Woman, as we all know, was conceived by God in the Christian tradition as a subsequent creation to Man. Because Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge upon seduction by the serpent, Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden--Adam, to bear the pains of physical work; and Eve, to bear the pains of childbirth for eternity. The entire story of the Fall of Adam and Eve, I hope, need not be recounted here.
I've always found this story slightly perplexing, as it may have been for some of you. Omniscient, omnipotent God, the Creator of the Universe, surely expected Eve, or Adam, to disobey him. It's not really about temptations for the prohibited, or the seduction from Satan, or even Eve's (women's) tendency for disloyalty, disobedience, or simple stupidity. Rather, the fact that Adam and Eve were created as prototypes of God--not exactly God but kind of like him--seems to indicate first and foremost the secondary status of Humans, and confirms God's superiority. And therefore, if God was so superior, well, he must have known.
So then, what could such an idea, that God knew, infer? A couple things. That, the development of the world that followed from the exile of Adam and Eve was completely accounted for. This leads one to question how far God knew, and how much of his creation was within his original plan. There are more inquiries that could arise from this inference, but we'll save that for another day. What concerns me today is the second inference: that is, the role of women.
Again, I state: Woman was conceived by God in the Christian tradition as a subsequent creation to Man. Some people may have thought of asking, why God created Eve second. Arguments for patriarchy as the divine, natural order of the world, or justifications for misogyny, or even the evidence for masculine supremacy, have all been derived from this one, somewhat situational fact that Adam was created first. But again, let us return to the idea of omniscient God: God knew, God had intent. He created Adam first, then Eve.
Historians of religion argue that the coming of Christianity with the coronation of Constantine imposed upon a matriarchal, pagan world order, a patriarchal, Christian world order. If we, albeit hesitantly, slightly generalize the nature of human society and the course of development it has followed over its extensive history, I think we can readily see that today's world is fairly patriarchal. As proof, unlike paganism where female deities were common, the only female Christian icon is Virgin Mary. Additionally, there are no female popes or priests. Just nuns. I think things have been changing in the past few years, and more and more women are taking up roles in various aspects of society. But for a while, this was not the case. So, Adam still stood as the first-born.
But, the role of women, as the so-called "Second Sex," to use a term of Beauvoir's, could have been carefully conceived by God. God may have known that Man would never understand the reasons for creating Eve at all, other than for procreation, and possibly companionship. Man would always assume that his first-born status was the divine sign for his supremacy. Man was, however, first-born only because there was one being that followed him: Eve, the second-born. Man, therefore, (created by God the way he was) would always make an effort to affirm his supremacy over Woman. Omniscient God knew this. Thus, perhaps it can be inferred that God put Eve second because by doing so, Man would always believe in the incontestability of his status.
It doesn't end there. The role of Woman, therefore, was to remind Man of his supremacy. Yes, this sounds absurd and blasphemous. Unfortunately for Man, this supremacy is a constructed illusion placed by God himself. Would Man ever feel threatened enough to affirm his own supremacy without Woman, the 'other' creation of God? Perhaps, but I for some reason doubt it. So if Woman was created to perpetuate an illusion, then what does that make Woman?
This is the question I came upon. Any ideas?
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Friday, April 28, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
get over it, it's unfortunate
So I was chewing on some Genoa salami, after not having been able to decide if I should print out another copy for my dissertation tomorrow morning. It's nearly 90 pages, and my computer can't even handle opening the files, and my printer is broken. I'd have to go to Kinko's on broadway to get this thing printed. And that's a pain. Or go all the way to UBC again, and feel guilty as I use the student office's printer. Hm.
Anyway, so out of sheer boredom I was reading an article on the IHT website. Something about Korea and Japan feuding over a couple islands worth millions for its natural resources, and carrying much sentimental value for Koreans who suffered under Japanese colonialism.
This reminded me of that movie coming out in a few days, weeks, not sure--the one about 9/11.
How so? Well, if you can only tell from the title of this blog. That's right, people, get over it.
I know, it's kinda harsh if you consider all those families who lost their loved ones, the familial ancestors who suffered so much pain under colonial rule, the atrocities, the violence, etc.
But -- no apology is going to make that kind of pain go away. No public apology by any government or organization will ever heal the wounds of that magnitude.
So now--you've got half the world full of people who hate the other half because of the things a handful of them did. Soon, they will retaliate. And then, neither side will accept a simple word of apology. Then what? An entire world full of hating people. Completely blinded by their grief, their hatred, their irrationality over the death of a loved one --which, by the way, was an unfortunate consequence of a long history of hatred.
So why don't you share that island? Why don't you, if you've lost someone you've loved, think about that mother or wife in another part of the world, grieving for the exact same reason? Why make a movie about an event that idolize those who vanished with the airplane, that heroicize the unfortunate victims and demonize the equally-unfortunate hijackers. Why equally-unfortunate? Because they were as blinded by hatred as you hating people are now. They weren't born to be hijackers. They were born to be people, but born in an unfortunate situation, and made unfortunate choices--probably sometimes out of self-initiative, other times out of threat, left with no other option--throughout their lives. Not everyone's born into a family and get to eat everyday and receive an education that informs them about what's going on in the rest of the world.
Which is why they were blinded by hatred in the first place. If you had no idea that there's half a world of people going through the same grievances, the same agonies of life, if you didn't know any better and believed that the world was set up against you, then yes, it kind of does make sense that they would be blinded by hatred, doesn't it?
This isn't to justify the wrongdoings that have been committed. It doesn't make anything right to say that well, they were born into shitty situations and unfortunately made the wrong decisions. But it doesn't make your hatred a right either.
So come on people, get a rational head on your necks and think, for once!
Read more!
Anyway, so out of sheer boredom I was reading an article on the IHT website. Something about Korea and Japan feuding over a couple islands worth millions for its natural resources, and carrying much sentimental value for Koreans who suffered under Japanese colonialism.
This reminded me of that movie coming out in a few days, weeks, not sure--the one about 9/11.
How so? Well, if you can only tell from the title of this blog. That's right, people, get over it.
I know, it's kinda harsh if you consider all those families who lost their loved ones, the familial ancestors who suffered so much pain under colonial rule, the atrocities, the violence, etc.
But -- no apology is going to make that kind of pain go away. No public apology by any government or organization will ever heal the wounds of that magnitude.
So now--you've got half the world full of people who hate the other half because of the things a handful of them did. Soon, they will retaliate. And then, neither side will accept a simple word of apology. Then what? An entire world full of hating people. Completely blinded by their grief, their hatred, their irrationality over the death of a loved one --which, by the way, was an unfortunate consequence of a long history of hatred.
So why don't you share that island? Why don't you, if you've lost someone you've loved, think about that mother or wife in another part of the world, grieving for the exact same reason? Why make a movie about an event that idolize those who vanished with the airplane, that heroicize the unfortunate victims and demonize the equally-unfortunate hijackers. Why equally-unfortunate? Because they were as blinded by hatred as you hating people are now. They weren't born to be hijackers. They were born to be people, but born in an unfortunate situation, and made unfortunate choices--probably sometimes out of self-initiative, other times out of threat, left with no other option--throughout their lives. Not everyone's born into a family and get to eat everyday and receive an education that informs them about what's going on in the rest of the world.
Which is why they were blinded by hatred in the first place. If you had no idea that there's half a world of people going through the same grievances, the same agonies of life, if you didn't know any better and believed that the world was set up against you, then yes, it kind of does make sense that they would be blinded by hatred, doesn't it?
This isn't to justify the wrongdoings that have been committed. It doesn't make anything right to say that well, they were born into shitty situations and unfortunately made the wrong decisions. But it doesn't make your hatred a right either.
So come on people, get a rational head on your necks and think, for once!
Read more!
Monday, April 24, 2006
What to do...
I don't know what to do with myself. I've finished my thesis (kind of...well it's all bound so I can't do much now), and I have no exams, except for the dissertation on Wednesday. The sun is out, and all I need to do is return my library books (200) and I am ready for summer. 40hrs/wk for Starbucks begins next week.
Colleen is going to South America in 10days..so dinner Wednesday. T is leaving on Friday so dinner Thursday night...party afterwards? Friday is all-girls night out... Packed week.
I cooked for the first time in weeks today. Reina came over, it was good food.
Well, just thought I'd at least make some effort to keep this up. So far, so good.
Read more!
Colleen is going to South America in 10days..so dinner Wednesday. T is leaving on Friday so dinner Thursday night...party afterwards? Friday is all-girls night out... Packed week.
I cooked for the first time in weeks today. Reina came over, it was good food.
Well, just thought I'd at least make some effort to keep this up. So far, so good.
Read more!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
the world as mindfuck
Tis the conclusion.
The world was never made to make any sense to any of us. It's quite beyond our understanding -- I, for one thing, have a difficult enough of a time trying to understand why I sought out to write a thesis, intentionally. How am I to figure out why people act a certain way, why they do certain things, why certain things happen with no apparent cause, etc.? It's not even that we will never know the answers to these "why" questions, it's that even if someone were to explain "why" we would never understand it.
Why would we not understand? Because we all have different minds. Take, for example, an instant messenger conversation. Between two friends, chances are misunderstandings are unlikely to occur. But then again, on the odd occasion, one writes one thing and the other interprets it in a way entirely contrary to the intended message. Such a misunderstanding happens precisely because we are reading the words on the screen in our own way, via our own minds. In effect, in the process of reading what my friend had typed, I have translated the sentence from her language to my language. The basis of this understanding goes like this: If I were writing that sentence in that context, I would have this type of inflection on that word, and with such-and-such a tone, to mean it in that particular way.
This is, also, precisely why internet dating could be a total disaster. I presume that, regardless of gender, most of us 'normal' people look for a partner who is honest, moral, respectful, intelligent, sexy, good-looking, fun, sociable, educated, perhaps ambitious and goal-driven, or mellow and laid back...the list goes on. Most of us, I think, know the kind of relationship we would want to be in (if you wanted to be in one at all), and I think some people might be amazed that such a desire lies in that person who happens to sit next to you on a bus, or a movie theater, or the person in line ahead of you, waiting to get their morning coffee. Yes, you might not necessarily be attracted to them, but that's a whole new different story.
The point is, when you start talking to someone on instant messenger in an internet dating setting, both parties are looking for, give or take a few, the same type of qualities. And with that already established, as long as the other party uses positive-connotation words every so often, says the 'right' things (let's not get into an epistemological argument about what 'right' means--we all know what 'right' means in our own way), of course they're going to sound attractive. By that point you've read their half of the conversation on your terms, in your language, with your habitual inflections and tones that would be appropriated to certain words and phrases. In fact, you are actually just talking to yourself, your idealized partner. We are probably all somewhat narcissistic in some ways--aren't we told by our friends not to put yourself down?--so it makes sense that we feel attracted someone produced by our own imaginations.
Add to this the self-explanatory phenomenon of the "best-picture-of-myself" and you've successfully landed yourself an indulgence problem than a romance.
This is, however, not to say that none of us should bother trying. By some wind of luck, some people have met online and have had very successful relationships (or, so they say). And instant messengers are great devices that allow us to talk to someone without getting our butts out of bed or using airtime on an overcharged cellphone. I suppose miscommunication is the price we have to pay for not wanting to, or having the courage to, go up to a random person in public and say hi, or smile. Just because we don't--and probably won't--understand the world doesn't mean we can just stop trying to understand it, because sometimes it makes people happy to be able to wonder or superficially explain the world. I don't see a problem with that.
Read more!
The world was never made to make any sense to any of us. It's quite beyond our understanding -- I, for one thing, have a difficult enough of a time trying to understand why I sought out to write a thesis, intentionally. How am I to figure out why people act a certain way, why they do certain things, why certain things happen with no apparent cause, etc.? It's not even that we will never know the answers to these "why" questions, it's that even if someone were to explain "why" we would never understand it.
Why would we not understand? Because we all have different minds. Take, for example, an instant messenger conversation. Between two friends, chances are misunderstandings are unlikely to occur. But then again, on the odd occasion, one writes one thing and the other interprets it in a way entirely contrary to the intended message. Such a misunderstanding happens precisely because we are reading the words on the screen in our own way, via our own minds. In effect, in the process of reading what my friend had typed, I have translated the sentence from her language to my language. The basis of this understanding goes like this: If I were writing that sentence in that context, I would have this type of inflection on that word, and with such-and-such a tone, to mean it in that particular way.
This is, also, precisely why internet dating could be a total disaster. I presume that, regardless of gender, most of us 'normal' people look for a partner who is honest, moral, respectful, intelligent, sexy, good-looking, fun, sociable, educated, perhaps ambitious and goal-driven, or mellow and laid back...the list goes on. Most of us, I think, know the kind of relationship we would want to be in (if you wanted to be in one at all), and I think some people might be amazed that such a desire lies in that person who happens to sit next to you on a bus, or a movie theater, or the person in line ahead of you, waiting to get their morning coffee. Yes, you might not necessarily be attracted to them, but that's a whole new different story.
The point is, when you start talking to someone on instant messenger in an internet dating setting, both parties are looking for, give or take a few, the same type of qualities. And with that already established, as long as the other party uses positive-connotation words every so often, says the 'right' things (let's not get into an epistemological argument about what 'right' means--we all know what 'right' means in our own way), of course they're going to sound attractive. By that point you've read their half of the conversation on your terms, in your language, with your habitual inflections and tones that would be appropriated to certain words and phrases. In fact, you are actually just talking to yourself, your idealized partner. We are probably all somewhat narcissistic in some ways--aren't we told by our friends not to put yourself down?--so it makes sense that we feel attracted someone produced by our own imaginations.
Add to this the self-explanatory phenomenon of the "best-picture-of-myself" and you've successfully landed yourself an indulgence problem than a romance.
This is, however, not to say that none of us should bother trying. By some wind of luck, some people have met online and have had very successful relationships (or, so they say). And instant messengers are great devices that allow us to talk to someone without getting our butts out of bed or using airtime on an overcharged cellphone. I suppose miscommunication is the price we have to pay for not wanting to, or having the courage to, go up to a random person in public and say hi, or smile. Just because we don't--and probably won't--understand the world doesn't mean we can just stop trying to understand it, because sometimes it makes people happy to be able to wonder or superficially explain the world. I don't see a problem with that.
Read more!
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Serendipity..
It is amazing how one finds the most appropriate and desired of things in the most quaint and subtle of ways.
It is also somewhat frightening and startling when they are things that sit so close to your heart, that strike the strongest chord.
It is at times like these, especially after a perceived period of decadence, when one learns how to appreciate the tiniest details of life.
Read more!
It is also somewhat frightening and startling when they are things that sit so close to your heart, that strike the strongest chord.
It is at times like these, especially after a perceived period of decadence, when one learns how to appreciate the tiniest details of life.
Read more!
Friday, April 14, 2006
vibraphones and the birds of Acapuco bay..
Gary Burton..one of the greatest of all vibraphone players in jazz man...His tunes are playing on the radio at the current moment, and it is very soothing. And I've been listening to Michael Buble all day.
So it's 11:40pm and what do I have planned for the evening...TYPING!! I've had waaaay too much wine for my own good, I don't know if finishing chapter 4 is plausible..bah.
Ok I might add things while the night continues on, but for now that's it. So I'll add..
Read more!
So it's 11:40pm and what do I have planned for the evening...TYPING!! I've had waaaay too much wine for my own good, I don't know if finishing chapter 4 is plausible..bah.
Ok I might add things while the night continues on, but for now that's it. So I'll add..
| You Are Wind |
 Strong and overpowering A force to be reckoned with, no one dares cross you You have the power to change everything around you You are best known for: your wrath Your dominant state: commanding |
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Thursday, April 13, 2006
about people..
Woke up this morning, turned to my side, woke up my computer and started typing. By noon I finally decided to get my ass out of bed, take a shower, and change the scenery...to Kits coffee.
During my 6 hour stay in this local coffee shop where they decided to serve me an ultra-low fat banana-flax loaf instead of the regular full-fat banana loaf I had ordered--I wonder if they were trying to say something--I observed some interesting people. I promptly sat down by the window to get my daily spring intake of sun rays (we Vancouverites have a lot of catching up to do), but was very quickly interrupted by a tap-tap-tap of a steady, jazzy rhythm...there was a 40-something year old man with headphones plugged into his laptop, tapping away with his two feet. Yes, kind of annoying. In fact, this man proceeded--over the course of the next 2.5 hours--to leave for 5 min every now and then to do who-knows-what, sometimes bringing back with him a case of CD's, sometimes reappearing empty-handed; and every time he would ask a neighbor to watch his laptop for him. Weird. Fortunately, I was sitting by the window so he never bothered me.
His laptop reminded me that I needed an outlet for mine. A few students were studying, and when this one girl moved out of a table near the outlet, I swiftly moved my things over. But thank god the place wasn't packed with students. During this time of the year, all the libraries are packed, all the cafes near school are packed...Al and I were saying the other day how there should be a GPA requirement for sitting in libraries. Why should people who slacked off all term and are now, with much agony, crunching a term's worth of material into their pea-sized brains, be allowed to take up space in libraries? Seriously, guys. There are people who studied and worked their ass off all term. We should get priority seating for these precious library seats, you know. You useless people.
Anyhow. Speaking of useless people. There was this Chinese man who began to argue with the cafe manager. Apparently it was about the stamp card having expired or being too old, and the Chinese man arguing that there is no mention of an expiry date on it. You know, those stamp cards that you get and for every 9 cups of coffee you get one free? While the Chinese man persisted to demand his free coffee, people in the cafe rolled their eyes, gave a smirk, shook their heads from side to side at the sight of a well-aged man--probably with shit loads of money as most Chinese people here are, and also judging from his clothing (a well-tailored suit)--arguing about a free coffee that would literally cost him $1.50. I wanted to get up and buy him the coffee just so that he would shut up and realize his ridiculous behavior. But of course, for the Chinese man it probably wasn't about the $1.50 that he would have to scramble out of his pockets, but rather the principle behind it that bothered him the most. Asian people are picky about customer service. Top that off with the fact that he was probably rich--although his car wasn't anything spectacular--and that he expected to be treated like royalty...ah, that explains his behavior.
I know that Vancouver is a city of restaurants--anyone who plans on visiting Vancouver any time soon should let me know, I have a very long list of great places to eat--but this Indian restaurant I went to this evening wasn't some place I would recommend. The food was fine, service was kind of awkward, but the food was tasty, which is often what really matters. By awkward service I mean that it was questionable as to whether this place had any notable business, there were no waitresses per se unless you count the awkward Indian man who was very kind and was impressed by how we cleaned up our dishes no problem. Sarah was hungry. And so, because they didn't have much business, the owner (?) insisted that we get more food. We settled for two specials and one samosa to share. "No drinks? You don't want anything to drink?" No, we don't. Please.
One more rant about people that truly succeed in blowing my mind: Commerce students. In fact, let me be more specific: Commerce students who can't speak English. Adrian has this group project for a commerce class that needs data about Tim Hortons and how much business they have on campus. He admits that he's put it off for a while, but seeing that it's due in less than a week, he emailed his group (who hadn't made any effort to contact each other all term) to set up a meeting time. 1 responds to say that she could meet, 2 respond to say they absolutely without question could not, and 2 didn't respond, period. Apparently, the faculty of commerce at UBC is a sort of microcosm reflective of Canadian Immigration. A reoccurring complaint about these group projects is that half the people in the group cannot speak English, and even if they did, they have poor grammar. No joke, like VERY POOR grammar to the point of incomprehension. Who let these people in??? Why are they in university?? Shouldn't they really go back to elementary school? In fact, how are they Canadian citizens when they can't speak English, and write grammatically correct papers, let alone a single, grammatically correct sentence? Blows my mind, I don't understand. They DO NOT deserve to receive the same education I do (especially when I pay more) or mooch off the health care system here. Go back to China, or wherever you came from if you can't speak English like every other normal Canadian. ESL programs in secondary schools to support these people whose families invest no effort into merging into Canadian society? Forget it. There is no need for a mini-version of your country in Canada. Canada is Canada. Leave us alone.
Read more!
During my 6 hour stay in this local coffee shop where they decided to serve me an ultra-low fat banana-flax loaf instead of the regular full-fat banana loaf I had ordered--I wonder if they were trying to say something--I observed some interesting people. I promptly sat down by the window to get my daily spring intake of sun rays (we Vancouverites have a lot of catching up to do), but was very quickly interrupted by a tap-tap-tap of a steady, jazzy rhythm...there was a 40-something year old man with headphones plugged into his laptop, tapping away with his two feet. Yes, kind of annoying. In fact, this man proceeded--over the course of the next 2.5 hours--to leave for 5 min every now and then to do who-knows-what, sometimes bringing back with him a case of CD's, sometimes reappearing empty-handed; and every time he would ask a neighbor to watch his laptop for him. Weird. Fortunately, I was sitting by the window so he never bothered me.
His laptop reminded me that I needed an outlet for mine. A few students were studying, and when this one girl moved out of a table near the outlet, I swiftly moved my things over. But thank god the place wasn't packed with students. During this time of the year, all the libraries are packed, all the cafes near school are packed...Al and I were saying the other day how there should be a GPA requirement for sitting in libraries. Why should people who slacked off all term and are now, with much agony, crunching a term's worth of material into their pea-sized brains, be allowed to take up space in libraries? Seriously, guys. There are people who studied and worked their ass off all term. We should get priority seating for these precious library seats, you know. You useless people.
Anyhow. Speaking of useless people. There was this Chinese man who began to argue with the cafe manager. Apparently it was about the stamp card having expired or being too old, and the Chinese man arguing that there is no mention of an expiry date on it. You know, those stamp cards that you get and for every 9 cups of coffee you get one free? While the Chinese man persisted to demand his free coffee, people in the cafe rolled their eyes, gave a smirk, shook their heads from side to side at the sight of a well-aged man--probably with shit loads of money as most Chinese people here are, and also judging from his clothing (a well-tailored suit)--arguing about a free coffee that would literally cost him $1.50. I wanted to get up and buy him the coffee just so that he would shut up and realize his ridiculous behavior. But of course, for the Chinese man it probably wasn't about the $1.50 that he would have to scramble out of his pockets, but rather the principle behind it that bothered him the most. Asian people are picky about customer service. Top that off with the fact that he was probably rich--although his car wasn't anything spectacular--and that he expected to be treated like royalty...ah, that explains his behavior.
I know that Vancouver is a city of restaurants--anyone who plans on visiting Vancouver any time soon should let me know, I have a very long list of great places to eat--but this Indian restaurant I went to this evening wasn't some place I would recommend. The food was fine, service was kind of awkward, but the food was tasty, which is often what really matters. By awkward service I mean that it was questionable as to whether this place had any notable business, there were no waitresses per se unless you count the awkward Indian man who was very kind and was impressed by how we cleaned up our dishes no problem. Sarah was hungry. And so, because they didn't have much business, the owner (?) insisted that we get more food. We settled for two specials and one samosa to share. "No drinks? You don't want anything to drink?" No, we don't. Please.
One more rant about people that truly succeed in blowing my mind: Commerce students. In fact, let me be more specific: Commerce students who can't speak English. Adrian has this group project for a commerce class that needs data about Tim Hortons and how much business they have on campus. He admits that he's put it off for a while, but seeing that it's due in less than a week, he emailed his group (who hadn't made any effort to contact each other all term) to set up a meeting time. 1 responds to say that she could meet, 2 respond to say they absolutely without question could not, and 2 didn't respond, period. Apparently, the faculty of commerce at UBC is a sort of microcosm reflective of Canadian Immigration. A reoccurring complaint about these group projects is that half the people in the group cannot speak English, and even if they did, they have poor grammar. No joke, like VERY POOR grammar to the point of incomprehension. Who let these people in??? Why are they in university?? Shouldn't they really go back to elementary school? In fact, how are they Canadian citizens when they can't speak English, and write grammatically correct papers, let alone a single, grammatically correct sentence? Blows my mind, I don't understand. They DO NOT deserve to receive the same education I do (especially when I pay more) or mooch off the health care system here. Go back to China, or wherever you came from if you can't speak English like every other normal Canadian. ESL programs in secondary schools to support these people whose families invest no effort into merging into Canadian society? Forget it. There is no need for a mini-version of your country in Canada. Canada is Canada. Leave us alone.
Read more!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
how long will this last..
That's a million-dollar question.
I'm not sure if it's out of laziness or a lack of enthusiasm for it, but blogging never lasts. I've made two attempts, and both of them failed. Well actually, the first one the contract for webspace expired, and the second one...well yeah that was just out of neglect.
But, since I'm leaving this town soon, perhaps this could be a good way to keep in touch with people. I'd like to think that interesting things happen in my life all the time -- interesting enough that it's worth typing about and letting people know about it -- but seeing that I'm going to have some time on my hands for the first time in my life, I might actually look for something interesting on a daily basis. We'll see.
Right now the life is taken over by thesis work. It's almost 2 in the morning. I've been procrastinating.
And just as I head to bed, I notice that the radio (CBC channel 2) had been playing a series of percussion ensemble music. A bunch of Japanese composers. In December when I went to Taiwan and Hong Kong for the UBC Wind Symphony tour, a percussion conference had been going on, and a university group from one of the local universities had been rehearsing on traditional Japanese taiko drums. Tossing the mallets, spinning, yelling -- the whole ordeal. It was pretty crazy.
I find that most percussion ensemble music composed by Japanese composers use taiko drums. It is, I agree, an amazing instrumental toy. If you hit it right (that's already by itself pretty difficult to do) it gives this reverberating umph in the the listener, a low-frequency tingle through your arms, but strong enough that, by the end of a movement your arms are dead tired, dead like broken twigs of a tree. Performing on it is quite another experience -- it's essentially like performing on a series of bass drums, or dense timpani. For all you keen percussionists out there -- you know how difficult it is to control the tone on a bass drum. Imagine playing a series of notes on a denser drum. Crazy.
This tune uses a couple of those taiko drums...then they definitely used some bows (as in bows used for playing violins) on some thing, or perhaps that was a string attached to the drum head, I don't really know. And a vibraphone. Neato.
Read more!
I'm not sure if it's out of laziness or a lack of enthusiasm for it, but blogging never lasts. I've made two attempts, and both of them failed. Well actually, the first one the contract for webspace expired, and the second one...well yeah that was just out of neglect.
But, since I'm leaving this town soon, perhaps this could be a good way to keep in touch with people. I'd like to think that interesting things happen in my life all the time -- interesting enough that it's worth typing about and letting people know about it -- but seeing that I'm going to have some time on my hands for the first time in my life, I might actually look for something interesting on a daily basis. We'll see.
Right now the life is taken over by thesis work. It's almost 2 in the morning. I've been procrastinating.
And just as I head to bed, I notice that the radio (CBC channel 2) had been playing a series of percussion ensemble music. A bunch of Japanese composers. In December when I went to Taiwan and Hong Kong for the UBC Wind Symphony tour, a percussion conference had been going on, and a university group from one of the local universities had been rehearsing on traditional Japanese taiko drums. Tossing the mallets, spinning, yelling -- the whole ordeal. It was pretty crazy.
I find that most percussion ensemble music composed by Japanese composers use taiko drums. It is, I agree, an amazing instrumental toy. If you hit it right (that's already by itself pretty difficult to do) it gives this reverberating umph in the the listener, a low-frequency tingle through your arms, but strong enough that, by the end of a movement your arms are dead tired, dead like broken twigs of a tree. Performing on it is quite another experience -- it's essentially like performing on a series of bass drums, or dense timpani. For all you keen percussionists out there -- you know how difficult it is to control the tone on a bass drum. Imagine playing a series of notes on a denser drum. Crazy.
This tune uses a couple of those taiko drums...then they definitely used some bows (as in bows used for playing violins) on some thing, or perhaps that was a string attached to the drum head, I don't really know. And a vibraphone. Neato.
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