minor frustrations and speculations
Aug. 26th, 2021 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnozomi・I really really want to go swimming—not my usual form of exercise, but it’s too damn hot in summer for anything else. Sucks to be me in this case, the sea is a day trip (at least) away and the nearby public pool is probably a bad idea right now for obvious reasons.
・I accidentally invented a delicious and simple carrot recipe: cut into coins and parboil, then heat some olive oil and add a lot of cumin seeds. Put in the carrots and sauté until crisp/browned on both sides, adding some salt during the process (blood pressure permitting). The end. Cumin seeds are magic.
・Listening to the Pastoral Symphony; the fifth movement, to which my mind always adds the epigraph “We believe that God still loves the world...”, tends to make me cry. (A long story, it’s not my faith but I associate that phrase with the calm after the storm.) Also I remember labeling the second movement “Chrestomanci’s garden” in my old orchestra part, a Venn diagram with minimal overlap.
・Yu-jie did her damnedest to teach me to pronounce 出去 (“go out”), apparently one of the trickiest words in Chinese to say correctly, and I’ve been going around the house ever since muttering “chūqù train, chūqù train...” to myself like an idiot, because the dumb pun is the only way to avoid getting frustrated坏了 with the practice, I used to have a better ear for pronunciation than this.
・Episode 29: well, now I’ve heard Zhu Yilong speaking Japanese. His accent is terrible, but poor Lin Nansheng can hardly breathe and has a lot of other troubles on his mind, mastering Japanese is not high among his priorities.
Episode 31: Awful, awful propaganda scene. Even Zhu Yilong’s gifts can’t make it convincing to us watching from outside. Such a waste of his talent and the other actor’s, and of their humanity and the characters’. The shift from propaganda puppets to two individual young men when he says “I owe you an apology...” is jarring. (And it could have worked in some way, and been moving, from a different perspective? Lin Nansheng and Zuo Qiuming are frightened and beleaguered and away from home and seeing their country brutally taken over by enemy forces, and here’s an authoritative voice telling them to keep the faith and they’ll win through, and whether or not it’s true or morally accurate, they cling to it so that poor Zuo Qiuming won’t sink into something like Wang Shi’an’s deliberately unenlightened self-interest (as a businessman, he must have had so many opportunities) and Lin Nansheng can climb up out of helpless despair. But the show doesn’t present it that way, of course.) The one thing that does remind you it’s Zhu Yilong’s acting is the way he puts a hand to his chest after he shouts “Victory!”: newly motivated or not, Lin Nansheng is still the same person who was so badly hurt.
・Trobadora may remember that photo of Zhu Yilong that made us think “he’s playing Duv Galeni in the (sadly nonexistent) Chinese Vorkosiverse live-action drama.” My brain looked at Wang Yang (Chen Moqun in The Rebel) and went “Aral Vorkosigan” all of a sudden, and now I can’t unthink it. Any other interesting fancasts for this would-be series? (Also, no joking I can’t even imagine what the censors would make of it. Proudly independent Komarr, possibly.)
Be safe and well.
・I accidentally invented a delicious and simple carrot recipe: cut into coins and parboil, then heat some olive oil and add a lot of cumin seeds. Put in the carrots and sauté until crisp/browned on both sides, adding some salt during the process (blood pressure permitting). The end. Cumin seeds are magic.
・Listening to the Pastoral Symphony; the fifth movement, to which my mind always adds the epigraph “We believe that God still loves the world...”, tends to make me cry. (A long story, it’s not my faith but I associate that phrase with the calm after the storm.) Also I remember labeling the second movement “Chrestomanci’s garden” in my old orchestra part, a Venn diagram with minimal overlap.
・Yu-jie did her damnedest to teach me to pronounce 出去 (“go out”), apparently one of the trickiest words in Chinese to say correctly, and I’ve been going around the house ever since muttering “chūqù train, chūqù train...” to myself like an idiot, because the dumb pun is the only way to avoid getting frustrated坏了 with the practice, I used to have a better ear for pronunciation than this.
・Episode 29: well, now I’ve heard Zhu Yilong speaking Japanese. His accent is terrible, but poor Lin Nansheng can hardly breathe and has a lot of other troubles on his mind, mastering Japanese is not high among his priorities.
Episode 31: Awful, awful propaganda scene. Even Zhu Yilong’s gifts can’t make it convincing to us watching from outside. Such a waste of his talent and the other actor’s, and of their humanity and the characters’. The shift from propaganda puppets to two individual young men when he says “I owe you an apology...” is jarring. (And it could have worked in some way, and been moving, from a different perspective? Lin Nansheng and Zuo Qiuming are frightened and beleaguered and away from home and seeing their country brutally taken over by enemy forces, and here’s an authoritative voice telling them to keep the faith and they’ll win through, and whether or not it’s true or morally accurate, they cling to it so that poor Zuo Qiuming won’t sink into something like Wang Shi’an’s deliberately unenlightened self-interest (as a businessman, he must have had so many opportunities) and Lin Nansheng can climb up out of helpless despair. But the show doesn’t present it that way, of course.) The one thing that does remind you it’s Zhu Yilong’s acting is the way he puts a hand to his chest after he shouts “Victory!”: newly motivated or not, Lin Nansheng is still the same person who was so badly hurt.
・Trobadora may remember that photo of Zhu Yilong that made us think “he’s playing Duv Galeni in the (sadly nonexistent) Chinese Vorkosiverse live-action drama.” My brain looked at Wang Yang (Chen Moqun in The Rebel) and went “Aral Vorkosigan” all of a sudden, and now I can’t unthink it. Any other interesting fancasts for this would-be series? (Also, no joking I can’t even imagine what the censors would make of it. Proudly independent Komarr, possibly.)
Be safe and well.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 08:39 am (UTC)I've only seen one half of episode 1 of the Rebel so far (memorable in the way Lin Nansheng meets Chen Moqun pretty much butt first, which the camera lingers on lovingly, and now I can see why ppl are writing porn) but yeah, I can see Wang Yang as Aral.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:34 pm (UTC)Let's see if that works.
(I also think Z1L would make an excellent Gregor, in the period where he's so heartsick and tries to escape his duties.)
Yes, could be! Especially when he was a few years younger than now (cf Luo Fusheng).
no subject
Date: 2021-09-02 08:27 am (UTC)Gosh he is so beautiful, sigh.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-04 11:40 am (UTC)Gosh he is so beautiful, sigh.
He is, oh dear.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 05:45 pm (UTC)“chūqù train, chūqù train...”
LOL!
(What makes that word so tricky? I'm somehow failing to see it ...)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:38 pm (UTC)I know, can you imagine. I wonder if the novels have been translated into Chinese?
(What makes that word so tricky? I'm somehow failing to see it ...)
For me at least, it's differentiating ch vs q and also making two different u sounds, with the second one more like ü. (And of course the damn tones)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 07:43 am (UTC)For me at least, it's differentiating ch vs q and also making two different u sounds, with the second one more like ü. (And of course the damn tones)
Oh, I see! German has ü, which probably helps. (But yes, the tones! just like every other word! /o\ I still can't even reliably hear them, much less pronounce them.)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 11:01 am (UTC)wow, I wonder what the translation is like. That could be a fun way to practice Chinese...
(But yes, the tones! just like every other word! /o\ I still can't even reliably hear them, much less pronounce them.)
aargh yeah, me neither. Tones are the reason I chose Japanese instead of Chinese twenty-five years ago in university, and now I wish I'd taken some Chinese classes when my brain was younger and more flexible.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:39 pm (UTC)It would be amazing! If very, very weird. Let me know if you come up with a fancast or two ;)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 08:25 pm (UTC)I just mentioned it to someone else, but I am incredibly unimpressed with zh/sh/ch and q/j in Chinese pronunciation, as a Polish person who can say dż/sz/cz and dź/ć and has never had a problem with distinguishing any of those, and now Chinese has these similar sounds and it turns out! They're actually difficult! How dare!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-26 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 11:02 am (UTC)TOO TRUE. Still, we should do another Chinese-practice post here or at your place or yaaurens' sometime soon. At least when typing, pronunciation isn't a thing...
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 11:14 am (UTC)Not related, but I realised my ideal Chinese course wouldn't have pinyin after first introducing the character, but would maybe keep tone indicators/at least told me what to do where there are too many third tones together...
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 12:56 pm (UTC)yay, also no pressure, your pace is good <3
I realised my ideal Chinese course wouldn't have pinyin after first introducing the character, but would maybe keep tone indicators/at least told me what to do where there are too many third tones together...
Oh, that's interesting! I'm trying to think what mine would be. (If you want to go down a fun rabbit hole for tone indicators etc etc, look up bopomofo/zhuyin, Chao Yuen Ren's gwoyeu romatyzh and so on..., if you haven't already). I think I would want a version of pinyin where the vowel sounds are actually written the way they sound to me, but that may be a bit much to ask.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 11:04 am (UTC)Ooh, good question. I haven't seen Nirvana in Fire so I had to look her up, but she's gorgeous, and a good age for it. The actress I thought of for Cordelia was the one who's playing opposite Zhu Yilong in his new disaster movie thing? I only know her from Wenella's posts about it (I don't even remember her name...) but she looks appealingly tough and competent.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-28 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-28 11:12 am (UTC)seriously! <3
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 03:40 am (UTC)I absolutely feel you on the ch/q difficulty. I know that there's a difference in where one puts the tongue when pronouncing them, but I can never remember which is which!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 11:06 am (UTC)It is, and the fifth movement in particular is a joy for the cello section ♫🎶.
I can never remember which is which!
God, I know! The perils of haphazard self-study, at least in my case. (But it's still fun as well as frustrating)
no subject
Date: 2021-08-27 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-28 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-09-05 11:49 am (UTC)OMG :D
I don't think I remember that photo (or Duv Galeni in any detail, oops). But now I'm wondering about that series fancast, too. Fun!
no subject
Date: 2021-09-06 09:39 am (UTC)OMG :D
You know, on reflection I suppose it would depend whether they interpreted Komarr as a Japanese colony (proud independence!!) or as Hong Kong (results like Vorkosiverse canon, only with even more ImpSec etc etc., I suppose, oh dear). I'm getting a fascination of horror with this idea either way.