Quotability

"Nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should."

Julia Child

How true of both food and life!

(Quote via Summer Harms, picture from weheartit via She Who Must Not Be Named)

Somewhere

For whatever reasons, I never understood Lost in Translation when I watched it in my cousin's basement one low-key night during a Christmas break. But I think my intrigue for Sofia Coppola's new movie Somewhere, due in December, is a good sign that I might like it better. It seems to have kept the qualities I did like in Lost in Translation and exchanged the storyline of two strangers abroad for a slightly more relatable, family-centric storyline. Understated, layered, and subtle: typical Sofia Coppola. Also, I do love me some Phoenix.

Happy Father's Day

I appreciate you, Daddy. I like that you understand us when Tiffany and I speak to you in our weird language. You've never once not understood us. Haypee Fahddurz Day, Dadie!

Sisterly Vernacular

So after last time's rather heavy post, here is something that has always peppered my life with joy:

can you tell which ones are related?

In addition to looking awkward in photos, when we write emails or chat with each other, my sister and I will often type in a language that consists of 80% LOLCATZ, 12% Chinglish of mostly our parents' grammar issues or mispronounciations, and 8% inside jokes which include cute sayings of little kids in our lives and favorite lines from movies and TV shows like The Office. Sometimes we'll talk out loud with these mispronounciations too. It cracks me up every time. Here are some actual examples of some recent mails and texts we've exchanged:

"datz why dere frainds"

[Translation: That's why they are friends.]

hellow bellow. How was your examie wammie? I'm tres excited for tonight. 

[Translation: Hello. How was your exam? I'm very excited for tonight.]

HIS VOICE IS SO SULTRY. I agree dat da more you listen to his songs, da better dey get. Dis morning I heard that "nothing but you" song and I was like, SO HAPPY.

[Translation: His voice is so sultry. I agree that the more you listen to his songs, the better they get. This morning, I heard "Nothing But You" and I was very happy.]

"Wid CHAINZ ON YOUR LAEGS!"

[Translation: With chains on your legs.]

OMG you MUST marry him!!!!!!!!!!!!! he so furnny. lawlz. Was this for his game against the mets? Are dere weedeos of him batting????

[Translation: Oh my gosh. You must marry him. He is so funny. I'm laughing out loud. Was this for the game he played against the Mets? Are there online video clips of him batting?]

"It not fair because his fadder is a dentist and dat changes everyting"

[Translation: It is not fair because his father is a dentist and that changes everything.]

I Screwdette (purposely mispronounced Skroo-deh-tee) Chen.

[Translation: I'm screwed.]

The Anatomy of Trying

"Don't let success go to your head or failure go to your heart."

I've come to realize that I'm intensely self-critical and almost debilitatingly introspective. While I think that for some people, these qualities can be spun into positive and motivating characteristics, mostly I'm just fighting an unending war in my head, beating myself up for past doings that leave me slightly but constantly depressed and hopeless about the present and future. I know how terribly self-indulgent this all is, but with the uncertainty plaguing my own life, I find that I have become increasingly more and more so. Perhaps it is a symptom of the quarter-life crisis? I fear it is and oh, to be so cliched! Though I'm still technically two years early for the typical quarter-life, I've always been precocious in a thoughtless way, of the mindset thinking I'm ready to handle more than I actually should. 

I've always wished for an even temperament. One that is strong, solid, and mild in its few fluctuations - so different from my own tumultuous, internal neurosis. But after nearly a decade of this, how silly it all seems. First, wishing doesn't accomplish anything. Second, is being a little neurotic so bad? Wallowing in self-pity or self-loathing for me is what I imagine deep sea diving to be like: the murky dangers that exist in the depths of the water really can't be known prior to the journey, but what is even more terrifying and paralyzing is knowing that I have to make my way back to the surface.

After reading some inspiring stuff, I think during this free time that I have chanced upon (which one could view as horribly tragic, or as I am now choosing to think of as fortuitously liberating), I will work on forgiving myself for all of my awkward, stupid, selfish, and profoundly short-sighted behavior that I have been dwelling on for so long in order to bolster myself for the tomorrows, the next weeks, the next years. In seizing this time, I hope to quiet my head in order to heal my heart.

(photo by now voyager, via Cup of Jo)

Just what I needed

I'll be honest, I've been a little melancholy lately. For a vast array of reasons. Isn't it funny how life can just overwhelm you sometimes? Thanks, H-bear, for this - it made my week a bit brighter.

 "The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent.... However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."

Stanley Kubrick

Read all of the gorgeousness at Helen's Capsule Collection.

(Quote via Helen, photo from flickr via Recordis)

B

Orchestra Hall, Detroit, MI

Tonight I had the opportunity to see one of my first and oldest students perform in his high school's Graduation Concerto Concert.  I "inherited" B or rather B "inherited" me from Elmer when I was in my junior year of high school. Yikes. That was seven years ago. At that time, B was rude, didn't practice, and gave me attitude at every lesson. A few scoldings and eye rolls later, B has become the concertmaster of his orchestra, a member of Civic for 3 years, and has grown to appreciate his talent for the violin. He performed a rousing rendition of the 1st Movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto accompanied by his high school orchestra and in the fall he'll be off to Michigan. My most satisfying moment tonight came when he told me that he plans to continue playing there. It was this that justified and made everything we did these past 7 years worth it. Of all of B's successes, for him to understand that though we may never achieve the highest level of musicianship and that classical music may never be mainstream, he can always come back to this little thing called a violin to search out a little (or a lot of) personal enjoyment. This has made me the most proud.  All during his performance and after, B's parents couldn't stop thanking me for everything I did....

Everything I did? I did nothing. And nothing is feeling pretty great...

(Photo from flickr)

PS. If you have the capability to hear sound and have a soul, please, dear god, listen from the 4:20 mark to 5:22 of the 2nd movement (or just the whole thing). This is one of my all-time favorite moments in the solo violin repertoire... and it might just be one of the most beautiful melodies in the entirety of music. That glissando at 5:08 could make you weep.