VietNam Life Style

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Battle royal between star captains in Vietnam Hat final

Captain of the Brown Team, Jason Lopez (L) leaps for the disk against the Blue Team in the Vietnam Hat semifinals on Sunday - Photo: Pieter Funnekotter

A see-sawing scoreline and a desperate physical contest between rival teams and captains kept spectators riveted to the final in the Vietnam Hat Ultimate Frisbee Tournament on Sunday.

The team captains, David Jensen, an American who resides in Saigon, of the Orange Team and Jason Lopez, a Filipino who works in Singapore, of the Brown Team, both veteran Asian Ultimate Frisbee players, faced off in a desperate competition of high flying grabs and belly sliding layouts.

Lopez said he had been the bridesmaid at the last three Vietnam Hat tournament finals and was determined to be the bride this time

After Sunday’s tense 10-13 loss in the fading daylight, Lopez, whose Brown team was underdog to Jensen’s Orange, could only wait for next year. Jensen’s masterful long throws and high grabs stole the match from Lopez whose focus on the flying disc and athleticism was akin to a border collie.

Brilliant performances from team members on both sides kept the scores moving neck and neck throughout the long match.

“In seven years of playing in the Vietnam Hat this is the highest level of play and the most breathtaking plays I’ve seen in a final,” Jensen said.

The opposite to Lopez, Jensen has won the four finals he has played in the Vietnam Hat – two of them against the Filipino.

The Vietnam Hat 2010 over the weekend at the RMIT International University fields in HCMC’s District 7 was the biggest Ultimate Frisbee tournament held in Vietnam so far with nearly 200 competitors from at least 13 countries.

There were 50 Vietnamese players, 20 expats in Vietnam with the remainder traveling from around the world to play at the tournament.

Most of the international visitors were taking a short holiday in Vietnam after the tournament before going home.

One of the Orange team players, Barry Labendz, 29, of Brooklyn New York, who is on a six week holiday in Asia, said, “That’s what’s cool about playing Ultimate, people travel around so much.”

“I have never traveled in Asia so I wanted to entrench myself in the Frisbee community,” he said.

The Saigon Times Daily was the proud media sponsor of Vietnam Hat 2010.

Related Articles

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Battle royal between star captains in Vietnam Hat final

Captain of the Brown Team, Jason Lopez (L) leaps for the disk against the Blue Team in the Vietnam Hat semifinals on Sunday - Photo: Pieter Funnekotter

A see-sawing scoreline and a desperate physical contest between rival teams and captains kept spectators riveted to the final in the Vietnam Hat Ultimate Frisbee Tournament on Sunday.

The team captains, David Jensen, an American who resides in Saigon, of the Orange Team and Jason Lopez, a Filipino who works in Singapore, of the Brown Team, both veteran Asian Ultimate Frisbee players, faced off in a desperate competition of high flying grabs and belly sliding layouts.

Lopez said he had been the bridesmaid at the last three Vietnam Hat tournament finals and was determined to be the bride this time

After Sunday’s tense 10-13 loss in the fading daylight, Lopez, whose Brown team was underdog to Jensen’s Orange, could only wait for next year. Jensen’s masterful long throws and high grabs stole the match from Lopez whose focus on the flying disc and athleticism was akin to a border collie.

Brilliant performances from team members on both sides kept the scores moving neck and neck throughout the long match.

“In seven years of playing in the Vietnam Hat this is the highest level of play and the most breathtaking plays I’ve seen in a final,” Jensen said.

The opposite to Lopez, Jensen has won the four finals he has played in the Vietnam Hat – two of them against the Filipino.

The Vietnam Hat 2010 over the weekend at the RMIT International University fields in HCMC’s District 7 was the biggest Ultimate Frisbee tournament held in Vietnam so far with nearly 200 competitors from at least 13 countries.

There were 50 Vietnamese players, 20 expats in Vietnam with the remainder traveling from around the world to play at the tournament.

Most of the international visitors were taking a short holiday in Vietnam after the tournament before going home.

One of the Orange team players, Barry Labendz, 29, of Brooklyn New York, who is on a six week holiday in Asia, said, “That’s what’s cool about playing Ultimate, people travel around so much.”

“I have never traveled in Asia so I wanted to entrench myself in the Frisbee community,” he said.

The Saigon Times Daily was the proud media sponsor of Vietnam Hat 2010.

Related Articles

Korean art meets Vietnamese art

Each visitor is given a lump of soft clay and instructed to roll it with their hands and carve their name on it. These balls will be shipped back to Jeju Island in Korea to make an unknown artwork - Photo: Thanh Hang

Durian Pie Factory, a collaborative exhibition between Korean and Vietnamese artists, is on at HCMC Fine Arts University until December 23.

This event is co-organized by Kim Ji Hye—an independent Korean curator and Nguyen Thanh Truc—a Vietnamese artist and member of the HCMC Fine Arts Association. The project has support from the consulate general of the Republic of Korea in HCMC and the HCMC Fine Arts University.

Eight Korean artists and three Vietnamese artists have produced 18 works ranging from paintings, installation art, and video art.

“Coming to Vietnam for the first time, we found durian to be a very strange fruit, yet we grew to like it. It’s the same for the artists from the two countries when they first met. It went from differences to harmony. This exhibition is just one step for Korean and Vietnamese artists to interact and understand each other,” said Kim.

The group of Seoul-based artists held a talk with a slideshow of art last week and an exhibition called Fluctuating Variation at ZeroStation, 91 A Dinh Tien Hoang St., Binh Thanh District.

Related Articles

Perfect of its kind

Conductor and HBSO music director, Tran Vuong Thach - Photo: Courtesy of HBSO

In the Saigon Opera House on Sunday evening, the HCMC Ballet Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) chose to offer Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony as the central item of its last concert of 2010. It was preceded by the same composer’s Slavonic March in B Flat Minor, and followed by a mixed-repertoire presentation by the dancers (replacing the advertised Four Seasons program).

It was clear from the opening notes that the orchestra under their director Tran Vuong Thach was in good form. The Slavonic March was as stirring and unsubtle as it was intended to be, and throughout the Russian spirit was strong, with Tchaikovsky’s affinity to his mighty successor Shostakovich occasionally apparent.

The symphony was also strongly played and full of beautiful episodes, especially in the second movement (taken at an appropriately unhurried pace). The Elgar-like third movement proved similarly effective, and the final movement was quite rightly given with exceptional vigour, particularly towards the end.

Ballet is essentially movement to music, and these days everyone’s doing it, from MTV to Vietnam’s own Yeah1 TV channel, with all conceivable styles on offer. But on Sunday evening the HBSO Ballet showed itself as involved in a strictly classical approach. They began with the vigorous mazurka from Le Corsaire (music by Adolphe Adam and others), continuing the Russian theme from the first half of the evening. This was followed by a pas de deux from the ballet Diana and Acteon, with Acteon dressed to resemble something between a stag (which in the myth he turns into) and Tarzan.

The highlight was the Duo from Chopiniana (also known as Les Sylphides). The two dancers here, Quynh Ly and Duc Nhuan, were outstanding in every way. They used the highly traditional Mikhail Fokine choreography, and indeed the whole evening was a tribute to these old Russian dance formulations, the very heart of the strictly classical repertoire. But this item in particular was genuinely magical, and more than made up for any lack of innovation in the program as a whole.

For the rest, we had the familiar corps de ballet numbers lit in white and dove-grey tones, with a pinkish light later turning to yellow. The very gestures we saw on Sunday can be seen on many an Internet site, so famous have these particular routines become. Let’s hope we experience some newer things soon, but these classical numbers, when well done, can never, in truth, be seen too often.

Related Articles

Perfect of its kind

Conductor and HBSO music director, Tran Vuong Thach - Photo: Courtesy of HBSO

In the Saigon Opera House on Sunday evening, the HCMC Ballet Symphony Orchestra (HBSO) chose to offer Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony as the central item of its last concert of 2010. It was preceded by the same composer’s Slavonic March in B Flat Minor, and followed by a mixed-repertoire presentation by the dancers (replacing the advertised Four Seasons program).

It was clear from the opening notes that the orchestra under their director Tran Vuong Thach was in good form. The Slavonic March was as stirring and unsubtle as it was intended to be, and throughout the Russian spirit was strong, with Tchaikovsky’s affinity to his mighty successor Shostakovich occasionally apparent.

The symphony was also strongly played and full of beautiful episodes, especially in the second movement (taken at an appropriately unhurried pace). The Elgar-like third movement proved similarly effective, and the final movement was quite rightly given with exceptional vigour, particularly towards the end.

Ballet is essentially movement to music, and these days everyone’s doing it, from MTV to Vietnam’s own Yeah1 TV channel, with all conceivable styles on offer. But on Sunday evening the HBSO Ballet showed itself as involved in a strictly classical approach. They began with the vigorous mazurka from Le Corsaire (music by Adolphe Adam and others), continuing the Russian theme from the first half of the evening. This was followed by a pas de deux from the ballet Diana and Acteon, with Acteon dressed to resemble something between a stag (which in the myth he turns into) and Tarzan.

The highlight was the Duo from Chopiniana (also known as Les Sylphides). The two dancers here, Quynh Ly and Duc Nhuan, were outstanding in every way. They used the highly traditional Mikhail Fokine choreography, and indeed the whole evening was a tribute to these old Russian dance formulations, the very heart of the strictly classical repertoire. But this item in particular was genuinely magical, and more than made up for any lack of innovation in the program as a whole.

For the rest, we had the familiar corps de ballet numbers lit in white and dove-grey tones, with a pinkish light later turning to yellow. The very gestures we saw on Sunday can be seen on many an Internet site, so famous have these particular routines become. Let’s hope we experience some newer things soon, but these classical numbers, when well done, can never, in truth, be seen too often.

Related Articles

War-time posters find new life as art

Hung up: A tourist flicks through war-time posters at a shop in Ha Noi. Vietnamese posters have become popular souvenirs among holidaymakers. — File Photo

Hung up: A tourist flicks through war-time posters at a shop in Ha Noi. Vietnamese posters have become popular souvenirs among holidaymakers. — File Photo

HA NOI — Vietnamese wartime posters featuring President Ho Chi Minh or heroic images of liberation fighters have become popular souvenirs for tourists.

The posters are common items alongside jewellery, clothing and more routine memorabilia like elephant figurines and keychains in the narrow, congested streets of Ha Noi's Old Quarter tourist district.

"It is a souvenir with a style element, at a reasonable price, more interesting than a cheap ‘fashion' bag that you can find in all these shops," said a German tourist, who gave his name only as Fritz.

He had stopped at an Old Quarter shop where his eyes feasted on poster portraits of Ho, the country's revolutionary leader who died in 1969 at the height of the war against the US.

The sale of posters began in the 1990s when Viet Nam's economy opened to the world and the number of tourists started to explode.

"Foreign tourists wanted to buy things linked to the war," said Nora Taylor, a specialist in the history of Vietnamese art, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

She said from Chicago that while many buyers think they have found a treasured, authentic historical object, a unique item from the war era is extremely rare.

An authentic poster dating from the conflict against French colonisers about 60 years ago, or from the later war against the Americans, sells for between US$300 and $2,000, according to owners of galleries which display the originals as well as cheaper copies that sell for as little as $5.

Pham Ngoc Manh, 33, who owns two Ha Noi shops, said he owns about 100 original posters obtained from their creators or from people close to them.

"I sell very few originals, mostly reproductions," said Manh, who estimates that only between 2,000 and 3,000 authentic posters survive.

"When Uncle Ho says ‘Victory', then we will win," declares one poster under a portrait of Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the republic, on a red background.

"Nixon must pay the blood debt," shouts another, which shows the former northern Viet Nam being targeted by a bomb carrying a picture of Richard Nixon, the late US president.

Some posters, newly reprinted, include slogans translated into English to please the visitors.

"For many tourists, it's a souvenir of the war rather than an object of art," Taylor said.

Among Vietnamese, though, there is little interest.

"Without tourists there wouldn't be any business," said Nguyen Bach Tuyet, 48, a gallery owner.

Manh, the other retailer, also has few Vietnamese customers. "They see enough of those things in the street," he said.

The authorities still hangs their slogans throughout the country. Billboards featuring Ho Chi Minh or war-era fighters do not dominate the landscape but they can be seen in some places. Key political and social events are heralded with red banners strung across main streets.

"Vietnamese suffered incessant wars for generations. Maybe by the time the fighting finally ceased, they did not want to be reminded too much," said Richard di San Marziano, curator of the private "Dogma Collection" of original posters from the 1960s and 70s available for viewing only on the internet.

"Maybe they will become interested" one day, added the Briton who lives in HCM City.

San Marziano said foreign visitors are greatly interested in Vietnamese patriotic posters because it is "vigorous, fresh and interesting compared to other countries, and the work itself is an historical document." — AFP/VNS

Related Articles

Lao art troupe to perform in Ha Noi

HA NOI — The Lao National Art Troupe will perform in Viet Nam this week at the invitation of Viet Nam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The 35-member troupe will appear in Ha Noi on Thursday and Saturday and in Bac Giang Sunday. The shows coincide with Lao Cultural Week in Viet Nam, December 21-28.

Writer donates books to museum

HA NOI — Writer Nguyen Dac Xuan donated a collection of books to the Museum of Vietnamese Literature.

Xuan's work includes 700 Nam Thuan Hoa-Phu Xuan (700 Years of Thuan Hoa-Phu Xuan) which won the silver prize in the 2010 Beautiful Books awards, as well as nine other volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Xuan also donated a 19th century portrait on metal of the poet Nguyen Phuc Mien Trinh (1820-97) who was a member of royal family in the Nguyen dynasty and served as a mandarin.

The writer has granted books for the museum in 2006 in the central city of Hue. Xuan will donate valuable books for the museum in the future to let people have chance to read them, he said.

Teenage pianist performs in homeland

HA NOI — Teen pianist Vu Dang Minh Anh, an overseas Vietnamese from Poland, will perform with the Ha Noi Symphony Orchestra tonight at the Ha Noi Opera House.

Born and raised in Poland, Anh has won many prizes in international piano contests in Poland and Italy. In tonight's concert, she will play The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Concerto KV 449 by Mozart, and Dumka and Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky.

VNews broadcasts on K+ network

HA NOI — VNews, the new channel of the Vietnam News Agency, is now being aired on digital satellite network K+.

VNews launched in August, with broadcasts throughout the day on the latest news and current events in politics, business, culture and society, from journalists throughout the country and permanent correspondents in countries and territories around the world.

K+ is also carrying THVL1, the channel of the southern province of Vinh Long, providing news and entertainment in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region.

VTC presenter wins talent crown

HCM CITY – Pham Khanh Ly, presenter of VTC Digital Television, won the HCM City Television's (HTV) annual Miss Charming Television contest held in HCM City at HTV Theatre.

Twenty-four-year-old Ly beat 12 other contestants in the competitions, which included evening dress presentation, talents and emceeing skills, at the HTV Theatre.

The Ba Ria-Vung Tau Radio and Television Station's hostess Ma Ngoc Dieu gained second prize while Tran Thi Thanh Phuong of HTV brought third prize.

During the four-day contest, contestants were judged on appearance, performance and emceeing skills, voice, poise, and presentation style.

All of the contestants work as reporters, presenters or hosts for television stations in the provinces and cities of Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Ninh Binh, Lang Son, Binh Thuan, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Nai, and HCM City.

The guest contestant from Laos, Nhom MaLa of Attapeu Provincial Radio and Television Station, also took part in cultural exchange performances with Vietnamese contestants. — VNS

Related Articles

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)