Souvenir from Van Gogh Museum

Last night I met J for a movie. He brought a few things for me. 3 books of Jack Reacher and souvenirs from his trip to Europe.

It was interesting to see the connections sometimes when what he said would be exactly what I was about to ask, and that makes the friendship a little bit more fun. I was browsing the books and was about to ask him if I have to return the books when he said I could keep one of the 3, but have to return the other 2, as he plans to send them to his sister. I was about to ask, because nowadays I really don’t keep novels anymore. Instead of loving the books and keeping them on the bookshelf for the rest of my life without the time to read them again, I would much prefer to give them to friends if they are interested, and I encourage them to do the same if they turn out to like it. So I told J that he do not have to return the Jack Reacher book I gave him last week, and know it will end up being at his sister’s at least.

J just returned from his very first trip to Europe a while ago. We went through his photos together last week. He was really mesmerized by the geometry of buildings, doors and windows, and tooks lots and lots of photos of them. I happened to have done just the same when I was in Beijing in April. So I volunteered to upload mine for him to have a look. We had a good laugh.

He presented the sourvenirs he got for me while he was in Amsterdam. A box of chocolate, a postcard, and a refrigerator magnet from Van Gogh Museum. They are absoltely right souvenirs for me. We were then talking the stereotypes we have for each artist. For Van Gosh, we think of short strokes he is famous for in his self portraits and irises, but we are rarely exposed to his other talents and how versatile he was in painting. He said there are more then 300 Van Gosh’s paintings in that museum, and I was totally jealous that he got to be there to see them all.

I confess to him. From the photos, Nice looks nice, Cambrige looks gorgeous, Paris looks great, but I am only jealous of 2 things: he has been to Van Gogh museum and Musee d’Orsay, and for me, Musee d’Orsay is definitely the Mecca of arts.

Amphetamine

This movie was never in my radar until last Friday when a friend of mine sent me the link to its trailer when it was released. I love the music so much and just have to play the trailer again and again to enjoy it. A very bold way to do the trailer this way actully with music only, not even one single line is said, no car racing, and not even any explosion. Maybe because this movie caters to only a smaller communicty compared with those hollywood ones. I saw one movie from the same director. It was good but not impressive. It seemed to me that the director was more obsessed in telling his own story and had so much fun doing it, than telling a story that relates to the general public. That’s fine though, as this is then called art.

Not sure if I’ll see this movie or not, but if I do, it is for the score, and attention will be paid to assess if buying the soundtrack would be worth it.

Television

 

Sometimes I live in the conflicts between Chinese values and western values. Having said that, I think it is necessary to point out what Chinese values and western values mean.

Chinese values mean seeing the family members as a whole entity and care for one another very much, to a point that privacy or personal willingness could be invaded. Western values mean quite the oppisite, privacy or personal willingness highly respected, to a point that there seems to be just pure cold politness among friends or family.

Of course, there is some sutble details that both values share. It is beyond my discussion here (ok, western values needed here).

What happened was my parents’ TV broke. They never mentioned it over the phone, so I did not know that until this past March when I went back to Tainan to visit them. My mother said, she tried to hit the TV, reconnected the cables, but nothing helped. This TV is very old. My brother bought it when he was in college, and he is 42 this year. Do the math. The technician came, sighed, and explained how hard it is to get components for this TV now. This is just an old 20” CRT TV, so it is really not worth it to have it fixed.

So get a new TV then. That’s what everyone would think. Not my mother (and my father did not have a say in this matter). She claims this TV is still good to watch. Mother, red color is the only thing I can make out on the TV!

So what should I do? I think the more traditional Chinese way would be for me to go to electronic store, pick a new one, and have it sent to my parents’ house, knowing my parents would not be able to understand any item in the spec and would be quite clueless to tell one make from another. Honestly, there is nothing wrong with it, and I expect my parents to have that smug look when they have visitors, and the poor visitors would feel compelled to compliment how nice and considerate their son is.

However, I hope they get what they really want. I hope they understand I care about it and want them to get something that really suits their needs. That is also the way I would like to be treated. So I told my mother, the TV is really old, and it would be probably more expensive to have it repaired than to get a new one. It may be time for it to go. There are few ways to get a new one. Do you want me to pick one myself and have it shipped to you, or you’d like to visit the stores and do the shopping yourself, or I can even go with you to the stores, so we can have some discussions together? Let me know once you decide which way to go for.

Not surprisingly, my dear mother chose the fourth option. She kept the TV.

Mid June I went back to visit them again, and saw that red-only TV again. I decided to do it the pre-emptive way. I started a family activities.

That was when Toy Story 3 hit the theater. I told them how popular 3D movies are nowadays, and I always had a good time watching Toy Story 1 and 2. We could go watch the version dubbed with Chinese, so they won’t have any problem understanding the conversation.  After that, we can grab a few bites to eat, and then go to department store to see if they find any TV interesting. And they agreed.

So my parents, my sister, niece and I went together. It turned out they enjoyed the movie very very much, and were so excited about the 3D effect. Believe it or not, they also enjoy having something to drink in the theater and some popcorns.

Anyhow, we visited the department store afterwards, and my dear mother was ONLY interested in Sony. The old TV is a Sony Trinitron, and my mother loved it. I swear she was smiling the whole time when we were in Sony area. When we suggested having a look at Toshia, or Panasonic, she showed little interest, and refused to even have a look when we asked her to try Samsung or LG.

At that point, decision is easy to make. 32 inches is the smallest size now. She does not need all the bells and whistles, so the cheapest model will do. Since my sister was there in the department store as well, I asked my brother later to see if he is ok to chip in, and he agreed. So all 3 kids chipped in to get that Sony Bravia 32”.

I guess it is neither Chinese way or western way, or, I tried to blend them together. Though it was a waste of time from March to June, but still I’m happy that I did not hurry to store in March and pick something that she does not like, which I could have done if I had been few years younger. She even asked to buy the TV from the store which she called  for help when her TV broke. She feels comfortable with their service, and feels good to do business with them.

Now my mother is happy.