The Sun Whose Rays

are all ablaze, with ever living glory.

***

I'm going to stop complaining that I'm not being productive enough. I'm cooking again, I'm reading again, and sooner or later I'll start writing again. We're planning another park day which would undoubtedly be sublime. I'm seeing friends that I want to see, and spending time how I choose. It's my summer vacation, if I can't even relax for long enough to enjoy my relaxation then I think there's something extremely wrong with me.

I mean to rule the earth,

And he the sky

We really know our worth - the Sun and I.

The next apartment I move to needs to have at least two things. Sunlight, and a gas fire stove.

I'm too smug, I think that's my problem. I need to be slapped around by a decent book or two. I'm starting with the hardcover copy of Shades of Grey that I bought the week it was released only to let it collect dust on my nightstand. I need to ease into things slowly and I'm thinking a bit of Jasper Fforde would be a good ice breaker. I'll need it because piled right underneath it is Gravity's Rainbow. I'm finally going to do it. And now that I've announced it I need to go through with it. I'll report back to the repository with updates on how my mind is faring.

***

As for the theme of this post.

It's an aria about vanity. About the majestic self worth of an incredibly, self indulgently, vain woman.

It's funny because she tries so hard to sound humble. Perhaps that's why I love it. Even more than the yellow face paint and kimono that the pretty white sopranos who sings this is usually in (The character's name in the opera is Yum-Yum, neither tasteful nor Japanese. Don't get me started). I chose this video because it's vocally my favourite out of all the youtube clips of this aria, and she's not in costume. In that order of reasoning. Regardless of its many crimes of racism though, it is beautiful. The words are in themselves quite glorious, which would be why it worked so well performed as poetry by the femme fatal in Brick, serving as an introduction to the manipulative and self assured Laura. Of course she needed to keep up the asianphile theme and wear a cheongsam, which I'm willing to overlook because it was a modern cut and it suited her. 

As performed by Nora Zehetner in Brick.

Side note: why are Qipao (read: chi-pao) officially called cheongsam in the western world? I can barely take the Catonese take over of the "Chinese" language worldwide as it is but that's not even the correct word for it. Cheongsam would be the Cantonese pronunciation of Chang Shan which is what the men wore. If you must use Cantonese, at least call it a Keipo, or something equally ridiculous. Just because the early Cantonese immigrants who flooded Hong Kong could not tell the differece between male and female clothing does not mean the rest of the world has to sound ignorant.

Incidentally, Laura's theme from the film, the softly sweet casio toned melody has been popping up in the weirdest places, like at the end of episode 15 of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. This is not to say anything other than, I like it.

Laura's Theme on Studio 60 from Alice on Vimeo.