Chamonix 2007: Day 2

1. Went up the Aiguille du Midi for some views of Mont Blanc:


2. Stopped for lunch:


3. Solved the Euclidian extension of Pythagoras' Theorem for three dimensions:4. Hiked to Mer de Glace:

5. Had a tartiflette:

Chamonix 2007: Day 1

Oui, cette saison est encore arrivée. Fun, food and frolicking in the mountains.... actually, that sounds rather Rogers and Hammerstein-like. What I'm talking about is a gruelling, five-day marathon of hiking and stuffing oneself with fine French food.

En résumé, le premier jour:

1. Hiked up to Lac Vert:

2. Had a picnic:

3. Enjoyed the mountain view:

真是十分漂亮！

4. Had dinner at La Calèche, a museum of the rustic macabre, with a busy decor of copper pans, animal heads, musical instruments and, as the name implies, a big horse-drawn carriage, along with other random paraphernalia:

Tarte au reblochon

Potée savoyarde

Cappuccino de framboises, glace pistache

Petit café

被外星人绑架 - Abducted by Aliens

这个星期的ChinesePod高中级课非常有趣。一个人跟我们告诉他至今憋在心里的秘密：他被外星人绑架了！要是你想知道外星人相貌怎么样，飞碟是不是你想象中的那么样，或者你有一个外星人绑架的经历，让你访客www.chinesepod.com的网站看一看：

Learn Chinesepod on Your Terms at ChinesePod.com

Summer movies (part 3)

The Bourne Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass (Dir.), Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn, Albert Finney

Who is Jason Bourne? Find out in this latest installment of the Robert Ludlum adaptations. I must admit to not remembering much about the first two, other than the fact that I didn't like them. That's probably largely to do with my having a considerable distaste for Matt Damon, as well as having watched them on a 4 inch-square screen on an economy class flight to somewhere. However, this third chapter is quite compelling, even if it doesn't particularly stretch Matt Damon's acting abilities. Having had his memory, identity and girlfriend taken away from him, Bourne returns to get to the source, a top-secret CIA operation known as Blackbriar. His investigation takes him to Paris, London, Madrid, Tangiers and New York, and reunites him with CIA agent Nicky Parsons, played by Julia Stiles. There's non-stop, engaging, implausible action all the way through. The film is like a feature-length hybrid of Alias and 24, and suffers from much the same downsides of those two shows, namely a rather one-dimensional portrayal of US response to paranoid national security issues, an equally one-dimensional obsession with violence and revenge, and the ridiculous attempt to portray computer geeks and surveillance technology as ultra-cool. Interestingly, the CIA and NSA always tend to come off badly as portrayed in Hollywood movies, in general contrast to the US military and the FBI. There's a thesis to be written somewhere in there. All that aside, it's all mindless entertainment, particularly if you like the increasing trend for rooftop chases (To Catch A Thief is still the original and the best, closely followed by The Untouchables).

Compelling offers

This week, Peter Fahy, a chief constable from Cheshire, called for the legal drinking age to be raised to 21. This is presumably following all the great evidence from the US of how effective this policy is, and ignoring the fact that no other country in the EU has a limit set at 21 years. On the issue of measures designed to make parents take greater responsibility for their children's actions, he has this to say, which is commendable for using equal measures of the type of paternalistic and fascist language that is so prevalent in political life these days:

"There are schemes whereby youth workers and other people offer support to parents who may have a problem with a youngster who's drinking. But we find a lot of parents will not take up that offer... If people are not willing to take up that offer, then there is some form of sanction which actually makes them come and take up that offer."

Presumably, what he means is that when parents are "offered" support, it's up to them to decide that they want it. Of course, not all parents may actually want it, in which case they should be "encouraged" to want it by means of "sanctions". These must be compelling offers indeed. Or perhaps it's just indicative of the fact that we're now far better at devising imaginative language than imaginative policy.

Summer movies (part 2)

Die Hard 4.0, Len Wiseman (Dir.), Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Long, Maggie Q

I know what you're thinking. "Die Hard 4.0?!? You must really be scraping the bottom of the summer movie barrel......". Well, not quite. There's still Evan Almighty, Bratz and Surf's Up somewhere further down, but trust me, I ain't going there..... In fact, Die Hard 4.0 is the best of the Die Hard series. You may not think that counts for much, but the difference is that the fourth installment was directed by Len Wiseman, he of the cult, future vampire noir Underworld series (you know, the one with Kate Beckinsale? OK, never mind.....), which means that it has a certain edge go it. This time, John McClane (who, incidentally, looks more like he should be in a movie about a washed up boxer) responds to what appears to be a routine call to pick up a suspected hacker, but becomes entangled in a plot to unleash a "fire sale", a four-step cyberhack designed to bring the country to its knees by disabling transportation and utilities, spreading fear through the media and stealing lots of money. Justin Long is entertaining as the paranoid hacker who becomes McClane's sidekick; Olyphant (whose name sounds like it should appear in the dictionary as an antonym to sycophant) and Q play the rather clichéd bad guys. It's mindless action all the way through, all very implausible, and there are lots of guns and explosions and stuff. Oh, and the guy from District 13 (Banlieu 13) is in it (you know, the French one with all the parkour runners in it....).

Fauré vs Mozart

Fauré Requiem - Harry Christophers (conductor), Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), The Sixteen, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, live at the Barbican, Aug 2, 2007

Mozart Requiem - Harry Christophers (conductor), Lucy Crowe (soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Robert Murray (tenor), Matthew Rose (bass), The Sixteen, The Symphony of Harmony and Invention, Aug 4, 2007

At least Fauré and Mozart were never anywhere near enough to each other to have a spat, being separated by some 51 years. They did both know how to write a piece to commemorate death, and The Sixteen performed both of these settings of the Requiem last week at the Barbican. The Sixteen is without doubt one of the best and most adaptable chamber choirs around, with a repertoire that spans five centuries. Their annual Messiah performance at the Barbican is always sold out, and their concert schedule includes an annual pilgrimage of English cathedrals. All this aside, they sound amazing. I know what you're thinking. There must be sixteen of them. But, in fact, there are twenty-something on them, depending on the performance, including an excellent section of male altos, and listening to them is like being hit by a wave of sound that swells and sways at their conductor's subtlest command. Christophers, incidentally, is a genius, seemingly creating magic out of the air.

Yes, anyway, enough gushing. The choir have just recorded a new album with Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, although she was a bit disappointing in the first concert, with minor intonation issues throughout, and a thin voice that didn't particularly appeal. The Pie Jesu was particularly unappealing. Roderick Williams, on the other hand, has a rich, full voice, and was a popular soloist. On Saturday, the choir started with Vivaldi's Gloria. They were slightly under par by their standards, probably saving their voices for the Mozart Requiem in the second half. But all that was forgotten by the time the Laudamus te arrived, and the rest of the concert was almost literally worth dying for. Wyn-Rogers was the most consistent of the four soloists, but Lucy Crowe, despite being less technically accomplished and repeatedly shading the top of her register, provided silky and colourful singing throughout.

But really, it's all about The Sixteen. I'm afraid I'm a Sixteen groupie... more on them in December, when they'll be performing A Ceremony of Carols and The Messiah at the South Bank and the Barbican respectively.

Alonso vs Hamilton

There was an amusing story on BBC online about the current polemic within the McLaren Formula One team. For those of you who haven't been following this, their two drivers and current championship leaders - a cool rookie Brit and a hot-headed double world champion Spaniard (the descriptions are somewhat embellished, but you get the picture) - aren't the best of buddies at the moment. It all came to a head this weekend in Hungary, when Alonso was judged to have intentionally blocked his team-mate during qualifying to prevent Hamilton from completing his final qualifying lap, for which he was demoted four places on the starting grid.

Andrew Benson believes that this is the unfortunate result of McLaren's noble policy of letting their drivers actually race, rather than favouring one over the other (you'd think that Formula One racing is all about drivers competing against each other, but you'd be surprised to know that very little about Formula One racing actually involves 'racing' in any commonly understood sense of the word). He says:

"Like male lions competing for control of a pride, no F1 team is big enough to comfortably contain two sporting alpha males of this stature.

Top racing drivers are intensely driven and complex individuals, and competition from within their own camp is not appreciated."

He then goes on to insightfully disentangle the racing driver's "complex" psyche:

"Their psyche is based on the belief that they are the best - so any challenge to that belief, or the ability to demonstrate it, provokes extreme responses."

which pretty much makes racing drivers sound like baboons. If that's the essence of a complex psyche, I wonder what defines a "simple" person.....

He does, however, point out the great irony that this season is widely considered to be the most compelling in recent years, for reasons that have little to do with racing, and more to do with allegations of spying between teams and childish spats between supposedly grown men. It's not quite reality TV....... but it's close!