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Okay, so this isn’t really Morrissey and today isn’t really the Midweek. But we can pretend.
Mostly for Nate, who claims to want to sample Mandarin pop. Here are three selections. The first is a song called “Onion” sung by a non-winner of the Taiwan version of American Idol and written by a pop rock band named MayDay, who I actually quite like. The metaphor operates on so many levels. In the lyrics, he sings that he, like an onion, is also a mere flavoring agent or a decorative element to the main dish. In the video, he is wrapped in something like toilet paper, and being unwrapped, like how some people might open an onion layer by layer. Finally, if you open him up, it’ll make you cry. Poetry!
Yesterday, inspiration struck me with an awful offal theme dinner party. It would be a potluck, and guests would bring their favorite offal dish. Pig brain, goose liver, chicken heart, blood cakes, duck fries, et cetera would all be welcome. Vegetarians can bring items such as artichoke heart, tofu skin, black-eyed peas, or kidney beans (more suggestions?). Then we will have an oblong table covered with a picture of human anatomy. Guests will place their dishes in the appropriate region. Bon appetit!
After a recent experience, I feel a strong need to echo opinions expressed on yelp.com on Cafe Felix: Really awful service, mediocre food, very overpriced. If you are interested in a faux-Parisian experience with martinis that are not really martinis, go there. If you are not interested in being treated terribly by the owner and a waiter named Derek D., then do not go there. That’s basically it.
This past Friday I presented the puzzle of imaginative resistance to a salon organized by Lei Zhong… in Mandarin Chinese. [If you are unfamiliar with the puzzle, look at Brian Weatherson's article. Although it is neither the first nor the latest on this debate, it is open access and incredibly well-argued.] I was not trying to present any original theory, but just getting out the phenomenon and some popular solutions in the literature.
This is still hard! Although Chinese is my native tongue, it is definitely not my native tongue in philosophy. Though since I harbor some ambitions of one day teaching in Taiwan, I guess this is some good practice. Anyway, my language skills have been deteriorating, and this is a good way for me to practice. And that, it was. I was surprised to find myself able to conduct, I think, a pretty good discussing in Chinese. I had to resort to English for some more technical terms, but that was also good because I discovered / invented some equivalent terms in Chinese! So, I think, it was an overall quite positive experience. Not sure I am eager to do it again soon, though.
