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CCTV just produced an English language documentary on the yue opera "The Family of Ancient Book Collectors", based on the storied Tianyi Ge book collection, which I talked about here before. These CCTV English productions on Chinese cultural topics tend to give one the curious sensation of reading Shakespeare as paraphrased by a fourth grader, ( Read more... ) -
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Saw the Romance of the Western Chamber last weekend at Kennedy Center while visiting my mom in DC. Strange to say, in spite of my opera fever, this was really the first full length Chinese opera I have seen live in a theater. Before that I have seen them as part of a mixed bill in theater, or on tv. So what appeared most forcefully to me, is ( Read more... ) -
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Since I was stuck at home all weekend with Hurrican Irene, I made clafoutis. On paper it sounded incredibly easy and delicious, the perfect summer time dessert. And it actually is pretty easy to make too. Even pitting the cherries was easy too once I learned the trick of using a paper clip. The whole thing came together in about 20 minutes ( Read more... ) -
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Finished Mieville's The Scar. I like it rather better than Perdido Station, if only because it happens on the sea, and feels less claustrophobic than the former. The idea of the Fractured land and probability mining is also rather intriguing, but not really developed. One gets the sense that he comes up with clever words based on some vague idea ( Read more... ) -
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Here's another one of these atmospheric and endlessly suggestive pieces from Takarazuka, with Todoroki Yuu as the rose collector, and Asami Hikaru, the top otokoyaku of Snow troupe, as the rose spirit. Definitely in the top ten slashiest pieces from Takarazuka.
Arggh, if the embeded video doesn't work below, here's the direct link to the videoIf ( Read more... ) -
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Was going to post a long whine masquerading as a critique of Takarazuka's productions, but then realized that I have been doing that about various things for the last three posts. So no more of that crabbiness. Instead, here's a bit of gratuitous gothic eye candy that Takarazuka does so well, featuring Todoroki Yuu as the lord of the underworld, ( Read more... ) -
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Finally picked up China Mieville. Got Perdido Station and The Scar from the Borders @ penn station that's closing, rather sad. He's one of the authors that people are always surprised that I haven't read, and in fact I'm surprised myself that I haven't either. Well, now that I'm half way through them, I'm not sure if I'm actually missing ( Read more... ) -
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Finally saw X-Men:FC. Well, I have been convinced that Prof X and Magneto were a couple since I started reading the comics, oh, twenty years ago, when I barely understand the word slash. So there. ^__^ Took a look around the major comms, as well as the Chinese boards, and found the fics rather... blah. So I guess my reading drought has not come to ( Read more... ) -
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Went to see ABT's Don Quixote at the Met, with Paulina Semionova, on loan from Hamburg Ballet. It's not exactly a new production, as far as I'm aware of, but in fact it has changed quite a bit from the last one I have seen. The costumes are exceptionally pretty, and not at all what I remembered; several solos have been moved around, and the music ( Read more... ) -
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For all of you who wonder who is this Mao Weitao person that I have been raving about for the past year, here's a short documentation about her, subtitled in English. It's not greatest subtitle, it has the waft of government translators to it -- serviceable but somehow always on the corny side, but hey, it's better than nothing. I wonder why there ( Read more... )