红酒·绿茶 / Red Wine & Green Tea / Vin Rouge et Thé Vert

It was a tremendous pleasure for Hopkins Symphony Orchestra to have Jiebing Chen , a virtuoso erhu soloist to perform "The Butterfly Lovers" (梁祝) concerto, originally for violin, later arranged for erhu and gaohu, which are traditional Chinese two-string fiddles. Based on a "Romeo and Julie"-style story about two lovers who could only be united by death, the concerto was composed for violin to imitate the sound of erhu. So it seemed natural to wonder how this piece would sound on an erhu. Rearranged by one of the composers himself, the concerto was premiered exactly by Jiebing Chen, whose performance tonight was absolutely fabulous. The encore was "Gallop of War Houses"(战马奔腾), one of the most delightful pieces ever written for erhu, in which the instrument, together with a virtuoso player, splashes its capacity of expressiveness as well as entertainment.

Went to a wine tasting in Boordy Vineyards , one of the best wineries in Maryland. It was ok but the wines were sort of over-priced. I did get a Boordy glass, though. The best we tested was the "Syrah-Chambourcin 2003" from their Landmark series.

I Got It! Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Went to an 8-hour night-time ocean fishing in Cheaspeake Bay. I got two spot fish - one big, one small. It was fun! We left home a little bit late but thought we could make it up on the road. However, the traffic in downtown Baltimore was terrible that day. So when we finally got on the highway, we drove as fast as we could. The place we were boarding is a little island on the south end of the land: Solomons Island. And the boat we were going to go fishing with, "Elizabeth", was kind of, um...um...well...crappy.

Snake Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Finished it today. What a great game!

It was the determination of a friend that made me drive 163 miles to go to this Dalai Lama talk in Rutgers University . Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet was warmly welcomed when he appeared in the sight of an audience of thousands in the Rutgers Stadium. He returned the hospitality of the audience by thankful gestures. After receiving an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Human Letters, he chose to give his impromptu speech while sitting in a chair, just like he would have done in a Buddhism morning teaching. He spoke understandable English with occasional help from his Tibetan-English intepreter. The way he talked was very kind, peaceful and sometimes funny. What he said, however, was vacant, primitive and alogical. He didn't address any sensitive topic, such as his troubled relationship with Chinese government. As a Chinese, I respect His Holiness Dalai Lama as a qualified spiritual leader of Tibet and applaud his non-violence approach of resolving problems. Hi...

Went to a nice Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concert featuring Gershwin's "An American in Paris", "Rhapsody in Blue" and Dovrak's "Symphony No. 9". Pianist Fazil Say was stunning in "Rhapsody in Blue"; he also gave an intriguing encore where he put one of his hand in the piano to make it sound very strange and raw. This special effect worked pretty well with this piece. Maestro Yuri Temirkanov chose to begin his last season with BSO with his favorite Gershwin pieces. He didn't use a baton when conducting and his hand gestures were quite interesting.

Finally cut my long hair in Tenpachi . It's funny that it was the same place when I got my first haircut in United States and totally lost confidence in getting my haircut in the right way by the hands of an American hair stylist. I think this time my stylist and I had a better communication.