Groundhog Day

An old superstition says: If it is sunny on February 2, there will be six more weeks of winter. It it is cloudy, then there will be an early spring.

This superstition came to the U.S. with German farmers. They said: "If a groundhog sees his shadow on February 2, spring will be late. If he sees no shadow, there will be an early spring." That's why February 2 is called Groundhog Day.

Seal Lullaby, by Rudyard Kipling

Oh! Hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us,

  And black are the waters that sparkled so green.
The moon, o’er the combers, looks downward to find us,
  At rest in the hollows that rustle between.

Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow,
  Oh weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease!
The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee,
  Asleep in the arms of the slow swinging seas!

This poem is beautiful, memorable, and finely crafted. Eric Whitacre made this lovely poem into a song. It’s absolutely brilliant.

I see this song as a mother seal looking in on her sleeping pup (much the way any parent looks in on their sleeping child), and softly sings this sweet lullaby, while the reader (or listener of Eric Whitacre’s beautiful setting) envisions the trials and adventures of her little baby, through these picturesque and poetic words.

Flipperling is a term of endearment that the mother is using to refer to her baby. Also, I believe that the hollows they’re at rest in are the hollows in between the waves at sea. Billow is another name for a wave, and I’ve always understood that the mother and baby are floating in the water while she sings the lullaby.

Both weary and wee are adjectives describing the baby seal. Weary means that it is tired, and wee means that it is small.

寶貝兒， 夜幕低垂。

潮水黑中透綠，

月光輕撫海浪俯視我們。

讓我們在沙沙潮水裡休息吧。

輕柔的潮浪是你安枕的地方，

疲憊的小寶貝兒，放心地捲曲吧。

願浪潮不會吵醒你，鯊魚也不能傷害你，

在輕搖大海的懷抱中安睡吧！

Moribana (straight & 一型)

Vice (Movie, 2015)

What a terrible movie! There is hardly any character development. Bruce Willis should be ashamed of himself. Seriously. And Thomas Jane is TERRIBLE in this movie.

Problems Are Opportunities

In organizing my thoughts, I recalled what I remembered as being a thoughtful aphorism by Lee Iacocca, the legendary CEO of Chrysler corporation. Perhaps I had read years ago that he had this quotation framed in his office, "Problems are only opportunities in work clothes."

However, after doing a little on-line research, I learned that the quotation actually comes from Henry J. Kaiser an even more legendary CEO. If you don't recall Kaiser, he headed up a massive ship-building operation in Oakland during World War II, founded Kaiser Steel and Kaiser Aluminum, headed up the team of companies which built Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, Bonneville Dam, the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach, among other things. Oh, and to help his many employees with their medical care, he started a little operation called Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser did merge his automobile company with Willys Company, the maker of Jeeps, and that company was then bought out by Chrysler, so perhaps Lee Iacocca did have the quotation from Kaiser in a frame in his office.

By the way, Iacocca came up with a good quotation on problems and opportunities himself. "We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." This one is not nearly as colorful as Kaiser's quotation, but perhaps it appeals more the clever, high-brow, executive-suite types who live in Arcadia. Perhaps not.

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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
-Thomas A. Edison

Last Knights (Movie, 2015)

Set in an age of honor and justice by the sword, Last Knights tells the story of Raiden (Owen) – a fallen warrior who must rise up against a corrupt and sadistic ruler to avenge Bartok (Freeman), his dishonored master. Think of the film as something akin to Seven Samurai but set in the middle ages and you’ll be somewhere close.

Somehow I don't seem to feel much for the story which is the medieval version of Chushingura (the ronins who waited to avenge the death of their master in the Japanese warlord era). Replace the word warrior with samurai, replace the word honor with samurai code, and the adaption of Chushingura is complete, even down to the self-sacrifice of Owen in the end. Then again, the director/producer is Japanese (Kaz Kiriya), it should come as no surprise.

Kingdom of Heaven (Movie, 2005)

This epic is the story of a young man who follows a man who may be his father on a quest to the Crusades. There, he must go from being a simple man into a leader to try to help the Christian Crusaders who are occupying Jersulam fight off hordes of Islamic invaders. Ridley Scott has done an excellent job in recreating the milieu (dress, warfare, weapons, mores) of the 12th Century when this historical drama took place. While Orlando Bloom does a fine job playing Balian of Ibelin, the rest of the performances are also superb -  especially Liam Neeson as Godfrey.  

It is a finely crafted film - technically and artistically.