Morning walk to Santuario della Madonna di Monte Berico; up the long arcade to the small, central-plan baroque church on top of the hill. There is a wide view there from the Piazalle della Vittoria, out to the Dolomites, across the Veneto, and to the Lagoon of Venice. Inside, the church is full of color and geometry.
The walk back down the hill, is toward the Fume Bacchiglione, past Villa Valmarana ai Nani and Villa Rotunda. It's a wonderful walk that I've taken before, but in the other direction, returning to the historic center over the Ponte San Michele.
In the afternoon, a guided tour to see a few Palladian highlights, and first up is the Teatro Olimpico, Last group in is half past four, so we have to hustle.
Finishing the day with a sunset aperitivo on top of the Basilica Palladiana, with views out in all directions, including toward the Duomo and back again to Monte Berico.
The trip involved flying through Frankfurt, Germany, to the Airpot in Milan, taking a train to Milano Centrale station, and then another train to Vicenza, in time for dinner.
From the top image, it's clear they are shining colored lights on the facade, but the arcades are lit as well. It looks stunning, of course. When we return from dinner, however, all the arcade lights are off. When we come around the corner we can see why – they are projecting a multi-media show across the entire building. I woke in Berkeley at about six this morning; it's now noon the next day as I write this. After 30 hours without real sleep, it truly feels like a hallucination: images of stars fields, building blocks, and fire.
Here is a small collection of pictures of my father from recent family gatherings and events. First, a couple of oldies but goodies. Above, of course, is a picture from his school days in Tokyo, Japan, with his beloved violin. Below is an image from what must be Christmas 1961-62, in Madison, Wisconsin, with Aunt Miko, Uncle Paul, and the Man Called Acheh. Those drapes are amazing!
In the summer of 2008, before my parents moved to California, we all got together to enjoy one last round of golf at the Eagles Landing Par 3 in Happy Valley, Oregon, and to talk about our plans for the move.
At Thanksgiving-time, 2008, Donna and I took my folks to Japan, to the southern island of Kyushu. Here we are on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. My father told me stories about visiting the palace as a grade school student, and seeing the Emperor in some ceremony or other.
We took the train to Kyushu, traveling through the Kanmon Tunnel, which our grandfather, who had started his career as a Japanese train stationmaster, had some part in planning and building. Here we are enjoying a local seafood and noodle dish in Imari called champon – such a memorable bowl.
The image below left is from the ceramics village at Okawachiyama, and below right is the approach to Kumamoto Castle which was restored and re-opened to an amazing level in April of 2008, but then damaged by an earthquake in 2016; we were very lucky to have been able to see it in that short window. Below those images is a picture of our return trip through Tokyo, with Uncle Keisuke and on the platform at the train station. It was a very nostalgic trip for my father, with stories of how he dreamed of being a samurai like Miyamoto Musashi, whose spirit haunts the area, in seclusion in a cave, meditating, and absorbing the wisdom of the world.
Here are some pictures of some fun times with family, making really-really big soap bubbles in the summer of 2009, with Reiko and Itsu, and Miko and Paul.
In June, 2009, we had a little birthday gathering for my father, and played some golf at Mariners Point.
The below images are from move-in day at the Peninsula Regent, February 2010. My parents asked Donna and I to shop for, and furnish their condo. We went very twentieth-century modern, with simple clean shapes, but those dining chairs were temporaries. The other picture is from Thanksgiving, 2011.
The next set of images are from the 2010 Family Reunion, in the "luxury box" at AT&T Park in San Francisco. I had always wanted to take my father to a baseball game, and as we knew it would be difficult to get him into the stands, we thought to get a box for the reunion so we could all enjoy each others' company. Matthew taught him all about rally caps.
Here we are in May, 2012, near Lake Siskiyou. We were traveling to clear the house in Portland, and driving back to San Mateo with a mini-van full of old posessions. Going through their possessions was quite a chore for everybody, but the trip was actually very enjoyable. We had a nice lunch, rockin' the Kangol lakeside, and drove home with lots of trinkets and memories.
"Overseas Taiwan independence sports pioneer Chou Shi-ming passed away at 88 years old - News About People
[News About People] promoted the Taiwan independence movement overseas for life. He was the founding president of the "North American Taiwanese Physician Association", Chou Shi-ming who passed away last week and enjoyed his life as 88 years old. Chou Shi-ming is an international neuropathology authority. When he practiced in the United States in 1963, he The Kuomintang believed that it was in contact with the Taiwan independence movement and was listed as a blacklist. It could not return to Taiwan. However, Chou Shi-ming and his wife, who are also physicians, were not afraid of authoritarian pressure and continued to struggle for Taiwan."
Freedom Square, Miss Zhou Weiming
Freedom Square" Miss Zhou Weiming Physician - Free Newsletter
2018-09-14 06:00
◎ Chen Moaning
Chou Shi-ming, the founding president of the North American Taiwanese Physicians Association, passed away last week at the age of eighty-eight. The younger generation may be a bit strange to Chou Shi-ming and Wu Shiu-hwei. They are high-ranking students of the Taiwan University of Medicine in the 1950s. When Dr. Chou Shi-ming was about to get a Ph.D. in the United States, he was blacklisted by the special agents of the Chinese Nationalist Party. The consulates wanted Chou to write a repentance. The book guarantees that it will no longer participate in any activities against the government. Chou doctors insisted on not accepting it. Because the passport could not be postponed, Chou and his wife had lived a life without nationality and faced the fate of being sent back to Taiwan. Later, he taught West Virginia University and state legislator Staggers to successfully persuade the federal government to grant Chou Shi-ming's right of abode on the grounds that Chou Shi-ming was "an important health scientist indispensable to West Virginia."
According to academic evaluation, if Chou is not a health problem, he will delay the research time, and he should have the chance to become a Nobel laureate. This shows his academic achievements. Unfortunately, most Taiwanese students do not dare to worship because of the blacklist. He is a teacher. Most of the students he teaches are foreigners, especially Japanese. He also has a feature that in addition to painting, he also likes music and pulls a wonderful violin. According to him, he still catches up with Dr. Wu Shiu-hwei because of the violin.
In August 2006, the Taiwan independence league opened a committee in Portland. During the evening, Dr. Chou played the cello. His original specialty was the violin. He changed the cello because of Parkinson's disease. Particularly peaceful. In August 2016, the author went to San Francisco to visit the couple of physicians. When he entered the door, he found that he turned the ward into a studio, and there were many finished products on the wall. There was a professional painter's momentum. From any angle, he was not like a patient. The nurse said that I have never seen such a busy patient.
Chou and his wife are the predecessors of the Taiwan independence movement. They are even more extraordinary in academics. However, in the political movement's persistence or academic achievement, Chou is not necessarily unprecedented. However, there are very few people like him who do not occupy the stage. Grab the stage and cause internal wars. The couple of Chou and Chou did not have this problem. The reason is that Chou has a variety of expertise to satisfy the sense of accomplishment and will not grab the stage.
People with more than two specialties may rely on one of their specialties to eat, and this feat may not be their favorite feat because they need to compete with others. People with a second specialty, because they don't have to rely on the second feat, so they don't have to compete with others, they just compete with the past, and they are always making progress and satisfying their sense of accomplishment. Only a person with expertise, because it depends on it to eat, competition with people is inevitable, and even the habit of developing unscrupulous means, of course, not happy, so it is very important to have more than two specialties.
(The author is a retired professor at Sun Yat-sen University and president of the Taiwan Security Promotion Association)
The 2018 Red Sox were off to an historic start: 17 wins and 2 losses – great pitching, some amazing come-backs, five grand slams (in twelve games), and a four game lead in the AL East. They rolled into Oakland after sweeping three from the AL's second best team, the Angels (13-6), essentially knocking them into second place in the West. They took game one from the A's, 7-3, after Mitch Moreland's supplied that fifth granny, and the bullpen made a great effort in support of a shaky come-back start by Drew Pomeranz.
So it was with a lot of anticipation that we headed to the Coliseum last night to watch what was, on paper, the marquee pitching match-up of the series: the A's Sean Manaea versus the Red Sox' Chris Sale – two of the league's best lefties.
Manaea started off by walking Mookie Betts, but got Andrew Benintendi to ground into a fielder's choice, then struck out Hanley Ramirez and JD Martinez. Manaea would proceed to keep the Red Sox off the bases except for an error by Marcus Semien on Sandy Leon's bloop pop. Leon would advance as far as second base on a wild pitch, but Manaea would strike out Jackie Bradley Jr to end the threat (JBJ would strike out three times).
The A's would scratch out three runs on Sale; Semien would score all of them. Sale was not in bad form, but despite striking-out ten A's and walking one, he was not his "other-level" super-sharp self.
In the bottom of the ninth, Manaea passed 100 pitches thrown, and was down to his last strike on Benintendi, as the crowd stood and cheered each throw. But Beni worked a full count, then walked to bring Hanley to the plate. But Hanely ground into a fielder's choice to end the game and seal the no-no.
It was tough to watch the Sox lose, but amazing to witness a no-hitter. The energy in the Coliseum was amazing and, of course, Manaea was truly impressive: ten strike-outs, two walks, and only three batters above the minimum.
