Music video - Eminem feat Elton John - Stan (Live)

Here go the lyrics, which are too rabid and painful and may offend some people.


/
When the sounds proximately emerged and parted from Elton John, the beauty of music came to life.

Eminem, as well as a host of black and colored rappers, raps cathartically. I can feel the anger in their music. On the other hand, it can be hard for a Han Chinese like me who grew up in a largely monolithic China to entirely fathom the frustration of the American black population, which the rap culture was born in.

Trench coat, pea coat, or sweater coat?

(Image from http://bit.ly/cQ3LvQ)

You can tell, pea coat is in the canon of the received dress code in Canada, for the most part. So a few weeks ago, while the blasts of the fall blew, I went into a W store, with the meme that a pea coat would preen myself a wee bit. I bought one over there. But it's a glance at a sign "Sweater coats" in the store that sent me scrambling to find out the distinctions among trench coat, pea coat, and sweater coat. I just vaguely figured out. The differences between trench coat and sweater coat are still not crystal clear to me.


Alas. It's such a painstaking trek to acquire the myriad of English nouns and phrasal nouns designated to clothing items. Too many of them are in active daily usage! 'Garment', 'apparel', 'outfit', 'outer coat','suit', 'jacket', 'bridge coat', 'trench coat', 'pea coat', 'sweater coat', 'shirt', 'T-shirt', 'wife beater', 'hoody', 'sweater', 'denim', 'jeans', 'sweater pants', 'trousers'... Endless. And these are only for the comparatively simple arsenal of men's clothes. Not to mention the plethora of nouns and phrasal nouns describing women's clothing items. Gee.

Atmospheric music videos - The Corrs - Breathless, live in Trafalgar Square and so on

The lyrics are here: http://bit.ly/1aj5Uv

Four other versions of the fantastically well received song:


























In the first video, you can see that the fans at the site were enraptured, transfixed, yet moved all the way by the performance.

I can scarcely believe that I hadn't heard of The Corrs back when China was still my abode country. The band was so hot and groovy! And for the most part, its music is just pretty.

By the way, the Trafalgar Square, where the first live concert above was held, celebrates the historic sea battle between Britain and France, which took place in Spain.

What our infant daughter needs

What she demands day in and day out is proximateness to us, intimacy, interaction, and feeding, yes, lots of feeding. Ah, girls always need attentive company, straight from day one. :-)

Notification - I'm switching from Reddit to Google Bookmarks to recommend excellent articles

(Image from http://bit.ly/9IHUtO)

Because Reddit.com is too much a hassle to deal with, I'm switching from it to Google Bookmarks, in order to refer to groovy articles that I'd like to share with you.


Here goes my newly inaugurated Google Bookmarks public list: http://bit.ly/cM4XeO . Thanks.

Marvelous music / video - Summer Wine

The edition by The Corrs / Bono




The version by Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazlewood



Lyrics:
http://bit.ly/6XEmlm



I go into raptures every time when I listen to the music in this particular song "Summer Wine".

The song made its way into the canon of the world pop music in the 1960s, then it has been revitalized time and again by various artists since. The Corrs' version above is appealingly modern, while the Nancy Sinatra's more picturesque and golden. Personally I love the classic edition by Nancy Sinatra / Lee Hazlewood more, due to the texture, tone and so on of their voices.

As outlined in the lyrics, an impostor presenting herself as a welcoming girl plays havoc on the male protagonist. All swindlers tend to have charming surfaces, don't they?

On a different note, I suspect that Nancy Sinatra derived some proximate glamour from her father, Frank Sinatra. Or she didn't?

News - Embraer takes aim at Bombardier

Here goes a piece of news from The Gazette: Embraer takes aim at Bombardier.

I generally commented on that issue the other week in this post.

Now does the proximate head-to-head competition from Embraer worry Bombardier's top brass? You bet.

Notification - I've put up a page for first-class resources for English learning

(Image from http://bit.ly/9IHUtO)

Here's the new page. You might really want to take a peek at it, if you're an English learner.

A spooky night walk

(Image from http://bit.ly/a2JGhc)

I was taking a walk on the street around 2AM the other night. For sure no one was out and I was by myself all the way.

Then this squat and portly guy in his forties appeared, about thirty meters away from where I was. I had seen him around before, for few times. But still, observing him drifting quietly in this dark fall night? It didn't make me feel comfortable. Anyways, he walked past me undisturbingly.

Two minutes later, I spotted another tall man in a trench coat, moving quickly toward my position. He was crossing a street corner. Due to some shrubs and the likes, I could only see his lower body. O.K. That did it. I became spooked.

I hurried towards the 24/7 convenience store at the gas station at the major intersection, where I could expect to find and see a few real and unspooky people.

Music - Captain Nemo - Ace of Base

The lyrics are here: http://bit.ly/4Crl7w



Ace of Base once was the world's favorite all the way and used to have abundance of ardent fans. Their fantastic air and acute music used to know no bounds.

For sure the band's popularity sagged in recent years, given that it's been on the world's pop music stage since 1987. Nothing, definitely nothing, can mitigate any pop star's decline, I suspect.

By the way, the abode of Ace of Base is Sweden, which has spawned glamorously popular singers and bands such as ABBA and Ace of Base. Sweden, Iceland, and Finland, which are cultural and business innovation powerhouses, are in proximity to each other. And that group of Nordic countries never ceases to amaze me.

Saint Joseph's Oratory & the recent sainting of Brother Andre

The Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, the largest church in Canada, was initiated and founded by Brother Andre. And he got canonized by the Pope in Vatican lately. What an enormous event for Quebec Catholics that is! Will Catholicism rally a bit in Quebec in the wake of this high profile event?

The miracles and good deeds emanated from Brother Andre left their mark on Quebec, Canada. The canons of modernity seem to only suggest secularity and materialism. But religion, and people's inner yearning for something higher, is here to stay.

University of Geneva

Wow. University of Geneva was founded by John Calvin! It's almost surreal for me. He created it.

U of Geneva must be a significant keeper of the precious original documents of the John Calvin canon, I guess.

Elegant Geneva, Switzerland and its monkey business of private banking

Geneva, Switzerland is never a vapid and rapid city like some others are. Pretty scenery, gourmet foods, tasteful cultures, high science establishments such as CERN, ... They have it all.

Now the private banking biz of Geneva, which has been always under lock and key for decades and decades, is prone to cracking and rupturing, due to the public leak of the tax evasions scandal. All the nations' governments, I believe, must have gotten enchanted and enraptured by the case and be watching or involving in the development of it closely. Well, that should be "bliss" for the banking industry of Switzerland.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and the likes constitute an elegant range of e-book readers for consumers to choose from. People do need the kind of raptness when they read a good novel or something. And that's why James Patterson's fictions have been such hot commodities all these years.

All the same, the sordid DRM things will kill some businesses here and there.

News - Security Council rejection a deep embarrassment for Harper

Is this news article cunning enough? I'm waiting for The New York Times to try its hand at reporting and analyzing the causes of the particular fiasco.

Not being inside the UN Security Council would leave Canada's successful defense

Bern, Switzerland

(Image from http://bit.ly/a8OmE6)

I haven't been aware that Bern, or Berne, is the capital of Switzerland.

Ah, the zesty and tasty Europe. Asia's developing countries have seemed to be held so rapt with the U.S.A. They're not quite aware of Europe's strengths and richness, for my money.

On a different note, the edict of secret banking services offered by Switzerland is intriguing and loathsome to other nations, if you will. Think about the current scandal of discovered tax evasions by some HSBC Private Banking clients residing in Canada, France, U.K., etc.

Exceeding - Music video - Two songs by Elliott Smith

"Miss Misery"







"Miss Misery" Live








"Fond Farewell"
(Unfortunately, no good live version of "Fond Farewell" is to be found on the web for the time being.)




And their lyrics are:
http://bit.ly/a2hrYK (I especially appreciate the part "That you left lying around" in it.)
    &
http://bit.ly/7zSyMI

Elliott Smith with his art, vis-a-vis vices, is too tragic. His savage death is juxtaposed with his beautiful art.

These two songs are a blast from the past for me. I go into poignant raptures about Elliott Smith every time I listen to them.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier - The Man with the Silver Tongue - The Canadian Experience

A part of transient politicians became portly statesmen in a nation's history and heritage. Mr. Wilfrid Laurier is one of them for Canada. It would be an odious wrong for the state-of-the-art generations

Totally engaging - Blitzkrieg - Wikipedia

Panzer! The Third Reich took the whole Earth with its Blitzkrieg by stupefaction!

The quick and sharp movements of panzer divisions, and the tank bombs' blasts thrust bloody ways for Germans in the European battlefields. In those early years of panzer which were full of successes, Germany's military officers must be

McMansion

I almost always view California with rapture. It's in the vanguard of almost everything. Silicon Valley, alternative energy, the mammoth movie-making industry, Stanford U., UC Berkeley, Caltech, the sophisticated San Francisco,

English learning - Wife beater, sweatpants, and sweatshirt

Do you know the gal in the picture? Man, that's Britney Spears, in her unphotogenic wife beater and sweatpants. No, I don't mean she beats her wife. The upper outfit she wears is called "wife beater" in English. A provoking name, isn't it?

O.K. Here comes some eye candy in a wife beater, and this Ms. Keeley Hazell sends British men into raptures:

Video - Hot case - Above Suspicion - the fifth estate

It's the real hot case of Colonel Russell Williams of Canada's Air Force.

Here's a groovy documentary video by CBC: Above Suspicion - the fifth estate.

What a shocker. Now that RCMP is tarnished by leadership struggles, and this ugly incident happens with a top officer in the Canadian army. What is wrong with Canada's public forces?

On a different note, it strikes me profoundly that one's private life and work/public life can be shockingly inconsistent.

Connecticut, U.S.A. - Wikipedia

Connecticut, U.S.A. is a nice place to be in. It's got a moderate weather. You don't expect encounters with winter blasts like you do in Montreal, Canada, do you? And it's got the highest per capita income in the U.S. It's nigh the fantastically sophisticated and cosmopolitan New York City. Moreover, it's home to Yale U., whose faculty and students are rapt and tasteful learners, in my humble opinion, and the also prestigious Wesleyan U., which not many mainland Chinese know of, I suspect.

Windows Phone 7 - Wikipedia

Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 are worthy of keeping tabs on. Now with dapperer products, is Microsoft gonna be able to turn the tables on Apple and Google?

HP cuts full year outlook - Reuters

Here's a piece of news in 2009: HP cuts full year outlook | Reuters. Facing the fierce competition from Acer and Lenovo, HP's PC biz isn't above suspicion of collapsing in the upcoming months, for my money. Where's "the HP way" now for average consumers? Smart phones and tablets made by HP?

At the same time, it'll be intriguing to see the fate of Dell.

Mutterer

No wonder he likes night
He comes out of it
No wonder he fusses with night
No one distracts him at it

No wonder he gets enraptured by night
He does things at it
No wonder he mumbles about night
He misses the moodiness of it

Brief video - Brazil Boom Continues

A piece of video at Yahoo: Brazil Boom Continues (in 2010):

Brazil Boom Continues

Fri Oct 1, 1:20PM ET - CNBC 4:04 | 198 views

The emerging world is hungry for resources, and Brazil is happy to feed that appetite, with William Landers, BlackRock portfolio manager.

Investors who hold Brazilian equities must be in rapture these days. The Brazilian economy's been doing so well in a world blitzed by turns after turns of slipping of GDPs.

On a different note, the comments of the wily financiers are typically dry, aren't they? "The market will see some volatility", "the interest rate hike will make investors alert", etc., etc.


P.S. The aircraft in the above picture was manufactured by Embraer, the third largest airplane company in the world, which is headquartered in Brazil. Now I start to worry over the future of Bombardier, which I suppose has a higher cost structure than Embraer.

Goldman Trust - The New Yorker

There is an article on the elegant New Yorker website: Finance Dept.: Goldman Trust.

The overly complex phantasms of financial products dragged down the highflying Goldman Sachs (a.k.a. 高盛集团). Begone, the legendarily easy money-making. Welcome, Wall Street malcontents.

Wall Street Smarts - NYTimes

Article from NYT: Wall Street Smarts.

The fantasies and tricks of financial products know no bounds.

Introduction - The novel "The Catcher in the Rye"

The Catcher in the Rye, my friend, is a famous fiction. Its title is translated as "麥田守望者" in Chinese. The specific novel gets mentioned, recommended, or read time after time across the entire English-speaking world.

I perused the novel the other month. For one thing, the protagonist berated those phonies in the American society while possessing a heart of gold, if you will. The tale is elegant, and the language accessible and suave. Highly recommended.

Always wonderful - Moscow State University - Wikipedia

Introduction at Wikipedia: Moscow State University (a.k.a. 国立莫斯科大学)

Quote:

Moscow State University has educated 8 future Nobel laureates, 5 Fields Medal winners, as well as a number of writers, philosophers and politicians. The university is alma mater for the famous writers of the 19th century, such as Anton Chekhov and Ivan Turgenev, mathematicians and physicists of the 20th century, such as Boris Demidovich, Vladimir Arnold and Andrey Kolmogorov.

Speaking of academic prestige, Moscow State University is in fact on a par with McGill U., UToronto, and UPenn and the likes. But all these higher education institutions, are well behind the, ah, formidable yet munificent Havard University, with which around 75 Nobel laureates and a few Fields Medal winners are affiliated.

BlackBerry's PlayBook

After having read some hype over the official announcement of the still phantasmal Blackberry Playbook, I've concluded RIM made a move that's not too smart. Eventually RIM will be toast, under the management of the seemingly prodigal Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, who seems to be always wanting to buy a hockey team. Think about it, what real needs of customers will the BB Playbook be able to satisfy? Not quite much.

On the front of the consumer market, Playbook seems to be lackluster in comparison with iPad and the increasing slew of Android tablets, in my opinion. And on the front of the enterprise market, I suppose, only few people have a workspace larger than a typical desk, and they don't need a tablet beside their work desktop computer; as for those field sales reps, when they hit the road, they mostly only want to carry a more portable smart phone, not a somewhat clunky BB Playbook; and as for those executives with their own little offices and couches, there's a bad omen for RIM, which is 50% of the Fortune 500 executives have been reportedly considering deploying iPads within their companies.

I understand that RIM's been a little desperate lately and scrambling hard. But to launch Blackberry Playbook isn't a very suave move. RIM will continue going south, but it will survive for a long time notwithstanding. And that prediction isn't a fantasy only owned by me. I don't want to bash RIM all the time, seriously.

On the article "亲子教育，从接纳孩子的情绪入手"

Here goes a superb article: 亲子教育，从接纳孩子的情绪入手-心理健康与家庭教育-搜狐博客.

Well, the ideas expressed in the article are subtle and complex. I don't think the author did a suave job expressing the set of and logical relations among the ideas.

My take is, for one thing, as following:

看来，喜、怒、哀、惧，这人类的四种基本情绪中，怒、哀、惧在童年不被父母无条件接纳的话，从此通通会转化成变形的“怒”的情绪能量。但是，如果“怒”的本能在童年被抑制被消灭的话，怒、哀、惧就会转化成“哀”、“惧”中的两种或一种。


Nonetheless, the article is an eminent piece, for my money.