(no subject)
Feb. 21st, 2006 08:23 amYesterday was cool. Mom had the little gathering of her friends--Mark, Stephanie, and Sensei came over for a tea party, and Carol ended up joining us, too. ^^
Sensei brought a box of green tea with her, wrapped in the Japanese way that requires only one piece of tape. She showed me how to replicate the wrapping with a scrap of newspaper, and I have to say it's really efficient and I might have to do it that way from now on. She also brought some ancestoral kimonos with her to show Mark and Stephanie the fabric styles--some (well, all) of which were really rich and beautiful. While Carol and I and everyone else pored over the beautiful clothing, Sensei explained how she had actually been legally adopted by a wealthy Japanese family and had inherited a couple of their old kimonos. The really old ones were incredible feats of handiwork--some teased into a pattern of thousands of little circles which must have been done by hand, even if it's inconcievable to imagine anyone actually doing so. Sensei also brought a couple of obis which were about a million feet long, embroidered with shiny threads in gorgeous designs. She promised that next time she visited, she would bring some casual, more modern day kimonos rather than the priceless antiques she had at the time--so that Carol and I, as well as Katie if she could make it to the next gathering, could actually try them on and learn how they are tied and arranged.
I also got an opportunity to show sensei my calligraphy set, and ask her what the different components were. It turns out that I was only right about half of the items--Wen sort of mislead me in her explanation of how the ink was 'ground'. I had actually been using the grinding stone as a mixing palate for watercolor. ^^; Additionally, the set actually contained two bars of ink, only one of which I'd actually identified as such. Sensei told me that most sets came with one bar specifically for painting, which would be a lighter shade to achieve many different tones--and a darker one, pitch black, for consistent shades while writing. She also told me that the little dish of red ink was for making a stamp--which was also included, uncarved, in the set. She told me if I had an Asian name, I could send the stamp to a carver and have them personalize it for me, so that were I a professional artist or calligraphist, I could stamp things with my little red crest. It's sort of funny, but it never really occurred to me that Asian signature stamps are always in red, but now that I think of it they are. It's probably to differentiate them from the gentler shades of the actual artwork.
After we finished looking at stuff, Carol went home and then there was a long drawn out dinner party at which everyone talked about such topics befitting of their roles as potter-geeks. It's actually sort of funny, seeing 3+ potters in the same room. They'll be randomly talking one moment and then the next be inspecting an article of flatware, discussing its quality, fashion of make, and whether or not (and how) they knew the person who produced it. It's a little entertaining.
Aaanyways. That was yesterday. Today has been comparatively uneventful, consisting so far of my awaking and being entirely unable to fall back asleep. Thus--update LJ! Yuss. I had actually sort of planned to get up early anyway and try to get mom to take me shopping for the DVD of Rent (just released today--ZAAZ) but it turned out she had to work, so I suppose I have to wait until tomorrow. Sadness. I'm soo excited about checking out the French dub, although it's a little ridiculous that they didn't have a Spanish one as we've COME ACROSS the Spanish version, and yet I've not been able to find any hint of a French one.
Speaking of French, this is something strange I've thought about--I think English loses something, through its distinct lack of formal versus informal pronouns, which French manages to preserve. It allows you to add subtle nuances of respect to statements which can be taken in totally polarized ways in English. For example, if you say "Fais-le toi-même!" That can easily be taken as "*scoff* Jeez, just do it yourself, sheesh."...but if you say "Faites-le vous-même!" it's sort of like "Do it yourself..." maybe even containing the scoff, but definitely with an underlying shade of "I'm giving you the respect you deserve, even though I want you to do it yourself." Even in things like insults, it's plausible that you could say something like "Allez vous faire foutre" to say "go fuck yourself"...but it seems to have a far gentler feel than "Va te faire foutre", which supplies no acknowledgement of respect whatsoever. It's sort of like what Carol has been exploring with Japanese--although in Japanese it's definitely far more apparent, since formality is so much more prevalent in speech, and thus far more consciously ignored. As it is, I don't even know if what I'm saying has any practical basis, it's just my thoughts based upon the limited French knowledge I have. Even so; even if the manipulating of respect levels isn't commonly played with in French, there's still the -option- of doing so, which is an interesting coloration that English speakers can't access in their speech.
*yawns* I'm sleepy again now. *wanders back to bed*
Sensei brought a box of green tea with her, wrapped in the Japanese way that requires only one piece of tape. She showed me how to replicate the wrapping with a scrap of newspaper, and I have to say it's really efficient and I might have to do it that way from now on. She also brought some ancestoral kimonos with her to show Mark and Stephanie the fabric styles--some (well, all) of which were really rich and beautiful. While Carol and I and everyone else pored over the beautiful clothing, Sensei explained how she had actually been legally adopted by a wealthy Japanese family and had inherited a couple of their old kimonos. The really old ones were incredible feats of handiwork--some teased into a pattern of thousands of little circles which must have been done by hand, even if it's inconcievable to imagine anyone actually doing so. Sensei also brought a couple of obis which were about a million feet long, embroidered with shiny threads in gorgeous designs. She promised that next time she visited, she would bring some casual, more modern day kimonos rather than the priceless antiques she had at the time--so that Carol and I, as well as Katie if she could make it to the next gathering, could actually try them on and learn how they are tied and arranged.
I also got an opportunity to show sensei my calligraphy set, and ask her what the different components were. It turns out that I was only right about half of the items--Wen sort of mislead me in her explanation of how the ink was 'ground'. I had actually been using the grinding stone as a mixing palate for watercolor. ^^; Additionally, the set actually contained two bars of ink, only one of which I'd actually identified as such. Sensei told me that most sets came with one bar specifically for painting, which would be a lighter shade to achieve many different tones--and a darker one, pitch black, for consistent shades while writing. She also told me that the little dish of red ink was for making a stamp--which was also included, uncarved, in the set. She told me if I had an Asian name, I could send the stamp to a carver and have them personalize it for me, so that were I a professional artist or calligraphist, I could stamp things with my little red crest. It's sort of funny, but it never really occurred to me that Asian signature stamps are always in red, but now that I think of it they are. It's probably to differentiate them from the gentler shades of the actual artwork.
After we finished looking at stuff, Carol went home and then there was a long drawn out dinner party at which everyone talked about such topics befitting of their roles as potter-geeks. It's actually sort of funny, seeing 3+ potters in the same room. They'll be randomly talking one moment and then the next be inspecting an article of flatware, discussing its quality, fashion of make, and whether or not (and how) they knew the person who produced it. It's a little entertaining.
Aaanyways. That was yesterday. Today has been comparatively uneventful, consisting so far of my awaking and being entirely unable to fall back asleep. Thus--update LJ! Yuss. I had actually sort of planned to get up early anyway and try to get mom to take me shopping for the DVD of Rent (just released today--ZAAZ) but it turned out she had to work, so I suppose I have to wait until tomorrow. Sadness. I'm soo excited about checking out the French dub, although it's a little ridiculous that they didn't have a Spanish one as we've COME ACROSS the Spanish version, and yet I've not been able to find any hint of a French one.
Speaking of French, this is something strange I've thought about--I think English loses something, through its distinct lack of formal versus informal pronouns, which French manages to preserve. It allows you to add subtle nuances of respect to statements which can be taken in totally polarized ways in English. For example, if you say "Fais-le toi-même!" That can easily be taken as "*scoff* Jeez, just do it yourself, sheesh."...but if you say "Faites-le vous-même!" it's sort of like "Do it yourself..." maybe even containing the scoff, but definitely with an underlying shade of "I'm giving you the respect you deserve, even though I want you to do it yourself." Even in things like insults, it's plausible that you could say something like "Allez vous faire foutre" to say "go fuck yourself"...but it seems to have a far gentler feel than "Va te faire foutre", which supplies no acknowledgement of respect whatsoever. It's sort of like what Carol has been exploring with Japanese--although in Japanese it's definitely far more apparent, since formality is so much more prevalent in speech, and thus far more consciously ignored. As it is, I don't even know if what I'm saying has any practical basis, it's just my thoughts based upon the limited French knowledge I have. Even so; even if the manipulating of respect levels isn't commonly played with in French, there's still the -option- of doing so, which is an interesting coloration that English speakers can't access in their speech.
*yawns* I'm sleepy again now. *wanders back to bed*