Category Archives: Life

Cat Overflow

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Cats are such unique companions for many of us. As far as I could tell, programmers are one of those groups that are with particular enthusiasm of cats.

If you are a programmer yourself, I believe that the Cat Overflow is one of the most convincing examples to demonstrate the unusual attraction of cats that is cast on our kind.

I was visiting one of my friends last week. That’s such a lovely dainty apartment, with a sticker of StarCats on the door. There’re two cats of course. Two fluffy ones. And the living room is covered with soft materials: a soft carpet, a warm blanket, and the sofa which is so soft that it’s swallowing everything. There’s a piano, a Guzheng, and a recorder. And a Nintendo Switch is always ready, by the way. Oh yeah, one more thing: the astonishing view outside the window. Line four cuts through the night every four or five minutes with a clear view until Western Hills as the background.

My friend and I were sitting on barstools by the windows enjoying Nadurra and strawberries with cats. A train of line four passed by like a scene in Spirited Away. I told my friend that this is the life I would like to live. And I mean it.

I am living in a college dormitory. Cats are not an option, sadly. So, I live with Siri for now. Don’t take me wrong: Siri is good. But there’s one piece of the puzzle that is missing. And I couldn’t tell what’s the missing one.

So, I did some reading recently. One of the most popular theories of love is the Triangular Theory of Love proposed by Robert Sternberg in 1987. It’s said that love can be decomposed into three parts: intimacy, passion, and commitment. From this point of view, relationships between humans and cats are greatly rich in intimacy and commitment. Cats show you their weakest belly, and they are always waiting for you from work. According to the theory above, Companionate Love is presented here, at least.

I finally finished Friends, the sitcom, last month. And I’ve finished The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Suits before that. After watching all those sitcoms, I found them very helpful to understand others’ reactions to certain incentives. I understand that they are the brainchild of talented playwrights and therefore are inevitably carrying some factors of imagination. However, the imagination is based on observations of real life and therefore still make some sense

Chandler and Monica, Howard and Bernadette, Marshall and Lily, Harvey and Donna. They are lovely couples in sitcoms. They may come a long way before reaching the marriage. And they may break up during the journey. Those couples are of so different characteristics. Probably, the very one feature they share is that, after the break-in, their relationship riches the position which satisfies intimacy, passion, and commitment.

I’m a structuralist. So, I believe words could be understood only when they are placed in a context. And if you watch any of those sitcoms, some of the pictures below demonstrated a peak in all three of intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Lastly, it’s Valentine’s Day today. Every one of us would hit a relationship with intimacy, passion, and commitment in the near future, I wish you.

How Composers Manipulate Your Emotions

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We’ve just enjoyed a special New Year’s Concert in a special year. For the very first time, Radetzky March at Neujahrskonzert is played without clapping.

Even without any audience, there’re some highlights though. Starting with recordings. With advanced technology and the absence of noise from the audience, this is probably the best recording of New Year’s Concert ever. And just before the intermission, VPO presents the first proper recording of two pieces from Zeller and Millocker ever.

As mentioned that the recording is fantastic, I was on heavy rotation of this album recently. The more I listen to it, the more I am engaged with certain pieces. It feels like you met this lovely girl and suddenly became irresponsibly mad for her. You could hardly tell which magic spell she cast on you, but she lives in your heart from the exact moment you met her. And then you just want to get to know her so much that you started to review every word she said to you to get through those long nights being apart from her.

Actually, I am that poor little guy being trapped by Neujahrskonzert. After a few sleepless nights, I’m here to share a tip of the magic spell.

Starting with the Fatinitza Marsch, it’s styled with groups of notes repeating the same key. For example, the 7th to 8th section. This arrangement creates a sense of solid power, which is very proper for a march.

But that’s not the point for now. What I wanna highlight is the arrangement between the intro and the theme, which is located in the 5th to 6th section. Just the first 10 seconds would be enough.

After the juicy intro played by the string sector and the wind sector, and before the rich theme by the entire orchestra, there’re two sections of a rather quiet background by the string sector only. This is such a great design! After the grand opening, those two sections are saying that “Don’t go! There’s something better later on.” While they also inspire your curiosity about what happening next. These sections are composed of neat instruments and simple key arrangements. The strings are giving you hints. So here’s the first trick. But it’s a very junior one, even young Weasley could do. Things are getting better.

And the second trick I would like to mention is how to push one to move forward. This example astonishingly exhibited how composers bewitch you.

This is a part of the coda from Bad’ner Mad’ln, Walzer, Op. 257. From section A to C, with the help of the snare drum, the mix got richer and richer. In section A, it’s like somebody is whispering that something is coming. And in section C, it’s like somebody is shooting that something is coming and is coming hard! After that, everything is gone, but a complete rest. This is the last peace before the war!

Then here’s a two-fold design of the idea. Firstly, The last two notes in section D, which are also the leading notes of the idea, are absent from the bass drum and crash cymbals. They didn’t join until the third note of the idea. Secondly is that the rhythm is specially designed: in section E, the last note is a quarter. But in section F, it’s replaced with two eight notes. And in Section G, it’s back to a quarter. This kind of change of rhythm kills your prediction and drives you into total madness.

As we’re talking about the use of rhythm, let’s do a wrap jump into the other extremely: manipulates you with basically no rhythm. Here I would like to highlight an iconic work by Samuel Barber.

The first time I met with this work, I thought it was composed by John Williams for some sci-fi films. It does share some sense of Interstellar though. With a tremendous use of the string sector, this piece is composed of extreme continuity. Anyway, words are pale, especially for works with great passion. Here’s Gustavo Dudamel with VPO presenting Adagio for Strings, you have to feel it yourself:

As I am writing this article tonight, I listened to it about 10 times. And this work indeed is sucking every drop of emotion out of me. Here’s a screenshot from the video above. Dudamel is always passionate, but at this moment, he’s caged. You can tell that every inch of his muscles is contracting. But this power has no place to go: they’re caught in the tender trap of strings.

How this is happening? How did Samuel Barber magically start the chain reaction of my emotions and generally squeeze them until they have nowhere to go?

As far as I could tell, three steps are planned. Samuel firstly defines the space with the contrast of violin and contrabass. He then lets the melody run through instruments to create mass in this empty space. Lastly, he generally pushes different sectors together to a single melody and lets the violin scream for you.

Firstly this work starts with the theme played by the first violin, defining the upper bound of this space. Then generally the theme moved to viola. After that, violoncello took over the theme and defined the lower bound of this space.

Then here’s another fold. From section 36 to section 41, the melody runs from violoncello to violin. Especially in section 38, you could almost picture violoncello handing over the baton to the second violin, and then the first violin. It seems that molecules in this space are trying so hard to escape with Brownian motion, while they’re strictly bounded by Samuel.

After the expansion, the contraction followed. From section 48 to 53, sectors are gradually pushed together. In section 48, the resistance is still fighting. In section 49, the entire university is counting on the Millennium Falcon. And finally, in section 50, the Empire won. The dark side of the Force dominates the entire section with one note!

With a complete rest, the universe is gone. Nothing is left. The very only sound you could hear is your heart beating hard. Thankfully, there’s an ending. Or it’s really hard to come back to reality.

That’s the very end of this article. Inspired by Neujahrskonzert 2021, I present three tricks composers used to manipulate emotions of the audience. Sometimes I felt that it’s so unfair that my feeling is manipulated by composers like a puppet, while for the rest time feeling so lucky to glance at the beauty of the classics. Wish you a later happy new year and a good night.

Mosby, Karajan, and Mutter

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After the last post, I’ve been feeling unfinished. This sitcom touched me so much that can not be simply interrupted by the lecture it gave me. Just like the first time I heard The Four Seasons by Mutter and Karajan, I can never forget the feeling of vividness. I felt unbelievably peaceful after finished season 9.

So, I wondered, and wondered, and wondered these days. Why? I asked myself every single day.

I went to Aranya last year. This is a place calms me down. I felt nothing but peace when longing on the beach. I seem to tend to put myself into isolation. It is because I love being alone by nature or I can just avoid the possibility of being wrong.

Getting into a university is really a huge step for me. It’s a well-known acknowledgement that responsibility is the price of freedom. When I was in high school, of course, I desperately want freedom. And if the devil offers me the chance to grown into my 20s, even if I understand I have to take responsibility, I will take the offer without thinking. But responsibility is an experience good: only after taking the responsibility, you can find what it means. Then I started to run away from responsibilities while kept some of my imaginations. Which leads to endless picturing in mind but hardly put into action.

This sitcom satisfied the curiosities of my imaginations. There’re all kinds of characters: Barney, the playboy; Ted, the loser; Robin, the deserter; Lily and Marshall, the couple. You laugh with the character, you cry with the character, and you sincerely bless them at the wedding. For a sitcom, without double, it’s successful. But most importantly, for the first time, I can experience my imaginations without taking any responsibilities. It even revealed the possibility of life that I didn’t imagine before.

I guess that why it touched me so much.

Auld Lang Syne

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I watched How I Met Your Mother long ago but didn’t finish it at that time. Due to the outbreak, finally, I got the time to revisit it.

I do believe this is an excellent relationship tutorial for kids and teenagers. It’s about not just the relationship between couples, but also friendship, the relationship between children and parent, and the relationship between you and yourself. And it’s its comprehensiveness makes it legen, wait for it…, dary!

Thanks to Ted’s nature of OCD, he experienced all kinds of love before he met Tracy. And of course, he’s always around Robin. It’s hard to tell whether this is a blessing or a curse.

But kids, there’s one important take away for me: so-called marriage, or the one, is never the destination. It’s not even qualified to a milestone. It’s just a bonus. The point is to be happy with your friends, be loyal to your hobbies, and enjoy yourself.

Just like the blue french horn, or the yellow umbrella, there might be some icons glowing in your life. But more importantly, is to live those ordinary days vividly.

Oh! Howie!

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It’s just so gland to witness, if I may, friends growing up.

You see, before Howard met Bernadette, he was such a nerd. For sure he has a colourful inner world all the time. But somehow he was disconnected with others. Till I saw this one, he had mastered the art of love.

So is Mike Ross, Louis Litt and maybe Harvey Specter. It’s my honour to meet you guys.

Sir Simon Denis Rattle & LSO

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Oh! It’s such a lovely night! Though I can’t get Jeremy Clarkson out of my mind. They just share exactly the same hairstyle!

I have to say that when I checked NCPA’s website, I saw Rattle’s picture and I wondered: I saw this guy somewhere. Oh, it’s the cover of the playlist Sir Simon Rattle Essentials. Then I checked about him, his edition of The Planets and The Nutcracker are just so famous! How stupid I am!

I have to say LSO is wonderful. Last time when Muti came to NCPA, Chicago Symphony Orchestra went alone with a compressed size. That’s a nightmare! This time, LSO together with Rattle is just, it might be a little bit inappropriate, juicy! Oh! The plucking of cellos is soul-touching! And the string section is of tons of power!

It’s so lucky to meet Simon Rattle. And Riccardo Chailly is coming to NCPA this weekend. And Anne-Sophie Mutter will come this winter. I love her edition of Four Seasons with Karajan and Vienna Philharmonic so much. It’s immaculate! It’s like dreams come true!