My mind has been occupied much by a scientific project in the grant proposal I've been working on.
But I don't fancy writing about the project in detail in a blog here. Instead, I'll write about the project in an indirect manner.
Let's say, an aspect of science is a pursuit of novelty, a quest to the unknown, and discovery of something new. Most of the time, we achieve novelty by distinguishing the known and unknown first then asking a specific scientific question.
Much efforts go into elaborating or revising the question, so that we are asking a "right" question that can be solved through current scientific methods, and that can provide something useful.
[This is a point natural science is different from humanities and social science. In humanities and social science, the basic unit is human, which can be affected by culture, bias, education, position, and millions of other things. A truth in a mind can be utterly a false in another mind. In my opinion, for humanities researchers, their basis of the work is so changeable, it is like a quicksand. My condolences to humanities researchers. ...I digress.]
There are many other aspects in science. Natural science too is a human activity, and there are current, "status quo" ways to do science.
But "status quo" is not always the best way. In fact, the way we do it now is a temporal state in history. Science is not as streamlined as you may think. There are many gaps in a research field that have not been patched up. In most cases, we ignore the gaps as white elephants in the room.
But sometimes, with a progress in science and a tool that was not available but is now, we may be able to tackle the white elephant.
That is how I am seeing this project. By filling the gap and changing infrastructure, we should be able to enjoy more outcome from scientific research.
There is an academic approach of studying and discussing a problem, and there is an entrepreneurial approach of providing a solution to a problem. In this case, I'm thinking of the latter.
I have been concentrating on grant preparation and writing for past three weeks, in addition to a review article on liver cancer genes and revision of a research manuscript.
There is a skill set called grantmanship. As overall funding rate for medical science through the National Institute of Health (NIH) has come down to 18% (or even lower, 8-9% in some fields including cancer-related ones from NCI), skills to write a successful grant proposal are more important than ever.
To get all pieces in position and to propose a solid and feasible proposal, it takes some time. There is about another month until the deadline. I'll be working on the grant proposal for a while, in addition to the research manuscript revision. After all, research fund for 5 years, almost 1.9 million taxpayers' dollars, is at stake. Better be serious on this one.
For record-keeping's sake:
5/8 (Sun) Albaloo Modern Persian full course dinner
5/14 (Sat) idance studio showcase
5/18 (Wed) sent out a review manuscript
5/19 (Thu) Home internet repair
After all, we cancelled 5/14 Tango performance (she is the director of the showcase and obviously there are too many things on her plate. FYI showcase is still on).
Instead of dress rehearsal on Saturday, I got an afternoon time. So I went to Tulsa for Alternative music milonga and dinner.
There, the host asked me something interesting; "do you have any Japanese song that we can use for Alternative music milonga?"
Hmm, I never thought of that.
After a nice afternoon milinga and awesome dinner, I did some research.
In very short,...
Most Japanese songs with "Tango" in title have American Tango beats with them. In some cases it's not tango at all. They are different from (and probably hard to dance with) Agentine Tango.
Black cat tango (Kuroneko no Tango)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS5g69mI2aA
There are several Tango songs incorporating Japanese tunes by Horacio Salgan. He and his band visited Japan, and these songs are the byproduct. But I am not sure they qualify as "Alternative songs".
I search for something Japanese from different angles, searching for movies and animes, and found that some Miyazaki/Ghibli movies have decent Waltz.
Stroll through the sky (Howl's moving castle).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3hnNFlPhe0
Always with me (Spirited away)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT0fIfiw7Sg
Chihiro's Waltz (Spirited away)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0JK43-5azU
(There may be more danceable versions out there somewhere, though.)
I am still looking for ideas and songs. If you know some Japanese (or related to Japan) songs that can be used in Alternative music milonga, please let me know.
[Science]
Today the journal office sent back a manuscript we submitted several weeks earlier and was in review. Their response? "Major revision" (which is quite normal).
Overall the comments were something we can address, perhaps except for that $5000 experiment. Some experiments are just cost-prohibitive.
We spent a few hours to plan the response, and started assigning experiments to revise the manuscript. They gave us 6 weeks for revision, and it is not a very long time.
[Dance]
Although my work is getting busy with the manuscript revision and grant writing (and some other things), I am going to dance a Tango in a showcase on 5/14. It was decided yesterday, kind of last minute, and today we were picking a song and doing some dancing to get to know each other.
She wanted to dance a nuevo Tango. So we picked a nuevo song from Otros Aires.
Now I am listening to the song and imagining how we would dance. The song begins with classic Tango-sounding intro for 35 seconds, then perky rhythm kicks in. 20 seconds later, a bandneon starts playing swiftly-moving energetic tune.The tune repeats twice, then bandneons start playing more dragging chord accompanied by electronic beats. A variation of the swift tune returns, and.......
Just writing down some notes like this helps to know the structure of the song better.
Some dancers practice based on moves and figures. Others dance to counts. But I need music to dance.
Dancers are a part of the band and musicians. In the Professional stage show, the musical score even includes dancers' part (!).
How are we going to dance the song? Are we going to add a storytelling? What kind of choreo would translate what we pick up from the lively song?
To choreograph a dance is a big part of fun that dancers enjoy. In social Tango we choreograph (on the spot) too. But for a showcase, we should do better.
