charvey in Vietnam

Stop Talking and Start Doing

On the left column of this blog there is a quote feed.  Today the quote is:

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
- Walt Disney

I love it.  It reminds me of what MRC, an old college friend of mine, used to say.  "Harv, there's two kinds of people in this world -- people who talk about doing things, and people who do things!"  MRC is now an orthopedic surgeon.  Preach on, brother, preach on.

Spotcrime.com

Here's a service a friend of mine started.  It allows you to map crime events in your area.  I helped him name it, so I get 10% :-).  Spotcrime.com -- it's the new Google (same same, but different).  I command my Public to go there now!

Traffic

Troi oi, traffic is getting nutty in Saigon.  Not only are there many more motorbikes clogging the streets, but it's the buses and cars that really make things crazy.  Streets here are rarely more than two lanes in both directions.  Usually the cars and buses stay in the left lane and motorbikes in the right lane.  Since motorbikes are small, motorbike traffic acts like a fluid -- it can easily flow around obstacles that crop up.  Problems arise when buses and cars move to the right lane for various reasons, like stopping at a bus stop ("nha cho xe buyt" or, literally, "house wait vehicle bus") or just plain pulling over and stopping in the right lane because the driver is an idiot.  I also enjoy the sight of cars mucking things up by pulling u-turns across several lanes of crowded traffic.

Yesterday I had a morning meeting across town from my house.  I hopped on a xe om (literally, "vehicle hug") which is a motorbike taxi.  I wasn't sure where the address was, and I assumed the xe om driver knew where he was going.  He took an inefficient route, but that's beside the point.  The point is that the traffic was simply horrendous!  Saigon streets are rapidly reaching the saturation point where they simply cannot handle more traffic during peak hours.  There is still a ways to go before the problem really affects business and growth since I expect people will begin commuting earlier or later in response to the congestion.  But nevertheless, it's remarkable.  I usually don't see rush hour traffic because I walk about 10 minutes to work each morning.  I did have a sense that traffic was getting worse, though, because I walk through one of the busiest intersections in the whole city, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Cach Mang Thang Tam.  I've been seeing the motorbike cops there more frequently directing traffic when they are not issuing tickets. 

Not only is the traffic bad, but the street-level pollution it causes is a bit unpleasant.  There are many old motorbikes, buses and trucks here that belch out toxic black clouds filled with particulate matter.  The buses are bad, but trucks are the worst.  Stuck behind one, I've often wondered if the engine designer listed "Emit noxious black fumes" as a top design objective because it's hard to imagine it being worse.  I've learned that motorbike transport and contact lenses are a poor combination.

All that being said, the street-level pollution dissipates quickly later in the evening after traffic dies down.  There doesn't seem to be the kind of industrial, pervasive pollution suffered by China.  Skies generally are blue and sunny, not the opaque haze that afflicts Shanghai or Beijing.

Huge in Asia 2

I received an email from the Nate and Kai, the amateur film makers also known as "Huge in Asia."  They asked me to post the worldwide premier of their new video "Give Me Your Heart in San Francisco."  Huge in Asia has moved back to San Francisco from Hanoi and seem to be angling for "Huge in America" stardom now.  They have real talent.  Check out the video below.  It's clever.  All those views of beautiful SF bring back some memories too.  Enjoy! (Also check out their previous work "Hanoi Hustle" which is brilliant.)

 

A Time for Choosing

I stumbled across this 43 year old speech from the Gipper today.  Good stuff.

Christmas in Vietnam, Part 2

Yet another wacky Christmas in Vietnam.  The Vietnamese have adopted Christmas and made it their own.  They've also added unique Vietnamese Christmas traditions.  One is dressing up little kids in little Santa Claus outfits.  Another is the Christmas Eve Cruise, where pretty much everyone in Saigon gets on their motorbikes on Christmas eve to take in the spectacle and create magical Christmas traffic jams.  Yet a third is blinking Christmas lights suspended over the street and *everywhere*.  But the absolute weirdest thing I saw took place about two weeks ago.  I was walking to work one morning and saw two tandem bicycles (bicycles built for two people, where one rider sits behind another) sail through a busy intersection piloted by four men and women dressed in full-on Santa suits, pedaling away madly under the tropical sun.  I'm totally bummed I couldn't get my camera phone out in time to snap a pic, because it truly was surreal.

As promised, I snapped some pics that capture a tiny bit of the essence of Christmas in Vietnam.  You can view them here.  Also, check out more Vietnam Christmas goodies in my post from Christmas 2006.

Christmas in Vietnam, Part 1

Christmas is in full swing here in Vietnam.  The office staff have gone nuts decorating their spaces with Christmas stuff -- trees, lights, snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and even a giant stuffed Christmas bear.  The Tech Team even built a walk-through "ice cave" decorated with lights.  Not really sure about the Christmas relevance of the ice cave, but it *is* consistent with the winter theme.  It sorta reminds me of my hometown of Burlington, Vermont USA.  It's cold like Russia there in the winter.  Every few weeks I check out this webcam to see what the weather is doing in Vermont, real time.  Looks freakin' cold.  Funny how I never thought that freezing cold that will kill you in an hour if you are unprotected was unusual when I was growing up.

I am collecting pics that capture the experience of Christmas in Vietnam for a later post.  If any of my readers have good tips for Christmas-y scenes in Saigon, let me know!

Here's a little tidbit to tide you over -- a Christmas tree, Vietnam-style.  Enjoy.

Click To Play

Saigon Driving Range

Just north of downtown across the Saigon River is the nicest driving range I've ever had the pleasure of visiting (fyi I'm not much of a golfer).  A few weekends a month I go there and hit some balls.  There's always a cool breeze blowing off the river and the view of the river and Saigon skyline is quite nice, especially at sunset.

Here's a shot of the range at sunset.  I like the second floor near the river.  My shots travel further from there *heh*.

And here's the facility.  It's pretty sweet.  This woman next to me was excellent.

An Interest in Life

Those of you who know me personally know that I am a fan of quotations.  Here's one that spoke to me recently.  It appeared in my "Daily Literary Quote" application on iGoogle.

"Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music -- the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.  Forget yourself." 
- Henry Miller, American Novelist

Inspirational Story

I read this story today in the Wall Street Journal.   It moved and inspired me.   This man has an incredible passion for living and sharing.

Following a Stroke,
A Japanese Pianist
Reinvents Himself

Izumi Tateno Embraced
A One-Handed Repertoire;
Inspiration in Rehab

By YUKA HAYASHI
November 12, 2007; Page A1

TOKYO -- One evening in January 2002, 65-year-old Izumi Tateno was performing the last piece in his piano recital when his right hand began to wobble. The Japanese pianist, now 71, finished the Edvard Grieg piece with his left hand, and collapsed. He was having a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.

"In an instant, I lost all the music that I had accumulated inside me for over 60 years," he says.

See a performance by Izumi Tateno, who rebuilt his career as a one-handed piano player after a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.

Mr. Tateno still hasn't gained command of his right hand. But after a long, soul-searching journey, he is back on stage performing dozens of concerts a year. He plays music composed especially for the left hand, sitting on a custom-made bench that stretches across the length of the piano to give his left hand full sweep of the keyboard. He has appeared in several documentaries and has even played a duet with Empress Michiko.

"Many people have told me I should just take it easy," says the tall, soft-spoken Mr. Tateno. "But I am not interested in taking it easy. I don't even know how to. I want to perform as I have done in the past 50 years, so I can share my music with others."

Mr. Tateno's drive to rebuild his career after a late-life illness has resonated in Japan. In the rapidly aging nation, where 21% of the population is over 65, millions are eager to find ways to make their last decades of life meaningful. Thousands of seniors have applied to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the local equivalent of the Peace Corps, in hopes of serving as volunteers in developing nations. Others are starting up new businesses or signing up to volunteer to help bedridden seniors and working mothers with young children.

TWO COMPOSERS

 

Alexander Scriabin's "Two pieces for Piano Left Hand Op. 9" were included in Mr. Tateno's 2004 album "Piano Works for the Left Hand." Listen: "Prelude" | "Nocturne"

Takashi Yoshimatsu, a Japanese composer, wrote a series called "Three Sacred Songs for Piano Left Hand" that included a variation on Jean Sibelius's "Finlandia Hymn." Mr. Tateno played it on his latest album, "Izumi Tateno Plays Takashi Yoshimatsu." Listen: "Finlandia Hymn"

Hideo Yasuhara, a 71-year-old retiree who had a stroke three years ago, attended one of Mr. Tateno's concerts in September and was inspired. Mr. Yasuhara, a former department-store worker, was already keeping busy taking computer and calligraphy courses at a community center near his house in western Japan. After the concert, he decided to step up his rehab for his left hand, signing up for an intensive, three-week session.

"Mr. Tateno made me think I could do so much more with my life," Mr. Yasuhara says.

Born in 1936 in Tokyo to a pianist mother and a cellist father, Mr. Tateno grew up in a home filled with music. He had his debut as a classical pianist in Tokyo and moved to Helsinki in 1964, lured by the literature and the "pure and slightly sad" atmosphere of Finland. He married Maria Holopainen, a Finnish singer, and they had two children.

Mr. Tateno lived in Finland but regularly performed in Japan, captivating Japanese fans with the romantic music of Grieg and Jean Sibelius. Over the years, he gave 3,000 concerts and made nearly 100 recordings. He had just celebrated his 40th anniversary as a professional pianist when he collapsed on stage in a town north of Helsinki.

During the first few months after his stroke, Mr. Tateno assumed he would be back performing in a matter of months. But once home, he grew frustrated with the lack of progress. He could move his fingers on his right hand, but it was impossible to hit the same key repeatedly.

Sympathetic friends suggested that he play the "Concerto for the Left Hand" by Maurice Ravel -- one of the few widely known piano pieces for the left hand. But the mere mention of Ravel upset him. He wanted to play with two hands. Playing that piece felt like an admission of defeat.

"I thought I would never play Ravel even if I were dead," Mr. Tateno wrote in a collection of essays called "The Sea of Sunflower" published in 2004. "I said, to hell with music for the left hand."

Mr. Tateno spent his time going to rehab sessions and trying different masseurs. In early 2003, Mr. Tateno's son, Janne, visited from Chicago where he was studying violin. Janne Tateno had found a few piano scores written for the left hand in a Chicago music store. But he didn't give them to his father right away, afraid that he might be offended. He left the scores on his father's piano.

Mr. Tateno didn't talk about the scores or attempt to play them while Janne was visiting. But one day, he picked up one called "Three Improvisations for the Left Hand," by British composer Frank Bridge, who had written the music for a friend who had lost his right arm during World War I. Mr. Tateno began to play and got so immersed, he says, that he forgot he was playing with just one hand.

"That's when I came to realize that music was music, whether you play it with one hand, or two hands or three," he says. "That realization changed me completely."

Izumi Tateno playing at a concert.

Actually, quite a few scores for the left hand existed. Many were composed for soldiers injured in wars. The largest collection was written for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, the son of a wealthy Austrian industrialist who lost his right arm during World War I. Mr. Wittgenstein, who later moved to the U.S., commissioned composers, including Ravel, to write music for the left hand. The Ravel piece has also been played by Leon Fleisher, an American pianist who temporarily lost the use of his right hand because of illness, and Gary Graffman, another American pianist performing with the left hand, who also plays several left-hand pieces commissioned for himself.

Still, many left-hand pieces were short and not fit for the concert hall. Mr. Tateno asked a few old friends to help. Among them was Takashi Yoshimatsu, a Japanese composer of contemporary music known for his romantic style. "When he first came to me, he had a lot of anxiety, not sure if he could go back to the stage with just one hand," says Mr. Yoshimatsu. Other composers, including music students, pitched in, creating a library of about 30 pieces.

In the fall of 2003, Mr. Tateno returned to performing with a series of small recitals in Japan. To give his left hand a rest and to make up for his short performance, he talked with the audience. At one event, a woman asked whether he was frustrated that he couldn't play most of the music he knew.

"How can I be dissatisfied when I can express myself fully through music?" Mr. Tateno replied.

Mr. Tateno recorded the first of several CDs of music for the left hand and, in Tokyo in the spring of 2005, he performed Ravel's "Concerto for the Left Hand," the piece he had shunned after his stroke.

During a performance last year, Mr. Tateno suddenly felt an urge to play a simple melody with his right hand. He tried it and it worked. Mr. Tateno saw his wife, Maria, sitting in the audience with tears in her eyes.

"When I play with the right hand, I get a gentle feeling similar to new leaves coming out in the spring," Mr. Tateno wrote in an introduction to his latest tour. "They are still delicate, but maybe in time, they will grow strong."

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com