Cooked breakfast on a Sunday morning

Tourists from the Continent or East Asian countries may complain that British cuisine lacks refined and heavenly specialities, but they have to admit that breakfast is absolutely an exception.

The full British breakfast features a range of cooked food such as bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms, baked beans, and fried tomatoes, to name a few. And the list may go on.

No wonder William Somerset Maugham, an English playwright and novelist active in the 1910s to 1930s, claimed English breakfast to be the best meal of the day and recommended serving it three times a day.

Believe it or not, I I used to prepare full cooked British breakfast from scratch for myself everyday, except those days when I had hangovers. Yes, for five years. Apart from those basic ingredients, especially the most important baked beans, I usually had one more extra dish—an omelette filled with cheese, mushrooms and finely chopped spring onions.

However, although I still cook breakfast after returning to Taiwan, I seldom have so much in the morning. Most of the time the only cooked bit is just a fried egg.

Today, waken up by the radiant sunshine and bloody chirruping birds at five on a Sunday morning, I decided to go to the food market at seven, much earlier than usual, and then have a quick, compact version of cooked breakfast—grilled tomatoes, fried sausages, sautéed mushrooms and fried eggs, served with some toasted baguette slices.

Though not as extravagant as what I had when studying in Britain, it's really a surprise for my wife Fanne. It's not too bad to have a long lie-in and then wake up to a meal ready to eat on a Sunday morning, isn't it?

A tango at a tango bar

(Listen to 'Por una cabeza' by Carlos Gardel from Tango Bar, 1935)

There are several definitions of the word bar to be used as a noun. Looking it up in a dictionary, you would probably find the first several to be 'a long rod or evenly shaped piece of solid substance', 'a regular narrow block of sold material' and 'a band of colour or light'.

One or two items further, there comes something like 'a counter or place across which beverages are served'. Right, that's where you intoxicate yourself and get tipsy, tight or, in the end, blotto.

However, there are some other types of bars where alcohol is not the main option. For example, whereas a juice bar serves prepared juice beverages, an oyster bar features fresh oysters, which are usually shucked on site within sight of the customers.

There is also a kind of bar which I've never come across so far—a tango bar. I can't imaging what else people can do in a tango bar besides tangoing.

Well, it's actually a Spanish-language film shot in 1935, with Carlos Gardel, the legendary tango singer-songwriter, playing the protagonist. It's where 'Por una cabeza', the second-most recognisable tango tune, after 'La Cumparsita', is from.

Tango Bar was acclaimed in newspapers as 'Un drama de pasion y aventuras, realzado por la música y canciones sin par' (something like 'A drama of passion and adventure, heightened by music and songs without the parallel', I suppose). It's definitely worth watching; I shall grab a DVD.

This 78s record arrived two weeks ago. Let's enjoy the original song delivered by Gardel himself, after having been bombarded with the instrumental versions in so many Hollywood films such as Scent of a Woman, True Lies and Schindler's List and so on.

For lyrics and English translation, please refer to The Tango Lyrics Page.

Fast-growing Ronne

While women change their mind in a way more capriciously than we can imagine, just like a feather in the wind (not my personal opinion but based on 'La donna è mobile', a song from Verdi's opera Rigoletto), babies grow up at a speed much faster than we expect.

Well,today I'm not going to tell another story about another gramophone record. Thus, there is no audio player embedded, nor any old-time recording added.

I just want to share this photo with the dear readers of my weblog.

Roone will be 14 months old on the 5th of May, but at the moment he simply doesn't look like what a 14-month-old one should. One of the colleagues said he though this was a three-year-old boy.

It might be exaggeration, but Ronne does increase in size as well as change in appearance so fast that sometimes in the morning I would doubt if I took someone else's child home, when I had too much booze the night before.

Fortunately, it's always him, my good boy.


(2-day-old Ronne: what a difference!)

Mama... I want a boyfriend

(Listen to the ‘Mama... yo quiero un novio’ by FUJISAWA Ranko, 1954)

In my opinion, the Japanese people are a very diligent and fussy people in the world. Once they start working on something that originates from another country, they work really hard so much so that they become the second best, if not the authority, in the world.

Listen to the audio clip. Would you observe that the singer is actually Japanese if I didn't tell you so?

I found this record on eBay when searching for some Carlos Gardel's tango records. The song title 'Mama... yo quiero un novio' (Mama... I want a boyfriend) caught my attention first. After I saw the fourth line on the paper label, I clicked the 'Buy It Now' button straightaway without any hesitation.

Wow, a Japanese vocalist's performance of tango produced by a Argentine record company! I just feel compulsory to own this record.

FUJISAWA Ranko (藤沢嵐子) is a Japanese singer who started her career at an American club in Tokyo after the War singing Western classical works, jazz tunes and Japanese popular songs.

Enchanted by 'La Cumparsita' played by an Argentine tango orchestra, she found Argentine tango the music she really wanted to sing and therefore turned to tangos from other genres.

In 1950, Fujisawa made her debut at the Ciro Club in Ginza with the Orquesta Típica Tokyo, conducted by her husband HATAKAWA Shinpei (早川真平). She then made her first recording in the ensuing year for Japanese Victor.

In 1953, she performed at a theatre in Buenos Aires, where the president Perón was among the audience. She was actually on holiday and only planned to stay there for a couple of days, but was requested to sing for the audience in Buenos Aires at a theatre by the director of a radio station, who had heard her on Japanese radio before.

The performance was so successful that several local radio stations strove to engage her to sing in the air. She finally stayed there for two more months.

Fujisawa performed again in Argentina in 1954 and for the third time in 1956.

Truly awesome. A Japanese singer conquered the Argentinians with Argentine tangos. If I didn't see the Japanese name on the paper label of the record, I would never know that the singer is actually Japanese-born Japanese.


(Portrait image from MySpace)

Clink, Clink, Another Drink

(Listen to the ‘Clink, Clink, Another Drink’ by Spike Jones and His City Slickers, 1942)

The famous British comedian Spike Jones, together with His City Slickers, produced a drinking song titled ‘Clink, Clink, Another Drink’ in 1942, with a ‘soundie’, an early version of the music video to be played in a special film jukeboxe, which is now available on YouTube.

The record of ‘Clink, Clink, Another Drink’ I purchased from eBay arrived last week. It reminds me of the round drinking culture in Britain. Although it seems to be more efficient to buy a round, as only one from a group has to leave to get some drinks rather than all of the group members queuing up in front of the bar, it makes people consume more. For example, if five chaps buy you drinks, you absolutely have to buy a round for all of them to successfully organise a piss-up.

This is why it’s so common to see a person come in for a pint but end up having probably five. Therefore, I believe that, having lived in the UK for five years, British people out-drink their European counterparts. While toddlers in the Continent are given wine with meals as soon as they are weaned, as the rumour goes, British children grow up eager to emulate the round drinking habits of their elders.

At the very end of ‘Clink, Clink, Another Drink’, it goes ‘From now on I'll stick to milk/ Nothing else to drink for me.’ To me, it doesn’t imply going teetotal; it simply means there is no more wine/spirits/beer left. Pubs close at 11 o'clock in England and Wales, or 12 o'clock in Scotland, on weekdays, so the last round has to be ordered in time or otherwise nothing left to drink.

Enjoy this short hilarious piece.

Clink, clink, another drink
Plenty in the cellar when it's gone.
Drink, drink, the glasses clink
Making tinkly music till the dawn is breaking.

Clang, clang, who cares a dang?
What's the difference when you're on a spree?
Over the teeth, behind the gums,
Look out stomach here she comes
Hi! Have another drink on me.

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Trinkle, trinkle, trinkle, trinkle.
Slice of cheese and bite of pickle
Doesn't even cost a nickel
Now to wash it down.

Clink, clink, no more to drink
I had a cellar full, but now it’s gone.
Drink, drink, the glasses clink
Like the anvil chorus and my head is splitting,
uh, brinking, uh, busting. Oh brother!

Oh, ow, what'll I do now
Pink elephants running after me.
Oh, that stuff is smooth as silk
From now on I'll stick to milk.
Nothing else to drink for me.

Birthday celebration with my son

It's been the fourth year of rabbit since I was born. There are 12 zodiac sings and therefore I am 36 years old now.

Although so insecure I feel about what's going on next year and the year after next year, I have managed to survive so far. It's absolutely awful to be on tenterhooks, but I am gratified to have a one-year-old son celebrating the date of my birth with me.

Smoke gets in your eyes

(Listen to the British version 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' by Elsie Carlisle, 1934)

Of course we don't see clearly when we fall in love. However, I suppose when smoke gets in my eyes, wow, it's painful. Not only will it cause temporary vision loss, but also trigger coughs and bring tears trickling down the cheeks.

Before I bought this record, the only thing I knew about 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' was that it is an oldie, probably similar to something like 'Moon River'. Never had I realised that it is a 1930s jazz standard, as old as the celebrated 'Over The Rainbow' and 'Summer time', nor had I been aware of this British version recorded only one year after its composition.

According to Stanley Green's famous Broadway reference book Broadway Musicals: Show by Show, which I purchased about twenty years ago at a secondhand bookshop, it is originally a song written for the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta by the composer Jerome Kern and the lyricist Otto Harbach.

Just like many other evergreen pieces, 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' has been covered by several dozens of artists, of which the household name would probably be the doo wop group The Platters. The cover version they made in 1958, the very one I would think of when this tune rings out, reached number one on Billboard Hot 100.

Enjoy the British interpretation of this classic piece by Elsie Carlisle, the most popular radio performer in England in the 1930s. It's slightly faster than the covered one performed by The Platters.

Here come the lyrics for your reference.

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Oh, I of course replied
Something here inside
Cannot be denied

They said someday you'll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart's on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I can not hide
Oh, so I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes

A patchwork of profile portraits

Since the introduction of online activities or services such as instant messaging, blogging or microblogging, social networking websites and so on, there has been a need to create profile pictures or display photos. People would usually either take a snapshot with the built-in camera on a laptop or carefully select a spiffy one from a pile of existing photos.

It seems to me that savvy internet surfers, or those who are au courant with the cyber scene, are obliged to change profile pictures, so much so that I would produce interesting personal portrait from time to time in order to have a wee change and keep up with the trends.

I cannot remember how many portraits I have made so far and for which sites or applications those images were prepared. However, I am able to assemble some of them into a patchwork. No matter how each individual segment look like, the whole canvas is not bad at all, isn’t it?

Chinese Laundry Blues

(Listen to 'Chinese Blues' by George Formby, to the accompaniment of the Jack Hylton Band, 1932)

It's common to see, especially in old films, the stereotype of East Asian immigrants in the States as owners of specific small business such as restaurants, groceries and laundries. These figures are usually part of backdrops but never part of main story lines. I don't really remember any film about, say, a Chinese grocer, a Korean laundress or a Japanese sushi chef produced in Hollywood.

However, there is a record of an interesting song, 'Chinese Blues', written by a British singer-songwriter and comedian Geroge Formby, in which a fictitious laundry owner, Mr Wu, lost his heart to a Chinese girl and his laundry has all gone wrong. Here Mr Wu is the leading role, rather than an extra.

George Formby was most remembered for playing the banjolele, a kind of instrument with an American round banjo body and a Hawaiian fretted ukulele neck, and for singing his original comical songs. (See the photo, quoted from Slap & Tickle)

On a website dedicated to him, George is praised as a great person who "could hold a live audience in the palm of his hand as he sang and played the ukulele in his own inimitable style."

Composed in 1932, 'Chinese Blues' was his first successful record and later adopted by himself as the signature tune, with the renamed title 'Chinese Laundry Blues'.

Stereotypical figure as Mr Wu may be and perhaps some early-twentieth-century racism, prejudice and inappropriateness as there may be, I won't take it too seriously. Never mind. Replacing 'Mr Wu' with 'Uncle Sam', 'Chinese girl' with 'Scottish lass', 'Chinese Laundry Blues' with 'New York Laundry Blues', or whatever, I still see the Laurel-and-Hardy- or Chaplin-style hilarity.

Please refer to the lyrics below to see the whole picture of this song.

Now Mr. Wu was a laundry man in a shop with an old green door.
He'll iron all day your linen away, he really makes me sore.
He's lost his heart to a Chinese girl and his laundry's all gone wrong.
All day he'll flirt and scorch your shirt, that's why I'm singing this song.
Oh Mr. Wu, what shall I do, I'm feeling kind of Limehouse Chinese Laundry Blues.

This funny feeling keeps round me stealing
Oh won’t you throw your sweetheart over do.
My vest's so short that it won't fit my little brother.
And my new Sunday shirt has got a perforated rudder.
Mr. Wu, what shall I do, I'm feeling kind of Limehouse Chinese Laundry Blues.

Now Mr. Wu, he's got a naughty eye that flickers.
You ought to see it wobble when he's ironing ladies blouses.
Mr. Wu, what shall I do, I'm feeling kind of Limehouse Chinese Laundry Blues.

Now Mr. Wu, he's got a laundry kind of tricky,
He'll starch my shirts and collars but he'll never touch my waistcoat.
Mr. Wu, what shall I do, I'm feeling kind of Limehouse Chinese Laundry Blues.

Compiling my family genealogy chart

For about two weeks, since Ronne's birthday, I have been collecting names and dates about the Chen family and finally traced its history back to the 1660s.

My [great]⁸ grandfather was born in 1669, and his third son, i.e. my [great]⁷ grandfather, born in 1790, immigrated to Taiwan from Quanzhou (泉州), Fujian around the mid-18th century.

With all the relevant information, I have managed to draw a genealogical chart, spanning from myself, the 28th generation, to [great]⁸ grandfather, the 18th generation of the Chens.

It's a pity that names and dates before the 17th generation are still unknown. I have yet to consult more genealogy books compiled by other clan members in early years.

It is the Chinese tradition to record male members and their spouses in a genealogy book. The one kept by my father was compiled in 1983 to supersede the old one which had been produced in 1923.

Nevertheless, fortunately, I haven't got more than the names on this chart, otherwise I wouldn't be able to arrange them neatly within an A3 sheet. Ronne can collect more in the future.