MUSICAL MEMORY

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all combined. That is to say, this blogger forgot all about food till after four thirty in the afternoon, then went and had some eggplant and fish over rice (茄子龍脷飯 'ke ji lung lei faan') at a sehr gemütliche and heimishe restaurant in Chinatown, near where I was already at the time, as I needed to visit my bank and get a haircut.
There's more money in my operational account now.
And dang I look like a leng chai again!
My barber should know.

Yes, I throughly enjoyed my late linchnast.
They do good stuff, mostly Cantonese.

And, as a result, I now know who one of the top ballroom dancers in Chinatown is, and am also aware that she likes to cha cha.
She's pretty spry for a widow in her late seventies.
And happy, because she has a boy friend.
Someone she dances with.


嘩，靚仔！

I've always rather regretted not being able to dance. That scene in Soldier of Orange where Rutger Hauer and Derek De Lint dance a tango together at a Nazi party at the kurhaus ('Grand Hotel Amrâth Kurhaus') in Scheveningen is dynamite, and both men look dashing and fantastic in their black evening garb (tailored SS uniform versus tails). They are stellar and bestial.
Totally butch, too. Much like any man would want to be.
My former girlfriend also loved that scene.
She thought Rutger was dreamy.


No, I do not look like Rutger Hauer, but I do speak Dutch. Which also appealed to her. Unfortunately there are not many women who correctly judge the Dutch language to be one of the hottest, sexiest, and most mellifluous tongues on the planet.


知音妙韻

Late evening saw me back in the neighborhood, listening to Cantonese arias (粵劇 'yuet kek', also 粵曲 'yuet kuk') issuing forth from a basement near a Church. Several times in recent months I have paused there to enjoy the music, because truth be told I like Cantonese Opera. It puts me in an antique mood, even though the lyrics at that level are nearly unintelligible to the kwailo ear. It is archaic and literary, being both formalized (程式 'ching sik') and metaphoric (虛擬 'heui yi').

Years ago I collected cassettes, and saw performances.
It was one of the most enjoyable times of my life.

There's a violinist who plays in the park.
I think I'll see if he's there today.



As a linguistic side note, the Cantonese word 'gau' (嚿) means a lump of something, a thick slice, a piece of. It is a measure word, and can be in some contexts used in lieu of 'faai' (塊). This is important to know.
I cannot remember where I heard it recently.
Or what it was in reference to.




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