Classical music--from North Carolina to the Chinese-speaking world

WCPE is my local classical music station.  They broadcast 24/7 and play an amazing variety of classical music.  For a number of years WCPE has also sent its programming out to the world via satellite (North America only) and now the world wide web via web streaming.  Recognizing their international fan base, the station has just developed a website for Chinese fans of classical music.  I love this station.  Whenever I want to hear something uplifting, and inspiring, I tune in to WCPE.  They p...Read more

Inspiration

The term "inspiration" seems like such a loaded word in this day and age.  The Romantics talked a lot about inspiration, the Moderns, too.  They attributed so much to inspiration, this mysterious force that, at least according to them, was the difference between ordinary folk and artists (oh, that and a little thing called talent).  But in their world, talent without inspiration amounted to nothing.

For me, at least, there are different creative states.  Sometimes you have a job to do, it is time to put pen to paper and write so...Read more

Poem for Lin Liang Feng

Lin Liang Feng posted these photos showing him working on a painting of daffodils. 

Here is the poem they inspired.

To paint the soul of spring

In the dead of winter,

Before soft winds from the south

Overpower the iro...Read more

For Leslie

I whisper your name on the wind --no answer. Studying the night sky, I wonder which star shines for you alone? My heart undone, I never expected to love you this much. No possibility of meeting in this life. What of the next?

Viva Erotica

Viva Erotica is the English title of a marvelous Derrek Yee film starring Leslie Cheung, Karen Mok and Shu Qi.  This is a film about film making in Hong Kong in the 1990s, complete with a Triad crime boss turned film producer, a failed auteur director, and a porn actress who wants to keep her clothes on.  The main plot of the film is the trials and tribulations of Sing (Leslie Cheung) and his attempts to get back on his feet as a director after a series of failed pictures at the helm of a Triad-financed Category III picture.  This is Sing's ...Read more

Invisible Asian cinema

I have been looking at a number of artists' profiles, including those of many Asian actors and others involved with various national and trans-national Asian films here on AnD.  Something I have noticed that puzzles me a great deal is how few of these individuals list any Asian films as their favorite movies.  There is something a touch scary about this.  I mean, if young Asians who work inside the film industry do not cite any Asian films as favs, what does this portend for the future of Asian cinema?  Speaking as an American, I h...Read more

The Observer Effect

There is something in quantum physics called the observer effect.  What this means is that in the very act of observing matter it behaves in a measurably different way at the sub-atomic level.  So, you might ask, what does this have to do with anything?  Thinking about this concept in physics has got me thinking about the interaction of audience and art and how this creates very different works of art for different people.  For simplicity's sake, let's limit our discussion to painting or photography.  The viewer is confronted with...Read more

Living with art

I have worked diligently since moving into my new house 6 years ago to fill it with art that feeds my soul.  In the dining room, besides a lovely lithograph that was a present from a friend, I have a collection of plates on the wall that recalls several wonderful trips to Andalucia, Spain.  These are complimented by a Turkish and a Pakistani plate.

In the living room, in addition to a tapestry from Iran, a trial piece woven by one of its nomadic peoples, I now proudly display a painting from India.  When we first moved into the house,...Read more

A very special cup of tea

I'm crazy about tea.  By tea, I don't mean anything in a tea bag.  What I love is real, whole leaf tea.  I love black tea, green tea, but I especially love oolong tea.

My favorite oolong is some rare variety that shows up at my local tea purveyor only once a year.  If you miss this single shipment, you have missed this extraordinary tea for the entire year.

As with all good tea, there is a story associated with it.  I have no idea what the Chinese name of this tea is, nor exactly where it comes from.  I suppo...Read more

Food

Food is very important in my life.  I remember the first cookbook I received was Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which I had asked for for Christmas when I was 14.  At  that age, I had no idea of the technical complexity of that style of cooking.  I only remember seeing Julia Child cooking on television and seeing a wold of food open up before me that was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  I decided then and there that I was going to cook such glorious food.

Fast forward some 35 years later and food still holds a cen...Read more