Gil Shaham playing Brahms

I went to an amazing OSM concert with Gil Shaham playing Brahms. It was the most stupendous, tear-dropping classical performance I have ever been to! What an honor to have experienced that!

Gil Shaham came on stage with a grey suit and silver tie, sort of looked like he had just got off work from any nearby corporate office buildings. Not only did he look overly causal amidst the tuxedos on stage, but he also had this curious and child-like grin the whole night, looking at Kent Nagano while he was not playing. When he played, he was serious, yet not tense or unnatural.  When he first started playing, I couldn’t understand, but my eyes got watery with such strong emotion. The music conveyed such a feeling of joy and awe that identified with me. Or maybe it was the other way around. But regardless, I was engaged to it, sitting at the edge of my seat, mesmerized. I noticed that the orchestra was also “gelling” with him. They played together and not against each other.There was a long solo ( a cadenza) at the end of the first movement. I felt like I was at the Jazz concert. It sounded nothing like a memorized cadenza. He sounded like he was improvising on the spot, that he owned it and he was sharing with us his thoughts-process through notes. It was so gripping that I believed even the orchestra was transfixed by it. By the third movement, I was almost praying and wishing that the performance would not end. That was one good concert. Kent Nagano is indeed a very clean and clear conductor too. I’m convinced that Brahmns would be impressed if he were present.

久石譲in武道館 曲目

「久石譲in武道館～宮崎アニメと共に歩んだ25年間～」

公演期間、公演回数
2008年8月4日、5日（昼・夜2回）全3回　
※休憩無し

会場
日本武道館

編成
久石譲　作曲、指揮、ピアノ
新日本フィルハーモニー交響楽団　6管編成
栗友会

ゲスト
大橋のぞみ、藤岡藤巻
平原綾香
麻衣
林正子　他

曲目

◆風の谷のナウシカ
　オープニング「風の伝説」
　レクイエム～メーヴェとコルベットの戦い
　遠い日々
　鳥の人

◆もののけ姫
　アシタカせっき
　タタリ神
　もののけ姫（Vo,林正子）

◆魔女の宅急便
　海の見える街
　傷心のキキ
　かあさんのホウキ

◆崖の上のポニョ
　深海牧場～海のお母さん（林正子）
　波の海のポニョ～フジモトのテーマ（藤岡・・・）
　ひまわりの家のロンド（麻衣）
　母の愛～いもうと達の活躍～母と海の賛歌　
　崖の上のポニョ（藤岡藤巻と大橋のぞみ）

◆天空の城ラピュタ
　ハトと少年
　君をのせて with　コーラス
　大樹　with　コーラス

◆紅の豚
　帰らざる日々

◆ハウルの動く城
　Symphonic Variation "Merry-go-round"～Cave of Mind

◆千と千尋の神隠し
　あの夏へ「いのちの名前」　（Vo.平原綾香）
　ふたたび（Vo.平原綾香　、作詞：鈴木麻美子）

◆となりのトトロ
　風のとおり道
　さんぽ　with コーラス
　となりのトトロ　with　コーラス

◆アンコール　
MADDNES
アシタカとサン　（作詞：麻衣）

Joe Hisaishi in Concert at the Budokan: Ending song

After the last song, Miyazaki went up to thank Joe Hisaishi for his performance and handed him a bouquet of flowers. It was a very touching scene, knowing that over the past 25 years, these two kindred spirts have created so many wonderful works together and developped such respect and admiration for each other's artistic soul.

Joe Hisaishi in Concert at the Budokan:Set list

Set List(source)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
1. Opening [Legend of the Wind]
2. Requiem ~ A Battle Between Mehve and Corvette
3. Tooi hibi (Days Long Gone)
4. Tori no Hito (Bird Person)

Mononoke Hime
5. Ashitaka Sekki (Tale of Ashitaka)
6. Tatari gami (The Curse God)
7. Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) , Vocal: Masako Hayashi

Kiki’s Delivery Service
8. Umi no Mieru Machi (A Town with an Ocean View)
9. Shoushin no Kiki (Heartbroken Kiki)
10. Kaasan no Houki (Mom’s Broom)

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
11. Deep Sea Ranch ~ Mother of the Sea, Vocal: Masako Hayashi
12. The Ponyo of the Fish of the Wave ~ Fujimoto’s Theme, Vocals: Fujioka Fujimaki
13. Rondo of the Sunflower House, Vocals: Mai
14. Mother’s Love ~ Little Sister ~ Mother and Sea’s Song of Praise
15. Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), Vocals: Fujioka Fujimaki and Nozomi Ohashi

Laputa: Castle in the Sky
16. Hato to Shounen (Pigeons and a Boy) with Marching band
17. Kimi wo Nosete (Carrying you) with Choir
18. Taiju (The Huge Tree)

Porco Rosso
19. The Bygone Days

Howl’s Moving Castle
20. Symphonic Variation ~ Merry-Go-Round ~ Cave of Mind

Spirited Away
21. Inochi no Namae (The Name of Life), Vocals: Ayaka Hirahara
22. Futatabi (Reprise), Vocals: Ayaka Hirahara

Tonari no Totoro
23. Kaze no toori michi (The Path of the Wind)
24. Sanpo (Stroll), Vocals: Chorus + All guest singers
25. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro), Vocals: Chorus

Encore

Porco Rosso
26. Madness

Princess Mononoke
27. Ashitaka and San

Joe Hisaishi in Concert at the Budokan

On August 4 and 5, 2008, over 30 000 people went to see Joe Hisaishi perform at the Nippon Budokan with a 200 piece orchestra, 800 people choir and a 100 people marching band plus several featured well known soloists. The concert features music from all Ghibli Studio films that Joe has collaborated with Miyazaki for the past 25 years. Originally, only two concerts were planned. But expectedly, it was sold out so fast that they had to have a third concert. I bet it would have been sold out even if they were to have a fourth one (specially when the most expensive seats are only 6800 yen!!).

How often will you get to see Joe Hisaishi performing live all of your favorite Ghibli films in one night?! This could have been simply the concert of a lifetime. If I had know, I might have planned my vacation accordingly…

I wonder if I will ever get a chance to see Joe Hisaishi performing music from Ghibli studio. For now, I’ll try to at least get my hands on the DVD when it comes out.

Note: The above poster is done by Miyazaki of course, featuring Joe Hisaishi and their favorite Ghibli characters.

Spring is here!

Finally got our taxes done. It was a lot of effort, when there is someone in your household who, in one single fiscal year, was a full time student, self-employed, part-time working for the university, but also earning a full scholarship, then working full time in a completely different province. But I also almost forgot how nice it is to have a professional jazz pianist playing background music for you when you’re filling his tax in the living room. It makes the job much easier!

A night with too much Chai latte

Had a friend over tonight who loves Chai latte. Since I have this amazing fresh spice Chai tea at home, I made it for him and drank lots of it myself.

Lesson learnt: Don't drink Chai latte by 6pm if you want to sleep at all!

Interesting conversation tonight:
DM: So, you're going to Toronto for Easter? You have family there?
CL: Hm...no, well, yes...kind of. A very good friend...

It got me thinking. Easter, time to be with family. So, we made plans for Toronto...AC is not just a very good friend. She is like family to CL2. Spending Easter with AC would make up for not spending Christmas with her. CL2 are very excited about it indeed.

I might have to spend the rest of the night with more Dvorak's Cello concerto in B minor, with Jacqueline du Pre, of course. I have listened to this recording hundreds of times. But it gave me the goose bumps tonight, for the first time. The last time I had goose bumps about a recording, I was in Cegep. So, this was awesome.

Sorry about how random this blog it. It's embarassing when you're running on caffeine and try to publish your thoughts. It's obviously not something very intelligent to do.

Love the travel, hate the traveling

I love travel, wether it is for vacation or for business. But I dread traveling. Why is it such a nightmare to get from point A to point B? Flying is simply the most uncomfortable part of any travel, no matter how long or short the trip is. Long waiting times, customs, security checks, lost luggage, hours of confinement, mediocre food selections and more than often unpleasant customer service… What a shame that I happen to work for the airline industry yet I feel so helpless when I fly.

I still remember last month when I had to connect 4 times to get from HKG to YUL. The whole journey took 25 hours. It was very exhausting. The worse part was when we arrived at Minneapolis for our connection, instead of going to the gate where our next connecting flight was, they made us claim all of our checked luggage and went through customs again even though it was obvious that we had not touched our luggage since they were last checked-in and we have not left any restricted area since we last boarded a plane. Luckily, holding a Canadian passport made the experience less painful because those who didn’t hold a US or Commonwealth passport had to have their fingerprint taken!

First lesson learnt: If you travel, avoid the US.

The sad reality is that not only long travel distance is dreadful. Even when it’s only from YUL to YXE, two cities that are about 4 hours away by plane, with connection and waiting time, plus if you encounter bad weather condition, the whole journey could take up to 12 hours. Such was my experience yesterday. Due to a snowstorm in the morning in YYZ, my connecting flight was delayed and then cancelled. Though it didn’t matter that much because my first flight was delayed for over 2 hours that I would have missed the connection regardless. The most ridiculous part was that when the YXE flight landed in YYZ at 9:30pm, they couldn’t find a ground crew to help us dock and unload the cargo. The pilot paged the airport several times and tried to get us out of the plane but we waited for an hour in the plane, right by the gate before the ground crew showed up. Afterwards, I went to airline customer service to rebook my next flight. Many customers were tired and very grumpy. There were a few nasty in-your-face shouting here and there. I waited in line for about 45 minutes. I got impatient as well. I looked at my watch again. It was 11:30pm. I was very tired and worried that I wouldn’t be able to leave Toronto until the next day. I tried my best to keep poised because I was determined not to be yet another grumpy customer. The staffs were doing their best they could. They were tired and frustrated too. The weather is a department that they have no control of. I told the lady at the counter that I appreciated her help and that they’re doing a good job being patient and polite with the long line up of people. I was hoping to make her day go better. I didn't expect her to put me in business class without telling me! Though I’m so tiny that I couldn’t fully take advantage of the benefit of a more spacious seat. But they did give me my drink in a glass instead of a plastic cup : )

Second lesson learnt: patience (and maybe kindness) has its own reward.

I hope one day, traveling will not be a pain. For now, we would have to made do with Star Trek. (Maybe one day, a Trekkie who happened to be a mad scientist will bring teleportation to reality!)

Random thoughts when you can’t sleep

What do you do when it’s 4am and you can’t sleep? I usually would read a novel, or read up about a monarch from a remote century online. But tonight, I decided to blog, probably got inspired by VK’s truthful writings of his encounters on the Indian Railways…

All my life, I never had any trouble sleeping...until recently. My brain is overactive, occupied with thoughts. Thoughts that are hard to explain and don’t go away. I wish it could stop bothering me. There is a Chinese saying: 平生不作虧心事,夜半敲門也不驚. Maybe I committed something terrible and refuse to realize it, so my brain is guilt-tripping me to stay awake just to torture me.

The last two years were probably the best Christmas I’ve had. I spent them in YTO with AC. This Christmas, it’s kind of sad that I won’t get to see her. Suddenly I feel like I miss her, which is weird, because I don’t usually miss anybody. I guess I integrated her into my Christmas memory. As she heads to NYC for operas, musicals and shopping, I’ll be heading to YXE. Outlook, SK is the best place to spend the rest of my 2007. I’m looking forward to the picturesque view from the huge kitchen window, spotting a deer or two running up to our yard from the riverbank, gazing at the Northern lights and drinking a cup of well brewed tea.

Finally, the last random thought of the day before the first beam of sunlight shining through my window. CB said that one can be too nice and get taken in easily without protecting oneself. I don’t know if I can completely agree with that. I’d still rather be nice and get hurt than not be nice and hurt others. Besides, sometimes, the one being too nice is not the victim. Sometimes, being too nice can hurt others too. But that is my problem.

Tis my fourth Christmas at lATA

It’s my fourth Christmas at lATA. Something in me changed. I finally felt a sense of belonging, for the first time. It’s a very strange feeling. I never saw it coming. I used to be completely anti-social. I used to think I had to keep every relationship at work as professional as it could be by keeping to myself and avoid talking leisurely to anyone. That idea isolated me even more, and made me felt like I did not belong. I was a completely different person at work than when I was anywhere else. It was as if I was possessed by the demon of coldness the moment I walked into the building. But suddenly, as if I’ve just woke up from a coma, I realized, I got used to lATA. People all of a sudden are very familiar to me. Secondly, I realized that I just have to open my eyes to see that there are kindred spirts at work, people who are interesting, who have a story to tell. People who in turn are interested to listen to my story, who actually care about what I think.

It’s refreshing.