Xmas 2009

Watch the new angel on top of our Xmas tree. Did you notice anything different in our front yard? It is the new lights added to some of the bushes!

Ip Man (2008, Movie) The Legend of Yip Man (葉問)

With the exception of the depiction of the Wing Chun style (詠春拳), you won't see elements of this film that are completely unique; rather, it's the mash-up of cinematographic techniques and the genre-crossing story-telling that come together to make it a new experience.

Sammo Hung (洪金寶) has choreographed some of the best action in years, during every fight I was slack-jawed with amazement. Donnie Yen (甄子丹) makes delivering a beat down look as effortless as swatting a fly.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984, Animation)

Before “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Princess Mononoke” there was “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind,” based on the popular Japanese comic of the same name. Set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Earth, “Nausicaa” tells the tale of one young girl’s struggle for survival against a hostile environment populated with giant insects and a miasma which threatens humanity itself.

Her people live in peace in the Valley of the Wind, drawing intimately from nature to sustain themselves in a fragile world slowly healing from a devastating apocalypse fought by humans long ago.

Filled with Miyazaki’s trademark fluid animation, this movie captures the imagination with memorable characters and an engaging plot.

The King of Kong (2007, Documentary)

A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS

Remember Donkey Kong? This would have been in the early 1980s, and you would have been standing in a video arcade, bar, truck stop or bowling alley, trying to save the damsel in distress from the gorilla. Yes, and now it is 2007 and grown men still pursue each other across the country in pursuit of the world-record Donkey Kong score.

It may seem overblown when one of the gamers calls Donkey Kong a metaphor for life, but The King of Kong is just that -- a reminder of how we all have to prove ourselves to others.

It's a documentary that is beyond strange, follows two arch-enemies in their grim, long-term rivalry, which involves way more time than any human lifetime should devote to Donkey Kong.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008, Movie)

Who want's to be a Millionaire? Well, who wouldn’t in this economy, even if the currency in question is rupees and winning the loot means being pegged as a fraud, getting a firsthand education in “enhanced” interrogation methods, and having to relive some of the most painful moments of your past in order to prove your innocence?

Given the third degree by a tough but ultimately decent police inspector (the excellent Irfan Khan) who demands to know how this lowly tea boy (or chai wala) from the slums could possibly know enough to advance to the show’s 20 million rupee final round, Jamal flashes back over the key events of a life that quite literally contains all the answers.

The historic conflict between India's Hindu majority and Muslims is shown in "Slumdog Millionaire" the protagonist, Jamal, a Muslim, watches as his mother is murdered by a Hindu mob.

As many stories of tragedy and exhilaration play out, it becomes clear that each one has taught Jamal something that directly informs his success on "Millionaire".

It's just another one of the many Bollywood melodramas.

Knott's Berry Farm

Kaiser Friends gathering_122009

We had Keli Esser, Robert Suchoski, Chung Trinh, Yogi Shah, Daniel Liang, Bill Rice, Steve Marks, Eleanor Lee, Harold Turner, Jay Barrios, Raff Rushton and Moses Chu. There was a good chat about new IBM management and people looking for new jobs. Wonderful gathering!

Jury Service: 11/16 to 12/09/2009

What an unforgettable 15 days experience for me!

Civil Case: Plaintiff dying from peritoneal Mesothelioma sued asbestos supplier for negligence and compensation

Plaintiff: Mr. and Mrs. Francisco and Carmen Nunez

Defendant: Advocate Mines, Ltd.

Result: Mistrial due to 8 (Yes) and 4 (No)

Scenarios:

1. Nunez worked at John's Manvill piping factory from 1964 to 1982.
2. During a 10 week period in 1969, Nunez worked in Line Pipe Department doing sandblasting and blow-out jobs. This heaviest exposure to asbestos could generate 400 to 500 fiber per cc (cubic centimeter).
3. Advocate Mines was supplying 70% of the crysotile asbestos in that 10 week time span.
4. Crysotile asbestos has been proven to cause pleural mesothelioma, but no scientific proof to cause peritoneal mesothelioma.
5. Only amphiboles asbestos, e.g., amosite, chricidolite, tremolite, can cause peritoneal mesothelioma.
6. There was a fraction of tremolite existing in crysotile though.
7. Two cases of crysotile causing peritoneal mesothelioma so far, i.e., one in South Carolina and another one in Chung Quing, China.
8. The latency of mesothelioma can be from 10 to 50 years.
9. There is not enough data and proof of such rare disease.

After listening to expert witnesses, including scientists, researchers, cell biologists, pathologists, epidemiologists and professors, there goes on without saying that all those heavy weights contradicted among themselves. Without the knowledge nor the chance to ask questions to those experts, we 13 jurors had a hard time judging this case. The instructions given by the court is so limited and need to be followed no matter what.

Ten days of sitting on the jury box, I observed how sharp attorneys manipulating we jurors' minds. Five days of deliberation turned out to be an excellent lesson for me to view people's inner selves of agony, favoritism, manner, impatience, frustration, etc. Contemplating on the true meaning of U.S. justice, I surely find beauty of it, regardless of the abuses from some parties. Praise to our legal system!

The Dark Knight (2008, Movie)

This Joker Holds All the Cards

Heath Ledger's Clown Gives 'The Dark Knight' Its Power

The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's absolute stunner of a follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins, is a potent provocation decked out as a comic-book movie.

This is not because Heath Ledger died in January, though that event does perhaps add some otherwise unearned melancholy to the film. It's because Ledger's performance is so intense and so lasting. "I don't want to kill you," Heath Ledger's psycho Joker tells Christian Bale's stalwart Batman. "You complete me."

Still, the movie is a bit too long, at two and a half hours.

I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal (2006, Documentary)

The almost unbearably moving story of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, I Have Never Forgotten You takes us from his shtetl childhood to his 90th birthday party at Vienna's Hotel Imperial, where Hitler once kept a suite.

Inspirational documentary about a heroic, courageous man who never gave up his quest for justice. His hunt for Nazi war criminals began within weeks of his rescue from the Austrian concentration camp, Mauthausen, near Vienna. Working with little money and wavering support, Simon Weisenthal could not rest until the most egregious war criminals were found and brought to the attention of the world. This is a very fine documentary about a truly admirable man.

Recalling A Buddha: Memories of the Sixteenth Karmapa (Movie, 2009)

This is a movie about the life and death of an awakened being, the Sixteenth Karmapa, who was the leader of one of Tibetan Buddhism's four major schools of spiritual teachings: the Kagyu lineage. How he lived and how he died gives us the example of an awakened being, a person with a noble heart.

It is a magnificent presentation of the life of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa. This is a wonderful production filled with amazing photographs and interviews of eminent meditation masters from across the Tibetan pantheon.

It is a beautifully presented story of an incredible and inspiring person. And this is the first time I felt so close to His Holiness.

Facing the Giants (2006, Movie)

Facing the Giants feels like an overly earnest church sketch of the type many evangelical congregations use as a teaching tool on Sunday between the worship music and pastor's message.

Another excellent inspirational movie by Alex Kendrick, who not only directed and wrote, but starred in it. It's for people who loved Fireproof, definitely will want to add this one to their queue.

Taken (2008, Movie)

"Taken" shows Mills as a one-man rescue squad, a master of every skill, a laser-eyed, sharpshooting, pursuit-driving, pocket-picking, impersonating, knife-fighting, torturing, karate-fighting killing machine who can cleverly turn over a petrol tank with one pass in his car and strategically ignite it with another. Oh, yes, and it turns out that he's a former CIA agent.

How this man and his daughter could hope to leave France on a commercial flight doesn't speak highly of the French police. On the one hand, it's preposterous. On the other hand, it's very well-made.

The movie proves two things. (1) Liam Neeson can bring undeserved credibility to most roles just by playing them, and (2) Luc Besson, the co-writer, whose actioner-assembly line produced this film, turns out high-quality trash.

It's not great, but it's great fun.

Half Day at Huntington Library

This time we visited 'Drawn to Satire: John Sloan’s Illustrations for the Novels of Charles Paul de Kock' and 'The Color Explosion: Nineteenth Century American Lithography from the Jay T. Last Collection'.

From 1903 to 1905, American artist John Sloan created 53 etchings to illustrate comic novels by French author Charles Paul de Kock. The books—satires of French society in the first half of the 19th century, full of slapstick violence—were a perfect subject for Sloan’s lively etching style of short, expressive lines and loose cross-hatching. The project also seemed to inspire Sloan to look at 20th-century New Yorkers with the same satirical eye that de Kock trained on Parisians of the previous century. In the years that followed, Sloan produced a number of etchings featuring humorous vignettes of life in the busy metropolis. A selection of Sloan’s etchings as well as related prints, drawings, and books will be on view, inviting close study of Sloan’s working methods as he was becoming a prominent member of the band of urban realists known as the Ashcan school.

When a young German playwright named Alois Senefelder developed a new printmaking process in the 1790s, little did he know that his discovery would start a communication revolution. Lithography, or flat-surface printing, transformed the exchange of information and the behavior of everyday life for the next century and beyond. This technique brought art, literature, music, and science to the masses; gave rise to product advertising and consumer culture; educated a growing middle class; and turned commercial printing from a craft into an industry. Lithography also colorized a predominantly black-and-white print world.

The Color Explosion presents more than 200 examples of 19th-century American lithography from The Huntington’s Jay T. Last Collection of Lithographic and Social History. Advertising posters, art prints, calendars, certificates, children’s books, color-plate illustrations, historical views, product labels, sales catalogs, sheet music, toys & games, and trade cards are just some of the artifacts included in this comprehensive exhibition.

The Heiress (1949, Movie)

This story is basically built upon—the struggle between a timid daughter and her willful father over the suitor of the girl. "The Heiress" has been hailed as Olivia de Havilland's "finest work ever" and under the superior direction of William Wyler. She plays Catherine Sloper, a plain-looking aristocrat who stands to inherit a fortune from her ailing physician father (Ralph Richardson) but he disapproves of Catherine's sudden and passionate suitor Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) certain that the penniless young man is out to win Catherine's inheritance and not her heart. Morris is the first man to show her any attention and she is too much in love to even consider such a betrayal.

This film belongs to de Havilland who is heartbreaking, docile, victimized and ultimately cruel. She gives a performance that turns on a dime, from sweet and dull, to absolutely bone chilling cold as the woman scorned by two men.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002, Movie)

The story of course is based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, unread by me. "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a movie that incorporates piracy, Napoleon in exile, betrayal, solitary confinement, secret messages, escape tunnels, swashbuckling, comic relief, a treasure map, Parisian high society and sweet revenge, and brings it in at under two hours, with performances by good actors who are clearly having fun.

Ballerina (2009, Movie)

As a ballet lover, I cannot help but enjoy this film. It follows five dancers at different points in their career at Russia's famed Kirov Ballet. Each young woman is very interesting as well as brilliantly talented, and it is fascinating get their perspective about their lives as dancers. As you watch "Ballerina" you begin to understand why Russia has produced so many of the greatest dancers in history; the dedication to hard work to achieve perfection is fully evident in every frame. And you just cannot help rooting for these young women, all of whom exemplify excellence.

The documentary does well in showing the extreme discipline imposed upon the would-be prima ballerinas, and the requisite intensity of their dedication. There is a hurried tone to the film: so much to cover, so little time!

What extraordinary dancers and their commitment to their art!

Arcadia 2009 Senior Day Camp

City of Arcadia arranged outing programs yearly to promote healthy living for individuals 50 years and older. This year, 'A Tour of Spain' was arranged to experience the rich cultural delicacies of Spain. Early in the morning, 50 plus people were boarded on bus heading for Arcadia Wilderness Park. Thanks to the gorgeous sunshine after 2 full days of rain.

We were able to discover different parts of Spain, a beautiful and traditional country full of history, from an informative presentation. We tasted some of their traditional dishes, prepared by Chef Mario from Vista Cove at Arcadia. Then we enjoyed "La Sole' Flamenco Dance Company directed by Yvette Garcia, performing passionate rhythms of Flamenco from Southern Spain.

Moreover, I made my first bead bracelet from an interesting craft class taught by Joyce Tagliamonte. Isn't it something to be proud of?

Lunch Menu

Ethnic food from Spain

Gazpacho Soup (cold tomato and cucumber bits soup)

Ensaladilla (potato salad)

Paella with chicken, shrimp and sausages (Spanish rice)

Albondigas with tomato sauce (meat ball)

Tortilla de Patata (omelet with potato)

Zarangollo Murciano (veggies)

Flan (dessert)

Afternoon snack: Churro and hot chocolate

Buddha Amitabha Empowerment by Shamar Rinpoche

As Rinpoche put it, we were blessed to have this event taken place in a Japanese Amitabha Temple in Palo Alto. It's especially special since Shamarpa is regarded by Tibetan as an emanation of the Buddha of Limitless Light (Amitabha).

To me, Rimpoche is Amitabha.

The Huntington Art Gallery

British Watercolors of the Eastern Mediterranean

This time we spent time in the Huntington Art Gallery to enjoy European art.

By the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, watercolor paintings of the western European landscape had become familiar to British collectors, who began to seek new and different imagery with which to decorate their houses. Artists were eager to supply this demand. Improvements in transportation across Europe and the Mediterranean opened up new areas for artistic exploration, such as Eastern Europe, Greece, and the Near East. The fashion for exotic and orientalized subjects meant that British watercolorists who traveled there found a ready market for their works at home. The 15 pictures from The Huntington’s permanent collection on display in “British Watercolors of the Eastern Mediterranean” illustrate the great variety of style and the vastly different approaches employed by artists such as Edward Lear (1812–1888), John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876), and David Wilkie (1785–1841).

The Alien Saga (2002, Movie)

The Alien Saga is an interesting and mostly well done documentary of where the Alien series started and came to be where it is today. It's main focus is definitely on the first film with over half of the documentary on Alien itself, including some interviews with cast members and production team. After Alien, it continues on with Aliens, giving some nice insight into the film, although not nearly to the depth and scope that it covered the first Alien film. However, after its coverage of Aliens, the documentary falls apart as it ties up the last 20 minutes with 'documentaries' on Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection.

But like the quadrilogy, it starts out amazing and fascinating but by the time the film gets to Alien 4, it's hard to still care.

行草三部曲 (Cursive Trilogy, Dance, 2001)

Flying Ink line "Dance", with the body brush

「行草貳」 是林懷民繼「行草」之後，再度由書法美學汲取靈感而作的舞蹈。 「行草」以充沛的力道著重於濃墨，而「行草貳」以冥想的基調探討淡墨，引出宋瓷的寧靜之美。行草介於行書與草書間的字體，相較於行書比較草率，但相較於草書又較易辨認。

竹夢 (Bamboo Dream, 2003, Dance)

『竹夢』是一齣沒有劇情，沒有特定角色的抒情之舞。 『竹夢』美麗如畫，魅惑人心，是林懷民最傑出，最別出心裁的作品。不以情節敘事，而託『晨霧』、「春風」、「夏喧」、「秋徑」、「雨霽」、「午夜」、「冬雪」等舞段，抒論飄邈意象，乃雲門林懷民又一靈感泉湧之作！

嚴寒之下，修竹挺俊，長青如玉：中國自古以此喻君子氣節，譬之以凜然風骨，傳之以高妙神韻！竹林化境，似夢超遠，既有觀音大士，如意自在悠坐，更見魏晉南北之竹林七賢，清談玄學於其間。

The Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan interprets one of composer Arvo Part's paeans to the mythology surrounding bamboo in Asia. In Eastern folklore, bamboo features in many stories and symbols, and choreographer Lin Hwai-min has composed some vigorous and dynamic expressions to accompany the Staatorchester Stuttgart, the Twelve Strings of the BPO, and the improvisations of Chinese flute player Huang Sheng-Kai (黃聖凱).

Moon Water (水月, 2003, Dance)

Moon Water is a modern dance piece by Lin Hwai-Min. It is danced by members of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, They proceed to do mostly slow elaborate movements that flow into each other, often very tai-chi like. The music is Bach. I focused on tai-chi in addition to modern dance.

水月Moon Water, 是當代舞團雲門舞集的一齣作品。也是林懷民的「靈靜之旅」系列的第二個作品。這個作品的靈感來自於佛偈｢鏡花水月皆成空｣。1998年11月18日於台北國家戲劇院公開演出。這齣作品企圖在水與鏡中找出生命周而復始，皆盡成空的美感。在舞台運用上，運用了相當多的水和鏡子，在舞者服裝上，僅用白色的舞衣來代表水的意象。水月是一齣沒有中場休息的舞作。

整個舞蹈融入了根據熊衛先生所創「太極導引」的原理發展成形。也有西方芭蕾舞的動作，在如伏過水面的輕盈當中，有著沉穩的力量。至於配樂則使用了巴洛克時期音樂家巴哈的無伴奏大提琴組曲。

林先生將太極導引的動作延伸轉化為意義豐富的舞蹈語彙，是一項絕頂傑出的成就。整齣舞作能量不斷流動，在重複的肢體起落之中，綴以武術動作。

「水月」象徵一場身心靈的淨化之旅。在這齣引申自太極導引的出色舞作當中，林先生完全在象徵的層次上表達意念。他利用這種流過全身的能量放空身體，再從頭找出一種全新的舞蹈語彙。

在今天這個靈修盛行的時代，許多人應當都能瞭解「水月」當中心靈與肉身的結合。舞者的專注力令人動容。他們望似陷入恍惚狀態，卻都是現代舞的專業舞者，深知如何在表演中偶爾小露一手瑪莎‧葛蘭姆的仰倒動作，而又不破壞整體節奏的流暢節奏。

舞者柔軟的肢體動作，恰與他們充滿稜角的身姿形成強烈對比：突出的臀部、彎曲的手肘，放鬆的手腕帶出張開的手掌，有時又屈膝做出蹲跪姿勢。重心的變換是主要的功課。

Remember the Titans (2000, Movie)

How the Goal Line Came To Replace the Color Line

It's striking how many of the images that capture America's struggle to overcome its legacy of racism come from the world of sports. Based on a real-life drama that played out in Virginia, it uses football to tell a bigger story about the American South going through the growing pains of desegregation."Remember the Titans" is a parable about racial harmony, yoked to the formula of a sports movie. Real life is never this simple, but then that's what the movies are for--to improve on life, and give it the illusion of form and purpose.

Denzel Washington and Will Patton are the stars, two football coaches, one black, one white, whose lives are linked for a season, even though neither wants it that way. Yoast's white players say they won't play for a black coach, but Yoast doesn't want them to lose college scholarships, so he swallows his pride and agrees to be Boone's assistant, leading the whites back to practice.

All of this is said to be based on life, and no doubt largely is, but life was perhaps harder and more wounding than the film.

Those training camp scenes include the usual identifiable types (the fat kid, the long-haired Californian, the "Rev") who first clash, then bond.

The movie is heartfelt, yes, and I was moved by it, but it plays safe.

Mom's Birthday Dance (Aug 2009)

From Misc. 2008

Desert Garden at Huntington Library_092009

Another half day spent at Huntington Library under the fair weather. We chose to visit the 12-acre Desert Garden on a cool morning. It has the world's largest group of mature cacti and other succulents, arranged by continent. It's hardly a desert, though most of its plants are from dry regions. Planted here are over 5000 different species of xerophytes - succulents, trees, and shrubs that are adapted to arid environments. Though they come from disparate areas of the world and may be un-related, many xerophytes appear similar, having evolved similar strategies for survival in dry habitats.

Kaiser Friends gathering_092009

This is a farewell luncheon to Yogi Shah and Jay Barrios, as the last layoff wave.

Participants: Audrey Belandres, Ron Tan, Yogi Shah, Jay Barrios, Moses Chu, Perry Gibson, Frank Bereznay, Keli Esser, Robert Suchoski, Rex Avendano, Steve Marks, Todd Evans, Gil Oh, Daniel Liang, Vivian, and me

Where: Newport Seafood Restaurant

High School Memories (1970)

Thanks to Sandy Teng's (甘錦露) effort of compiling those yellowish pictures into modern digital frames. Even scanning those fragile ones was a big endeavor. Now we have something to look at, talk about and laugh together. This is a treasure box stored deep in our heart, forever.

人到老年，可以領悟到人生最實質、最內在、最主體的內容，可以把美麗的花朵和豐收的果實糅進生命的脈絡，滋養人生，豐富人生，實現人生。

The 400 Blows (1959, Movie)

"New Wave" French young director Francois Truffaut's "The 400 blows" (the title is an idiom meaning "raising hell'') is one of the most intensely touching stories ever made about a young adolescent. Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime.

It is said that this film, which M. Truffaut has written, directed and produced, is autobiographical. That may well explain the feeling of intimate occurrence that is packed into all its candid scenes. The movie centers on the troubled childhood of a young boy named Antoine Doinel. Adults see him as a troublemaker. We follow him as he lies, steals, plays hookie, and gets into every kind of trouble imaginable. But we also see his tender side.

The film's famous final shot, a zoom in to a freeze frame, shows him looking directly into the camera. He has just run away from a house of detention, and is on the beach, caught between land and water, between past and future. It is the first time he has seen the sea.

Conversations for a Smarter Planet

A mandate for change is a mandate for smart.

The world is ready for change - that much is clear.

For leaders of all kinds, this moment presents a rare opportunity. Our planet is not just getting smaller and flatter. It is also becoming smarter. And that means we have the potential to change the way the world literally works.

Computational power is now being put into things we wouldn't recognize as computers - cars, appliances, cameras, roadways...even pharmaceuticals and livestock. We are interconnecing all of this through the Internet, which has come of age. And we are applying powerful new systems and sophisticated analytics to turn oceans of data into insight, knowledge and intelligence.

Consider the changes already under way.

Smart traffic systems are helping to reduce gridlock by 20%, cutting pollution and increasing ridership on public transit.

Smart food systems based on RFID technology embedded into supply chains are monitoring meat, poultry and other items from the farm to the supermarket shelf.

Smart healthcare systems are helping to lower the cost of therapy by as much as 90%.

Police departments are correlating street-level information from myriad observations and devices to identify crime patterns - helping prevent crime, rather than simply punishing it.

The list is long, and the transformation is just beginning. Its benefits will be reaped not only by large enterprises, but also by mid-sized and small companies - the engines of economic growth everywhere - and by individuals and communities around the world.

Imagine how a smarter planet will transform all the things we seek. The ways we pursue economic growth, societal progress, environmental sustainability and cures for disease. The way we interact with each other and with the world.

The opportunity is before us, and the moment will not last forever. Will we seize it? As we look to stimulate our economies and rebuild our infrastructure, will we simply repair what's broken? Or will we prepare for a smarter future?

Join us at ibm.com/smarterplanet