I really like the music of Vienna Teng and was fortunate enough to hear her live a few years ago. If you’ve never heard her in concert, Internet Archive has a collection of her live recordings. You can also find her videos on YouTube.
Category: Culture
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iTunes is Annoying Me
I rarely listen to the radio. When I do, I almost listen exclusively to KQED, which is not the best source for hearing new or old Chinese music. So, I pretty much depend on the Genius Just For You feature in iTunes to discover new music. iTunes seems to handle English artists and songs quite well; however, it experiences difficulties when dealing with Chinese artists and songs.
If I search through my own music for 王è², iTunes will only return the songs by 王è². If I search through the iTunes Store for 王è², iTunes will return the songs by çŽ‹è² as well as the ones by Faye Wong. Curiously, iTunes will return the songs from Zhi Mi Bu Hui from the artist Faye Wong, but not the ones from Wang Fei. So, when iTunes recommends Chinese songs, I have to make sure that I don’t already have their recommendation in my collection. And, this double-checking is not a straight forward process because I have to search through all permutations of a song’s or artist’s name: English, Pinyin, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Ugh…
The other issue that troubles me is that some song titles are obviously incorrect, like 桃花开, which was inartfully translated to Peach Bloddom Come Out. If this was Wikipedia, some of these errors would already be corrected.
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当我们都在一起
In Ratatouille, Remy’s ratatouille dish whisks the critic Anton Ego back to his childhood. I have yet to meet a dish that could summon my memories of childhood, but some children songs come close. For quite some time, I’ve been trying to figure out the lyrics to 当我们都在一起, which I had learned many, many years ago. Only recently did I discover that this is the Chinese version of “The More We Get Together.”
I saw this version online, but the lyrics were not the ones I committed to partial memory. This version may be someone else’s childhood song, but it was not mine. I did find two other versions – audio and video – that unfortunately provide different lyrics for the one line that I cannot remember. So, it is either 其快ä¹æ— 比 or 真快ä¹æ— 比.
Curiously, if I search in English, I come up with even more results, such as this one with a different title and lyrics and this version on YouTube.
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Lissy’s Friends by Grace Lin
I recently finished reading Lissy’s Friendsby Grace Lin. Lissy’s Friends is a wonderful children’s book that describes how one Chinese girl handles the awkwardness of being the new kid in school. At first, she has difficulty making friends and turns to her origami animals for companionship. Later, she shares her origami creations with the other kids and befriends them.
Summary: A gorgeously illustrated book with an engaging plot that weaves elements of Chinese culture with the anxieties of childhood. Delightful for young children pre-school age and up.
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Chinese Auto Safety
New York Times: Ford in Talks to Sell Volvo to Chinese Rival, Report Says. Ford Motor is in talks to sell its Volvo car business to its Chinese partner, Changan Automobile Group, the National Business Daily reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source at the Chinese company.
OK. The country that gave us melamine milk, pet food and candy may also acquire the automotive brand synonymous with product safety? I’ll believe it when it actually happens, but I see nothing but a total destruction of goodwill. I already don’t trust the Volvo brand as much under the care of Ford. I will trust it even less in the hands of a Chinese automotive company. Trust is earned, not purchased or sold. If you want to be the caretaker of the Volvo brand, you need to share their same passion for driver and passenger safety. Otherwise, you are just producing knock-offs.
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Gasoline Prices
Strangest sight this morning. I had to fill up this morning, so I stopped at a gasoline station before heading to work. So, I took one path that takes me past an intersection with three gasoline stations: ARCO, Shell and Chevron. I was just about to pull into the Shell because it was on the right side of the street when I suddenly acquired sticker shock. $2.43 per gallon? Did gasoline prices go back up? I quickly glanced at the other side of the street and spotted Chevron selling gasoline at $2.27 per gallon. Ordinarily, if an intersection has 3 gasoline stations, I would expect their prices to be roughly comparable. A few cents I can understand, but a 16 cent difference? Now, I have to figure out whether Shell is the laggard in lowering its prices or whether its the front runner in raising back up its prices. I like $2.27 per gallon. Saved me $40 for a full tank of gas from 5 months ago.
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General Electric
Last month, MSNBC reported that Warren Buffett had invested $3 billion in General Electric preferred shares with a 10 percent dividend. At the time, GE had fallen 42 percent in the past year. Well, since October 1st, GE has fallen almost 48 percent and that dividend (if it doesn’t get cut) is creeping closer and closer to the 10 percent mark. We’re dipping into the zone of the single-digit PE ratio, a number that I have read about but rarely seen until now.
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The Meaning of Gasoline Prices
Five months ago, I had to pay $4.55 per gallon for regular unleaded at the local Valero gasoline station. At the time, gasoline prices were just 10% away from hitting the $5.00 per gallon mark. So, if I was offered a bet on whether gasoline prices would be over $5.00 or under $2.50 in five months, guess which way I would have wagered? However, here we are in the middle of November and regular unleaded is $2.35 per gallon. So, what does this all mean?
Right now, I am not sure. Was it oil speculators that previously drove up the price of gasoline? Or, is the economy that badly off to dry up demand for gasoline? In some parts of the Bay Area, the signs of the real estate deflation are obvious. However, in other cities, housing prices remain pricey. I always thought demand for gasoline was relatively inelastic. Everyone has to drive, right? However, if the demand for gasoline is true off kilter, then we are all headed for trouble times, regardless of which neighborhood we live in.
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Credibility
New York Times: Crisis Spreads to Tech Sector as Sun to Cut Work Force.
Joining a rapidly growing list of technology companies reeling from the financial turmoil, Sun Microsystems, which sells server computers, has started a broad restructuring that could see up to 6,000 employees lose their jobs.
I spotted the above article earlier this morning and it just struck me as being off base. Sure, you can connect the layoffs at Sun Microsystems with the sub-prime mortgage crisis. However, while the financial implosion and the Sun layoffs are occurring at roughly the same time, any connection is coincidental rather than causational. Sun was on the list of reeling technology companies long before the sub-prime crisis hit. Now, if Google or Apple announced layoffs of the magnitude that Sun announced…
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Emperor Guangxu Died of Arsenic Poisoning
In Who Murdered China’s Emperor 100 Years Ago?, scientists revealed that Emperor Guangxu died of acute arsenic poisoning. Although Guangxu’s death cleared the way for his famed successor, Puyi, to ascend to the throne, Puyi abdicated three years later.