№ 816. Lessons from Lord of the Rings

 

 

A Harvard University Law professor stood at a podium last week and told the graduating class that their credentials were not their qualification. He did it without saying the sentence. He picked a hobbit instead.

The story most people will tell about Benjamin Sachs’s last lecture is that a professor surprised his audience by quoting Tolkien instead of Rawls. That is the charming version. The actual version is that a senior labor scholar at Harvard Law School chose, in front of the next generation of corporate attorneys, to hand them the smallest character in the trilogy as their model. He could have given them Aragorn. He gave them Frodo. The choice was the whole sermon.

 

№ 808. The Sound of Music

 

 

№ 724. “Omnia ex scrineis praeter stilum”

 

№ 649. Hong Kong

Exploring the bustling Central business district of Hong Kong on foot can be quite the challenge.
The area's hilly landscape, combined with subtropical heat and smothering humidity, would test the stamina of a mountaineer.

Luckily, there's the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator -- an 800-meter-long chain of moving stairs and walkways that's been dubbed the world's longest outdoor escalator system.

Opened to the public in 1993 and built at a cost of $30 million, it's a series of 16 reversible escalators and three travelators -- all covered to protect against sudden downpours.
Building a system of people movers that intersects 13 busy streets on a slope was as challenging a task as one would expect.
 

The escalators were designed to follow the natural inclination of the hill slope. As most of the slopes' gradients don't fall within the normal standards for escalators, a dedicated production line was set up by the escalator manufacturer.
 

With limited spaces between Hong Kong's old buildings and new skyscrapers, most of the escalators on the link only have one reversible track that changes direction "following the prevailing direction of pedestrian flow during the day."
 

Running at around 0.65 meters per second, the network of escalators has its own CCTV system with 75 cameras, a PA system with 200 speakers, four LED displays and a control room to monitor the system.
But most importantly, it's a congestion-free means of commuting between Central and Conduit Road in Mid-Levels, serving 78,000 pedestrian trips daily. And there's no charge.
 

Snaking through narrow streets in the busiest neighborhood in town, it's actually a great way to tour Hong Kong's dramatic cityscape -- from dai pai dong food stalls in small alleys to the trendiest bars in Mid-Levels, from colorful old walk-ups to sleek modern skyscrapers.
 

Here are some highlights that can be found by hopping on and off the escalator system.

№ 593. Merry Little Christmas

One Christmas classic we watched just before December was Meet Me in St. Louis. 

 

Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis, leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (more commonly referred to as the World's Fair) in the spring of 1904.

 

№ 465. California on My Mind

 Here's an unabashed California nostalgia. Old songs never fade. They're just remade into new music videos.




Here's another big city story tinted with the recurrent song California Dreaming --- Chungking Express.

№ 418. Ad Astra

When we dream about
our future, we plunder scenes,
plots and peoples. Like

mobius loops wrung taut,
we fuse words, knives and prayers.
We build sand castles,

kites plastered on sticks,
and tin men to slay terrors.
Then wake up consumed.


 

№ 374. Retiro X

Chungking Express Art

She lip-reads her swift murders,
In urban-drenched neon monologues,
Fractured day dream sequences.

She sketches boarding passes on a tissue paper
Later thrown away, unread,
Melting in the midnight monsoon.

She sleepwalks in vindaloo alleys,
Concealed and armed by wigs and stilettos,
Tipsy with chaos, solitary and morbid deadlines.

Like the poisoned city she breathes,
She is livid, resigned and, cruel.

№ 373. Love You for 10,000 Years

In his essay “Time Pieces: Wong Kar-Wai and the Persistence of Memory,” critic Chuck Stevens summarizes Wong Kar-Wai’s approach to film-making perfectly: “Passionate about ideas, possessed by the errant flashes of whimsy and misfortune that haunt modern loves, [Wong Kar-Wai] transforms emotional free-fall into infectious rhymes and deliberate coincidences, willfully missed signals and capricious possibilities for romance.”

№ 285. Friday Dipped in Poetry 2

It is the moment when you can look back on your life so far and see it with different eyes. Hopefully you’ve built up some wisdom, which, as the psychologists define it, means seeing the world with more compassion, grasping opposing ideas at the same time, tolerating ambiguity and reacting with equanimity to the small setbacks of life.

№ 222. Two Funerals and A Film About Black Death

We visited two funerals this week and to cap it off, I finally finished watching the The Seventh Seal.

Bart would say, "¡Ay, caramba!". I would say, "Tick tock".

First Funeral (Sunday, October 11). A close friend since kindergarten days (almost 40 years of friendship), a cardiologist, had to go through the last three or so months of his mother. His mom was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer last July. The cancer has metastasized to the lungs. It was again an issue between curative or palliative. In the end, doctor friends advised palliative care.

I was called to the hospital last Sunday to advise on end of life issues. She passed away three days later, survived by her husband, two daughters, two sons and a number of grandchildren.

Second Funeral (Wednesday, October 14). An officer at work confided that her father, a chronic diabetic, was undergoing renal dialysis. That was May, five months ago. He passed away last Monday, four days before his 75th birthday.

Our laminated lives seem both too brief and yet too lengthy. How is meaning and measure appreciated? Is it achieved, gained or obtained? Does one decide whether to view life through the lens of kairos or chronos, or both, depending on the need?

№ 182. Facts Wrapped in Fiction

A morning rummage through the pages of web yields a find worth a pause.

Hola Escolta, Saturday Market, July 2014

№ 181. Life is Beautiful

Eye Purses, Hola Escolta, Saturday Market, July 2014

"Roots are important",
the Saint hums.
She blows a whisper

№ 179. Lifesavers

Red chairs at the workshop lounge, Pompidou Center, Paris, May 2014

Dear Helena, wherever you may be,
Let me unfurl you like dawn on my sheets,
When dreams blur into wakefulness.

№ 158. Special Effects Sunday

Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects Oscar Winners from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.

№ 106. Is Smeagol a Hobbit?

Id:  That was Lee Pace!?

Ego:  The brows, the brows, Bilbo.

Superego: Of course.

№ 58. Sunday Lullaby

Empire of the Sun, an old favorite, is being shown in HBO Signature. I saw this first in GMA 7, back when cable meant a written message sent through submarine wires. Late 80s, I think.

Easily recognized is a very young Christian Bale, with his wide-set, glassy eyes. He carried the long film for the most part on the strength of his talent. Impressive!

Spielberg directed this epic and loaded it with imagery and metaphors of the war. Sometimes it felt like a sequence of vintage film slides. I was still awed even though the grand scenes were much diminished by my smallish TV screen.

Some films are meant to be watched on the big screen. This is one of those films. With John Williams's soaring musical scoring, it has to be appreciated with Dolby surround and big bright silver screens.

Empire of the sun / Suo Gan - Umi Yukaba 

Huna blentyn ar fy mynwes
Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon;
Breichiau mam sy'n dynn amdanat,
Cariad mam sy dan fy mron;
Ni cha' dim amharu'th gyntun,
Ni wna undyn â thi gam;
Huna'n dawel, annwyl blentyn,
Huna'n fwyn ar fron dy fam.
Huna'n dawel, heno, huna,
Huna'n fwyn, y tlws ei lun;
Pam yr wyt yn awr yn gwenu,
Gwenu'n dirion yn dy hun?
Ai angylion fry sy'n gwenu,
Arnat ti yn gwenu'n llon,
Tithau'n gwenu'n ôl dan huno,
Huno'n dawel ar fy mron?
Paid ag ofni, dim ond deilen
Gura, gura ar y ddôr;
Paid ag ofni, ton fach unig
Sua, sua ar lan y môr;
Huna blentyn, nid oes yma
Ddim i roddi iti fraw;
Gwena'n dawel yn fy mynwes
Ar yr engyl gwynion draw.

English Translation:

Sleep my baby, at my breast,
’Tis a mother’s arms round you.
Make yourself a snug, warm nest.
Feel my love forever new.
Harm will not meet you in sleep,
Hurt will always pass you by.
Child beloved, always you’ll keep,
In sleep gentle, mother’s breast nigh.
Sleep in peace tonight, sleep,
O sleep gently, what a sight.
A smile I see in slumber deep,
What visions make your face bright?
Are the angels above smiling,
At you in your peaceful rest?
Are you beaming back while in
Peaceful slumber on mother’s breast?
Do not fear the sound, it’s a breeze
Brushing leaves against the door.
Do not dread the murmuring seas,
Lonely waves washing the shore.
Sleep child mine, there’s nothing here,
While in slumber at my breast,
Angels smiling, have no fear,
Holy angels guard your rest. (Wikipedia)

№ 53. To Remember Is To Suffer

N is for noir, nimbus, nitrogen and nocturnes, from Lettrines

I read about this film in Gibbs Cadiz's "Forgiveness in the Age of Terror".

A few weeks back, I searched and grabbed a torrent. And when I finally decided to have time, sit down and watch the Cannes Grand Prix winner, the subtitles were missing! I thought, this couldn't be another one of my "French 4: A Nightmare on Kostka" specimens.

Flashback to college.

№ 51. Star Wars

Back in the early 21st century, Spider-Man 1 was shown in tandem with the much-maligned Star Wars Prequels (I, II, III). My friends were surprised why I preferred the Lucas films over the arachnid marvel. Spidey was, by many accounts, better told and more engaging. The prequels were a disappointment, read: Jar Jar Binks.

Jar Jar

First, I'm a sucker for sweeping narrative strokes and the macro-enterprise. Let me count the ways. The allusions to the aging and frayed Roman Empire on the brink of collapse, the Senate horsetrading and grandstanding, the clash of ideals and ideology, the memory of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (1980s!), hyperdrive and light saber proved too strong a pull towards the dark side.