歩いても 歩いても(步履不停 Still Walking)

“几年前母亲病重，我去医院陪侍。每天护士小姐来换药打针，母亲会不住地道谢。护士走后，母亲却要苦起脸抱怨几句：‘水平真差，前几天的护士要比她好多了’。我是从那时候开始构思这部电影的。”2009翠贝卡电影节，是枝裕和在电影放映前介绍说。

“母亲”这个形象，显然是电影的直接动机，和电影中最鲜明的人物。她可爱。她操持老两口的生活，数着下回儿女回来的日期，和老伴斗嘴但是做他爱吃的，还说“不用去叫他，香味出来他马上就过来了”——老头儿果然抽着鼻子过来了。她生动。她和女儿准备饭菜时絮絮地指导和斗嘴；想到一个相扑手不记得名字不自觉地学他表情让儿子帮着想；儿子给她零花钱，她由衷的开心，笑成一朵菊花。她有心眼。对二婚的儿媳妇觉得不满意会拐弯抹角地劝她别再要孩子——以便将来儿子万一和她离婚方便。发着呆会自己嘀咕女婿答应做的事没给做——“吃了饭，睡一觉，拍拍屁股就走了”。但是是枝裕和说“我不想把她描述得很坏。虽然她有时候会自私，但是母亲她就是这样的”。母亲确实就是这样的。

多年前长子的意外去世是这个家庭挥不去的阴霾。忌日这天，老少三代照例相聚，为了纪念，其实更算是一个家庭团聚的机会。分居各处的家庭成员，父子之间尴尬略有紧张的关系，关切但又不愿说出口的亲情，和总是慢了一步因而永远未曾实现的交流和表达，惯以细节动人的是枝裕和把感情用心填在一天里的一件件小事和一句句闲话之中，慢慢的用固定镜头和定格画面传送。最后一个缓慢摇高的镜头，悠思无限。

 

无题

大路尽头马匹消失
长庚星漠然出现
今夜我两手空空
我的往事如烟

(朋友秦晓宇的诗，十多年了，一直记得)

 

在雨中

灯火明黄，空气凉爽，这真是绝佳的阅读时间。我站在Lex旁大厦的下面，和门房友好的打个招呼，就着门厅墙灯，站在檐子下面开始读书。

当然，我主要是为了避雨。

门檐下的人慢慢多了起来。一个穿印花白衬衣的男人，手里拎着Saks Fifth的购物袋；一对阿拉伯或者印度的年轻夫妇，男的包着头巾。一群小白妞兴奋的从雨帘里冲进来，尖叫声好像他们面前站的不是我而是小汤哥。她们点着香烟，开始继续讨论Sex & The City电影。我不由得注目一下，发现她们果然已经不如之前想象的那么年轻。

一个老太太弯腰拄着拐杖，不理会弥漫的大雨，慢慢走进檐下，又走出去，步伐蹒跚而淡定。衣服全湿。

印度少妇不断地管教她的男人。“你手上的塑料袋应该系起来，这样里面就不会淋湿”；“就算淋湿也不能在刚才那里买伞，居然要7块钱一把”；“着急回去干什么，就在这儿站着多好，你还可以跟我聊天。回去了你只会看电视”。男人唯唯，不时侧目期盼的看看雨花大小。今天好像有欧洲杯。那么这个男人好像不是印度人，还是阿拉伯吧。

一个中年妇女，头上戴着一顶塑料袋，像一个厨师，款款而行。I heart NY 在风里飘扬。

门开了，一对夫妇走出来，被门口的人群和满天的雨幕震惊。男人说这么大雨我不想去了，女人说我要去，男人说这太疯狂了，女人说但我真得很想去，男人说那我回去拿把伞，女人说好我在这儿等着，男人说不行你得和我上去我找不到，女人耸耸肩，终于也进去了。

两人再没出来。

看完三章的时候，雨点慢慢的小了，稀疏了。印花衬衣男试探着走出去，又回来，再想想，抓抓头发，犹豫一会儿，终于走了。

 

Sichuan Earthquake Update

As of 7 AM local time, May 13th, 9219 deaths have been reported from the earthquake that took place in Wenchuan County of central Sichuan Province. An official from the county reported via satellite phone that 30,000 people in the county downtown had survived and gathered on streets, fearing more aftershocks to come. Army paratroops and paramedics have been sent to the place.

Due to strong storm and landslide caused by the earthquake, all roads to the deep-in-valley county are destructed, therefore there is very limited information available from the epicenter. Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived earlier to direct the emergency rescue, said a helicopter sent to Wenchuan reported that thousands of people are under the debris from the quake. He commanded that rescuing people and reestablishing transportation to Wenchuan be the first priority, no matter how many troops are needed. Detailed casualty information from Wenchuan is still unknown. A captain from the troops was interviewed over phoned by China’s CCTV around 2AM local time. He said the troops had marched on foot in the mountains for 4 hours, thrown away everything except excavation tools and medical supplies, and had progressed 30 kilometers. They are still to reach the epicenter.

Another county, Beichuan, suffered the most death toll so far. More than 7,000 people are killed. The older part of the downtown area was reported “nearly completely destroyed”. Mianyang, a city nearby, issued an emergency call for adults under 50 to volunteer for the rescuing work in Beichuan.

Beichuan County, before the earthquake

More than 40,000 soldiers and police have been transported to Sichuan for the rescue work. Most damages and life loss occurred in Sichuan, although nearby provinces also saw tens of deaths. Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan and a city with 12 million people, sits within 70 miles of the epicenter.

 

Thousands to Rally in New York to Support Beijing Olympics

New York – When the Olympics torch has finished the global relay and is scheduled to return to China on May 4th, New York residents decide to rally to show their support for the games. According to a document from New York police, thousands of people are going to gather at Foley Square this coming Sunday to cheer Olympics.

The theme of rally, according to the coordinators, is going to be “Peace and Olympics”. A post from the official homepage of the rally says “Sport is sport. No politics”.

Apparently, many people have been turned away by the month-long political farce surrounding the Olympics torch: Tibetans in exile seeking the opportunity to voice their political stipulates; the Paris city hall indulging violence toward torch bearers; the Western media questioned for their sided stance in reporting the Tibet issue. For the first time in decades the hype surrounding the Olympics is not regarding the torch or the games, but the geopolitical battle involving some of the world’s superpowers.

Now New York decides to ditch the politics and welcome the Olympic spirit. Or at least thousands of the New Yorkers do. So far more than two thousand people have responded to the rally, according to the coordinators. 1200 people have registered with the rally’s Facebook group. All these people, a lot of them of Chinese background, are going to appear in the May 4th rally. Speeches, balloons, songs, souvenirs will be available, according to sources.

The rally is completely non-political, initiated by individuals without political background, sources say. All organizing work was done by Internet posts and mailing lists.

As of Apr 29th the Olympics torch has traveled 19 cities around the globe. At the first two stops the torch was ambushed by professional and well prepared protest groups, and their hired mercenaries. In all of the following relays Beijing supporters outnumbered protesters.

 

Free Tibet: have fun protesting

If you are a college student and you are suffering from extra energy and libido, plus not enough weekend parties, now here’s a good way to find yourself some fun: protest China. As they say, China is such a bad bad country producing all kinds of lead tainted human rights, so why not join the Tibetans while they are at it? It’s a 20,000 people huge party, police’s okay with it, and, to top it all, Tibetans pay you cash for joining them!

What, you always read the 4W’s carefully before setting out? Here is it:
When: April 9th, 2008
Where: San Francisco
What: yell some “Free Tibet”
Why: CASH PAID!

But before you go, here are some important protest tips you have to read.

1. Make sure you brush your teeth. Because you don’t wanna be like this guy:

Sir, your breath stinks

2. Make sure you get the money beforehand. Otherwise you may end up like this:

So you don't pay me?!

3. Make sure where they want you to free. According to the information from the Chinese side, there has been collateral damage in London:

A funny Free Tibet mercenary
“April 6th during the torch parade we had a confrontation with the Free Tibet group. Suddenly a poorly dressed western young guy started banging a pot he had with him and yelled like crazy:
“Free Japan! Free Japan!”
Everybody including us were surprised and confused, what the hell is Japan doing here?
A guy from Free Tibet group quickly whispered to him. And he started again: “Free Tibet! “
……Guess the pronunciation was close so he messed up in the beginning … orz

There was a patriotic Chinese supermarket owner giving out free soda along the road. It seemed this guy didn’t know which side he was supposed to be in, and he came here for soda. We asked him how he got so confused and whether he was hired. This guy, maybe stupid somehow, was honest though, he admitted he was hired.

You don’t wanna be that guy!

: : : : : : : : : : :

 

San Francisco: Why I will carry the Olympic torch

Article from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Many will scoff at this Olympic ideal and I understand why. As a longtime advocate of social justice, I’m familiar with the long list of failings attributed to the People’s Republic of China from the days of its founding in 1949, including the simmering tensions in Tibet – especially because I just spent five months in Shanghai as a Fulbright scholar conducting research on the mass exodus that took place at the time of the Communist revolution.

I grew up hearing constant critiques of the terrible Communist dictatorship. And because I am an open lesbian, my stay in China felt tenuous because, unlike America, which has anti-gay laws, China doesn’t even recognize that we exist. Any of these might be reason enough to run as far from the Olympics as my middle-aged body can carry me.

But my time in China gave me another perspective. I observed firsthand the wide-ranging diversity and openness of viewpoints and cultural expression that now exists among China’s 1.4 billion people. I met with hundreds of Chinese for my research and was struck by how outspoken and opinionated they are and, yes, even critical of their government.

Up until I left China just before the uprisings in Tibet, the Chinese government was heavily promoting the Olympic spirit and teaching Olympic values of friendship, understanding and fair play in the schools. China is not a democracy, but its people – whether Han Chinese, Tibetans, Uighers or its other many minorities – are becoming more vocal because of its increasing openness to the world.

Unfortunately, the calls to boycott the Olympics and to label everything about China as evil can only serve to isolate China and the United States from each other. China is not a monolith, and blanket condemnations of China and its people are as simplistic as blaming all Americans for the U.S. human-rights violations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Such rhetoric, however, is driving many Chinese bloggers into a nationalistic response.

Read more here.

 

Tibet: The Truth

Besides the beautiful sceneries and traditional musics that you would imagine from Tibet, the mysterious Shangri-la, this video also shows some other aspects. Is it the truth? Why not view it and judge by yourself.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY

 

Indian ‘Tibet’ bomb killed 3, Tibetan Government-in-Exile viewed on “non violent”

According to the April 3 BBC report, Indian police found a large amount of explosives and detonators on site after an explosion killed 3 people. Timers were also found. The house was rented by Tibetan exiles.

BBC correspondent also said that the town “has been used as a base or transit point for a number of rebel groups”.

In the mean time, Chinese police also found different kinds of weapons in different monasteries in Tibet, including “3504 kilograms of explosives, 19630 pieces of detonators, and 2 grenades”, says Xinhua.

Dawa Tsering, the Tibetan ‘government-in-exile’ representative to the U.S., had an interview with a French radio, Groupe Radio France Internationale, or Groupe RFI, on April 2nd. During the interview, he claimed:

(translated from sound recording)
“Tibetans were non violent from the beginning to the end (during the Lhasa turbulence). From the Tibetan point of view, violence means endangerments to life. In the video we can see them beating Han ethnics, but only beating and that’s it. Hans would run away after being beaten, so it’s only beating, not endangerments to life.”

“They (Hans) all hid upstairs when Tibetans smashed the doors, so that when Tibetans set the places on fire they were burnt to death accidentally.”

“So all these were all some kind of accident, not killing”.

Dawa Tsering’s definition of violence is certainly unique.

Dalai Lama the holiness and the leader of Tibetan government-in-exile, is now appealing to international communities and especially the Chinese government, calling for a peaceful solution to the Tibetan issue. I hope he also spend some time to look into the explosive issue, and also set a formal definition for “non violent”.

 

The Tibet Myth – What Tibet was like before 1950

I came across this blog article, an academic research on the Tibetan social/religious system when it was ruled by Lama’s. It’s astonishing to see how cruel the monasteries mistreated serfs, who consisted of 90% of Tibetan population.

Tibetan government in exile, mostly Lama’s and their offspring, are now linking human rights with Tibetan issue. Things can really be ironic sometimes.

 

CNN seeks excuses in statement, refuses to acknowledge mistakes

It’s glad to know that CNN has realized the tremendously negative publicity it had earned itself over the Internet recently, and it has abandoned its usual “keep silent” way of dealing with credibility charges by putting out a statement clearing itself on its Tibet coverage, which had been criticized for distorting facts and taking side by many bloggers and news agencies all over the world. The pressure must have been huge that CNN the experienced defendant against credibility accusations (number speaks, googling “CNN lies” returns 653,000 results, more than double of the 305,000 results for “Spitzer prostitution”, the hottest news this year) has to respond.

As a witness of the false reports from CNN, I recognize the effort CNN makes to polish its tainted image, however, I can only find the statement in whole an evasive piece trying to make excuses, and I feel pity for CNN again being such a dishonest and unapologetic agency.

Taking a quick look at what CNN has to say, one will find CNN’s excuse for cropping picture laughable. Web based publication has great deal of freedom in presenting multimedia materials including pictures. CNN could have posted the picture in its entirety while moving text to the rest of the area without any trouble at all. Web pages are not printed materials, resizing and reframing paragraphs are virtually costless and effortless. In fact, after being attacked for cropping the picture, CNN modified the page to put a zoomed out version of the entire original photo, without having to move text format at all. Then why did CNN need to crop it in the first place? Also, CNN argues in the statement that the picture was captioned “Tibetans throw stones”, then by what motive would a rational editor crop out the exact part of people throwing stones? No excuse can possibly be found to justify the discrepancy between what CNN did and what CNN claims.

Besides, CNN’s factual mistakes are not limited to the picture or calling Tibet as a country. During its TV airing until as late as March 21st, when multiple sources had confirmed Tibet riot violent and deadly, CNN anchors repeated called Tibetan turbulence a “peaceful protest”. It was exceptionally misleading and was a major distortion of fact. Even after www.anti-CNN.com had published the mistakes of CNN and other news outlets, Lou Dobbs of CNN continued to use the same wrong descriptions in his TV program. Even an unprofessional team would not be a strong excuse to make up for this.

CNN also repetitively refused to identify the dead as victims of the riot, and in their context spread the impression that they were protesters left dead by government actions, while in fact, they were murdered by those CNN-called “peaceful protesters”.

CNN’s distortions and lies are not sparse editorial or technical mistakes. They are consistent and still on-going, in favor of one side of the story.

In addition, CNN has in its reports repetitively excluded Tibetan ethnics from the Chinese. This is unacceptable. It is just similar to calling African American and Caucasian American as Blacks and American.

While the German news agency RTL had quickly acknowledged and apologized for its mistake after www.anti-cnn.com pointed it out, professionals in journalism at CNN still refuse to acknowledge mistakes and redeem trust. I have to say, the denial issued today was just a weak and pathetic attempt to weasle away from the systematic lying campaign CNN had conducted in the past weeks.

 

In the subconsciousness of American people

I came across this funny list on a Chinese forum where people are discussing the sloppy (or deliberate, people disagree on this) media coverage over the recent Tibetan riot.

Here is my English translation. Just to make it clear, I don’t think everyone in the U.S. believes every item on this list, but I feel some of them may well exist in the subconsciousness of American people at large. And these assumptions affected their judgments and actions in some, if not many, occasions. If you consider any item true, congratulations, you are another successfully brainwashed American.

Whenever American people oppose the American government rationally, it’s called democratic right;
whenever Chinese people oppose the American government rationally, it’s called anti democracy.

Whenever American people oppose the American government in rage, the term to use is still democratic right;
whenever Chinese people oppose the American government, in rage, the term to use will be mob or blindly infuriated youngsters.

Whenever American people support the American government, it’s called making use of democracy;
whenever Chinese people support the Chinese government, it’s called upholding the dictatorship.

Whenever American people oppose their own government, rational or not, they say, look just how democratic the U.S. is, people have the right to say no;
whenever Chinese people oppose their own government, rational or not, they say, look, just how autocratic China is, even their own people go against it!

Whenever an eastern country opposes the American policy, it is called a totalitarian;
Whenever a western country opposes the American policy, it is called the Old Europe.

Whatever the U.S. does is people-supported democracy;
whatever China does is state-controlled totalitarianism.

Whenever American economy is expanding, it’s called prosperity;
Whenever Chinese economy is expanding, it’s called menace.

 

Media Cheat on Tibet Riot

This blog gives a good compilation of how major media around the world misled the crowd by using pictures of violences occurred at other places/times, in their articles about the Tibetan riot took place last week. This list includes CNN, Washington Post in the U.S., BILD, N-TV, Spiegel, RTL TV in Germany.

It seems WordPress doesn’t allow linking pictures from Blogger, so please click the links above for the original post, or links below for some sample pictures. More pictures available from the original blog.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_jSTjX1OQZp4/R-AbQTu_rZI/AAAAAAAAADg/Ah5b4YGMZ9I/s1600-h/002.JPG
http://bp0.blogger.com/_jSTjX1OQZp4/R-AbPzu_rYI/AAAAAAAAADY/4YAY1bf2TnQ/s320/001.JPG
http://bp1.blogger.com/_jSTjX1OQZp4/R-AbRDu_rbI/AAAAAAAAADw/IewgMRM9ITY/s1600-h/004.JPG
http://bp2.blogger.com/_jSTjX1OQZp4/R-AblTu_rdI/AAAAAAAAAEA/b3VwWDn8QPM/s1600-h/006.JPG

One can only believe that:
1) Either these media don’t have a qualified internal examination/inspection system,
2) Or, they were deliberately lying, trying to fool their audiences.

In either case, these media are NOT reliable sources of news. Shame on them.

Some more words, in response to a comment, added 03/24:

First of all I wasn’t saying “all Western media is lying on purpose”, the Economist, for one, did an objective report, which I linked in my previous post. But some, if not most, did lie on this. I have lived in the U.S. for a couple of years, and by comparing with the way they report their domestic issues, I wouldn’t believe all of them simply made technical mistakes. Reading their headline assertions that a government is “clashing”, “suppressing”, “violating” a “peaceful protest” without any confirmed source, I could sense the media’s remote hostility and obvious eagerness to take a side. That’s not the right way for doing news.

Personally I don’t believe the government did anything out of line in this incident. (gunshots were fired as you said, but for the purpose of warning instead of shooting, or in life threatening conditions, confirmed by different sources).

I do know (and witness) there has been “repression from Chinese government”. Until 1980’s the majority of the officials of Chinese government were under-educated and thus lacked the virtue of respecting cultures, including their own Chinese traditional. Combined with the Communists’ tradition of believing in violence, they did a lot of “prison, torture, destruction of culture” to all Chinese people, including but not especially toward the Tibetan ethnic. The good thing is, they have been quickly changing and learning from 1990’s. For Tibet, huge budgets were set to rebuild temples (the roof of one temple would cost hundreds kilograms of gold), to fund monks, and to build local economy. The claim that the government IS doing cultural genocide is groundless, even if it is claimed by the big shot Dalai Lama. I hope and support the government to make more progress on improving the condition in Tibet, culturally and all.

http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/tibetanSociety/history.htm contains a lot of 3rd-party academic research articles regarding how Tibet was and is like. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more truth about Tibet.

 

Eyewitnesses confirm Tibetan Riots and Violences

According to yet another U.S. blogger who is “a faculty member of Tibet House New York, the National Press Club of Washington, the California Authors Association, on the Advisory Board of Pacifica Public Radio’s ‘The Tibet Connection’ “, eyewitnesses have reported to him that massive riots and violences are being done by Tibetan ethnics living in Lhasa and even Nepal.

Please refer to his post for the whole story. Here are some tag lines. You don’t need to be too wise to see how these mobs are attacking civilians, looting goods, setting fires, and spreading rumors. If this is what Free Tibet groups want, I think they have to realize they are not allowed to violate the very human rights they are claiming of having been taken away, and it is absolutely UNLAWFUL AND EVIL to use violence against Han and Muslim civilians for their own protests.

“The rioting, however, has been ALL over Lhasa (unlike 1989), with Chinese & Muslim (Hui) shops (Ge Ti Hu) being targeted and completely destroyed – probably over 1,000 Chinese owned shops all over Lhasa. It’s really a massive riot, with cars & motorbikes turned over then burned all over town, Chinese shops’ contents splayed out onto the streets, and Han Chinese being literally hunted down, beat up, and sometimes killed with large traditional Tibetan knives.”

“yesterday’s riots were all over the entire city and undertaken by all kinds of Tibetans”

“There are so called “massacres” over by the Great Mosque, with intense fighting between Muslims & Tibetans”

“It was just 15 young police with their riot shields face a group fof 500-1000 Tibetans. The Tibetans were armed with iron bars and rocks and chunks of conrete…I don’t know where they got all this stuff from. They then charged at the plice/army pelting them with objects. Some of their sheilds broke and some fell, obviously injured”

“a Tibetan out on Friday or Saturday told us another Tibtean told him he saw 50 Tibetans and a child get gunned down by soldiers on Ramoche street. [obviously this is not confirm(ed)”

From Internet, a Han civilian beaten injured (possibly dead) on Lhasa street.

From other Internet websites, here are some pictures of Tibetan mob conducting violences in streets.

 

Report from Tibet, by an Economist correspondent

Today the Economist magazine published a report on the current turbulence in Tibet. By its own reliable correspondent in Lhasa, Tibet, this article is far more reliable than those grounded on unconfirmed rumors.

The article can be found here. Tag lines:

“The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has spoken of unconfirmed reports of up to 100 deaths. But there are noconvincing accounts of the kind of bloodshed”,“The next day some residents continued to attack the few Chinese-owned businesses still left intact”

“some residents threw stones at those troops who were not armed with rifles”

“The Economist remains the only foreign news organisation with official approval to be in Tibet—which was applied for and granted well before the unrest broke out”

 

What is actually happening in Tibet

It has not been a peaceful week for Tibet. According to posts on Internet from people living in Lhasa (found, compiled and translated by GlobalVoices, a non-profit project from Harvard University) , and this western blogger traveling in Lhasa, these Tibetan activists burnt down shops owned by Han ethnic Chinese, attacked Chinese passengers in streets, and crashed and burnt cars parked along side the roads. Video of such violence can be found here (or the following embedded video, if it works)

Sadly, with such tragedy going on, major medias still don’t want to give an all-sided and objective coverage, but instead pick on their favorite angle: the Communist Beijing suppressing free Tibet. For example, on March 15 CNN reports on it’s web page that people were killed in Tibet under the current turbulence initiated by Tibetan independent groups. Without reliable source the article was not able to point out who were killing and being killed in Tibet, but the lines tend to give people the impression that the Chinese government was slaughtering Tibetan civilians.

Nonetheless, a photo was found on Internet, clearly the original picture of the headline news image, but with part cropped by CNN before taking into use. By comparing the two photos it is obvious to see what a message CNN is trying to tell, and what information it is trying to hide, by cropping out the truth. What is actually happening in Tibet? You don’t know, because they don’t tell.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/tibet.unrest/index.htm, captured March 15, 2008 23:00 EDT

 

Pictures from San Francisco Trip

View In cable car

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz 恶魔岛（电影The Rock以此为背景）

Bowdin Bakery。师傅正在做面包乌龟

渔人码头Pier 39的海狮

City Lights书店。出版Allen Ginsberg “Howl”的地方

Palace of Fine Arts外面的湖光鸟影

Palace of Fine Arts一角

沿Highway 1南下，路过鸽湾的灯塔

 

San Francisco 游玩心得

1。住在Union Square附近比较方便。从机场坐BART半小时可以到达Powell站，下来就
在最繁华的Market St上，步行两三个街区到旅馆。晚上Union Square一带也比较热闹
，遇到一个Blues-Rock乐队卖艺，黑人主唱/吉他手技术强大五体投地。对了，BART自
动售票机设计得很古怪，机器不会自动站到站计算价格。比如买一张SFO到Powell的车
票，$5.35，如果正好有足够零钱也就罢了，否则的话，比如像我投了10块，就要按
Subtract $1, Subtract 10c若干次，再按打印车票。

2。交通上，第一天买一张一天的MUNI Passport，可以随便坐叮当车。叮当车上下坡的
时候非常好玩，而且有的司机打铃的节奏也很好听，嘿嘿。另外的好处是路线覆盖了普
通游览区，而且可以在街角随便跳上。不像普通公交，找车站经常导致多走路。第二天
以后可以买普通公交车票，$1.5，记住要转车证，三小时内免费任意坐车。

3。吃饭：三个地方个人认为不可不去。一是人人推荐的岭南小馆，用料讲究，火候正
好，味道确实不错；二是North Beach，Union/Columbus，一定是晚饭，冬天里坐在
heated outdoor dining patio，意大利菜，地中海风味马上就出来了；三是渔人码头
Pier 42左右的Bowdin Bakery，一定要一碗Clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl，
还要参观一下橱窗里的现场面包制作，吃饱了去和海狮一起吹海风晒太阳。

4。金门大桥上走一圈，吹吹风，看着桥上跑步的人，情不自禁就羡慕起湾区人民的悠
闲生活。不过步行有些辛苦，租辆自行车应该是不错的主意。橙红色配合蓝天白云，视
觉上非常养眼。看了电影 The Bridge，现场感觉一下，觉得这么多人从这儿跳确实是
有道理的。

5。17 Miles强烈不推荐。人工气息太重，一个个景点，观鸟台，迎客松，鼓浪屿等等
，就像国内的旅游胜地一样，大家纷纷停车拍照，到此一游。住在那里也许不错，开车
游玩一趟不值。反倒是 Highway 1 从三藩到Santa Cruz一段，一路山峦起伏道路蜿蜒
，右边惊涛拍岸左边黄花青草牛羊满山，风景秀美得很，强烈推荐。

6。开车从九曲花街冲下来，感觉一般般，也许还不如在旁边看的人觉得刺激。如果前
面的车太慢，耐心点等他走远了再冲。小心那些站在路中央拍照的。不过瘾的话，其实
就沿着叮当车的轨道开会儿，比花街更陡，俯瞰风景更好。

7。恶魔岛至少提前三天预定，我这趟没有去成。遗憾…

 

黄昏的清兵卫 – Twilight Samurai

或者按照英文直译，黄昏武士。明治时代即将到来，武士这份职业行将消亡，电影名字颇为开门见山。与印象中拔刀厮杀，动辄剖腹的武士不同，电影中的武士极为日常化。他们的职业，与其译为武士，不如理解为幕府雇员更为贴切：他们的工作内容包括战时上阵舍命，包括日常殴斗放对，也包括随侍，记账，管理仓库，还包括随时注意形象，为低贱的农民树立榜样。他们靠每个月50担至400担的薪水为生。他们都有佩剑，但是极少或者从不使用。贫穷的清兵卫卖掉了长剑，佩戴一把竹剑多年而无人察觉。他们上班有可能做一份案头工作，下班一起去夜店饮酒。他们他们家里有妻儿或者卧病的老母。他们有一个妹妹需要为之操心寻找一户登对的人家。他们要注意早上不要错拿一件没洗的中衣。他们是遥远战国时代豪强门客遗留的影子。他们是市民阶层兴起之前公司员工的雏形。他们是士，一个在现代社会消亡而被人憧憬的阶层，可是如果还原他们的日常生活，他们也许只是一个保有古风的普通城市人家。

随便依照Netflix的推荐捡了这部片子，稍微有些存疑，可是开始不久的几个镜头就彻底打消了疑虑 。特写：清兵卫妻子病榻旁边，年幼的次女一张因积雪坍塌受到惊吓而稚气可爱的脸；广角：云层堆积，远处山峦起伏，出殡的队伍缓缓的，小小的走在田间；定机位：清兵卫在油灯下编笼子，旁边女儿唱诵“曾子曰：吾日三省吾身”，清兵卫耐心的解释，为什么女孩子读书将来会有用处。事件是平常的，叙事是缓慢的，宫泽理惠是热情而矜持的，真田广之是隐忍和为人着想的。就连河边决斗，清兵卫一显短刀流传人身手木棒克白刃这一场戏，也是冷静朴实：没有翻滚呵斥，机位切换，吊钢丝踢飞腿。从对峙到推肘，拔剑，闪躲，然后一个迅速的起跳出手间，回合就结束了。施礼回家后，情节又回到了日常的轨道。

如果说镜头感觉和感情处理相当的含蓄和东方化，那么情节进展还是非常按照西方戏剧冲突理论的。高潮放在倒数第二场戏：余吾善右卫门拒绝按上令剖腹，清兵卫奉命去处决他。出人意料之外，右卫门请求清兵卫放自己一条生路。两人聊了起来，各自谈到自己因贫病去世的妻子和女儿。清兵卫早已松弛了精神防线，透露了自己竹剑的秘密，右卫门当即变色动手，清兵卫慌乱之中几乎被杀。脚步急促，几案翻倒，坐在一边喜欢动作片的那个我终于等来了这个片刻。决胜也是戏剧性的，右卫门胜局已定，却被门框挡住了长刀。清兵卫讨回性命，在沿街农民惊讶的目光中回家。

影片的收尾是近几个月来我看的片子里结尾结得最拽最酷的。屏幕一黑，再亮时就见远处火车开过，那个年幼的次女已是耄耋老人，躬身拜祭野外父母的坟墓，然后，身着学生装头戴大檐帽制服笔挺的车夫用黄包车拉着她远去，路边的农夫还在挥锄作田。画外音：三年后父亲就在战乱中被枪杀了，母亲带着我来到江户，那也就是现在的东京。缓慢但是坚定的，一个时代的昏黄影子就此结束。

 

恶俗豆瓣

在豆瓣上随便看到了这篇文章：
豆瓣能躲得过恶俗吗
http://www.douban.com/group/topic/2588621/

字里行间， 作者看来对豆瓣网友的品位也不无忧虑。

看完榜单，我的结论是：

1。性别上，女读者比男读者多
2。心理年龄上，年幼读者比成熟读者多
3。从一、二名之间的巨大差距来看，弱智年幼女读者的比例最高。