Vera Wang's "Almost"* Moment

Rachel Weisz in a Vera Wang gown for the 2007 Oscars

[Larger image here]

I watch the movie award shows mostly for the fashion. This isn't as trivial as it sounds. I find that in these highly watched events, both by professionals in fashion and news and by ordinary folk, the stars come out in full glamour to display formal beauty. We don't have the usual post-modern ironic clothes by contemporary fashion designers who try to tell us that fashion is irrelevant, although they make a fortune through this very fashion. Nor do we have the drab, dark attire that is common in the streets. Instead, stars come out looking like the 1930s movie icons, with full-length gowns for the women and tuxedos or formal suits for the men. The few that add their quaint commentary are often looked at a little condescendingly by the "Fashion Police", or are merely excused as eccentrics.

I've been writing on Vera Wang for a few years now. In a recent piece, I describe her as the Fashion Designer du Jour, where I've said that she's nabbed this very lucrative role of designer for the stars not because she's good, but because of clever marketing and promotion. And because she's clever at reproducing clothes that resemble the designs of other high level designers. It seems that when she resorts to her own imagination, the result is a spectacular failure (as I analyzed here).

Here is a list of posts I've done on Wang over several years:
- Vera Wang's Aggressive Asian Outreach: Part I, September 21, 2011
- Vera Wang's Aggressive Asian Outreach: Part II, September 21, 2011
- Vera Wang's Aggressive Asian Outreach: Part III, September 22, 2011
- Vera Wang vs. Amsale Aberra, August 9, 2011
- Wang's Wedding Dress Fit for a Vampire's Bride, August 24, 2010
- More Thoughts on Chelsea's Wedding, August 7, 2010
- Vera Wang: Wedding Dress Designer?, July 29, 2010
- Modern Bridal Wear, January 27, 2010
- The Global Runway: Part 3, August 4, 2006

Below is another one of those failures, although I wouldn't classify this one as a "spectacular failure" but an odd design that the imagination-bereft Wang came up with.

Rachel Weisz in a Vera Wang gown for the 2007 Oscars

This was in 2007, before Wang was the Fashion Designer du Jour, but was still well enough known to produce gowns for Hollywood actresses. Rachel Weisz was the perfect model for Wang at that time, since although she's known, she's not the high-level star like Meryl Streep or Halle Berry. She was just the right fit for Wang at the time.

Wang seems to be going for Hollywood glamour, but what she turns out is some kind of lingerie hybrid. She has made an attractive enough, although modestly glamorous, bodice, but its stiff structure doesn't fit with the looser bottom half. The train is also too long, with odd superfluous additions (lace?, satin trims?) that make it "bottom heavy."

The lovely Rachel Weisz still outshines
the mediocre Wang gown

Sofia Vergara's Marchesa dress for the January 2012 SAG Awards

Other designers combine the defined bodice with the loser skirt much more successfully. The design team from Marchesa produced the gown that Sofia Vergara wore to the 2012 SAG Awards (image above). Although the dress is made from a satiny material, Marchesa have made it slightly stiffer so that it falls better. They have also avoided a long, superfluous train, and made it simpler. The gatherings around the bust area are a stiffer, decorative and more sculpted design. The gatherings continues slightly below the waist, to avoid the lingerie effect that Weisz's dress has.

One criticism that this dress received (although it wasn't the dress, but the entire outfit) was that Vergara should have worn some kind of jewellery around her neck. I somewhat agree, although she probably avoided that in order to focus around the sculpted bodice. I don't mind the absence of jewellery around her neck.

Upper bodice embellishments seem to be a trademark with Marchesa, and it seems to be what Wang is channeling in her designs. Here is a site which showcases the Marchesa finesse in upper bodice design, going as far back as 2005, and here's InStyle showcasing 100+ Marchesa designs.

Marchesa gowns for sale

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*

Rihanna Sings to the Anti-Christ

Rihanna's crosses. I've circled the inverted cross in red

Rihanna, the pop star, was sporting some kind of leather jacket with crosses printed on it at a recent event. That's nothing unusual in pop fashion. Madonna made the cross into some kind of pop fashion statement, and many follow her example.

But Rihanna's cross is a new evolution. I can only see two imprinted on her jacket. One is right-side-up, the other is upside-down.

I recently posted on Charlize Theron's Christian Dior perfume ad where her video is accompanied by singer Beth Ditto from the group Gossip. Other than her freakish appearance, there's nothing worth commenting on Ditto. But, as I looked for the song, it turns out that it is called "Heavy Cross" and the album cover has a cross turned on its head, about which I write,

[the album cover] cover features a cross turned on its head, some heavy cross for those who turn to the devil to alleviate its powers (or so they think).

This, as I said, is a new development, at least in the mainstream pop world. It is one thing to "ironically" wear an exaggerated cross as part of a fashion statement. That still leaves some room for true belief. But it is another to unashamedly display an inverted cross, because its meaning is nothing but demonic.

The original meaning of the inverted cross is related to St. Peter's humility. But, it has been appropriated by Satanists. Here is a brief explanation:

An inverted cross is the cross of St. Peter, who, according to tradition, was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die the same way as Christ. As Catholics believe the pope to be a successor of St. Peter, the inverted cross is frequently used in connection with the papacy, such as on the papal throne and in papal tombs [photo]. It also symbolizes humility because of the story of Peter. The inverted cross has more recently been appropriated by Satanists as a symbol meant to oppose or invert Christianity. [Source]

I doubt the freakish Ditto and the perverse Rihanna are thinking of their salvation when they sport this symbol. Their intentions are much more nefarious.


Once again, it is my belief that the world is turning more and more toward evil. I'm not sure what that signifies (the Apocalypse?), but it is incumbent on us to call out these anti-Christ figures and events, to distance ourselves from them, and to prepare ourselves to fight them for a deserved place by God.

The Vacillating Hirsi Ali, or All About Ayaan, Part III

In my last post, I tried to understand why Diana West would write a sympathetic article on Hirsi Ali.

To be fair, Ali is a confusing and confused character whose views seem to vacillate based on the time of day. This doesn't make for a stable ally, or a trustworthy writer. Here's a quote from an article (I misidentified it as a Time article, but it is in the Daily Beast) which quotes Ali admonishing Geert Wilders, which I posted in my latest blog on her, "Hirsi Ali, Ex Infidel":

"His weakness is that he plays the renegade, he still wants to position himself as being outside the establishment," says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an author and former Dutch parliamentarian whose critiques of Islam have been ferocious in their own right. "Once upon a time it was necessary for him to distinguish himself by saying, 'I take a stand, and I am a man of clarity.'"

"He has to move to the middle," urges Hirsi Ali. "He has to distinguish between violent Islamists and nonviolent Muslims. You know, there are so many shades of Muslims right now, and he could use some of them as his allies."

West has an earlier article where she discusses this Daily Beast article, and is a little more critical of Ali's statements on moderate Islam and Wilders.

But, my advice stays the same. Ali is a confusing and confused personality. I think it is best not to hold her as any kind of reliable writer or thinker when it comes to issues on Islam.

All About Ayaan: Part II

All About Ayaan
Hirsi Ali photographed in Ellis Island for the
February 2007 issue of Vogue

The normally lucid Diana West has an odd column up. Perhaps she's getting tangled in degrees of morality.

She is defending Ayaan Hirsi Ali against the tirades of a writer I've never heard of, but who writes for the leftist magazine The Nation and also for the New York Times.

Rather than defend Ali, perhaps West could have just left Deborah Scroggins' ugly book alone. Sometimes, by defending nominal allies against the tirades of their enemies, we lose our own innocence.

I've written several posts on Ali showing that despite her forceful and belligerent denunciations of Islam, she is no real friend or ally of the West. She gained attention outside of the Netherlands when she forcefully attacked Islam. Much later on, she wrote several articles and went on televised interviews attacking Christianity (or more consistently, all religions, but specifically Christianity). Here is what I wrote about her appearance on the Colbert Show in 2010 (the video is here) and her negative views of Christianity:

At one point, Colbert, the liberal, refuses to accept Ali demonizing Islam. But, perhaps he is less of a liberal than he makes out (TV shows are notoriously left-leaning, and he has to "play the game" to keep the ratings up). What Colbert does, unprecedented in other shows and interviews I've watched, is to invite Ali to Christianity, after having made her admit that she's an atheist. Partly, I think it is his way of telling her to put her money where her mouth is, since she is telling Christians to proselytize to Muslims, and get them to convert to the "better religion" Christianity.

At this point, Ali goes all out in mocking Christianity, which she has no intention whatsoever of joining. She makes fun of the Eucharist, brushes aside the notion of hell in Christian theology, and denounces Jesus Christ, saying she prefers the Enlightenment philosophers to him. Colbert did keep pushing her (in the guise of talk-show humor) until she reached this vocal and hostile condemnation.

I write about her failed project to write a philosophical discourse:

Initially, she had planned to write a philosophical discourse which she had decided to title Shortcuts to Enlightenment. But she abandoned this project to continue with her roster of memoirs and autobiographies, and wrote the memoir Nomad instead. I've written before that this approach is probably more financially lucrative, and anything she says will be attributed to her opinions or her "personal story" and therefore cannot be refuted by scholars or historians.

Here are several posts I've written on the intellectual development of Ali, which showed signs of promise, but ended up by giving us bland memoirs and anti-Christian rhetoric:

Islam's Missionary Women, October 2, 2008
Hirsi Ali and Knopf Canada, March 19, 2009
All about Ayaan, June 2, 2010
Hirsi Ali on the View From the Right, June 20, 2010
More on Hirsi Ali and Her Disdain for Christianity, July 12, 2010
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Latest Update, February 10, 2010
Hirsi Ali's Advice to Geert Wilders, January 17, 2012

Vera Wang, Hollywood Star?

Designer du jour, Vera Wang standing by her "minimalist
Beverly Hills house" in nothing but a swim suit

I've critiqued Vera Wang's dresses and wedding gowns in several blog posts where I've tried to show that she essentially copies (in an uninteresting way) other designers. I think she has become the designer du jour by savvy marketing and promotion. Other designers like the wedding dress designer Amsale Aberra and Carolina Herrera keep a low profile, but are, in my opinion, better designers. Here's a post where I compare Wang's wedding dresses with Amsale's. Designers like Jean Paul Gaultier come up with pretty crazy ideas, but they are at least working toward some originality, and stretching fashion and textile design as far as it will take them. Wang just stays safe.

I wrote that her design of Sandra Bullock's 2011 Oscar dress was structurally flawed. I wrote:

[I]t is strange that Wang would make a dress so similar to [Carolina Herrera's dress]. The odd protrusions at the breasts, especially pronounced in Wang's version, and the sculptured bodice detract from the flow of the dresses.

Here is more at a post I titled: (Serious) Design Flaws of a Vera Wang Gown:Or, How Vera Wang is a Mediocre Designer.

Her Golden Globe dress for Sofia Vergara (see image below) attracted a lot of attention. But again, like much of what Wang does, I found it structurally flowed. The wide profusion of feathers at the base of dress makes it difficult to walk and to sit. Also, the narrowing of the dress below the knees, which is called a mermaid cut, would make the wearer walk like, well, a mermaid in uncomfortably short steps restricted by the dress. Other designers have used this mermaid cut but provide ample room for walking, and work with material that is more comfortable for the person wearing the dress.

Sofia Vergara in a Vera Wang "mermaid cut"
gown at the 2012 Golden Globes

Golden Globes dress designers using a less restrictive mermaid cut
L-R:Monique Lhuillier, Zac Posen, Oscar de la Renta and Posen again

But this is Wang's style, to make some kind of ostentatious statement to cover up for the flaws in her design.

Wang is in the latest Bazaar magazine, not to showcase her clothes but to show herself. She is standing in various poses in front of her Los Angeles home. Above is one with her in a swim suit and heels. She says with false modesty that she's not "the type of woman who would wear high heels with a bathing suit" yet there she is in full view of a multitude of magazine readers. Of course she wants to be seen in a bathing suit and heels. One of the other dresses gives her a strange little girl/S&M appearance, replete with leather bodices and seven inch heels. In another, she looks like some sloppy bohemian. So much for a fashion designer.

She talks of her two homes, on either side of the continent. More from the Bazaar article:

'New York for me is about work. If LA were to become a West Coast version of that, I'd shoot myself,' she said. 'The climate, the lifestyle — it really fits as the yin to my New York yang.'

She doesn't talk about her husband in the article. Does he travel from one side of the country to the other on Wang's schedule? He looks like another one of those insipid, disconcerted spouses, although he looked a little more sure of himself at their wedding.

L: Wang's wedding in 1999
R: On May 15 2011 at the Museum of Modern Art's 39th Annual Party
with Wang in her hippy costume while her husband is in full black tie attire

I wonder if Wang's Hollywood glamor shot is a reaction to this absent husband? And what designer of real caliber would opt for the cold, bare minimalist structure that she proudly shows off as "one of her homes" to a fashion magazine?

For some reason, the design world has bestowed on Wang all this undue respect.

Amsale Aberra in a simple, elegant (not minimalist) dress
next to one of her wedding gowns

Carolina Herrera with her daughter

In the Absence of God

(L-R) Liam Neeson in October 2009, June 2010, and January 2012

Liam Neeson lost his wife, Natasha Richardson, in a ski accident in 2009. She was skiing in a Canadian resort, and died under the Canadian health care banner. I wrote here that her injuries needn't have taken her life.

Perhaps that is why Liam Neeson acquired that listless expression in the couple of years after her death. There is no doubt that he missed her. I always thought that he never accepted her death. But, being the son-in-law of the formidable leftist Vanessa Redgrave, he didn't have the words with which to articulate his suspicions that her death had something to do with the inadequate medical care she received in Montreal.

Now, three years after the death of his wife, he is contemplating leaving his Roman Catholic God for the god of the Muslims.

Here's today's Sun article on Neeson:

The actor, 59, admitted Islamic prayer "got into his spirit" while filming in Turkish city Istanbul.

He said: "The Call to Prayer happens five times a day and for the first week it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing.

"There are 4,000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning and it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim."

I agree that Islamic mosques, especially the sophisticated types in Turkey and Iran, can be beautiful. But, there must be something lulling and mesmerizing about those intricate patterns and the rhythmic calls of the muezzin that puts its adherents into a trance. The prayers themselves, around whose calls a Muslim's days are constructed, have a rhythmic certainty to them. The genuflections, timed around these prayers, instill a meditative aura. Even the architecture and design in Islamic art act to seduce the believer (the practitioner) toward Allah.

Neeson continues:

I was reared a Catholic but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about?

"I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of God and atheism.

Neeson seems to have acquired a hardened confidence in his 2012 photo (above). It could be that he's less vulnerable. But, it could be that he has made some kind of spiritual decision. We'll just have to wait and see what he does (and looks like) in the next couple of years. In the absence (rejection) of God, we don't find nihilism (atheism), but a different god, who is ever ready to grasp our souls.

Neeson isn't the only prominent figure to be attracted to this Allah through times of turmoil and angst. Ingrid Mattson was a devout Christian from her childhood to young adulthood. I discuss here her disappointments with God, which led her to finally reject him and turn to another god. She is now an important member of the Muslim world.

Marriage Non-Vows

These are photos of Heidi Klum that I put together:

- I was struck by the pleasant (Germanic) confidence that Klum exudes in the top row (from 1998-2003).
- In the middle row (2004-2007) she begins to have a hard glint in her eyes.
- In the bottom row (2008-2012) the glint is gone, but she has an insipid, almost self-pitying (petrified?), look in her eyes, and her signature confidence is also gone.
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The marriage of singer Seal and supermodel Heidi Klum is no more.

Poor Heidi Klum, all those marriage vows repeated every year, all those bizarre costumes this fashion supermodel had to endure with her husband Seal, those multi-culti kids, and now finally this:

According to the US celebrity website TMZ, Klum, 38, demanded a divorce because she was worried about the effect Seal’s 'inability to control his temper' was having on their children.

The claim followed reports that she was also fed up with the 48-year-old British singer’s ‘hard partying.’

The Yin and Yang of celebrity couples no more.
Heidi Klum and Seal at the Emmy Awards in September 2011.

Klum and Seal in their freakish costumes for their
marriage re-renewal in 2009 with a "White Trash" theme.
Of course it is always the Seals who trash the Heidis,
never the other way around. Notice how Heidi is trying so hard
with her corn rows. Interracial couple are always interesting,
it is often the more swarthy who set the rules, which often includes
"trashing" the other (less melanin-endowed).

Klum, Seal and their children at their May 2011 wedding renewal
(just 8 months before they announce their divorce),
hiding behind costumes and masks.

This is the couple that does its famous serial wedding vow renewals every year. Well, now Heidi and Seal will have a new tradition to upkeep, serially renewing their non-vows.

I've written about the couple here:

Seal, the black musician to whom [Heidi Klum] is now married, and with whom she has three children, proposed to her when she was pregnant with another (white) man's child. Not only that, Klum has said that she first met Seal when he was strutting around in some hotel lobby in his skimpy gym trunks showing off his endowments. This is what I mean by black men's aggressiveness. There is also an odd, feminine component to their seduction method, like Seal’s, who was preening around to get the attention of any (white) woman.

They are an attractive (attracting) couple, in a stylistically, yin and yang, contrasting sort of way. Heidi, being a fashion model, most likely was drawn to that, and to Seal's bad boy (black boy) rock star persona. They do cover at least a couple of yins and yangs: light and dark, male and female. Good and Bad?

Heidi used to have that Germanic confidence in her poses and looks. She even looked sweetly confident in her earlier photos. Now she just has that insipid look of someone who has lost something, and realizes that it was her fault.

I really don't care about the ins and outs of these "celebrity couples." It is their children who need our pity. Despite the "I want what I want" mantra of their parents, I don't think the children even know what they want. How will they grow up? Who will they hold up as role models? Where (and who with) will they feel most comfortable? Of course, the supreme serial sinner is Angelina Jolie who, along with her insipid husband Brad Pitt, has now accumulated enough confused children to start an army. Perhaps Klum's children will join their forces.

Book Project

My quiet little blog hardly has donation drives (I think I've had two over the years since I started blogging).

Well, my project is a little different now. I plan to put together a selection of my blogs in e-book format for better reading and access. I hope to turn this into an actual book (hard copy, which is really my favorite form of reading material). If you like what you read here, these books will be concise, edited and in many cases updated and modified versions of the blog entries. In short, they will not be the same as the blog.

Such projects take time. More so than a blog, which is often my collection of opinions (although I back up my stories with as much hard fact as possible). So I am asking readers to send in whatever donations they can. I will put up a a permanent link on my side bar.

Here is sample of a few of the chapters that will be in the book:

Chapter One

An Introduction to Beauty
- Synthesis of Beauty
- Beauty in the Worship of God
- Beauty and the Transcendent
- Beauty and Humanity
- Beauty, Truth and Goodness
- How to be a Beautiful Movie Star
- Beauty: I will be your mirror
- Rejecting Beauty
- Elimination of Beauty


Chapter Two

Beauty in Art
- Architecture
- Painting
- Drawing and Illustrations
- Film
- Photography
- Dance
- Design and Fashion
- Art Criticism


Chapter Three

Beauty in Language
- Literature
- Poetry
- Writing
- Books
- Blogging
- Humor


Chapter Four

Beauty in Culture and Society
- Religion
- Christianity
- Islam
- Immigration
- Multiculturalism
- Politics
- Conservatism
- History
- Traditions


Chapter Five

Beauty in Nature


Chapter Six

Beauty in Science



Chapter Seven

Desecration of Beauty



Chapter Eight

Reclaiming Beauty



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These are tentative chapters and titles, I'm still refining them, and there will certainly be more.


Thank you,

Kidist Paulos Asrat

Blondie: Seems like the real thing

Blondie's Debbie Harry then and now

It's good to know that former punk/new wave/pop singers are embracing their age (unlike some). Debbie Harry was spotted recently wearing a Miss Marplish type of getup. But why can't these aging stars add a bit of glamor? Previous eras of stars had no problem with that.

Still, I've always liked Blondie's music. It is more complex than the poppy tunes suggest.

Here's a sample: Heart of Glass -

Jarvis Collegiate Update

In my previous post on my comments on the Toronto Star article "Jarvis Collegiate Teens hurling slushies and slurs in Gay Village" I wrote:

I think this type of "intolerance" will grow in Toronto, where the multicultural policy of Toronto, notwithstanding "integrated" high schools, actually favors group separation. The even more aggressive and violent Muslims (who are simply following the mandates of their prophet), who now make a considerable part of the Toronto population, will only increase these antagonisms towards any one and they feel doesn't follow their religious edicts.

The comments section of the Toronto Star article has several posters who say that the school has a large Muslim student body.

Here is danielmenardtoronto:

Drive by this school on a lunch hour and you will not see one, white Canadian boy or girl on the front lawn of this school. I attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute twenty three years ago and we were alot more respectful, you could at least find a few born and bred Canadians that stuck together and were raised with Canadian values and pride in our country, including respect and tolerance for others, that's how we were raised. Now you get people from other countries with other belief systems and cultural behaviours taking over and imposing thier aggressive and foreign behaviour towards others. I don't give a damn if you consider me racist, if racist is being proud of what Canada used to be and embracing the norms of decency, respect, intelligent dialogue and tolerance, than so be it. I'm tired of feeling a minority in my own country and I'll go so far as to say Canadian kids would not have done this to that man in the Village.

5AM says:

I have personally been attacked by a group of 3 Muslim girls (all dark skinned and wearing traditional head coverings), probably about 16/17 years old. This took place around the corner from the school earlier this month. They shouted "F-----" and hurled chunks of ice at my dog and I, then followed us for several minutes. This is assault and harassment, and clearly a hate crime. I guess in their culture this is acceptable. Toronto needs to wake up and see the deeper issue. This public school has a predominantly islamic student body. We can preach acceptance all we want, but their cultural and social education starts at home and at their places of worship. This is not a problem that is going away, unfortunately, I think we're just seeing the beginning of a cultural shift in the downtown core.

builder.M writes:

At least half the student population is Muslim. The odds of the perpetrator being atheist or Christian is all but 0%. Girls is hijabs, niqabs, and scarves are the norm. Violent homophobia is the religious law in all Muslim countries. The teens here are simply doing what they are taught at home and in the mosques.

sam villa posted the area's profile:

Riding Profile ....
25.8% Catholic, 22.0% Protestant, 7.6% Muslim, 4.7% Other Christian , 3.9% Hindu, 3.1% Jewish, 3.0% Christian Orthodox, 2.3% Buddhist, 26.8% No religion

I searched for the data that "sam villa" posted (without any references), and it is available in Wikipedia here, for the Toronto Centre demographics for 2001 (which is where the Jarvis Collegiate is located). Questions on religion are only asked every ten years, and the next were due for the 2011 census (the most recent census), but I couldn't find Statistics Canada's information on religious affiliations for 2011.

Instead, I found information from various sources on the projected growth of Muslims in Toronto between 1991 and 2001, and 2001 and 2017.

The number of Muslims in Toronto grew by 140% between 1991 and 2001 [Source: Statistics Canada].

Growth projected for Muslims in Toronto between 2001 and 2017:

From: 258,500 in 2001 (5% of the Toronto population)
To: 657,000 in 2017 (10.95% of the Toronto population)

With a 2.5 times increase of Toronto's Muslim population by 2017 (from their numbers in 2001).

[Source: Islamicpopulation.com]: 

These numbers are daunting. An almost tripling of Muslims over a 20 year period is no small number. The aggressive nature of Muslims, aided by host countries who seem ever-ready to fulfill their desires (and demands), will not abate, and will likely increase.

Jarvis Collegiate

Jarvis Collegiate
[Photo by KPA]

[This is a long blog post. But most of the information is explanatory quotes from other sources, some of which I've reproduced close to their original length.]

I had meant to post on the Jarvis Collegiate a few months ago, and a recent post at Laura Wood's The Thinking Housewife reminded me of it.

A reader (Alan) at her site writes about a high school in St. Louis, which he starts with:

This is the story of a dead school in a decadent city.

He continues:

Grover Cleveland High School was opened in St. Louis in 1915 in a building as massive and impressive as a castle. It was designed by renowned architect William B. Ittner. Today it stands closed and abandoned, a victim of decades of neglect and suicidal public policies.

This massive, castle-like high school building architecture apparently was part of the Canadian aesthetics as well. One particular Canadian architect, C.E. Cyril Dyson, was the designer behind seven of Toronto's high schools between 1890 and 1924. All these buildings still stand as high schools and are imposingly grand.

Although none have been neglected to the extent that Alan writes about the St. Louis school, I think there is another degradation taking place, at least in the one closest to my neighborhood, the Jarvis Collegiate. Here is some of the history behind the collegiate:

Jarvis Collegiate was originally founded as a private school, beginning in 1797. However, in 1807 the government of Ontario, then known as the British colony of Upper Canada, took over the school and made it part of a network of eight new, public "grammar schools" (secondary schools), one for each of the eight districts of Upper Canada. Jarvis was the grammar school for the Home District, an area covering much of the modern GTA. Its first name was the Home District Grammar School...

The original 1807 school building was a shed attached to the headmaster's house. Strachan [headmaster 1812-1822] raised funds for a new two-storey building, completed in 1816 on College Square, a 6-acre (24,000 m2) lot north of St. James' Cathedral, bounded by Richmond, Adelaide, Church and Jarvis Streets. In 1825 the school was renamed the Royal Grammar School. Later the name was changed to Toronto High School. In 1829 it moved to the corner of Jarvis and Lombard Streets. When Upper Canada College was founded in 1829 it shared a building with the Grammar School and for several years the two organizations were essentially unified. UCC eventually moved to its own facilities.

Jarvis Collegiate boasts some prestigious alumni, including:
- Sir John Strachan: Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, founded University of Toronto, first Anglican Bishop of Toronto, and headmaster of Jarvis Collegiate from 1812-1822
[Source: Toronto District School Board]
- Sir Ernest MacMillan: conductor of Toronto Symphony for 25 years
- Sir Allan McNab - Prime Minister of Upper Canada, 1854-1856
- Five mayors of Toronto
[Source: Wikipedia]

The Jarvis Collegiate Alumni Society website has fascinating photos from the 1907 year book. Students at the collegiate were male, until the first female students were accepted in 1872, "although double doors separated the genders until 1893" according to this website.

Here's a funny juxtaposition of events:
- 1975: first female principal
- 1976: first teachers' strike

Here is a website of class photos from 1982-2008. There seems to be an equal number of male and female students in the class of 1982, with the majority of students white (photos a and b). Asian (East Asian) females seem to dominate the class of 2008 (large JPG file here). Whites are barely visible in the 2008 class photo (barely present), and the photographer seems to have put the white couple and the tall blonde girl right up front deliberately to offset the non-white multi-culti mix of the school.

I've done a rough count of the number of East Asian females over the total number of students for the class of 2008, and I've come up with 28/108, which is roughly 26%. I'm sure the ratio is still higher for 2012, and I would also think that the multicultural count has also gone up.

The ration of whites to non-whites for the class of 2008 is 13/108, which is 12%.

I cannot find any recent (2000 and on), famous, alumni who graduated from the once prestigious Jarvis Collegiate. Wikipeida cites Olivia Chow, the leftist (lefty) New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament, as a "notable" alumnus from the 1970s. It makes sense that a Chinese woman (Chow was born in China, and speaks with a strong Chinese accent) is a contemporary prominent figure in Canadian politics. I've written here that the Chinese seem not to fare as well as anticipated (economically, educationally etc.) and are latching on to the grievance system set up by (and for) non-white immigrants. Chow is a leader in grievance politics. I suspect that many of the Chinese woman at Jarvis will follow Chow's lead as they enter the real, post-high school world.

Below is the is the image from which I've made the tally. The link provided has a larger image.

Click here to view larger image

The once prestigious Jarvis Collegiate stands ranked at 587/727 between 2009 and 2010.

The latest news from Jarvis Collegiate is just a year ago, as published in the Toronto Star on January 24, 2011. Below are extracts from the article:

Teens hurling slushies and slurs in Gay Village
[Jarvis Collegiate is right next to Toronto's "Gay Village"]

The principal of Jarvis Collegiate Institute said allegations that students are hurling slushies, shoes and homophobic slurs at residents of the Gay Village are being "treated very seriously."...

Paul Winsor, a local florist, was singled out by a group of about 12 students who soaked him with two frozen beverages last Monday.

The 49-year-old narrowly dodged an airborne chunk of ice as he chased the teens before they ducked into the school at Jarvis and Wellesley Sts.

"A slushie drink is one thing — it stains your clothes and hurts your pride — but when it escalates to chunks of ice, that’s dangerous," he said...

Winsor ran into a friend a few minutes after the slushie attack who’d been targeted with ice and been called ‘faggot.’...

But [Winsor's] not convinced the teens are motivated by hate.

"In my mind, it’s a bunch of teenagers behaving badly all around. I think it’s general hooliganism."

Anderson [a transvestite] disagrees...

"These kids promote violence by calling people ‘faggot’ and doing what they’re doing," [s]he said.

It is interesting to see the homosexual Winsor's tolerance towards his aggressors: "In my mind, it’s a bunch of teenagers behaving badly all around. I think it’s general hooliganism."

I'm sure these "hooligans" are a mix of the multicultural smorgasbord (reflecting the Jarvis student body) which homosexuals like Winsor would totally approve of. I wonder what he would say if a bunch of white kids had accosted him? White Nationalist, Far Right, Nazi thugs (hooligans sounds more forgiving than thugs)?

I think this type of "intolerance" will grow in Toronto, where the multicultural policy of Toronto, notwithstanding "integrated" high schools, actually favors group separation. The even more aggressive and violent Muslims (who are simply following the mandates of their prophet), who now make a considerable part of the Toronto population, will only increase these antagonisms towards any one and they feel doesn't follow their religious edicts.

Hirsi Ali's advice to Geert Wilders

From a recent Time article on Geert Wilders:

"His weakness is that he plays the renegade, he still wants to position himself as being outside the establishment," says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an author and former Dutch parliamentarian whose critiques of Islam have been ferocious in their own right. "Once upon a time it was necessary for him to distinguish himself by saying, 'I take a stand, and I am a man of clarity.'"

"He has to move to the middle," urges Hirsi Ali. "He has to distinguish between violent Islamists and nonviolent Muslims. You know, there are so many shades of Muslims right now, and he could use some of them as his allies."

Since when has any shade of Muslim been an ally to non-Muslims? It is astonishing that after so many years studying and writing about Muslims, and at one point living the life of a Muslim, Ali can make such nonchalant and ignorant remarks about Muslims and their interaction with non-Muslims. And not only that, it is astonishing how much she undermines the work the Wilders has done which has placed him in the awful predicament he lives in now. The moderate shades of Muslims that Ali talks about have not made a single attempt to get him out of this predicament, since they don't exist. And Wilders himself is hardly the extremist that Ali makes him out to be, although he has no illusions about Islam.

It is no wonder that Ali is safe and living openly in the US since her stance, underneath all her belligerence, has been that Islam can be reformed, and that Muslim extremists (terrorists) are on the periphery and have nothing to do with the real Islam. And I don't think she has ever renounced her Muslim cultural background (despite her strong rhetoric), and I wonder if at some point, now that she has a son, she will pick up whatever of the religion she can without losing too much face.

My initial (musical) impressions were not so wrong after all

Image from Video: Shumei Taiko: Japanese Drums

My Asiaphile emails are trickling in, although the hatemails are much fewer in number after I threatened to sue the authors, or worse yet, send their emails to the Human Rights Commission for racism. Yes, they can get their own medicine back.

A few have been genuinely trying to communicate with me, and not spill out their condescending good will trying to reform me into a model multi-culti citizen of Canada.

Here is one who sent me this information who, without disclosing his name, I can say does have the musical qualifications (being part of several classical music groups) for me to take his point of view seriously.

I will quote from his email:

Perhaps it is [a] valid to ask if there is an Eastern inability to
understand those Western historical, cultural subtleties.

An interesting (in a train wreck sort of way) site where I'm gleaning some pertinent information is a post that some guy called P. Z. Meyers (from what I can tell, he's a science instructor in a university and not a musician at all) has put up on his website where he's got about 250 comments (90% negative, and about 10% suable) on my position. But there are a few interesting, informative posts. Here are a few:

pitbone62 (commenter #188) writes:

There’s certainly a social stigma among some Asians (particularly older generations) which has them discourage their children from playing brass instruments, but it’s gradually changing.

Now, I don't know if this discouragement is something which Asian societies developed for physical/physiological reasons (i.e. difficulties or inabilities in playing percussion and brass instruments), and which consequently developed into cultural or societal stigma.

Here is Quodlibet (#219) who comments on perfect pitch:

And most musicians I know (including me) would prefer not to have perfect pitch. Perfect relative pitch, yes (being able to hear, identify, and reproduce all intervals).

Here is Brownian (#222) replying to Quodlibet:

I recall a discussion with a researcher on CBC around 2000 or thenabouts in which he said that those with perfect pitch (the former) seemed to have more difficulty with chords than those with great, good, almost, or boo pitch.

This supports my observation that Asians demonstrate greater ability at memorization and scale-like exercises. Memorization and scale-like abilities have more to do with reproducing a piece. The "perfect relative pitch" that Brownian mentions above perhaps requires the kind of synthesis that I wrote about, where one note guides the direction of another, which make the chord, then a combination of chords and notes, and finally a synthesized whole. This requires some kind of intellectual input from the player, rather than an automated, fast scale-like playing or reproduction of notes. Art requires not just skill, but thought as well.

One other fascinating thing is that a few of the commentators at Meyers's site have linked to Japanese Kodo drummers as evidence that Asians have the physical capacity to play percussion instruments. Kodo drummers play a type of Japanese drumming called Taiko drumming. Here is a Los Angeles based taiko center which explains taiko drumming, and describes one of its functions to be for use in battle:

Taiko, which means large drum, is a dynamic art form from Japan...

It was used in battle to inspire soldiers, communicate messages, boost morale, frighten enemies, and deceive enemies by making the battalion appear larger than it really was.

And here is a site which describes the rigorous, almost inhuman, training the drummers have to go through:

To become a Kodo drummer, students are put through two years of hell. But these apprentices will endure anything to make the grade.

In the Kodo drumming camp, students practice for around 20 hours a day. Cigarettes, alcohol, and TV are banned, there are no holidays or weekends off and their bodies are pushed to extremes. The day starts with a 15 km run up a mountain and ends when the students are too exhausted to continue. "I'm amazed at how far I can go," states one.

Perhaps Japanese drummers have to go through this holistic, communal boot camp in order to force their bodies to be able to perform the kinds of feats required of these heavy, difficult drums. Culture is refining (redefining) nature to create something human. Taiko drummers seem to push, even force, human nature to perform in extraordinary, superhuman, ways. In my assessment, the force and drama that I found lacking in the Korean choristers is overcompensated for in the drummers, perhaps to fill in the artistry gap with the spectacular. It is difficult to overcompensate for a classical choral piece with the spectacular without making it, well, spectacular. So the Korean choir's Messiah remains insipidly, monotonously, pretty, lacking the contrasts of drama and gentleness that the piece requires.

And finally, I'm getting emails informing me that the audition system for classical orchestras is blind, which means that the musician plays behind a screen during the audition to prevent bias (originally this was set up to prevent bias against women musicians). But, audition pieces are played out of context, and could be considered to be some sort of exercise. For example, when I started out playing the piano, I used to have book with excerpts from classical composers (the ones I remember most are Mozart's). I took (or my teacher told me to take) these excerpts as exercises, and I practiced them as exercises, e.g. to get the notes right, to play the right tempo, to understand how the melody developed etc. I didn't play them as the whole pieces they are, until much later. Then I played them very differently, with much more musicality (or at least, my teacher by then made sure I played them thus).

So, in my assessment, audition pieces are played differently from whole or complete pieces, and they may actually favor Asians.

I wait with interest what other insights and information I may get from these musicians (they are coming from as far away as South Carolina, and as close as Hamilton Ontario). But, I am pretty much done here, and will, perhaps arrogantly, say that my initial impressions were not so wrong after all.

Heardening of the Heart

Bruce Charlton over at Bruce Charlton's Miscellany has a post up titled: "Hard and Soft Hearts - and Toughness". He writes:

We must make tough decisions - that is decisions that are right but which lead to upfront, immediate costs.

For those with a soft, warm heart - these decisions are a cause of pain; but we must not harden our hearts to make tough decisions.

At some level, it sounds a little like a sanctimonious "love thy neighbor" type of advice. I think that must be one of the most difficult of the New Testament's messages to understand, and possibly one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Since I don't have the theological capacity to untangle the meaning of this message, other than how it might affect my ordinary days, I think it means that one should aim for good (love) rather than evil (hate) as much as one can. But I don't think this message explain what to do in extraordinary times.

I think we are now in a time of spiritual war, in extraordinary times. Different "neighbors" are around us, with different agendas, and often with non-Christian, or anti-love intentions. Are we to love those neighbors, or more precisely, those false neighbors?

I think the Christian way, to avoid the evil of hate, is to distance oneself from such pseudo-neighbors, and to try hard to find like-minded neighbors, however much geographically distant they may be. I think we should prepare for the battle by strengthening (Charleton might call this hardening) our spiritual heart. With conflicting "neighborly" love that is constantly undermining and weakening this spiritual heart, we have to remove ourselves (psychologically, geographically, spiritually) from such false neighbors, and find our true neighbors who will go on the battlefield by our side. Thus can we strengthen our spiritual heart, without hardening it. And be ready for the battle when the time comes.

Big Ben

This is how the American Kennel Club describes a Newfoundland:

Sweetness of temperament is the hallmark of the Newfoundland; this is the most important single characteristic of the breed

His origins, according to the AKC are Canadian, being given the honorable name of the Atlantic province, Newfoundland:

[N]early all agree that he originated in Newfoundland and his ancestors were brought there by fisherman from the European continent. In Newfoundland he was used as a working dog to pull nets for the fishermen and to haul wood from the forest. He also did heavy labor, such as powering the blacksmith's bellows.

Here is the AKC describing this working dog:

A large dog and a true workhorse, the Newfoundland is a master at long-distance swimming and has true lifesaving instincts in the water. He is large and strong, possessing a heavy coat to protect him from icy waters. Equally at home in the water and on land, today’s Newfoundland competes in conformation, obedience, agility, tracking, draft and water tests, and carting.

The Newfoundland in my neighborhood is friendly and certainly sweet. The way he lunges around may look threatening but its part of his greeting. His owner calls him Ben, but I greet him with Big Ben, after the landmark in London (although I'm not sure how much a Canadian Newfie would like a nickname after a British landmark). Here's Wikipedia's explanation for Big Ben's nickname origin:

The origin of the nickname Big Ben is the subject of some debate. The nickname was applied first to the Great Bell; it may have been named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw the installation of the Great Bell, or after boxing's English Heavyweight Champion Benjamin Caunt. Now Big Ben is often used, by extension, to refer to the clock, the tower and the bell collectively, although the nickname is not universally accepted as referring to the clock and tower. Some authors of works about the tower, clock and bell sidestep the issue by using the words Big Ben first in the title, then going on to clarify that the subject of the book is the clock and tower as well as the bell.

The last time I saw (Big) Ben, he was happily walking along in the rain while his human owner was comfortably under an umbrella. "He must like it in the rain," I commented to the owner, who was not at all bothered about her big dog getting all wet. "Bye, big Newfie dog" I said in response to his wagging tail.

Charlize Theron's Monster Redux

Charlize Theron in a recent ad for Dior's J'Adore

Dior has a new commercial for its perfume J'Adore. Charlize Theron is the model in the ad. She strides across the luxurious floors of Versailles' Hall of Mirrors in a transparent, jewel-encrusted gown, looking like Eve ready to conquer the world. The background music puts energy into Charlize's gait with its aggressive beat. The words to the song are decadent and macabre, like a warning sign to those bothering to listen to them. Like the last days of Marie Antoinette's reign when she ignored the turmoils of the world outside her palace and feasted on cakes while bread was scarce for her fellow Frenchmen, uttering her infamous let them eat cake too, today's fashion industry stretches decadence to monstrous extremes. Charlize looks like an Amazon Android, which is the preferred model for fashion magazines these days: tall, slim, slightly androgynous, and aggressively unfeminine.

The song which Charlize struts to is called "Heavy Cross" by the group Gossip from their album Music for Men. The single "Heavy Cross" was released independently from the album, and its cover features a cross turned on its head, some heavy cross for those who turn to the devil to alleviate its powers (or so they think). The video to the song features an amoeba-like Beth Ditto, who looks like one of those nether creatures from Star Wars, or the monster Xerxes from the movie 300. A Medusa-like beast from ancient pagan mythology appears in the video, gyrating to the song.

Right: Beth Ditto for Jean Paul Gautier's opening act for his Spring 2011 collection

Ditto models in Jean Paul Gualtier's fashion shows, and adds the avant-garde freakishness that the modern art and design world craves so much. Ditto herself, besides her outward freakishness, is also a lesbian.

Charlize is now starring in Young Adult, a movie about a woman rejected in love, and who has returned to her hometown to wreak havoc on the new life, and love, of her old boyfriend. When I read the summary of the movie, I couldn't understand what enjoyment (I don't mean cheap thrills, but genuine involvement and pleasure in a story well told) I would derive from such a film. Why sit through two hours of a bitter revenge story? So I passed.

This isn't the only film with Charlize that has left me cold. She made the movie Monster which doesn't even have mildly redeemable qualities. Charlize personifies the film's malevolent, malicious, evil creature with alarming ease. Imagine, the beautiful Charlize deforming her face, and her soul, just for an acting role. Why did she do it? Could it be that she feels she has to give more than the normal Hollywood actress to earn her place, since she came to Hollywood late in life as a foreigner (from South Africa)? Despite her impressive integration into American life, one senses that she tries too hard to be American, with her carefully learned American accent and slightly exaggerated American persona. Perhaps that is why she felt she had to take on the monster role, to show that she is capable of embodying a personality, and a person, leaving her audience impressed with her acting abilities.

Many actors and actresses who play truly evil parts say that they never personally recovered from these roles. Many of them are also intricately identified with these roles, and find it difficult to find ordinary parts, and are often offered roles in horror-type films. Charlize never really acted in a significant film after Monster in 2003, although she is a talented actress (animating a monster is no simple feat). Starting in 2011 (with Young Adult re-igniting her acting spark), she's in post-production in what look like three mildly horror films, of mostly supporting roles.

Charlize's transformation into a monster

The first two images above (a and b) are of Charlize in her "natural" state, without transforming into a film role. Image (a) is pre-Monster. Image (b) is at her Oscar win for Monster in 2003 (yes she won accolades for this film, including: an Oscar for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama, and the SAG Award), where she has lost that confident look. The third (c) is an earlier photo of her in character for Monster. I don't think she ever recovered the confident look of her pre-monster years, and her Dior ad may just be an attempt to capture it once again. Her public look now is harsh, unfeminine, and cold.

Charlize Theron on the February 2012 cover of W Magazine

Perfume Again

Left Top: New perfume by Jennifer
Left: Jennifer now
Right: Jennifer as Rachel in Friends with her season one hairstyle

In this day and age when anything to do with the feminine is scorned, and ugliness reigns over beauty, it is a small miracle to find feminine and beautiful (I'll settle for pretty) things.

Such is Jennifer Aniston's new(ish) perfume, which came out in 2010. It was originally called Lolavie, some silly made-up word that Jennifer said (thinks) is French for "loving life." I think I saw the perfume in a magazine ad, where there was nothing outstanding either about Jennifer (who is now sporting the mousy look, so different from her stylish persona in Friends), or the black and white ad. But, I went looking for it nonetheless.

The Bay, Canada's largest department store, opted out of signing the Canadian rights to exclusively sell the perfume. In fact, one arrogant and ignorant "shop attendant" insulted me by saying that it's a "drug store" scent. Of course, I responded that I could get him into trouble for talking to me, a potential customer, in that condescending manner.

I went to Sephora's, and it's there. The bottle is surprisingly attractive, and the scent is very good. Jennifer is now part of the celebrity perfume group which has launched successful, well-designed scents, which includes Sarah Jessica Parker and the first Queen of Celebrity Perfumes, Elizabeth Taylor.

Here are the notes for Lolavie Jennifer Aniston from Fragrantica:

Top: Citrus, Rose
Middle: Jasmine, Violet, Lily
Bottom: Musk, Sandalwood, Amber

All the elements are blended together really well, but the overall scent is light, musky and exotic.

Russian Songs

Brubeck with young Russian violinist
playing "Song of the Volga Boatmen"

Near the end of the violinist's improvisation in my post "Russian Improvisation" Burbeck manages to gauge his direction, and plays the scale (I think it is chromatic) downwards, exactly at the same pace as the violinist, and ending exactly at the same time, to finish off the piece. This is not improvisation, on Burbeck's part, this is telepathy. Actually, it is simply the instincts of a superior musician. The moment is around the 3 minutes 18 seconds point (in the above video).

Brubeck responds to a request for "Moscow Nights" from an audience member but plays "Song of the Volga Boatmen" instead, which the Russian audience nonetheless loves, which is what led the young violinist to stand and play with Brubeck.

Below are examples of "Song of the Volga Boatmen":

- Sung by Leonid Kharitonov and the Russian Red Army Choir:



- Paul Robeson sings it like a spiritual:



- Glenn Miller gives it that eternal American optimism:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below are examples of "Moscow Nights":

Here is Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing "Moscow Nights":



- Here is a more popular, more nostalgic Russian version. I can't find the name of the singer:



- The Red Army performed it in Paris in 1958 in the film "Not Everybody's Lucky Enough to Have Communist Parents":

"Music is about bringing us all together- it should never be a vehicle for division."

[Image from the South Carolina Philharmonic website]

Title quote is from an email sent to me by Mary Lee Taylor Kinosian, which is fully reproduced below.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really didn't expect any response to my "Asians Playing Western Music" blog post. Partly because I didn't think my subjects of focus, Asians, read this blog, or paid any attention to it if they somehow got directed here. And partly because I didn't really undermine anyone, and was just stating my observations based on my own background in music.

Just to be clear, I studied piano since I was five years old. At ten I took up the violin for about five years. I started singing in classical choirs singing sacred music (as a soprano, and sometimes as a soloist) since I was ten, and continued well into my twenties. So, my observations weren't mere opinions.

I know what I'm writing sounds hypocritical since I'm deriding Asians despite my similar technical background, but at least I realize that these issues exist, and I'm not afraid to confront them. Perhaps that makes me a better critique.

I got several "you racist bigot" emails, although I don't consider them offensive, since none of them wished me other serious conditions like death. Still, they were declaring my racist/bigoted intentions since I dared write that Asian musicians were inferior to white musicians. I wrote back to one emailer asking why he/she doesn't sign off with his/her name. "Was he/she afraid of being sued for hate mail?" Sarcasm, of course. But that was the end of those emails.

I was then inundated with a second wave of emails. They were signed, but I couldn't figure out where the authors were writing from, although they were clearly part of some orchestra. Their approach was very different. They were more of a scolding nature, a little condescending. (I think they are all, the angry and the condescending, from the same group.)

Here's an example of a "nice" email (the sender's name is clearly displayed in his email address):

Why would anyone want to go to a concert (or play in one) where people like you are in the audience? You are killing sales, morale, et cetera.

With Love,

A White, God-Fearing, All-American Trombone Player

Here's another (again, full name clearly displayed in the email address):

I'm glad that you're interested in classical music journalism, but I hope you'll think harder next time.

warmly,
Jeff

Then I got an email from a woman who signed off as:

Mary Lee Kinosian
Concertmaster, SC Philharmonic
Asst Concertmaster, Greenville Symphony
Composer/Violinist, Upton Trio

Here's her full email:

Greetings,

Your article about Asian musicians comes across as completely biased. It is offensive and unfair as well. As a Caucasian Female American Concertmaster, I have successfully worked for many years with many many different colleagues, of all ethnic backgrounds, in California and Nashville, TN as well as S.C., and for what it is worth, my opinion is: the more talent, the better. Music is universal, and all of us joined together create our best work.

I strongly object to your dismissal of the concertmaster, when you remark she is Asian and female as well- why should that matter?!? Frankly, I know quite a few Asian female violinists that will play you under the table, they are so wonderful. Likewise the other players. Geez.

Furthermore, our conductor for SC Philharmonic is Asian, and he is an incredibly talented musician and performer. I am privileged to call him a colleague, and we continue to create wonderful programs together time after time.

Really, your article's conclusions seem to be based on your personal prejudices. Try to be more objective in the future, if you want us in real-life to take you seriously. Right now, there's lots of disbelief/dismay locally on FB. Bottom line: nobody agrees with you, so sorry, you lose.

Please try to understand: music is about bringing us all together- it should never be a vehicle for division.

Sincerely,

Mary Lee Taylor Kinosian
Concertmaster, SC Philharmonic
Asst Concertmaster, Greenville Symphony
Composer/Violinist, Upton Trio
[I've added in the links]

I think Mary Lee and the other white admonishers are trying to say that given my own background, how do I have the grounds to say that Asian musicians are inferior? After all, there are no African/Ethiopian/Black musicians in this orchestra, or very few others. Who am I to criticize any orchestra's "group" makeup? As one of the non-anonymous emailers said to me:

The statements you make -- that Asian musicians essentially all play the same way because of some kind of essential attribute -- denies personhood to a very large group of people.

I think if a white person had made the kind of observations I'd made, the wrath of the "nice" emailers would have known no limits (possibly worse than the anonymous emailers). Instead, this non-white critic that is me simply requires a dressing down, and a lecturing to, and she can be set in the right track of tolerance and wonderful music-making.

So, they are of course, in their own subtle, race-bound ways, saying that I as a non-white person, whose ethnic and cultural group does not figure in white classical music repertoire, have no say in classical music, since I am "essentially" unable to make such critiques. But, they're going to say it in a nice, non-threatening way, because, well, I have to be taught the right way to communicate, by example, of course. Irrelevant of my own personal knowledge and background, they have put me squarely in my box.

At least I am clear about my group classifications. Perhaps I might concede the one or two rare individuals who behave as individuals, but I'd still observe them with suspicion since they will probably be culture-bound eventually. That is, despite their individualistic stance, they still have to live within a culture, and will have to follow most of the norms of that culture. So there may be one or two rare, exceptional Asian musicians. But, likely than not, they have to live and work (or just deal) with other Asians, and have to carefully maneuver their racial routes.

Putting a majority (or a large number) of Asians in a western orchestra will invariably make it more Asian. Musicians like Mary Lee, who allow this to happen, have at some point to concede the inferiority of this type orchestra compared to that with a majority of whites, and either close off their eyes to this reality (as does Mary Lee), or perform grudgingly until better situations hopefully present themselves.

But there is a third option, which Mary Lee has found. She has formed a trio with two other white musicians. She can perform with her multi-culti Asiaphilic orchestra by day exalting its praises, and she can escape that rigid reality with her own trio by night.

Russian Improvisation

From the Youtube site where this is posted:

During a visit to Moscow in the 80's, Dave Brubeck met the faculty and students in Moscow Conservatory. While he was improvising on a "Ei, uhnem", a Russian folk song, a young man downstage stood up to play Stéphane Grappelli-style violin jazz with him.

Bo Ain't No Sheepadoodle

Left: Bo in front of the White House
Right: Look-alike Sheepadoodle dog

I've made yet another canine friend (although it may still be too early for that, so we'll leave him as a "sidewalk sharer" for now).

I asked the owner if his dog was the same as Bo, the Obama pet dog. He looked very much like him to me. No, said the dog owner, he's a sheepdog mix. Oh, sheepdog, that's nice too, I said politely.

So I looked up on the internet "sheepdog mix" and I get a Sheepadoodle, which is a different dog from Bo, who is a Portuguese Water Dog (Bo's no mutt, apparently), although they do look very similar. "Sheepadoodle" has a better sound than the cumbersome "Portuguese Water Dog" and is more fun and playful too. But, maybe Michelle didn't want any mutt in her White House. I get the feeling that she has a bigger say in what dog is allowed in, and what dog stays out.

"Buffett to sing [for his dinner] for Chinese New Year"

Screen shot from a Youtube video of Warren Buffet singing
"You bring out the best in me/ You can always turn to me" in a
Geico commercial. He's supposed to look like a rock star (Axl Rose?)
according to the commentators on the Youtube

From the January 5, 2012 Financial Times:

Buffett to sing for Chinese New Year

Warren Buffett, widely revered in China for his investment savvy, will sing and play guitar to celebrate China’s upcoming Lunar New Year in a specially recorded performance to be aired online by state television.

CNTV, the internet TV arm of CCTV, the state broadcaster, said the 81-year-old Mr Buffett had recorded a video for a special “Spring Festival” gala performance to be aired online.

“We all know that Buffett is good at investment, but few knew he also did well in singing,” Wang Pingjiu, a production executive for the broadcast, told a press conference on Thursday, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Mr Wang did not disclose Mr Buffett’s song choice.

China knows Mr Buffett as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, and a high-profile investor in BYD, the Chinese car company that hopes to lead the Chinese electric vehicle industry.

And here's the zinger:

Chinese investors, who saw Shanghai’s benchmark composite index fall 22 per cent last year, will doubtless be hoping for some tips from Mr Buffett’s online lyrics ["You bring out the best in me/ You can always turn to me."].

“They all want to be like him – and he did it honestly. That is something that Chinese look up to,” says Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China and head of China Market Research in Shanghai. Guo Guangchang, chairman and founder of Fosun, China’s largest private conglomerate, styles himself as China’s Warren Buffett.

"They all want to be like him - and he did it honestly. That is something that Chinese look up to."

Is doing business honestly such a rare occurrence in China that it warrants a special mention (and admiration)? Or do Chinese believe that American businessmen get where they are through deceit, and that Buffet is the special exception to that?

Either way, Buffet dressed up like a senior citizen rock musician only comes across as a buffoon to the Chinese (and anyone else willing to look closely. The 100+ commentators in the Youtube linked above, mostly Westerners, are full of admiration, and very few pick up on the buffoonery. One asks, "anyone realize his headset is on the wrong way?").

Buffet may be (or may have been) a financial wizard, but his embarrassing video only gives the Chinese more ammunition to act out their aggressions, including pulling more and more of American manufacturing into their country, and for their purposes. Surely they can use this semi-senile senior citizen for entry into America's institutions. Who knows how many more will want to sing to them to garner their favors?

Here's what the Financial Times article says:

China knows Mr Buffett as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, and a high-profile investor in BYD, the Chinese car company that hopes to lead the Chinese electric vehicle industry.

Here's a report from Bloomberg describing what looks like Chinese paranoia, but what I think is Chinese muscle-flexing:

Hu Says West Is Trying to Divide China by Using Ideology, Cultural Weapons

The West is using cultural means to divide China (PRCH), which needs to be alert to this threat, President Hu Jintao said in a Communist Party magazine.

“International forces are trying to Westernize and divide us by using ideology and culture,” Hu wrote in an article in Qiushi. “We need to realize this and be alert to this danger.”

Many countries, especially Western powers, are attempting to expand their influence through cultural hegemony, and China must deepen and promote its own values of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Hu wrote in the article, which was published on the government’s website on Jan 1 [2012]. China needs to strengthen its cultural values as it faces possible challenges from the West, he said.