some background...ere ...born to an ex-officer of the Nationalist Chinese Army and his Hong Kong wife in 'Emperor' MacArthur's cold war Japan, Tom and family -- parents and their five children -- found eventual residence in Stockton, California, and later became naturalised 'strangers' and new American citizens. This Central Valley town in the 1960's very closely resembled the setting of George Lucas' pre-Star Wars "American Graffiti" and in fact, Modesto, some 30 miles down the highway was where Lucas grew up. The hometown, for some, was a great place for growing...and leaving. Another less romanticised view of Stockton comes from Leonard Gardner's raw and observant, no punches pulled "Fat City".
From the Big Valley to the Bay Area to the Big Apple, in pursuit of the dancing muse, Tom's displacements brought him eventually to Köln (Cologne) and Tanzforum, the contemporary dance company attached to the city's Opernhaus. And here it is where seeds of Winterreise and Lieder, and a growing appreciation for German language and culture, were sown...and, so-to-speak, germinated. Not ever having previously studied the language, first essential words and useful phrases were acquired by necessity and inescapable epicurean sensibilities. A first top floor apartment on Brüsseler Straße was perched high above a ground floor bakery that seemed to specialise in Schnecken..."bitte, zwei!" And almost every morning, the short but important phrase was well rehearsed. (tbc) ...
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