Take nothing for granted

"When the first beam of sunshine strikes on African grassland every morning, all animals will wake up and strive to run its fastest to survive : predators have to outrun preys to hunt for life, and preys have to outrun predators to escape death... " I told Jeff that I would begin an article like this, when I found it perplexing that some Americans furiously resist globalization because, for one, cheap Chinese labors take "their" jobs.  "Why do Americans think that they deserve a better life than their Chinese peers if they cannot produce more at a lower cost?" I felt a bit angry.  As a privileged and spoiled species, humans often forget that all beings have to fight and compete for a living, or using the civilized wording, work hard for a living.  Survival is not supposed to be easy for anybody, any species.  Living only on what ancestors created can be a short-term privilege for humans, but surely a slow suicide after all.

Just finished watching a documentary on DVD "Nature's most amazing events" by Discovery Channel.  Most amazing and touching, indeed.  It includes three episodes : The Great Melt, The Great Salmon Run, and The Great Migration.  The first in Arctic, second in Northern Pacific (British Columbia and Alaska), and the last in East Africa.

East Africa, Serengeti, the short-grass plains attract 3 million of grazing animals to migrate in December and out in May.  This herd of grazers, such as wildebeest, zebra, antelope, often stretching 25 miles long, travels for more than 1000 miles, following the rumbling storms to find fertile grassland to feed and calve.  During their journey, there are lurking threats everywhere from top predators such as lions, cheetah, crocodiles, who pretty much rely on the herd to survive and raise cubs.

You think it's cool to be a lion, no?  You'll be surprised that the king of animals actually suffers most and the survival rate of cubs is very low.  The movie followed the fortune of an Ndutu pride (i.e. a group of lions) for seven months from the dry season to the most prosperous one.  It is in fact appalling to witness the conditions those cubs were in during a dry season when there were few preys around. They were little more than skin and bones, waiting on the bare ground ravaged by fire and scorched by sun.  They got mange, and their skins were falling apart.  Some of them were limping.  There seemed to be little chance for them to survive.  The litter of 7 cubs dwindled to only 4, and then 2 in the end.  It was shocking.  And then they all disappeared.  When eventually the lioness and the surviving cubs marched into the horizon on the again-green grassland near the herd, I felt the triumphant excitement too, resonating the feeling of the cameraman - yes, they survived an eventful year of sickness, drought, fire, and volcanic eruption

At an equally stunning scale, every May to July, half a billion salmon will return home in British Columbia and Alaska, even Cali, after 4 years in sea, to lay eggs in fresh waters 2000 miles away!  I never imagined laying eggs would be a big deal for fishes.  Now I am filled with admiration.  Their journey is no less dramatic and arduous than described in one of the four greatest ancient Chinese literature "Journey to the West".  Long distance travel, upstream swimming, clearing the falls (like human jumping over a 4-story building); when it's too dry they get stuck in shallow water or stuck in a pool without able to move forward and, in turn, plague; when there's too much rain they have to battle strong torrents; as their kidney and other organs adjust to sudden change of water, they stop eating and even drinking., so they are eventually killed by the very water that draw them home, after swimming up stream and spawn; not to mention a full spectrum of coastal predators relying on Salmon Run to survive : grizzly bears, wolves, bald-headed eagles, steller sea lions, killer whales, salmon sharks, so on and so forth.  In the end the toll of this long journey is that for a thousand hatched, only 4 make it back to home.

A digression : why Pacific salmon take this epic run still remains a mystery.  Atlantic salmon come back to spawn every year and do not die after that.  Also how they find way home is largely unclear.  Only recently scientists found small particles of Iron in their brain, which are like compass and help it steer the magnetic lines of earth, showing them exactly where to go.

Salmon have to take such an ordeal to reproduce, well, it's definitely not easy for a grizzly bear to make it through either : half of the grizzly cubs do not even survive the first year.  Every year the grizzly will be hungry for more than half of the year, either hibernating or feeding on grass and berries.  By the end of the hunger, its head appears funnily sadly too big and body too small.

Every summer the Arctic will welcome many migrants who come to feed and reproduce, most of which travel more than 600 miles one way, such as Narwhal whales (a.k.a. the arctic unicorn, named after its strange spiral tusk, the most secretive and elusive animals in the world's oceans), Beluga whales, sea birds such as guillemot, etc.  Also there are locals such as polar bears and polar foxes.  The challenges that polar bears facing are well known.  Even for polar foxes, often 2 out of 8 cubs will get fatten enough from the abundance that a short summer can offer to survive the winter.

These are fascinating stories to learn.  What's more, I was reminded once again that nothing should be taken for granted, including survival.  One may argue that it's their instinct, nothing lofty.  True.  Food, shelter, survival, and reproduction are just an instinct.  But since when we lost our very basic instinct, and got reduced to a bitter and sour and cynic whiner?

Bridesmaids, a worthy movie

Watched the movie this Monday.  It's not your typical comedy, definitely not a typical chick-flick.


Laughed, almost knocked out;  shed tears, touched by the friendship; tired, after such emotional roller coaster; and chewed it over when relaxed.


It's directed by the same person who did "40 year old virgin", "knocked up", and "superbad".  All very funny movies, but I think this movie being the most realistic and having the best substance, yet the fun came in totally unspoiled.


We probably all have acquaintances in life somewhat resembling Annie, Helen, and other ladies in the movie.


Annie, the protagonist, was failing everything in life : "I am in my 30s, I am 40,000 in debt, living with a weirdo (roommate)", in a non committal relationship although she was longing for a real one, lost her job, no friend, car accident, had to move back to live with her mother which was what she disliked.


With sympathy, I think she largely created the whole situation herself.


She had a job but she sabotaged it with her negative attitude.  She could have a good, honest relationship where she would be understood, respected, cherished, and her passion would be supported, but she was after the gorgeous guy despite being mistreated, and she was pretending like "I am ok, everything is ok" in the relationship.  She had a car accident which she could have avoided by simply having the taillights fixed, instead of blaming busy schedule, nemesis, and unfair life.


"Where there is a pathetic person there are scornful characters", as Chinese saying goes.  If one does not help oneself, does not put a lid on one's destructive emotions, one is doomed to misery even she/he if is a royal princess/prince.


Life knocks us around, which happens to everybody and is ok.  The difference is some get up and fight, and others give up and blame the world.  And that's the moment that separates the pros from the amateurs and the winner from the loser.  When Megan, the biggest and toughest bridesmaid, pushed Annie to fight back as Annie's dwelling miserably at her "bottom" in life, tears came in earnest for me.


And we surely see Helen's around as well.  They maintain a perfect facade (always well-kept looks, the most polite smile, socially adept), they are snobbish, yet with a fearful inside.  Eager for friendship, but do not know how other than trying to "buy" it with the ample resource they have : money and power.  To be honest, I still kind of liked Helen in the movie - good looks do have an advantage on me :-P, and she was not really doing much harm to anybody except being annoying in usurping Annie's duties as the maid of honor.


Other characters are interesting too such as the frustrated wife and mother who sees Lillian's wedding as an escape.  One interesting side aspect is how the movie depicts kids - it's definitely discouraging population growth. :)


I like this type of movies : funny on the surface, and have some substance for me to take away as well, just like my favorite movie "the groundhog day", which, by the way, still remains my favorite so far.

Travel (II) - Europe 4 - Amsterdam D3, the Netherlands

Click here to view some pictures in Amsterdam 


Third and last day in Amsterdam.  My ambition was a very much longed visit to the two most famous museums in the city, Rijks Museum and Van Gogh Museum.

Rijks Museum, i.e. the national museum, is the largest in the Netherlands.  It displays the most famous master-pieces of Dutch art from 17th century, usually called the Golden Age of the Netherlands.  No doubt, we all like to remember our good days :-).

The first floor demonstrate the general history through various art forms, and the second floor displays thousands of paintings from masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals, many of whose work reflected different aspects of Dutch national characters.

Paintings of giant sizes could be seen on the first floor, with topics of celebrating victory, the form of the republic, sea battles, canal expansion, portraits of influential people (such as quite a few paintings of Maurice, Prince of Orange, the stadholder of Holland and Zeeland).  There was one painting that had a particularly interesting name of "fishing the souls", which depicted a big group of Catholics on the left bank of a river and Protestants on the right, and both sides had boats in water that were fishing believers.  Beyond the division between the Catholics and the Protestants, there was also the division among the Protestants - there were very strict Calvinists, and more tolerant branch that was headed by Johannes Wtenbogaert, who was the subject of a few paintings.

What's worth mentioning is the Delftware.  Delftware is simply white ceramic work with often blue decor, and it has been a renowned Dutch specialty.  As a Chinese, I have been bewildered why it has been known by the world as a Dutch specialty but not a Chinese one.  The only probable explanation, I think, is that China had always had the closed-door policy for hundreds of years.  It's quite regretful from my point of view.  According to what I learned in the museum, Dutch learned the technique from China to make some simple pieces, but the aristocrats still favor more elaborated and higher qualitied pieces imported from China.  However, in late 18th century when the civil war in China (when Ming Dynasty was being replaced by Ching Dynasty, i.e. Manchurians) caused the disruption of the supply from China, Dutch craftsmen, particularly in Delft, a small town outside of Amsterdam, took this opportunity to enhance their making, as well as adding more western elements, to produce the unique Delftware.  There are both Chinese and Dutch pieces on display.  With my very limited knowledge about ceramics, I would say the most distinctive Dutch is the flower vases in the form of a stacked obelisk.  The museum has a couple of giant such vases, commissioned by queen Mary.  I saw many of them on the markets too, small or big.  But to be honest, it does not please my esthetic appetite at all.

What's also impressive were exquisite dollhouses, and many silver art pieces with Greek mythology subjects.  It seems silversmiths' ambition was outstanding in that period.  It's said that they experimented with forms and tested boundaries of possible.  However, other than exclamations I could not comment more due to my lack of understanding.

The paintings on the second floor showed a wealth of different genres.  Before the Golden Age, the Dutch artists mainly focused on still life, and history paintings, i.e. those that are based on Greek or Roman biblical narrative stories.  History paintings at that time enjoyed highest regard.  When the new era opened, they started to experiment with new genres such as city scenes, Dutch landscape, and daily life of people in winter and summer.  There was a popular sub-genre that depicted companies, i.e. a group of well-to-do people in fashionable clothes, usually gathering in gardens or indoor.  One particular painting that I examined, for example, involved a group of richly-dressed people sitting in a garden, with an Italian house in the background, and with common elements such as exotic birds, fountain (that symbolizes fertility)... The audio tour pointed out an interesting prop in the painting, a monkey in chain.  It was holding an apple, the forbidden fruit.  It's said to symbolize vice and debauchery, and to warn people that enjoy yourself but do not become the prisoner of your sins, i.e. everything in moderation.  I was amused by that comments.  Not sure if it has a grain of truth to the artist's intention, or it is only imposed.

Rembrant practiced all genres in the time when most artists specialized in one.  He also experimented with different techniques.  In his paintings, one would see some meticulously painted faces, the subtle contrast of light and dark, to loose brushwork, to usually free style with rough and thick lump of paint (such as The Jewish Bride, or more appropriately, Issac and Rebecca). 

Vermeer, same as Pieter de Hooch, was a Delft painter.  In one of his most famous works, the Kitchen Maid, for example, he rendered light with utmost care that created perfect delusion of the space, besides the amazingly realistic details.

Pressed by time, I had to rush at the end, so that I could have at least a couple of hours in Van Gogh Museum before we headed to Brussels.

Van Gogh has been liked by me.  I'll try to explain why, but please do not expect too much rational logics, and most likely I picked Van Gogh to like only due to my lack of knowledge about other artists.  

The major reason is that I can feel his passions, through the beautiful colors,  the vivid and energetic depicting,  the amount of works he finished during a relatively short career, as well as through his own words.  

"As long as autumn lasts", he wrote to Theo, his beloved brother, "I won't have enough hands, canvas or colors to paint the beautiful things I see", so there were paintings such as "the furrows" (or called "ploughed fields");  "Tremendously beautiful here in summer... Green is deep and rich, air is thin and amazingly clear"... so there were a series of paintings like the famous "the harvest";  In the painting of the wheat-field with a reaper, which was done after he left asylum which means he was facing death already, one could still feel the pulsating energy and vitality.  

Being a person who is curious about everything, who is touched by every simple beauty in life such as the bright sunshine, a small flower blooming at the side of a road, and a smile from the bus-driver, I like people who appreciate nature and life with similar passion and sensitivity.  For me, these details and feelings build up the substance of our life, and they make me a happy person who looks forward to waking up tomorrow, going to work, and expecting the unexpected.  

Well, the second thought is that probably most artists have such passion and sensitivity, otherwise, they would not have been so creative.  :)

During his relatively short career as an artist, Van Gogh took influences from his environment and made changes to his works for good. 

His early works were kind of dark and muddy, such as his first major composition "the potato eater" in 1885.  When he went to Paris in 1886 and encountered modern French art of the day, he first thought they were "ugly, badly painted, badly drawn, wrong in color, utterly inadequate", and he was "bitterly, bitterly disappointed", but his attitude changed when he made acquaintance of 2 young artists Emile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-lautrec.  He became a modern artist, employed the light color and started to paint sun-drenched river views like an impressionist.  

At that time, Japanese art was popular in Paris, Van Gogh was obviously fascinated by it.  In his works, Japanese print, woodcuts, and Japanese subjects such as blossoms and courtesan often appear.  What's more, he also learned from Japanese art the decorativeness, bright colors, and daring compositions. 

Today we all recognize his trademark brushwork of applying small strokes of different colors, purposefully unblended.  For example, in many of his self portraits, he uses small touches of blue and yellow, two completely opposite colors, unmixed.  He took this technique from a school called Pointillism.  Other famous painters such as his contemporary Claude Monet also employed this kind of brushwork successfully. 

But he did not take everything presented to him.  For example, he felt that symbolism was not his cup of tea.  This, as far as I understand, was a major reason for his fallout with his friend Paul Gauguin, and this fallout was an important reason for his mental distress (he cut off a piece of ear) and ended his golden creating period in Arles, south France.  (Background info : Impressionists based work on visible world.  In 1885, symbolists began to develop a fascination for the mysterious. They sought inspiration in dreams, fantasies and feelings, the world of literary mind and various types of religious belief.  They painted from imagination, painted symbols of a more deeply felt, invisible world, which no longer suggested reality.  Van Gogh's friends Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard are major players)

So much more to write about Van Gogh.  I'm a bit tired.  So will only introduce briefly about the museum.  Van Gogh left to the world about 900 paintings, 1100 drawings, and 800 letters.  This museum houses about 200 paintings, 550 drawings, and most of the letters, showing Van Gogh in all his moods.  Also there are selected works by his heros, friends, and contemporaries.  When I visited, there was also a huge exhibition of Piccaso in Paris.  I totally did not have enough time but I remembered one sentence said by Piccaso : in art, one has to kill one's father.