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

Kykuit, the Rockefeller Estate Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . We missed the tour of Kykuit , the Rockefeller estate on Saturday and went again on Monday early in the morning. The building was less magnificient than I had thought, modest I should say given the wealthiness of the Rockefeller family, probably because it was built by the first generation, namely John D. Rockefeller, who started the legendary family business. The third generation, four-time NY State Governer and Vice President of the United States, Nelson Rockefeller was a modern art lover, who commissioned drapery copies of several famous Picasso paintings including "Three Musicians". (By the way, the first time I had an idea of Nelson Rockefeller was in the movie "Frida", where Edward Norton depicted him destroying a controversial mural by Diego Rivera.) The family also had a keen interest in and therefore an awesome collection of (Cause they are rich!) Chinese potteries, which were caref...

Rent, the musical Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Because of the great experience I had last time in Broadway with "Chicago", I decided to do it again with my friend Jinfeng, who was visiting New York on a business trip. Since "Chicago" was a story about, what else, Chicago, I picked "Rent", a story about NYC this time as our first choice. Thanks again to TKTS , we were able to get the half-priced ticket. An even detailed source on the various rush ticket policies for different shows was Talkin' Broadway , where I found out later only to convince the optimality of our purchase. (The only better price we could have got was the lottery $20 tickets, whose risk we couldn't afford.) Unlike "Chicago", whose music was my favorite, (all that) jazz, "Rent" featured exclusively rock and pop. And unlike "Chicago", with which I was bragging about my English listening , "Rent" was hopelessly beyond my capac...

Marcel Duchamp, "L.H.O.O.Q." Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Because I lived close to DC and (did I mention) all Smithonian museums in DC were free, I felt so obligated to go to the Dada exhibition in NGA -- on the last day. Turned out I wasn't the only one who procrastinated: It was PACKED like Time Square. The exhibition was organized geographically to show the many faces of Dada in six cities. So many years after this avant-garde movement, it was still fresh, freaky and funny: Like the Mona Lisa with mustache and goatee or the pig-faced Nazi soldier hung over your head. If Raphael could have some fun by sneaking a self-portrait in the "School of Athens", why couldn't we have some fun by mounting a bicycle wheel on a stool and calling it art? Like the (re)discovery of dissonates in music, Dada added a whole new vocabulary to the language of art. One thing I didn't like about the exhibition was that they put Duchamp's "Fountain...

It was a rare oppurtunity that the Peabody Institute was offering a free ticket to each Hopkins affiliate for the season-closing performance of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra . So I took it immediately and enjoyed every minute of it. The orchestra was full of young, energetic budding musicians who were eager to make their marks. You could hear it right away in the first piece in the program, Otto Nicolai's Overture to "The Merry Wives of Windsor". It was like everyone in the first violins was playing like the concertmaster, with equal confidence, vigor and virtuosity. In fact, the concertmaster and two assistant concertmasters did lead in turn in three pieces of the program. Music director Hajime Teri Murai was terrific in conducting both the instrumental and the vocal music. I wasn't so sure if I would like the program at first because I wasn't a big fan of opera. But the music as well as the wonderful performance convenced me. Richard Strauss's Suite from ...

Had a great time playing paintball for the first time with my friends in Anne Arundel Paintball Park , which was an awesome place for paintball but unfortunately was going to be closed for good soon. So I quoted their introduction here: Anne Arundel Paintball Park is a quality Paintball Field located near the intersection of Rt. 175 and the BW Parkway. AAPP is owned, operated, and staffed by paintball players, so you know that when you come out to play, you'll get people that have a great deal of knowledge about the sport. The combination of a great staff and awesome outdoor fields has made AAPP one of the most favored paintball parks in our area. We had five girls and five boys but ended up with "Team THU" and "Team PKU" because that resulted in a more balanced divide. The game was more intense and physically demanding than we had thought. So after three hours, we were exhausted in sweats and paint. Turned out our team was more cooperative therefore played w...

Volvo Ocean Race Boats Originally uploaded by nuance1979 , Courtesy of Mingyao. It was a sunny spring weekend when Inner Harbor was at its best. We enjoyed the wonderful weather by walking around the harbor and tried a free sailing courtesy of the Downtown Sailing Center . It was a fun ride in the water even though the boat was small. Meanwhile, professional sailors of the Volvo Ocean Race were there to show off their babes, including the American team called "Pirates of Carribean". Also in the festival were Pride of Baltimore II , the ambassador of Baltimore, Maryland, Gazela Philadelphia , a vintage shipboat which has featured in my favorite movie, "Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst, and Cisne Branco , a beautiful Brazilian Navy sail training vessel.