running into myself | Monthly Archives: January 2009

Happy New Year

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Roger

The Year of the Ox officially started last night at midnight. I watched from the roof of my building as all hell broke loose, as you’ll see later in this post.

The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ox_(zodiac)

In other words, it ain’t me. I’m a sheep (or a goat, depending on your source).

I took full advantage of my new camera yesterday, bicycling in the afternoon to the touristy area around Wenshu Monastery. For the New Year it’s transformed into a bustling street market. Here are some of the images I captured.

Wenshu new year 2009 4

Old gateway, Wenshu shopping area

Wenshu new year 2009 2

A small part of the New Year’s Eve crowd, shopping for fireworks.

Wenshu new year 2009 1

Antiques (?)

Fun things #1

Wenshu new year 6

Fun things #2

Wenshu new year 7

Food preparation, noodle restaurant

Wenshu new year 2009 3

Good things to eat

A new leaf – a new camera

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Roger

One of the photos I took with my new Canon EOS 40D

It finally happened. I entered the digital age of photography. After waiting for 2 1/2 years, I was finally able to buy my new camera, the Canon EOS 40D with a 17-85 mm zoom lens. I couldn’t be happier with it, although I spent more than I’d originally intended. I needed a camera badly, and this fits the bill; it should serve me well for years to come through many travel adventures. Now if I could just learn how to operate it. The display panels, menus, buttons, and knobs are a bit baffling to me, and I started wading through the 196-page user manual tonight.

Now I know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the winter vacation. And you, dear readers, can look forward to LOTS of juicy photos from me in the near future.

My friend took this photo right after we bought my new camera – it’s beautiful.

This is mine.

What better way to end an afternoon of shopping than with food? This was at the Long Chao Shou restaurant.

Was it good for you, baby?

Posted on January 20, 2009 by Roger

bush_head

Today’s thought:

Ding dong, the Bush is dead!

-anonymous

Long live Obama. Even if he does turn out to be just another military-industrial president. At least he has a brain. And he can talk. OK everybody, breathe a collective sigh of relief.

(sound effect: The entire United States exhaling after 8 years of greed, crime, corruption, torture, illegal incarceration, genocide, and war)

It is finished. School, that is. I’m taking a well-deserved rest, after completing the last of my classes a couple of weeks ago. I asked my Business English students what aspects of American culture they were curious about, and one of them suggested political parties. I did my best to explain that the two-party system doesn’t mean that only two parties exist (there are actually many – just look at an election ballot), but that effectively only the Democrats or Republicans have a chance of getting a presidential candidate in office. I also cited someone (Noam Chomsky?) who said that America only has one party – the Corporate Party – and its two factions are called the Democrats and Republicans. I provided some handouts explaining why the donkey and the elephant came to be the symbols for the parties, as well as the Thomas Nast political cartoon that started it all. As usual, I didn’t share the most interesting visual aid I found:

conraddonkey

I could make a really gross comment about taking it up the *** (donkey – jackass, get it?), but in the interest of good taste I won’t.

Instead, I’ll talk about shoes. Then I’ll talk about sluts.

I’ve spent ages trying to find athletic shoes in Chengdu that fit my extra-wide foreign feet. One of my students even spent a day with me trying to find shoes that fit. No luck. I even gave up trying to buy shoes over the internet (no one will ship to China). Then I tried eBay. Lo and behold, there was my favorite brand – Skechers – in my size (11 wide) and the style (Energy After-Burn) I wanted. Even with postage, the price was still less than I’d pay in Chengdu for name-brand shoes.
Speaking of sluts – I no longer qualify, although I could tell you some stories about a sleazy L.A. bar in Silver Lake called Cuffs – I ordered the DVD of my fave John Waters film, the campy cult classic Female Trouble. It boasts a menagerie of perverts, including slutty Dawn Davenport, who throws a tantrum, knocks the Christmas tree over on her mother, and runs away from home, just because she didn’t get the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas.

female-trouble-3

“Davenport. Dawn Davenport! I’m a thief and a shitkicker, and, uh, I’d like to be famous. “

Edith Massey, Female Trouble: world’s sexiest outfit

I’ve been lying around the house myself, watching way too many movies from the Internet Archive. Some are real gems, others are period pieces like Rain (1932), that are interesting mainly because Joan Crawford helped to define the slut genre:

La Crawford in Rain: slut, slut, slut.

BTW (that’s by the way), I was going to write a short piece on initialism, those “first letter” expressions that became so popular with the advent of live online chat and text messaging. IMHO (in my humble opinion or I’m a Ho) I hate these little buzz expressions, especially ASAP (as soon as possible) which has actually become an acronym, or word, as in “Please do it ay-sap.” LOL (laugh out loud or little old lady) is a little better, and I don’t mind BRB (be right back) too much, but they get boring after a while. I can’t claim them as my own inventions, but try slipping these into your conversations:

TTTT – To Tell the Truth

WPF – When Pigs Fly

TFB – Too Fucking Bad

BOB – Back Off, Bitch

If you have absolutely nothing better to do, visit Acronym Finder and type in any combination of letters. Chances are, they’re already in use as a phrase, even SLUT (sweet little unforgettable thing – can you believe it?).

OK, that’s it. Stick a fork in me, ’cause I’m done. That’s SAFIMCID.

Lunch date

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Roger

My friend and I met up for some banking business the other day. I transfered some funds from the Bank of China to Citibank in the U.S. to pay off the balance of my credit card debts. It’s been a long haul – four years – but I paid off the debt a year early and saved myself some money in the process. This is a pretty big deal for me: the first time in my adult life that I’ve been completely free of unsecured credit card debt. I’m kind of floating on a sea of possiblities now.

Transferring money overseas is a mini-adventure. There’s a certain amount of paperwork, of course, as well as taking a number and waiting in line, but it’s the “indirect” process of handling the money that’s interesting. As a foreigner, I can’t just transfer my money to myself; I must “give” the money to a Chinese citizen (a matter of signatures; no actual cash changes hands), who then authorizes the electronic transfer to my foreign bank account. Every Chinese citizen may transfer a certain amount of money each year overseas.

To celebrate, I bought lunch. We were in the Babao Jie area, which is full of restaurants, yet few of them are really appealing. Purely by accident, we found Amy’s Steak Restaurant, right next to Starbucks and around the corner from Pizza Hut. Either the restaurant’s new or I never bothered to look in the window before: it’s gorgeous. The food was great: we had appetizers, soup, salad bar, steaks, baked potato, vegetables, and drinks. I could happily eat here again and again.

Amy Steak Restaurant 1

Amy Steak Restaurant 2

Amy Steak Restaurant 3

Amy Steak Restaurant 4

Life is … Life

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Roger

vivre-sa-vie-godard-1962-divx-vf03466418-01-38

Anna Karina, Godard’s Vivre sa vie

Today’s thoughts:

“A plate is a plate. A man is a man. Life is … Life.”

– Nana in Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa vie

“…I don’t think there’s any better way to fight off the chill of winter than a big bowl of carbohydrates swimming in melted butter.”

– David Lebovitz
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/01/sweet_potato_gnocchi_the_good_th.html

My sentiments exactly.

Today’s dharma:

Imagine [no, it’s not the John Lennon Imagine]
Gay Buddhist Open Forum, Posted by Albert Kaba
Wed., Dec 31, 2008

Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, along with our busy thoughts. Imagine if all things that are perishable grew still. And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sights and sounds but this one vision which ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy, so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination which leaves us breathless.

– Saint Augustine

Anna Karina and Vivre sa vie

Among my obsessions lately have been all things French; witness my continual references to David Lebovitz’ blog about food and Paris.

I’ve also been watching a bunch of French films recently. Is it my imagination, or am I understanding more of the dialogue, since the downloads and DVDs don’t include English subtitles? Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre sa vie (1962), which I watched again last night for the third or fourth time, is rapidly becoming one of my favorite movies.

I was mesmerized by the unusual, voyeuristic camera placement that often photographs conversations showing the backs of people’s heads; by the informal, everyday atmosphere of Paris in the early 60s; and, most of all, by the images of Anna Karina (then married to Godard). The film, above all, seems to be a meditation on her face in its many expressions and moods. It’s a many-layered evocation of life, living, choices, and death, through masterful use of sound, silence, symbolism, dialogue, and camera work.“The film was made by sort of a second presence,” Godard said; “the camera is not just a recording device but a looking device, that by its movements makes us aware that it sees her, wonders about her, glances first here and then there, exploring the space she occupies, speculating.”http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010401/REVIEWS08/104010301/1023

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Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre sa vie

vivre-cigarette

vivre-sa-vie-streetwalker

The story in brief: a young woman’s loss of income leads her to become a prostitute; she hooks up with a pimp, eventually finds love, and finally, er, suffers a tragic and abrupt end. Can you even imagine an early 60s American film dealing matter-of-factly with prostitution? (Vivre sa vie includes a voice-over, clinical dissection of the facts and daily routine of a prostitute’s life) Yes, I know Shirley MacLaine played a whole series of hookers-with-a-heart-of-gold, but the word was never used. Nor did money change hands. Nor did we ever get a great shot like this:

vivre-sa-vie-client

Some things are slightly less obvious, though:

vivre-sa-vie-cafe

Anna Karina as….

louise-brooks-2

…Louise Brooks?

vivre-downcast-look_0

Almost a mirror image of….

degas-labsinthe

…actress Ellen Andrée, in Edgar Degas’ L’Absinthe, 1876

(Oil on canvas, 92 × 68 cm), Musée d’Orsay, Paris

This has always been my favorite painting, maybe because of the deep alienation and sadness in the woman’s downcast eyes. She also reminded me of my mother, who had a lot of her own sadness.

Enough said. You’ll just have to watch the film, or read an excellent meditation on it here, or here. Oh, and don’t let the conversation about the chicken confuse you.

Nana’s lover tells her about a homework assignment submitted by a little girl to his father the teacher. In this essay, the little girl writes: “The chicken has an inside and an outside. Remove the outside and you find the inside. Remove the inside and you find the soul.”

http://everything2.com/e2node/Susan%20Sontag%20on%20Godard%27s%20film%20Vivre%20Sa%20Vie

Fin