Today is the twentieth consecutive day of posting on DustyBrine. I had it in mind for a while now to mark this day with a summary posting. If I can keep up the pace I’ll do it again in another twenty days.
The simple format established on the first day was to write
in general about the confluence of continental and oceanic. Yellow Chinese dust, settling into the briny,
blue East China Sea that laps up against the Koreas, and Japan. Dirt that settles, water that sloshes on to
every part of the globe. I want to push
forward ideas explored in “The Seven Deadly Starbucks” (7DS). In that work I looked at China’s emergence and
what it meant for regional relations. Within
any given day’s time I want to pick up disparate fragments from that work and
force them in one angle or another, in order to strengthen and fashion the main
themes.
And 7DS is about the region from my view. I want to discuss the work that I am reading,
and the music I am listening to and colors I am seeing, from my perch in
Beijing. Beginning with the first entry,
each posting leverages a few recurring effects. Every entry introduces a Chinese
cheng yu, which are always four
character set phrases used in Classical Chinese and still popular in
contemporary vernacular. Four characters
which together pack volumes of meaning and tradition. I tend to leverage the very helpful online
Chinese-English dictionary at www.mdbg.net
Music complements my life at when I work, when I exercise,
when I play. It is perhaps the closest
touch point I’ve known to the divine. I
introduce at least one piece of music, and discuss something that I am
listening to, with every post. Reading
books is gradually becoming an anachronism.
I am proudly old fashioned and always have a few physical books I’m
making my way through. I carry them with
me wherever I go like talismans and place them strategically around the house,
such as the stand in the master bathroom.
But how rare it is that we actually get to discuss books with anyone,
beyond simply stating a title, showing the physical copy, mentioning a
theme. This blog then, should be a place
to elaborate on books and articles that inspire.
I don’t think of myself as a photographer, but I have always
captured my life with photographs. In the
past, of course, we’d put physical photos into photo albums or more likely into
a cardboard box that was kept in the basement, after the last move. I have a digital photo frame in my house on
constant rotation and it is a lovely mnemonic for all the trips and birthdays
and balls one has attended. But in
seeing ones “work” regularly one begins to develop a more critical eye as to
what one wants to capture, henceforth.
And, with the simple features now available on “Camera Plus” or simply
there in iPhoto, it is easy to exaggerate a mood and bleed out expression with intensity. And so, every post, as you may have noticed,
will have two photos.
Beyond that, I am free.
So, in summary:
Chengyu introduced:
1.
人山人海 rénshānrénhǎi: a multitude / vast crowd
2.
尘埃落定 chén'āiluòdìng: the dust settles (idiom) / to settle down /
to have decided on a certain conclusion / complicated things become clear in
the end
3.
惊弓之鸟 jīnggōngzhīniǎo: lit. a bird startled by the mere twang of a
bow (idiom) / fig. sb who frightens easily, due to past experiences
4.
看破红尘kānpòhóngchén: to see through the world of mortals (idiom,
of Buddhist monk) / disillusioned with human society / to reject the world for
a monastic life
5.
包围城市bāowéi
chéngshì: To surround / to encircle / to hem in / to
cut off the town.
6.
事半功倍shìbàngōngbèi: Half the work, twice the effect; the right
approach saves effort and leads to better results
7.
横征暴敛
héngzhēngbàoliǎn: to tax by force
and extort levies (idiom); to screw taxes out of the people by force
8.
仁民爱物 Rénmín'àiwù: Mencius quote: love to all creatures (universal benevolence)
9.
独一无二 dúyīwú'èr: unique
and unmatched (idiom); unrivalled / nothing compares with it
10. 孰能生巧 Shúnéngshēngqiǎo: with familiarity you learn the trick (idiom);
practice makes perfect
11. 普济众生
pǔjìzhòngshēng: universal mercy and
succor (idiom); the Buddha's infinite power and mercy
12. 华而不实
huá'érbùshí: flower but no fruit (idiom); handsome exterior but
hollow inside / flashy
13. 血肉横飞 xuèròuhéngfēi: flesh
and blood flying (idiom); carnage / people blown to pieces
14. 早出晚归 zǎochūwǎnguī：to leave early and
return late (idiom)
15. 忍无可忍
rěnwúkěrěn: more than
one can bear (idiom); at the end of one's patience / the last straw
16. 含商咀征 hánshāngjǔzhēng: permeated with beautiful music
(idiom)
17. 此起彼伏 cǐqǐbǐfú: up here, down there (idiom); to rise and
fall in succession / no sooner one subsides, the next arises / repeating
continuously / occurring again and again (of applause, fires, waves, protests,
conflicts, uprisings etc)
18. 料事如神 Liàoshìrúshén: to prophesy with supernatural
accuracy (idiom) / to have an incredible foresight
19. 多愁善感 duōchóushàngǎn: melancholy and moody (idiom);
depressed personality
Music
Introduced:
- Dexter Gordon “Soul Sister” from “Dexter Calling”, 1961
- Hank Mobley “Ultramarine” from “Hank Mobley and his All Stars” , 1957
- Donald Byrd “Ghana” from “Byrd in Flight, 1960
- Ebo Taylor “Aba Yaa”, 1977
- The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” from “Revolver”, 1966
- Lord Salmons “Great in 68’”, 1968
- The Jamaicans “Baba Boom”, 1967
- Niney the Observer “Blood and Fire”, 1970
- The Dead Kennedy’s “California Uber Alles” from Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, 1979
- Gil Evans, “La Nevada” from “Out of the Cool”, 1960
- Sinead O’Connor “Nothing Compares to You”, 1990
- Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball”, 2013
- Santana “Persuasion” from “Santana”, 1969
- The Damned “Anti Pope” from “Machine Gun Etiquette”, 1979
- Charles Mingus “Jelly Roll” from “Mingus Ah Um”, 1959
- Kenny Dorham “Trompeta Toccata”, 1964
- Willie Colon “Se Baila Mejor” from “Guisando”, 1969
- Ali Akbar Khan “Goojari Todi”, 1971
- Dinah Washington “Early Morning Blues” & “You Can Depend on Me”, 1947
- Gusatvo Ceradi, “Bocando”, 1999
- Yiannis Xilouris “Cretan Traditional Melodies with the Lute” (Years unknown)
- King Sunny Ade “Ori Mimi Maje N’te” from “Gems from the Classic Years 1967 -1974”
- George Frideric Handel, “Xerxes”, 1738
- Boards of Canada “Aquarius” from “Music Has a Right to Children”, 1998
- The Who “Melancholia” from “The Who Sell Out”, 1967.
Reading
introduced:
- Christopher Ford article “If China Ruled”, 2013
- Fernand Braudel "The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II", 1949
- Cormac McCarthy “Blood Meridian”, 1985
- Qian Yanchi “Mao, Man Not God” , 1992
- John Chernoff “African Rhythm and African Sensibility”, 1981
- Chris Marquis and Zoe Yang article “Maoism in China”, 2013
- Hannah Arendt “Eichmann in Jerusalem” ,1963
- Mencius, 372 – 289 BC
- Maya Angelou “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”,1969
- Sinead O’Connor, ‘Open Letter to Miley Cyrus’, published in “The Guardian” 2013
- The Spoke: “Amazing Street Posters” 2013
- Peter Lavezzoli “The Dawn of Indian Music in the West”, 2007
- Ernst Hemmingway “Moveable Feast”, 1964
- Mary Renault “The King Must Die”, 1958
- Roger Cohen “Greek Ship Turning” New York Times editorial, 2013
- Menander “The Girl from Samos” approximately 315 BC
- John Julius Norwich “A Short History of Byzantium”, 1998
- Philip Mansel “Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453-1924”, 1998
- Edward Said “Orientalism”, 1978
- Orhan Pamuk “Istanbul: Memories and the City” , 2006
Photos:
Go have a look.
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