March 26, 7:30pm @westendchurchnyc
“Comedy and Reverie” explores wit and wonder through a vibrant program of selections for violin, viola, and piano. The comic irony of Korngold’s Much Ado About Nothing, Schumann’s erratic Märchenbilder, and Lalo’s wild Arlequin conjure up images of an ensemble of stock characters, fairy tales, and fantasies.
Behind these masks of performance lie the dreamy, introspective musings of Debussy, Chausson, and Reinecke, a sharp contrast to their extroverted counterparts, and a window into the source of creativity. As a whole, these works weave together a vivid tapestry of humor, performativity, and poetry.
长城
I hiked most of the Great Wall trip without shoes (they were hurting)—about 9 miles, and due to rain and confusion (common things in China), there were almost no other visitors for the entire day.
兵马俑
The army faces the rising sun in the east to guard emperor 秦始皇 in the afterlife, so that he may find redemption—an irony of tyrannical proportions, because the army of 8,000 individually crafted terracotta statues that each took 1 month to make could only have been put together with at least a few crimes against humanity.
The sword dance from “Farewell my Concubine”
同里水镇
上海的下午
北京的晚上
黄山 was entirely blanketed in fog. Also people. Most miserable outing of the trip due to immovable crowds.
The bricks of the original Great Wall (at the far end of the Jinshanling region) each bear some kind of stamp or engraved inscription.
The incessant cicada polyrhythms, ever present from the mountains of 金山岭 to the forested streets of 上海, climaxed into something like a choir of buzzsaws on 黄山.
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Some yoga with college students (they seem concerned but I promise they were very supportive in my endeavors)
Despite Instagram’s unapologetic TikTokification and motion away from any vestige of mutual interaction, I still really enjoy spending time putting these little digital scrapbook posts together, although it always takes me hours and is further prolonged by my avoidance and disgust at being online at all.
1. Beijing sunsets were beautiful (this is caused by pollution)
2. Our performance at the World Saxophone Congress—a lot of soft and intimate music that would have enjoyed a bit more of an attentive audience (or at least people not being on phones)
3. Hotel on Huangshan Mountain
4. This is the location at which the Terracotta Army made me cry
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9. Thousands gathered to see the sunset on the river in Harbin
10. Only good pic I got of the jagged mountains in Anhui
11. Favorite meal of the trip—with Marvin, Bo, and their cousins in Shanghai
12. Convenience Store Tea Party
I had a Proustian wave of involuntary memory with a tanghulu’d chunk of durian in Beijing and decided it was finally time to post some pics from Thailand with K.S.
Other non-Asian postable things have happened this year which I could post about but considering my track record it is unlikely
Some context:
1&19: We swore never again to touch a durian after consuming a durian cheesecake, coffee, and a smoothie
3: I wanted to dress as Luigi Mangione for our 5-hour vigorous and life-threatening monk-trail hike
6: This pic reminds me of Jurassic Park; also features the mysterious, elusive Yana, a lost-girl from Siberia who ended up stripping her all-black hiking coverup to splash around like a seal in a waterfall for Instagram
8-10: We spent many hours following around airport employees. Rarely did they know where to take us
14: It was miso soup in a can
16: Pigs had to use the bathroom
17: ???
