Rising slow. Harold Mabern is dancing around the keys,
easing me onward. Another pianist from
Tennessee. He came to New York in 1959
and just showed up at Birdland and got himself some gigs. If you’ve got the
talent, I guess that’s how it works. This
album “Wailin’” from 1970 is straight, tight bop, no suggestion of fusion
overtones that would have been heavy in the atmosphere then. Well, there is a Jackson Five cover, but its funky. There’s a beautiful tune called “Blues for
Phineas” which must be for that other Tennessee pianist I wrote about
yesterday. The electric keys for this
simple, slow blues are so remarkably confident.
My younger one is making dumpling dough in the other room. Not sure why.
Went and looked and the Mrs. has them rolling and cutting their own
noodles.
China has managed to land the Chang’e on the moon. I’m glad to know that it went well. Thirty-seven years since the last such craft,
a Soviet one, had landed on the moon. I
can recall the excitement of that time as a kid when there was a “space race”
and newer and more audacious exploration seemed to be a given. I’m wondering if kids in China have the same
excitement around this. Does it feel
thrilling?
The Times’ tone was rather subdued as if the article title
could have been, “China’s on the moon.
We have been there, and done that.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/world/asia/china-lands-probe-on-the-moon-report-says.html?ref=international-home
I don’t know if my daughters are an appropriate sample to
base much on but they were both pretty blasé.
I was genuinely excited for my host country here and mentioned it to
everybody this morning. They all said
“yeah.” I asked and they both said no one
had mentioned it at school. Pressing
further apparently the art teacher had mentioned it once. “So were people interested and talking about
it or like ‘yeah-whatever’?" “Like yeah whatever.” They saw the new Hunger Games film last night. They were really excited about that. But the moon? The bar keeps going higher
and further for really blowing the youth away, I suppose. The moon is merely terrestrial.
Have a look at these things.
“The Rift” virtual reality goggles by Oculus Rift. http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/13/oculus-vr-oculus-rift-strategy-projections/?ncid=tcdaily I had lunch with a friend the other day who
told me about trying something that sounded very similar. After the usual caveats about how it was
bulky and looked silly he confessed that the experience was utterly mind
blowing where what was virtual and what was reality was literally, convincingly
blurred. That was two days ago and then
I read the article above this morning.
“Of the 300 people who have seen
the current prototype, not a single person has come away not saying ‘That’s
gonna change the world,’ and that’s really [what we needed to accomplish] in
terms of delivering on the promise of the vision we’ve all had for so many
years,” Iribe says.
That’s a pretty dreamy thing for a founder to be able to
say. I’m sure it is going to be
fascinating and frightening in equal measure.
It wasn’t so long ago that people walking down the street talking into a
cell phone looked ridiculous. The mind
flashes to subways in Beijing or New York with cars full of people tuned out,
looking at God knows what. Communication
and data transmissions between devices, its incredible to consider how complete
that little world might be.
It sure feels like frothy bubble from this side of the
Pacific. It only feels more like that
when everyone assures you it isn’t this time, as ‘everyone is making
money.’ Perhaps. Oculus Rift of course haven’t made a penny
yet. But when companies that were
started a less than a year ago can have a second round of investment of $75M within
less than a year of launching, the old benchmarks for what seems like a lot of
funding become irrelevant. We should
all get ready, I suppose for this latest ride.
My daughter has produced lovely set of steamed “hua hua” with her dough. I don’t know what the proper English term is for
steam buns done in a mold. She was so excited
that they came out well. My wife told
her that hua hua were made every time there was a special occasion when she was a
girl. So the hua hua tradition continues to the next generation of Shandong ladies.
Fattening for sure, and a little bland but as long as they come from
her hands, they’re thrilling. I haven’t
tried virtual goggles yet, but hua hua’s
will be sufficiently 动人心魄[1] for this morning.
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