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Hugh Laurie 的音乐朝圣之旅

2013-01-26 12:39PM / 標準BLOG / M-zone

Enjoying let them talk , Hugh Laurie 's album for a while, I still feel excited when saw this film A Celebration of New Orleans Blues. Hugh has showed his piano skill in House,but it is far more empathtic when he perfomed with the great musicians in New Orleans.
His monologue.
I was not born in Alabama in the 1890s. You may as well know this now. I’ve never eaten grits, cropped a share, or ridden a boxcar. No gypsy woman said anything to my mother when I was born and there’s no hellhound on my trail, as far as I can judge. Let this record show that I am a white, middle-class Englishman, openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American south.

If that weren’t bad enough, I’m also an actor: one of those pampered ninnies who hasn’t bought a loaf of bread in a decade and can’t find his way through an airport without a babysitter. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that I’ve got some Chinese characters tattooed on my arse. Or elbow. Same thing.

Worst of all, I’ve broken a cardinal rule of art, music, and career paths: actors are supposed to act, and musicians are supposed to music. That’s how it works. You don’t buy fish from a dentist, or ask a plumber for financial advice, so why listen to an actor’s music?

The answer is – there is no answer. If you care about provenance and genealogy, then you should try elsewhere, because I have nothing in your size.

I started piano lessons at the age of 6 with Mrs Hare. She was a nice woman, probably; but in my twisted childhood memory I have cast her as a warty thug who bullied me across the hot coals of do-re-mi. I stuck it for about three months, grinding through Elementary Piano Book One until we reached Swanee River by Stephen Foster. (Foster, as it happens, was also a trespasser. Born in Pennsylvania, he never saw the actual Suwannee River – nor did he set foot in Florida, which adopted the song as its state anthem in 1935. I’m just saying.)

Now you could hardly call Swanee River a blues song - in one of its earliest editions, the score was sold as “An Ethiopian Melody” - but it’s a lot closer than the French lullabys and comical Polish dances that made up the rest of that hellish book.

The day arrived, and Mrs Hare turned the page: “Swanee River”, she read, peering through the pince-nez that I have imagined for her, 45 years later. And then, with a curl of her hairy lip, she read the subtitle: “ ‘Negro Spiritual - Slightly Syncopated.’ Oh dear me no.….”. With that, she flicked the page to Le Tigre Et L’Elephant, or some other unholy nightmare, and my relationship with formal music instruction ended.

And then one day a song came on the radio – I’m pretty sure it was I Can’t Quit You Baby by Willie Dixon – and my whole life changed. A wormhole opened between the minor and major third, and I stepped through into Wonderland. Since then, the blues have made me laugh, weep, dance… well, this is a family record, and I can’t tell you all the things the blues can make me do.

At the centre of this magical new kingdom, high on a hill (which shows you how little I knew back then), stood the golden city of New Orleans. In my imagination, it just straight hummed with music, romance, joy, despair; its rhythms got into my gawky English frame and, at times, made me so happy, and sad, I just didn’t know what to do with myself. New Orleans was my Jerusalem. (The question of why a soft-handed English schoolboy should be touched by music born of slavery and oppression in another city, on another continent, in another century, is for a thousand others to answer before me: from Korner to Clapton, the Rolling Stones to the Joolsing Hollands. Let’s just say it happens.)

Over the next decade, I consumed all the guitarists I could find: Charley Patton and Lead Belly, who was a genius, as was Skip James, Scrapper Blackwell, all the Blinds (Lemon Jefferson, Blake, Willie Johnson, Willie McTell), Son House, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and so many more that we’d be here all night just naming a tenth of them.

And then there were the towering piano players: Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Roosevelt Sykes, Leroy Carr, Jelly Roll Morton, Champion Jack Dupree, Tuts Washington, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Pinetop Perkins, Professor Longhair, James Booker, Allen Toussaint and Dr John.

I tended to favour the piano over the guitar because it stays in one place, which is what I like to do. Guitars appeal to the footloose, the restless. I like sitting a lot.

As for singers, that’s a huge list, with only two names on it: Ray Charles and Bessie Smith.

These great and beautiful artists lived it as they played it: all of them knew the price of a loaf of bread and most had times in their lives when they couldn’t scrape it together. They had credentials, in other words, and I respect those as much as the next man, possibly more.

But at the same time, I could never bear to see this music confined to a glass cabinet, under the heading Culture: Only To Be Handled By Elderly Black Men. That way lies the grave, for the blues and just about everything else; Shakespeare only performed at The Globe, Bach only played by Germans in tights. It’s formaldehyde, and I pray that Lead Belly will never be dead enough to warrant that.

So that’s my only credential - my one dog-eared ID card that I hope will get me through the velvet ropes and into your heart. I love this music, as authentically as I know how, and I want you to love it too. And if you get a thousandth of the pleasure from it that I’ve had, we’re all ahead of the game.

HUGH LAURIE
JANUARY 2011

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Race Imboden:He's a fencer, he's a New Yorker and he is a real swordman！

2012-08-06 8:21AM / 標準BLOG / M-zone

It is true that he need more experiences and need to control his emotion better, but I believe, four years later, in Rio de Janeiro, he will be a star.Like those charming Italian fencers,he has been catching the eyes of the people and will be a shining star.

It's Race!

The following is his monologue:

I live in New York. I'm a city kid. I was always like 'Oh, South Bend, Ind. I don't know. I don't know if I could do that.' … I kept telling myself, 'I'll see it. I'm not going to like it. I'll just come home then.' And I got there and there was just no way. I loved everything about the school. I don't think there's any way I could have said no to that school.

Notre Dame is a big melting pot. It's just as big of a melting pot in New York, but it's inside this little university.

Growing up in a city where it is so fast paced and everybody is running around, you have to keep yourself in check because it's very easy to be swept up in the city.

Traveling makes you realize how vast the world is because you just keep going to these new places.

The motivation is the more effort I put into it, the more enjoyable it is.

No honey in it. Definitely a ton of tea in this household. My mum comes home and makes tea every day.

My parents are very, very, very good at letting me pick my own path and letting me really be in control of what I want to do and how seriously I want to take things. It really allowed me to take control of the sport and make it my own.

I've hit a lot of boundaries, especially with fencing - whether it's how much I can travel or I've got to do a certain amount of school or my sport isn't the most publicized - just those boundaries that if you really want to do anything, if you really want to achieve anything, it's possible.

A lot of the times you're focusing so much on the other person and focusing so much on other things, but when it really comes down to it the only thing that's really holding you back is yourself. And you, a lot of times, have to come to terms with challenging yourself and trying to make yourself better.

I have tons of quotes. I post them all the time on my athlete Facebook page too. I had a wall of quotes. I put them up at my fencing club too.

Sports are so important in kids' lives. If you have anything that's going wrong with your day, whether it's a girlfriend or a program or a bad day at school or whatnot, if you can go in to train and take your time and focus on something else and focus on something like a sport and clear your head and coming back and finding that problem later. It's really therapy.

I made swords out of everything. If we went to Home Depot, I'd always have to buy a piece of a long wooden shaft thing. … I've had a couple light sabers. I always broke them because I played with them too much. I went through my samurai phase where I wanted all samurai stuff. No idea where it came from.

My name came fom a cartoon show.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yyIuFloQjo

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90210演員Gillian Zinser 為Institute 拍攝的幕後花絮

2012-04-30 10:33PM / 視頻 / M-zone

Video: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzYwMjM0MzI4.html

Gillian在90210剛出鏡時候的樣子令人非常難忘，海灘衝浪以及和“Liam"在一起的戲份都很好看。另外，個人覺得她和苗條年輕時的瑞尼齊薇格有神似之處。

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随便写写——在gossip girl第四季开始前

2010-09-06 10:32PM / 標準BLOG / M-zone

      GG的劇情越來越蒼白了，難怪要到巴黎去賺眼球。當然，如果劇中的服飾場景仍然亮麗，我還是願意繼續看看。

     有時在想，要是謹遵小說的路線來拍攝，會是怎樣？可能沒那麼潮了，不會把一些正在當下現實中的人和事揉進去，不過從某種程度上說更合理了不是？電視劇編劇費盡心思把所有主人公都留在了紐約，這算是好事還是壞事？是好事的話，為何要移師巴黎呢？

     小說中的S的確有間隔年，不過後來去了Yale，她沒有一個同性戀的弟弟Eric，因為Eric是比S年長兩歲，在Brown讀書的大哥。

      而真正有弟弟的是B，小說中她最後的確去了Yale。

      Nate的確打曲棍球，也是靠關係被Ivy Leagues錄取，不過是通過B的關係。但在和父親做航海旅行之後，他加入了深泉學院，最後走進布朗大學。

      Dan在小說中的藝術氣息更濃，他和V不是舊情人，而是他在 experimented with homosexuality后，才和V走到一起的。這其中還有一人要提，便是Elise Wells，J小姐的密友，向Dan示愛但遭拒絕，后鼓勵Dan與V在一起。The Evergreen State College是他的第一所大學，而轉學去Columbia U的是他而不是B。

      說到V，小說和電視劇是截然不同，倒不是性格，而是外形。小說中的她既不是一位拉丁美女，也沒有長捲髮，她也在私校上學，這和小說不同，但紐約大學的橋段倒是一致。

      兩處的Chuck Bass都因優越的出生而輕視他人，但小說中他并不是絕對主角，只是在電視劇改編中提升了他的“地位”。他不是主動放棄進入大學，而是沒有被任何一所他申請的大學錄取。他曾與男士交往，後來聲稱入讀軍事學院，但他并未入讀且不知去向。最後，Chuck返回曼哈頓，成為與電視劇中相仿的“煥然一新，可敬”的人。而小說中的Chuck也不是個獨子。

    J小姐被學校開除后再未返校，無論在書中還是劇中，她都代表了那些想從底層向上爬的有野心的女孩子。

      還有些細節是我時常津津樂道的。Lily稱呼Chuck為Charles,Cece稱Dan為Daniel。個人覺得這是反應兩位女士性格很好的表現。同時，我也對第二季中的衍生劇印象不錯，原來Lily是個“valley girl“。要是編劇又要狗尾續貂時，不妨把Lily那個很有個性的姐姐Carol加進來。

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奢侈无罪拜金有理《绯闻女孩》富人区地图详解

2010-04-07 1:09AM / 資料 / M-zone

生活核心地带：上东区Upper East Side

　　每集的《绯闻女孩》登场之前总有一个声音在蛊惑你：欢迎来到曼哈顿精英云集的上东区，既然是精英云集，那么当然要知道到底是何方宝地才能吸引各路神仙到此一聚呢？

　　并不是上东区一开始就被规划为有钱人区，但是好的地段总是越来越贵，于是逐渐形成了只有有钱人才能消费得起的富人区，并且，随着有钱人越来越多，要想住在上东区并不光是钱就可以做到的，因为许多富人的居所为自有住宅，在私有财产受到严格保护的美国，只要主人不答应，有钱也没法买到这些高级寓所，例如露华浓的老总就曾经被拒绝过，出现在拒绝名单里的也会包括一些时尚界人士、律师以及娱乐明星等等。

　　是什么令上东区如此让人神往？上东区不仅仅只代表着纽约最富有人群的聚居区，它的空气中还弥漫着由资本和时间锤炼出来的时尚文化与艺术沉淀出来的魅力，因此也一直被看作是曼哈顿傲慢的贵族脸。这点，从它的众多著名博物馆与世界顶级设计师专卖店流露出国际化大都市的城市品位中可以透露出来。

购物指南：从Bergdorf Goodman到Henri Bendel

购物第一站当然是纽约百货公司中的老大Bergdorf Goodman，这家百年老店几乎囊括了全世界最齐全的奢侈品和各种限量典藏版，经营种类以晚装、皮草、头饰、包包为主，各种天价新品，都会选择在这里进入，这里只有惊人的东西，而无所谓贵得惊人的东西，因为它的消费对象就是世界各地的贵妇名媛们。

　　另外还有专为女性服务的Henri Bendel可以选择，这家位于56街的老店长久以来的经营秘诀就是锁定贵妇和富家女的消费趣味，并且新货上架很快，适合追逐时尚、有独特品味的穿衣者。值得一提的是，在每年的新年过后，正是精品百货业进行修整的淡季时期，包括像Henri Bendel这样的名店也会进行打折活动，精明的购物者不妨可以趁机血拼。另外，为了不引起动物保护人士的抗议，Henri Bendel已经不出售皮草。（节选自搜狐）

主流社交方式：派对

白色派对上的瑟琳娜和内特

贵族出处：“绯闻男女”父母职业起底

对于衔着金钥匙出生的It girl们，职业生涯也许是她们最不热心考虑的事情，但是为她们打下江山的父母辈并非如此。

查克(Chuck)的父亲巴特是地产投资大亨，既做产业投资，又兼营期货、股票。他在22岁时赚到了第一桶金，从此建立了一个BASS帝国，是上东区白手起家的典型代表，也是“美国梦”的精彩范例。

　　内特的父亲是个资本运营商，一直想操办布莱尔的妈妈爱莲诺的公司上市，为此不惜让儿子内特违心地与布莱尔谈恋爱。但是其事业并不顺利，不仅贪污公款，还染上了毒瘾，一度被抓进了监狱，导致家道中落。

　　布莱尔的妈妈是业界顶尖的时装设计师，能够在她手下实习是无数渴望成名的时尚界人士的梦想！她有一个有钱的老公，却是同性恋。而Lily出身名门，年轻的时候曾经是一个摄影师，却因阶级差别与摇滚歌手相爱而不能相守。

　　所以，It girl们在肆意挥霍的同时，消费的不仅是自己的青春，也是父辈们曾经的付出与努力。

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