Lazy Saturdays: Beijing, Helen Keller, blather about movies and names
I now have 17% of the episode downloaded with 13 hours to go. That's better than before, when I looked earlier it said I had 14 days which was kind of depressing.
While I was out walking today my brain started to hurt as I thought about how lately I hadn't felt quite as comfortable blathering on about my day, what I was thinking and feeling as I usually am. Ever since I've had this lj I've always been pretty frank about everything. I decided the feeling of awkwardness was wrong and defeated the purpose of this LJ. So I've solved the problem. Anyway, now I feel I can blather again..... set out below.
By the way, I don't mean to get political, but I think this is so inappropriate for a user icon. Since when do you use a user icon to push an anti-abortion agenda????? Anyway, I will say no more on that topic.
Random topic - Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
A silly post I made to poor Jeff's journal (which as he knows I am always ambling in and out of with impunity throwing strange posts around with chaotic abandon), made me decide to go and read what Wikipedia had to say about Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Fascinating reading and I'm thinking of reading Helen Keller's autobiography, but this line in the article about Anne Sullivan, they wrote this:
"In 1905, Anne married Harvard instructor John A. Macy, who had helped Helen with her autobiography. However, they were unhappy and divorced in 1913."
"They were unhappy". What an odd turn of phrase. I guess I'm just more accustomed to seeing the phrase "irreconcilable differences" or something.
Wedding Songs
My friend Charles is getting married in October. I have a single-entry visa for China so am not able to make it back to Hong Kong for his wedding which is a shame. Still, I'm helping him to pick wedding music which is fun. I hope that he uses some of my suggestions. It's not exactly a wedding song, but I really like Michael Bublé's version of Quando Quando Quando (right click and SAVE AS on any of the song titles). Who would have thought that an old Engelbert Humperdinck song could sound so good? I love singing Nelly Furtado's part and I fear that many hapless Chinese pedestrian may have heard me crooning softly along with my ipod mini when I'm walking down the footpath. Caught singng in public isn't quite as embarrassing in China as it might be in other countries ;)
Also I'm sure everyone knows but can you believe that Engelbert Humperdinck changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck from Arnold George Dorsey???? Other songs I suggested to Charles were "LOVE" and "Let there be love" by Nat King Cole and two songs by Ella Fitzgerald being "The very thought of you" and "It's de-lovely". I had long list but those were the ones we discussed.
Take that bro and Stephen. Some like the same music I do ;)
Mulling about names
I was thinking about people's names today for some reason. There was a catalyst but I can't bring it to mind right now. I'm not a huge fan of my name, too old-fashioned but for my father of course it's full of significance" :) The thing is, my friends tell me that they don't think it's old-fashioned at all and that they like it and that they think it's a pretty name. That's when I remember that how you feel about a name is frequently influenced by books you've read and people you've known who have had that name.
If I could pick my own name? What would I pick? I quite like Claire over Clara. I like the name Marie-Claire so my Mary-Sues are frequently named Marie-Claire simply because I like that name - no relation to the magazine. I like the name Autumn although it suits people with autumn coloured eyes and autumn coloured hair more than it would suit me. I like the name Winter, although I've only ever seen it used in a novel by MM Kaye called "Shadow of the Moon".
I like Catherine and Cathy but not Katherine or Kathy (although I'm a bit torn about that one given the whole 'They call me Katharine who do speak to me'). I like Anne but only with an "e" ;) I like the name Emily but not Em, Emmie or Emma. I like the name Lauren because it's so quietly elegant. I like the name Rebecca but am not a huge fan of Becky, Bec or Becca. One of my friends before who was named Rebecca, I used to call her Rebec, emphasis on the first syllable - sort of like the sound a frog makes. A bit like how I used to call a friend named Elizabeth, Eliz - never Liz, Lizzie etc. Catriona is nice, but not Katrina or Catrina.
I like androgynous names like Jamie and Terry for girls. I like Jasmine .... even though it's a tea and a Disney princess from Aladdin ....
For boys' names. I like Dan, Danny, Daniel. I like Michael but not Mick, Mike or Mikey. I like Matt or Matthew. I like Irish names like John-Patrick. I like the name Rafe, Ben or Benjamin. I like the name Jeff but not Jeffrey, Geoffrey or Geoff.
Still, as I said though, I suspect that the names I like are heavily influenced by people I've met.
Streetside scenes
I really wish I had a camera. Really, really wish I had one. I'm doing penance though for being so careless as to have lost my new camera in July so I am not letting myself buy a new camera until I get a new job next year. That being said, it is heart-breaking not to have a camera - there are so many things it would be so much easier to describe and remember with a photograph than to laboriously use words.
Right now, the fruit in season in Beijing is a strange fruit. I don't know what it is! It looks like a dark green orange, roundish in shape, smaller than a normal orange but more regularly shaped than a Mandarin. It is not a lime, a lemon, a kumquat, a grapefruit or an orange but it is definitely a citrus fruit. Inside, it is a kind of yellow / pale orange colour. I really have no idea what it is. I've made up my mind that tomorrow I'll buy a few and see what on earth it could be possibly be.
The other thing the fruit sellers seem to be selling are what look like the heads of giant sunflowers - but without the petals. They are the size of an old 33 vinyl LP, greyish in colour and they really do look like dried petal-less sunflowers. Again, I have no idea what they are and I would have a damned easier job trying to identify them if I had a photograph and could post it here and ask for views.
Today I deliberately left the apartment to go far away so that I didn't sit around waiting for the torrent for Battlestar Galactica to materialise. It's too painful. Last time I did that, I found myself sitting here like a loser refreshing my Torrent Spy window over and over, and then they nuked the first release and I had to wait another hour or so, and then the download took 3 days.
Fortunately, classes don't start until Tuesday so I can probably watch it on Monday. I have one day and four hours left, according to Azureus.
Kids movies .... when they are or aren't...
Dad phoned and asked me to him a dvd of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Lauren, my little sister who is still only a wee six years old. Yes she's a 'half' sister, but as far as I'm concerned the little monkey is completely my little sister :)
I said to dad: "I don't think that's a good idea. One, Roald Dahl books are kind of for slightly older kids and two I've heard that this version of the movie isn't really for little kids. It turned out she was already in the movie cinema watching the movie with her mother so it was kind of late for that!!!
It's strange, I suppose technically speaking Dahl books are childrens' books but .... I remember George's Marvellous Medicine ... from memory he actually poisons his grandmother doesn't he????
I just checked with forg who is a teacher. She says: "hrm the squirrel thing is quite scary but my girls at school loved the movie - 7-9 year olds".
I feel a bit better now :)
Anyway so my first port of call was Xinjiekou which is where all the musical instruments stores are as well as dvd shops. It's actually an interesting stretch of road and today for some reason all the owners of the musical instrument stores were sitting out in front of their stores plying their wares by playing their instruments. It made for listening chaos but it was quite fun to watch.
Dad - you'll be happy to know that I was able to buy a decent copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I also finally found the requested copy of The Little Mermaid 2. I didn't find it in the first two shops, but the first shop was nice and taught me how to say it in Chinese. I hadn't bothered to learn because I had thought I'd find it easily, but after going from shop to shop to shop, I was sick of saying: "Her top half is a woman and her bottom half is a fish".
Mermaid in Chinese is 美人鱼 měirényú. 美人 měirén means "beautiful woman" and 鱼 yú means "fish". I looked at the blurb for The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea and although I had long, long ago divorced the Disney version of The Little Mermaid from the original Hans Christian Andersen version, I couldn't help thinking that poor Mr Anderson must just be doing cartwheels of horror in his grave.
I mentioned before that in China, the Chinese pirates just randomly grab a review off the Internet, not knowing or caring whether it is a positive or a negative review. This one has in bright yellow, red and blue letter: "Another Mars boring Yawn Trip To". I have no idea what that means, but it doesn't sound good. That's not all, the review gets funnier:
"Ariel and her husband Prince Eric, have a little problem with their daughter Melody, in the sequel to Disney's landmark The Little Mermaid. Melody is threatened by Morgana, the evil sister of the sea witch Ursula (both voiced by Pat Carroll). Before you can say "Briar Rose", Melody's parents decide to keep their daughter's roots a secret, forbidding her to learn about the Ocean while Morgana is around. Now the budding teenager secretly frolics in the sea with Ariel's old friends, Sebastian and Scuttle. When she learns the truth from Morgana, Melody becomes an unknowing pawn in her scheme, and mom has to take to the sea again to help.
As with Disney's other made for video sequels, The Little Mermaid 2 looks and sounds wonderful. Four to nine year olds who grew up with the original will certainly enjoy seeing the friends again. yet, where Beauty and the Beast had a deliberate Christmas themed sequel and Pocahontas told the tale of her historical trip to England, the plot here is very forced. It is pretty much a rehash of the first film with different characters. Tip and Dash are a reincarnation of Timon and Pumbaa and Morgana is exactly Ursula.
I notice Melody has a tasteful Olympic Swimsuit style tank top instead of the seashell bra her mum wears. I also picked up Pocahontas II which I'm sure is just as bad. I loved Mulan and hated the sequel. For some reason, Disney sequels are like bad fan fic or something. Then again, Lauren said she loved Mulan 2 so clearly 6 year olds, no matter how precocious and smart they are - are less harsh when it comes to critiquing movies.
Going back to how far Disney's Little Mermaid strayed from the original, while I rather like the Disney version, it's not a patch on the original story which was incredibly sad and poignant. I remember reading it as a child - I think dad might have read it to me, too and I felt so sad everytime.
“If human beings are not drowned,” asked the little mermaid, “can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea?”
“Yes,” replied the old lady, “they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see.”
“Why have not we an immortal soul?” asked the little mermaid mournfully; “I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.”
“You must not think of that,” said the old woman; “we feel ourselves to be much happier and much better off than human beings.”
“So I shall die,” said the little mermaid, “and as the foam of the sea I shall be driven about never again to hear the music of the waves, or to see the pretty flowers nor the red sun. Is there anything I can do to win an immortal soul?”
“No,” said the old woman, “unless a man were to love you so much that you were more to him than his father or mother; and if all his thoughts and all his love were fixed upon you, and the priest placed his right hand in yours, and he promised to be true to you here and hereafter, then his soul would glide into your body and you would obtain a share in the future happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and retain his own as well; but this can never happen. Your fish’s tail, which amongst us is considered so beautiful, is thought on earth to be quite ugly; they do not know any better, and they think it necessary to have two stout props, which they call legs, in order to be handsome.”
Then the little mermaid sighed, and looked sorrowfully at her fish’s tail. “Let us be happy,” said the old lady, “and dart and spring about during the three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough; after that we can rest ourselves all the better.”
It's a bit Cylon when you think about it :P
The Little Mermaid endures much to be with her Prince: "You will still have the same floating gracefulness of movement, and no dancer will ever tread so lightly; but at every step you take it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives, and that the blood must flow." Ummm. Ouch. Then she gives up her voice and becomes mute! Left to attract the prince through her appearance alone. I just realised that.
“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what is left for me?”
“Your beautiful form, your graceful walk, and your expressive eyes; surely with these you can enchain a man’s heart."
Not conversation, mutual interests? Oh right, this is a fairy tale.
I'm just re-reading the online version of The Little Mermaid and it's so damned sad..... when the prince thinks that That Other Girl is the one who rescued him and marries her.
The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the edge of the vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush of morning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death. She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off.
“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.
OK, now I totally understand why the story was Disneyfied when Disney took it on...............
I also bought Lauren a DVD about lions called Pride. No, it's not the Takuya Kimura jdorama about a sexy ice hockey star and his beautiful but boring as batsh*t girlfriend (oops didn't mean to throw that Australianism in - I have a friend who is addicted to that phrase), it's: "A thrilling family adventure ... from the mouths of real-life lions..' I'd better watch it first to make sure there are no devourings of cute animals .... and also because I love animal movies.
White Fang, White Fang! I coo over the wolves instead of Ethan Hawke! :) Pride features the voices of Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Rupert Graves, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, Martin Freeman and John Hurt. It could either be really cute, or very twee. I know I cried in the IMAX Elephants special (which I saw twice).
What's this penguin movie I'm seeing everywhere? Is it something I should know about???
I notice that a lot of copies of Equilibrium floating around Chinese are labelled Rebellion. I wonder if this is just in China, or perhaps the movie had an alternate title in another country? Was Equilibrium thought to have too many vowels in the name??
Movies generally
Going to Shanghai was a good idea
I'm glad I went to Shanghai. I feel better now - the selection in Beijing is the same and the prices are almost the same. I think they're probably about RMB5 cheaper for tv series but that's not much of a difference. They have all the classics and obscure foreign films that I'd find it hard to find in Australia or Hong Kong.
The hilarious thing is seeing classics cheek by jowel with trash. Ben Hur sitting next to Coyote Ugly. Although it's trash, I must confess that I bought the latter since Michael borrowed my copy ages ago and never gave it back even when he moved back to Australia. I have a guilty liking for it - I love a lot of the songs in it, the skanky table top dancing while leading to a trend of skanky table top dancing across the world was fun, and Adam Garcia is pretty funny in it :)
Movie selection
In terms of classics, they had movies like La Haine (The Hate) which was directed by Matthieu Kassovitz, the cute, large-eyed, large-nosed love interest from Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. I haven't seen La Haine yet but was impressed that they had it there along with a lot of very obscure European films. Matthieu Kassovitz was a huge relief for me - I was getting tired of French films where the female actors are always devastatingly beautiful and the male actors are always hideously ugly. *shudder* I'm not as shallow as I sound, I was always just very puzzled about why there was such a difference. Actreses like Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart ..... Juliette Binoche, Isabel Adjani etc etc and then urrrgly French men.
I saw a copy of Gone with the Wind and immediately thought of dangermousie. I hadn't realised that the Chinese name for Gone with the Wind was so hilariousy inappropriate. It's 乱世佳人 luànshì jiārén (you'd pronounce it l'wan sher jar ren) and it literally translates as "Troubled time, beautiful woman". That is an appalling translation which completely misses the significance and meaning of the title.
The funny thing is, I first learnt the theme song for Gone with the Wind in French, which is Autant en emporte le vent. The French translators are clearly better, because that literally means: "Gone with the wind". When I was little, we had a tape of lots of movie soundtracks but all of the track listings and titles were in French - including Gone with the Wind.
Last of the Mohicans
One of my favourite movies of all time is The Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. I want to watch it again but I seem to have lent my dvd to someone, and I can't think who. Damn.
It's so epic, romantic and sweeping but not in an ageing and exhausting way, like some epics are. It's the only movie I've ever really liked Madeleine Stowe and the only movie I thought Daniel Day Lewis was good-looking. Dad always made fun of it and said DDL did a lot of running around with rifle in hand - he even made fun of it by running around our house with a broom once. It has influenced my viewing of the film, I must confess.
Bro and I also jokingly say: "You stay alive! I will find you!" :)
I was bitterly disappointed when Michael Mann released what was called the "Director's Expanded Edition" of the DVD. A title like that implies that only additions have been made. It's the first time I've seen an 'expanded' edition have deletions!!!!! What was removed?
Since I couldn't find my copy, I went looking for a replacement copy today. I looked in the first three shops without success. In the last store, I was paying for my selection when I blinked and saw that a copy of The Last of the Mohicans was sitting on the counter. Unfortunately it's the US-abridged version, but hell that's better than nothing.
"May I buy that?" I asked.
"Do you want it?" The shop assistant asked.
"Yes, that's why I asked if I can buy it".
It had been selected by a young guy with a very artsy looking guy with a ponytail (he looked like he should be carrying a guitar) who was buying La Haine and a lot of other very arthouse movies.
"He picked it." the shopkeeper said. Artsy guy said that he thought he had seen another copy and pointed at 2 of the stands, so I went and had a look. I couldn't found it and started duckbilling .... what dad calls it when I start pouting. So the artsy guy came around and helped me look. Then the shop assistant came back and asked us if we had found it yet. With a very duckbilled face I shook my head and ponytail guy started to say he was going to let me have his copy, but the shop assistant pulled out another copy of The Last of the Mohicans.
"I went looking, too," he told us and the duckbill disappeared :)
I also found myself buying a copy of House of Flying Daggers purely because the blurb on the back is absolutely hilarious. They have clearly run the original Chinese blurb through Google Language Tools. Here it is:
"Rich in hues and gorgeous peony shop in good colour in thousand years in month in good breeze in good water in good mountain, colour colour feeling dream generation person inside, the gold catches a catches with Liu an is enjoying blind prostitute's kid sister the fascinating and incomparable dance. Suddenly kid sister a the sword stabs to catch to Liu head, Liu catches the head hides this shot, taking down the kid sister. High night in black breeze in month, black dress person's extrication kid sister, at fled from home the black dress is on the way the person to be in love with the kid sister insensibly, this black dress the person is a gold to catch head. Can the gold catch a 1000 1000 have never thought of is kid sister unexpectedly another have the hidden facts, he an everything for experiencing makes him fantastic. The kid sister accepts order in a fly knife door, catch the gold to a to escort a decapitation ..."
What the ...???? The funny thing is, although some things I can figure out why they wrote it eg the girl's name is mei, which can be a girl's name and it can mean 'younger sister', some of the stuff in there - I seriously am not able to even guess what the original Chinese might have said.
2046, Engine, G.T.O.
While I was in Xinjiekou, I saw a copy of 2046 that had Korean subtitles. I called Se Hyun and asked him if he had already watched my copy (which only has English and Chinese subtitles). He said yes he had and it was incredibly 无聊 wúliáo. (无聊 wúliáo means boring, senseless, silly, stupid .... It's the way you say 'incredibly boring' in Chinese). I told him that I was hardly going to agree with him given that I've seen that movie over and over and love it.
Still, although I'd love to blame it on the fact that he didn't understand it because there were no Korean subtitles .... the fact is that I'm one of the few people I know who loved that movie. :)
I notice that the Chinese pirates have already released the latest Kimura jdorama Engine in a nice funky box set. I've already watched it so won't be buying that.
I'm thinking of watching the jdorama G.T.O (Great Teacher Onizuka) next which is summarised as follows:
"Sorimachi Takashi plays Eikichi Onizuka, a graduate of a third-rate University and the leader of a motorcycle gang, whose lifelong dream is to become a teacher. After being hired by a seemingly eccentric principal, Onizuka begins his unconventional way of teaching a hopeless group of troublemakers. Although he meets much opposition from the students and teachers themselves, his warmth and passion for teaching eventually convinces everyone that Onizuka truly has the makings of a Great Teacher."
My copy is in Japanese with Chinese subtitles only so I'll be pausing and using the dictionary. A lot. :) Good for Chinese character recognition though!
Two upcoming movies that caught my eye
The Promise
I am really looking forward to seeing Chen Kai Ge's movie The Promise. Take a look at the link - the visuals and scenery look amazing.
Also it has Nicholas Tse in it. I know he is bad boy jerk in real life and he can't sing to save his life, but he's absolutely gorgeous as well as being an incredibly talented actor.
"According to Shanghai Youth, director Chen Kaige's Wu Ji / The Promise is an epic story about "promise, betrayal, nations and love". In the film set in the underworld of the ancient China, Cecilia Cheung plays a princess (sort of), Liu Ye plays a ghost and Jang Dong-Kun plays a slave. The cast also includes Nicholas Tse, Hiroyuki Sanada and Chen Hong, Chen Kaige's wife and a producer of the project."
The MonkeyPeaches's 'The Promise' page has a plot description, masked as a spoiler which you can read if you want. I won't put it here :)
"According to Chinese media, stars of Wu Ji / The Promise are currently in Beijing doing voice-over for their roles. Director Chen Kaige asked them to speak Mandarin Chinese, which is a big challenge for Hiroyuki Sanada from Japan and Jang Dong-Kun from South Korea. Producer Chen Hong said they had learned speaking Chinese for over a year, even before the start of the filming last February.
Hiroyuki Sanada is practicing Chinese way of yelling, which is different from the Japanese one. Hardworking Jang Dong-Kun temporarily lost his voice and his throat even bled at least once.
Other cast members like Liu Ye, Nicholas Tse and Chen Hong have no problem of speaking Mandarin, but Cecilia Cheung's lines have to be dubbed because her voice sounds broken.
Chen Kaige has yet completed the post-production but a 10 minute clip will be screened during the coming Cannes Film Festival in May."
Oooh, Hiroyuki Sanada was in The Last Samurai and in the even better, more authentic movie which even the intensely picky Papa Koala liked - the Twilight Samurai.
By the way if you haven't seen Twilight Samurai I recommend it - it's really touching and a very different look at the stereotype of the Japanese 'warrior'. The samurai is a loving father. Anyway, Hiroyuki Sanada is an excellent actor so the The Promise should be great.
The Myth
The second movie doesn't look so good but it's intriguing. It's Jackie Chan's new movie The Myth. I really don't like Jackie Chan movies. They're slapstick and he can't act. The only reason I loved New Police Story so much was because of Nicholas Tse - he was terrific in it.
Still, it looks interesting ..... Jackie Chan will take two roles in the film - a modern day Indiana Jones type of archeologist and a Qin Dynasty (3rd Century B.C.) general Meng Yi.
The poster announces that Indian actress Mallika Sherawat will play Samantha, an ancient beauty. On the poster, they rave about Kim Hee-Seon - Korea's leading "beautiful lady". Jackie Chan is certainly surrounding himself with female beauty in this one.
I am sceptical, but check out the site, it looks like it might be worth a look. At least on DVD.
Other blatherings
Zhang Xuan Shou a classmate from last semester wants to meet up, he keeps sms'ing me but I'm hesitant. I so do not want to be his English language partner ..... I can't teach English. Just because you can speak English doesn't mean you can teach it. Argh.
Hera and Rodney might want to come visiting in October and Julian in November. I'm planning to go to Harbin in December and there's a school trip to Luoyang and Shaolin Temple in the next couple of months but I'm not sure when.
I got all the way out to Beijing Bookworm today and it was a bit frustrating! They were closed. I had called them ahead of time and they told me that they had 开门 kāimén. In Chinese, the way you ask if something is "open" is you ask if the door is open. "Yes the door is open" the girl told me. I got there and yes the door was open but they were closed for business because they're moving premises.
So I went over to Pass By Bar and treated myself to lasagne and read an English translation of Ring by Koji Suzuki. Sometimes I bring friends with me to Pass By Cafe but as I like to read from their book selection, I actually prefer going there alone :P Very anti-social of me I know.
I had seen most of The Ring and it had completely freaked me out, and I hear the original Ringu is very scary but the book to be honest wasn't that scary at all. It's possibly because I was sitting in a gorgeous Chinese courtyard, Tibetan style cafe with smiling waiters and waitresses who all know me and top up my iced water regularly while funky world music is playing and there are gorgeous photos everywhere. Hard to be scared :)
The cab driver was funny. I hopped in a cab because the bus trip to Beijing Bookworm had been really .... uncomfortable. This annoying man kept shoving his groin against my arm. The first time might have been an accident but after a few more times, he was lucky I didn't let him feel how a sharp elbow to the groin would have felt.
Anyway I had an animated chat with cab driver. He picked me as a foreigner immediately which made me launch into a question I had been dying to ask. I've noticed that for the most part, even Chinese who speak amazing English, always sound foreign. Even when the grammar, vocab is all perfect - there's something about the intonation, emphasis, pauses and pronunciation that gives away that they're foreign. There's a decided awkwardness about Mandarin speakers speaking English. I was wondering if I sounded the same.
So I asked the driver what gave it away. Was it my vocab was wrong, my grammar or my accent? He said vocab and grammar was fine, but I just had a funny foreigner's accent :) He said it wasn't awkward or stiff, just - different and strange.
Although I keep telling myself it doesn't matter if I have a funny accent as long as I'm able to communicate and be understood, after all English has so many different accents and permutations all over the world. There isn't really a perfect standard of English .....
What bugs me though is that I can hear accents in others. When someone else is talking, I can pick if they're a native speaker of Chinese, I can asses the extent to which they are speaking standard Mandarin .... why is it that I can hear when pronunciation and tones are off in others, but I cannot for the life of me pick my own? Grr argh.
Sinead O'Connor's 'Black Album'
I downloaded something known as Sinead O'Connor's Black Album which was comprised of 8 cds. Basically it's non-album tracks - live tracks, songs from compilations and soundtracks. I had collected quite a lot of the songs over the years but some very dedicated fan has tracked down copies of all the songs. I have to pause every now and then marvel at how wonderful the Internet is. A few years ago I stared wistfully at a Sinead O'Connor fan site that described a large number of songs I thought I would never get to hear. I never ever got to see Sarah McLachlan in concert, but because of the Internet, I've managed to hear a lot of her live tracks.
I love Sinead, she's very screwed up and weird but she has an amazingly unusual voice and I love how she tries her hand at singing so many different types of music.
The use of No man's woman in the first episode of the series Alias was beyond cool, and one of my favourite tv moments was the scene in Northern Exposure when Joel raves to Maggie about Sinead O'Connor singing "You do something to me" and then at the end of the episode, you see Maggie dancing around in her living room by herself - that very song. So cool. If anyone's ever heard This IS a rebel song - that song is just amazing, incredibly haunting. The video clip is quite interesting, too.
Anyway, here's a tracklist. It's quite impressive!
1. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - After the Fire (Live With Roger Daltrey & the Chieftains) (5:08)
2. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - All Kinds of Everything (With Terry Hall) (2:41)
3. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Almost in Your Arms (3:44)
4. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Amazing Grace (Live) (4:01)
5. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Angel (Live With Sarah Mclachlan) (5:34)
6. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ave Maria (4:55)
7. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Baba O'riley (Live With Roger Daltrey & the Chieftains) (8:10)
8. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Be Still (With Peace Together & Feargal Sharkey) (3:51)
9. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Biko (With Peter Gabriel & Manu Dibango) (5:12)
10. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Blood of Eden (With Peter Gabriel) (6:38)
11. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Blue (With Ghostland) (7:54)
12. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Breakthrough (With Rick Wright) (4:19)
13. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - But We Hungry (Them Belly Full) (3:21)
14. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Chiquitita (4:20)
15. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Civil War (2:11)
16. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Come Talk to Me (With Peter Gabriel) (7:05)
17. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Danny Boy (With Davy Spillane) (6:14)
18. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (5:37)
19. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Give Up (Live With Peter Gabriel) (8:04)
20. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Give Up (With Willie Nelson) (6:58)
21. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Dream a Little Dream (Live) (1:36)
22. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Easter Rebellion (3:15)
23. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Eden (With Bono & Gavin Friday) (4:39)
24. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Emma's Song (Adrian Sherwood Mix) (4:22)
25. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Emperor's New Clothes (Main Mix - Remix Hank Shocklee) (4:40)
26. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Everyman's An Island (feat. Jah Wobble) (6:29)
27. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Factory Girl (With the Chieftains) (4:24)
28. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Famine (John Reynolds 12" Mix) (8:28)
29. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Live) (7:28)
30. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Remix II) (13:22)
31. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Remix) (2:04)
32. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fly Me to the Moon (2:44)
33. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Full Circle (Live - Unreleased) (3:51)
34. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Gloomy Sunday (3:56)
35. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Guide Me God (With Ghostland) (6:36)
36. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Hard Sun (With Sunhouse) (4:35)
37. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Haunted (With Shane Macgowan) (4:09)
38. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (With Van Morrison & the Chieftains) (4:12)
39. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Hawaiian Island World (With World Party) (4:21)
40. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - He Moved Through the Fair (4:57)
41. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - He Moved Through the Fair (Live) (4:04)
42. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Healing Room (5:35)
43. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Healing Room-Singing Bird (Live) (8:25)
44. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Her Mantle So Green (2:02)
45. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Heroine (With the Edge) (4:25)
46. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - House of the Rising Sun (5:06)
47. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Am Stretched on Your Grave (Night Until Morning Dub - Earthapella) (4:13)
48. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Believe in You (5:38)
49. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Defeat (With James) (2:57)
50. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Want to Be Loved By You (2:43)
51. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day (With the Pogues) (2:54)
52. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I'm Not Your Baby (With U2) (5:48)
53. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Irish Ways, Irish Laws (Live) (4:09)
54. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Josey Walsh (3:58)
55. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Kingdom of Rain (With the the) (5:49)
56. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Luka Bloom (With Billy Bragg) (5:41)
57. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Lullaby For Cain (3:31)
58. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Madinka (Extended) (7:22)
59. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Make Me a Channel of Your Peace (2:36)
60. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Middle of the Island (With Christy Moore) (3:58)
61. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mna Na Eireann (4:19)
62. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Monkey in Winter (With Colourfield) (4:53)
63. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mother (Live With Roger Waters) (7:11)
64. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mraya (With Abdel Ali Slimani) (7:17)
65. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - My Heart Belongs to Daddy (2:51)
66. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - My Special Child (4:47)
67. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Nothing Compares 2 U (Instrumental) (4:59)
68. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ode to Billy Joe (4:57)
69. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - On Raglan Road (With the Chieftains) (6:05)
70. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Reaching For the Rail (With Rick Wright) (6:30)
71. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Redemption Song (Live) (4:56)
72. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (Long Version) (7:33)
73. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (Nuyorican Soul Mix) (8:07)
74. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (With Afro Celt Sound System) (4:14)
75. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Roisin Dubh (7:47)
76. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sacrifice (5:08)
77. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Satisfaction (Live With the Waterboys) (11:00)
78. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - She Goes on (With Neil Finn) (3:43)
79. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ship Ahoy (Acoustic Mix) (6:16)
80. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ship Ahoy (Spartan Remix With Marxman) (5:33)
81. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Silent Night (3:41)
82. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Silent Night (Ghost of Oxford Street Version) (4:41)
83. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Singing Bird (4:49)
84. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Skibbereen (With the Chieftains) (4:14)
85. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Some Day My Prince Will Come (1:08)
86. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Someone to Watch Over Me (3:46)
87. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Spinning Wheel (Live) (6:20)
88. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Streets of London (4:08)
89. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Success Has Made a Failure of (4:25)
90. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Summer's End (With Ashtar Command) (5:32)
91. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sweet Divinity (With Jah Wobble) (4:16)
92. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sweet Dreams (Live With Natalie Imbruglia & Kylie Minogue) (2:33)
93. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Take My Hand (With in Tua Nua) (9:00)
94. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Thank You For Hearing Me (Live) (6:19)
95. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Butcher Boy (4:05)
96. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Dreaming of the Bones (With Davy Spillane) (6:15)
97. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Foggy Dew (With the Chieftains) (5:20)
98. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Last Day of Our Acquaintan (Live) (7:00)
99. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Last Day of Our Acquaintance (Live Cover Version By Michael Stipe) (4:38)
100. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Mad Lady & Me (With Christy Moore) (3:04)
101. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Value of Ignorance (3:19)
102. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Wild Rover (With Soldat Louis & Shane Macgowan) (3:00)
103. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - This Is a Rebel Song (Live Bootleg) (3:17)
104. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - This Is a Rebel Song (Remix 2000) (3:51)
105. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Troy (Live) (6:39)
106. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Troy (Trance Vocal Mix) (9:59)
107. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Va Pensiero (With Zucchero) (3:55)
108. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Vampire (5:47)
109. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (Pick Up Mix With Jah Wobble) (3:30)
110. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (the Secret Love Child of Hank & Johnny Mix - With Jah Wobble) (10:21)
111. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (With Jah Wobble) (5:35)
112. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Wait in Vain (Live With Mundy) (5:04)
113. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Wake Up & Make Love to Me (4:57)
114. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - War (Live) (1:26)
115. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - When You Love (5:17)
116. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Where Is the Woman Go (Live With Dusty Springfield) (4:22)
117. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Do Somehing to Me (2:33)
118. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart (12'' Mix) (6:24)
119. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart (With U2) (6:20)
120. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made the the Thief of Your Heart (With Gavin Friday) (4:30)
121. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Make Me Feel So Free (4:47)
122. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Your Time Will Come (2:28)
Your World View
You are a happy, well-balanced person who likes people and is liked by others.
You question whether many conventional views on morality are valid under all circumstances.
You are essentially a content person.
Sometimes, you consider yourself a little superior.
You are moral by your own standards.
You believe that morality is what best suits the occasion.
What Is Your World View?
While I was out walking today my brain started to hurt as I thought about how lately I hadn't felt quite as comfortable blathering on about my day, what I was thinking and feeling as I usually am. Ever since I've had this lj I've always been pretty frank about everything. I decided the feeling of awkwardness was wrong and defeated the purpose of this LJ. So I've solved the problem. Anyway, now I feel I can blather again..... set out below.
By the way, I don't mean to get political, but I think this is so inappropriate for a user icon. Since when do you use a user icon to push an anti-abortion agenda????? Anyway, I will say no more on that topic.
Random topic - Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
A silly post I made to poor Jeff's journal (which as he knows I am always ambling in and out of with impunity throwing strange posts around with chaotic abandon), made me decide to go and read what Wikipedia had to say about Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Fascinating reading and I'm thinking of reading Helen Keller's autobiography, but this line in the article about Anne Sullivan, they wrote this:
"In 1905, Anne married Harvard instructor John A. Macy, who had helped Helen with her autobiography. However, they were unhappy and divorced in 1913."
"They were unhappy". What an odd turn of phrase. I guess I'm just more accustomed to seeing the phrase "irreconcilable differences" or something.
Wedding Songs
My friend Charles is getting married in October. I have a single-entry visa for China so am not able to make it back to Hong Kong for his wedding which is a shame. Still, I'm helping him to pick wedding music which is fun. I hope that he uses some of my suggestions. It's not exactly a wedding song, but I really like Michael Bublé's version of Quando Quando Quando (right click and SAVE AS on any of the song titles). Who would have thought that an old Engelbert Humperdinck song could sound so good? I love singing Nelly Furtado's part and I fear that many hapless Chinese pedestrian may have heard me crooning softly along with my ipod mini when I'm walking down the footpath. Caught singng in public isn't quite as embarrassing in China as it might be in other countries ;)
Also I'm sure everyone knows but can you believe that Engelbert Humperdinck changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck from Arnold George Dorsey???? Other songs I suggested to Charles were "LOVE" and "Let there be love" by Nat King Cole and two songs by Ella Fitzgerald being "The very thought of you" and "It's de-lovely". I had long list but those were the ones we discussed.
Take that bro and Stephen. Some like the same music I do ;)
Mulling about names
I was thinking about people's names today for some reason. There was a catalyst but I can't bring it to mind right now. I'm not a huge fan of my name, too old-fashioned but for my father of course it's full of significance" :) The thing is, my friends tell me that they don't think it's old-fashioned at all and that they like it and that they think it's a pretty name. That's when I remember that how you feel about a name is frequently influenced by books you've read and people you've known who have had that name.
If I could pick my own name? What would I pick? I quite like Claire over Clara. I like the name Marie-Claire so my Mary-Sues are frequently named Marie-Claire simply because I like that name - no relation to the magazine. I like the name Autumn although it suits people with autumn coloured eyes and autumn coloured hair more than it would suit me. I like the name Winter, although I've only ever seen it used in a novel by MM Kaye called "Shadow of the Moon".
I like Catherine and Cathy but not Katherine or Kathy (although I'm a bit torn about that one given the whole 'They call me Katharine who do speak to me'). I like Anne but only with an "e" ;) I like the name Emily but not Em, Emmie or Emma. I like the name Lauren because it's so quietly elegant. I like the name Rebecca but am not a huge fan of Becky, Bec or Becca. One of my friends before who was named Rebecca, I used to call her Rebec, emphasis on the first syllable - sort of like the sound a frog makes. A bit like how I used to call a friend named Elizabeth, Eliz - never Liz, Lizzie etc. Catriona is nice, but not Katrina or Catrina.
I like androgynous names like Jamie and Terry for girls. I like Jasmine .... even though it's a tea and a Disney princess from Aladdin ....
For boys' names. I like Dan, Danny, Daniel. I like Michael but not Mick, Mike or Mikey. I like Matt or Matthew. I like Irish names like John-Patrick. I like the name Rafe, Ben or Benjamin. I like the name Jeff but not Jeffrey, Geoffrey or Geoff.
Still, as I said though, I suspect that the names I like are heavily influenced by people I've met.
Streetside scenes
I really wish I had a camera. Really, really wish I had one. I'm doing penance though for being so careless as to have lost my new camera in July so I am not letting myself buy a new camera until I get a new job next year. That being said, it is heart-breaking not to have a camera - there are so many things it would be so much easier to describe and remember with a photograph than to laboriously use words.
Right now, the fruit in season in Beijing is a strange fruit. I don't know what it is! It looks like a dark green orange, roundish in shape, smaller than a normal orange but more regularly shaped than a Mandarin. It is not a lime, a lemon, a kumquat, a grapefruit or an orange but it is definitely a citrus fruit. Inside, it is a kind of yellow / pale orange colour. I really have no idea what it is. I've made up my mind that tomorrow I'll buy a few and see what on earth it could be possibly be.
The other thing the fruit sellers seem to be selling are what look like the heads of giant sunflowers - but without the petals. They are the size of an old 33 vinyl LP, greyish in colour and they really do look like dried petal-less sunflowers. Again, I have no idea what they are and I would have a damned easier job trying to identify them if I had a photograph and could post it here and ask for views.
Today I deliberately left the apartment to go far away so that I didn't sit around waiting for the torrent for Battlestar Galactica to materialise. It's too painful. Last time I did that, I found myself sitting here like a loser refreshing my Torrent Spy window over and over, and then they nuked the first release and I had to wait another hour or so, and then the download took 3 days.
Fortunately, classes don't start until Tuesday so I can probably watch it on Monday. I have one day and four hours left, according to Azureus.
Kids movies .... when they are or aren't...
Dad phoned and asked me to him a dvd of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Lauren, my little sister who is still only a wee six years old. Yes she's a 'half' sister, but as far as I'm concerned the little monkey is completely my little sister :)
I said to dad: "I don't think that's a good idea. One, Roald Dahl books are kind of for slightly older kids and two I've heard that this version of the movie isn't really for little kids. It turned out she was already in the movie cinema watching the movie with her mother so it was kind of late for that!!!
It's strange, I suppose technically speaking Dahl books are childrens' books but .... I remember George's Marvellous Medicine ... from memory he actually poisons his grandmother doesn't he????
I just checked with forg who is a teacher. She says: "hrm the squirrel thing is quite scary but my girls at school loved the movie - 7-9 year olds".
I feel a bit better now :)
Anyway so my first port of call was Xinjiekou which is where all the musical instruments stores are as well as dvd shops. It's actually an interesting stretch of road and today for some reason all the owners of the musical instrument stores were sitting out in front of their stores plying their wares by playing their instruments. It made for listening chaos but it was quite fun to watch.
Dad - you'll be happy to know that I was able to buy a decent copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I also finally found the requested copy of The Little Mermaid 2. I didn't find it in the first two shops, but the first shop was nice and taught me how to say it in Chinese. I hadn't bothered to learn because I had thought I'd find it easily, but after going from shop to shop to shop, I was sick of saying: "Her top half is a woman and her bottom half is a fish".
Mermaid in Chinese is 美人鱼 měirényú. 美人 měirén means "beautiful woman" and 鱼 yú means "fish". I looked at the blurb for The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea and although I had long, long ago divorced the Disney version of The Little Mermaid from the original Hans Christian Andersen version, I couldn't help thinking that poor Mr Anderson must just be doing cartwheels of horror in his grave.
I mentioned before that in China, the Chinese pirates just randomly grab a review off the Internet, not knowing or caring whether it is a positive or a negative review. This one has in bright yellow, red and blue letter: "Another Mars boring Yawn Trip To". I have no idea what that means, but it doesn't sound good. That's not all, the review gets funnier:
"Ariel and her husband Prince Eric, have a little problem with their daughter Melody, in the sequel to Disney's landmark The Little Mermaid. Melody is threatened by Morgana, the evil sister of the sea witch Ursula (both voiced by Pat Carroll). Before you can say "Briar Rose", Melody's parents decide to keep their daughter's roots a secret, forbidding her to learn about the Ocean while Morgana is around. Now the budding teenager secretly frolics in the sea with Ariel's old friends, Sebastian and Scuttle. When she learns the truth from Morgana, Melody becomes an unknowing pawn in her scheme, and mom has to take to the sea again to help.
As with Disney's other made for video sequels, The Little Mermaid 2 looks and sounds wonderful. Four to nine year olds who grew up with the original will certainly enjoy seeing the friends again. yet, where Beauty and the Beast had a deliberate Christmas themed sequel and Pocahontas told the tale of her historical trip to England, the plot here is very forced. It is pretty much a rehash of the first film with different characters. Tip and Dash are a reincarnation of Timon and Pumbaa and Morgana is exactly Ursula.
I notice Melody has a tasteful Olympic Swimsuit style tank top instead of the seashell bra her mum wears. I also picked up Pocahontas II which I'm sure is just as bad. I loved Mulan and hated the sequel. For some reason, Disney sequels are like bad fan fic or something. Then again, Lauren said she loved Mulan 2 so clearly 6 year olds, no matter how precocious and smart they are - are less harsh when it comes to critiquing movies.
Going back to how far Disney's Little Mermaid strayed from the original, while I rather like the Disney version, it's not a patch on the original story which was incredibly sad and poignant. I remember reading it as a child - I think dad might have read it to me, too and I felt so sad everytime.
“If human beings are not drowned,” asked the little mermaid, “can they live forever? do they never die as we do here in the sea?”
“Yes,” replied the old lady, “they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see.”
“Why have not we an immortal soul?” asked the little mermaid mournfully; “I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.”
“You must not think of that,” said the old woman; “we feel ourselves to be much happier and much better off than human beings.”
“So I shall die,” said the little mermaid, “and as the foam of the sea I shall be driven about never again to hear the music of the waves, or to see the pretty flowers nor the red sun. Is there anything I can do to win an immortal soul?”
“No,” said the old woman, “unless a man were to love you so much that you were more to him than his father or mother; and if all his thoughts and all his love were fixed upon you, and the priest placed his right hand in yours, and he promised to be true to you here and hereafter, then his soul would glide into your body and you would obtain a share in the future happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and retain his own as well; but this can never happen. Your fish’s tail, which amongst us is considered so beautiful, is thought on earth to be quite ugly; they do not know any better, and they think it necessary to have two stout props, which they call legs, in order to be handsome.”
Then the little mermaid sighed, and looked sorrowfully at her fish’s tail. “Let us be happy,” said the old lady, “and dart and spring about during the three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough; after that we can rest ourselves all the better.”
It's a bit Cylon when you think about it :P
The Little Mermaid endures much to be with her Prince: "You will still have the same floating gracefulness of movement, and no dancer will ever tread so lightly; but at every step you take it will feel as if you were treading upon sharp knives, and that the blood must flow." Ummm. Ouch. Then she gives up her voice and becomes mute! Left to attract the prince through her appearance alone. I just realised that.
“But if you take away my voice,” said the little mermaid, “what is left for me?”
“Your beautiful form, your graceful walk, and your expressive eyes; surely with these you can enchain a man’s heart."
Not conversation, mutual interests? Oh right, this is a fairy tale.
I'm just re-reading the online version of The Little Mermaid and it's so damned sad..... when the prince thinks that That Other Girl is the one who rescued him and marries her.
The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the edge of the vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush of morning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death. She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off.
“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.
OK, now I totally understand why the story was Disneyfied when Disney took it on...............
I also bought Lauren a DVD about lions called Pride. No, it's not the Takuya Kimura jdorama about a sexy ice hockey star and his beautiful but boring as batsh*t girlfriend (oops didn't mean to throw that Australianism in - I have a friend who is addicted to that phrase), it's: "A thrilling family adventure ... from the mouths of real-life lions..' I'd better watch it first to make sure there are no devourings of cute animals .... and also because I love animal movies.
White Fang, White Fang! I coo over the wolves instead of Ethan Hawke! :) Pride features the voices of Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Rupert Graves, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, Martin Freeman and John Hurt. It could either be really cute, or very twee. I know I cried in the IMAX Elephants special (which I saw twice).
What's this penguin movie I'm seeing everywhere? Is it something I should know about???
I notice that a lot of copies of Equilibrium floating around Chinese are labelled Rebellion. I wonder if this is just in China, or perhaps the movie had an alternate title in another country? Was Equilibrium thought to have too many vowels in the name??
Movies generally
Going to Shanghai was a good idea
I'm glad I went to Shanghai. I feel better now - the selection in Beijing is the same and the prices are almost the same. I think they're probably about RMB5 cheaper for tv series but that's not much of a difference. They have all the classics and obscure foreign films that I'd find it hard to find in Australia or Hong Kong.
The hilarious thing is seeing classics cheek by jowel with trash. Ben Hur sitting next to Coyote Ugly. Although it's trash, I must confess that I bought the latter since Michael borrowed my copy ages ago and never gave it back even when he moved back to Australia. I have a guilty liking for it - I love a lot of the songs in it, the skanky table top dancing while leading to a trend of skanky table top dancing across the world was fun, and Adam Garcia is pretty funny in it :)
Movie selection
In terms of classics, they had movies like La Haine (The Hate) which was directed by Matthieu Kassovitz, the cute, large-eyed, large-nosed love interest from Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. I haven't seen La Haine yet but was impressed that they had it there along with a lot of very obscure European films. Matthieu Kassovitz was a huge relief for me - I was getting tired of French films where the female actors are always devastatingly beautiful and the male actors are always hideously ugly. *shudder* I'm not as shallow as I sound, I was always just very puzzled about why there was such a difference. Actreses like Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart ..... Juliette Binoche, Isabel Adjani etc etc and then urrrgly French men.
I saw a copy of Gone with the Wind and immediately thought of dangermousie. I hadn't realised that the Chinese name for Gone with the Wind was so hilariousy inappropriate. It's 乱世佳人 luànshì jiārén (you'd pronounce it l'wan sher jar ren) and it literally translates as "Troubled time, beautiful woman". That is an appalling translation which completely misses the significance and meaning of the title.
The funny thing is, I first learnt the theme song for Gone with the Wind in French, which is Autant en emporte le vent. The French translators are clearly better, because that literally means: "Gone with the wind". When I was little, we had a tape of lots of movie soundtracks but all of the track listings and titles were in French - including Gone with the Wind.
Last of the Mohicans
One of my favourite movies of all time is The Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. I want to watch it again but I seem to have lent my dvd to someone, and I can't think who. Damn.
It's so epic, romantic and sweeping but not in an ageing and exhausting way, like some epics are. It's the only movie I've ever really liked Madeleine Stowe and the only movie I thought Daniel Day Lewis was good-looking. Dad always made fun of it and said DDL did a lot of running around with rifle in hand - he even made fun of it by running around our house with a broom once. It has influenced my viewing of the film, I must confess.
Bro and I also jokingly say: "You stay alive! I will find you!" :)
I was bitterly disappointed when Michael Mann released what was called the "Director's Expanded Edition" of the DVD. A title like that implies that only additions have been made. It's the first time I've seen an 'expanded' edition have deletions!!!!! What was removed?
- the song "I Will Find You" by Clannad, which had played over the sequence depicting Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas tracking Cora and her Huron kidnappers, has been completely excised from the soundtrack, replaced instead with orchestral score. That scene and that music (which incidentally is on the bloody official soundtrack!!!!) was an incredibly haunting moment and having it purely instrumental now is just not the same.
- when they arrive at the canoes, Duncan Hayward points a pistol at Nathaniel who then asks snarkily: "You got nothing better to do on the lake today Major?"
- During the burial ground scene after the attackers back off, Cora demands: "A breed apart and make no sense???!!!" (referring to Nathaniel's earlier jibe about the white man). Nathaniel looks at her and says: "In your case miss, I'd make some exceptions."
- the scene that breaks my heart the most is in the quarters of Colonel Munro at Fort William Henry. Duncan Heyward declares, "I'll have you beaten from this fort!"
The new version only includes a stern reaction shot of Nathaniel, while in the theatrical version, Hawkeye had said: "One of these days, you and I are going to have a serious disagreement".
Honestly, that line was one of my favourite quotes generally that I used to use with friends, and now it's gone. Gone.... :'(
Since I couldn't find my copy, I went looking for a replacement copy today. I looked in the first three shops without success. In the last store, I was paying for my selection when I blinked and saw that a copy of The Last of the Mohicans was sitting on the counter. Unfortunately it's the US-abridged version, but hell that's better than nothing.
"May I buy that?" I asked.
"Do you want it?" The shop assistant asked.
"Yes, that's why I asked if I can buy it".
It had been selected by a young guy with a very artsy looking guy with a ponytail (he looked like he should be carrying a guitar) who was buying La Haine and a lot of other very arthouse movies.
"He picked it." the shopkeeper said. Artsy guy said that he thought he had seen another copy and pointed at 2 of the stands, so I went and had a look. I couldn't found it and started duckbilling .... what dad calls it when I start pouting. So the artsy guy came around and helped me look. Then the shop assistant came back and asked us if we had found it yet. With a very duckbilled face I shook my head and ponytail guy started to say he was going to let me have his copy, but the shop assistant pulled out another copy of The Last of the Mohicans.
"I went looking, too," he told us and the duckbill disappeared :)
I also found myself buying a copy of House of Flying Daggers purely because the blurb on the back is absolutely hilarious. They have clearly run the original Chinese blurb through Google Language Tools. Here it is:
"Rich in hues and gorgeous peony shop in good colour in thousand years in month in good breeze in good water in good mountain, colour colour feeling dream generation person inside, the gold catches a catches with Liu an is enjoying blind prostitute's kid sister the fascinating and incomparable dance. Suddenly kid sister a the sword stabs to catch to Liu head, Liu catches the head hides this shot, taking down the kid sister. High night in black breeze in month, black dress person's extrication kid sister, at fled from home the black dress is on the way the person to be in love with the kid sister insensibly, this black dress the person is a gold to catch head. Can the gold catch a 1000 1000 have never thought of is kid sister unexpectedly another have the hidden facts, he an everything for experiencing makes him fantastic. The kid sister accepts order in a fly knife door, catch the gold to a to escort a decapitation ..."
What the ...???? The funny thing is, although some things I can figure out why they wrote it eg the girl's name is mei, which can be a girl's name and it can mean 'younger sister', some of the stuff in there - I seriously am not able to even guess what the original Chinese might have said.
2046, Engine, G.T.O.
While I was in Xinjiekou, I saw a copy of 2046 that had Korean subtitles. I called Se Hyun and asked him if he had already watched my copy (which only has English and Chinese subtitles). He said yes he had and it was incredibly 无聊 wúliáo. (无聊 wúliáo means boring, senseless, silly, stupid .... It's the way you say 'incredibly boring' in Chinese). I told him that I was hardly going to agree with him given that I've seen that movie over and over and love it.
Still, although I'd love to blame it on the fact that he didn't understand it because there were no Korean subtitles .... the fact is that I'm one of the few people I know who loved that movie. :)
I notice that the Chinese pirates have already released the latest Kimura jdorama Engine in a nice funky box set. I've already watched it so won't be buying that.
I'm thinking of watching the jdorama G.T.O (Great Teacher Onizuka) next which is summarised as follows:
"Sorimachi Takashi plays Eikichi Onizuka, a graduate of a third-rate University and the leader of a motorcycle gang, whose lifelong dream is to become a teacher. After being hired by a seemingly eccentric principal, Onizuka begins his unconventional way of teaching a hopeless group of troublemakers. Although he meets much opposition from the students and teachers themselves, his warmth and passion for teaching eventually convinces everyone that Onizuka truly has the makings of a Great Teacher."
My copy is in Japanese with Chinese subtitles only so I'll be pausing and using the dictionary. A lot. :) Good for Chinese character recognition though!
Two upcoming movies that caught my eye
The Promise
I am really looking forward to seeing Chen Kai Ge's movie The Promise. Take a look at the link - the visuals and scenery look amazing.
Also it has Nicholas Tse in it. I know he is bad boy jerk in real life and he can't sing to save his life, but he's absolutely gorgeous as well as being an incredibly talented actor.
"According to Shanghai Youth, director Chen Kaige's Wu Ji / The Promise is an epic story about "promise, betrayal, nations and love". In the film set in the underworld of the ancient China, Cecilia Cheung plays a princess (sort of), Liu Ye plays a ghost and Jang Dong-Kun plays a slave. The cast also includes Nicholas Tse, Hiroyuki Sanada and Chen Hong, Chen Kaige's wife and a producer of the project."
The MonkeyPeaches's 'The Promise' page has a plot description, masked as a spoiler which you can read if you want. I won't put it here :)
"According to Chinese media, stars of Wu Ji / The Promise are currently in Beijing doing voice-over for their roles. Director Chen Kaige asked them to speak Mandarin Chinese, which is a big challenge for Hiroyuki Sanada from Japan and Jang Dong-Kun from South Korea. Producer Chen Hong said they had learned speaking Chinese for over a year, even before the start of the filming last February.
Hiroyuki Sanada is practicing Chinese way of yelling, which is different from the Japanese one. Hardworking Jang Dong-Kun temporarily lost his voice and his throat even bled at least once.
Other cast members like Liu Ye, Nicholas Tse and Chen Hong have no problem of speaking Mandarin, but Cecilia Cheung's lines have to be dubbed because her voice sounds broken.
Chen Kaige has yet completed the post-production but a 10 minute clip will be screened during the coming Cannes Film Festival in May."
Oooh, Hiroyuki Sanada was in The Last Samurai and in the even better, more authentic movie which even the intensely picky Papa Koala liked - the Twilight Samurai.
By the way if you haven't seen Twilight Samurai I recommend it - it's really touching and a very different look at the stereotype of the Japanese 'warrior'. The samurai is a loving father. Anyway, Hiroyuki Sanada is an excellent actor so the The Promise should be great.
The Myth
The second movie doesn't look so good but it's intriguing. It's Jackie Chan's new movie The Myth. I really don't like Jackie Chan movies. They're slapstick and he can't act. The only reason I loved New Police Story so much was because of Nicholas Tse - he was terrific in it.
Still, it looks interesting ..... Jackie Chan will take two roles in the film - a modern day Indiana Jones type of archeologist and a Qin Dynasty (3rd Century B.C.) general Meng Yi.
The poster announces that Indian actress Mallika Sherawat will play Samantha, an ancient beauty. On the poster, they rave about Kim Hee-Seon - Korea's leading "beautiful lady". Jackie Chan is certainly surrounding himself with female beauty in this one.
I am sceptical, but check out the site, it looks like it might be worth a look. At least on DVD.
Other blatherings
Zhang Xuan Shou a classmate from last semester wants to meet up, he keeps sms'ing me but I'm hesitant. I so do not want to be his English language partner ..... I can't teach English. Just because you can speak English doesn't mean you can teach it. Argh.
Hera and Rodney might want to come visiting in October and Julian in November. I'm planning to go to Harbin in December and there's a school trip to Luoyang and Shaolin Temple in the next couple of months but I'm not sure when.
I got all the way out to Beijing Bookworm today and it was a bit frustrating! They were closed. I had called them ahead of time and they told me that they had 开门 kāimén. In Chinese, the way you ask if something is "open" is you ask if the door is open. "Yes the door is open" the girl told me. I got there and yes the door was open but they were closed for business because they're moving premises.
So I went over to Pass By Bar and treated myself to lasagne and read an English translation of Ring by Koji Suzuki. Sometimes I bring friends with me to Pass By Cafe but as I like to read from their book selection, I actually prefer going there alone :P Very anti-social of me I know.
I had seen most of The Ring and it had completely freaked me out, and I hear the original Ringu is very scary but the book to be honest wasn't that scary at all. It's possibly because I was sitting in a gorgeous Chinese courtyard, Tibetan style cafe with smiling waiters and waitresses who all know me and top up my iced water regularly while funky world music is playing and there are gorgeous photos everywhere. Hard to be scared :)
The cab driver was funny. I hopped in a cab because the bus trip to Beijing Bookworm had been really .... uncomfortable. This annoying man kept shoving his groin against my arm. The first time might have been an accident but after a few more times, he was lucky I didn't let him feel how a sharp elbow to the groin would have felt.
Anyway I had an animated chat with cab driver. He picked me as a foreigner immediately which made me launch into a question I had been dying to ask. I've noticed that for the most part, even Chinese who speak amazing English, always sound foreign. Even when the grammar, vocab is all perfect - there's something about the intonation, emphasis, pauses and pronunciation that gives away that they're foreign. There's a decided awkwardness about Mandarin speakers speaking English. I was wondering if I sounded the same.
So I asked the driver what gave it away. Was it my vocab was wrong, my grammar or my accent? He said vocab and grammar was fine, but I just had a funny foreigner's accent :) He said it wasn't awkward or stiff, just - different and strange.
Although I keep telling myself it doesn't matter if I have a funny accent as long as I'm able to communicate and be understood, after all English has so many different accents and permutations all over the world. There isn't really a perfect standard of English .....
What bugs me though is that I can hear accents in others. When someone else is talking, I can pick if they're a native speaker of Chinese, I can asses the extent to which they are speaking standard Mandarin .... why is it that I can hear when pronunciation and tones are off in others, but I cannot for the life of me pick my own? Grr argh.
Sinead O'Connor's 'Black Album'
I downloaded something known as Sinead O'Connor's Black Album which was comprised of 8 cds. Basically it's non-album tracks - live tracks, songs from compilations and soundtracks. I had collected quite a lot of the songs over the years but some very dedicated fan has tracked down copies of all the songs. I have to pause every now and then marvel at how wonderful the Internet is. A few years ago I stared wistfully at a Sinead O'Connor fan site that described a large number of songs I thought I would never get to hear. I never ever got to see Sarah McLachlan in concert, but because of the Internet, I've managed to hear a lot of her live tracks.
I love Sinead, she's very screwed up and weird but she has an amazingly unusual voice and I love how she tries her hand at singing so many different types of music.
The use of No man's woman in the first episode of the series Alias was beyond cool, and one of my favourite tv moments was the scene in Northern Exposure when Joel raves to Maggie about Sinead O'Connor singing "You do something to me" and then at the end of the episode, you see Maggie dancing around in her living room by herself - that very song. So cool. If anyone's ever heard This IS a rebel song - that song is just amazing, incredibly haunting. The video clip is quite interesting, too.
Anyway, here's a tracklist. It's quite impressive!
1. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - After the Fire (Live With Roger Daltrey & the Chieftains) (5:08)
2. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - All Kinds of Everything (With Terry Hall) (2:41)
3. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Almost in Your Arms (3:44)
4. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Amazing Grace (Live) (4:01)
5. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Angel (Live With Sarah Mclachlan) (5:34)
6. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ave Maria (4:55)
7. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Baba O'riley (Live With Roger Daltrey & the Chieftains) (8:10)
8. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Be Still (With Peace Together & Feargal Sharkey) (3:51)
9. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Biko (With Peter Gabriel & Manu Dibango) (5:12)
10. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Blood of Eden (With Peter Gabriel) (6:38)
11. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Blue (With Ghostland) (7:54)
12. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Breakthrough (With Rick Wright) (4:19)
13. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - But We Hungry (Them Belly Full) (3:21)
14. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Chiquitita (4:20)
15. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Civil War (2:11)
16. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Come Talk to Me (With Peter Gabriel) (7:05)
17. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Danny Boy (With Davy Spillane) (6:14)
18. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Cry For Me Argentina (5:37)
19. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Give Up (Live With Peter Gabriel) (8:04)
20. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Don't Give Up (With Willie Nelson) (6:58)
21. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Dream a Little Dream (Live) (1:36)
22. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Easter Rebellion (3:15)
23. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Eden (With Bono & Gavin Friday) (4:39)
24. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Emma's Song (Adrian Sherwood Mix) (4:22)
25. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Emperor's New Clothes (Main Mix - Remix Hank Shocklee) (4:40)
26. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Everyman's An Island (feat. Jah Wobble) (6:29)
27. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Factory Girl (With the Chieftains) (4:24)
28. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Famine (John Reynolds 12" Mix) (8:28)
29. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Live) (7:28)
30. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Remix II) (13:22)
31. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fire on Babylon (Remix) (2:04)
32. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Fly Me to the Moon (2:44)
33. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Full Circle (Live - Unreleased) (3:51)
34. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Gloomy Sunday (3:56)
35. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Guide Me God (With Ghostland) (6:36)
36. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Hard Sun (With Sunhouse) (4:35)
37. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Haunted (With Shane Macgowan) (4:09)
38. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Have I Told You Lately That I Love You (With Van Morrison & the Chieftains) (4:12)
39. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Hawaiian Island World (With World Party) (4:21)
40. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - He Moved Through the Fair (4:57)
41. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - He Moved Through the Fair (Live) (4:04)
42. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Healing Room (5:35)
43. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Healing Room-Singing Bird (Live) (8:25)
44. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Her Mantle So Green (2:02)
45. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Heroine (With the Edge) (4:25)
46. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - House of the Rising Sun (5:06)
47. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Am Stretched on Your Grave (Night Until Morning Dub - Earthapella) (4:13)
48. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Believe in You (5:38)
49. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Defeat (With James) (2:57)
50. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I Want to Be Loved By You (2:43)
51. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day (With the Pogues) (2:54)
52. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - I'm Not Your Baby (With U2) (5:48)
53. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Irish Ways, Irish Laws (Live) (4:09)
54. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Josey Walsh (3:58)
55. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Kingdom of Rain (With the the) (5:49)
56. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Luka Bloom (With Billy Bragg) (5:41)
57. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Lullaby For Cain (3:31)
58. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Madinka (Extended) (7:22)
59. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Make Me a Channel of Your Peace (2:36)
60. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Middle of the Island (With Christy Moore) (3:58)
61. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mna Na Eireann (4:19)
62. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Monkey in Winter (With Colourfield) (4:53)
63. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mother (Live With Roger Waters) (7:11)
64. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Mraya (With Abdel Ali Slimani) (7:17)
65. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - My Heart Belongs to Daddy (2:51)
66. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - My Special Child (4:47)
67. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Nothing Compares 2 U (Instrumental) (4:59)
68. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ode to Billy Joe (4:57)
69. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - On Raglan Road (With the Chieftains) (6:05)
70. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Reaching For the Rail (With Rick Wright) (6:30)
71. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Redemption Song (Live) (4:56)
72. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (Long Version) (7:33)
73. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (Nuyorican Soul Mix) (8:07)
74. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Release (With Afro Celt Sound System) (4:14)
75. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Roisin Dubh (7:47)
76. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sacrifice (5:08)
77. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Satisfaction (Live With the Waterboys) (11:00)
78. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - She Goes on (With Neil Finn) (3:43)
79. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ship Ahoy (Acoustic Mix) (6:16)
80. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Ship Ahoy (Spartan Remix With Marxman) (5:33)
81. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Silent Night (3:41)
82. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Silent Night (Ghost of Oxford Street Version) (4:41)
83. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Singing Bird (4:49)
84. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Skibbereen (With the Chieftains) (4:14)
85. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Some Day My Prince Will Come (1:08)
86. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Someone to Watch Over Me (3:46)
87. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Spinning Wheel (Live) (6:20)
88. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Streets of London (4:08)
89. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Success Has Made a Failure of (4:25)
90. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Summer's End (With Ashtar Command) (5:32)
91. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sweet Divinity (With Jah Wobble) (4:16)
92. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Sweet Dreams (Live With Natalie Imbruglia & Kylie Minogue) (2:33)
93. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Take My Hand (With in Tua Nua) (9:00)
94. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Thank You For Hearing Me (Live) (6:19)
95. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Butcher Boy (4:05)
96. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Dreaming of the Bones (With Davy Spillane) (6:15)
97. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Foggy Dew (With the Chieftains) (5:20)
98. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Last Day of Our Acquaintan (Live) (7:00)
99. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Last Day of Our Acquaintance (Live Cover Version By Michael Stipe) (4:38)
100. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Mad Lady & Me (With Christy Moore) (3:04)
101. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Value of Ignorance (3:19)
102. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - The Wild Rover (With Soldat Louis & Shane Macgowan) (3:00)
103. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - This Is a Rebel Song (Live Bootleg) (3:17)
104. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - This Is a Rebel Song (Remix 2000) (3:51)
105. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Troy (Live) (6:39)
106. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Troy (Trance Vocal Mix) (9:59)
107. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Va Pensiero (With Zucchero) (3:55)
108. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Vampire (5:47)
109. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (Pick Up Mix With Jah Wobble) (3:30)
110. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (the Secret Love Child of Hank & Johnny Mix - With Jah Wobble) (10:21)
111. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Visions of You (With Jah Wobble) (5:35)
112. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Wait in Vain (Live With Mundy) (5:04)
113. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Wake Up & Make Love to Me (4:57)
114. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - War (Live) (1:26)
115. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - When You Love (5:17)
116. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Where Is the Woman Go (Live With Dusty Springfield) (4:22)
117. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Do Somehing to Me (2:33)
118. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart (12'' Mix) (6:24)
119. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart (With U2) (6:20)
120. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Made the the Thief of Your Heart (With Gavin Friday) (4:30)
121. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - You Make Me Feel So Free (4:47)
122. Sinead O'Connor - Black Album - Your Time Will Come (2:28)
Your World View
You are a happy, well-balanced person who likes people and is liked by others.
You question whether many conventional views on morality are valid under all circumstances.
You are essentially a content person.
Sometimes, you consider yourself a little superior.
You are moral by your own standards.
You believe that morality is what best suits the occasion.
What Is Your World View?