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spring equinox
Mar. 21st, 2021 08:44 pmDaily life: Baseball is back for the spring, the high school tournament this week and real baseball beginning next week. Assuming they're taking suitable precautions, it's very comforting to have Koshien back after the gap last year--the spring and summer high school tournaments are as close to a religion as modern Japan gets, televised in their entirety and practically mythologized.
Music: The radio introduced me to Grażyna Bacewicz, new to me and very much my thing in her combination of neoclassical and modern. (Having been working with a fictional Polish composer, it's nice to spend some time with a real one.) She seems to have been someone worth knowing as well, with a pleasing turn of phrase. "My role is to do what I do tolerably, of course without standing still. So I will continue to write for our old instruments, but looking for new expression, by caring for the originality of the form, musical language and choice of instruments. What will come out of this--who the hell knows."
Books: In keeping with the above baseball news I've been catching up on Oofuri (Big Windup), one of the few manga I read regularly, a realist, down-to-earth, affectionate, unsentimental high school baseball story. (Not actually BL, but Higuchi Asa definitely knows which doors she's leaving open to that interpretation.)
(Edited to add: this morning I saw two high school kids in the park, swinging bats experimentally (not a euphemism) and chattering--"Well, the way batters used to do it...". I felt like I'd had a visitation from a couple of the manga characters.)
Chinese: I learned a helpful new phrase, 心有余而力不足, which I believe should be translated as "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Writing: Still receiving useful advice. I think I can solve a lot of problems by handling one secondary character somewhat differently, but I'm not sure where to go with that yet.
Photos: ( A selection from some long walks lately )
Be safe and well.
Music: The radio introduced me to Grażyna Bacewicz, new to me and very much my thing in her combination of neoclassical and modern. (Having been working with a fictional Polish composer, it's nice to spend some time with a real one.) She seems to have been someone worth knowing as well, with a pleasing turn of phrase. "My role is to do what I do tolerably, of course without standing still. So I will continue to write for our old instruments, but looking for new expression, by caring for the originality of the form, musical language and choice of instruments. What will come out of this--who the hell knows."
Books: In keeping with the above baseball news I've been catching up on Oofuri (Big Windup), one of the few manga I read regularly, a realist, down-to-earth, affectionate, unsentimental high school baseball story. (Not actually BL, but Higuchi Asa definitely knows which doors she's leaving open to that interpretation.)
(Edited to add: this morning I saw two high school kids in the park, swinging bats experimentally (not a euphemism) and chattering--"Well, the way batters used to do it...". I felt like I'd had a visitation from a couple of the manga characters.)
Chinese: I learned a helpful new phrase, 心有余而力不足, which I believe should be translated as "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Writing: Still receiving useful advice. I think I can solve a lot of problems by handling one secondary character somewhat differently, but I'm not sure where to go with that yet.
Photos: ( A selection from some long walks lately )
Be safe and well.
