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591 days ago
Update Apr 18, 2008: Correct some mistranslations. (This is a translated version of http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20080413/53455297617.html. I have checked wording against http://www.rae.es and http://www.merriam-webster.com to ensure accuracy within the reach of my capability. Critiques welcomed.) If they want to punish China, it is unjust to utilize the Games In a very special day for Juan Antonio Samaranch (Barcelona, 1920), on which sports come to have a ministry at last 1 , his old aspiration since years ago, the ex-president of the International Olympic Committee expressed to this daily his disappointment at "the campaign" against China that affects the Olympic torch relay of Beijing. You always defended that China deserved an Olympic Games. I have never doubted that. It has a quarter of the world population and has developed in an impressing manner, also in the sport. It is a great power. And a people of 1,400 million habitants has all the right ...
702 days ago
By the title I am referring to the musical. Novel, as is Victor Hugo's original work, remains a noun capable of scaring me off. Just like the case of Phantom of the Opera , I only came across the musical in TN's mentioning. I have not viewed the musical itself, only listening to the 10th anniversary concert. And again, what has caught my heart so far is music. From the opening of Work Song in the prolog to the reprise of Do You Hear the People Sing? in the epilog, although no elements of acting are present, the scenes feel as if they were right on show. Among all major characters, Javert in particular intrigues me. Javert was an police inspector with unbending principles – the justice in his mind and his duty as an inspector, which supported his long-lasting pursuit of Jean Valjean, the hero of the story, for years with resolute and probably obstinate persistence. Such a Javert is best depicted by the aria Stars in the middle of Act I, whose rendition by Philip Quast, ...
748 days ago
Tonight again I watched Love Letter (1995). I did not follow each detail, for I had watched the film a couple of times before. Frankly speaking, up till now, I still do not quite catch the idea which the film is supposed to convey. Yet one thing remains unchanged every time I watch it and with that something the film always demonstrates a lasting and penetrating power capable of reaching the very depth of the soul. That thing is music. Specifically I am referring to the ending song titled Small Happiness . I myself am not a musicologist and thus unable while finding it unnecessary to explain how the notes create an overwhelmingly comforting effect. It sounds just magical to me that this simple and mellifluent melody, not aided by any heart-breaking rhythm but materialized by an unaffected coordination of piano and strings equipped with well-tuned echoes, renders immense peace in the heart, a silenced sense that a vast spread of white after intensive snow provides as was ...
749 days ago
I am unable to explain why and how I developed the interest in languages – it just struck me years ago. Occasionally when I skim through pages randomly in Wikipedia, I would browse to entries on languages, the choices decided mostly by recent experiences (French, for example, during the days when I enjoyed the musical Notre Dame de Paris ) and covering a relatively narrow range – I am almost wholly focused on the Romance languages such as French as well as Spanish. My recent interest of language shall be in Italian. The reason lies in that kby has been approved of admission in a Sino-Italian collaborative two-year double master degree program in international management. The first graduate year is to be spent in Fudan while the second one will contingently be assigned to studies in either of Università Bocconi and LUISS, which are both located in Italy. This necessarily implies that she has to study the Italian language in order that she will not be trapped in difficulties, ...
768 days ago
Just a few days ago I purchased Ricky's latest album, Life , from Joyo. Since fall 2004, when I came to the university, I have cared much less about some of leisure stuffs that I enjoyed before, say, listening to CDs, watching football games, and etc.. Thus it is unsurprising that only until most recently when I randomly walk through pages in Firefox did I notice Ricky released the album in 2005 after Almas del Silencio in 2003. After listening to all 10 tracks recorded in the CD, I can only find myself less interested in the album, possibly because its style does not match my appetite as well as expectation. In my sense, the album lacks the Latin features which mark Ricky and which are most notably found in the earlier La Historia , for the only one song, namely This Is Good , I believe perfectly matches what is called Latin. And the two songs with the lyric style, which I have always preferred, Stop Time Tonight and Save the Dance , are less impressing the those found in ...
