解憂節目

上次香港之行，心情沉重，幸好自癒能力算是頗強，想到善用醫院兩個探病時間的空檔，先是去了銅鑼灣誠品書店，買了兩本好書，一本探究草書，另一本細數宋詞；繼而闖闖中環大會堂，看看畫展，聽聽香港小交響樂團音樂會「藍月夜」該下午演出曲目包括：

• 舒伯特 B小調第八交響曲，D759，「未完成」
• 莫扎特 降E大調第九鋼琴協奏曲，K271，「茱諾姆」 （由年輕女鋼琴家Sophie Pacini負責獨奏）
• 荀伯格 《昇華之夜》，作品4

三者由城市維也納連結起來，雖然勉強也無所謂。最特別要算是最後一曲伴上前衛現代舞。其實這首算荀伯格前期還未很「難聽」（指應用前衛音樂理論）的代表作，我聽過頗多次，卻不知原來此曲源自一首詩，而詩的主題是一個女子在月夜下向她的男人告白：她和別人有了BB，此段當然心情激動，清楚地反映在舞者的動作中，其後獲得諒解，並決定共同開始新生活，三個階段分別由三位女舞者演譯，而男主角則是由始至終同一人。非常慶幸沒有錯過如此別具特色的演出。

除了音樂會，竟然也去了戲院看電影（訪港極少看電影，之前較有印象的是去看「那些年」和The Lego movie而已）看的更是極少看的日本電影！皆因在Pokka Cafe看到「解憂雜貨店」的宣傳品，那是改編自近年讀了很多的作家東野圭吾的小說，下機當晚睡不著才讀完全本「真夏方程式」呢！「解」是東野首本集奇幻與推理情節於一身的温情作品，我反而未讀過原著而先看電影版。由於喜歡此作家，對電影自然也愛屋及烏。故事圍繞一家已結業的雜貨店，當年老闆歡近人家來信詢問疑難，他會一一細心解答；老闆過身店也結業多年後，有三個少年在犯事之後無意中闖入，適值時空交錯，收到多年前多封詢問信，他們這幾位以未來人身份回信，改變了好幾段人生。有影評說由於要講的事太多，人物的刻劃有點片面，可能也有道理，總之我就十分喜歡。

Sports highlights: NASCAR "semifinals"

All 3 NASCAR series will have their final races of the season that determines the champion this weekend. And the 4 finalists for each series were determined by last weekend's race which made the races extra interesting, with a few notable crashes involving those fighting for playoff spots. During the truck race, the 4th final spot holder at one point, Ben Rhodes, tried to cut in front of his closest competitor Austin Cindric at a restart and was wrecked. Rhodes' crew chief was very upset about that but the announcers didn't think it's the fault of the latter, who got that final spot eventually, as a beneficiary of the crash of course. Similar issue happened to #48 Brennan Poole of the Xfinity race when he tried too hard to gain around on other competitors. Once he crashed out, the 4th spot came down to either Daniel Hemric or Cole Custer. Custer tried his best to overtake Hemric but just came up short. Another unfortunate #48 was Jimmie Johnson, who also had to fight for that 4th spot for the Cup championship at the bottom of the final 8. And that's not the only drama: Denny Hamlin was leading for a long time and looked promising to get that 4th spot. However,  remember he wrecked Chase Elliott at Martinsville and ruined the latter's chance to win the first Cup race of his career (and more importantly, advance to the championship)? So, no surprise that when Hamlin lost his top spot from the pit and restarted near Elliot, the latter would take revenge (after all, his only chance to advance was to pass everyone else, i,e, win the race to got into the championship 4) Last but not least, Matt Kenseth won his first race of 2017 (by overtaking Chase Elliott for the top spot) which would also be his final season in NASCAR. It's cool to see him going out on top.

書體和音樂

早一陣子去了一個「俾面」音樂會，百無聊賴練字，胡思亂想中文書法各種書體和西洋音樂似乎也可拉上關係：
楷書：不用說，當然是流行音樂！夠大眾化，人人都會。
草書：我認為和爵士樂頗相似：既有法規，也有很大自由度，各家寫出來的很不同，很有即興味道。
行書：令我聯想到古典音樂的浪漫派，創作及演繹浪漫派音樂，均加入很多個人感情，誇張也無所謂。
隸書：這樣說有點籠統，但隸書感覺上比較一板一眼，很有巴哈的巴羅克音樂的味道。
篆書：簡樸原始味重，Gregorian chant一類中古時代西洋音樂大概可以相比。