Creating Music and Asians on Screen

Just a couple of things I found of interest over the weekend. First on PBS, the documentary "The Slanted Screen". This one hour documentary covers Asians on screen today, including Sessue Hayakawa silent film career.

Interest to Edna Purviance fans: Edna had a strong interest in Oriental culture and her Hollywood home was full of treasures from Japan and China. Oriental art was all the rage during the early part of the 20th century. Many pieces are in her family's collection today.

Edna would have been introduced to Oriental culture during her childhood trips to San Francisco. The city has a size able Asian population beginning with the first California gold rush, circa 1849. During this time, life was good, but as the population grew and areas became states, the promise of a better life turned to dust - digging out gold and silver mines and tunnels for the railroads. Descendants of these early laborers still live today in western towns.

Also, on Edna's first sailing to Hawaii in 1917 with Charlie Chaplin and Rob Wagner, she fell in love with Hawaiian Culture. Edna didn't want to return to Hollywood. There are photos in the family collection of the trip to be shared in the future.

Now the second item is from my personal interest file in music. NPR had a report today about how 'want to be' musicians are now able to create music with anyone in the world. With web sites like Jamglue and eJamming, you can create music with others from your own computer. Check out the NPR report for links.

Also: The US has new postal rates today. Costs have increased on packages and mailing internationally. Here is the list of rates from the US postal service.

Travel Thought...
Just a thought if you plan a trip to the UK this summer. I was reminded of this upon reading about an experience recently of an America getting upset at a public place about the prices in the UK. Face it, the dollar is not worth much in the UK, as the value of the dollar has dropped in the last few years.

Just remember to be polite to your host, except the cost, plan carefully, and enjoy the experience. It is a wonderful country to visit, just be aware. Want to save some money? Go in the off season, it does help...