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

最近，胡锦涛（涛哥）一不小心成为了新闻焦点，让我想起一件与他有关，而我深感羞愧的事情。 那一年我刚博士毕业，在加拿大蒙特利尔（Montreal）开始自己的第一份工作。好像是公司一个中国同事告诉我说，国家主席、总书记胡锦涛要来加拿大首都渥太华（Ottawa）访问，中国大使馆要召集附近的华人去欢迎一下。从蒙特利尔出发，有车接送，免费在渥太华吃住两天。我心想，这差事儿不错，顶多“工作”几个小时吧，就能免费去渥太华玩两天。“涛哥请客！”我们当时互相打趣道。于是就去了。 第二天一早被车拉到一个公园路边，手里拿好了组织者散发的五星红旗和标语，被告知一会儿涛哥的车队会从这里经过，到时候大家一起喊“欢迎欢迎”。等我们准备好了，一看马路对面，我才终于明白，为什么中国大使馆要费这么多钱让我们来当啦啦队：原来，对面是一群来对着涛哥抗议的人。主要有两个组织：一个是法轮功；另一个是打着雪山狮子旗的西藏人。我当时心里立刻感到不安，觉得自己为了一点蝇头小利，成为了这个我非常不认可的政权打压不同政见者的帮手。 马路两边的人此起彼伏的喊了一堆口号，我们这边有许多华人越喊越兴奋，还喊出了诸如“你妈喊你回家吃饭”之类的我完全不知所云的东西。 等了不知道几个小时，胡哥的车队终于来了，几辆黑色的轿车呼啸而过，远远的似乎一辆车的后窗开了一条缝，看见一只手在里面轻轻的挥了几下。路两边的人们立刻大声喊口号想盖过对方，同事挥舞旗帜，兴奋不已。整个过程也就几十秒，就连车屁股都看不见了。 事后我们这边的人还兴奋地跟我说，我们如何如何“喝退”了“轮子”（对法轮功人士的蔑称）和“藏独”（对西藏民权运动者的蔑称），大获全胜，为国争光等等。 我全程敷衍了事，因为心里充满了愧疚。因为我认为，人总是有选择的。在一个邪恶的政权下生存，你至少可以选择不成为它的帮手。从此再有任何类似活动，我一概拒绝。 PS，美国总统特朗普上台后，以一己之力，刷新了美国政治的各种底线，以至于一次Will Ferrell扮演的小布什总统一上台，第一句就是“Do you miss me now?”（你们现在想我了吧？潜台词：我当总统那几年你们媒体天天挖苦讽刺我，嫌我笨嫌我烦。现在遇到个比我更笨更无耻的总统，知道我的好了吧？）如今中国人居然开始怀念江泽民、胡锦涛治下的中国，都是同行陪衬啊。 PPS，除了上面那个CNA版本的视频以外，这里还有一个 AFP版本的 ...

今天是加拿大国庆，幼儿园 再次 理直气壮地放假。虽然天气有点热，还有可能下雨，还是要带妞去 老港 见见世面。 老港的国庆活动就那些，在北美待过几年的人都知道，就不用我废话了。妞还是老样子：高兴的时候就自己走两步，累了就要坐爸爸牌人力车。只是今天突然对老港的 钟塔 起了兴趣，非要上192级楼梯到顶。开始的50级还在爸爸的帮助下自己上，后来就全靠人力升降机了。可怜老爸一只手抱着妞走又窄又陡的梯子上钟塔，又格外小心怕会失手，下来以后脚都快抽筋了。 因为玩得开心，妞吃完晚饭洗完澡就呼呼大睡了。会不会梦见明天去幼儿园跟小朋友吹嘘自己的所见所闻呢？

今天是魁北克国庆，幼儿园理直气壮地放假，当父母的我们就得打起精神陪妞到底！因为商场都关门了，我们只好去看 蒙特利尔的国庆游行 。 上一次看是2011年，还拍了些 照片 。当时有几个小朋友沿途发国旗，我伸手想要，却被一句"pour enfants（给小朋友的）"婉拒。心中暗暗发誓等有了孩子，一定要带来领免费国旗！去年妞还太小没有去，就等今年了。 岂料天不作美，竟下起瓢泼大雨。我们犹豫了好久，也不知道游行有没有被取消，最后还是决定冒雨去看。出乎意料，冒雨去看的人居然还挺多。（是不是都是我们这种被逼无奈的家长呢？）我们去得晚了一点，停车的地方也没算好，所以追着游行队伍的尾巴走了好久才勉强看了的大概。妞坐在搭了透明雨棚的推车里，面无表情地看着。（她每次都这样，回来以后才兴奋起来。）雨下得好大，我的鞋和裤腿都湿透了。 回家以后，“慢热妞”不出所料地这才兴奋起来，挥舞国旗，尽显魁瓜本色：

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 !

Roddick Serving Originally uploaded by nuance1979 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 nuance1979 The 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 typic...

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 o...

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 costum...

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 conce...

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 eventu...