Over the Lunar New Year Holidays, I was invited to a new friend's house. We drank beer and ate traditional Vietnamese food especially prepared for the New Year. I am a good listener during a conversation because I have empathy. Everybody has a story to tell, but to my disappointment very few people care to what I have to say. So whenever somebody wants to unburden himself, I'm all ears. That evening the host spilled his guts after a few drinks. He told me of his playboy days of glory when he was young and prosperous and had easy access to recreational drugs and pretty women. I was impressed and listened to his reminiscences with rapt attention. Then he sashayed to his expensive stereo equipment and turned on a a recorded video clip of Khánh Bình. I had never heard of KB before. I was immediately floored by the singer's stage presence and his truly phenomenal ability to switch back and forth in female and male voices in the same song, with equal flawless delivery. He can also sing Vọng Cổ (Southern Vietnamese opera).
Ever since, I have listened to nobody but this singer. When he sings, my mind and body is flooded with joy and vitality and awe for the singer's uncommon gifts of perfect ear for music and incredible mimicking ability. I can't really sing though in my current twilight years of life, I've picked up singing. The more I sing, the more I appreciate language and music, and the better I speak and deliver my sentences (I have a speech impediment called stuttering). Man is the only animal that has developed an incomparable system of language and music. With the invention of writing and now aural and video transmission and recording, Man has stepped into true timeless history. He has permanently preserved memory. He has achieved vicarious immortality through his voice and his words.
February 18, 2016
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