu4qin1 mu3qin1）.

I traslate it as “the love story between my parents”.It is an old film too. 

Thanks Zhang Jia Ying.

Which from google translate gives:

Daoyuling: China Television actress. Born in 1934 in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu. 1949 military and East China University of Arts Drama Team of the study. 1951 Huadongjun Arts cadres to study and training courses. 1952 frontline of the Nanjing Military Region Repertory Theatre actor performed the “East China Sea in the front line”, “Liu Lianying”, “under the neon lights of sentinel” drama, literature and art of the fourth army to develop outstanding Actor Award. 1956 for the film “Liu Fort Story” in the famous speech Ermeizi. In 1972, he became head of Wengongqiu Nantong City, in 1975 as the frontline Repertory Theatre actor captain of the 1978 August 1 Film Studio, actors, took part in the “central government”, “end” and other film photography. For TV drama “Zhangpeiyang” Creation of the military performing fifth best TV actress award. Many of incentives, and the 90th anniversary of the birth of Chinese films of the achievements of the performing arts trophies. In the 2005 film performances of China Institute awarded the “100 outstanding performers” by the State Ministry of Personnel Administration of Radio, Film title “outstanding contributions to film artists” Honor.

Incredible. She is so lovely’ I was smitten when I first found the ‘Ninety Nine Sunny Spring Days’ clip on youtube. I wonder who wrote the song?

Chinese cinema.

In my quest to discover and enjoy Chinese cinema here are further clips I have found.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSASagVb-PE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79zLlo_IIDA&feature=related

The latter translates something like ‘The Hong Lake Water’. I will clarify in time.

Mandarin tips.

Found this recently:

http://www.podomatic.com/people/index/ellenschinese

Very good, a little on the next level for me, yet I can catch parts.

I got this via http://ellenschinese.podomatic.com/

Which in turn came from:

http://friedelcraft.blogspot.com/

Take the time to explore these.I like ‘em all, was struck by the freshness of the ‘ellen podcasts’.

To get an accurate Mandarin sound is not easy, mouth geometry /tongue position is important, here is useful info:

http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/pronunciation/04/

Post Office closures.

	Post Office closures.
	…..our talkie 24hr radio tells us here in the UK that there is to be another wave/purge of Post Office closures. I don’t sell on ebay, yet for my little activities I despatch abt 150 parcels by mail a year. Due to my difficulties luckily have ONE Post Office and another a hundred miles away I use on holiday, that I can cope with. I am phobic abt shops and post offices, yet luckily the local one I feel okay in. Nice people, family run, not quite from round here, genuinely nice people. A couple of years ago expository tv revealed the ineptitude of short term PO labour in London. So bad you couldn’t make it up. This country is run by #rseholes. The ability to make straightforward reasoned evaluations has gone. The Post Office lurches from one blunder to another. Their pension fund is a sad story. We are taking the kickback. Near my place of work – usual story- little sub PO shut, lots of elderly in the area, now have to bus, if they can, three miles into town. The co-op store was a couple of doors away, everything neatly to hand. Seeing familiar faces, might be the only conversation they get all week.  Set routines they can cope with. The tenants of that PO didn’t want to shut down. Its the compoulsory thing that irritates. To anyone thats stood in a PO queue its baffling. Yet another instance of a grosss error of judgement. Heres an idea –  let them out to Pakistanis, they’ll jump at the chance. Better them than no-one. Fact. I’ve also posted the above on my http://kllrchrd.livejournal.com  as I feel very strongly on this matter. Something about which I would CERTAINLY MAKE AN ACTIVE PROTEST. I am Mr Angry today.

Our beagle.

Here he is ‘our pretendy alpha’ beagle.

Testerday it struck me how small he is in body, after straining his leg ten days ago then having to take him daily to get his ear drops he now looks a bit thin. Hes had Rimadyl anti-inflammatory for ten days, that drug nearly killed our first beagle. Yet he looks thin. I wonder if he is the smallest of the litter? Hence the over exaggerrated  macho posturing to assert himself. At twelve months there was a visible change in that he seemed more comfortable with us, trusted us. He is a small, slight fellow.

Cod liver oil is still administered daily to cool his behaviour, low protein feeed is essential,  hierachy/pack methods maintained at all times. No treats. Feed last.  Play sessions are half to one minute, I disengage. I’m trying not to kiss or fool around with his head, it was pointed out to me how this would be me occupying the servile position.

He’s a good lad (!) tho ripped my new sleeveless jacket yesterday. I took it too far in the fooling around. I doubt if other owners from this litter have exercised the patience we have. First twelve or fourteen months were hell, I NEVER want to go through that agn. He still won’t come to me in the house, better behaved outside, clings like mad when I’m in the garden.

He’s twenty nine months now. I never did get back in touch with the breeder. I hope to God she’s not churning out beagles with these behavioural problems. If you’ve young kids – forget it!

As a postscript, I met a most knowledgable dog owner recently, she told me to observe how other dogs sniff around Smuds ears yet he never sniffs theirs, this is a sign of their kowtowing to his alpha position, even big dogs behave in this way to him. This has been borne out in the weeks since she told me.

See my earlier posts on http://kllrchrd.livejournal.com