Planetary Pegs for Violin/Viola/Cello

My daughter is big enough to use a full size violin.  Excepting tuning with the pegs part, the transition is a very smooth one.  I don't like four fine-tuners on the tailpiece.  They looks ugly and add unnecessary weight to the tailpiece, which may dampen the sound.  Finally I decide to give the internally geared pegs a try.  There are two products in the market - the Perfection/Knilling/Pegheds pegs from the States (they are the same thing marketed under different names) and Wittner pegs from Germany.

The Perfection/Knilling/Pegheds and Wittner have different gearing ratios: 4:1 and 8.5:1 respectively.  The difference is not as big as it sounds.  I have tried both in real life and found them equally functional.  I slightly prefer the Perfection/Knilling/Pegheds as they look more pleasing to my eyes and are a little lighter.  These pegs look exactly like traditional wooden pegs.  Without close examination you cannot tell a violin with planetary pegs from one with wooden pegs.  They work most charmingly and make tuning a completely effortless, almost joyful thing to do.  Installation is easy.  All that you need is a reamer, a small saw and a piece of sand paper or a file.  It took me less than 2 hours to finish the job, and that includes the time going through the detailed installation guide, which is available online here.  Living in Hong Kong where relative humidity can rise from below 50% to over 90% in a day, these pegs are godsends.  They are especially useful to children who don't have the fine motor skill and physical strength to turn traditional wooden pegs.  Will they cause any damage to the pegbox?  I don't think so.  The friction and tension caused by traditional pegs probably exceeds that caused by these pegs.  At least  there is no erosion of the wood from constant turning.  If known violin makers and collectors like David Burgess, Michael Darlton and Giovanni Gammuto say they are fine, I bet they are.  See the discussions here, and here if you are interested.

By the way, violin shops in Hong Kong don't carry these pegs.  I got my set from Gostrings, which I cannot recommend highly enough.  Their price is unbeatable and their service is simply superb.

Must Must Must

Whilst I'm happy to see Isaac Asimov's "The Roving Mind" appear in yet another "Must-Read" list, I find myself gradually running out of patience with those "Must-Read", "Must-Do", "Must-See" and "Must-Have" lists.  What do people mean by Must?  So what if I have never read or heard of any of them?  Should I consider myself under-educated or a fool simply because I have read or not read all of those Must-Reads?

I am inclined to think that all those "Musts" only serve to create a sense of deprivation, insecurity and a void in the mind.  The fact is, finishing another "Must-Read" list, watching all the movies in another "Must-Watch" list and going to all the places in yet another "Must-Go" list simply does not make any difference.  At the end, I am bound to miss almost everything.

Let's say I read a serious book a week (which is not quite possible).  That lets me finish say 50 books a year.  If I am lucky enough to have sufficiently good eye sight and health for a sufficiently long time, I can probably finish another 2,000 books.  That doesn't sound a lot, does it?  Compared to the vast number of books out there that are worth reading, the number 2,000 has no significance.  It is just a pale gray dot in a space full of books.  And, that's books alone.  I am going to miss a lot of excellent music, films and literature.  Statistically, I will die having missed almost everything.

So, my dear, I'm not going to give a dame to all those Musts.

Google - Hong Kong First Guide Dog

8-month-old Labrador guide dog Google

A friend of mine, another ISF parent, is fostering Google, Hong Kong first guide dog (guide dog trainee to be precise).  As its foster owner, she has to take Google with her wherever she goes to familiarise it with different places and different means of transport.  Most of the time Google is very well received, but occasionally a restaurant owner or a security guard will stop it at the door.  When that happens, my friend will give the restaurant owner or security guard a lecture about the use of guide dogs, how valuable they are to the visually impaired and how really nice they are.  Google is indeed a very nice dog.  It's always calm, confident and well composed.  Never will it beg for food, jump on people or get distracted by things in the street.  It is now 8 months old and will be with my friend for another year or so before it is ready for advanced training.  When the time comes, I'm sure it'll hard for them to kiss each other goodbye.

Join the Hong Kong Guide Dogs Association's Facebook page.

Back to Blogging

As one of the self-absorbed narcissists who is able to swindle himself into thinking that he is making some kind of difference just because he's found a wall in the cyberspace on which to spray-paint his graffiti, and having decided not to let this little blog be a place to let go of the negative energy that I have accumulated in real life, I did not blog as often in the last few month.  With some of the negative feelings gone, I'm back to blogging.  Here comes Sorlo.

Arrogant

When I'm humbled by the vastness of the universe and awe of nature and not fearful of being tiny, and finally able to concede that the entire universe is not designed for me and that I'm too small to be an image of God, people say I'm arrogant.

A More Peaceful Way to Solve Political Deadlock

After 241 days without a government, Senator Temmerman, a gynaecologist turned politician, is calling for a sex ban over some of her colleagues.

It sounds like a good line to take: "Fix it or go fxxk yourself".

Some People Never Change

I wrote about my cousin not too long ago (People change, myself included).  How embarrassing it is that I have to correct myself so soon.  Some people never change, never ever. 

I just can't believe it.  The whole re-establishing a connection thing turns out to be part of my cousin's and her dear sister's plan to dump their mother.

My dear elder cousin called my father from Australia.  After 10 minutes of nonsense he told my father that he and his sister had had enough of their mother and decided to relocate her to Hong Kong.  He informed us that he had planned to let her stay with us for "a period of time".  What the hell!  You did not call for 20 years and suddenly you ask us to adopt your mom?!  You may well consider your garden house in Sydney suburb too small for a family of four, or you don't have any money left after buying a house as a wedding gift for your son, but your mom is none of our business.  YOUR mom is YOUR mom, not OURS.  WE ARE NOT GOING TO ADOPT HER.  END OF DISCUSSION.  PERIOD.

I am a pianist; I'm not a politican

The whole "Let the Bullets Fly" craze has actually killed my interest in the movie.  There must be a "Let's-See-Who-can-Find-More-Hidden-Messages" competition going on between some Americans and the hotheaded Chinese boys?

The Joy of Being a Parent

"Dad, I want to play something new", the little lady stopped practising the Accolay and called from the study.  I handed her the music of Csárdás by Vittorio Monti that I'd been working on for weeks.  She tried it for 10 minutes, and, holy cow, she could play at twice my speed!

It feels soooooo good to be outperformed.

People Change, Myself Included.

Went to a family gathering this evening. Didn't want to go but am extremely glad that I went.

I very briefly mentioned my uncle here.

When was the last time I met my cousin?  Must be some 20 years ago, probably during my uncle's funeral. As my uncle had determined not to work, my father took care of his two kids.  After graduating from college and becoming a physiotherapist, my elder cousin moved to Australia.  Since then I haven't talked to or met him.  I was always mad with him.  My father paid his college fee, brought him clothes and offered him things we didn't get, and he just vanished. Not a note of thanks, a phone call, or an email for nearly 20 years.

A few days ago my father received a phone call from my cousin.  He was coming to Hong Kong with his wife and kids.  My father was overwhelmed with joy.  He called me and my brothers and sister three times a day to ensure that we would attend the family dinner today.  It sounded like the greatest news to him in many year.  Not wanting to spoil my father's mood, I went to the dinner, reluctantly.

Surprise. Surprise. I enjoyed the gathering, very much, a lot.  I actually felt happy to meet my cousin, his wife and children. Wasn't I supposed to be filled with hatred, disrespect and a feeling of annoyance? Honestly I wasn't. Not a bit. My cousin is now living a good life and has a lovely wife and two wonderful children (one is, like his father, a physiotherapist and the other is a medical doctor to be).  Not in a million years can I imagine that it can be so satisfying and joyous to see someone who are somewhat blood-related to me becoming polite, well-mannered and wonderful young man and woman.  Filled with joy, I thanked my cousin for breaking the ice and coming here to visit us.  I meant it.  A big thank you indeed.

On my way home, I kept wondering how foolish I was to let myself be blinded by prejudice and close-mindedness.  If only I had taken the first step and contacted my cousin, I'd have had all the joy of seeing my niece and nephew grow.  I'm glad that it's not too late.

I have been telling my daughter that doing something that you don't want to do may bring you some totally unexpected joy.  I am right.

Vivian Maier

Not sure whether this humble nanny would like to be known, but she is bound to be referred to as an unknown Henri cartier Bresson, Robert Frank, Eugene Atget or Garry Winogrand.





More examples of her work are available here and here.

Looking at these vintage photographs, I can't help but wonder how many other Vivian Maiers are left undiscovered.  Street photography must be Vivian Maier's second nature that she did not realise what an incredible eye she had.  Living in a man's world and probably a bit introverted, she might find it easier to stuff the negatives and prints under the bed than making an effort to show them to people.  Some critics say that her work does not stand out from other street photographs. "Not enough irony or wit, and, not keeping a distance from their subjects", they claim.  What?  Since when has getting close to the subjects become a vice, and adding irony or wit a virtue?  The greatness of Maier's work lies in her connection with the subjects, not any calculated irony or wit.  I am pretty certain that she never pre-contemplated a ironic or witty scene, and waited for the perfect magic moment to come; she just brought her Rollei to her eyes when she saw something interesting and pressed the shutter. That was it.

If the purpose of life is to create something that will last, she successfully achieved this very purpose.  Her work is going to last.

Good that there were films and nothing digital half a century ago.

石悅《明朝那些事兒》 (Shi Yue: Those Ming Dynasty Stuff)

Sometimes I feel embarrassed by my ignorance of China, which is less than an hour away. There are some household names that I am completely unaware of. An recent example is 石悅 (Shi Yue) and his bestseller 《明朝那些事兒》(Those Ming Dynasty Stuff).

A few things about Those Ming Dynasty Stuff:

• First published in 2006;
• Over 5 million copies sold in 3 years;
• Best-selling history book ever;
• One of the 30 best-selling books since 1949;
• Winner of Best History Book Award;
• Has been translated into English, Japanese and Korean.

Those Ming Dynasty Stuff is a seven-volume set about the history of Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) by 石悅, Shi Yue. One may tend to think that Shi is a wise old historian at one of the major universities. Wrong.  Shi, who was trained in law, is a custom officer.  He wrote the first volume of Those Ming Dynasty Stuff when he was 26 and completed the seventh and last volume just before he reached 30.

There is an interview of Shi by CCTV, which is quite interesting.  How on earth would a 7-year-old pick up the "24 Histories" (二十四史) and start reading? (By the way, the "24 Histories" is not an ordinary book of history. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words, written in traditional classical form.)  Why should such a young person, who also enjoy video games and comic books, sometimes talk like someone who has lived many lives? Was he a historian in his previous life? 

Secret for a Long Life - the Violin

Many violinists are able to play at advanced age (Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel and Nathan Milstein to name a few). Here is a video of Ida Haendel playing Bloch - Nigun at the age of 81. Absolutely unbelievably amazing. You have to watch the video to believe it. (Embedding is disabled at the request of the owner of the video so you have to click on the link to view it.) Violin making also appears to be a good sports to maintain one's physical and mental health. Stradivarius was still making violins at 90 when his contemporaries lived an average life of 50 something. Is violin playing/making the answer to aging? Probably, but one has to avoid travelling too much to let the magic work. A number of top violinists actually died in train (David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan for examples) or in a plane crash (Ginette Neveu, who won the Wieniawski Violin Competition at the age of 15 over 180 contestants, including David Oistrakh the Great, who finished second).

Eye Candy for Girls

The ladies in my office are always calm and quiet.  But they go crazy this morning over a young, brave and good looking fresh graduate from the police training school who rescued a tourist from the sea.  Link here.

I wish I were there

There are thousands of historical moments that I wish I were there to witness. One is the performance by the "children orchestra" in 1939.

From Nathan Milstein's From Russia to the West:

"Toscanini's legendary temperament, well known to the musicians and the public, exploded once in my presence in a very funny way.  In New York in 1939, a benefit was held for the Chatham Square Music School. The star attraction of the program was the "children's orchestra", as it was advertised. The orchestra's violinists included Heifetz, Adolf Busch, Oskar Shumsky, and me, and I remember that one of the violists was William Primrose. The cellists included Emmanuel Feuermann, Piatigorsky, and Alfred Wallenstein.

All eighteen or twenty of us "children" came out onstage in shorts, even Busch, a big, red-faced man who was almost fifty then, yet looked younger than the rest of us.

The conductor of our "children's orchestra" was none other than Toscanini.  We played Ferdinard Rie's "Perpertuum mobile." Heifetz said before the performance, "Let's surprise the maestro! He'll be keeping a strict beat, as usual. But we'll start an incredible acceleration. Let's see how Toscanini reacts."

The maestro came out to his "children's orchestra" in a long, old-fashioned coat, like a school teacher. He began conducting and we followed Heifetz's plan and played faster and faster. Toscanini could not understand what was going on! He was so angry that he dropped his baton and ran off!

The "children's orchestra" was a great success; the audience loved it and thought that the trick with the tempo had been planned that way. The maestro, however, was furious and would not come out for a bow. Instead Wanda [Toscanini's daughter] came out, dressed in a man's suit (she had borrowed my pin-striped pants) and with a hat in her hand. She even twirled a drawn mustache, as if she were the maestro. The audience was certain that this too was part of the grand design and went wild."