Best Jazz Albums of 2017 Part II: the Top 5!

I have finally sampled all (and deep-dived a few) of the Best of Jazz 2017 I posted earlier. And I really dig the followings:

• Akua Dixon - Akua's Dance: This one is probably the most mainstream among all the recommendations even though she played a non-mainstream jazz instrument (cello). After all, she did cover Sade's The Sweetest Taboo, which I actually like (the original too, of course)  Her music reminded a little bit of Regina Carter. I also enjoy the acoustic guitar works on this album. It would have been perfect without that lone vocal track IMHO.
• Binker and Moses - Journey to the Mountain of Forever: I wouldn't expect a duet of sax and drums can sound so exciting. As you know, it's challenging even for a sax trio with bass and drums as the rhythm section without a chordal instrument like piano or guitar to supply the harmony. I admire their ability to pull this off. Of course, it featured more band members in the later part of the album and those tracks are as good. 
• Tony Allen - The Source: this is one funky album that is growing on me.
• Harriet Tubman - Araminta: there are only 2 tracks available on Spotify for this album but you get an idea of what this guitar trio plays: jazz that really rocks. 
• Camilla George Quarter: she is yet another exciting (female) sax players that I hear in the last few years. Again, the vocal track is the only "distraction" for me.

The Magic of Mushroom

最近在Netflix介紹下看了一套以題目為名的紀錄片，大家不要以為和迷幻有關，只是科學吧。一直以為菇是植物，原來生物學中fungi自成一類，在植物和動物之外，反而比較接近後者！本片用鏡頭特別放大拍攝菇類靠孢子由一處彈到另一處繁殖，實在有趣；而在我們吃菇看到的「帽」之下，原來有延申極廣的根網絡，深入其「寄主」（例如樹）後，從後者吸到水分，同時又為其提供礦物質（如氮）。這個也是菌類分解有機物的機制，本片指出其重要性，如沒有此機制，地球上會堆積更多廢物！除了以菇類製成抗生素，片中又提到發明家利用菇類根網的特性，把木屑和菌放在模內，可製成類似發泡膠的物料。此外，大家都會聽過一味中藥：冬蟲夏草，其實也屬菇類，醫學界正研究以此藥抑壓癌細胞擴散。本片實在值得一看。

宋詞. 菩薩蠻·花明月暗籠輕霧

今天介紹一首很香艷的詞：李後主描寫他的美女情人小周后和他偷情又驚又喜的心態（其姐大周后時為李後主皇后）；全文（此頁有註釋）：

花明月暗籠輕霧，今宵好向郎邊去。剗襪步香階，手提金縷鞋。
畫堂南畔見，一向偎人顫。奴爲出來難，教君恣意憐。

薪火相傳

家中孩子放假太多空閒時間，要他上網學點東西，例如寫網頁之類，才發現我一直極少用Mac OS X的TextEdit，試用了一會，第一件事要Format做Plain Text（否則default是Rich Text Format)，而打double quote會自動被轉換，又要修改設訂，總之麻煩重重；還是開個Terminal使用慣熟的vi或emacs好了，就這樣新一代emacs用家後繼有人了。

（後記：在IT老友介紹下找到Atom這個較為現代的Code Editor ，emacs體驗之旅暫時告終）

玩筆

上半年沒有購入甚麼新筆，下半年終於不再忍手，購入數支各有特色的筆：

• Delike New Moon w/ Bent Nib: 在FB見到人家用Delike示範書法，寫得很好（當然功力比硬件重要），而筆外型和我支Kaweco Sport有九成相似，更有書法尖（又名美工尖）！年幾前買的英雄牌書法尖墨水筆是漏墨王，經已放棄；決定再試一次書法尖，在eBay找到一支比仿Kaweco Sports款更漂亮的New Moon，好不容易等到從國內寄抵我家，拿上手比照片看來高貴呢。這支書法尖做出來的粗幼效果比英雄牌要含蓄一點，但出墨順暢無漏墨問題，性價比相當高，是每天都用得著的筆。
• Duke Emerald Black Barrel Guan Yu Calligraphy Bent Nib: 寫書法尖寫得上癮，決定試試另一極端，在Amazon找到這支可以很粗可以很幼的「大關刀」，十分好玩。
• Noodler's Ink Konrad Flex Nib Clear Demo: 早一陣子在eBay買了「無間」Rhodia迷你記事簿，賣家是網店Goldspot，自此每週收到他們的宣傳電郵，大減價相當吸引，上個月終於「落搭」購入一個Noodler's的特價筆墨套餐，包括此筆和兩隻墨（一黑一白！）是自從去年賣掉我的Namiki再寫flex nib, 依然喜歡。 

Comcast X1 box English audio

As a long time soccer fan (and a sports junkie), I try to watch as much as I can on TV. In US, that means often I would watch channels that broadcasts in Spanish. I knew some programs actually have English commentary "as a second language" on Comcast but I just couldn't figure out how to listen to that, until today. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Click the Xfinity button on your remote, then choose the Settings icon, then choose Language, SAP Language. And in my case, choose English.
Step 2: Back to the program you are watching, click the "Down arrow" button, toggle on SAP, it will switch to English (which was chosen in Step 1)

Best Jazz Albums of 2017

又到了一年一度樂壇回顧的時候，和去年一樣也是連結別人介紹的最佳廿張唱片算了，我正在由第19位慢慢開始聽（略去第20位因為是vocal），這位作者的口味實在比較獨特，有前衛的，有New Orleans原始風味的，有World Music元素的，就是沒有Straight ahead的，讓我接觸一些平日較少聽的音樂實在是好事；廿張之中我只聽過#12 Ambrose Akinmusire – A Rift In Decorum: Live At The Village Vanguard，也算喜歡；從Spotify有得聽的砌了這個playlist:
 
其實2017年的新作我實在聽得不多，無獨有偶，最「主流」的要算是Chris Potter樂隊的The Dreamer is the Dream，多得ECM終於肯在Spotify「上架」！其餘喜歡的都算比較另類: William Parker Quartets的雙唱片集Meditation/Resurrection及Cuong Vu 4-Tet的Ballet(The Music of Michael Gibbs)。有空的話再寫寫其他種類音樂的2017精選。

貴咖啡

昨天和朋友（別號「奶茶王」）說笑要開店賣頂級咖啡，首先想到的是「藝妓咖啡」(Gesha)，其實以前我認識的貴價咖啡只有「貓屎咖啡」，不過上個月讀了香港的明周又認識了似乎更高貴（貓屎相對有點不雅？）的Gesha，在香港某家咖啡店賣四百港元一杯！好在我不太懂欣賞這些精品，在本地咖啡店如Sightglass, Ritual等等喝杯四十港元左右的cappuciano經已十分滿足！

後記：無巧不成話，今天又看到台灣大學電子系碩士成為冲咖啡世界冠軍的故事。

Orchard Field

單看名字會想到種滿果樹的果園吧？和朋友聊天，問起他的旅程，他回覆說在ORD，雖然工作關係我輸入過一大堆airport code，竟然想不起ORD是那裡，原來是芝加哥O'Hare! 為甚麼縮寫為ORD？其實該機場歷史悠久，二次大戰期間是道格拉斯為軍方生產軍用運輸機的工廠，名為Orchard Place，道格拉斯徹走後改稱Orchard Field，為表揚戰時出色軍人O'Hare又改名，韓戰期間美軍再徵用該機場，後來才轉型成為民航機場。這段歷史頗為有趣！

詩經. 月出

雖然我也有臨何紹基集字唐詩及鄭耀津老師的療癒隸書習字帖，總覺得用唐詩宋詞練習隸書有點不合時代，還是比較喜歡抄詩經，最近抄了這首「月出」
〈陳風〉 
月出皎兮，佼人僚兮，舒窈糾兮，勞心悄兮。 
月出皓兮，佼人懰兮，舒懮受兮，勞心慅兮。 
月出照兮，佼人燎兮，舒夭紹兮，勞心慘兮。 

主旨很簡單，就是月下美人令作者羅羅攣吧。

土星任務

早幾個月前帖了一文關於中國太空站天宮一號將於2018年初以「特別的方法」回歸地球，負面報導不少；剛好在那時又有關於美國太空船卡西尼將於九月中在土星「結束探險任務」的新聞，由於撞的是土星（而且是大氣層）不是地球，倒不見甚麼負面報導，反而有這篇介紹此任務的重大發現。其實我比較好奇的是：土星當地的傳媒對此有何感想？

ECM on Spotify!

上個星期爵士古典界最大的「新聞」可能是經典唱片品牌ECM終於破禁：讓旗下作品在網上各大收費音樂平台串流播放！以往讀到任何讚賞ECM唱片的樂評，除非在圖書館借到，否則只有概歎緣慳一面，所以這是對我來說期待已久的好消息！ECM毋庸置疑是唱片界奇葩：獨立不群又能取得商業上及藝術上的成功，即使是同一位樂手為ECM及ECM以外的公司出碟，細心的樂迷都很容易聽出分別！ECM就有一種前衛知性的味道。我在同一天在FB分別讀到兩篇介紹ECM必聽作品的文章[英文link][中文link] 我又特地重讀過去N期音響雜誌專找介紹ECM唱片的樂評，在此分享一下聽了的作品:

1) Keith Jarrett, the Koln Concert: 這張可能是ECM最著名的唱片！全碟均為即興爵士鋼琴獨奏，獨愛鋼琴的姐姐十分喜歡此碟，我就一如過往嫌Jarrett夾雜在琴聲中的招牌「吟唱聲」

2 ) Paul Bley, Solo in Mondsee: 此亦是一張爵士鋼琴獨奏，可以聽到點點藍調的味道，亦有姐姐的stamp of approval

3) Vijay Iyer Trio, Break Stuff: 這個鋼琴三重奏兩張前作我經已十分欣賞，而樂評人認為此碟更上一層樓

4) Chris Potter, the Sirens: 自從2013年起，我最欣賞的色士風手之一的Chris Potter的作品都在ECM發表，這是第一張。2015及2017的我還未開始仔細聽呢。

5) Bill Frisell, Small Town: 接著的都是結他手領軍（或獨奏）的作品，本碟是一支結他加一支bass，構成的音樂空間比想像中的廣濶。

6) Ralph Towner, My Foolish Heart: 忽發狂想：以古典結他作品聞名百年的Francisco Tarrega如果還在生，或許會彈得像Towner。

7) Dominic Miller, Silent Light: 除了流行曲cover Fields of Gold一曲略為cheesy之外，其餘的都彈出清新嶲永的味道。

8) Avro Part, Arbos: 也來一張（現代）古典音樂，有合唱，有銅管樂團，有小提琴大師參與，俗一點我也要說：「抵聽」

Decaf?

I became a coffee lover last year and drinks mostly decaf these days just to avoid the stimulant. I had no idea it's association with that infamous "party" though. The most interesting facts I learned from the linked article though, was that the method they extracted the caffeine actually left poison in the drink! Hmmm...... what about the current method? Hopefully it won't suffer the same fate.  

Sports highlights: NASCAR Championship weekend

As a big fan of NASCAR, I knew there will be a 3+ month break after this weekend that seems like forever but still I was really excited about this. The truck race was without much drama: Christopher Bell wasn't really challenged during the whole race. The Xfinity race was more competitive: William Byron's car was strong during most of the race but Elliot Sadler was equally if not stronger at various times during the race too. (Daniel Hemric's car had a failure that took him out of the equation and Justin Allgaier's car couldn't find speed, even with the help of 7-time championship winning crew chief, Chad Knaus, in his pit) Sadler was leading the final stage of the race and had a good chance to win the championship. However, he was held up by Ryan Preece, who could have just let Sadler go. And William Byron seized the opportunity to use Preece as a "pick" and passed them both. That was THE championship winning move. Sadler bumped into Preece as a desperation move and hit the wall which made it even less possible for him to catch up to Byron. Sadler was really mad at Preece at the end of the race. After all, looking at the history of the series, this year might have been the closest one where an "old dude" (Sadler was a full time driver at the top level for about 10 years before moving "back down" to this series) win it all. When I look at the list of champs starting from 2001, 6 of them moved on and won championships at the next level. For some reason this series favor young guns.

The cup series championship featured even more drama: all 4 drivers had their moments that look promising for them to win it all. Keselowski's car was the weakest among them (which kinda proved his point that Toyota had an unfair advantage over other manufacturers.) I kinda rooted for Martin Truex Jr who was the only one among the final 4 who has not won a championship yet but was the winningest driver this season (and he has shown huge improvements in the past few years) and have been dominant on 1.5 mile race track like this one in Miami. It seems that he has lost his magic here though. Busch's car has been the strongest, especially in long runs. In situation like this, it's only natural that Brad K's team would play the strategy game by going off sequence, i.e, pit early and try to gain ground with new tires while hoping to get lucky. Harvick and Truex's team followed suit but Kyle Busch's team decided to stay out and pit normally, which would have been the winning strategy if there was no more cautions since his 3 competitors all need to pit one more time then him. However, luck was not on his side. The caution was brought out by none other than his older brother Kurt! Talk about sibling rivalry! So Kyle's car ended up behind Truex's and like Sadler he was held up by another driver with nothing to win: Joey Logano (who was certainly no friend of Busch) but unlike Sadler his car was strong enough to eventually pass Logano but he admitted later he used up his car doing that and was not able to pass Truex even though he got really close.

The other "winner" that I must mention is this year's brand new point system! I think it did make the races prior to the championships more competitive.

關於錯字的新詩

今天在FB「跟安妮寫手趣」頁看到一首有趣的新詩（節錄）：

下輩子 我要變成一枚 印錯的字
錯降在一首 完美的情詩裏
讓你微微詫異
讓你認真思考
我存在的意義

作者是徐珮芬，全文可在此找到。（提示：之前兩段更淒美）

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。

機上娛樂：狂睇紀錄片

上次香港一行在機上看了好幾套紀錄片，可能因為有興趣的劇情片已看完，亦可能想靠紀錄片入睡！無論如何，也覺得值得介紹一下（我特地把片名記在筆記簿嘛）：

In Pursuit of Silence 老實說，看完差不多兩週經已印象全無！只記得是講現代人生活很多噪音，走到深山享受寧靜對身心有益云云。我想有點道理，不過沒有音樂會比較悶吧。

Yarn 本片講了世界各地幾位以針織作為媒介的女藝術家的故事，這個算是相當冷門又女性化的媒介，題材的確極有新鮮感。

Obit 這是一套介紹報紙訃聞版記者的紀錄片。不知現代人一般有幾多機會閱讀報紙訃聞？我印象中的訃聞主要是地區免費報刊出關於本地人士去世那些，到底是收費廣告嗎？香港報紙的當然是，皆因我家去年就登過。這些當然和本片談及的有所不同：後者都是有記者採訪家人搜集資料然後寫出介紹生平的文章。原來以往訃聞部乃係報館把記者「流放」的部門！其實他們責任重大呢，出起錯（例如主角未死！）後果頗嚴重吧。

Sports highlights: NASCAR, EPL, Bundesliga, Champions League, World Series

It has been two really intense weeks back home and I missed quite a bit of playoff actions from NASCAR and Major League Baseball in the States. Glad that I was able to catch Game 6 and 7 of the World Series. Thumbs up to the Astros winning it all. Any pro team from Texas winning a championship is always welcome, especially beating a team from So Cal, my #2 "disliked" team LA Dodgers. The road to WS victory was definitely a tough one even though they played very well in the regular season, they were almost eliminated by the Yankees in ALCS. And if they didn't mount a big comeback in Game 5 of WS, LA just needed to win one of the next 2 games at home to win the series!

I didn't bother to record the 3 NASCAR races I missed but relied on Comcast's On-demand "condensed race" replay of Talladega 2, Kansas 2 and Martinsville 2 (the first race of the Round of 8.) I guess I still watched most of the highlights, e.g. key passes and crashes :P The race at 'dega featured a tons of the latter as expected. And I've finally understood how the new point system works! So basically there are 3 different types of points: the "original" points drivers used to get based on their finishes at the end of each race, the "stage" points that were given to drivers finishing in Top 10 at the end of each stage, and the "playoff" points that were given to stage and race winners. Additional playoff points were awarded based on the end of regular season standings. And playoff points came into the picture during the playoff (obviously!): these points are added to each driver's total points after the point reset for each driver at the beginning of each playoff round, and carried over through out every round and every race in the playoff (except the final race) So drivers have incentive to win stages and races to accumulate the playoff points which would help getting to the final race.

The interesting matchups during the past few weeks in Champions League for me are Real Madrid vs the Spurs and Manchester United vs Benfica. Looks like it's finally time for Real Madrid to have a down year: only able to tie the Spurs at home and lost 1-3 away. The first Man U-Benfica match was a thriller: Man U scored a lucky goal but the 2nd win seems more convincing. (Oh yeah, their victory over the Spurs during the past weekend was a good one too!)

Bundesliga is the only domestic league that my dad followed and Bayern played Leipzig again right after they met in the German cup (which went to extra time) The latter had a player sent off for both games and lost both. (Also lost their Champions league match to Porto!) I guess the team is still not ready for too much spotlight.