SOUNDTRACK: JOSEPH CALLEJA-Tiny Desk Concert #344 (March 24, 2014).
J
oseph Calleja is an opera singer. This puts me at a huge disadvantage in that I have nothing really to say about him. I like some operas and have even been to one, but I have no real experience with the tenor voice. And his is quite amazing.
So I’ll just include what NPR does. Calleja is from Malta (although his English is perfect). He is 36 and is one of opera’s biggest stars. Evidently you can hear that his voice has matured since his early recordings.
The one thing I can include is that he makes a very funny joke in which he says that instead of playing the third song, they are going to do two hours of Dutch and Flemish operas.
What he really sings is : Tchaikovsky: “None But The Lonely Heart” ; Tosti: Ideale ; Puccini: E lucevan le stelle (from Tosca).
[READ: June 25, 2014] Double Happiness
I read this book several hours after reading Fleep and didn’t realize it was the same artist (I hadn’t noticed the name on Fleep).
There are some similarities in style between the two (Fleep looks a little more “professional.”). But Double Happiness had a lot more characters and a much more complicated plot. Nevertheless, the main character bears a passing resemblance to the guy from Fleep (his head is a circle and his hair is much the same).
The main character is Tom, a Chinese American living in Boston. He takes the bus to San Francisco (ugh that sounds awful) where he meets his “cousin” Jackson. Jackson lives in San Francisco (they’re not really sure how they are related) in a rent-free establishment. So Jackson tells Tom to absolutely stay with them while he’s in S.F. (it’s something to do with a business trip, but those details aren’t too important).
When they arrive at he flat, Tom meets Jenny, Jackson’s girlfriend, and her sister Ji Lian. Everyone is super nice to him. But soon they start laughing at his Chinese failings–he can’t use chopsticks very well and he doesn’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin or whatever they are speaking. (It turns out to be Hokkien). Tom has a minor breakdown as he explains that he has never fit in anywhere. In Boston he was the only Chinese person in tiny suburb and now he can’t even fit in in a Chinese community. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 