Conjoint Measurement Part I: Risk Arbitrage

[PiP]

Morpheme Morphology, Syntactically Speaking

[PiP]

大地的箫声 The flute-sounds of the great earth

[PiP]-[Post in Progress]

知音 — one who grasps your rhythm

After the previous posting of the classical chinese music of the 《十面埋伏》 / Ambush from All Sides from the 中国十大古曲, think I would be remiss not to mention one of the more celebrated pieces of music from that top ten list — the enduring symbol of classical chinese culture and art, the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water.

《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water

This version of the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water (performed on the guzheng/古筝, one of the many variations), dates from a popular score from the Ming-era.
And the music of the 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water alludes to the master qin(琴) musician Bo-Ya(伯牙), a legendary figure of the Spring and Autumn Period mentioned in various historical records.

And it was the following sublime description in the Taoist classic, 列子(LieZi), which left Bo-Ya, his mountains and water (AND the idea of the perfect audience) deeply engrained within the psyche of chinese culture, art and thought:

伯牙善鼓琴，钟子期善听。伯牙鼓琴，志在高山。钟子期曰：“善哉？峨峨兮若泰山！”志在流水，钟子期曰：“善哉，洋洋兮若江河！”伯牙所念，钟子期必得之。伯牙游于泰山之阴，卒逢暴雨，止于岩下；心悲，乃援琴而鼓之。初为霖雨之操，更造崩山之音。曲每奏，钟子期辄穷其趣。伯牙乃舍琴而叹曰：“善哉，善哉，子之听夫！志想象犹吾心也。吾于何逃声哉？”

Bo-Ya is talented at playing the qin (classical zither), Zhong-Ziqi is gifted at perceptive listening. When Bo-Ya plays with his heart set upon the high mountains, Zhong-Ziqi responds:”Wonderful! Such great heights, like Tai-shan!”. When Bo-Ya plays with his heart set upon flowing waters, Zhong-Ziqi exclaims:”Marvellous! The rolling of the waves, like a mighty river!”. Whatever Bo-Ya sets his will upon, Zhong-Ziqi is sure to perceive completely.
Once, when Bo-Ya was roaming the north face of Tai-shan, he met with a sudden monsoon, and took shelter beneath a rocky outcrop; his heart filling with melancholy, he began playing on his qin. Starting with the music of heavy sheets of torrential rain and bursting streams, next with the sounds of the breaking and tumbling rocks of an avalanche. With every tune played, Zhong-Ziqi was able to trace to the root its true essence. Bo-Ya put his qin down and sighed:”How very well you listen to music! Whatever you apprehend and imagine is exactly what I intended! What sound from my qin can escape your ear?”.

-from the LieZi/列子

The stories of Bo-Ya has him as a child prodigy who learnt his art with a famous qin master. But the young Bo-Ya was dissatisfied with his skills and felt that he was unable to truly enter into his music and portray every nuance and emotion there was to be expressed. His old master, knowing his intentions, brought him by boat to the immortal island of Penglai/蓬莱 (sort of the Chinese Atlantis); where Bo-Ya imbibed into his music the natural and harmonious landscapes of the fierce battling sea waves, the rolling and calling of the sea-birds, the rustling and sighing of the trees and leaves of the forests…and raised his art to the highest sublime level.

But the twist in Bo-Ya’s story is that, his one perfect audience who truly understood and appreciated his music, Zhong-Ziqi, was not a musician or artist or indeed, a sophisticate. Zhong-Ziqi was a simple and rustic lumberjack who chanced upon Bo-Ya playing his qin after a violent storm and who grasped within Bo-Ya’s music his expressions of nature experienced.

Alas, the best stories have bittersweet endings.
After celebrating his meeting with his one true appreciative listener, Bo-Ya arranged to meet with Zhong-Ziqi at the same place the folowing year. When the appointed time came, Bo-Ya arrived at the venue but waited in vain; discovering later that Zhong-Ziqi had died of an illness in the past year. Coming before Zhong-Ziqi’s grave, the devastated Bo-Ya knelt before his qin and started playing his 《高山流水》 / High Mountains Flowing Water…for the last time. At the end of the tune, the weeping Bo-Ya uttered:
“从此知音绝矣! (Henceforth, the one who understands my rhythm is no more!)”,
shattered his qin against the tombstone, and never played again.

In the end, the master practitioner/artist, rather than performing for multitudes, needs only that one true 知音 — the soulmate who grasps his intention-rhythm.

Slowhands

This ancient Chinese music is considered as one of the ten foremost pieces of classical music (中国十大古曲) whose exact origins are lost but have been major influences in Chinese culture through the centuries.

The 《十面埋伏》 or “Ambush from All Sides”, depicts the final titanic battle between 项羽/XiangYu of Chu and 刘邦/LiuPang of Han. The erstwhile victorious but now desperate 项羽/XiangYu fails to break the iron grip of the tightening manoeuvre employed by 刘邦/LiuPang (whose forces had been constantly on the backfoot in earlier engagements); and thus finally, the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.) was born.

Generations later, a Ming dynasty music historian was to describe the music of 《十面埋伏》 / Ambush from All Sides, as possessing such vivid battlefield images:

当其两军决战时，声动天地，屋瓦若飞坠。徐而察之，有金鼓声、剑弩声、人马声……使闻者始而奋，继而恐，涕泣无从也。其感人如此。

As the two armies engaged in combat, the clash resounds from heaven to earth, and the tiles on roofs crumbles into flying dust. Probing(listening) deeper still, there is the sound of golden drums, of swords and crossbows, of men and horses… … It causes the hearer to begin with excitement, to continue with fear, and to weep without end. It is truly moving.

Chinese pipa solo: 《十面埋伏》 Ambush from All Sides
[劉德海/Liu DeHai 1970]

(This 7min clip is worth going through. The tune gathers pace and gets faster and faster almost without letting up until the amazing breathless end. His hands simply becomes a blur.)

Another amazing slowhand:

Jimi Hendrix – Fire

Technical and Quantitative Equivalence…& Myopia

… consider the following statement that might be found in a typical technician’s newsletter:

The presence of clearly identified support and resistance levels, coupled with a one-third retracement parameter when prices lie between them, suggests the presence of strong buying and selling opportunities in the near-term.

… Contrast the above with the following statement which might be found in an academic finance journal publication:

The magnitudes and decay pattern of the first twelve autocorrelations and the statistical significance of the Box-Pierce Q-statistic suggest the presence of a high-frequency predictable component in stock returns.

Both statements are, in fact, saying the same thing: using historical prices, one can predict future prices to some extent in the short run. But because the two statements are so laden with jargon, the type of response they elicit depends very much on the individual reading them. [...] because the semantic differences are so great, the authors of the two statements will probably never see how they might both have benefited from each other’s insights.

-Andrew Lo, “The Heretics of Finance”

Andrew Lo is such a hoot.

[Lo have used these hypothetical statements before in earlier papers to illustrate linguistic gaps and cognitive capture.
]

Perturbed Identities & a Love Letter

Nina Power recently wrote of receiving intriguing “dispatches from another world” in her post — yet another identity crisis. Bemusingly, my emailed comment was added to the original post.

My comment reads:

Your last post, wondering about the unsolicited yet fascinating “dispatches from another world”, reminds me of Shunji Iwai’s 1995 film “Love Letter”. A tale of perturbed identities, a little pseudo-Gettier, time-conjoined doppelgangers, hope and grief, and of course, love.

This would be a good chance to sneak in one of my favourite films from the 90’s (part of the indelible impressions from the growing years), which features doubles within doubles (a pair of look-alikes plus a pair of same-names).

In Love Letter, Miho Nakayama plays two roles in the film, where as the petite and kooky Itsuki Fujii with her short-cropped hair and laidback/bookish/artistic je ne sais quoi, she was so endearing…

Miho_Nakayama_as_Itsuki_Fujii_petiteshortcroppedhair

Difficult not to like this film, with its doubly star-crossed twists of fate in names and likenesses, muted yearnings translated into enduring puzzles hidden within books and libraries, silent photographs joining with unknowing memories to finally reveal the most precious and tender of emotions…

A very well-done music video of the film:
Love Letter MV

The synopsis:
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/love_letter.htm

Film Trailer:
Love Letter Trailer

Probable Futures & Excluded Histories

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita feat Michel Foucault

A Perfect Deep Blue Day

It was a Perfect Deep Blue Day today.

Not a single cloud in the azure sky. Hot, yes; but the October tropical sun has already lost some of its edge and the heat was bearable and actually welcomed, to help melt away some of the mind’s fogginess as you walk along.

And walk along quickly I did today, surprised by a larger than normal weekend crowd at the coastal parks, only realizing later that it was a holiday. An ethnic holiday, which explained the large groups of non-local workers thronging the beach on their rare day off. Had to walk a good 8 or 10 klicks due east before I left the raucous crowds behind.

As I walked, I passed under the remnants of the half-eaten carcasses of once-carefree and high-flying kites, now lying broken and lifeless within the gnarly branching jaws of the always hungry kite-eating trees.
The heart feels for their dashed daedalus dreams; but it’s a darwinian world and the natural food-chain has little pity for pretty but playful kites dancing too close to the fatal treeline, and goes on remorselessly.
After all, trees have to eat.

Walking along, I was soon joined by my faithful companions of many walks — a pair of gulls.
Without fail, they come out in the late afternoons to surf the late-day sea-to-land winds. They almost never work their wings, simply spreading them wide to glide effortlessly through the sky, or sometimes catching a thermal to circle lazily higher and higher before breaking and sliding away silently, with the occasional taunting call.
Teasers these two, playing and putting on such a show when they know full well that landlubbers down below are going green with envy at their unfettered freedom.

But their most amazing trick is when a good even wind comes in, they turn to face it, spread their wings and simply hang almost motionless in mid-air. I have watched them hold this position for minutes, with only slight adjustments; looking for all the world like a couple of black and white kites flying-hanging serenely in the air.
A case of birds imitating kites, or kites imitating birds…

Anyway, enough rambling.
The song-in-the-head of the day:
2 actually — Deep Blue Day and Perfect Day.

Deep Blue Day
[-Brian Eno, composer of ambient music]

Perfect Day
[-Lou Reed, of The Velvet Underground]

Perfect Day
Just a perfect day
Drink sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark, we’ll go home
Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later a movie too, and head home

[Chorus:]
Oh it’s such a perfect day
I’m glad I spent it with you
Oh such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on x2

Just a perfect day
Problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
It’s such fun

Just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good

These songs are also from the soundtrack of the movie Trainspotting. This soundtrack is…very good; with some of the best Brit-rock and punk rock tunes.

And this is the blue(toilet)water scene from the movie which probably sparked my Deep Blue Day song of the day…

Blue – Trainspotting

(Yeah, I’ve had one of those down-in-the-dumps day too, Ewan.)

And of course the psychedelic drug-induced Trainspotting movie itself.

Trainspotting UK Trailer

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life . . .

Magic Stone Artists 魔岩歌手

After my prior reminiscing into memorable songs, decided to continue and indulge in some of my favourite tunes and musicians, from when they were still at the now-defunct alternative rock record label 魔岩/Magic Stone, especially their collaborative works.

Here is a song from one of 楊乃文-Faith Yang’s early albums, with music and lyrics composed by 张震岳-Ah Yue.

我給的愛-The Love I Gave

The simple tune and lyrics, with the 10×4 even lines and repetitive refrain, actually makes this song a good choice for learning mandarin; and it is simply breath-taking.
This song is like a test of Faith Yang’s mesmerizing alto voice and she seems to be singing the song in only a single breath. You can feel how the even cadence of the guitar undertone and beat (played by 张震岳-Ah Yue; and he also ghost-voices in the middle hauntingly) first measures against Faith Yang’s singing in even pace, but towards the end almost seems to be struggling to contain Faith Yang’s rising (but always controlled) emotionality.
Faith has some good lungs.

——————————————

And here is a rare and treasured clip. 陈绮贞-Cheer Chen and 杨乃文-Faith Yang sharing a stage and a song for the first time.
This was during 陈绮贞’s concert where Faith Yang makes her appearance as the mystery guest.

Cheer Chen & Faith Yang – Concert 2006

In the intro leading up to Faith’s entrance, 陈绮贞 was singing one of the songs that she wrote for Faith, 漂著/Floating. You can really see how different their delivery styles are, yet both are very compelling singers in their own ways.
The above clip also has a bonus 30secs at the end where you get to see them singing and bopping to a hippy Faith Yang song, 靜止/Stilled.

And here are the music videos of the songs:

漂著/Floating
[composed by Cheer Chen, performed by Faith Yang]

靜止/Stilled
[composed by Flowers, performed by Faith Yang]

(which suspiciously sounds like a sampling of The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love; but its all good)

——————————————

And this is quite possibly the music video with the most number of Taiwanese musical artistes together: 张震岳-Ah Yue’s 雙手插口袋-Sticking Both Hands In My Pockets.

雙手插口袋-Sticking Both Hands In My Pockets

张震岳-Ah Yue here caricatures the state of the music industry, as a low-level gofer (errand-boy) on the set of a music studio. Joining him in guest roles are various other artistes of the 魔石/Magic Stone record company. Wu Bai, of the rock band China Blue and big brother of Taiwanese rock, weighs in as a short-tempered and cigar-chomping producer behind the instrumentation and controls. Faith Yang, true to form, stars as a haughty and imperious big-name star. And Cheer Chen comes in as a dorky and clueless props-girl !

While funny, the video is also a sad and rather prophetic foretelling of 魔石/Magic Stone’s impending doom (it closed in that same year), with this line from Ah Yue in the song:
“Nowadays anyway, no matter how its done, only a few records are sold”

——————————————

Of course, I’m saving my poet-fairy 陈绮贞-Cheer Chen’s songs for later…