千年女王

最近我去了圓桌教育學苑的組織修練課程.我跟我的partner偶而談起千年女王,我答應將路雲娜的"傳說中,有個女王在世上....."email給她.但這令我想起Dara Sedaka的Angel Queen,當年我更喜歡這首曲,但香港電視台沒有用這首曲.我想我先喜歡喜多郎(Kitaro)的配樂吧.

鄧麗君

少年的時候受了我哥的影嚮,不太喜歡鄧麗君.總以為她不夠中氣.長大了才漸喜歡上小鄧歌曲,其實中氣只是唱歌的一還,可曾識得圓融的嗓子...

鄧麗君時代,社會節奏比較慢,填詞人有比較多時間,往往有多一些佳作傳世,例:

1.《海韻》:沿用徐志摩的詩《海韻》,更以「女郎﹍﹍」等詞曲作首.
2.《東山飄雨西山晴》:明顯沿用李商隱的詩.
3.《但願人長久》:更是直用蘇東坡的《水調歌頭》

Chyna - Within You'll Remain

It's quite often for a Cantopop to put in some English words, e.g.:

...停住這風 Oh Baby, 長夜抱擁 Oh Darling...
...Smile again, 這惡夢忘了吧...

It's not often for a Gwai lo's song to have Chinese words inside. During the most diverse and productive years of Hong Kong music in the early to middle 80s, the band Chyna's "Within You'll Remain" (or Within You Remain) has this Chinese words "我愛你" (I love you). It also contains a guitar solo of short and special traditional Chinese-style tune . I still can't find a similar mix that can achieve this level of musical beauty. There is a lot of (electric) guitar solo in Cantopop but they sounds like Japanese, European, American but not Chinese. The song never achieves a mainstream status though I guess a lot of Hongkonger over 30 can still remember it. 徐小鳳 also covers this song with a new lyrics in 一臉紅霞. I find out three other covered versions (Tokyo Square, tinh hue & Lynda Trang Dai) from the net. They all seems like are from Vietnamese community. I don't know if they are from the local Vietnamese community but locals cover a lot of Cantopop with Vietnamese lyrics. And, they like to play it LOUD. So, I can still hear a lot of old tune whenever I visit there.


Within You'll Remain
--------------------

Facing the world with an empty heart
I could disappear into the dark

But you were the one
Who could make my dreams come true
My dear
it's you

When you're not around
my heart stood still
Within you'll remain
And always will

Illusions say
there is another man
Who would interfere
into my plans

我愛你 (I love you)
我愛你 (I need you)
More than I ever did anyone
I never felt like this before

我愛你 (I want you)
我愛你 (I need you)
We could be two lovers from the past
And the future is our chance

徐小鳳 《金光燦爛徐小鳳》

徐小鳳地位超群，在當年譚詠麟等一線歌星以在紅館開二十塲演唱會為地位時，她一口氣開了三十三塲演唱會。當時她從沒有在各大頒獎禮得獎，我想她不在乎這些 講數頒獎禮。香港有一個很怪的現像，一個歌星的紅與黑，不是在他的唱片銷量多少，而是在他的各大小報見報量。所以，得了大獎就可以有很多見報，多見報就可 以增加講數本錢本拿大奬。等而下之的，就有很多所謂的紙上明星。徐小鳳的見報量少，最多只是開演唱會之前來宣傳一下，但她的演唱會郤有很多的銷量，這就是 所謂實力吧！

這《金光燦爛徐小鳳》３ＣＤ中，收有小鳳多年的歌曲，由《包青天》到《風的季節》，《漫漫前路》等。但不知道為甚麼沒有比較後期的《隨想曲》和《順流逆流》，是這３ＣＤ中的一遺憾。

貝九與拉二

上中國綱站聽音樂，經常都看到綱友說”貝九”和”拉二”等。起初真是摸不着頭腦，看多了才知到那是指貝多芬第九交響樂和拉赫曼尼諾夫第二鋼琴協奏曲的簡 稱。 其實寫簡稱沒有什麼大不了，但不可以懶到不寫一次全稱。貝多芬一生亦有三十二首鋼琴及十首小提琴奏鳴曲，難道貝九不可以是第九鋼琴奏鳴曲 或第九小提琴奏鳴曲？突然之間想起芬蘭作曲家西貝流士，如果要說他的第七交響樂，難道我們要說”粗口”？老外也經常用簡稱，但通常是先寫全名，再寫簡稱， 例如： Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Choral)。似後就有Choral來說”貝九”，我不是挑骨頭，但至少要求個清楚明白而已。

說起”拉二”，不下聽了六七個板本，但我以為少年時用低質音響聽的黑膠板魯賓斯坦和芝加哥交響樂團最好，很多人覺得很好的阿殊肯納齊(Vladimir Ashkenazy)和倫敦交響樂團版本，我就覺得鋼琴部份沒有魯賓斯坦那種震撼，這也許是個人觀感而已。近年很紅的中國琴手郎郎也有奏”拉二”，最近也有下載，要找時間來聽一聽。這協奏曲可算是鋼琴師的指定動作，比較有名的鋼琴師，總要職業生涯演奏這曲一次。我在Amazon中看到太多版本多，放棄了去算有多少個。

又，數年前跟一學音樂的朋友閒談，才發覺魯賓斯坦是Artur Rubinstien，不是Arthur。這是老外圈中也經常犯錯....

陳寧《酒紅色的心》

越上網越對中國現代流行曲失望。中國有一大班高質素的歌手，只是欠缺創作，往往翻唱港台七八十年代的作品。蓋歌曲舒發感情，都以原創為真為誠，翻唱若不拿 捏好原歌情感，雖有優美歌候，騷隔靴之痒，焉能動人之容。就以梁玉嶸翻唱葉振棠的《忘盡心中情》為例，梁的粵劇唱腔中氣十足，可唱出人所不能的高難度曲 調，但欠奉《蘇乞兒》的蒼桑感。這令我想起Maria Callas，她不是可唱最高音最高難度的soprano，但她的dramatic gift令她成為廿十世紀最有名的女高音。

陳 寧的這張《酒紅色的心》又是一例，看封面還以為是結他演奏一些經典名曲。我最近聽了大多中國歌手的翻唱歌曲， 原本是以為聽演奏可以調劑一下的。翻唱不要緊，崔岩光 的翻唱就很好。可是這ＣＤ的編曲一味走簡單樂器的判奏，這就將重擔放在歌手本身。唱《明天你是否依然愛我》還可以，但唱徐小鳳原唱的《順流逆流》有就點那 個，我不知道陳寧在樂壇有多少 年，但我聴”不經意在這圈中轉到這年頭”就沒有那種味道。

Translation

Here is an article about translation of a brand name. I always fascinated about how someone can come up with a good translated name. Here is some of my addition:

Revlon = 露華濃
Oracle = 甲骨文

I think 露華濃 is from 李白's 清平調之二:

雲想衣裳花想容，春風拂檻露華濃；
若非群玉山頭見，會向瑤臺月下逢。

What the Bleep Do We Know

"What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?" has been such a successful low-budget half-fiction/half-documentary movie that it becomes quite a controversy in coffee-shops, discussion groups, etc. I heard the DVD release has been quite a success too. In a recent Buddhism retreat by Sabchu Rinpoche, we had a quite some discussion about it. I think the movie is quite inspiring but the producers have been accused of putting materials out of context. Wikipeida has an article about it. I am not especially comfortable with the story of native Indians inability to see the Spanish ship when Columbus arrived to the Caribbean Sea. In the movie, Dr. Candace Pert is saying that ".... That's why I believe the Indian Ship story...". I think there must be a series of elaboration before she said this. Unfortunately, the producers edited out too much materials. The movie editors let Dr. David Alert, one of the scientists, complains and his annoyance can be seen in here.

殷承忠《花月夜》

一 直以來都覺得用西洋樂器演奏中國音樂有另一番風味，最近才有機會聽到這張鋼琴的嘗試。封面說殷承忠是鋼琴大師，我寡聞而不知殷承忠的資歷，但我很喜歡他的 演奏。唐滌生調寄《春江花月夜》的《劍合釵圓》，更是出色，難怪用《花月夜》作為這ＣＤ的題目了。推薦：《春江花月夜》，《彩雲追月》，《十面埋伏》。

Local Hero

I consider the movie "Local Hero" (港譯：「小鎮風波」) ten years ahead of its time. It is released in 1982. I think I saw it around 1986 in the movie theater "Columbia Classics" (新華) in the "unreclaimed" harbor shore of Wan Chai (灣仔). Those were the days where I could still spent HKD 20 to see a movie and they had a unique policy of giving 20% off discount to student at 12:30pm & 2:30pm show. I was still in high-school then. I always skipped class on Friday afternoon to see the so-called "art house" movie in "Columbia Classics". I was told it closed down years ago. I guess the "art house" doesn't really have a market in Hong Kong now.

In the movie, a lonely Texan oil professional was assigned by his boss to visit countryside Scotland for the site of the future base of his oil company. Local residents were on the leash by their humble living and they surely welcomed the rag-to-rich scheme by this oil man's plan to purchase their land. They didn't make the deal because of the refusal of one big ragged humble land owner. His reason was the beautiful stars he saw at night would be gone if his homeland was turned into an oil base. The environmental activist view is at least 10 years ahead of most people or 20 years ahead of Hollywood until I saw "The Day after Tomorrow" last year. I guess the "Local Hero" in the movie is this tenacious land owner.

The sound track is produced by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, a Scottish band. He made such a beautiful music where the theme sound is replayed again and again.

林志美《隨浪》

在香港八十年代中，林志美可算是被忽略的一位創作女歌手。非因她的歌曲不好，只是追不上當年所吹日本的形像包裝風。她的代表作有「你的眼神」、「甚麼是緣份」、「偶遇」等等。但我喜歡林志美比較少受主目的快板歌曲「隨浪」。這可能是我喜歡電影Local Hero（港譯：「小鎮風波」）的原故，「隨浪」是取自這電影的主題曲，由蘇格蘭樂隊Dire Straits的Mark Knopfler所作，我想他也蠻喜歡這配樂，在一次Dire Straits的演唱會中，他用這配樂作壓軸。

Super Size Me

I saw "Super Size Me" on July 3. I consider the documentary a horror movie not because of it low-budget production quality nor genre but its scary warning about what you eat. In USA, as a lazy person, we eat as convenice as possible. Our lovely golden arch is just around the corner, I just need to stop by, pop up five bucks and it can satisfy my hungry ghost reincarnation for a few hours every day. Good deal! Isn't it? But as one eats from them continuously, one is over-nutrient without exercise (e.g. drive all the time without walking like most of the non-Californian). One is destined to look like Jabba the Hutt. I guess the advance of civilization benefits us this luxury. There are a few facts need to be reminded:
1. The hosts ate for 30 days in pure McDonald meals. Before the meals, he was in perfectly good health but just after ONE week, he gained 12 pounds. All his doctors mentioned about his deteriorated health and advised him to stop as soon as he can.
2. He ordered super size ONLY IF he was asked. He ordered only 7 times over the time-span. But as calculated from nutritionist, he almost ate one pound of sugar every day for these 30 days.
3. The Big Mac guy in Arizona never eat french fries. So, I guess if you want to sustain a McDonald meal, don't eat fries.

梁玉嶸《知音梁品》、《十愛》

廣州粵劇界著名紅伶梁玉嶸有良好的唱腔及歌藝。最近聽了她唱流行曲的專輯《知音梁品》及《十愛》，郤有難以形容的不足之感。這把歌喉是沒話說的了，可惜編曲都是千篇一律,歌詞輕快時沒有輕快，悲壯時沒有悲壯，拾像是工廠出產的罐頭，糟蹋了這把聲音。加上大部份是重唱香港黃金七八十年代的金曲，可見創作人才的凋零。廣東近年有一批出色的女歌手，但創作部份追不上，香港近十年來的粵詞流行曲也走下坡，歌手們變成廣告代言人，可嘆。

Mystery!

I've been a fan of PBS's Mystery! for quite some time. Tonight's features is the Dead Gorgeous, a screen adaptation of Peter Lovesey's "On the Edge". According to the host, Diana Rigg, the story is a reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train". While a mystery story always has unexpected outcome at the end, I think the story is a bit on the thriller/suspence side but not a classic whodunit plot. I favour a whodunit more and this TV movie makes me a bit bore.

Bodhicaryavatara

Recently, I have a chance to look at 3 different translations of the Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara. They are translated by:

1. Kate Crosby & Andrew Skilton (Oxford World's Classics)
2. Stephen Batchelor (Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, hereafter, LTWA)
3. Padmakara Translation Group (Shambhala)

The Shambhala translation is terse. They have footnotes rather than endnotes. This is a great convenience to a novice reader. The LTWA translation is also terse and since I have a copy in hand to compare with the Oxford translation, I am puzzled by some of the translation. E.g.,

Chapter 1, verse 4:
(LTWA translation)
Leisure and endowment are very hard to find;
And, since they accomplish what is meaningful for man,
...

(Oxford translation)
This opportune moment is extremely hard to meet.
Once met, it yields the welfare of mankind.
...

These two translations have a pretty different meaning. Judging from the context, I suspect the Oxford translation is more accurate. Also, the Oxford translation, as stated in the prefaces, is for the beginners. So, it has an introduction before each chapters. Also in the translator's preface, the difficulties, the approaches, and the selection of the original scriptures are clearly explained. They, IMHO, translate really precisely. I don't know whether it is over-translated. E.g.,

Chapter 1, verse 1:
In adoration I make obeisance to the Sugatas and their sons, and to their bodies of Dharama, and to all those worthy of the praise.
...

In the other two translations, they don't have the "their sons, and to their bodies of Dharama" context. I also don't like the way to put the notes at the end rather than the bottom of each page. Other than these, the Oxford's translation should be the best one, IMHO.

情淚種情花

The history of Adele Hugo, the daughter of the great French poet, Victor Hugo, depicts a madly in love story.

The translated name in Hong Kong, 情淚種情花, is even a better title. It means the tears of love nutures the flower of love. It reminds me a poem of 龔自珍:

「己亥雜詩」第五

浩蕩離愁白日斜，
吟鞭東指即天涯，
落紅不是無情物，
化作春泥更護花。

So, I guess we should treasure 情人的眼淚 (the lover's tears).

George Santayana

I learned to play crossword puzzle with my friend Marcelle for over 18 months while I worked in SCP. The trick, IMHO, is to fill in the known answer first and once you get more filled-in, the other, thougher, hints will be more obvious to you since you have more characters to base on from the previously filled-in answer.

I guess it is the same about knowledge. I went to the book store and browsed through a literary magazine last Saturday. I found out an article about George Santayana. I would have skipped it if it was two months ago. I got interested then and read through it. From the article, George, as a philosopher, was as famous as William James during the first few decades of the last century. Nowadays, he is much more obscured. I guess his "value" philosophy is not a good subject to debate in an "academy". It doesn't mean that he is a bad philosopher but just his philosophy is not an easy "subject-matter" to "debate" about in a class.

I have a date with spring festival!

George Santayana, a Harvard university professor, inherited a fortune while he was 50. During his class on a beautiful april morning, he saw robins singing outside on top a tree. He grasped the beauty and, turning around, announced, "Gentlemen, I have a date with spring." He walked away and never came back.

It is such a romantic life that I can't afford. But as Li Ao, one famous Taiwan writer, say, I am pessimistic with my reason but optimistic with my sentiment. I always wait and expect my date with spring. Anyway, I will have a one week vacation in the spring festival week this year. So, at least, I have a date with spring festival for 7 days.

Recently, I have a chance to sit on a girl's car re-listening to the theme song of "I have a date with spring(我和春天有個約會)", a musical turned movie in Hong Kong. The story is about the friendship of four ladies in a humble musical production house. Though with low budget, it stirred quite some rememberance of nostagic stories with lovers and friends back then in the early 90s.

Spring Festival

Recently, my brother, Derek, asked me about the date of Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). Contrary to common belief, Chinese New Year is NOT the first day of the spring. Rather, it is the second (sometime, third, depended on wheter there is a leap month) new moon day after winter solstice (~12/22). The rule is set by Adam Schall (湯若望), a Jesuit priest. He helped to reformed the Chinese calendar during KangXi (康熙) time. Details can be found here.

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