Emilio Chiu
2020年3月25日 星期三
2020年3月11日 星期三
2016年3月31日 星期四
Still Alice
Still Alice review – moving meditation on who we really are
Index
What: Alzheimer
Where: No
When: Friday 6 March 2015
Who: Julianne Moore
Why: No
How: No
This inexpressibly不能用言語表達的程度 painful and sad film from Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer is about a woman who declines衰落 steeply險峻地 into early-onset Alzheimer’s just after her 50th birthday, and somehow becomes a ghost haunting her own life.
It features a queenly高貴的, poignant深刻的 and much-garlanded花環的 lead performance fromJulianne Moore as linguistics professor Alice Howland. She begins the movie at the triumphant成功的 height of her career, enjoying a happy life with her husband John (Alec Baldwin), prosperous empty-nesters in a sumptuous豪華的 New York home. They have three lovely grownup children: Tom (Hunter Parrish), Anna (Kate Bosworth) and Lydia (Kristen Stewart). The only problem in Alice’s life appears to be her strained relationship with Lydia, who has rejected college to be a struggling actor in Los Angeles.
With a terrible, almost Nabokovian irony, Alice’s dementia癡呆 begins with her inability to remember the word ‘lexicon’ while giving a lecture, although Westmoreland and Glatzer show how the condition has a kind of prehistorical moment at her birthday dinner the night before, when Alice overhears her son-in-law talk about “sisters” arguing and for some reason thinks he must be talking about her relationship with her own sister, who died in a car crash when they were teenagers. As her disease advances, Alice is lost in thought about this dead sister. The terrible diagnosis診斷 arrives, and I defy反抗 any audience in the world not to strain frantically瘋狂地 to complete the memory test that a doctor gives Alice in one heartwrenching scene. There are, moreover, terrible genetic implications to her condition.
Still Alice is perhaps a relatively straightforward film on this subject, compared with, say, Sarah Polley’s Away From Her (2006) in which Julie Christie’s Alzheimer patient forms a relationship with another man in a care home, or Richard Eyre’s Iris (2001) in which Iris Murdoch, played by Judi Dench, descends墜入 into dementia in a kind of flashback以倒述呈現 parallel with the story of her younger self. There is admittedly something of the TV movie of the week in Still Alice, a little like Do You Remember Love, from 1985, starring Joanne Woodward.
Alice’s wealth admittedly無可否認地 makes palliative緩和的 care an awful lot easier than for others less well off: the comfortable family set up, and Baldwin’s presence存在 as the husband sometimes makes this film look weirdly like a very dark version of Nancy Meyers’s comfort-food relationship comedy It’s Complicated. Yet Moore’s heartfelt and self-possessed performance, as taut繃緊的 as a violin string, makes this a commanding film. It also boasts one truly sensational轟動的 scene in which scared and bewildered困惑的 Alice comes across a video message to herself: this is a flash of macabre駭人的 ingenuity精巧, as suspenseful懸疑的 as any thriller.
The crisis is all there in the title. Is she “still Alice”? Despite all the agony苦惱, the fear and the indignity of Alzheimer’s, is there some unbreachable core of identity that will remain? Or is Alice’s self utterly eroded, reduced to a set of symptoms?
It is an open question. Westmoreland and Glatzer give us a scene when Alice’s disease is at a reasonably advanced stage, and show John getting the chance for a big career step-up that would mean moving from New York to Minnesota, though New York is a place which Alice loved – or loves. John assumes, without admitting or realising it, that she is not still Alice, that he can take her anywhere, give her the best care and continue with his own professional life. The question of whether she is, in fact, still Alice is to lead to a family crisis without anyone couching表達 it in precisely these terms.
This film moreover has one thing that other movies about dementia do not: some very sharp, shrewd insights about how computer technology allows dementia sufferers to manage their symptoms – or conceal隱瞞 them. Or is it that technology use is itself a symptom? Alice is as addicted to her smartphone as anyone else. But she is increasingly dependent on its personal-organiser functions, and she Googles things on her phone that she should be able to remember without help. Are the earlier stages of her disease a parable預言 for what we are all experiencing: a new kind of Googleheimer’s? This is an affecting and thoroughly worthwhile film on a very contemporary topic – with some Larkinian reflections on what will and won’t survive of us.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/05/still-alice-julianne-moore-oscar-alzheimers
missing Hong Kong booksellers
US calls on China to clarify status of missing Hong Kong booksellers
Where: China
Who: 5 booksellers
What: missing bookseller
When: last octobor
Why: not given
How: not given
The United States has called on China to clarify the status of five missing Hong Kong booksellers, saying the case has raised serious questions about China’s commitment to Hong Kong’s autonomy自治 under the one country, two systems framework體系.
The booksellers – including Lee Bo, 65, a dual British and Chinese national and owner of a publisher and bookstore specialising in books critical of China’s Communist party leaders – are believed by many to have been abducted綁架 by mainland agents.
“These cases ... raise serious questions about China’s commitment to Hong Kong’s autonomy under the one country, two systems framework, as well as its respect for the protection of universal human rights and fundamental根本的 freedoms,” he said.
“We urge China to clarify the current status of all five individuals and the circumstances情況 surrounding their disappearances and to allow them to return to their homes.”
The British government is still waiting for responses to its diplomatic requests for information and access to Lee, who disappeared from Hong Kong on 30 December.
Lee’s wife visited him in a mainland guesthouse on 23 January and issued a statement saying he was healthy and in good spirits, and that he was a witness in an investigation.
Four other booksellers are believed to be still in mainland detention監禁, including Swedish national Gui Min-hai, who disappeared from the Thai resort town of Pattaya last October.
Gui surfaced on Chinese state television this month stating he had voluntarily turned himself into Chinese authorities last month over a fatal drunken driving case from more than a decade ago.
The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics手法 that erode the one country, two systems formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997.
Britain handed Hong Kong back to China under agreements that its broad freedoms, way of life and vaunted吹噓的 legal system would remain unchanged for 50 years.
Chinese authorities have not responded to multiple requests for comment from Reuters, nor have they made any substantial statements explaining Beijing’s role in the disappearances or the fate of the men.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/02/us-calls-on-china-to-clarify-status-of-missing-hong-kong-booksellers
2016年3月16日 星期三
Oxford Dictionary, word of the year, 2015, emoji
Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 is…
What: the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year
Where: the world
Why: it was the most used emoji globally in 2015
Who: everyone
When: 2015
How: not given
That’s right – for the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: , officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other names. There were other strong contenders(競爭者) from a range of fields, outlined below, but was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations(名詞) of 2015.
Why was this chosen?
Emojis (the plural(複數) can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and use of the word emoji, increase hugely.This year Oxford University Press have partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage使用度 statistics統計數據 for some of the most popular emoji across the world, and was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally in 2015. SwiftKey identified that made up 20% of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17% of those in the US: a sharp rise from 4% and 9% respectively in 2014. The word emoji has seen a similar surge激增: although it has been found in English since 1997, usage more than tripled增至三倍 in 2015 over the previous year according to data from the Oxford Dictionaries Corpus.
A brief history of emoji
An emoji is ‘a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication’; the term emoji is a loanword外來語 from Japanese, and comes from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’. The similarity to the English word emoticon has helped its memorability and rise in use, though the resemblance is actually entirely coincidental: emoticon (a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as ;), rather than a stylized image) comes from the English words emotion and icon.Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens – instead, they have been embraced接受 as a nuanced微妙的 form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers. Even Hillary Clinton solicited feedback in the form of emojis, and has had notable use from celebrities and brands alongside everyone else – and even appeared as the caption to the Vine which apparently kicked off the popularity of the term on fleek, which appears on our WOTY shortlist.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/
2016年3月8日 星期二
Paris Climate Change Conference, COP 21
Paris Climate Change Conference, COP 21
What: The Conference about climate
When: 2015
Where: Not Given
Who: over 190 countries
Why: try and agree a global legally binding climate treaty
How: moving away from fossil fuels
The international climate deal agreed in Paris is a turning point in history which signals the end of the fossil fuel era, it has been claimed. Measures agreed in the final draft include:
Long-term emissions(排放) goal
The agreement commits countries to begin reducing global carbon emissions “as soon as possible” and to have “net zero emissions” during the second half of the century – meaning that any CO2 produced would need to be captured and disposed of or offset(補償) by planting huge numbers of trees. This is another good development which is expected to spur investment in green energy but is weakened because the timescales are vague(模糊的).
The ratchet(漸進) mechanism(機制)
This is an essential part of the agreement and is binding. It requires countries to step up their targets to reduce carbon emissions every five years – which is crucial because the cuts they have promised so far would only limit global warming to between 2.7C and 3C.
Financing
The rich countries have promised to funnel(注入) at least $100bn (£66bn) a year into poorer countries from 2020 to help them switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy and to help protect them against dangers such as increased flooding.
An undisclosed amount of money will also be made available to help pay for damage caused by global warming.
Measuring and monitoring emissions
A system has been agreed to ensure countries are meeting their emissions pledges(誓言) although there are questions over how effectively this will be able to establish whether some developing nations, such as China, are doing what they say they are doing.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cop21-four-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-paris-climate-change-treaty-a6771931.html
2016年2月26日 星期五
National Taichung Theater
What: National Taichung Theater
Why:
When: November 23rd 2014
Where: Taichung
Who:Toyo Ito
How: 4.36 billion
National Taichung Theater is located in Xitun District, Taochung. It is a very characteristic獨有的 performance area. The theater is designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Using the concept of the primitive原始的 caves and holes, Toyo Ito designed the world first and only Sound Cave Curved Wall for National Taichung Theater. There are no vertical and horizontal structures and it’s the world’s first curve surfaced hanging structure architect. Due to the complexity, it is known as the most difficult architect to complete. Five years and NT$ 4.36 billion, the theater finally open in November 23rd, 2014. The theater is organized into a large theater, medium theater and experimental實驗性的 stage, which hold up to more than 3000 guests.
During the urban renewal in Taichung, Taichung city government tried get the Guggenheim Museum to join the museum project in Taichung. Unfortunately due to the budget shortage, the project was canceled. After Architecture Design Competition for the later idea to build a national theater, Toyo Ito’s design was selected. But the difficulty of building this monster in reality caused investments backing out over and over. But after conquering the obstacles, they finally broke the ground in the end of 2009.
After 5 years and NT$ 4.36 billion devoted in, the theater finally completed and the process of building the hardest architect was documented文件證明 by foreign press新聞界. The theater was designated as a national degree performance center and was nominated as one of the World’s New 9 Landmarks. The first opening show “Cat Man” is performed by Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group.
The theater structure high 37.7 meters, 2 underground levels and 6 floors above ground. It is built with steel and concrete with the concepts of the primitive state of human livings, caves and holes. The structure consists of 58 curved surfaces, very difficult to construct. It is referred as the hardest building to be constructed. Interior designed with a large theater (2014 guests), medium theater (800 guests), and experimental stage (200 guests). Not just the main building but the surroundings is designed to correspond with Sound Cave Curved Walls.
The acoustic engineering was carefully designed. In the large theater, guests will see the round curve on the ceiling; this will reflect the sounds perfectly in every angle to every seat. A cat walk is organized on the top for maintenance purposes. The view to the stage will not be blocked in anyway. Everything is designed to what a theater may need in the best way. The exterior shapes like a tea pot during the day with the extraordinary curves. When the night falls, lightings will put the theater under the spot light.
https://www.travelking.com.tw/eng/tourguide/scenery105140.html
Why:
When: November 23rd 2014
Where: Taichung
Who:Toyo Ito
How: 4.36 billion
National Taichung Theater is located in Xitun District, Taochung. It is a very characteristic獨有的 performance area. The theater is designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Using the concept of the primitive原始的 caves and holes, Toyo Ito designed the world first and only Sound Cave Curved Wall for National Taichung Theater. There are no vertical and horizontal structures and it’s the world’s first curve surfaced hanging structure architect. Due to the complexity, it is known as the most difficult architect to complete. Five years and NT$ 4.36 billion, the theater finally open in November 23rd, 2014. The theater is organized into a large theater, medium theater and experimental實驗性的 stage, which hold up to more than 3000 guests.
During the urban renewal in Taichung, Taichung city government tried get the Guggenheim Museum to join the museum project in Taichung. Unfortunately due to the budget shortage, the project was canceled. After Architecture Design Competition for the later idea to build a national theater, Toyo Ito’s design was selected. But the difficulty of building this monster in reality caused investments backing out over and over. But after conquering the obstacles, they finally broke the ground in the end of 2009.
After 5 years and NT$ 4.36 billion devoted in, the theater finally completed and the process of building the hardest architect was documented文件證明 by foreign press新聞界. The theater was designated as a national degree performance center and was nominated as one of the World’s New 9 Landmarks. The first opening show “Cat Man” is performed by Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group.
The theater structure high 37.7 meters, 2 underground levels and 6 floors above ground. It is built with steel and concrete with the concepts of the primitive state of human livings, caves and holes. The structure consists of 58 curved surfaces, very difficult to construct. It is referred as the hardest building to be constructed. Interior designed with a large theater (2014 guests), medium theater (800 guests), and experimental stage (200 guests). Not just the main building but the surroundings is designed to correspond with Sound Cave Curved Walls.
The acoustic engineering was carefully designed. In the large theater, guests will see the round curve on the ceiling; this will reflect the sounds perfectly in every angle to every seat. A cat walk is organized on the top for maintenance purposes. The view to the stage will not be blocked in anyway. Everything is designed to what a theater may need in the best way. The exterior shapes like a tea pot during the day with the extraordinary curves. When the night falls, lightings will put the theater under the spot light.
https://www.travelking.com.tw/eng/tourguide/scenery105140.html
訂閱:
文章 (Atom)