Ok, I was bluffing. Grand Prix du Canada did not happen this year. But I was looking forward to its rumored return in 2010 and could not settle for a NASCAR replacement.
So hopefully see you next summer on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Montréal Summer Fun - Part Deux: Coupe Rogers
The second event I am excited about is Rogers Cup, which is a joint event of ATP and WTA. The men's and women's matches alternate between Toronto and Montreal. This year Montreal hosts the gentlemen. Based on my schedule and budget, I bought a ticket to a quarter-final match on August 14, featuring Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic.
The program was bashing about the fact that all eight seeds had reached quarter-finals, which had not happened since 1973. However, if you had followed the result, you would know that that pattern did not last long as major upsets happened right away.
Roddick v. Djokovic
Originally uploaded by nuance1979The match between Roddick and Djokovic were pretty enjoyable. Unlike in a major event such as the grueling Wimbeldon final with Federer, Roddick was relaxed, even playful from time to time, as long as it wouldn't cost him the victory. Enjoying what you do and doing what you enjoy are typically American.
I also experimented using my iPhone to take pictures and videos. Not bad from such a small device.
The second match of the night was Nadal vs Del Potro. It was apparent that Nadal wasn't at his best form. However, even if he lost, there was no mistake who was the audience's favorite.
The program was bashing about the fact that all eight seeds had reached quarter-finals, which had not happened since 1973. However, if you had followed the result, you would know that that pattern did not last long as major upsets happened right away.
Roddick v. Djokovic
Originally uploaded by nuance1979
I also experimented using my iPhone to take pictures and videos. Not bad from such a small device.
The second match of the night was Nadal vs Del Potro. It was apparent that Nadal wasn't at his best form. However, even if he lost, there was no mistake who was the audience's favorite.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Montréal Summer Fun - Part Un: Festival International de Jazz
There are only two seasons in Montreal: winter and construction.
So what do we do for fun in "construction season"? Well, for starters, we have the International Jazz Festival, a two-week long celebration of jazz, blues and beyond. The largest of its kind, the festival attracts world-class jazz musicians as well as young hopefuls, who perform in an open stage for free, while sweaty young funs cheer them in the audience below. There are, of course, ample supply of beer in nearby stands and I smelt marijuana, too. For older folks like me, we buy ticket to see some older musician playing some old-fashioned jazz.
Chucho Valdes is the quintessential Latin jazz pianist from Cuba. His quintet consists of a piano, a bass, a drum and a conga. He didn't speak much (all in Spanish) and just played and played. Some songs showed off his skill and speed and others presented his softer side. There was a brief quotation from "Rhapsody in Blue", playfully resolved into his own melody. Members of the quintet all had their moments of solos and the audience especially liked the exotic rhythm of conga, as expected. A guest singer came out and did two songs with the quintet with great success, reminding us that human voice is also an interesting jazz instrument.
The quintet encored three(!) times before the audience finally stopped its passionate applause. What a night!
So what do we do for fun in "construction season"? Well, for starters, we have the International Jazz Festival, a two-week long celebration of jazz, blues and beyond. The largest of its kind, the festival attracts world-class jazz musicians as well as young hopefuls, who perform in an open stage for free, while sweaty young funs cheer them in the audience below. There are, of course, ample supply of beer in nearby stands and I smelt marijuana, too. For older folks like me, we buy ticket to see some older musician playing some old-fashioned jazz.
Chucho Valdes is the quintessential Latin jazz pianist from Cuba. His quintet consists of a piano, a bass, a drum and a conga. He didn't speak much (all in Spanish) and just played and played. Some songs showed off his skill and speed and others presented his softer side. There was a brief quotation from "Rhapsody in Blue", playfully resolved into his own melody. Members of the quintet all had their moments of solos and the audience especially liked the exotic rhythm of conga, as expected. A guest singer came out and did two songs with the quintet with great success, reminding us that human voice is also an interesting jazz instrument.
The quintet encored three(!) times before the audience finally stopped its passionate applause. What a night!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Le Rêve Continue
Yesterday was Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, a.k.a., the National Holiday of Quebec (La Fête nationale du Québec). So it was only fitting that I went to "OVO", the latest production of Cirque du Soleil. Founded in Québec and based in Montréal, Cirque du Soleil is markedly Québécois.
My first encounter with Cirque du Soleil was made possible by generous Microsoft Research, where I had an internship for three months. The "Corteo" show was touring in Seattle in summer 2008. I wasn't quite sure about what to expect but was generally pleased by how it organized many usual circus acts into a coherent story and fascinated by their costumes. After I settled in Montréal, I wasted no time to exercise my privilege and bought the ticket of the "OVO" show, which premiered here in May. Being so close to the site, I was able to take the metro 45 minutes before the curtain and walked leisurely to the Grand Chapiteau.
The show was up to its name. Absolutely amazing costumes immediately created a world of insects. This time the story was deliberately simple and light-hearted to attract family and kids but high quality circus acts kept everybody's attention. The pace of the show was well controlled by interweaving comedy and drama, just like a good Jackie Chan movie. Two hours quickly passed by before you even knew it.
2009 is the 25-th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil and their slogan is "Le Rêve Continue" ("The Dream Continues"). Indeed, I walked out of the show like walking out of a nice dream.
My first encounter with Cirque du Soleil was made possible by generous Microsoft Research, where I had an internship for three months. The "Corteo" show was touring in Seattle in summer 2008. I wasn't quite sure about what to expect but was generally pleased by how it organized many usual circus acts into a coherent story and fascinated by their costumes. After I settled in Montréal, I wasted no time to exercise my privilege and bought the ticket of the "OVO" show, which premiered here in May. Being so close to the site, I was able to take the metro 45 minutes before the curtain and walked leisurely to the Grand Chapiteau.
The show was up to its name. Absolutely amazing costumes immediately created a world of insects. This time the story was deliberately simple and light-hearted to attract family and kids but high quality circus acts kept everybody's attention. The pace of the show was well controlled by interweaving comedy and drama, just like a good Jackie Chan movie. Two hours quickly passed by before you even knew it.
2009 is the 25-th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil and their slogan is "Le Rêve Continue" ("The Dream Continues"). Indeed, I walked out of the show like walking out of a nice dream.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Quotes by My Professors
Over the years of my PhD study, I met a lot of interesting professors. I had entertained the idea of putting their memorable quotes in the beginning of my thesis chapters as one of my friends did. I finally gave it up but here are the ones I had in mind:
"Some of my best friends are linguists."-- Fred Jelinek, using it as his LREC 2004 keynote speech title.
"Engineering is advanced through two human natures: laziness and nastiness."-- Gerard G. L. Meyer, explaining how engineers, unlike scientists, always prefer simple ideas that work.
"Mathematics is not a spectator's sport."-- James A. Fill, an avid Chicago sports fan, encouraging people
to work out the details of the proofs he sketched in class.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Happily "Commenced"
I just came back from my commencement. It was great. Unfortunately none of my family could come so I took a lot of pictures to share with them. (Click the photo above or here.) I like the forward-looking way of calling it "commencement", as opposed to "graduation", because I am certainly looking forward to the future and excited about the possibilities of life ahead.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Gil Shaham Plays Brahms
When I found out that Gil Shaham was going to play Brahms Violin Concerto with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, I thought it could be a perfect chance to savor my new hometown orchestra.
The orchestra has a great place: Located right in the middle of downtown at the metro station of Place-des-Arts, the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier Hall is easily accessible. You don't even have to walk out of the metro station, which is a life-saver in winter, if you know what I mean.
The music director, Kent Nagano, a Japanese American who have worked in Lyon for a long time, is fluent in French. He started the evening with a lengthy monologue, which I could not understand because of my limited knowledge of the language. Just before he appeared on stage, we were informed that the Schumann Second Symphony, the other main course of this evening, had been rescheduled to proceed the Brahms Concerto. I could understand this move because I bet what happened last night was many people simply left the concert after Gil Shaham played Brahms Concerto. Let's be honest: Schumann Second Symphony is not everybody's favorite.
With a little patience, Gil Shaham appeared. He was solid as usual but I always had a little complaint about his violin, which sounded almost like a viola in low register. It could be good for pieces that stays in low register or high for most of the time. However, when you play a piece that flies across several octaves, it feels a little jarring.
The orchestra could have been better: I could feel Gil Shaham waited for it to catch up from time to time. I also couldn't hear very clearly some fast moving passages on the violin. I could blame the acoustics of the concert hall, or my thirty dollar something balcony seat.
To be fair, to both the soloist and the orchestra, I was spoiled by an excellent Itzhak Perlman recording with Berliner Philharmoniker under Daniel Barenboim. The audience certainly enjoyed it very much, as they applauded the soloist and the conductor out for four(!) times.
The orchestra has a great place: Located right in the middle of downtown at the metro station of Place-des-Arts, the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier Hall is easily accessible. You don't even have to walk out of the metro station, which is a life-saver in winter, if you know what I mean.
The music director, Kent Nagano, a Japanese American who have worked in Lyon for a long time, is fluent in French. He started the evening with a lengthy monologue, which I could not understand because of my limited knowledge of the language. Just before he appeared on stage, we were informed that the Schumann Second Symphony, the other main course of this evening, had been rescheduled to proceed the Brahms Concerto. I could understand this move because I bet what happened last night was many people simply left the concert after Gil Shaham played Brahms Concerto. Let's be honest: Schumann Second Symphony is not everybody's favorite.
With a little patience, Gil Shaham appeared. He was solid as usual but I always had a little complaint about his violin, which sounded almost like a viola in low register. It could be good for pieces that stays in low register or high for most of the time. However, when you play a piece that flies across several octaves, it feels a little jarring.
The orchestra could have been better: I could feel Gil Shaham waited for it to catch up from time to time. I also couldn't hear very clearly some fast moving passages on the violin. I could blame the acoustics of the concert hall, or my thirty dollar something balcony seat.
To be fair, to both the soloist and the orchestra, I was spoiled by an excellent Itzhak Perlman recording with Berliner Philharmoniker under Daniel Barenboim. The audience certainly enjoyed it very much, as they applauded the soloist and the conductor out for four(!) times.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
My "Cinematic" Bragging Rights
If you live in the United States long enough and watch movies a lot, you would certainly be disappointed by the stupidity of the mainstream Hollywood flicks. With their enormous budgets and gigantic marketing machinery, unfortunately, stupid Hollywood flicks dominate the world, not to mention the States. That was why I loved The Charles, a cozy independent movie theatre which shows some fantastic films that falls into one of the following categories: low-budget, independent, foreign and art. I always felt my brain was working again after I saw a movie in The Charles.
If you are a movie junkie in US, you would certainly want to live in one of the following two cities: New York and Los Angeles. Why? Because these are the places they put up some movies and decide whether they will show it nationally. As you can imagine, many good but not so popular movies never made it to the next step. Thanks to technological advance, they would be made into dvds so those who like it could see it eventually. Anyone who lives other than NY and LA is out of luck to catch those kind of movies on screen.
Now that I live in fabulous Montréal, Québec, I finally get the bragging rights of seeing some of "those" movies, in a cozy independent movie theatre, Cinéma du Parc, which is just three blocks away from my apartment.
Today I solemnly exercised my bragging rights and watched the movie "Two Lovers", a great story about the eternal struggle of love and marriage. For those of you who are familiar with Chinese cinema, think "Red Rose White Rose"(《红玫瑰与白玫瑰》).
Joaquin Phoenix was at his best as an emotionally unstable mama's boy who was seeking an escape. Gwyneth Paltrow convincingly portrayed a volatile girl who couldn't control her own life. The story is old but the movie tells it right.
Enjoy the trailer:
If you are a movie junkie in US, you would certainly want to live in one of the following two cities: New York and Los Angeles. Why? Because these are the places they put up some movies and decide whether they will show it nationally. As you can imagine, many good but not so popular movies never made it to the next step. Thanks to technological advance, they would be made into dvds so those who like it could see it eventually. Anyone who lives other than NY and LA is out of luck to catch those kind of movies on screen.
Now that I live in fabulous Montréal, Québec, I finally get the bragging rights of seeing some of "those" movies, in a cozy independent movie theatre, Cinéma du Parc, which is just three blocks away from my apartment.
Today I solemnly exercised my bragging rights and watched the movie "Two Lovers", a great story about the eternal struggle of love and marriage. For those of you who are familiar with Chinese cinema, think "Red Rose White Rose"(《红玫瑰与白玫瑰》).
Joaquin Phoenix was at his best as an emotionally unstable mama's boy who was seeking an escape. Gwyneth Paltrow convincingly portrayed a volatile girl who couldn't control her own life. The story is old but the movie tells it right.
Enjoy the trailer:
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