親子.單車

大家都知我是單車運動愛好者，家中兩個小朋友十歲前我就多次帶他們踩，好幾次還達十英里，不過隨著他們長大有自己喜歡的活動，反而此情不再，著實令我失望。
上星期竟然連續兩天分別和兒子及女兒踩車！話說兒子放學後在另一間學校有樂隊活動，他懂得如何踩去，卻沒有信心由那裡回家，媽媽耐心打開地圖解釋一遍後，還是不太放心，派我去「陪踩」一次，誰知這次他早放，我未到他已離開，不過在「必經之路」上他很醒目地叫在對面街的我！以後讓他看地圖學路線應該沒有問題了。
之後那一天女兒要去藝術中心交暑期活動的表格，單車車程要20分鐘，我們決定一起踩一次，為暑期作準備；我說她的座位太低，令她不能完全發揮腳力，她不服地說已算踩得快！可能因此決定在回程時show下quali，我跟在她後面竟然有點吃力呢！
我的兩個寶貝真的開始長大了！

Archaeology of Ancient Greece and US Politics?

I found that the "establishments" in Hong Kong these days like to use the term "politicized" whenever their behaviors were (rightfully) criticized. And they like to blame it on US influences. Well, they actually might have a point. Consider a Smithsonian magazine article I read recently about the discovery of the "Griffin warrior" at an ancient Greek site, which gave rise to new theories about the beginning of the Greek civilization (and the whole Western civilization in general) Before its discovery, when artifacts from the island of Crete (which were more well-developed before the mainland Greece did) were found in the latter, historians believed they were robbed by the mainland Greek and moved there. The new theory is that two culture might have co-existed peacefully and influenced each other. And the people at those days might not see a clear distinction between them. This is certainly a plausible theory. However, the author added his comments on how this is related to the current political situation: cultural influences from immigrants are beneficial to our society! Yeah, I think this story is politicized.

爵士樂首張錄音誕生一百週年

那是一百年前的二月廿四日，之前有爵士樂雜誌專題討論，然後又讀了這篇BBC的文章，如此長文真難得有心讀完。老老實實，即如我般沉迷爵士，也未必有興趣一再欣賞這張Original Dixieland Jass Band的唱片，皆因和今時今日我們常聽到的現代爵士相差太遠了！當中扮動物聲音效果更令我嗤之以鼻。個人來說，回溯歷史，值得開始欣賞的，最早期要算是Lester Young Billie Holiday 四十年代的Swing爵士樂。