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

Tidus in FFX Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Finally finished the fabulous Final Fantasy X. (Wow, that's a lot of "F"''s in one sentence.) Costed me more than 70 hours of life but it was worth it. Found tons of fan sites on the web and this one is particularly good. My favorite quote: "Pitiful mortal... your hope ends here... and your meaningless existence with it!" -Seymour Flux

Tulips in Sherwood Garden Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Finally a sunny spring weekend. We went to the Sherwood Garden , known for its tulips, and found it was so overrated. But I did get some nice pictures there. Wild Flowers - I Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . Then we went to the nearby Robert E. Lee Park for a little hike. And it was better what I had expected. Wild Flowers - II Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . The wild flowers in the park were pretty as well if you took a close look at them. Wild Flowers - III Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . So you got the idea how beautiful spring is in Baltimore. The only bad thing was that after exposing myself outdoors for a while, my seasonal allergy stroke back. Had to get more medicine the next day.

Final Fantasy X - Lulu Originally uploaded by nuance1979 . I brought Final Fantasy X the game almost three years ago but couldn't even finish the first chapter until recently I found this wonderful walkthrough. I am not a RPG fan at all but this game is beyond amazing. I spent the whole weekend playing it, like the old college time, but could only finish everything except the final chapter, which I have to wait till my final exams are done.

Nobody has thought a story about a lavishing French queen can be so modern, American and feministic until Sofia Coppola 's "Marie Antoinette" . Half through this movie, when I started to get a little bit tired of her luxurious life style and extravagant fashion taste, I couldn't help wondering: am I watching a lost episode of "Sex and the City" ? No, I don't have a problem with SATC. (In fact, I am a fan of the early seasons of it, i.e., before it was unfortunately transformed into a hyped-up soap opera by its own star, Sarah Jessica Parker.) The reason I brought up SATC was that it shared, I think, a lot of ingenious perspectives as well as self-obsessive ignorance with this movie. First of all, it was a bold artistic move to use rock music like Bow Wow Wow 's iconic "I Want Candy" as the theme song while Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" was included so reluctantly. The moment I noticed that, I knew it was not going to be the movie...

Another great concert brought by the Shriver Hall Concert Series , voted No. 1 classical music series in Baltimore, featured violinist Gil Shaham and, among others, cellist Jian Wang , one of the only three DG-exclusive recording artists from China, in an all-Brahms chamber music program. With names like those, I wouldn't miss it for the world. (And I didn't.) Gil Shaham's violin sounded so thick that I almost thought it was a viola when I first heard the first few notes of his recording of Bartok's Violin Concert No. 2 with Chicago Symphony under Pierre Boulez: It was confirmed live this time. Jian Wang lived up to his reputation by doing a wonderful job with his cello part in Brahms' Clarinet Quintet. His upbeat gesture and smile reminded me a friend. By the way, the Shriver Concert Series is now free for Homewood and Peabody students. How sweet is that?

I was really generous in rewarding myself. The Saturday night concert in Kennedy Center featuring Yundi Li with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin was a delightful treat. Yundi Li kept fascinating us with new releases combining dazzling virtuosity and refreshing intepretation, this time Liszt and Chopin First Concertos. Playing Liszt to a live audience is every pianist's dream because Liszt will make you look like Elvis Presley on stage. But it's not going to be easy: The skill alone is demanding, let alone the intense emotion. Yundi Li proved once again he had both. The program started with four pieces of Ravel, which is always a pleasure to listen to. After the Liszt concerto, Slatkin showed his conducting prowess with music from Prokofiev's Ballet "Romeo and Juliet". Three times he had to come out and thank the enthusiastic audience. The cherry blossoms were bad, though, due to the untimely rain and cold weather.

...to my thesis committee. Although everybody knows it is mostly a formaility, I still spent a whole week preparing it. Because I didn't take effort in advertising, there was only four people showed up besides my professors. (Thanks, buddies! Your support means a lot to me.) Later we kinda celebrated with a meal in Sichuan House, a bottle of wine and a night of dvd and mahjong.