gavinski

Anyone who's seen Withnail and I will agree that Uncle Monty's cottage, site of perhaps the most hysterically funny scene from the film ('I know you're in there boy!') deserves to be preserved for posterity.

Jah Wobble has pushed his dub bass playing in interesting new directions after marrying a Chinese guzheng player.

This little clip, filmed and narrated by Crouching Tiger director Zhang Yimou, shows some of the things I love about living in Chengdu: the juxtaposition of old and new, teahouse culture, the food (mmm, hotpot), and the famously beautiful and 'spicy' Chengdu girls.

I'm finally back stumbling again! And also back in China. And sooo happy! Although this is a Japanese song, from a Japanese film, it still reminds me of China so much that I'm happy to make it my first return-to-China stumble. If you haven't seen the film `All About Lily ChouChou', check it out.

If you've seen this wonderful film, you might remember this rendition of the old Irish song which the film's named after, which comes about 7 and a half minutes into this clip. I've been playing this, among other tunes, on the guitar a lot recently, which, along with trying to get back into a regular meditation routine, is one of the reasons I've barely been stumbling over the past few weeks. Reading the lyrics below, you see how the tension between romantic and patriotic love facing the couple in the poem is transferred into the relationship between the two brothers in the film.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley
(Robert Dwyer Joyce)

I sat within the valley green, I sat me with my true love;
My sad heart strove the two between, the old love and the new love;
The old for her, the new that made me think of Ireland dearly,
While soft the wind blew down the glen and shook the golden barley.

Twas hard the woeful words to frame to break the ties that bound us;
But harder still to bear the shame of foreign chains around us.
And so I said, "The mountain glen I'll seek at morning early,
And join the bold United Men," while soft winds shook the barley.

While sad I kissed away her tears, my fond arms round her flinging,
The foeman's shot burst on our ears, from out the wildwood ringing;
The bullet pierced my true love's side, in life's young spring so early,
And on my breast in blood she died, when soft winds shook the barley.

But blood for blood without remorse I've taken at Oulart Hollow,
I've placed my true love's clay-cold corse where I full soon will follow;
As round her grave I wander drear, noon, night and morning early,
With breaking heart whene'er I hear the wind that shakes the barley!