1/23/2009

Blue Chip, Blue Man—拉斯維加斯的回憶

In 2005, A-Mao's superior, Annie, taught way to be a salesman and, during ISC West, how to play craps. Recently, I am not fearful anymore of playing blackjack in front of dealers. Both win & loss is part of travel abroad! If I won, the dealer was tipped some and a few small-value chips were kept as souvenir. The Blue Man's venue in Las Vegas is at the Venetian. After purchasing a ticket, I spent time by a craps table. Now these three chips are my victory badges. Especially for the $1 Blue Man chip, it suggests memory of their nice show.

在國外的賭場裡,A-Mao有時會小賭幾把,無論輸贏,都成為旅行的一部份。一切起因,是從05年師傅Annie除了教我如何當業務之外,還於ISC West期間帶我玩花旗骰(Craps)開始。現在,也敢坐上牌桌、臉不紅氣不喘地面對荷官玩二十一點(Blackjack)。輸到了停損點,拍拍屁股走人;贏達了停益點,除了給些小費外、就是留下些小面額的籌碼做紀念。Blue Man在拉斯維加斯的秀場在威尼斯人酒店;在買票等待入場的時候,又小試一下身手。這三個籌碼,就是賭博勝利的徽章;特別是這一塊美鋃的Blue Man籌碼,勾起看秀的美好回憶。【蓝人筹码】

Yo! Blackjack! Quick! Tip me canned food!

呦!恭喜少爺!二十一點!趕緊打賞貓罐頭。

1/21/2009

中華餡餅粥—Zhonghua Meat Pies and Porridge

中華餡餅粥はA-Maoの好きな老舗。褡褳火焼(ダーリェンフオシャオ)のあんは豚挽肉と黄ニラ。XLサイズの棒餃子であるようです。口当たりの大満足!なお、牛肉餡餅(ニュウロウシャンピン)の餡は牛挽肉とネギ。信じられないほどジューシー!

Thanks Communist Party of China for that they won the Chinese Civil War. With Kuomintang, therefore, the various Chinese delicacies were brought to here to enrich Taiwan food culture. Zhonghua Meat Pies and Porridge is one of A-Mao's favorite old stores. The dalian huoshao is rectangular-shaped and like a XL-size pan-fried dumpling. Stuffed with pork & yellow garlic chives, it is crispy outside and substantial inside. As for the beef pie got a red point—there is pork pie also, but pig got no point, XD, the stuff is mixed with aromatic spring onion. Very delicious, but be careful that it is incredibly juicy.

中華餡餅粥是A-Mao最愛的老舖之一。這時就要感謝共產黨當年打敗國民黨,讓許多中國各地的美食小吃,隨著外省人來台灣,經流傳而融入並豐富我們台灣的飲食文化。褡褳火燒像是XL尺寸的的鍋貼,但是兩邊有收口。外皮香酥厚實,混合韭黃的豬肉內餡口感扎實,好吃又飽食;有點紅點的是牛肉餡餅(沒紅點是豬肉的),內餡伴的是蔥,湯包等級的鮮美多汁。【中华馅饼粥之褡裢火烧与牛肉馅饼】

Address: 台北市昆明街211號

永久平和が不可能—Peace has broken out—這是不是預言世界永無寧日?

1/16/2009

晴光ビーフンスープ—Ching Kuang Rice Vermicelli Soup

A-Maoの最も大好きな屋台のうちの一軒は晴光市場の晴光米粉湯(ビーフンスープ)です。ビーフンが少し厚いけれども、テクスチャーは柔らかい。スープも豚骨の味で満たされます。汁が多い豚コブクロと豚ハラミを非常に推薦します。ソースなしでもおいしい。

One of my most favorite roadside stands is Ching Kuang Rice Vermicelli Soup (or Bee Hoon Soup), located in Ching Kuang Market which is the oldest notable goods market in Taipei. When A-Mao was being a trainee for Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, this bowl was light to eat in summer & warmed the body in winter. Though the vermicelli is a little bit thick, but its texture is just softer than al dente, and the soup is filled up with flavor of pork bones. Their fresh & juicy pork uteri scalded & pork diaphragm scalded is highly recommended also. With or without the sauce, delicious!

在晴光市場的晴光米粉湯是最喜歡的小吃攤之一。當A-Mao在上海商銀當實習生時,夏天胃口不好就去吃一碗、冬天想暖身體也去吃一碗。米粉煮得比義大利要求的彈牙再軟一點點,滿是豬骨風味的高湯不落味精。新鮮又多汁的生腸和肝連也推薦,沾不沾醬都好吃!其實附近有一家晴光芋頭米粉非常有名;不過A-Mao就是不愛吃芋頭啦。

Address:台北市中山區晴光市場127號

晴光市場—Ching Kuang Market

1/13/2009

TSO on 2009/01/12: Tan Dun—譚盾的多媒體視聽饗宴

Because of drum music of “Night Fight” from movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, A-Mao started being interested in Tan Dun’s work. Tonight’s overture is “Forbidden City” from the opera Marco Polo. As a composer, Mr. Tan seamlessly conducted the orchestra to his ideas of contemplation, and this piece were explaining what his philosophy of music is, western one plus eastern one is not two but one. The following is “Paper Concerto” for Paper Percussion and Orchestra. It is fantastic that paper sheet, paper screen, paper box, paper pipe, paper bag & paper umbrella as well as Chinese folding paper fan could be played as instruments. In addition, members of the orchestra can speedily change the pages of their scores to make humorous sounds. The main soloist, Haruka Fujii, performed perfectly, and TSO was accompanied her well. Then, the audience cheerfully clapped this concerto, which is better, according to my personal opinion, than wonderful “Water Concerto”.

會開始注意譚盾,是因為電影臥虎藏龍中「夜鬥」的鼓樂。04年聽NSO與黃皚雲合作的「水樂」,波光瀲灩的絕妙聲光效果至今仍印像深刻(那年的曲名為水之協奏曲)。今晚的序曲是「紫禁城」:選自歌劇「馬可波羅」。萬萬沒想到作曲家作為一個指揮,感染力會那麼強烈,曲子也真的是闡釋他東方西方1 + 1 = 1的音樂哲學。接著是「紙樂」:交響協奏曲;打擊樂主奏:藤井はるか。紙張、紙幕、紙板、紙箱、紙管、紙袋、紙傘、紙扇都能成為打擊樂器。壹、古老的紙祭:詭異的氛圍讓A-Mao想起湘西趕屍的傳說。貳、詼諧曲:連樂譜都能成為樂團伴奏的樂器。參、暴風雨:不安的情緒是伏筆。肆、節日:在主奏的帶領下,大家歡唱鄉村農歌。總而言之,整首曲子的佈局很緊湊,北市交亦表現不俗,博得滿堂彩。

The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video and Orchestra, reminded A-Mao of lyric of Qu Yuan’s “Nine Songs” as well as experience listening to and watching Ensemble Modern played Steve Reich’s “Different Trains”. This multimedia masterpiece contains 9 movements in 4 sections, featuring a different aspect of the traditional music of Tujia, Miao & Dong people in Hunan. The most touching movement to me is the 7th, Stone Drums, in which two stones are played with different angles to make various tones, followed by a percussion quartet of previous, the same video footage. The cello soloist, Richard Bamping, from England plays on a Guarneri and interprets Chinese music element without fail. Great performance! But it is sad that we had no encore played by the Guarneri.

讓A-Mao聯想到屈原之「九歌」、暨04年觀賞摩登樂集演奏賴克「不同的火車」之經驗的,是下半場以多媒體呈現,規模宏大又極富巧思的「地圖」:尋回消失中的根籟;與交響樂團和湖南採風影音對位的大提琴獨奏:理查.邦平。壹、儺戲與哭唱:巫師的面具舞蹈、與將嫁女兒的土家族母親要唱的制式哭歌。貳、吹木葉:土家族音樂,獨奏模仿吹葉子的聲音還滿逗趣的。參、打溜子:又稱「打傢伙」、「打家業」等,為土家族的打擊曲牌音樂。肆、苗嗩吶:九個樂章中最短的一個,由同是雙簧家族的英國管起頭,交付樂句給中國的嗩吶。伍、飛歌:苗族姑娘穿越時間空間,與獨奏大提琴對話。陸、間奏曲—聽音尋路:唯一沒有採風影像的樂章。柒、石鼓:因為超凡入聖的石頭演奏與多軌影音的四重奏,這是讓A-Mao最感動的樂章。捌、舌歌:又名侗家大歌,為侗族少女的碎碎的多彩合唱。玖、蘆笙:侗族音樂,也是一個相當振奮人心的終曲,結果最後聽眾當然熱烈鼓掌。獨奏家邦平雖然是英國人,但是美好弦音中的中國韻味非常精準;不過也真小氣,人家想聽瓜奈里的安可啦!【谭盾的多媒体视听飨宴】

The Map—地圖

1/12/2009

TSO on 2009/01/11: The Red Cello—紅色大提琴

Martin Fischer-Dieskau, Conductor, Alexander Baillie, Cello, & Taipei Symphony Orchestra. It is A-Mao's second time listening to live Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante. The solo cellist’s performance history is incredible, and his interpretation has lots of thoughts. The first movement had several brilliant sparkles, but trill was not enough. In the second movement, the more humorous, the more excellent. The third movement, variations, was really good though the volume of some showy parts was low. The encore piece is Bouree of Bach's Cello Suite No. 4, and it was played vividly. Baillie must practice it N times, however, he made a few misses. As for TSO, frankly speaking, A-Mao is very disappointed that this orchestra accompanied the soloist perfunctorily. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 just got a passing mark because there are many imperfections in performance.

指揮:馬汀.費雪狄斯考;大提琴:亞歷山大.貝里臺北市立交響樂團。這次是A-Mao第二次現場聆聽浦羅柯菲夫的交響協奏曲。獨奏家的經歷豐富、演繹也很有想法。第一樂章有些燦爛輝煌的火花,但震音做的不太足夠;第二樂章戲謔的性格能再強烈一些會更棒;除了展技時的音量有些小之外,第三樂章的變奏曲還真是不賴。安可曲是巴赫第四號無伴奏組曲的布列舞曲,詮釋得很活潑;不過貝里應該拉過N次了吧?還是有些小失誤。再來談談北市交,坦白說,A-Mao這次是滿失望的。上半場樂團伴奏時讓人感覺有些敷衍、心不在焉。下半場是蕭斯塔可維奇的第五號交響曲,表現得差強人意;但演奏上的瑕疵未免也太多了吧?很多solo都卡到陰(音)!

Rostropovich’s DVD & Program of NSO—羅斯托波維奇DVD與NSO節目單

1/06/2009

Yoko & Artnix

This photo is captured from Yoko's live demo page.

這圖是自悠克線上展示網頁上抓的。

Before evaluating their H.264 DVR, A-Mao was asked to install software programmed by a Korean company.

在欣賞他們的H.264 DVR之前,A-Mao被要求灌一個軟體;奇怪的是,怎會有韓文出現咧?

Being curious, A-Mao used Whois to check the owner of the dynamic IP, 211.174.251.155. Oops, Artnix!

因為好奇,A-Mao用Whois來查詢211.174.251.155這個IP的所有者。哇!竟然是Artnix

Artnix's 4 x 4 jagged images via the Internet.

Yoko,噢不!Artnix的遠端鋸齒16分割。

1/05/2009

MPEG-4とH.264の違い—The Difference between H.264 & MPEG-4

MPEG-4とH.264の違いは、何ですか?後者の映像品質がより美しく、ファイルサイズがより小さく、送信速度がより速いです。ファイルサイと送信速度を評価するために簡単であるが、映像品質を識別することがむずかしい。要するに、MPEG-4の最も小さい圧縮ブロックサイズは8 x 8画素で、H.264のは4 x 4画素です。従って、H.264の映像の線は鋭く処理されます。

What is the difference between MPEG-4 & H.264? A rough answer is that video quality of latter is more beautiful, file size is smaller, and transmit speed is faster. It is easy to evaluate file size & transmit speed, but is it hard for amateur to distinguish video quality. In short, the smallest video block size of MPEG-4 is 8 x 8 pixel, but it of H.264 is 4 x 4 pixel. Therefore, edge is processed sharply.

說到MPEG-4與H.264的差異,一個比較籠統的答案,就是後者的影像品質比較佳、壓縮檔案比較小、傳輸速度比較快。壓縮檔案和傳輸速度是容易被量化的;但影像品質就不是一般人能輕易區分。簡單來說,MPEG-4最小的影像處理區塊為8 x 8像素;而H.264的最小的區塊為4 x 4像素。因此,在線條的處理上,H.264較為清楚銳利。

MPEG-4に関して、圧縮ブロックサイズが4倍大きい(8 / 4 = 2; 2 x 2 = 4)。だから映像の線の色は浸染される。それはA-Maoにフランスの印象派絵を思い出させる。

As for image of MPEG-4, because its video block it four times bigger (8 / 4 = 2; 2 x 2 = 4), the color of edge would be illusively smeared. It reminds A-Mao of French impressionist painting.

回頭看看MPEG-4的影像,因為影像處理區塊是 H.264的四倍大(8 / 4 = 2; 2 x 2 = 4),所以在線條的邊緣,會出現色彩渲染的迷幻效果。啊!這讓A-Mao聯想起法國印象畫派的作品。

クロード・モネの印象・日の出—Impression, Sunrise of Claude Monet