I returned home from China and Japan today. There is still much to relate, from the last stops in Shanghai and Tokyo. But today we pause to recognize that this homecoming on June 10 is also Luna’s adoption anniversary, or “Gotcha Day”.
The timing just worked out so we could both return home to celebrate. But first, it’s time to find a familiar comfortable place to rest.
Please join me in wishing Luna a happy “Gotcha Day.”
On the northwest corner of Beijing is the Summer Palace, or Yihe yuan (颐和园).
It is quite a contrast to the dense network of buildings and courtyards of Forbidden City, and is dominated by the “natural” elements of of Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill – “natural” is in quotes as the lake and hill are at least partly artificial. Along the hillside are a series of impressive buildings leading up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Other palaces and gardens ring the lake, with similar architectural and sculptural elements:
[click to enlarge]
In its present incarnation it is more of a park than a palace, with locals and tourists boating on the lake, or having picnics in the gardens and pavilions along the side. However, the main attraction remains the buildings of Longevity Hill. At the base, one enters a court and the Cloud-Dispensing Hall, and can look upward towards the tower up the hill.
From there, one climbs a series of covered and exposed stairways, navigating a series of buildings on the hillside:
[Click to enlarge]
The courtyard of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue at the top of the stairs is relatively tight, and only offers extremely vertical views of the tower:
[Click to enlarge]
One does, however, get a specular view of the lakeside and southeast towards the city center of Beijing.
[Click to enlarge]
The Summer Palace has quite a history. It was destroyed during multiple invasions in the 19th Century and was rebuilt around 1900 in its current form.
Back in the city center is the Temple of Heaven.
[click to enlarge]
The most prominent building, the circular triple-gabled building depicted in the pictures above, is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Harvests seems to have been a major focus when the temple functioned as a location for ceremonies performed by the emperor. However, the most important structure, from a ceremonial point of view, was the Alter of Heaven, a tiered circular mound at the southern end of the complex:
[click to enlarge]
Unlike the more architecturally prominent buildings, which have gone through extensive maintenance and renovation, the mound seems to have gone to seed a bit, with lots of grass and weeds coming up the ground. For me, however, this actually makes for interesting photography, as I tend to like buildings that in a bit of disrepair.
[click to enlarge]
I found more buildings in various states off to the side of the main axis of the complex, such as this dry moat with weeds growing:
[click to enlarge]
This area of the complex was nearly empty, no tourists and very few locals, and walking around here among more quiet and less maintained buildings was quite comforting, especially after the intensity and the crowds of Beijing.
The first stop on my weekend trip to Beijing was the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial seat of power from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. It is really is a “city” rather than a palace. It is huge and contains hundreds of buildings, and in three hours I was only able to cover part of it. This article presents only a small sampling of what I saw.
The Forbidden City is surrounded by a moat and walls, with towers at the corners:
Inside the walls are a patchwork of courts and buildings, of which Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest and most iconic:
The people in the crowd (which is relatively modest for China) should provide some sense of scale for the size of the buildings and the courtyard. At this scale, the architecture seems relatively streamlined and spare, but a closer look reveals intricate details in the buildings, as well as the networks of stairways and paths.
The above architectural details are more intense, in terms of color and complexity, than those I had seen previously in the other cities. Other imperial and religious buildings in Beijing share a similar style.
Views such as this may be recognizable to some readers who have seen documentaries, or films like The Last Emperor. Another image I did recall from seeing film many years ago was the imperial throne:
[click to enlarge]
It was actually a challenge to get a good look at the throne or other significant building interiors, much less attempt to photograph them, because of the ubiquitous crowds:
One could escape from the crowds for a bit by staying out in the middle of the courtyards, or venturing into the maze of side buildings. Wandering the side areas was quite interesting, around a narrow corridor one could easily find another whole court and buildings, “palaces within palaces”, such as Palace of Heavenly Purity with it’s golden lions in front:
[click to enlarge]
Tucked inside the warren of side courts were numerous gardens, similar to those I saw in Suzhou and Wuxi. Some were similarly small an intimate, and seemed like pleasant oases. There was also the imperial garden, which contained this rather large rockery topped by a pavilion (closed to the public), which like it could be at home in a Lord of the Rings movie as much as a Chinese imperial palace.
Scattered throughout the complex were numerous statues, such as the lions protecting palace, entrances and dragons, and other artifacts from the imperial courts:
[click to enlarge]
[click to enlarge]
I would have liked to try out those bells.
At the southern entrance is Tiananmen Gate, which now bears the portrait of Chairman Mao:
I of course could not resist having Zip pose for a “Mao and mao” photo (one of a few I have taken during my trips to China).
[click to enlarge]
In the hills not far from Wuxi stands 88-meter tall Liang Shan Buddha:
To get a sense of just how immense this statue is, consider the people on the staircase in the photo.
Looking down from the base of the Buddha, one can see the expanse of the valley and temple complex below:
In the temple courtyard, there is a scale replica, which one can view in alignment:
There is also a full-size copy of the Buddha’s hand. One is supposed to walk a full circuit while remaining in contact with the hand for good luck, and the wear from countless visitors is clearly visible.
I did the full circuit around the hand, and we’ll see how that works out…
The Liang Shan Buddha is not an ancient construction, but rather recent project sponsored by the Chinese government with some private donations. There is a certain over-the-top feel to the entire complex, almost like a Buddhist amusement park, with a huge parking lot, busses, etc. They have also built a large “palace” with rather gaudy devotional art. The huge circular meditation hall in the center was less ornate, with it’s arrangement of seats and geometric design, though they did have a constantly changing light show in the domed ceiling:
Not being a Buddhist, I don’t really have much interpretation of these aspects of the center. But certainly, the giant Buddha itself is impressive.
The city of
Like Suzhou, Wuxi has several traditional Chinese gardens, with the added bonus of being along the lake front. The Liyuan gardens (really, more of a park) had several ponds and pavilions:
[click to enlarge]
Musicians were performing traditional Chinese music in this pavilion, one of four on a large pond representing the seasons:
The garden is one the shore of Lake Tai, and just beyond the ponds and pavilions are views of the lake:
<
One can see another contrast of old and new, with the traditional architecture of the waterfront restaurant in the foreground and the sleek and modern bridge in the background.
Compared to the Liyuan garden, Turtlehead Garden was more “natural”, with wooded hills and views of the lake, including this iconic spot:
The garden did include the traditional “planned” elements, such as ponds filled with koi and rockeries, but a short walk leads one to far more natural scenery such as wooded hills overlooking the lake.
[click to enlarge photos]
I was fascinated by this one abandoned building in an overgrown wooded area:
<
a href="http://www.ptank.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/turtlehead_abandoned_c.jpg">
I was able to walk around it and get glimpses from different sides, but could not get any closer.
Feeding time for the koi:
I suspect it’s always feeding time for the koi, especially when there are children around.
Of course, at this point it was also feeding time for us, before making the trip to the giant Liang Shan Buddha.
Well, my third trip to China in less than half a year begins and the end this week. So for the next couple of weeks, expect fewer cats and synths, and more photos and thoughts from China. Even if it is the latest in a string of work-related trips, there are still plenty of things to explore in such a vast and complex country. And as a bonus, I will also be spending a couple of days in Tokyo! I expect Japan to be a different experience altogether. Expect high technology, modernism, crazy highways and urban landscapes, and of course cats.
During this trip, Luna will be boarding at the same place she stayed during our CatSynth HQ construction adventure. It’s always a bit sad to leave, but good to know that she will be well cared for.
In a medium that is designed only for speaking or broadcasting, how does one indicate listening? The time I spend listening, and viewing, and reflecting is generally lost.
Tonight I find myself thinking about one instruction set computing, the organic and geometric reflections of dim lights on metal objects, how I should really do a fun-with-highways-post and the old fashioned art of romantic letter writing, while Luna keeps a patient and quiet watch within arms reach.
And that should really be enough.
I actually don’t get back to the Berkeley campus or its surroundings very often, and when I do, it’s usually on the north side where my graduate-school life centered: the computer-science or computer-music centers, the winding roads of the hills, or the “gourmet ghetto.” It’s pretty rare that I find myself on Telegraph Avenue or along the south side of campus, as I did this time. It seemed like very little has changed, many of the shops, restaurants and institutions along the street are still there, many of the buildings look the same. But it did seem a bit cleaner.
While in Berkeley, I saw a screening of Agnès Varda’s film Le Bonheur at the Pacific Film Archive.
It basically a film about a young family living a Paris suburb and leading a life that seems so overly perfect that something bad clearly is going to happen. In this case, it is the husband and father François beginning an affair with another woman. As the affair progresses, the film, whose its rich colors and classical soundtrack do seem to resonate “happiness”, very gradually begins to feel a bit unsettling, and eventually a bit creepy.
Even as it is a film about a particular set of circumstances and events that happen to a family, it is also very much a film about colors. Each scene seems to focus on a specific color. The initial scene of the family on a picnic in the countryside is all yellow, and the family’s (somewhat small and cramped) apartment is blue. In each of these scenes, everything matches the primary color, from the flowers to the background light to the clothing worn by the family. This is particularly apparent with yellow and blue dresses of Therese, the wife and mother (and coincidentally, a dressmaker). She reprises these colors throughout the film, they seem to represent the “happy” aspect of the family. By contrast The scenes with mistress Émilie, particularly those in her apartment, are stark white, with only sparse adornment such as movie posters on the wall. The colors also change with the seasons over the course of the film, from yellow in spring to bright green in summer, to muted orange and brown in the autumn.
Before the film, I did take a quick trip through the Berkeley Art Museum. Although they did have interesting exhibitions – Mario García Torres’ multimedia installation focusing on ruined buildings on a Greek Island that once housed modernist performances and installations, and an eclectic assortment from the permanent collection – it was in some ways overshadowed by the building itself, with its large space and oddly angled concrete balconies.
Perhaps the thing that makes visiting Berkeley most different now is that I am living in San Francisco, so the trip is now going from a large city to a medium-sized college town and then back at night. It’s not good or bad per se, it’s just different, and coming home to the city at the end of the day (instead of the trip in the middle) has become quite familiar, and comforting.
OK, so I have been delinquent in reviewing some of own recent shows. I was hoping to find photos, but so far I have not found any. It does happen once in a while even in this hyper-photographic society. In fairness, I have taken photos at many shows I attend, but then find out they were not good enough to post. So, we will just go ahead and use our visual imagination.
Two weeks ago, on the day I returned from China, I participated in Pmocatat Ensemble. From the official announcement:
The Pmocatat Ensemble records the sounds of their instruments onto various forms of consumer-ready media. (Pmocatat stands for “prerecorded music on cds and tapes and things”.) Then, they improvise using only the recorded media. Several different pieces will explore both the different arrangements of recorded instruments and the sound modulation possibilities of the different recording media.
In my case, my pre-recorded media was digital audio played on an iPhone. I used recordings of my Indian and Chinese folk instruments, and I “played” by using the start, stop, forward, rewind, and scrubbing operations.
Other members included Matt Davignon, James Goode, John Hanes, Suki O’Kane, Sarah Stiles, Rent Romus, C. P. Wilsea and Michael Zelner.
Matt Davignon, who organized the ensemble, had composed some pieces which provided much needed structure and avoid a “mush” of pre-recorded sound. Some portions were solos or duos, with various other members of the ensemble coming in and out according to cues. This allowed for quite a variety of texture and musicianship. I definitely hope the Pmocatat Ensemble continues to the perform.
The following Monday, March 16, I curated a set at the Ivy Room Experimental/Improv Hootenany with Polly Moller and Michael Zbyszynski. I know Polly and Michael from completely different contexts, so it was interesting to hear how that would work together. Michael played baritone sax and Polly performed new words as well as flute and finger cymbals. I played my newly acquired Chinese instruments, the looping Open Sound World patch I often use, and a Korg Kaos Pad.
Musically, it was one of those sets that just worked. I was able to sample and loop Polly’s extended flute techniques into binary and syncopated rhythms, over which the trio could improvise. Periodically, I changed the loops, sometimes purposely to something arhythmic to provide breathing space. Michael’s baritone sax filled out the lower register against the flute and percussion.
We got some good reviews from our friends in the Bay Area New Music community. The following comments are from Suki O’Kane (with whom I played in the Pmocatat ensemble):
Amar had been dovetailing, in true hoot fashion, into Slusser using a small
digitally-controlled, u know, like analog digit as in finger, that totally
appeared to me to be the big red shiny candy button of the outer space ren.
The important part is that he was artful and listening, and then artful
some more. Polly Moller on vocals and flute, text and tones, which had a
brittle energy and a persistent comet trail of danger.
The “big red shiny candy button of the outer space ren” was undoubtedly the Korg mini-Kaos Pad.
And from David Slusser, whom I “had been dovetailing”:
Amar’s curation seemed like a well orchestrated composition; Polly’s contribution on voice and flutes adding much to that.
Not bad for a birthday show :).
Today we explore some properties of the number 36. It is of course a perfect square, 6 x 6. But it is also a so-called “triangle number”, the sum of consecutive integers from 1 to 8. It is highly composite, having 9 factors, all 2s and 3s. Composites of 2 and 3 have a particular appeal for humans, and are very common in music (where most rhythms are subdivisions of 2 and 3), and in organization (e.g., dozens, etc.).
We will continue to post properties and facts throughout the day, but feel free to suggest your own in the comments.