for dee
Labels: wayfaring
posted by murat11 at 6:22 AM
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
About Me
- Name: murat11
- Location: not fade away: itchycoo park, barandgrill: blue hole: the aquifer
unfettered and alive
GRIEVOUS TOASTS
- Amish girl at the block party...
- stepping stones
- Sunday Scribbling #182: Mississippi Cheese
- one word petrosian: check
- for the duchess
- the d's have it
- Sunday Scribbling #181: Hungry
- one word fauves: paintbrush
- Our Lady of Sorrows
- and thirsty for the distant...river
22 Comments:
Just fine. and the audience do love that basso (profundo?)
Richard: They surely do, don't they? I wanted to find Maria McKee's take, but this was a beauty. A beauty of a song, for sure.
well that will be my last visit on the net tonight. Great way to finish the day and I thank you brother P. Maria would have been wonderful but that was surely fine too and an amen all the way around.
Dee: I am definitely searching for Maria's version. I love this song, though some folks I've found do not do right by it. Jazzing this hymn up is not where it's at. Slow and simple.
I like this one a lot. This was the one we played while eating the moon cakes. A very good background song.
Teresa: I'd say this is a great moon cake song.
I just HAVE to ask what a moon cake is. If that is on your blog Teresa, I will be mucking around there as soon as I have time :)
Dee: I googled them, but Ms Teresa's explanation will be much more interesting when she gets back here...
Hi Dee and Murat,
No, moon cakes are not on my blog yet. I suppose that is something I will have to write when I get to an appropriate place.
The legend has it that a famous king and archer named Hou Yi from Chinese antiquity managed to use his shooting prowess to obtain magical pills which would grant him eternal life. Before he could take them with the appropriate pomp and ceremony, his favorite concubine, the beautiful Chang E found them and gobbled them up. When Hou Yi discovered that his magical pills were gone, he was furious. As he was raging, he noticed that Chang E was getting lighter and lighter and floating up into the sky. He tried to shoot her down with his arrows, but she was already immortal, so she kept floating until she came to the moon. And even now you can see a beautiful lady with fluttering sleeves in the Fall Harvest moon.
At the time of the fall harvest moon, on the 15th day of the 9th lunar month, the Chinese have their moon cake festival. It is celebrated through the women and in the family. The family eats together on their roof or in their garden, the women sacrifice to the goddess in the moon, and then the entire family has to cut and eat one single moon cake to ensure that they will all stay safe and whole throughout the coming year. Not too many families worship the moon any more, but in Taiwan, everyone goes home for a family dinner, and they do all eat one moon cake as a family. It is customary to give gift boxes of moon cakes to friends and relatives.
Moon cakes come in many sizes and shapes and flavors. Most of them have a pastry crust, sweet bean paste or lotus paste filling and an egg yolk (to represent the round moon). Some have a fruit filling instead of the bean or lotus paste. These kind are usually small like a tart and very, very sweet. Other moon cakes in a more countrified tradition are as large as a salad plate and are made with lard and sesame seeds and mince meat. They are not as sweet, but very filling. We had a tradition lard cake in the Fuzhou region style and a lotus paste little cake.
I posted my Happy Birthday PRC piece today, so there is my last translation of dissident poems on East Meets West. Quite a grusome and sobering one, actually.
Teresa: Knew we could count on you for the goods on the moon cakes. Thank you for giving us some background.
so Nuala isn't alone in the moon. At least Simon didn't try to shoot her down. That is a marvelous story, Teresa. Thank you so much for sharing it. I have given the address of your blog to a friend who teaches sociology in our high school. I will share this with her as well, with your permission.
Whatever I post in the blogosphere is for the public good, especially for educators. I woke up one morning and realized that I had become as much Chinese as I was WASP and felt that after 27 years of living la vida china, I was qualified and had enough perspective to begin to share my experiences. It helped me prepare myself mentally for going back to school to get an Asian Studies MA, and now that I am in school, I am getting even more theory to verbalize some things that I know at a visceral level. The blog helps me synthesize book learning and what I got from the school of hard knocks. I believe that I am something of a unique case because I not only did the East West cross (which has been done before), I also did the highly-educted, upper socioeconomic to semi-literate, lower socioeconomic shift (which has also been done, but usually NOT simultaneously). As Joni Mitchell says, "I've looked at life from both sides now, from up and down!" Do I really know life? I don't have the hubris to say that, but I have had some pretty interesting experiences and I've met many fascinating people, so I have lots of anecdotes for people to fit into their theories. (or to blow them out of the water...)
And best of all, out in the blogosphere I have made several very good friends and found kindred spirits around the globe. Personally, I think that's the best part of blogging!
Well that sure was a wonderful tune. I love the rhythm it inspired in my evening, many thanks. Now to play it again. warm gratitude for your best wishes while I wandered for two weeks~
Amen to all that, Teresa.
MizLee: Seems a good time to be nesting back in the cabin; glad you enjoyed the song - a good one for a nice chilly autumn evening. Welcome back, amiga.
Sorry to take up so much space on your comments, Murat. It is rather humbling to have my stuff given to teachers of sociology, but on the other hand, it was one of several reasons for starting the chronicle.
Tallest drink of water in Nashville. And I would cross the street to thank him for this tune.Trace brings it...but not the rule i.e. Ba-donk-a[gag me]-donk.
~Seesta Laura
No apologies necessary, Teresa. That's what this here section is for.
Ms Laura: Good to have the inside story here. Fun to think that Nashville to Austin is a lateral move, music-wise. No demotion, for sure, though here in Tres Leches would be "funner." I have to assume that some measure of the larger Laura clan would not be far behind. That's fun for all of us, Mr. Baby included.
Teresa, I appreciate you're willingness to share. The teacher told me when the kids start asking questions she doesn't have a lot of good places for them to research. It's always more interesting to hear from a "real person" as opposed to a text book.
Thanks to brother P for a nice place to visit and chat :)
Hi Dee, Murat has read these. I checked out your blog and thought you might find these posts of interest. Not for the sociology but for the intrigue:
http://wwwwhitechinese.blogspot.com/2009/01/bible-running-part-one.html
http://wwwwhitechinese.blogspot.com/2009/01/bible-running-part-two.html
Hey, Bro Murat, thanks for giving us the forum to share!
You are most welcome, Teresa.
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