Arrr! See CONTENTS for links to the 125 chapters of The Monstaville Memoirs plus introductions, conclusions, postscripts and appendices. This treasure trove also includes a collection of articles offering further insights into the themes explored in the trilogy. Namely, managing suffering and conflict (dealing with hostile people if you are nervous, sensitive or shy) and learning not to react
Classical dance of Han Chinese featuring dancers from China National Opera & Dance Drama Theatre (aka Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Dance department). This dance is beautiful and dolce.
采薇 Cai Wei
昔我往矣, When I left here,
杨柳依依。 Willow shed tear.
今我来思, I came back now,
雨雪霏霏。 Snow bends the bough.
行道迟迟, Long, long the way, hard, hard the day.
载饥载渴。 Hunger and thirst, press me the worst.
我心伤悲, My grief overflows.
莫知我哀。 Who knows, Who knows.
Lyrics are from Book of Odes. Translation by Xu Yuanchong.
Throw me a penny and I'll make you a dream You find that life's not always what it seems, no no Then think of a rainbow and I'll make it come real Roll me, I'm a never ending wheel I'll give you a star So you know just where you are Don't you know that I might be Your wishing well Your wishing well Look in the water, tell me what do you see Reflections of the love you give to me Love isn't money, it's not something you buy So let me fill myself with tears you cry, why? Time is a never ending journey Love is a never ending smile Give me a sign to build a dream on Dream on... Yeah, Throw me a penny and I'll make you a dream You find that life's not always what it seems, no no Love isn't money, it's not something you buy So let me fill myself with tears you cry I'll give you a star So you know just where you are Someday, some way, you'll feel the things I say Dream for a while Of the things that make you smile 'Cause you know Don't you know Oh, you know That I'm your wishing well Your wishing well Your wishing well I wish you well I'm your wishing well
'This peculiar spaghetti western from prolific director Demofilo Fidani (using the pseudonym 'Miles Deem') deals with a man named Blonde (Chet Davis) tracking bounty hunter Lazar (Hunt Powers) to the mining town of Lamazos.'
Supposedly dead, embittered former official, The Ghost Face Killer has returned and seeking revenge on those martial arts masters than once opposed him - his name is infamous and his Five Elements fighting style is deadly. Meanwhile, young Ah Pao joins a martial arts school in order to become a great fighter in order to take revenge on the man who killed his father. He gets very good quickly but timing is everything and his arrival at the school in relation to the return of the Ghost Face Killer sees him suspected of being connected and thus put out of the school. He falls under the tutelage of an elderly chess master in the town while all the time the focus of his vengeance kills his way closer and closer. (IMDb).
Snake In The Monkey's Shadow (1979)
Directed by Sum Cheung
Written by Sum Cheung and Wilson Tong
Starring John Cheung, Yao Lin Chen and Pomson Shi
A snake style expert travels the lands, imposing his mastery on others, until he runs into a monkey expert living on the edge of a small town, who defeats him soundly. The snake expert leaves vowing vengeance. A young peasant boy who is bullied by local noblemen seeks to learn drunken boxing from the head of a local martial arts school. The boys learns and eventually meets and befriends the monkey style expert. When the boy beats up his previous tormentors, the nobles patriarch challenges the boys teacher, the drunken master, who defeats the lot of them. Embarrased, the nobles retain two hired snake style killers, one of whom is the expert that that was beaten by the monkey style. They kill everyone except the peasant boy, feeling he is to weak and unskilled to be worth their honour. The peasant combines drunken' boxing with monkey style in an attempt to put down the snake killers. (IMDb).
Bonus
Wu-Tang Clan - Da Mystery of Chessboxin'
Sifu Kwok Daiha, demonstrates the Snake Form Kung Fu (蛇形拳) on Singapore's Amoy Hill.
“A monster is not such a terrible thing to be. From the Latin root monstrum, a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origins: centaur, griffin, satyr. To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.” — Ocean Vuong, from 'A Letter To My Mother That She Will Never Read,' published in The New Yorker