Discoveries: Arts and Culture

The topic of Dr, Ira Kasoff's  blog post is " HK demonstrations Taiwan Connection s"  October 2, 2014 World Affairs Council, Northern California, San Francisco   Ira Kasoff  delivers remarks  updating people on the status of the Chinese Government's position vis a vis HK and Taiwan and the USA  . I see him at the WAFC in SF on the evening of October 2, between 4-6:00 PM   Dr,Ira Kasoff , former Assistant Secretary to the  US Secretary of Commerce, State Department  is now a senior counselor and member of APCO"s International  Advisory Council.   His experience in Asia spans more than three decades.  He has had 7 commercial service assignments in addition to private sector and academic experience.  He was principle commercial officer at the US Consulate General in Shanghai, commercial counselor at the American Embassy in Tokyo and senior commercial office at the US Consulate General in HK .  Earlier in his car...

Janet Roberts and Colm Toibin  Irish Society a sponsor I said hello to Colm Toibin.  I reminded him we met at Fudan University and M in Shanghai; he said “you are living here now?” I remarked that he is looking especially well, that America must be agreeing with him(he has been a year at Princeton, then Stanford and now Columbia University).  He replies with a laugh, that he thinks a good shower is key to appearance, especially at his age; being really clean goes a long way!  He humorously rubs his bald head, which is shining.  The book, " Brooklyn" which he was touring in Shanghai, when he judged the First Asian Booker prize ,  is being made into a movie.  I told him I participated in a book discussion about Brooklyn, a week after his reading, in Beijing.   I tell him that I remember his lecture about always knowing the house in your story, that it is central to a convincing narrative in that you know  where the boards creak on ...

Amy Tan spoke at the Norse Theater in the Arts and Lectures Series.   She is in conversation with Roy Eisenhardt.   A delight as always; Amy Tan  has such an unaffected delivery.   She says "coincidence" has played a large role in her inspirations for her novels.  She is searching for her identity; she does not want to forget people and events in her life.  She likes to preserve the method of Memory and the Moment.  She has been reading Walt Whitman and likes his search for "the Self".  She captures memory through a photo of her grandmother sitting on her desk and from her mother's stories. Rachmaninov's third concerto, the first movement in D is her favorite and  and she plays it every moring, before she starts to write.  She repeats one moment continually until she is through a passage in her novel...when she sits down to write, she knows where she is, when she turns on the music. She is concerned more with e...