Gong Xi Fa Cai - that's how you say "Happy New Year" in Chinese, but using Roman letters. Which people use in Malaysian. So, Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!We've been having fun with all the new year celebration events. One of the biggies is
lion dancing, but I'm saving that for a separate blog. There are also "Gods of Prosperity" who visit various hotels and malls, and people go to 
have good luck (and obviously prosperity) for the coming year, this year of the dog.The Central Market has a wonderful display of three-dimensional animals of the Chinese zodiac - the dog was so-so, but the tiger was
adorable (rather than fierce), and the dragon looked quite friendly (rather than breathing 
fire). People were posing for photos with the 
dog, and possibly the animal for their year. There are shops all over selling red lanterns, seemingly necessary for
new year's celebrations around here. The streets are lined with the red lanterns, but the shops were amazing! Who knew there were so many kinds of 
red lanterns? Not just spherical, but shaped like hot air balloons, like an inverted raindrop. Some plain red, others with gold borders, or pink flowers, or gold prints. Some 
with tassels, others with 
streamers. It was fascinating to see all the lanterns just jammed together.I didn't buy a lantern, because we just have hotel lights. But I thought we needed a little some- thing for the Year of the Dog, so I bought us two small red dogs with tassels. Both have embroidery, sequins, gold stitching, and are crazily over-decorated for how small they are. One is free-standing, the other is more like a holiday ornament - two sided but fairly flat. We have them hanging from a window,
and it makes the hotel room look just a little more personal.For several nights around the 16th, the actual day for the new year, we were surrounded by fireworks! Not big huge fireworks, but the smaller fireworks and
rockets that people buy and fire off to make noise and lots of light - to scare off the evil and negative influences, spirits, demons, depending on your point of view.Our hotel room (first hotel) was on the 3rd floor, but that's actually five floors above ground
level. (Ground floor; mezzanine; first; second; third.) Less than half a block away, for three nights in a row, someone set off a series of rockets and fireworks which exploded just about eye level for us when we were in our room! It was fabulous! We both love fireworks, 
both the noise and the explosions and the flashing colors and lights - and this was like a private fireworks show just for us!!! Absolutely wonderful! There have been other small fire- works exploding around the area, since we're on the outskirts of Chinatown. We often hear
them, but don't always see them. Sometimes we only see the top portion of the exploding lights, barely reaching above the buildings across the street. But it definitely makes for a festive atmosphere!We can also see the KL Tower from our hotel window (new hotel), and
the tower puts on a light show every night! It's lit up and white, then changes through a rainbow of colors, sometimes half and half, sometimes the 
tower body in one color and the viewing area on top in contrasting colors. Fun to watch it every night to see what colors show up.Other than the various light
shows and fireworks, we haven't been doing much. A couple of dentist visits (but things are closed for two weeks for the Lunar New Year), a doctor 
visit and some physical therapy (and more to come), and me painting batiks at the Central Market.So we bought tickets for the
Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra. This city of 1.6 million people has a very good orchestra, with visiting conductors and guest performers as well as the in-house conductor. Members of the orchestra are 
from all over the world, although they appear to be predominantly of either Asian or Caucasian descent. (I'm looking at the program from 
tonight's performance, and many of the names seem very European - German, French, English, Spanish, and possibly Slavic.)The Philharmonic Concert Hall is located in the Petronas Towers. That's pronounced PEH-troe-nas, for the Malaysian petroleum company. But what can I say, I never remember and just pronounce it petronus, like a petronus charm.
The Petronas Towers are gorgeous, all shiny steel and glass, huge towers of overlapping squares and circles. Very Muslim in style, because the design is based on geometric shapes rather than any natural objects like plants or animals, which would be considered making a graven image.
The concert hall itself is also beautiful, full of horizontal beams of wood and lights, with more lights making a geometric pattern of the ceiling - concentric circles in the center, then criss-crossing lights like quilting across the rest of the ceiling. We like the first tier of seats, looking down on the lower floor and the orchestra - the acoustics are definitely better there.
Tonight's performance started with Mahler's Symphony No. 7. I don't know much of Mahler's works, but I do know he's known for his often discordant pieces as well as use of unusual instruments. The Symphony No. 7 definitely had all those aspects. I went to the concert with no idea of what the piece was about, so listening with naive ears (for lack of a better description), it first sounded like gathering the military, then marching armies. Clashing discordance battling in the orchestra and on the battlefield. At times the music was so unmelodic, it almost sounded as if part of the orchestra lost their place - except obviously the music was written that way. The battles gave way to something triumphant, then the French horns calling across a valley and echoed by the oboes and clarinets. Eventually the music turned into frolicking lambs in green pastures, young people gathering flowers, peace across the land - then a sudden burst of clangs and clashes and drums and the army was marching home. Back and forth, scenes of the homeland and the army at march, until they arrived and all was resolved.
Yeah, Mahler saw the various movements of the symphony as four differing aspects of night, followed by the brightness of day. Oh well.
I'm always amazed by the synchronized movement of the string musicians, all moving their bows in unison, creating rippling waves on a sea of music. Except on bass player, possibly the first bass, a very large man who was the only musician actually smiling as he played. He looked like he was dancing with his bass, moving his body with the music, moving his bass fiddle, ending each session of energetic bow work with a slowly raised hand in a balletic arch. He was fascinating to watch.
The second piece was Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nümberg. It was classic Wagner - grande, dramatic, melodic, dynamic, majestic. Clashing in emotion and volume, but always melodic. Powerful and emotional. Much shorter than the symphony, obviously, but it was a nice fit with the Mahler.
Then we had wonderful views of the Petronas Towers lit up for the night, as we left to head back to our hotel.
It's late here, so I'll end - but in the next few days, I'll post a blog about all the lion dancing we've seen!!!
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