Melodrammatico

Posted on December 22, 2016 by d4vid

You simply don’t know passion until you’ve watched Titanic dubbed in Italian.

Posted in Roma | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Stellari

Posted on December 22, 2016 by d4vid

An hour after getting out of the airport, I was checked in to my hotel.  An hour after that, I was watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.   (It seems to have become something of an annual tradition to leave China to see a new Star Wars movie.)  I had almost forgotten what a small theater without stadium seating looked like.

Posted in Roma | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Accogliente

Posted on December 22, 2016 by d4vid

I checked in to the Hotel Barocco off the Piazza Barberini on Quirinal Hill, the northernmost and tallest of the Seven Hills of Rome (and may have been the home of the Sabines as in “The Rape of the Sabine Women” Sabines.)
Cozy (i.e. small for David) but nice.  
  I call this shot “Still Life with Flower through Wine Glass”.

Posted in Roma | 2 Comments

Graffito

Posted on December 22, 2016 by d4vid

From the streets, the first thing that struck me about Rome was the amount of graffiti everywhere.  Almost like there was an engaged populace who valued expression — even unpopular political expression — and wasn’t deathly afraid of governmental reprisal.

Posted in Roma | Leave a comment

Alto

Posted on December 22, 2016 by d4vid

Overlooking the Alps as I fly south from Amsterdam to Rome.
Looking out over Rome into the mist at the Apennine Mountains.  (Some linguists believe the “pen” in “Apennine” is related to the Celtic “ben” for “mountain.”)

Clearly I’ve been warped by my time in Shanghai.  As we landed, I found myself thinking, “Awww, look how cute and tranquil Rome is!”

Posted in Roma | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fine

Posted on December 21, 2016 by d4vid

In 1992, my late grandmother made a last minute decision to treat the Young family to a Mediterranean cruise.  I was a senior in high school and the dates of the trip overlapped with my Advanced Placement tests. At 17 years old, I made the very adult decision to skip the trip and stay home alone to take my AP tests.  My family went without me.

I’ve always wanted to see Rome.

As Oriental DreamWorks implodes and my years at DreamWorks draw to a close, I decided to spend my final “home visit” plane ticket to spend Christmas in Rome.  There’s a certain beautiful symmetry to all of this:

  • My family didn’t pay to take me to Rome, but a quarter of a century later I had my company pay for it.
  • When I first visited Shanghai in 2013, my lowest point was weeping in an Italian restaurant as I watched the entirety of The Bicycle Thief projected on the wall.
  • After all my visits to Xi’an and the Hexi Corridor, it seems fitting to visit the far Western end of the Silk Road.
Posted in Roma | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Enlightenment FLASHBACK

Posted on December 21, 2016 by d4vid

Okay, the wounds of my Tibet trip are finally scabbing over.  This photo is a great metaphor:  Debbie was trying to take a beautiful picture and one of Tibet’s seemingly infinite feral dogs wandered into the shot and spoiled it.

Before I forget, I wanted to record some of the things I learned on my Tibetan adventure:

  • Butter tea is just fine if the butter isn’t rancid.  It tastes a bit like the soupy stuff at the bottom of a pot of macaroni & cheese.
  • Tibetans sincerely believe that yeti exist.
  • Tibetan Buddhism says that this cycle of existence will end in 2500 years.  The next cycle of humans will be much taller, like giants.
  • Pointing at a sacred object is rude and one must gesture with an open hand.
  • Tibetans aren’t allowed to have passports.
  • Yeti are a yellow-brownish color like straw, not white.
  • When chased by a yeti, one must run downhill because their long hair gets in their eyes and they can’t catch you.
Posted in 西藏 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Solstice

Posted on December 21, 2016 by d4vid

It’s raining.  I’m sitting here at the airport in Pudong, waiting to fly through the longest night of the year.

Posted in 上海 | 1 Comment

Loyalties

Posted on December 20, 2016 by d4vid

 It is part of the Rebel alliance and a cookie!  Take it away!

Posted in 上海 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Inferno

Posted on December 19, 2016 by d4vid

 How hot was the Sichuan hot pot I had with Robyn & Nafees?  Just look at the price.

Posted in 上海 | Leave a comment

Shiny

Posted on December 19, 2016 by d4vid

They hung this gaudy Christmas ornament in my apartment building’s (mirrored) elevator.  Hooves, red.  Tail, red.  Antlers, red.  Nose, not red.

Get your shit together, China.

Posted in 上海 | Leave a comment

Campanology II

Posted on December 18, 2016 by d4vid

 They opened a Taco Bell in Shanghai!  In Pudong!  As a student of all things bell, I felt obliged to try it.

Main thing that was different from Taco Bell in the U.S.:  booze.Main thing that was the same as Taco Bell in the U.S.:  they screwed up my order.  I had ordered a margarita and two hardshell beef tacos.  On their first try, I received a mojito and two soft chicken tacos.  Silver-lining:  I got to learn that the Chinese word for “crunchy” is 脆 (cuì).

The reliance on goopy, nacho-style cheese instead of grated cheese made everything borderline inedible and didn’t taste at all like what I’ve come to expect from the fine people at Taco Bell.  Although the mojito was decent (if weak), the margarita (also weak) was blueish and had a distinct chemically taste to it.  I noticed that although the English menu said “margarita”, the Chinese menu had listed it as “blue sea witch” or something, so I’m not even sure they know what it is.

Posted in 上海 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Throw

Posted on December 16, 2016 by d4vid

I used to do this all the time.  Like most weekends.  But think this might have been the first time I’ve done it here in China:  I watched back-to-back movies.

After watched The Great Wall (in IMAX 3D), I immediately watched Sully (in a theater with the longest throw to such a tiny screen I have ever witnessed in my life.)

I found the movie — about competent Americans doing their jobs well — surprisingly inspiring.

However, if you’re going to sit to my right wearing an Apple Watch which lights up every time you raise your arm, don’t continuously brush your hair with your left hand.  (Although it was almost worth it when the plane hit the Hudson and the woman gasped audibly and slapped her hands to her cheeks like she was straight out of Home Alone.)

Posted in 上海 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Achievement II

Posted on December 16, 2016 by d4vid

I’ve unlocked another achievement.  While in China, I saw The Great Wall.  No, not that one.  The movie.

It’s about Jason Bourne (doing a sketchy Irish accent) and Oberyn Martell in China defending the Great Wall like it’s Helm’s Deep.  It’s directed by Zhang Yimou who uses a color scheme cribbed from his movie Hero.

The villains are a swarm of creatures that look something like wargs from Jackson’s The Two Towers or the Nexu from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.  The Chinese audience I saw it with seemed to perk up when it was explained that they were 饕餮 (tāotiè) which are gluttonous beasts from Chinese mythology known for devouring humans.

But then — just a few minutes later — the movie seemed to lose the guy sitting behind me when it subtitled Matt Damon saying “thank you” as 多谢 (duōxiè) because even I know that that’s a Hong Kongism and not something said on the Mainland!

Fun fact:  In one of the (many, many) intermediate versions of Everest, the animated yeti movie Oriental DreamWorks has been trying to make for years and years, the villain was an avaricious 饕餮.

Another fun fact:  See how many strokes 饕餮 has?  That’s how you know it’s an ancient term.  It was never simplified.

Posted in 上海 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Time

Posted on December 14, 2016 by d4vid

Cover version by Tori Amos:

Lyrics by Tom Waits:

Well the smart money’s on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws
And you’re east of East Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause
And Napoleon is weeping in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee’s in the mirror
And the band is going home, it’s raining hammers, it’s raining nails
And it’s true there’s nothing left for him down here

And it’s time time time, and it’s time time time
And it’s time time time that you love
And it’s time time time

And they all pretend they’re orphans and their memory’s like a train
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away
And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can’t forget
That history puts a saint in every dream

Well she said she’d stick around until the bandages came off
But these mama’s boys just don’t know when to quit
And Mathilda asks the sailors “Are those dreams or are those prayers?”
So close your eyes, son, and this won’t hurt a bit

Oh it’s time time time, and it’s time time time
And it’s time time time that you love
And it’s time time time

Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street
And when they’re on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off ’til I come back again

Oh it’s time time time, and it’s time time time
And it’s time time time that you love
And it’s time time time
And it’s time time time, and it’s time time time
And it’s time time time that you love
And it’s time time time

Special thanks to my friend Tim Peacock on the quindeccenial anniversary of including this track on his (even then anachronistically-titled) “Christmas Tape 2001” which still stands — to this very day — as the most beautiful, most thoughtful, most heart-stirring Christmas mix ever assembled (and surely ranks with “Road to Closure Vol. 12” as one of the greatest playlists of all time.)

Posted in 上海 | Tagged | Leave a comment