Up late, late start on
the day. Sunday. It’s OK.
Everyone’s working now. These
poor kids have piles of homework to get through. My wife has launched a cottage industry, of
selling handmade lavender pillows on line.
Orders come over night and she dashes off during the day to fulfill
them. We have burlap sacks of buckwheat
and gunnysacks of lavender all about the kitchen. China is not a bad place to wake up and
decide you want to manufacture something.
Bulk cloth, bulk buckwheat, reasonable handicraft skills are all
source-able with a bit of ingenuity. http://www.amazon.cn/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_zh_CN=%E4%BA%9A%E9%A9%AC%E9%80%8A%E7%BD%91%E7%AB%99&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=vetiquette&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avetiquette
Apparently it is pretty straightforward to set up a Weixin
promotion site too and some staff and acquaintances have now set up their own
little promotion depots. I’m usually
involved in selling software to enterprise so it is remarkable to watch the
mixture of artisanal production begin to go viral to the increasingly Weixin-ed
populous of China. If What’sAp sold for
a modest $16B, it is amusing to consider what the value of Weixin, which is
widely acknowledged to be a better larger service, might be. Tencent, the parent company is a remarkable
juggernaut. And China is rarely
comfortable with disruptive, independent actors who reach into every city and
hamlet.
Ahh, but the fate of Tencent, and my polluted, adopted
homeland, notwithstanding, humor me as I indulge in some shameless familial
promotion on this site that otherwise is scrupulously clear of any commercial
interest: Go to the link above, check
out Vetiquette, and get yourself a few lavender pillows. And then get some more. Trust me, their hand made.
Sat down with the little one who was up earliest and finally
watched the contested figure skating finals.
On NBC you can watch Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova up against South Korea’s
Kim Yu-na, side by side: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/sotnikova-kim-free-skate-routines-side-side?ctx=olympic-journey
I can remember watching Kim Yu-na four years ago with my
girls when she skated at Vancouver. She
has an ineffable grace that just makes, me at least, want to route for her. To my absolutely untutored eyes, she is
certainly the more graceful, the more poetic and somehow inspiring of the
two. My daughter, without any prompting,
was routing for her as well. But as Scott
Hamilton, who should know a thing or two about these matters suggested on
another clip on the NBC site, Sotnikova is the more athletic and, like someone
preparing flawlessly for an examination, she “hit” everything, perfectly and
secured the highest score.
Understanding how to prepare for the “test” and scorning
highest on the exam is, to cast the net broadly, something Koreans excel
at. So it was a bit disconcerting to
read about popular belly aching in the South Korean press over the
decision. The test may not test the
right criteria, but just like an SAT or a GRE or, as my niece knows, the TOFEL,
what is being tested is transparent.
I’ve met pedagogues and students alike who aced the TOFEL and speak
torturous English. They probably
understand past-pluperfect far better than I, in theory. But they have no flow or grace to their
diction. Yu-na’s flow and “diction”
seemed celestial. But that wasn’t what
was being tested.
Have a look at this NY Times article on the reaction in
across the Bohai sea, there in South Korea.
The article suggests that despite outraged voices of a few, who
suggested the nation was cheated and that Putin had fixed things, the degree of
“outrage” may have been more modest than was to have been expected. Press-freedoms are hard-earned victories from
within living memory, so hot-head chest thumping, is within reason
healthy. For me it seems that South
Korea has so, so much to be proud of.
For a small, divided nation, they are a mighty in so many arena. With half the population of Japan, and half
the population of a large Chinese province, they managed to out-score Japan and
effectively tie China for the medal count, on the latest tally.
My private hope is that, endowed with such an audacious
surfeit of leadership capacity, that South Korea might ultimately step up to
lead in the reconciliation of unsettled matters in North Asia, as the broker
for peace between their two giant neighbors.
Something about this article though, reminds me that the wounds of
Japanese occupation, can not really be settled until the nation is united. Otherwise, there is too much pain, indignity
and uncertainty.
I made another
discovery from that juicy hard-bop, era yesterday that has proved some fruitful
mining today. I’m on with Blue
Mitchell. Trumpet player, born in Miami
in 1930, I for one, never hoid of em.
Delicious. “The Thing to Do” was recorded on Blue Note in 1964. Those late fifties, early sixties years, may
have been dead in popular music, between the hey-day of Chuck Berry and the
arrival of the Beatles. But man, this is
a certain kind of jazz apex for me. Glad
to see he still walks the earth, so I won’t be looking for any obituary on the
man.
And I got him playing here downstairs. And I’ll confess to you people, when I go
upstairs and hear what my daughters are playing, I need the grace of Kim Yu-na
to keep walking and the athleticism of Adelina Sotnikova to hold my
tongue. They have downloaded a bunch of
tunes by the Chinese American Idol bit (“I Am a Singer”) that I was on about a
week or so ago. Isn’t “going viral”
lovely? The tunes are poorly wrought,
overproduced versions of someone else’s shitty songs. I am really trying because I know the karmic
judges will score me poorly if I open my mouth.
Every fiber in my being wants to say something snide about how bad it
sucks. The oldest Chinese chengyu, I ever mastered is the most
important: 沉默是金 [1]
Breathe in. Breathe
out.
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