Entertainment: Is this how you play music?!

Chapter 357: A Banquet Invitation from the White House.

"Brother, everything's in chaos, completely in chaos."

Winnie scanned the various entertainment news items, while constantly waving the instigator next to her.

"They were all cursed out."

"pretty."

Li Can smiled broadly.

The pace of life abroad was so rapid, everything was exactly as Li Can had expected.

What is freedom and self-confidence?
To be honest, it's entirely caused by extreme repressed inferiority complex. The West has always been a million times more anxious about appearance than China.

The more something is lacking, the more it is emphasized, especially in an extreme environment where medical aesthetic companies need to create anxiety to make a profit.

This kind of obsessive concern is easy to understand.

This combination of objectification and vilification is striking.

It looks like a mess.

But actually?
It is precisely because the vast majority of people, whose aesthetic sense was originally hijacked or whose aesthetic opinions were suppressed, have reached a consensus on "beauty" and "ugliness" and dare to express their own understanding.

Only then can we discuss stories of vilification and objectification.

This is what makes it truly terrifying to think about.

Skipping the definition of "what is beauty" and directly using human instinctive aesthetics as the basis for the narrative, although the flames are burning brightly, the foundation has been changed and is constantly intensifying with the controversy.

Few people are discussing whether controversial Western characters are ugly or represent a different and diverse kind of beauty.

The discussion revolves around why Asian female game characters are considered beautiful, why Asian aesthetics are considered superior, and what's wrong with Western aesthetics.

In other words.

Foreign netizens have already determined that Asians are beautiful, while Europeans and Americans are ugly, and are even more certain that Europeans and Americans used to be beautiful, but have now become ugly.

Such subtle influence is terrifying.

Once this is extended to other areas, cognitive inertia will develop.

Just as when the Xia Kingdom was backward but its lighthouses were advanced, when people talked about lighthouses, they would think of words like "high-end," "high-tech," "high-quality," "excellent," "advanced," "freedom," and "beauty."

However, the tables may now turn.

"Appearance is the most intuitive thing, more so than other art forms. But once a certain point gains momentum, it's only a matter of time before it extends to other fields."

Li Can's words made Winnie realize something.

"Love the house and the dog?"

"Yes."

Li Can is laughing.

The phone suddenly rang.

The hotel reminded Li Can to receive the letter.

After hanging up the phone, Li Can and Winnie exchanged a glance, their faces filled with confusion.

"letter?"

"What era are we living in that we still write letters?"

"."

With questions in mind, Li Can went to the hotel front desk with a puzzled look on his face.

After all, this letter seemed a bit too abrupt.

As soon as Li Can entered the lobby, he saw three foreigners in suits standing in an equilateral triangle.

As soon as Li Can came downstairs, the receptionist gave a shout, and three men in suits immediately came forward, all dressed in neat rows, looking just like the characters from The Matrix.

"Um?!"

Before Li Can could even express his surprise.

The pointed tip of the leading triangle was the first to open.

"Mr. Li, Lighthouse cordially invites you to the White Commander's Mansion to attend a bilateral exchange banquet and perform at the banquet."

"?"

Li Can frowned.

I feel like I've encountered a new type of scam.

But clearly, none of the three intended to explain.

They simply sent out a letter of invitation in a very polite manner.

He immediately spoke politely.

"I won't disturb your work any longer, Mr. Li. If you have any questions, please contact the phone number on the letter."

"."

The three men in suits left with great flair, leaving Li Can bewildered in the lobby.

Full of questions, but not knowing where to begin.

"Are invitations being sent out so casually these days?"

After receiving the invitation, Li Can returned to his room.

Winnie's silence prompted her to ask a question out of curiosity.

"What's wrong? What letter?"

"Perhaps it came from the White Commander's Mansion?"

"what?"

"what"

Upon opening the letter, an invitation came into view.

What first captured Li Can's attention was time.

On the 10.1th.

There are only 22 days left until the banquet.

The invitation letter's brief description indicates that both leaders will be present during this visit, along with a host of other figures from various sectors on both sides.

Li Can opened the other backup instruction sheet in the letter with some suspicion.

The list includes the guests invited this time.

They're all celebrities.

Bosses of large corporations like Microsoft have ruthlessly defeated athletes, actors, writers, spokespeople, leaders, and renowned journalists worldwide, who are adorned with numerous gold medals.

Actors might sound low-class, but if it's Brother Long, then it's a bit different.

Artists make up only a small portion.

painter, dancer
But these few artists are indeed very important.

Of these, only five musicians were invited.

Ravel, the lighthouse jazz legend; James, the godfather of pop music; Shila Ambrosio, the legendary singer; and Allen, the principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

And Li Can himself.

"broken."

Li Can slapped his forehead, looking at the somewhat unbalanced invitation, and couldn't help but use his darkest thoughts to examine the purpose of the invitation.

"."

Winnie also felt that something was off about the invitation.

He asked uncertainly.

"Is it fake? It could be a scam?"

"No, that's outrageous. I don't think scammers would do something like this. On the contrary, it's something only a beacon would do."

Li Can shook his head.

If a scammer does that, he'll definitely starve to death.

No time to explain.

Li Can immediately called his mentor, Xu Qing.

Xu Qing was unsure for a moment, so he immediately contacted Gao Zhi, who was in Austria.

After repeatedly confirming the facts all afternoon, Li Can finally accepted the fact that "it's true."

"Now we absolutely have to go."

Li Can shook his head.

Of course you don't have to go; it's your choice, after all, it's just an invitation.

But not going is impossible.

"Those damn Americans, playing this trick."

While Li Can remained silent, Winnie was the first to start cursing.

Sukabuli's unexplained combo clearly revealed the Russian's emotions.

"Regardless of whether they have any dark intentions, since it was done by the Americans, there must be something sinister going on."

“Da Nizi, that’s a bit of a stereotype.”

Li Can pursed his lips.

He paused only briefly before speaking.

"What a coincidence, I have the same stereotypes too. This must be an imperial conspiracy."

“It’s normal for the organizers to invite guests, rather than having them bring their own, but this is Lighthouse, so I have to be a little more shady.” 22 days of preparation time is far too tight for an important performance.

Judging from the musicians' perspective only.

I'm alone, and there are four on the other side.

Don't talk about friendly exchanges, and don't say that we're not in the same league because we're good at different types of music.

At least from the outside, they look like they're about to gang up on you.

"A group fight? Fine, but you need to have the strength to fight a group fight. At worst, we'll just have to settle it with a bang."

Li Can chuckled.

Banquet performances are different from regular performances; for banquet performances, there is not much room for creativity.

At the very least, large-scale symphonies are very difficult to perform.

It's at most chamber music.

Therefore, the Lighthouse will arrange for jazz, the patriarch of popular culture.

It would be more suitable for small to medium-sized performances.

"As expected, the performances are limited to the music industry."

"There's no other way; it's difficult to present this kind of performance in other art forms. Compared to that, concerts are much simpler."

The venue has certain limitations.

A limited space can reveal infinite artistic value and artistic height, and music can indeed have a higher degree of freedom.

The performance is not very long, and the overall duration is controlled to be around forty to fifty minutes.

And the time left for myself to perform
Eight minutes.

This time, someone has increased the intensity for me.

After his initial reaction, Li Can remained completely calm.

Overthinking is useless; we need to start preparing now.

With 22 days to go, this is an enormous challenge.

After all, the repertoire for such an exchange banquet is quite significant.

In a confrontational exchange, it would be quite ridiculous if even artists from one's own country didn't play their own country's music.

"It seems you can only choose the piano; this is a limitation for you."

Winnie has a very keen sense of observation.

Although the other party said there were no restrictions on the performance format, it seemed that anyone could bring a small chamber orchestra or a whole band.

But what if someone goes solo, without inviting other performers or using external mods?
Wouldn't that be falling into a trap?
The venue and performance conditions further dictate that it's either singing or playing an instrument.

Singing is definitely out of the question. As far as Li Can's singing ability is concerned, which is merely not off-key, his fans can't be fooled.

Musical instruments.

You can't exactly go and play the drums, can you?
The best choice is the piano.

"Piano, hehe, piano."

Li Can snorted.

The reason I don't mainly play the piano is simply because I have no rivals. My inhuman "Spanish Smugglers" remains unreplicated to this day, and my "Transcendental Etude" has caused pain to the piano world.

Lighthouse naturally knew the strength of Li Can's piano playing, and no matter how arrogant they were, they wouldn't think that Li Can couldn't lift a knife.

That's why they cleverly avoided this by using "music genre" as a different approach.

Now that's great, nobody cares about technique anymore. Cultural exchange is all about culture. Jazz can showcase the culture of the Lighthouse, so Li Can must focus on expressing the culture of the Xia Kingdom.

"bump!"

As a stubborn person from Northeast China, I get really worked up when I encounter this kind of thing. The more I think about it, the angrier I get, and the angrier I get, the more energetic I become.

The repertoire must be chosen well and the performance must be performed well.

But at the same time, Li Can planned to use his privileges to do some crazy things.

"I have to arrange the program for the performance to include the soundtrack of the movie 'Pine Bone Peak'."

"."

Winnie's eye twitched, and she suddenly felt that the lighthouse should be the one who was pitied.

The soundtrack for "Songgu Peak" has not yet been completed; preliminary work was only done more than a year in advance. However, the editing of the film is definitely progressing well and will not take long.

At that time, all that is needed is to add background music according to the pre-arranged clips. As long as Li Can is fast enough to determine the release date, the official release time will not be slow at all.

If you're really lucky, it'll be released during the Spring Festival.

That effect would be absolutely amazing.

The music from the White House appeared in the soundtrack of the film "Pine Bone Peak," and everyone knows what Lee Chan-an's intentions are.

It directly endows music with a meaning that transcends music itself.

"Get ready quickly, 22 days."

Winnie frowned slightly.

"To be more precise, it's 21 days. To be even more precise, you actually only have less than 8 days to prepare, unless you put aside the rehearsal for the Golden Hall first."

"8 days. We can't completely give up the rehearsal tasks at the Golden Hall, but we can spare some time for them."

Make a decision.

Li Can immediately contacted the Golden Hall to make short-term rehearsal adjustments.

Rehearsals will definitely be held. Otherwise, if it's stopped for a month, it will be very difficult to maintain the quality of the performance. It's like playing a game; if you don't play for three days, you'll feel rusty. If the rhythm is interrupted, it will have a big impact.

But time is like a ditch; if you squeeze it out, you really can.

Whether for public or private reasons, this performance at the White House must tell the story of the Xia Kingdom culture.

What Li Can didn't know was...

at the same time.

The white house is also having problems.

Because it's a home-field operation, the White House can arrange for local artists to have priority access to the venue for rehearsals in advance.

However, although they took the first step.

Jazz maestro Ravel, whose performance this time will be on the piano, still asked the White House program organizer with some trepidation.

"Do we really have to invite Li? He's too strong."

"There's no other way. Li is an artist from Xia Country, and also an artist that cannot be ignored in the world. If we don't invite him, who else should we invite?"

"."

Ravel is seventy years old this year, and is definitely a senior figure in the industry.

It's fine with other people.

But this time, they invited Li Can.

Given these performance restrictions, it's unthinkable that Li Can would play the drums or conduct; he could only play the piano.

So, Ravel, who also played the piano, had only one sentence on his mind.

【Huh? I hit Li Can?】

Only those who play the piano can know just how terrifying Li Can's skill level truly is.

That's not just a matter of technique.

This includes the tension in emotional expression and the extension of cultural heritage.

Without playing the piano, seeing Li Can is like a frog in a well gazing at the moon; with playing the piano, seeing Li Can is like an ant falling into an abyss.

"We've already tried to avoid technical issues, so is there really still that much pressure?"

Ravel had no intention of answering the person in charge's questions.

It's impossible to explain.

He was already internally raging.

[Sacred shit, why don't you try it yourself?]

How could the person in charge not know Ravel's thoughts?

All I can do is scream my bitterness in my heart.

This kind of communication, regardless of whether there is any intention to confront, cannot express any signs of confrontation.

But some subtle comparisons are unavoidable.

All attendees were invited by the organizers, and naturally, celebrities from both sides were invited.

As for the number of people
The White House swears that it truly had no ulterior motives. After all, as the host, the performance arranged in such a short time was only suitable for the other party to have a place.

Conversely, it's the same. If it were within the territory of Xia Kingdom, then Xia Kingdom artists and works would occupy 90% of the space, leaving some space for inviting representative musicians from the other side.

Li Can is such a special guy, we had no choice but to invite him.

But if you invite them, you can easily be completely suppressed.

"Let them suppress it; it's just a performance that will last about forty minutes at the banquet anyway."

The person in charge decided to give up.

But Ravel's expression was complex, and his heart was in turmoil.

Communication doesn't necessarily have to involve comparison, but communication without comparison is unlikely.

The dust of the times settles on an individual like a mountain.

"."

(End of this chapter)