When the weather is inclement, that usually means staying indoors where it is warm and dry. But that was not the memo that the citizens of Hangzhou got during the very rare winter weather event pictured above. It seemed as … Continue reading
tomfolan
Feng Shui is something that the Chinese pay attention to. To have good feng shui means that wind and water flow naturally toward and away from each other – it refers generally to the harmony achieved between air and water. … Continue reading
Recently, I have been giving some thought as to how music might play a larger role in education – not just as a stand alone subject to be taught alongside math and science, but its potential role as a pedagogical … Continue reading
Chinese cuisine is full of recipes for soups of all sorts. The soup in this picture roughly translates to blood soup – its main ingredient is organ meat – usually from a duck or cow. In addition to livers and … Continue reading
I knew fairly early on in my lessons that the piano was not going to be my first love as an instrument. My real passion was for the pipe organ. This interest was sparked by my having heard the organ … Continue reading
China has invested tremendous amounts of money in high-speed rail. It currently links major metropolitan hubs including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wu Xi, Nanjing and Beijing. The train above is called Harmony and is the one that I take when traveling … Continue reading
Student life at Chinese universities can be very different from that at American colleges and universities. This picture was taken just outside of the faculty apartment where I lived during my semester of teaching music at the Shanghai Normal University. … Continue reading
I began to take formal piano lessons at about age 10. As I wrote in an earlier entry, it was due to the association with the boy choir and with its director Jim, that I and my parents were able … Continue reading
Looking back on my days in the boy choir, especially those years spent as a soprano (ages 10 through 12), mostly consisted of gigs that were pretty pedestrian. We sang lots of funerals, weddings, graduations, and of course, every Sunday, … Continue reading
I am not a subscriber to any particular religion; one of the reasons being that I believe that religions often take themselves too seriously. But that is apparently not the case with the “laughing” Buddha, an icon that mostly seems … Continue reading