Ice, Snow, and Super Fun

Ready or not, here I come.

I am looking,

I am sledding,

I am on my way to meet the Snow White.

Raleigh's Orchestra Night

It's time for Raleigh's orchestra performance again. Mei and Ally joined us in the audience, and their presence helped Lo-lin to become a very patient and quiet listener.

With other fifth graders on the stage, Raleigh played three pieces of classical and contemporary music this time.

Summer Trip to London

For my presentation at the Cultural Studies Now International Conference, I'll have the chance to visit London in July. Here is a peek at the Docklands Campus of the University of East London, where the conference will be held.

Hearing the "big shots" of Cultural Studies and taking a Thames boat trip are enough for me to feel excited about the visit.

Looking For Spring

Electric Impact

Sex in Two European Films

Veronika Ferres in "Rossini"

“Rossini”-- Germany, 1997

Rossini is the name of an Italian restaurant where love, lust, dream, ambition, hope and hopelessness are served together with a plate of pasta and a bottle of fine Cabernet Sauvignon.

1. Irony:
In one scene, a self-absorbed novelist is put on a bed by a waitress whom he loves.

As the woman removes her clothes, the novelist gets nervous. Then we hear their conversation:

Novelist: What are you doing?
Waitress (In Italian): You will have a great experience.
Novelist: Experince? I don't need experince. I am a writer.

I only write. I don't know anything about life.
Waitress: My love, look at me. Listen to me.
Novelist: Stop. I don't want reality.

Then, she turns off the light and gets into bed with him.

She forces him to face reality and have some experience.

2. Beauty:
A strikingly beautiful German actress called Veronika Ferres plays an important role in the film. She goes completely nude in the film. Ferres is also in the new film “Klimt”. The great actor John Malkovich plays Klimt. I can't wait to see them both in this film based on the artist who gave the world the passionate and everlasting Kiss.

"The Sea" -- Iceland, 2003
Laurence asked me to get him a DVD called "The Sea" from the library. He thought maybe it has something to do with oceanics. Well, it's a dark comedy, a domestic drama set in a fishing village in Iceland. Th film shows intense emotions and unfolding of ugly family stories under the surface of gracefulness and visual appeals. It shined in both Sundance Film Festival and Toronton Film Festival. Oh, back to the sex scene--

A woman is caught by a cop for speeding and driving without license. In spite of her various excuses, the cop insists on giving her a ticket. This is what happens in the next scene --

Woman: Okay, only one. No touching.
Cop: No, both.

Then the woman lifts her shirt up and bares her breasts. As the cop puts his hand on her, she rolls up the window, drives away, and yells "I told you no touching, Jerk."

Of course, the rest of the sex scenes in the film are a lot prettier than this one. Just look at the film poster. The naked lovers are in a clear-water pool as big as sea.