So now an explanation for those who would like one:
As I took the above photo today near the Hong Kong Observation Wheel, the opening section O Fortuna from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana came to mind and it stayed there for a while. Here is an excellent recording of the widely used piece, which many will recognize at least in part even if they don't know its name, with Robert Shaw conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus:
You can find the lyrics alongside an English translation here. The translation for the excerpt I shared above is:
Fate — monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel . . .
While much of Carmina Burana isn't as familiar to most people as the movement O Fortuna, it is certainly worth listening to in full while following along with a translation. There are even a few more references to the wheel.
Can't find any suitable piano benches to use at a Walmart in Nanning, China? No problem. Just improvise with a shopping cart and a wooden stool.
While I admired how the setup was a more creative example of people using stools in China, the man stood next to the shopping cart helping to keep it steady while he used his mobile phone and the girl played the keyboard. By chance I was around when they arrived and returned just as the girl wrapped up her 15+ minutes of making music and they left sans keyboard.
This Walmart in Nanning currently sells the wooden stool the girl sat on (or one that look just like it) for 29.9 yuan (about U.S. $4.15). I don't know if the pair ultimately bought the stool, just borrowed it for their Walmart shopping experience, or already owned it, but I did see the girl was still sitting on the stool when we later crossed paths in the produce section.
African music has seen a rebirth in the last decade that has opened it up on the world stage like never before. Exploring that growth even further is the China-based duo, Blackbusters comprising MC Rhymes-Apple and DJ St3v3.
Rhymes-Apple originally hails from Ghana while DJ St3v3, also known as Estifanos comes from Ethiopia. Blackbusters first gained popularity in the middle of 2015, after founding and hosting a night party at Playhouse Night Club, one of Asia’s most famous nightclubs. . . .
Rhymes-Apple Ofori-Atta better known by his stage name as MC Rhymes-Apple holds a Bachelors degree in Arts and double masters degrees in Entertainment Management and International Trade. He started recording his own music in 2003 during his high school days then released a mix tape in 2010 titled ”Fruity Juicy”. . . .
DJ St3v3 is a well-spoken and articulate professional Disc Jockey. He has the experience in working on Radio, clubs and music festivals. He started to have a passion for music a early as age 13. Steve has established himself as one of the fastest-growing young DJs and producers for electronic dance music.
According to the apparent BlackBusters Instagram account, they have performed in a variety of cities across China such as Wuxi, Taiyuan, Kunming, and Guangzhou. In an online video they speak about the challenges of their frequent travel and also about how they got together:
And I now see that this Saturday won't be as unique as I had first guessed. BlackBusters has performed in Zhongshan before. I won't be able to report on their upcoming engagement, but hopefully everybody has a grand time.
Cia Hatzi, McCann Worldgroup Regional Vice President for Coca-Cola said, "The codes include more than just emoticons, but also numbers mixed with characters and graphics. When communication involves feelings and emotions, we can turn conversations into real connections, which is the role Coca-Cola can help facilitate.”
The campaign debuts with two films that will run on both TV and digital platforms. The stories focus on friendship and romance, two themes which appeal to Chinese youth. The first spot, “Friend Hunt” [which came out in June] centers around an invitation, using codes, to connect with friends for a special moment. . . .
The second film, “Break-up”, [which came out in July] incorporates codes for consumers to trace a young couple’s relationship journey, from the first time they met, to their first date, first kiss, first fight and first break-up, and ultimately how they reconcile over a bottle of Coke.
Versions of both ads were displayed yesterday in a Coca-Cola promotional event at the Intime City (银泰城) shopping center in Bengbu, Anhui province. The last time I took a close look at a similar Coca-Cola promotion, I possibly came close to destroying one of the displays due to incorrectly believing the intended interaction involved slamming a red target as hard as one could. This time I decided to avoid any undesired feats of strength and just observed.
In addition to the large video screen, there were interactive booths, none of which even to me looked like they required any hitting.
The more stations visitors attended, the bigger of a gift they could receive in return. For example, with a stamp from one station visitors could get a small bottle of Coke. With five stamps, though, visitors could use a machine which produced a large Code bottle according to their own specifications. The station with the longest line was a virtual reality ride.
Also popular was a money grabbing booth which somewhat ineffectively blew paper tokens instead of money.
Of course there was plenty of Coke around.
And at least some of the part-time staff were college students.
The full festivities lasted just one day, and today only a scaled-down version remained.
All of the red deer antlers on displays, bottles, and heads of female staff aren't signs of Coca-Cola getting into the winter holiday spirit way too early. Instead, they are an integral part of this and other Coco-Cola promotions featuring the popular Chinese singer and actor Lu Han, who is the main character in the "Friend Hunt" ad. The character for "Lu" — 鹿 — in his name means "deer" and many of his fans wear deer antlers to show their support. One of Lu Han's performances in Beijing even set a Guinness World Records title for "largest gathering of people wearing antlers" with 1,731 participating. For context, this number surpasses the world record for "most dogs in costumed attire", which was set by 1326 dogs in St. Louis, USA, but falls well short of the world record for "largest gathering of people wearing false moustaches", which was set by 6,471 humans in Denver, USA.
In addition to the antlers, the displays include other references to Lu Han, such as the Shanghai mailbox he made famous. So along with the codes, there was no shortage of symbolism. The event seemed to be a success in terms of turnout yesterday. They may have hoped for a slightly larger crowd when I happened to be observing, but many more people would have made it difficult to move around and participate.
After conversations with some of the staff, I was given an small ice cold bottle of Coke. Perhaps they felt I had interacted enough despite not participating at any of the stations. Perhaps they were just happy I didn't mistake anything for a strength tester this time.
While waiting to meet China's president Xi Jinping, Russia's president Vladimir Putin played two pieces on a piano at the historic Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
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The performance was shared by a variety of news outlets, including Russian new outlets as in the above video posted on YouTube by the Russian government funded RT news. But The New York Times reported one notable set of news outlets declined highlighting the performance:
Chinese propaganda chiefs did not appear to be amused that Mr. Xi had been upstaged to some extent at his own conference, and the official Chinese news media pointedly made little mention of the piano performance.
After watching the video, I wasn't at all surprised by the lack of official Chinese commentary on Putin's musical display, though I am not sure Putin's performance potentially upstaging Xi was the only or even main issue. The Chinese propaganda chiefs had another reason to be concerned.
While the small grand piano may look great sitting in the large formal room, it is terribly out of tune. Presumably this is not due to poor tuning (I can't imagine a professional tuner leaving a piano in that state) but due to a lack of tuning. Perhaps it doesn't strongly jump out to many people. Any of the news articles I have read don't mention it at all. But the tuning should make any trained musician cringe. Back when I studied music performance at a conservatory, I wouldn't have even practiced with a piano in that condition. I can't imagine anybody would have. Putin himself possibly knowingly reacts to an especially offending key early on (see the 11 sec mark in the above video) but continues on . . . diplomatically.
So it is very possible, in fact I hope likely, that some relevant people on the Chinese side recognized they essentially invited the President of Russia to play on a piano in a condition not fit for a middle school performance. While they may not have been sure how many people would notice, they wouldn't want to drawing any attention to the fact that some things are not as harmonious as they may appear.
I haven't done a music-related post in a long time. I thought of this because it was recently brought to my attention today is American composer Aaron Copland's birthday. He lived from November 14, 1900, to December 2, 1990.
So below is a video of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man (1942). A portion of the piece was performed at the celebration for the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States in 2009. The recording below is from farther in the past — 1958. Leonard Bernstein provides a brief introduction before Aaron Copland himself conducts the New York Philharmonic.
In a section of Taiyuan with several newer shopping centers, over a month ago I saw the above advertisement for Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai's (蔡依林) concert featuring music from her most recent album "Play". A concert poster with a fuller image reveals that Tsai is destroying a disco ball.
I am guessing that Tsai didn't really put herself at risk of being cut by flying disco ball shards, no matter what her feelings towards disco balls may be.
Nudity, aerobics-inspired choreography and fantastical colors all play major roles in the Sims-inspired clip. Also, someone gets hit in the face with a ukelele, so there’s that, too.
The scenes with apparent nudity are appropriately blurred, so the video should be safe for work as long as a company doesn't have a strict ukelele-violence policy. The official YouTube version doesn't include English subtitles, but this video does (may need to click "CC" to turn them on):
For those in the U.S. now wishing they could see the Play World Tour live, you missed a big chance. Tsai performed in Atlantic City earlier this year.
. . . stands on a cliff right by the sea. The concrete wall boasts 48 speakers, each with a reported range of 25km, that used to crank out propaganda like 'Our steamed buns are bigger than your pillows!' to the communists. These days, the speakers prefer the more mellow numbers of the late Teresa Tang, Taiwan’s best-loved songbird.
Unfortunately, they didn't turn on the three-stories of speakers to broadcast Teresa Teng's message and songs at a non-deafening volume during my visit to the wall.
The following two minute video offers additional information about the structure's capabilities, perspective on its size, and a translation of Teng's message:
Another video offers a purer form of Teng's message and singing without anyone speaking over it:
On the side, I have yet to see a steamed bun the size of a pillow.
As a result of a good friend's wedding, I spent the New Year holiday in Hong Kong. I won't be here long, so I expect to only do a few HK-themed posts before returning to other topics. In that spirit and on the lighter side, here's some advertising I saw today in Hong Kong:
For a clearer view, here's an online version of the advertisement which caught my eye:
There's just so much going on I don't know where to begin. So I won't. Like the scene of lightsabers during New Year's in Hong Kong, I will leave it to readers to ponder what may have inspired it or find any meaning. If you're interested in digging deeper, the associated event page on Facebook (the source for the 2nd image) is probably a decent place to start. It helped me answer a few of my questions. It also led to new ones. That's often how these things go.
In both cases, not only was someone taking advantage of a place to sit but their attention was focused on a mobile phone – a theme for some future posts about Changsha.
Since I broached the topic of string players yesterday, it is an opportune time to mention two statues of string players I have seen in Changsha.
The much larger statue is titled "Liuyang River" and was erected at Furong Square in 2002.
The second statue is at the back of the Kaifu Wanda Plaza shopping center.
I didn't see a name for it.
Both statues caught my eye since the violinists are missing their bows, which would make it rather hard for them to make music given their arm positions. Additionally, the larger violin had no strings and the smaller violin had broken strings. That said, just being statues is a rather significant obstacle to overcome in itself. I can't rule out artistic motivations, but I assume the bows are missing for pragmatic reasons. It doesn't feel the same without a bow though.
Also behind Kaifu Wanda Plaza is a statue sculpture of a stringless harp.
It shows signs it once had strings or something to represent strings. Given the number of people interested in having themselves photographed interacting with it and the nearby violinist statue, I can't say I am surprised by their current state.
Added note: No, the man in the chair is not posing for a photograph. He is simply taking advantage of a place to sit — a common sight for the times I have passed by.
The video in the previous post may have been a jolt for readers expecting something more . . . Chinese. So to help soothe any frayed nerves, here is a man I saw playing the suona, a Chinese double-reeded horn, at Chengnan Park in Shaoyang, Hunan:
For some music, instead of abruptly switching back to a fully China-themed post and possibly shocking some readers with yet another big change, I will share a duet which includes both Eastern and Western instruments performed by Zhongxi Wu and David All in British Columbia, Canada. The tempo picks up significantly around the 1:30 mark.
In fact, I have never seen dancing like that (it really gets going just after one minute into the video) any night in Changsha. I have seen other styles of choreographed dancing here, though, including at the previously described pole dancing school. More about the non-pole style of dancing I have seen, often as part of mobile phone promotions, another time.
Positive Message x Hong Kong!
Spread Love
Spread Smile
Spread Happiness
Although their goals differ from those who built the memorial, Poco A Poco's use of Facebook, popular in Hong Kong but blocked in mainland China, is also a sign of how there is less censorship and more free expression in Hong Kong than almost everywhere else in China.
