This weekend I am disconnected.  No internet, no cell phone, no computer, no TV, no radio, no newspaper, nothing that connect me to the rest of the world.  I went to a retreat in Rosemary Height in Surrey.  It is a very beautiful place far away, about an hour drive from Vancouver.  The site is built for the sole purpose of hosting retreats.  It is surrounded by trees, it has lots of greenery, we even see a deer outside our the building.  This retreat is not those cheap retreat or youth camp I used to go to, I no longer have to cramp in a room with 8 other people, we have single rooms with comfortable bed.  The quality of the food is surprisingly good, we even got my favorite dish, roast beef, for dinner.  It is nice to have a relaxing weekend once a while, remove yourself from daily troubles, search deep inside your self for a quiet reflection.  Boring, maybe, but when your schedule is packed solid tight 7 days a week, boring time that you have nothing to do, you cannot do nothing, you don’t even have to think about anything else is a welcome break from the busy life.

I am studying philosophy of art this term, I have been learning difference aesthetic theories from different philosophies. Some think art has universal value that can be appreciated by anyone, some think the value of art is merely how it is framed.

Washington Post has carried out an experiment trying to find the answer. Let’s stripe the frame from the art and see how many people can still appreciate art as it is. The Post arranged the best violinist, Joshua Bell, with his $3.5 million Stradivari violin, be a street performer at a subway exit in morning rush hour. During his one hour performance, 1097 people walked pass the subway exit.  Guess how many people slow down to listen the music and how much money he earn?

The Post would expect there at least a small crowd in front of Bell, his concert ticket costs at least $200, he is really good.  In the end, out of the thousand people walked by, only 7 people stopped to listen and he made $32.17, in which $20 come form the only person recognize who he is.  Yes, someone gave him pennies, but no one applauded.  Almost everyone simply ignored him, filtered out his music as background noise and move on with their own life.

What this experiment tell us?  There are different aspects to analyze the experiment.  Maybe urban people are just too busy to slow down and listen to good music.  Maybe it gives the answer to the age old Zen question: if a great musician plays a great piece of music but no one hears, is he really good?  Maybe it is a good experiment for Bell as a lesson to be humble.  He may worth $1000 a minute in concert hall, but he is just a no body without his fame.  Maybe an art without a frame is not really an art.  What is art?  Really?

The full article can be found here.  It is a bit long, but very thought provoking piece of journal worth spending time to read.

I just come across some interesting statistic on US presidency candidates and their family value.

Republicans:
John McCain – divorced once, having an affair with the current wife cause the divorce.
Rudy Giuliani – divorced twice, married three times
Mitt Romney – married once, but he is a Mormon, which support polygamy.
Newt Gingrich – divorced once, having an affair with the current wife cause the divorce.
Fred Thompson – divorced once

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton – married once, still marry to Bill Clinton
Barack Obama – married once, no affair (yet)
John Edwards – married once, no affair (yet)

Most people would think the Republican will play the family value card to please their evangelical Christian base of support. However, it seems their candidates are not setting a good examples themselves. On a second thought, maybe those voter who care about family value should vote for the Democrats, at least they are not just paying lip service to family value just to cheat for more votes.

It is time to put away my ski equipment. Summer is coming fast and the weather is already quite warm in mid April. It is also the time to conclude what I have accomplished in this skiing season. I skied 8 times and snowboarded once. I took advantage of the $20 lesson deal offered by Whistler and took lessons to work on moguls. I planned to take the ski instructor level 2 PREP class, but unfortunate the class was canceled. Although I got my ski instructor certification last year, I didn’t do any teaching except give some pointers to my friends for fun. I can now do linking turns on moguls on blue runs, but I still struggle quite a bit on big moguls on black runs. One thing I really need to work on is my endurance. Usually I ski faster than my friends in the morning, able to keep up with them in the afternoon and falling behind in the final run of the day. They have banned me from taking elevator at work, forced to take the stairs to work on my legs. My lag time is improved form 30 minutes 3 months ago to just 5 minutes today. In the summer I got to keep exercising to stay fit, so next year I can keep up with them for the whole day. I didn’t buy any new equipment this year, except a pair of new gloves, since my old one was leaking. I got the CSIA official gloves. My friends joked that it is good to have CSIA logo hiding underneath my jacket sleeves, or I will be a disgrace to association since I fall down so often. I am planning to take the level 2 class next year, so my friends won’t call me the ski instructor who can’t ski.