My Name is Lincoln

電影《謊島叛變》The Island (2005) 原聲配樂裡，有Steve Jablonsky 神來之筆的 My Name is Lincoln。這短曲波瀾壯闊，令這套商業電影生色不少 （當然 Ewan McGregor 也功不可沒）。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V-9X35vB4M

順帶一提，電影裡面出現的一首遊艇，是價值二千五百萬歐羅的 118 Wallypower。

故郷

明天到京都，送上一曲民謠《故鄉》。山明水秀，鳥語花香，鄉思之情，不可言喻。





1. 兎（うさぎ）追いし　かの山
I hunted rabbits on that mountain.
小鮒（こぶ な）釣りし　かの川
I fished for minnows in that stream.
夢はいまも　めぐりて
I still dream about those days I spent when a child.
忘れがたき　ふるさと
How I miss and long for my old country home.

2.　いかにいます　父　母
Mother and father　―　are they doing well?
つつがなしや　友がき
Is everything all right with my old friends?
雨に風に　つけても
When the rain falls, when the wind blows, I recall
思いいずる　ふるさと
My happy childhood and my old country home.

3. こころざしを　はたして
Some day when I have done what I set out to do,
いつの日に か　帰らん
I will return to where I used to have my home.
山はあおき　ふるさと
Lush and green are the mountains of my homeland.
水は清き　ふるさと
Pure and clear is the water of my old country home

鳴謝 jnf131 on youtube.com

公園凱悅

柏悅（Park Hyatt）這個品牌位於世界各地的精品酒店，各有千秋。巴黎的Park Hyatt，名城古店，典雅莊重。巴庫（Baku）的，外表平實，內涵盈溢，精緻動人。

西新宿的東京柏悅（Park Hyatt Tokyo），由於位於新宿公園旁邊，順理成章，我喜歡叫她「公園凱悅」，切合柏悅的名字。酒店由於Lost in Translation而一舉「成名」。五十二樓的 New York Grill，眺望遠處，遽聞晴朗白天，可看見富士山。不像暴富鄰邦，建築物與天比高，滿城紅紅綠綠，慘不忍睹。東京的Old Money久經文明洗禮，高樓大廈個個是苗條（对不起，打不到那两个字）淑女。晚上由 New York Grill 眺望東京夜色，繁華瑰麗，令人陶醉。一客伊勢海老，一客山形牛排，Dom Ruinart Rose的Champagne，高味絕倫。此時此刻，夫復何求。

仁和落花，意猶未盡

某年春，到京都一遊。遲了一些。早櫻已落。唯仁和寺御室櫻開，姍姍來遲。日本天皇，退位之後多在以櫻花稱著的仁和寺出家皈依佛門。寺院後來就被稱為「御室」，而寺内「矮櫻」也飛上枝頭成為「御室櫻」了。御室之櫻，從頭到尾都滿開，壯麗奪目。 櫻樹因身矮，因此稱為「低花」。由於御室櫻矮，至身爛漫的花裡，看著花瓣隨風飄下，不知今夕何夕。

嘗吉兆懷石，味蕾豐收，不在話下。但到吉兆，不單也不能只吃而不想不看。餐前之酒，醍醐之味，香醇淡麗，如老子所說，上善如水。盛餐之器有楽燒茶碗，北大路魯山人的器物傑作，法國的百家楽水晶，恰當而瑰麗。懷石料理，形上有道，前後有序。

第一回「先付」
第二回「煮物椀」
第三回「造り」鮪魚若肉，驚為天人。
第四回「焼物」
第五回「箸休」，吃到半響，讓筷子休息一下吧。食制竟如此優雅。
第六回「八寸」
第七回「炊き合わせ」
第八回「酢の物」，吃日本御飯之前，必以酢物清理味蕾的殘味。
第九回「御飯」越光之米，四季之旬。
第十回「果物」巨峰提子，君度橙酒配静岡蜜瓜⋯⋯⋯⋯不時不食。
第十一回「菓子、薄茶」 甜品甘茶，曲終卻回味，完美無暇。

吉兆半天，不知今夕何夕，卻意猶未盡。

通往恩許之地（約束の土地へ）

好來塢的神怪幻想電影，不講耶穌不講聖經是不好看的。比如說《奪寶奇兵》（Indiana Jones）的第一（約櫃 The Ark of Covenants）及第三集（聖杯 Holy Grail）比第二（忘記了，好像是印度的甚麼神物）和第四集（水晶骷髗頭）好看。到底羅馬帝國是高度強勢的文明，由她來發揚光大的宗教，不可能不成功，不可能沒有感染力，非那些還在燒蟲吃甚麼都拜的泛神(Pantheistic)土人可比。

日本的作品，如果有電視劇，又有電影，後者一定比前者出色。機動警察（Patlabor）拍了三套動畫電影。個人最喜歡第一套。

電影描述自殺身亡的科學家梵場英一製造新的 Labor（工作機械人）軟件，當接收到某個音頻，Labor 就會失去控制。用了新軟件後，東京發生零星Labor失控事件，機動警察懷疑事不尋常。而在東京灣内的巨大建築「方舟」，就是最大的Labor製造基地。Patlabor 隊員終於發現方舟就是一個最大的音叉，遇到颶風時就會發出巨大的音頻，令日本廣大地區發生Labor失控。此刻，一個颶風正向東京吹來........

電影用了創世紀 11：7（英文的是King James Version 的版本）來作引介：‘Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.’ （我們下去、在那裏變亂他們的口音、使他們的言語、彼此不通）。

Patlabor電影畫功精細，一絲不苟，看一看電影的主題曲「通往恩許之地」（約束の土地へ）MV，裡面有不少電影的畫面。連主題曲的名字都有點舊約的味道。

兩個世界

加拿大Oracle的CD 2500；美國Audio Research VT 100 及 美國Wilson Audio MAXX 2。

曾經聽過Audio Research配合Wilson Audio的MAXX，聲的和諧，動人心弦。看著這樣過百萬的音響系統，只能唱一下許冠傑的《兩個世界》：「在妳的世界，找不到癡心的我，但是在我的世界，天天都想起妳，是越恨越愛的妳。」

小事樂團 （Every Little Thing） 的 你的手（きみのて）

筆者喜歡 Every Little Thing。ELT 的音樂表現一種城市人的樂觀態度。池田香織的歌聲，甜美響亮，在天真爛漫和成熟世故之間，散發一份正面積極的訊息。伊藤一朗的電結他，從容不迫，表現日本流行搖擺J-pop固有的care-free but restrained（灑脫而含蓄）。 光彩動人的音樂之中，帶著點點都市的 Afternoon Living 的感覺。溫暖的下午，美麗的生活，積極的人生。無論在東京，京都，仙台，札幌，這種感覺，同樣適用。

這種音樂就是在一個和暖的夏天，坐在代官山的Caffe Michelango享受一份美味絕倫的 Spaghettini al stracotto di manzo，一瓶Acqua Panna，然後一杯無可挑剔的 espresso，遙望舊代官山通的行人川流不息，甚麼都不用想，只是盡享燦爛的東京夏日陽光。聽一聽ELT的您的手（きみのて），大家來渡過一個代官山的悠閒下午吧！

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38PvIuCMdbM

新秩序：三十年的電子音樂之旅

Paraphrase哈佛 Harold Bloom在Western Canon（西方正典）的話：說英國電子音樂殿堂，為甚麼一定要說 New Order？因為在那裡除了New Order之外，還有誰？

那時候，電子音樂還時Analog的年代。Moog電子合成器的聲效，MIDI的誕生等等，造就了西歐的電子音樂時代。也造就了New Order的殿堂地位。New Order 的音樂，時亮麗，時深沈，留下Ian Curtis時代Joy Division的點點哀愁（Ian Curtis於1980年自殺 －－ 如川端康成所說，自殺是天才唯一的歸宿）；複雜的編曲；炫耀的synthesiser；源源不絕的drum machine。照亮了八十年代的西歐樂壇。新音樂進入了電子的文藝復興。接踵而來的是輝煌的歐洲摩登浪漫主義（Modern Romanticism），清新派（如Pale Fountains）和歐陸的優美浪漫的電子跳舞音樂（Gazebo）。

今天，向New Order致敬的人恆河沙數。不少是unplugged的（向殿堂電子樂隊以Acoustic的方式來致敬！）就來聽一聽澳洲另類搖擺楽隊Frente演繹New Order的Bizarre Love Triangle吧。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Cz3BQIS_o

或許另一個非專業樂隊的版本，同樣是Bizarre Love Triangle，Do As Infinity的氣氛：

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=UqLEJUNY01c&feature=related

嵯峨渡月，嵐山吉兆

京都。嵯峨嵐山，世間至美。經渡月之橋，遠眺嵐山，漫步鴨川河伴小路，遊人漸稀，見古樸小園， 籬笆半掩。從容入内，一睹嵐山吉兆，喝白鷹之酒，出羽之櫻，醍醐之味，上善如水。嚐吉兆懷石，吉光片羽，若仁和落花，如羲之蘭亭，美不勝收，不可方物。終極的美，不知何年何日，一刻留下永恆。

高處勝寒

人說百年樹人。一百多年間大英帝國文明的種子，在這樣的一個餓鬼地獄中，多多少少都在一些不是餓鬼的人裡面植根。幸運地筆者是一個受惠者。從小筆者明白，必須向高處仰望。我不是仰望名利，地位 （亦仰（渴）望不到），而是文化藝術，美妙的音樂，人文精神，哲學科學。「雖不至此，心嚮往之」。

在餓鬼群中談藝術音樂，人文精神，必然寂寞。所以我自小就甘於寂寞，不愁寂寞。因為在文明的軌跡裡，有太多美妙的樂章，繞樑三日；經典的文學作品，字裡行間，海天空闊。一輩子都聽不盡，讀不完。

這些都是「高處」。高處是令人卻步的地方。有人怕辛苦，有人畏高。筆者自小畏高得很，站在凳子上都顫抖。但是畏高的我，曾兩次登上鳳凰山，一次大東山，還有香港大大小小的山嶺。登山途中，欣賞自然美景，忘卻畏懼。

記得第一張古典LP是中四時候買的巴倫邦 (Daniel Barenboim) 指揮 Chicago Symphony Orchestra 的舒曼（Schumann）第一及第三交響曲《春天》及《萊茵》Symphony No. 1 (Spring) and No. 3 (Rhenish)。那是第一次攀登古典音樂的山峰。那時是附庸風雅，但聽得多了以後，發覺音樂果然不同凡響 。到了現在，要攀登的是極高的馬勒，布魯克拿了。

「琴王」荷洛維茲的史卡拉堤妙慢典雅，獨一無二。荷氏承傳19世紀古典琴技，彈起琴來，如一個貴族。演繹慢條斯理，莊重沈穩，但音色瑰麗，技巧完美無瑕。古典技法，手掌較平放貼近琴鍵，彈legato得心應手。當代年輕一代的大師如Ivo Pogorelich，演繹較輕快，速度也較快，手法跳躍多一點。

我仍然相信很多人都怕站在高處。因高處不勝寒。但三分鐘的時間站再高之處，縱使再畏「高」，再怕冷的人，都應該可以堅持吧。就聽一聽只有三分鐘，荷洛維茲彈奏史卡拉堤的E大調奏鳴曲，作品135 (Sonata in E Major K135, L244)：

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=D-oVkAKBgOo&feature=related

琴王神技

陶傑說洋人喜歡看 Lang Lang，除了名字趣致，郎朗技法確實神奇，高超萬分，尤其背誦的能力超強─郎朗能一口氣彈完巴哈一套高登堡變奏曲 (Goldberg Variations)，不看樂譜，把洋人看得楞呆楞呆。飲譽國際，就是洋人先讚賞了，大家跟着喜歡，錯不了的。

筆 者不懂樂理，也不懂琴藝，但學了一陣子鋼琴，亦喜歡鋼琴音樂，更了解單單看郎朗七情上面，運指如飛，彈懂洋人音樂之父的深奧作品，或者波蘭鋼琴詩人的動人 音韻，膚淺無腦附庸風雅的港人同胞必然大喜，看得不奕楽乎，以為自己已擁有高尚的品味。再者郎朗移民香港，港人沾沾自喜，以為超美趕德，不在話下。

但 欣賞巴哈，蕭邦，莫扎特的樂曲，不是看問米神打。要表達越深刻的音樂，越感人的樂章，越高境界的大師越內斂，越深沉。試看看蕭邦大師魯賓斯坦 (Artur Rubinstein) 演繹的鋼琴詩篇！

筆者八十年代才認識美籍俄羅斯鋼琴大師荷洛維茲(Vladimir Horowitz)，可說「相逢恨晚」。荷洛維茲技術極高，據聞彈琴從來不彈錯。但琴技從來不是取決一個鋼琴家高低的唯一因素。 就我所見論指法之高，祈辛 (Kissin) 絕不遜於郎朗。鋼琴家的高低來自他(她)自己演繹鋼琴作品的力量及獨特性。

我在1986年 第一次聽荷氏的鋼琴是當年他離鄉多年重回俄國開的一場音樂會的錄音。Deutsche Grammophon的出品，名為Horowitz in Moscow。我還有那張LP。荷氏彈的是Scarlatti，Mozart，Scriabin，Chopin 等名家的作品。荷氏彈琴的時候，非常專注投入，音色清徹，音樂色彩斑爛。他的莫扎特，每個音符都在高雅地跳躍。他埋首彈史卡拉堤時，安詳典雅，如歌如畫。 蕭邦在他指下，激情起伏，歷久難平。荷洛維茲的蕭邦，莫扎特，史卡拉堤是獨一無二的。史卡拉堤還是史卡拉堤，但無人可以彈到荷洛維茲的史卡拉堤。現在有 Horowitz in Moscow 的 DVD 大家可一睹那位年過八十的老者的風采，看他只是低頭按鍵，運指之快，用力之準，妙絕巓毫。然而他臉上的深沉，彷如入定。那天的音樂會，聽眾熱淚盈眶。

當 有一天，一班乏味無知的香港中產，富人看郎朗表演賞心悅目之外，也享受荷洛維茲的深沉典雅。那一天，這個城市才配稱為國際的都會。不然，就讓她繼續在糜爛 庸俗中沈淪下去吧。她還有的是大英帝國歷史裡的一段短暫的光輝。

維也納的華爾茲

恰巧看到史丹福大學維也納舞會的華爾茲（Stanford Viennese Ball 2009 Opening Committee Waltz）。

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=AYBwaFkbSdw&feature=related

不錯，史丹福大學。他們的每年二月的舞會，跳的是華爾茲，這次的音樂是小史特勞斯的Morgenblätter (Morning Papers) Waltz op. 279。就是筆者所說，男的white tie，女的full evening dress。在翩翩旋轉起舞，意態迷人。

White tie (燕尾禮服) 不是一般的禮服 (evening suit 或 black tie)。現在只有最莊重的場合才穿（奧巴瑪接待英女皇的晚宴就是white tie banquet）。當你收到一張請柬聲明dress code是white tie，你知道這是非常隆重的場合。而Waltz 是高雅而含蓄的舞蹈，要高雅的心境來配合高雅的衣服，做出高雅的舞姿。大學沒有深厚的歷史文化根基，是不會產生（舉行）華爾茲舞會的。

香港的某大學，他們的迎新活動是互相侮辱，揶揄新同學出入桑拿浴室。所以把迎新横額題目寫上自己大學學院的名字配上桑拿的字眼，然後一同大聲喊叫「XX桑拿」，聲勢好不浩大。那班剛剛步入大學的小伙子，覺得不得了，大學原來是培養到大陸厰打工，晚晚到桑拿，夜夜去唱K的人才的。小史特勞斯？華爾茲？Come on！那些坐井不觀天（連一小片天空都不知）的大學生先輩肯定聞所未聞。

年輕人完全沒有因為大學生活而有所進步，這是多麼可憐。他們繼續唱K，看「八掛」雜誌，講桑拿浴室的笑話（但他們又無勇氣真的去桑拿「擸奇」，最多是躲在房内對住部電腦「打飛機」(自慰)）。上大學本是一種福氣，但看到一班大談大笑「XX桑拿」的大學生，筆者覺得，入不到那大學才真是有福。

高雅的生活是對人類的歷史進化到高階的呈現，為高雅的人生而努力是對人類的文明的尊重。西方社會發展到華爾茲的階段，文明已到巔峰。西方文明已無可再進，藝術再向前走，已步向衰糜。美好的時代（Belle Epoque，即第一次世界大戰之前的美好光陰），隨戰爭逝去，一去不返。美好的時代，是難得的，是應要真惜的。

進入大學，是希望賺一點知識以外的無形的資產，感受那大學獨有的歷史特色，像牛劍的導修課（tutorials），幾個學生在學院裡古雅的導修室中跟導師上課，吸收那導師個人學識的精髓也吸收那學院獨特的歷史及人文的精神。而能在一家有華爾茲舞會上學，也是一種福氣。

萊茵河之戀

德國是一個怎樣的國家？看看她出了甚麼的人物便可知一二。 大文豪歌德(von Goethe)，席勒 (Schiller)。大哲康德 (Kant)，尼采 (Nietzsche)，黑格爾 (Hegel)。大音樂家貝多芬 (Beethoven)，舒曼 (Schumann)，布拉姆斯 (Brahms) 等等。說到華爾茲，不能不提華爾茲之王，也是德國....(說德文的奧地利)的大小史特勞斯 (即Johann Strauss I 及他的兒子 Johann Baptist Strauss)........

筆者愛Waltz，尤愛Quick Waltz，123123123123.....十幾對戀人, 男的on white tie(即燕尾禮服)，女的full evening dress，在翩翩旋轉起舞，意態迷人。筆者80年代之後已不聽香港的粵語流行曲了（年輕一代稱之為廣東歌的歌曲），因為音樂已無靈魂。為甚麼音樂失去靈魂？因為作曲填詞的人無才華，不學無術，作不出好的作品。70-80年代，雖然音樂簡單一點，但音樂人有才氣，有見識。所以有不少優美的作品。

剛剛在youtube上找到很小時候聽過覺得非常動聽的《萊茵河之戀》。顧家輝作曲。江羽（鄭國江？）的詞。麥潔雯主唱。 顧家輝把《萊茵河之戀》這首描寫德國景致情懷的流行歌加入了Quick Waltz的節拍（快3拍），令歌曲洋溢德國的韻味，「德國得不得了」。這就是作曲家的功力。鄭國江的詞，洋洋百數個字，簡單，清瀅，美麗。最後一句「童話式的戀愛雖則天真，美麗動聽 」漫遊現實與幻想之間，實為神來之筆。麥潔雯的歌，back to basic，無需花巧。當代有誰能做到？

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/kN7Z4_Xr39o/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5dgUBqubW0

河流在訴說千百段舊情
河流在訴說聲聲叮嚀
凝視你憂鬱的的眼我真的不知
你的心可會平靜
河流象替我輕奏曼陀鈴
悠悠地細唱心中戀情
搖著那小小花傘看山色青青
你的歌可更動聽
萊茵河畔, 像畫那樣美
萊茵河畔, 清新的意境
童話式的堡壘 添心中幻想
公主的戀歌 今天再度聽
萊茵河畔, 像詩那樣美
萊茵河畔, 美麗而寧靜
童話式的戀愛雖則天真
美麗動聽

日本之美

不知怎麼時候愛上日本的美。也沒有分析過為甚麼日本的風景，氣質就是特別的美。

理解日本的美之前，先理解「美」與「漂亮」的分別。次貨獨男，電車男，多失青年等等喜歡的少女model，「gay樣」舞男楽隊之流可以含概於漂亮的集合（set）裡面。美是不同層次的東西，是高層次的（一般虛無電車男，失落青中老年的愚笨腦袋是接受不了物事是有高低，善惡，美醜等等之分的。如果物事沒好壞之分，世界就變得虛無（最重要是如果物事有客觀性，他們必定是屬於低級的一群，他們沒有「九一妙心」又接受不了）。這與岐視無關。愚笨腦永不明白。）

漂亮是外表的，有官能的快感，但沒有内在的價值的。漂亮是有時限的。但美不同。古希臘更認為美是客觀的。中國有講美，但不多談，也沒有美學的系統。中國亦沒有定義上的藝術，「六藝」祇是某些活動（禮，樂，射，御，書，數），但是中國從來沒有獨立美學藝術的系統。

西方有「美學」的學科。美學（Aesthetics）一詞是白嘉登（Alexander Baumgarten）創造出來的。美學一詞源自希臘文aisthanomai, 即由觀感的接受（perception by the senses）的意思。最早說美的是希臘哲學家。比方說，畢達哥拉斯學派。他們是搞音樂的。畢氏學派認為「數的和諧」就是美。一個例子就是黃金比率1:1.618。米羅的維納斯像 (Venice de Milo)，就是按黃金比例造出來的。所以希臘的美學認為美是客觀的。

德國大哲康德（Immanuel Kant）的美學觀比較有系統性，也深具合理性。康德是第一個把理性主義和經驗主義合一得哲學家。他認為美不是完全主觀的，但也不是如希臘哲學家所說是完全客觀的。這個不容易說明。另文再談。

日本風景，同是有山有水，藍天白雲。就是特別的美。日本的美在於她的雅與寂。一座禪寺孤獨地立於深綠的山中。絲絲的煙霞，淡淡的天色，這就是雅。一幅圖畫彷彿時間停頓了，也不需多餘的潤飾，本身已是不說的說（寂）。她是自足，不變，恆常的，超脫的。我就是沉醉在這不可方物的美景之中，不能自拔。這美學觀在她正統的藝術媒體中也不時表露出來。如果你看過NHK的紀錄片如日本風景的美和世界文化遺產等等，可知一二。紀錄片中的淡然的解說。美得驚心得圖像。沒有太多的枝葉就是雅與寂的典範。正是由於她已是恆常，寂靜，她的美已經在巔峰，因此再無可進。所以她不像西方美學的進取。

聽了梁光耀博士談美以後（何謂「美」？），我多明白了日本的美。梁博士認為日本的美是解脫之後的美（finalised beauty）。最終極的美。它是自足的。沉醉的。梁博士說由於日本的美已是解脫之後的美，是終極的，所以已不可以自我提升的。筆者很早前曾說過，當你再最高峰上，每向前一走步就是向下走一步 (When you are on the zenith, every step forward is a step downward)。我想就是這個意思。

梁博士說他四年内去了日本十五次。比筆者更多。日本的美是果真是沉醉的。

慢味人生

很久前梁雁翎和蔡濟文有首歌這樣唱：「輕輕地牽我的手，眼裡有滿滿的温柔。暖暖的感覺， 默默地交流，不要太快許下承諾。慢慢地陪着你走，慢慢的知道結果。每一天愛我更多，直到天長地久。」香港人覺得這首歌太「老土」。但筆者認為，不學無術，唯利是圖的人沒有判斷「美」的「資格」。

不要太快許下承諾......慢慢的知道結果，的確很「雅」。這裡的人不會有心情「不要太快許下承諾」，不能忍受「慢慢的知道結果」。因為他們要一夜情。喜歡每次見面說「有空約你喝（飲）茶」。他們要兒子趕快考一個鋼琴八級試，皆因B座的李太的兒子一早已經考了八級。就是自己的蠢兒子彈得狗屁不通，五音不全，都義無反顧，要買一座Yamaha的U1放在家中（庸父母不知道世上還有Blüthner ，Bechstein 和 Steinway等德國名琴），一定堅持兒子每天製造嘈音，破壞環境。

筆者喜歡慢味。現流行甚麼草食男，不愛吃肉，擸食（結識女子）。如按此說法（定義），筆者也算曾「草食」多年。為甚麼「草食」？我想我跟現今的「次貨草食男」不同。可以打個比喩說，筆者愛牛，愛吃但不多吃。我尤愛和牛 － 近江，但馬，仙台，山形，德島，宮崎，松板 － 我都愛不釋手。筆者「草食」的年代，市場上是有很多「牛肉」供應的，但多是五豐行的「大陸牛」貨式。看看「價錢牌」，哈，山形牛的「價錢」。你會用山形牛的價錢來買五豐大陸牛嗎？很多人會，但我不買。不是價錢貴，而是五豐牛跟本不好吃，不可口，食之不得下咽。筆者唯有慢慢等待真正山形牛出現吧。一等十年。

結婚兩週年到8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana 慶祝。8 1/2是麗嘉酒店Toscana的主廚Umberto Bombana自己做老闆的新店。Umberto本人在場，他跟我們說，主菜但馬牛腩要慢煮36小時。急不來的。到 8 1/2，當然要慢慢欣賞。美食要慢味。美好的人生也可以慢味。美食之所以是美，是因為「美好」的食物中有味覺的複雜性，食物在舌頭上多一點時間，可讓更多的韻味釋放出來。美好的愛情(人生的一個部份)都是一樣，用多點時間交流，不要太快承諾，慢慢享受愛情的味道。愛情的味道有感性的複雜性。

與其急着吃五豐牛，不如多待一下，慢慢地吃山形牛。筆者愛Slow Food Movement，也愛Slow Love Movement。

Paul Mauriat's Toccata

好的東西，莫讓它停下來。Paul Mauriat 的 Love in Blue 你一定聽過，Bach 的 Toccata & Fugue 當然是經典。 但Paul Mauriat 的 Toccata （托卡塔）也許你沒聽過。

優雅的時代，連每一個琴鍵，每一個音符都優雅動人。

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=pfkIWnThTB4&feature=related

Monocle Seasonal Shop Hong Kong

For those who treasure the Better Things in Life:

Monocle, a global briefing magazine founded by legendary journalist Tyler Brûlé, is teaming up with Lane Crawford to create a seasonal shop. Situated within Lane Crawford's Pacific Place home store at 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong, the shop will open on 15 April (today) for five weeks. The Monocle team is now Hong Kong to celebrate the first Asian home for the Monocle Shop.

This evening I attended the cocktail party at Lane Crawford and am more than happy to recommend you all go and take a look at the premium products Monocle offers and, of course, have some careful (and delightful) reads to the magazine itself.

Some background about Tyler Brûlé - Born in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1968 (* a bit younger than myself I guess), a BBC-trained journalist who, after being shot by a sniper while covering the Afghanistan war in March 1994, practically lost the use of his left hand (that's where 'legendary' sets in!). Thereafter he left journalism and launched Wallpaper* magazine which was one of the most influential launches of the 1990's (again, legendary) and was subsequently sold to Time Warner. He launched Monocle magazine in 2007 covering Affairs, Business, Culture, Design and Edits (miscellaneous good stuffs - using their own words, 'all you need in life').

想讀一本書：被罵的幸福

信報2010年4月13日

張惠菁

挨罵的才能

有個和尚寫了一本教人挨罵的書。這個人是日本高幡不動尊金剛寺的川澄祐勝。說到出 家、在寺廟 中生活，一般人會以為日子該過得很清靜吧。看了這本《被罵的幸福》，這不動尊金剛寺還真不安靜啊。不但事情多，罵人的聲音好像也不絕於耳的樣子。川澄和尚 在寺裏是擔任總務之職，也就是說要負責寺內各種活動的場地和用具布置等等。負責這些吃力不討好的雜事，自然不免挨罵。在被罵三十年後，川澄和尚最終當上了 住持。追究起這從小和尚到大住持的過程，他把「挨罵」當作他個人修行路上最大的助益，也是他的師父秋山教導他的方法。

當中有一段「事情做 好 了也會被罵」的經歷，我讀了頗有同感。川澄和尚在廟裏做事並不是只因為事情沒做好而挨罵。從書裏看來他還算是個挺會做事的人，所以才被指派負責總務。不過 有時辛苦把事情做好了，還是挨罵，而且是在眾人面前毫不容情、冷冷地罵。當時川澄四十歲，已經不是小和尚了，在寺內進行防火演習前鉅細靡遺地做好了準備， 沒想到還是遭到他的師父冷眼對待。川澄和尚像參話頭般檢討事情前後，得到這樣的結論：「我反省自己在準備時的心情，確實有點自命不凡，『這間寺廟大小事都 逃不過我的眼睛。接下來只要這麼做就行了。』或是『希望別人認為我是個機靈的人』的心眼，都被師父看穿了。師父斥責的是連我自己都沒注意到的傲慢心，他的 法眼令我五體投地。」

秋山師父說：「有時候覺得會搔頭說『聽不懂』的人比較可愛。」一直自認很能幹、聰明、努力的人，被這樣說應該不會太 開 心吧。我最近就常覺得自己缺乏「被罵的才能」。被罵了，低頭認錯之外，不會讓氣氛停留在被罵的僵局，讓罵的人發洩而事情又可以進展，也是一種才能。從小用 「把事情做好就不會（也不該）被處罰」來規避打罵的我，不知不覺會認為「沒被處罰是因為自己事情都做好了」。這種想法在順境中還好，卻不能處理逆境，與人 生中不可避免的被誤解、被厭惡、被打擊的時刻。

點金成鑽 性格弄人

<音樂人生KJ>的故事, 令我想起羅馬尼亞指揮大師柴利比達克(Sergiu Celibidache)的人生。

週末再讀劉偉霖先生(信報2005年11月7日)寫有關指揮大師柴氏的一篇短文。文成於柏愛林愛樂(Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra)訪港之前。拉圖爵士(Sir Simon Rattle)指揮柏林愛樂演繹「貝三」<英雄> (Beethoven Symphony No. 3 Eroica)。 聽了拉圖指揮柏林愛樂, 終究明白劉君所言。

劉君言道, 1945年後, 柏林愛樂總指揮福特萬格勒(Furtwrängler)因戰時與納粹為伍, 被盟軍禁「指」(揮)。身家清白的Leo Borchard被委以重任, 但他不幸被一美軍槍殺。無指揮職業樂團經驗的柴氏接掌帥印。柴氏是福氏的得意弟子, 但他少年得志, 吹毛求疵, 脾氣暴燥, 惹來樂師反感。福氏死後, 總指揮落在二人的死對頭卡拉揚(Herbert von Karajan)手上。此後三十年, 柴氏只在二三流樂團指揮, 無緣一流樂團。

1989年, 卡拉揚去世。柴氏終可「重見天日」。1992年德國總統魏茨澤克親邀柴氏重返柏林, 在一慈善演奏會擔住指揮, 為柴氏家鄉兒童籌款。據說這場演奏會為柴氏及柏林愛樂的顛峰之作。曲目是布魯克拿第七交響曲(Bruckner Symphony No. 7)。在柴氏手上, 「布七」慢無可慢, 不計鼓掌及樂章之間的停頓, 足有八十七分鐘!

我所聽由拉圖指揮的「貝三」, 都是慢得不得了。在拉圖捧下, 那緩緩的音樂卻令人熱血沸騰。我在音樂廳中真的聽得汗流浹背。亦是我人生首次感受貝三「慢」的「威力」(之後Pollini的全蕭邦獨奏也有這份令人汗流浹背力量)。

柴氏「點金成鑽」把一流的柏林愛樂推上顛峰, 可惜性格所累, 白白浪費了上佳的指揮才華。

很想一聽(睹)柴氏的布七, 遍尋不獲。終於Vimeo有1992年那場音樂會布七的第二樂章。剛巧正是慢板(Adagio)。就來欣賞柴氏的「慢無可慢」吧 - Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam (very solemn and very slow)!

http://vimeo.com/2071194

尼釆的生命哲學

德國大哲尼采在他的<<歡愉的智慧>> (The Gay Science) 裡有這樣的陳述: 如果有一天晚上魔鬼在你最空虛最寂寞的時候偷進了來, 並向你說: 「你現在的生命, 走過的歷程, 將要再完全一模一樣的再生活一次, 及不止一次而是千千萬萬次, 數之不盡次。每一次活著都了無新意, 每一天的喜怒哀樂, 事無大小, 先後次序, 經歷都跟前生一模一樣。包括那蜘蛛, 樹梢上的月光, 與及我今晚來到你身邊向你說這番話。你就像永恆的沙漏時計袒一粒小沙。」聽完這樣的說話, 你會咬牙切齒咒罵那魔鬼? 或許在那一刻你向魔鬼說: 「啊! 你就是上帝! 你的說話是我人生聽過最動聽的說話!」

這就是「永恆回歸」(Eternal Recurrence), 他的生命哲學重要的一章。

尼采認為只有弱者才把生命的不定、變幻、無助寄托於來生。強者是要英雄地面對現世, 在一個變幻無定, 禍福難料的今世, 人只能勇敢活下去。弱者建構來生, 造了天主上帝, 並把頭躲進那美好的來生虛幻的福樂中。人類這樣就只有懦弱的, 庸俗的愚人。

但尼采也得承認, 沒有天主的世界, 人類無所依賴, 墮入虛幻的深淵中。所以他要人類進化: 「我教予你超人(Übermensch), 因人類是要被超越的東西。」人要成為超人, 站在道德善惡之上, 以強者的姿態判斷善惡。在一個了無意義的世界中, 賜予意義。

尼采生前對基督教狠狠批判, 只因他應為建制裡的基督教會道貌岸然, 完全違背了基督精神。他在晚年著作<<反基督者>>(The Anti-Christ)裡說: 「古往今來, 只有一個基督徒, 但他已經在十字架上給釘死了.....從此, 福音就變成了惡耗了。

Hand in Hand

1988年，南韓隨漢城奧運會的成功步進先進國的行列 －－從此亞洲就有兩個先進國家。我是看過漢城奧運的。現在人們都忘記了漢城奧運會。但他們都很驚訝北京奧運的開幕怎樣怎樣厲害。成為先進國度，不是單靠硬件的。人的素質是一重要因素。然後是國家的理念。為怎麼南韓可以擠身先進國家？她的奧運會不是要讓世人看看自己有多少年的文化包袱，也不是提醒其他人她多年前發明了怎麼怎麼；而是她已有現代先進的元素，而本身的傳統也跟時代進步起來了。她要世人看的是南韓已經不是一個軍權國家。她的三星電子已準備超越日本的松下，新力。南韓製造的船要比日本造更多更大。她有自己儒家的傳統，但她隨西方的人文精神建構新的面貌。聽聽漢城奧運的主題歌，由Koreana主唱的 Hand in Hand 的副歌部份；

Hand in hand we stand
All across the land
We can make this world a better place in which to live
Hand in hand we can
Start to understand
Breaking down the walls that come between us for all time
Arirang!

歌裡面有沒有文明的種子，人文的精神，聽聽唱歌的人，作歌詞者的心力，可窺一二。歌由Koreana唱出來，有一份「海內存知己，天崖若比鄰」的豪情。我想大家會明白，一個國家是否先進，不是因為那國家操兵夠齊，建築物夠大就可以的。能有這樣出色的音樂，這樣出色的奧運會。南韓成為亞洲第二個先進國，應是實至明歸。

看看Hand in Hand 的 video 吧：

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc2hWJ2EjQs

RIP: Raymond Yip

Raymond, we shall pray for you. May you rest in peace.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=198114395253

9 hours

Laforet Tokyo

This is an old entry of my log on 21 July 2008.

One day in 2002, I was on my way back to the city where I stay, stopping over in Tokyo. I took the Airport Limousine to Shinagawa Prince, and on the way, the bus stopped by Laforet in Shinagawa, before stopping at the Prince. I had been to Japan for so many times that I thought I should get used to the scenary of this country and should not have profound feeling when encountering something new. I had this thought many times but each time I was proven to be wrong. Every time I met with something of my taste in Japan, be it a new thing or a familiar experience, I had that refreshing feeling. Laforet, again, gave me the refreshment I longed for. Probably I was awaken after a brief nap which I always did whenever I sat inside a limousine bus to downtown Tokyo. I saw a couple of bellboys, welders and disciplined, picking up luggages for their clients at Laforet. What a beautiful moment! The yellowish light at the entrance that appeared to glow exceptionally bright, accompanied by the darkening sky with the fiery purplish hue, presented the best picture of the working bellboys. I was not sure what this hotel was, but not long after this moment, my memory put this picture away. All I had perhaps was a faint memory of the word Laforet. Time flies, and 6 years later, I again planned my trip to Japan of this year. I haven't gone to Japan this year because of the honeymoon for which I chose France. The autumnal temperament made a sojourn to Japan inevitable and irresistible. Except one in the early 1990s in which I was a college student, my trips to Japan were never budget ones. I am never thrifty when coming to enjoying the best of Japan. I am not particularly financially better off, but I think that whenever affordable, I should enable my heart and soul to be touched by the essence of Japan without disturbance. One way to achieve this is to make peace of mind a first place. I do not need to worry about transportation, accommodation, food, books and sightseeing arrangements. So I would choose the best that I can afford. One day when I was browsing on the Net for hotel information, the picture of the Laforet bellboys at dusk was suddenly retrieved from the archives and it gave me the comforting moment as strong and alive as when in 2002 I actually saw them. The actual substance of this moment remains somewhat beyond verbal description, but the desirability and comfort drawn on the picture I recalled and the Japan I know definitely played an important part here. I decided to look for Laforet and my memories were correct. Can I really experience Laforet this time? From a commuting perspective, it is not truly a desirable place. Laforet is located in Shinagawa, a short distance from the JR station. Although Shinagawa is not comparable with Shinjuku, Shibuya or Ikebukuro, if trendy nightlife is your goal, it has certain attractiveness to me, so to speak, for it is still on the Yamanote Line and Shinjuku and Shibuya are only a couple of stations away. But Shinagawa is far subtler in the sense that the chances of meeting those loud people from the city where I stay would be much lower, and it has also some historical significance not far from that which you would find in Shinjuku, Ginza or Tokyo Marunouchi.

I don't know what else to say...but I am certain that the reality created by, if you will, the Laforet experience, would be an enjoyable one - it is a pursuit of happiness, serious and far from frivolous, stretching the amplitude of life, in what I believe is the highest level of human living. That evening, alone and tranquil, was a moment and it was eternity.

Kamakura

I think it is great to read some history in a softer way. Formal, detailed hard history is good to read seriously. In a sense it is a necessary form of archiving incidents past. At times, we should enjoy some leisure moments, very much in an austere manner I suppose, and read history, including the livelihood of people in the past, without having to speculate how the train of events occurs and developments unfolded. All I need is some information on which I can think about how the world looked like at that time. Appended below is an article in Chinese, from the Hong Kong Economic Journal of 1st December 2009.

鐮倉大佛 抹茶冰淇淋
奧巴馬總統十一月訪問日本，在三得利音樂廳講演，開篇就談到，幼時母親曾帶他到鐮倉看過大佛，但他的興趣卻在「抹茶冰淇淋」上。鐮倉大佛為日本國寶。不但高大（高十三米多；重一百二十一噸），而且與日本其他地區的大佛不同，頷首低頭，視線向下，明顯有中國佛像風格。
雖說日本的佛教是經由中國、朝鮮半島傳來，但佛像多具日本特色，而鐮倉一帶的佛像很多帶有中國傳統。十二世紀末，與京都天皇「公家」對立的源賴朝，被任命為征夷大將軍，建館鐮倉，一般被認為是 「鐮倉幕府」時代的開始。這時正值中國北南宋、遼金交替時代，鐮倉幕府從中國引進了「禪宗」思想，作為武士的精神支柱。由實權人物北條時賴（源賴朝之丈）在鐮倉建立了日本第一個「禪寺」—建長寺。而鐮倉左近寺院的佛像，也就多如中國佛像體態舒展、表情豐富，衣紋也多模仿中國的雕刻樣式。鐮倉附近青雲寺的「觀音菩薩遊戲坐像」，甚至就是在中國造好再運來的。為了方便與中國的船隻往來，還在鐮倉海邊人工建島（和賀江島）。這裏出土了很多中國的陶瓷器皿和錢幣。甚至有人認為，當時的鐮倉市面都是一色中國風格。
但這些都是作為武家政權的鐮倉幕府，要與京都的貴族文化「劃清界限」，建立獨自文化而為。鐮倉三面環山，一面臨海。把守從關西京都到關東江戶的要衝。古時不但外圍有「鐮倉七口」要隘，防止入侵，市內小路也故意造得盤根錯節，而且不畫在地圖上，敵軍即使侵入也會暈頭轉向。大佛位於鐮倉西口，據說也是表明與西邊京都勢力的對抗。
大佛是高德院的本尊如來坐像，建於十三世紀中葉。原計劃是木雕，不知怎麼就變成銅像了。大殿毀於十五世紀末的大海嘯，大佛就成了露天的了。現在花二十日圓就可以進入大佛底座觀看。
奧巴馬說他從大佛看到了和平和寧靜，但其實背後卻隱藏着戰爭的血腥。鐮倉幕府因抵禦元朝從海上來犯，財政吃緊，被當時的後醍醐天皇派兵攻陷。執掌幕府的北條一族兵敗自盡，鐮倉幕府落下帷幕。
其實，鐮倉的一些「洋館（洋式建築）」也是很有味道的。往往地處半山，高窗明室，建築奇巧。明治後，當時西洋的「休閒觀」傳入日本，鐮倉附近的湘南海岸成為日本第一個海水浴場，很多文人、豪族、實業家被吸引到鐮倉建宅邸，被稱為「鐮倉文士」。小說家里見惇在關東大地震後，於鐮倉建洋館，據說防震是沿用了當時帝國飯店的標準。但又在旁邊為自己建了一棟和式的寫作間。
我遊鐮倉，不看大佛，不走大路，喜歡躲開眾多遊客穿小道，可以看到一般市民的生活。還可以在新建的洋式建築間徘徊，出入小規模的美術展覽，間或靜靜地喝一杯咖啡。當然，也一定會有冰淇淋，而且是「抹茶」的。

Cigar Appreciation

The bland people of the world, the health crooks, use as much pseudoscience and fake evidence and stupidly wrong induction to convince the world that smoking should be eradicated as the Oriental communist rulers used moronic propaganda to fool their foolish subjects. Needless to say, the world full of morons buys into this lie. Of course the cigarette industry consists of the equally nasty crooks who should be controlled to an extent much stricter than the bland people health crooks. But this affects the secret art of cigar smoking, which, in any case, belongs to the privileged few. And it should always belong to these few and be kept out of contact by any other underprivileged, disprivileged and cheaper specimens in the human race. Perhaps, one should say when people lack the sense and decorum to enjoy a good smoke. He should not be permitted to touch a good stick of Havana again, until, if it happens, he is penitent to the fact that a good smoke is holy.

http://www.leon.jp/category/cigar

Keizoku (On-going Investigations)

ケイゾク(繼續［調查］) is Japan's answer to Cold Cases. This was my favourite series in 2006, starring Nakatani Miki. The theme song, Chronic Love, is composed by Sakamoto Ryuichi and performed by Miss Nakatani herself. Even you don't fully understand the lyrics, you will feel its melody partake of a sense of mystery in the episodes of these 'on-going investigations', a euphemism of 'cold cases' that occurred years ago and are now just dusty files. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZXdRjIIs-0&feature=related

Red Ear Slider

I have a lovely slider hatchling, Fat Fat. A month ago, Fat Fat became inactive and he could not swallow. He just spit out whatever in his month, and he was increasingly inactive. So I brought him to the vet who suspected pneumonia as she found him lopsided afloat. Fat Fat went through the treatment which included 2 rounds of antibiotics (5 injections each) (Fortum Ceftazidime), 2 shots of vitamin A (0.01 ml each) and 1 injection of fluid (1 ml). The vet also prescribed Reptoboost from Vetark, a UK brand, that is a powder mixture of glucose and maltodextrins as a 'pick-me-up'. I quarantined him as well. Fat Fat got better and was gaining weight (I could feel him heavier every day when I picked him up). He was still a bit 'dull' but had good appetite which made me relieved. However, he appears to be stressed out and tends to hide away whenever I come to see him (except when he's hungry).

Today, suddenly it seems he is losing appetite again as he spit the food I gave him (he ate some shrimps but not as many as a few days ago). I found him lopsided more seriously and gasping quite a lot. Currently I put him in a small vivarium and give him frozen brine shrimp, frozen vitamin-fortified bloodworm (both Japanese products) or dried shrimps and pellets (a Polish product, Aqua Szut) on a rotation basis (I don't see many US brands here in Hong Kong). I tried to entice him to have some greens but he is just too carnivorous. I am now giving him Reptoboost, lest he is weakening.

At the moment, he appears ok. Whether he has got pneumonia or gut problem and whether I am doing the right thing for me is being reviewed. Is there a possibility that he is born with defects that make him weak? I do not know. If the situation worsens, I probably need to bring him to the vet again.

His environment: temperature (water) about 80; room temp (daytime reaching 90 and at night 82-84). The vivarium is put beside the window with fair amount of sunshine. UVB light is installed as well. I have a heating tube but guess don't need it in summer time. The vivarium is a small one (7.5 inches (W) x 5 inches (D) and 5 inches (H)) as I separated him from his peers.

Comme Au Premier Jour by Andre Gagnon

Listened to some pieces of Andre Gagnon. I don't know what to say except feeling blessed. Sometimes the ungratefulness of human beings worsens life more than the misfortune we experience. On some occasions where the seeming misfortune is in fact a blessing we lack the capability to perceive it as so and to acknowledge that we are blessed and strengthened by the sufferings that are sweet in their core. The musical pieces of Andre Gagnon's I just listened to are familiar but somehow strange to me, although I have listened to this Canadian composer-cum-pianist since my early ages. The solo of M. Gagnon might not be of the taste to a young man with an explosive mind who were surrounded by more bountiful Modern Romantic music in the 1980's. But now more than 2 decades have passed, when I listened to the piano that singularly produces the music, I feel something I have never felt before, that heavenly otherworldly melody that makes me immerse in somewhere not belonging here. It would be hard to believe that the world would come to perfect harmony in which every human is satisfied and perfected, no matter how much he has suffered in this corporeal life; but it would not be difficult to expect that happens if music of this great influencing power can be composed and rendered.

Kabei - Our Mother

Sayuri Yoshinaga, Rei Dan, Tsurube Shofukutei, Keiko Toda, Mirai Shida, Miku Sato, Tadanobu Asano, et al. Directed by Yoji Yamada.

What else can I write?

Nissan Teana (2)

Teana is very impressive, but I have been deeply ingrained with the idea that Europe is privileged when coming to automobile manufacture, and that Japanese automobiles may be reliable and come equally as far as technology and performance are concerned yet European cars are a combination of luxury, prestige and technology - especially German cars. I was struggling at the time as my target is locked, an Audi A4 1.8T. From the standpoint of luxury and comfort, it may not be comparable to a 2.5 Teana. But A4 is turbo-charged with tiptronics, whereas Teana is fully a sedan for driving not performance. A4 could win the performance test. It seems some details are available with the A4, electronics and B&O audio. Teana is, in a way, comfortable, luxurious (in the sense that it bears substance not appearance) and beautiful. It might come from Cefiro but the silhouette is more elegant and aesthetically superior. A4 is labelled to be a middle class's car (probably a worst breed I detest) - professional, young and somewhat energetic but family-orientated, with the implication that the family is better off. I do not know where Teana is positioned. Though elegant and beautiful, it looks massive and less trendy and energetic as the mean-looking A4 demonstrates. However, after a few nights of thinking, I began to realised that the subtle aesthetics that Teana quietly presented gradually occupied my thought. I recalled that I was a modest person and pursued long-lasting enjoyment, appropriate comfort (and in times sufferings that strengthened my will) and substantial and essential quality within. A Teana seemed to fit all these parameters. I do not believe the outer shell of the middle class. The professional, young and energetic look can be misleading. I am more concerned with the introspective capability that these young people lack. In Teana, I knew I had found something I longed for and something that I wished to demonstrate my very self in a manner that was not too noisy.

I believed no-one would be concerned with the details of Teana, but I did (and I do). At that point in time, I was given some thought but my mind was in the middle of the spring board and did not know which side to slide to. Story to be continued.

Nissan Teana

This is not an automobile review. I am no expert on cars and am not an experienced driver. I should only like to say how Nissan Teana came to my attention from the outset and how this car's image had developed within me and how it eventually took me over from my original favourite Audi A4 and completely reversed my supposedly sturdy view that I must own a European but not Japanese car.

The passage of development and change within me was subtle and while not quite lengthy in terms of time past, was rather slow and in a sense below your consciousness that allowed you to be highly cognizant of the development. I must say, from the appearance of it, Teana is a beautiful car, rightly curved and squared, impeccably constructed on a right size of an Accord or Mercedes E-Class. More than that, Teana partakes of a subtlety and, so to speak, a hint of modesty, in the face of a Mercedes or BMW (a Beemer, as it sometimes is called) such that the aesthetics of such an impeccable body defines itself as a different yet substantial and functional counterparty by no means inferior to any of its rivals of all classes.

I believe luxury itself is hallow without substance from a higher civilised cause, and luxury is an inanimate object if not pouring in it a soul from plausible human activities. In those days when luxuriousness, the nature behind luxury and luxurious items, was interpreted, rather correctly, to equal elegance, erudition and sophistication, it would be easier for me to be in love with luxury. But now times have changed, we have to face a deformed concept and a distorted mentality of human-like organisms. The elegance, erudition and sophistication which once define luxury have given way to much lesser attributes such as showiness, loudness and conspicuousness of those activities that are branded as luxurious. Still matured economies such as Japan and France, where the old school luxury is preserved, still provide us with such surprises from time to time. I need refreshment.

The silhouette of Cefiro, a former model similar in style - or the predecessor of Teana, gave me some impression that some Nissan model was meant for an upper market than the average Japanese car such as Civic and Jazz from Honda or Picnic or Corrolla of Toyota. Then I forgot it until one day I saw a black sedan in front of me going in such a smooth and gentlemanly manner that it attracted my attention. I noticed the engine size, a 3.5. I thought it was a Cefiro as far as I could remember its silhouette. I saw someone sitting on the back seat, comfortably, probably a client whom the car which was supposed to bring to his destination. After a while, I saw another one, which was a 2.5 model with a smaller engine, again black and moving gracefully. That black image and the comfort of the person who sat on the back seat lingered on my mind. For the next few days I put this image away. Then in a certain night I picked it up again and immediately went to Nissan's homepage. I found no Cefiro but Teana. All right, it was a Teana I saw the other day. Clearly, Teana is no direct successor of Cefiro, probably in a lot of places, improvements and changes are made including the engine and the chasis. The first part of the story ends here.

The Strings in Shinagawa

How do I treat a people or a population I supposedly belong to? Yes, a population. I should treat it nicely, for if I am one of them, and I do not treat it nicely, I probably do not treat myself nicely. The logic could be right. But in fact, I shall not bother. Perhaps, I should say, whenever I bump into any one of this clan, I shall slap him on the face. The logic is right, as I do not bother and slapping him on the face does not cause me anything that I should consider as treating myself nicely. Instead I treat myself really nicely, for I feel happy if not ecstatic by slapping this person on the face. What can I be made happier then? Slapping him a few more times. I am a Happy Slapper. This is the clan, a group of nonsensical compost-eating, urban-shitting cowards that I have to face everyday and tolerate and am forced to belong to. But the Happy Slapper could not be happier, if he goes to Japan. I am just fine without having to bring along with me the Happy Slapper. I shall be reluctant to become a villian in the highly pressurised nation, Japan, which is built by pressuring her subjects and by her subjects being subjected, rather willingly I guess, to such pressure. But pressure constructs beauty. I should say Inferno, not Purgatory, should consider bringing the reprobates to the city where I stay.

Shinagawa gives me another misty impression of Japan, which, despite such poetic obscurity necessary for aesthetics, is absolutely endearing, a feeling from within. I do not like commercial slogan but I cannot but admit that this makes feel home - Home Away from Home, a motto found on the brochure of The Strings in Shinagawa, an InterContinental Hotel. It would be unnecessarily profound to be ontological about Home Away from Home, as I did quite some time ago. Comparing Home Away from Home with Nirvana or plugging it into an ontological argument that 'Japan is home' per se is undeniable may still be logically and analytically understandable but will easily be rendered nonsensical. If you read existential writings of Continental Europe, you will oftentimes find something similar, well, by all means, as ontological as Home Away from Home, so gorgeously packaged in philosophical wrap, pretentiously posed for eternal discussion aimed not at finding an answer but meant to continue the game. However, from deep within myself is there a sense of aesthetics that guides my feeling, temperament and disposition; and this sense of aesthetics produces such power on me that I say, 'yes, I am home.' Such proclamation, so devoid of patriotism, is simply here, inside me. Some scenary such as Laforet or Gingakuji provokes the aesethetical sense to lead me to say 'yes, I am home'. The Strings is again another provocation - or put it more mildly - stimulus. With it I have the confidence to say, 'go back where you belong, patriotism.' At least, patriotism or chauvanistic nonsense attaced to my population in this case becomes obsolete and highly obscene, not to mention blasphemous against humanity.

Forecasting

When someone tells me that James is wealthier than I by 2050, I should probably ask him to tell me what would happen to me in 2 days. If he cannot even tell what I shall be like in the coming 48 hours, it seems reasonable to doubt his forecast of what I shall be like in or before 2050, 42 years from now. However, if this person (or entity) who tells me what happens by 2050 is Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, I think I cannot simply ignore it. Goldman Sachs, needless to say, qualifies its work with verbiage such as "if things go right" (p.3, paragraph 4 in its Global Economics Paper No: 99), and it also declares "Our projections are optimistic," and "economically sensible, internally consistent" (p. 3, paragraph 5), which I think is a responsible act. The forecast by itself is sensible and all significant factors are taken into consideration. I think it is a very useful paper for us to visualise what will happen if the global economy trods the path and does not derail in the coming decades. I take the liberty add that it will become even more useful if certain alternative scenarios are added, built upon by using not only change in the scale in the parameters, but also the frame of reference on which certain economic developments are constructed. These scenarios are meant to develop the options to tackle certain issues that are of concern to a party. The scenarios Certain factors that pop out in my mind right now are: a full-blown war triggered by ideology or energy shortage; regional0 natural disasters or change in the mindset of G7 citizens against the rise of the emerging economies. These are by no means exhaustive and probably hundreds or more of these variables can come up on the whiteboard and the picture of the future will become entirely different if a line is drawn from a present situation which is twisted and reformulated by these other factors.

Well, well, well, the Better Things in Life of course exclude such disgraceful manner as shown in populism, which is demonstrated in the behaviour of the uncivilised people, who believed that they had been the victim of a conspiracy that was aimed to hinder their regaining their once but long gone brilliance, well, well, well, perchance civilisation, to a certain degree. But I am always a doubter of civilisation past. Christopher Hitchen, well known as an atheist with an eloquent tongue, correctly writes (idea) that at the time of those "brilliant philosophers" such as Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, Cardinal Newmann, et al, not a single person of wisdom knew of the germ theory, let alone dream of such small organisms as bacteria and viruses. So how intelligent their works on our world, on how the universe began, on how plants and animals evolved, and on how people will be in terms of shedding light that can lead us to fully appreciate these questions for sure? However, civilisation of the past does have attributes that are functional as much as beneficial to us modern people as the works of those ancient philosphers. European civilisation, the cradle of Christianity, served to be a repository of brilliant art and literatures. Without Christianity, European civilsiation would have been entirely different, if it ever exists, to put it more radically. In the Orient, the situation is more or less than the same. But instead of the Rennaissance, there was backward looking in most of the socities, and as a consequence, the Western civisilation becomes Civilisation.

Ravishment of Art

When the Brainless begin to fall in love with allegory or metaphor, regardless of what they want to call it, the world becomes immersed with cliches. A cliche by itself is of no harm. It only demonstrates to those of us who have a brain that even truism can one day be degraded to the extent that it becomes nonsense. One of the terms that the Brainless love to use is "rape" or in verb form "to rape". I am not sure of why, but they just love to use it in a very broad sense. They like to say, "you are raping the [result of the] poll." Or they say, "you are raping the will of the people." Even worse, perhaps, they say, "you are raping your own dignity." But what they do not know is that they are raping the word 'rape'. They would feel surprised that the term 'rape' can now be raped. The use of the term "rape" or the verb "to rape", like some chanting of life, provides the Brainless with some sense of meaningfulness in their unworthy life.

Just read an article from a local newspaper that says Mona Lisa, the painting Leonardo created, is being spiritually raped by a bunch of dudes who come from a country called China. How can civilisation like China rape another civilisation that flourished because of the Renaissance? Perhaps there is some misunderstanding of this civilisation or that civilisation. China boasts herself that she has a civilisation of 5,000 years or more if those who domiciled in where now China is and looked more like their kins the chimpanzee than us homo sapiens, are included. But the civilisation of the West is quite different from China's. I would tend to believe that civilisation of China is no longer existent. It perished after Tang Dynasty as civilisation had met its pinnacle then. Afterwards, civilisation headed downward and when Qing Dynasty became corrupted that even a newly developed Japan could beat it, civilisation was no longer civilisation, but the situation only represented a current being of the 5,000-year history. Call it a snap-shot? I would prefer the term snap-shot to Zeitgeist, for the spirit of time is nothing of what we have now is nothing but antiquity. After many years weakness and travesty, a new China re-emerged in the early 1980s. What we saw was, in fact, merely a billion people who were completely outmoded after years of backward alienation. Then another 2 decades have gone, what we now see is 100 million people who can afford to go out of China, buying some good stuffs like Louis Vuitton - for them it is a two-letter word LV, for Louis Vuitton proves as too difficult for them as philosophy is to the monkeys. But they have money -- they have been given plenty of monies by the Japanese, the US and Europe, for the people there are cheap. They have 300 million workers who are willing to make a shirt at 5 pence. The advantage of China is they have people and those people can work. 1/100 th of their population can collapse Louvre! Now they know civilisation, again, and they rush to see civilisation of the West. Lord Clark asks "what is civilisation?" and he answers in the meantime, facing the Notre Dame of Paris, "I don't know .... but I shall know it when seeing it, and I am seeing it now." But what they do is the complete contrary of civilisation - a property of Chinese people. Even in "a bit more developed place" such as Hong Kong, the situation does not much deviate from the old backward China. People there like "to be there". They have things to talk to their relatives or friends and boast, in such a shallow, obnoxious tone, that they have been there - seeing Mona Lisa, the real one, very much like a small kid tells his peers that he has been to a zoo and has watched an elephant as told derisively in this newspaper article. Wow, hail civilisation! In fact, for the civilised, I have to agree, this is a ravishment of art, which civilisation in fact forbids. Where is an old civilisation placed, when the re-emerged one is so in lack of the elements of a civilisation? Should it still be called a civilisation. Lord Clark opines that civilisation declines and falls as it becomes exhausted. I take the liberty to add, after imagining 100 million people look at Mona Lisa in such an obscene manner, that civilisation is suffocated to death.

The Divinity of Humanity

This is a grand title. In the sense that it is a statement subject to verification, this title appears to be nonsensical. However, the Principle of Verification has long been scrapped and made way for the Principle of Confirmation, Principle of Credulity, etc. No principle per se suffices to describe what I mean to say here. The Divinity of Humanity belongs to human beings - not human forms of sub-humans or non-humans, defined as so not by biological means or, if you will, principles, but by observation against a set of non-exhaustive behaviour standards that we see out of true human beings.

Let's talk about hypocrisy. You may want to subdivide this into hypocrisy of the clever and hypocrisy of the ignorant. The former is hypocrisy; the latter is not. It is so called because such behaviour bears the apparent forms of hypocrisy, but the underlying elements that lead to such behaviour and the rationale behind the elements and the behaviour itself are not the same. George W. Bush is hypocritical, and no-one would disagree. And as President of the United States, he possesses such hypocrisy which we are safe to say as hypocrisy (I don't need to add such redundancy as true hypocrisy). Some non-descript A, who shows extra care to a pregnant woman, though, possesses such "hypocrisy" which is not hypocrisy. Although A shows the same hypocritical behaviour as George W. Bush has shown to the tortured prisoners of war in Iraq, A has a profound belief that he shows such extra care as he truly believes such extra care does the woman good, while in fact, though not in itself bad, such extra care spoils the woman to the extent that she will exploit such extra care as much as she believes she is inborn to be entitled to such extra care that everyone else should make way for her, if something does not go her way.

Living things do not live in such pathetic manner as these sub-humans, such lowlives. Living itself is precious and elegant; perhaps quoting Hemingway who though refers to our world but should bear the same sense, is worth fighting for. "Fighting for" is the key word. We need to fight for life. For us, it need not mean that we need to kill or hurt others to survive. Instead we live by ourselves as much as we can rather than receiving such extra care only to suggest that we are fragile, but as we are sacred, we are more entitled to live than other living organisms. As we are created by God and know how to worship God, we are much higher than other living organisms. We deserve the extra care in the same manner as the pregnant woman receives from non-descript, totally spoiled A, who now irresponsibly attempts to spoil others as he has been spoiled since childhood.

Let me tell me, Gentlemen, life is not like that. Life is not as pathetic as that, which is why I hereby write the Divinity of Humanity as our Humanity is at the brink of extinction as such irresponsible behaviour as we now know as the hypocrisy of the ignorant are infesting. The Divinity of Humanity is not we can pretend to be good by irresponsibly showing the extra care to someone who can absolutely take care of herself when she was born with the genes being capable of teaching her to survive; not we can speak some language and praise God, wrongfully presuming that we are different from the rest of the living planet and exploiting the world. I have to say, we need to stand on our own feet - we have been given so much advantage to live in this world. But I see how the Emperor Penguins live their life. I see the Great Tortoise strive to crawl to the sea. I see how a frozen frog can resume to life after thwarting. When I see all these, I see the Divinity of Humanity as we stand up before Nature and live.

Lacrimosa

It has been quite a long time since I seriously listened to Lacrimosa's music. Just now I finished Hohelied Der Liebe. I was so greatly interrupted by the music that I visualised pictures of a world materialised by such substantive musicality. You may think it a bit hard to understand this statement. Let me use an example. In a vacant opera house, a clown stands on the stage all alone, playing the violin, with the company of a few torches behind him, the smoke of which dances gracefully and only gracefully without the currents of wind. Who is he playing for? Why does he need to play the violin alone without audience? What such music could have visualised such desolate scene, such desolate beauty, such desolate bereavement which still is more worth than the realities expressed in our world?

Our world, if you call it a reality, is so in lack of beauty per se that there is no reason to appreciate it. But with some of us, the true musicians of our world, our world is recreated, by means of music, in such a way that it is no longer what it is, but another world materialised by the vision of the artists. The stories they tell of and in this world mimick our world's incidents but have become the stories beyond our world's appreciation. So what are these stories and the pictures this music creates? I should perhaps call them the Idea of beauty. Appreciate the Idea of beauty and then our world begins to show its worth of being, for it holds us, who create and appreciate the music that turns the non-descript and unworthy world to one that is mysterious but adorable.

Emotion In Motion

By Ric Ocasek of the Cars.

There are a number of things I wish to talk about in the 1980s. Music is one of them. Why the 1980s? Part of it, I believe, is the 1980s was where my childhood was. With more painstaking thought, I have to say, it is more to do with the flourishing music industry and the flourishing musical styles in the 1980s that impressed me so much that even now I can not forget it. If I say it is a grace that technology brings all that happiness back to us, it is not something sentimental, but fundamentally true. Without someone who created Youtube.com, you would not be able to watch a great video such as Ric Ocasek's Emotion in Motion again. I had not ever thought that I could watch it again. I watched it once in the 1980s, but when you had no expectation, you would not have a sense of loss. But now I just watched it on Youtube.com, I felt a sense of grace, which is more thaan the antiquated religious feeling that immersed in ancient people, but a somewhat refreshing moment for a much well-informed, advanced person.

Maria Theresia

Listening to Hadyn's Symphony No. 48 in C Major "Maria Theresia".

I was wondering who Maria Theresia was, after whom such a beautiful symphony was named. Perhaps this is worth some efforts of digging in the library:

Maria Theresa (1717-1780), the eldest daughter of Charles VI, who promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction to permit her to suceed to the Habsburg monarchy and Elisabether Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, was Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and, through her marriage, Holy Roman Empress.

Ignorance and Sentimentality

Why, you may ask, does the Brainless cause harm to us and our society in such a way as I described? It is perhaps a book-length writing in order to keep people (I mean the good people) convinced that I am right. However, it can still be briefly described here. Take an example of a response to a dying baby girl who had lived 9 days, which says, the girl has lived a life of great significance and meaningfulness, and life should not be measured in terms of its length. This message consists of two elements - ignorance and sentimentality. Ignorance is very obvious. First of all, the phrase "life should not be measured in terms of its length" may be correct, it is a matter of value and a judgement of value is not easily absolutely established though it can be established. So I shall presume it correct. But how would "life is short but meaningful" be applicable to this incident in which a diseased girl was brought to our world and let die? The answer is absolute and unquestioned. It is nothing. The diseased girl was not unconscious. How do you know she was not conscious? The answer lies on the answer of this question. What happened to you when you were just born? If she was not even conscious of what was happening to her, then where is such great significance and meaningfuless placed? The answer is again absolute and unquestionable. It is nowhere. As a result, I should say, this person has no idea of what he commented. He just said something other people (including great people) said of a truly moving story, but if this idiot believed what he said was equally applicable to the dead girl incident as any other moving stories of the great people, then obviously he is ignorant. And ignorance is an important element of the Brainless. Now the question comes, why does ignorance harm? We may say, quoting Mill, that as long as one's action does not harm others, the actor should not be restricted from so doing. Yes, I would accept this principle. What if he does, and does to a considerable extent? Sometimes he is harmful indirectly and chronically. Then, I have to say, regardless of Mill and the rationale behind his rationale, he must be controlled and that he is controlled must be known to others, the Brainless or otherwise. If such harm is being done indirectly and chronically, how can we prove it? It sounds tricky. But when a person is ignorant and says ignorant things in such idiotic manner as the "life is short" person, it would not be that difficult to prove the harm this kind of saying would inflict on us (or some of us).

Before we are mature enough to be able to differentiate right from wrong, the intelligent from the stupid, we are prone to ignorant things and have a fair chance accepting ignorant things as intelligent. Especially those things are said and done under the guise of intelligence. "Life should not be measured in terms of its length" and "life may be short but is meaningful". How right these statements per se are! The correctness of those statements in themselves, which may be universal by human standard, despite the fact that this is still arguable, does not guarantee that the matter such statements refer to is by itself correct, and it does not immediately warrant that a correct reference is made between the matter referred to and the correct statements. Obviously, a wrong association is there in the case that the meaningfulness is applied to the new-born baby girl who had not gained the consciousness that enabled her to appreciate meaning and who died subsequently. If such wrong is distributed and those of us who are not capable of differentiating the right from the wrong, for whatever reason, then they will be misled to believe that bringing a child to our world and seeing her die is (a) a meaningful thing to do; and (b) the child has lived a short (really very short!) yet meaningful life by being dragged to the intensive care unit and seen to be dying. Such harm is done by propagating the wrong message that creates such great travesty of humanity that unnecessary suffering is now refurbished to become martyrdom and a cowardly act of failure to face the reality that a child has no chance of living on has turned a heroic act and we should pay our tribute to the hero who faces the adversity and are standing against the darkness of Fate. The consequence is very, very serious. The humanity is now degraded to the extent that cowardice is now heroic, a milquetoast is now a hero. The society would in due course be doomed to be held by cowards and submissiveness, which is not acceptable.

Secondly, when something as grand as "life is short but meaningful" is from the mouth of such an idiot, such a Brainless as this "life is short" person, then the Brainless believe that they are grand and great, for they know what the grand and great know, and behave what the grand and great behave, and are moved by what moves the grand and great. Are they truly moved by a story of a dying girl who in fact was brought to the world and all of us saw her die? Has she lived a full life? Has she gone to Heaven? Is she living a blissful life after suffering the 9 days (though she may not really suffer the pain to the same extent as a grown up, for, as I said, she was not even conscious of herself and her sufferings)? If she was not let out after being diagnosed as having the disease while in the womb, would she not be brought to Heaven and be living as blissful a life as she had been seen to live through the 9 days, fully logged and commented on and sighed for? I am not entirely sure, even I am a Christian, a Catholic, an intellectual, a person who has striven to learn about our world. The parents, irresponsible and ignorant, believe it is their responsibility to bring her out so that they can go through some "great" moments as heros who face their adversity. As a result of their faith in God, the dead girl is now an angel, living happily and eternally beside God. And only these parents who had self-proclaimed, though indirectly but wilfully, themselves as heros and God's servants, then this girl could become angel. Otherwise, no, she might be condemned, for she had not been a human and been blessed with God's grace, such Grace being given by such distributors of grace as her parents. What the world has become? This is not entirely an appropriate answer, for the world has always been as brutal and ignorant as before, and we should be not surprised that distributors of God's Grace are always around as we see insurance agents, financial planners and cosmetic sales every day every where. The Brainless turned themselves to heros, the grand and great, and perhaps even thought of leaving a mark in their worthless history, being servant of God, being such salesman of Heaven, being the crooks of Grace, being undeserved acceptors of knowledge and information. They created such sentimentality that only the Brainless would buy. The hypocrisy that this story tells us is very obscene - to those who truly appreciate life and have lived a truly good life. But let me tell you, the Brainless, the parents of a dead girl, you are worthless, regardless of how many tears you have shed by creating a pseudo-moving story. You have squandered your life and if there be Heaven, you should return the ticket to it, for there are more people who strive to create a better, to make a difference to this Another Heaven, our Human World, deserving this ticket than you do. So please admit to yourself and your God, if there is one, that you are the Brainless. You created such stupid stories and made yourself a hero. Then, you let the other Brainless feel they were heros too. Sentimentality has paved the way to hell; but in fact I do not care when and how you go to Hell, but I do care you bring those worthy of Heaven with you.

The Storied Suppression; The Benevolent Despots remembered

The unwarranted arrogance that comes with the Brainlessness gives the Brainless such excess that the world, our brave new world, has been damaged to the extent that it is irreparable. The human world that we were once proud of and wondered has turned into a confusion immersed in excess, condemned by eternally spiralling confusion. The true people, who may be called the elite for ease of reference, are confused, but remain mute to what has been happening, for they still have the advantage, or believe they do, being the elite. In spite of the fact that the elite enjoy the privilege that the Brainless cannot imagine, the latter are so noisy and enormous in terms of absolute number that it is they who somewhat exert influence they deserve not, and the elite, in a democratic world, have to bear the price of freedom, the freedom that has been granted to the undeserved. At some point, enough is enough, the elite will yell, and when they fight back, they fight back fiercely. They swing the pendulum back to the other extreme, for they need to swing it back to such a magnitude that the equilibrium will ever been set right. How would this happen? In history, I have so far seen many cases resembling the scenario I have just mentioned, although I cannot for sure ascertain these cases mean exactly the status of my description. I have to say, regardless of what triggers such action which aims to counter uncontrolled liberalisation, eradicate the Brainless and cleanse the arrogrance of the Brainless which is unjustifiable, there are moments which must be looked upon with care, the moments of blemishes in human history that many were, so to speak, persecuted and killed; many had their dignity deprived, the kinships torn apart. These moments must be carefully recognised, thought about and understood. The figures who stood on top of these moments, those despots in history, those who handed down bestial cruelty that brought blood on the parchment of history, should be remembered in such a way that, with a balance of what evil has done to counter another evil, we shall recognise what harm the hypocrisy, arrogance and naivety of the Brainless have done to our world. Only by such thought, we give the world what others have overlooked or dared not look at, but it should be case.

The Brainless

After all those festivities, it is the right time to continue the Brainless series. I do not want to be vague about that. The Brainless is harmful and detrimental to us, to our health and to our mentality. The fact that a moving story is being made at the expense of a dying baby is nothing more sentimental than such sentimentality you can find in a soap opera, where a melodramatic kind of lack of intelligence immerses and spreads. We should be very fortunate to be living in a world that we live in, for the knowledge and information we can get access to everyday is unprecedented - not a single intelligent man in the 19th century could every imagine the way we acquire knowledge and grasp and digest information. I have to say, people are cleverer. But statistically, I still can say, people are idiots. The reason is simple, only 5% of people are clever and there are more people than any point in time previously. We meet more people than our ancestors and we meet even more idiots in terms of absolute number. So the statement that people are idiots is statistically correct. And it extends to the fact that these idiots are very much in lack of intelligence, despite knowledge and information being available around them. They cannot think properly, understand properly and deduce properly. They believe this dying baby has lived a life "of great significance" and "meaningfulness", regardless of the life being short. What is this all about? The baby had not even developed the consciousness that she would know she ever existed in the few days she lived. An unconscious infant talks about such meaningfulness and life being long or short? This is nonsense. I have choked with such nonsense by many people - some are cunning and lie to their own benefit. Some are stupid and talk without a brain. Some are naive and propagate the good but pave the way to hell. I would admonish you that the Brainless are as harmful and detrimental as those cunning folks, for the latter who lie and set you up, whereas the former preach the good and lead you to hell. Pray believe me.

Gerald Ford

'There were many times in his long life when Gerald Ford felt he had reached the top of the tree.' The orbituary in The Economist says. And it continues, 'Mr Ford, after 13 terms as a congressman, had risen to become a popular minority leader in the House, with no ambitions but to be speaker one day if control swung back to the Republicans. Still, as he told Betty [Warren, his wife], the vice-presidency would make a “nice conclusion” to his career.' But '[I]t is not the conclusion.' He became the President of the United States on 9th August 1974 when Richard Nixon stepped down in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Mr. Ford is described as disliking fuss and he worked like hell. 'As he made his inaugural speech in the East Room of the White House—“just a little straight talk among friends”—the very flatness of his Michigan vowels, his stumbles over words, his mistiness whenever he talked about prayers, seemed like a gale of fresh air.'

In fact, I say, the writing of the orbituary is also like a gale of fresh air.

2007

Theodor Mommsen's A History of Rome describes Roman life as follows:

Life in the case of Roman was spent under conditions of austere restraint, and, the nobler he was, the less he was a free man. All-powerful custom restricted him to a narrow range of thought and action; and to have led a serious and strict or, to use the characteristic Latin expressions, a grave and severe life, was his glory.

"Austere restraint" was required of a noble man in Rome. Truly the custom put the restraint on him and led him to live a "grave and severe life". With deeper thought, I do not entirely object to a grave and severe life (the term is generally defined in this statement, whereas, I have to say, it can be strictly defined if the audience requires me to do so).

In The Name of The Rose, the venerable Jorge says, without fear people will lose faith to God (idea). Hence, he forbides the reading of Aristotle's Comedy (which is in fact lost) by applying poison to the pages.

You may want to ask why it is necessary to exert fear on people and why we are afraid to lose faith to God and what the benefits are living a grave and severe life and abstaining from worldly pleasures. The answer is not easy, but not impossible. On the whole, a grave and severe life is much satisfying than that full of worldly pleasures and fully liberal. I do not forsee a trappist life totally detaching from worldly pleasures, but instead would like to see one lead a life in the balance in the sense that the enjoyment of worldly pleasures comes the understanding of the higher satisfaction of abstaining them (or minimising them). A nobleman is noble only when his mindset dictates what he chooses to do in a noble manner. Some of us can do it at ease, perhaps physically more superior with his brain, as neuroscientist likes to promote - well probably correctly. A lot or most of us have to go through a painful process, but I admit, with my own experience, that through it I see the truth of a simpler, graver and more severe life.

One Better Thing in Life

Listening to J S Bach's Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056, performed by the legendary Concertgebouw Orchestra, and it goes without saying, the conductor is Willem Mengelberg.

Do I need to say more?

Christmas Special

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

The mixed signals and information that our world gives us sometimes make us hard to believe in a world that Christianity depicts and the way in which the same religion shows us the world is going to be. But there is in fact no better time than Christmas to introspectively think of how our world has developed if it is not created, maintained and evolving as the Holy Bible suggests. Even it is true that the world comes purposelessly, we confer the meaning to it and make it a place worth remembering, preserving and making it more habitable. As I always say, it is the Humanity Hypothesis. Many of the issues that ascribe to God or the lacking of Him may be tackled without the involvement of Him. It is still not an implausible idea or hypothesis to suggest a conscious, all-good divine being looking at us and taking care of what is beyond our living such as the stability of our universe.

In this moment, I refrain, temporarily, from attacking the idiots or the Brainless. All I would like to do is to think about our world, and read Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion.

Christianity or Humanity

The title of this post illustrates the author's idea but not the subjects the author talks about. In simple terms, the subjects the author talks about are not concerned with Christianity or Humanity, or what Christianity or Humanity is all about, or whether Christianity and Humanity may be in conflict with one another. All they know is what they believe they know and disastrously what they believe they know is true, the only truth and nothing but the truth.

I am about to show you how the Brainless in the Rubbish work. Although they are brainless, they are equipped with the senses and they are able to understand in some way, for example, they should have learnt the letter "B" is placed after the letter "A" when they are required to write, "A, B, C, D,......, X, Y and Z". I have to add, though, the Brainless may get confused when counting to G, and then they will ask themselves, vainly, what next. Is it H or J. After some struggle (well this does not take them much time, if any at all, to give up), they will do any other thing than writing down A to Z.

The above example shows how pathetic a Brainless is in terms of basic knowledge - the building block of rationality and other higher level knowledge. Then, I should demonstrate a second example in order to show you the lack of basic knowledge is not very detrimental to all of us who have a brain. It is the consequence of the lack of basic knowledge which annoys us.

Whan Brainless A finished high school, in old times (or good old times), he will come out of the society and taste what they deserve - a low life. But our great world gives the excessive resources and Brainless A now is in college, learning what once the elite and the best can enjoy - knowledge. The consequence is grave. Brainless A will become a college graduate and equal himself to the elite and the best. He comes out of the society as a self-proclaimed elite and demands the society to give him what the elite and the best has been given. But of course, the society is not a charity that feeds the imbeciles. It refuses and Brainless A jumps and moans and yells. A lot of them become noise. A few of them are more troublesome. They become institutional terrorists. You may argue, not all of these people I dub as Brainless are those idiots who cannot write A to Z. They may know well that Y is before Z, and X is before Y. And they have learnt quite well in college and got a decent job. They may be so called a professional or a middleclassman or even mistakenly respected as an elite. Why these people are still brainless is that they fail the second test. They fail knowledge. They fail badly to contribute after obtaining some much knowledge. They owe knowledge a great deal. They are morons who cannot think properly, act properly, act as an example to the other idiots or respond to the worsening world in a way that would contribute to the whole humanity. They live in vain, despite the fact that they have consumed so much of our precious resources (remember resources are precious, not scarce.)

I am not describing a dark picture. Just statistically you have a fair chance to bump into someone like Brainless A, either as some noise or a terrorist.

The one or two that relate to this post are not terrorist, but perhaps propagandists. If something is done unwilfully, they are Condemned progagandists. If wilfuly, they are unforgivable. Not quite recently I read some newspaper reporting a couple whose little baby was dead 9 days after birth. The couple blogged the whole incident and many responded. I am sure of it as a case in contrary to Humanity in a way as I have also defined it. Before she was born, the baby had been diagnosed as having inborn diseases that significantly reduced the chance of prolonged survival after birth. There would be two possibilities. First, let the baby come out and die. Second, let her go before she comes out. At this point comes the conflict if Christianity is in store. The baby girl passed away on the nineth day of her birthday. While a bunch of people claim they know they are right about what they have done in the name of Christianity, they in reality distract their inability under the guise of Christianity. I call these people the Brainless. Let me continue in the next posts.

In the meanime, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I would hope the real spirit of Jesus Christ will prevail.

The Brainless - An Introduction

One important element of the Rubbish is the Brainless.

A lot of brainless humans (apparently the term is in contradiction with homo sapiens, but let's see what this writing develops if this term is consistently being used) love thinking or love the end-result of thinking (expression of ideas). But they have never thought about the key point, which is, a brain is required in order to think and bring the result of thinking forth for discussion or critique.

Don't worry! Life has become easier. Brianless humans can say whatever they want. Thanks to the blogs and other media that make their identity anonymous. So they can say brainlessly and still will not be criticised, derided or burnt at the stake. Most unfortunately, because of availability of these media, they are heard, and sometimes by a disproportionate number of others! But overall I have to admit that the benefit of these media to all of those who are equipped with a brain far outweighs the shortcoming that we have to tolerate the brainless contaminating the world with their fruitless words.

One thing that particularly annoys me is the way those people believe and the way they act accordingly, and the other brainless follows. In my forthcoming post, I shall describe what I mean in details.

Pseudo-educated Society (Or Rubbish) - A Prelogue

I need to explain this title. It means that Pseudo-educated Society may also be called Rubbish. Yes, Rubbish. I do not even bother calling the bunch of people in this Society such good names as Rubbish Society or Rubbish Community. No, they are not. They are just rubbish. The single, concrete word as plain as the word Rubbish.

Blogs are very popular and responses to blogs are even more popular. There are a lot of people, including my humble self, who publish blogs. Naturally there are a hell lot reading the blogs and writing in response to those blogs. From those blogs and those responses, I have to say that I can confirm that the majority is brainless, belonging to the category of rubbish whose existence is not in any sense worthier than the sum of the organic compounds that comprise their whole body, namely they are just fertilisers.

I once commented some circulating writings on the web regarding the forecast of tsunamis. I said, Konstantin Dmitrievich, the protagonist in Anna Karenina, makes a comment on the aristocrats fancying the "table-rapping and spirits", "[this table-rapping proves that] educated society - so-called - is no higher than the peasants. They believe in the evil eye, and in witchcraft and omens." The reference to the educated society is made rightly and is still equally applicable in our time as in Leo Tolstoy's.

Seeing those people these days, if I classified them in our time as members of the educated society, I classified them too highly. So I decided to use a term I coined. It is the Pseudo-educated society to which they belong. But still this is not satisfactory. People in the Pseudo-educated Society, I would believe, still consider being educated a virtue. In fact, from what I have learnt of these writings on the blogs, they do not see it a virtue. They do not see it at all inasmuch as they are blind. Though in reality they may be deemed just above illiterate, they are literally blind and they are mentally blind as well -- as such they cannot think properly, cannot write properly and obviously do not have any idea about definitions of our world. As a consequence they say what others said and collage what those others said and hope they can compose something expressive, meaningful and touching. They write, as a matter of fact, rubbish. Thus they should be called Rubblish, if we wish to add brutality in the description. I shall continue my elaboration how those people act in our world.

Spectrum, A Scenario of The Future

‘Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History suggests that as all human societies are becoming homogenous or being homogenised, regardless of their historical origins or cultural inheritances, literal democracy that these societies have moved or are moving to might be the ultimate form of human society where history ceases to further evolve. But in fact, while the process globalisation continues unabated; liberalisation of the market continues unabated, or I should say, markets are being forced open by superpowers, hardly has there ever been any evidence supporting that an equal liberal democracy prevails, supporting the Western, or presently, the United States’ vision that the world is stepping towards an equal, open society where poverty could eventually be eradicated and people live in complete freedom – social, political and freedom of thought, and where conflicts would be effectively and peacefully resolved. On the contrary, the skewed or even polarised pluralistic world appears to be less stable and vulnerable than ever. The weaklings, permit me to say so, are in such despair that desperate measures are usually taken to get their ends met (or perhaps to have their despair heard), in front of an enemy that there exists not the faintest hope to defeat. I believe that the world in such situation becomes the source of instability. Can your scenarios describe this reality or an alternative future that meets the ideal vision? Can they also give thoughts to the options available with various stakeholders involved? Those, whose country own the nuclear warheads and absolute military advantage, have the common decency, I personally have no doubt of it; but most are simply too naïve to believe that some of their peers have done the world irreparable bad, economically or environmentally, and they are still too ignorant of knowing that their good intentions have been made use of in a distorted manner to do others harm and mischief.’ Miss Aya continued her topic rather enthusiastically. She took a deep breath and continued, ‘you know, Noam Chomsky believes that the victim of 9/11 is in fact the major practitioner of terrorism, that is to say, the use of violence for political ends. In fact, the US, according to him, is the only nation condemned in this regard. In Central America, and in the Middle East where the US has done violence on people and countries, Noam Chomsky quotes a number of examples. What are the options available in such absurd realities? We prefer, though necessarily, a world resembling a painting, as described by Edward Burne-Jones, of a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was and never will be; in better light than has ever shone; in a country that one cannot define nor remember, but only for; with divinely beautiful form.’

I was amazed at her comments again, and said with some surprise, holding my last piece of Omi beef on the fork, ‘Miss Aya, it seems that your knowledge and ideas are well beyond that which is required of an actress.’ After a brief pause, I continued, ‘Toynbee mentions in his Civilisation on Trial that in Victorian time, when Great Britain’s power reached its pinnacle, the English people believed history had become a constant. But of course, we now know how wrong such naivety is! I am sure the same applies to the belief of liberal democracy. In the US, there are people who believe the same. I haven’t read Fukuyama, and thus don’t know if he is one of those naïve. But before I systematically answer your concerns, I must qualify my work that I am only an analyst at an oil company, and with my humble power, cannot provide answers to the travesties of our world and turn it like who, the one you just said.’

Aya said, ‘Edward Burne-Jones.’ She smiled and continued, knowing that I was perplexed, ‘he is a British painter of symbolism in the 19th century.’

Perhaps just leap forward to explain how my team and myself came up with a scenario of the future called the “Spectrum”. It is one of the 4 possible futures that we made.’ Then I finished my appetiser.

The Economist - "A severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress"

This newspaper always makes me feel happy in such a way in which philosophers define happiness. The obituary in the latest copy on Ta Mok, "the surviving leader of the Khmers Rouges", who died on 21st July, is very interesting. Ta Mok commented on his comrade Pol Pot that he had fallen like "a ripe papaya" and was now no more than "cow shit". In fact, Ta Mok added, Pol Pot was less than that. Cow shit was useful.

Perhaps now with the same peasant's brutality, one may say to Ta Mok, "ditto".

I take the liberty to say, very humbly, that Ta Mok's usefulness does not lie in the instrumentality as cow shit, which provides the necessary nutrients to plants. It reminds us that we have to be intelligent and brave in order to not let the evil take charge of our lives, regardless of whether the evil is as necessary in essence to make humans more enlightened as cow shit to make plants more robust.