It's snowing.
Apart from that, I know there are those of you who want to send me things. Cool things. Things that I'd like. Now you can do that!
You can cut and paste this address, I'd use both the Chinese and the English versions.
JessieBrockl
北京市东城区八宝坑胡同45号10007
Jessie Brockl
No. 45 BaBaoKeng Hutong,
DongCheng District, Beijing 10007
People's Republic of China
I'm waiting.
love!
Jessie
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
So much of a good thing...
As if two updates in a 10 minute period weren't enough, theres some new pictures here.
Check the album called "Guangzhou".
Lovely.
Andrea Gibson has one of the most impactful voices I think I've heard. Full, strong, and wielded like the weapon a voice with passion and intellect to back it can and should be. She's amazing, and seeing her live at Girlfest Honolulu is something I get all misty just thinking about. I can't even listen to her recordings without getting all emotional- and I can't watch her perform without getting all kinds of conflicting things- joy at seeing her, extreme unprecedented attraction, solidarity, pride, horrible horrible unprecedented attraction, and all of it mixed up with a dab of unrequited love. She's pertinent, she's throbbing with life, and she's one of our strongest voices continuing to spit reactionary truth in the faces of the establishment and the plastic wrapped completely irrelevant entertainment of today. Take a gander (please, leave the geese.) This is what i saw live.
EDIT: Here is where I was going to put a video from youtube of Andrea preforming her piece "For Eli". Unfortunately, China doesn't want to let me access youtube at the moment so I can't. Please go look it up yourself, if the government of the country you are accessing the internet from is lax with these kinds of allowances. Seriously. Do it.
(after watching -isn't she unwholesome amounts of attractive? violently, beautifully, gorgeous?)
<3
Apostasy: Complete!
I'm a bad, bad blog owner. In my proverbial blog related stocking, there is nothing but coal. Being an environmentalist, I really should take more steps to prevent that from happening.
Maybe I can put together a movement to switch santa from coal to tiny solar panels. Or maybe I can just blog more and stop neglecting all of you out there in readership land.
Whats the title all about? Well, I've left my job. No more five star hotels, no more weekly jet setting all over China. No more 18 hour stints on movie sets, no more ganbei with government leaders, no more languishing in private restaurant rooms through the cigarette smoke of movie directors. No more sacrificing pretty much everything i believe in to work for a machine that I utterly loathe, in the name of saving for tomorrow. I've got to say, I'm glad to be out of the game. Now I can finally back up my constant assertion that I'd rather be poor and happy than rich and so-so. I can also back up my idea that sacrificing today for tomorrow is not the road for me. Things are as i suspected- I need little to make me happy, but the simple needs I do have are imperative. Things like reliable time for myself. Things like feeling as though the work that I do helps someone, makes a difference in this huge, complex, indifferent world. I'll figure out how to get where I want to go, but I'm going to make sure I get there doing something I enjoy and believe in. It might take longer, but I'm cool with that. Unflinching dedication to enjoying every part of my life, undying devotion to only doing things I believe in.
Oh, the writings of an idealist.
How's unemployment treating me? I'm taking time to really get back to focusing on myself and my health. And I'm feeling fabulous. It's just too bad that I don't have the money or time to get over here and regale you all with tales and updates.
In a little more general, Beijing related news, spring is palpably here. It was a little hard listening to all of the spring festival business when I still had to wrap myself in 4 layers of wool and a plastic sheet just to leave the house. But now, now it is a different story. Now, as previously mentioned, I can lounge on my rooftop patio and read a book in the sun. Now I can do things in the kitchen without worrying that, because my hands are numb with cold, I'm accidentally going to chop a fingertip in my salad without noticing. Now I can hold underwear dance parties in the courtyard. Can you tell how excited I am about these underwear dance parties?
How is everyone out there?
Love
Friday, March 20, 2009
Nine on a Friday.
This blog is coming to you straight from the local israeli restaurant, next to a game of backgammon and a water pipe of shisha.
Just wanted to drop in and say hello, to all of you. should be more interesting things coming in the next day or so- unfortunately, the intertubes are still out of commission at the hutong and as such i've got to drag my sorry self to the cafe and pay for a cup of tea to get some internet access.
most of you know how little i like spending money for no reason, and few things makes less sense than paying through the nose for a single cup of tea, when an entire box of tea bags costs so little. i am loathe to head over there and pay when i could just lounge on the lovely roof of my gorgeous hutong in the sun. did i mention how much its warmed up? its almost bordering on tolerable. imagine that.
actually, the amount that its warmed up in the past week alone freaks me out. from two sweaters and a coat to a dress (short short dress- i know, you were lonely. you thought youd never come out of the closet. you longed for the light of day, you pined for the feel of flesh beneath your figure...pine no more! SPRING HAS COMETH) and some tights. though im enjoying it, really i am (the underwear dance party in the courtyard is proof. ask the roommates.)...its still rather odd.
much love.
jessie
Just wanted to drop in and say hello, to all of you. should be more interesting things coming in the next day or so- unfortunately, the intertubes are still out of commission at the hutong and as such i've got to drag my sorry self to the cafe and pay for a cup of tea to get some internet access.
most of you know how little i like spending money for no reason, and few things makes less sense than paying through the nose for a single cup of tea, when an entire box of tea bags costs so little. i am loathe to head over there and pay when i could just lounge on the lovely roof of my gorgeous hutong in the sun. did i mention how much its warmed up? its almost bordering on tolerable. imagine that.
actually, the amount that its warmed up in the past week alone freaks me out. from two sweaters and a coat to a dress (short short dress- i know, you were lonely. you thought youd never come out of the closet. you longed for the light of day, you pined for the feel of flesh beneath your figure...pine no more! SPRING HAS COMETH) and some tights. though im enjoying it, really i am (the underwear dance party in the courtyard is proof. ask the roommates.)...its still rather odd.
much love.
jessie
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thanks, Risbet.
Thanks to Liz for the correction on last post.
It should indeed have been 'laid'.
I need to admit, though, that when i saw your (liz's) comment I was a little confused. For those of you who havent seen it, it says "Laid?". Upon reading it, i thought to myself 'well, isnt that a little forward of Liz. Odd. I mean, she always was a little quirky, but this level of forthrightness is unprecedented. Huh. Is that really what she means? Well I guess I could tell her. Huh.'
Then I got ready to go to the airport and put the odd comment out of my mind.
On the plane back to Beijing, returning to my curiousity and mulling over the comment, it struck me.
She was correcting my grammar.
Ohhh.
<3
Friday, March 13, 2009
医生, take one.
well hello, lovelies.
what can this be, but two updates in as many days? my goodness. jessie must have too much time on her hands.
what insights will be unfurled in this post? what secrets of the universe probed? more pointedly, have these probes been sanitized?
I have to admit that I have nothing off the top of my head to post about, save that today I went to the doctor. I guess that works.
Attention! This post is now aimed towards sharing the experience of visiting a traditional chinese medicine doctor in china. I'm also going to mention that if Earth Wind and Fire had been smitten with the 24th night of September instead of the 21st night, I wouldn't have reminded everytime it plays that it narrowly misses my birthday. Man, how cool would it be to have that song coincide with your birthday? I have these thoughts EVERYTIME the song comes on. It kind of ruins it. Just a little.
That is so, so beside my point.
Today I headed over to the doctor for a little check up. My roommate Scott has an awesome doctor situated over by the JingSong subway stop, a hop skip and cab ride from the GuoMao stop in CBD. I mention the GuoMao stop cause it also happens to be beside my favorite of favorite vegan restaurants in Beijing, run by my friend Li. We swung by the Vegan Cafe and nabbed some delicacies of the cruelty free persuasion.
When you pull up to this clinic, it's in the bottom floor of a building around the corner from one of the largest libraries in Beijing (a whole floor of English language books! Goody!!). Walk straight down the corridor and you hit double doors leading into a very herb-y smelling waiting room. The lovely bit about this particular doctor is that his English is very good, and the clinic serves the Japanese speaking community as well as the Chinese and English. My particular visit was comprised of two main sections- first diagnosis and then treatment. I went into a cool back room where my doctor first asked some preliminary questions- medical history, whyd you come in today, hows your diet, any appendages burst into flame lately, etc etc. Then, to continue the diagnosis section of our visit, i had my tongue examined and lay (lied? layed?) down on a low examining table from which position the doctor took my pulse, felt my glands, and felt various assorted important places on my stomache and calves. Then he did a very interested and at this point unexplained chain reaction type thing where he had an assistant hold my hand while he grasped the arm of the assistant, and (supposedly) at some unintentional change in my hand her arm would twitch and then his arm would jump. i really have no idea what this was about. i need to ask.
maybe she just wanted to hold my hand.
anyway. this was the end of my diagnosis section. at this point i was handed over to the herbalist (the doctor who did my diagnosis was a muscoskeletal specialist), who was briefed by my other doctor and did her own short diagnosis using the meridian points in my hands a feet. Chinese Medicine is concerned, in large part, with the energies flowing through your body. Meridians are the main channels that these energies flow through, and main Meridian channels cane be found in your hands a feet. The way a Meridian check goes is, you supply your hands and feet (one at a time)to the doctor, who uses and electrical gauge (which is slowly pressed into each meridian's main point) to see how strong or weak the electrical charge is coming out of each point. This machine is hooked up to the computer which registers the electrical reactions as figures that then relate to your physical wellness (or illness) and even your family's medical history.
What, you want to know what mine said? Sigh. Well, she identified that my family has a history of hormone problems (such things as breast cancer, uterine cancer, etc), which is true of not only me, but i also think of most women at this point in time. The diagnosis also identified energy deficiency that relate to organs i've had trouble with in the past, and a few choice tidbits that I didn't entirely agree with. Apparently I have emotional problems. I'm really not sure I trust that particular diagnosis farther than I could throw the machine. Anyway.
After these things, she started treatments. this included but was not limited to some slight acupuncture and a little moxibustion. i'm sure most of us are familiar with acupuncture, but moxibustion is where small herbal compresses that very much resemble mini marshmellows are lit on fire and placed on the end of your acupuncture needles. you will feel like some kind of flesh/herb/steel specialty dessert while this occurs. the smoke from the herbs affects the energies that are being furthered stimulated by the needles, and also fills the room in some kind of smoke tastic cleansing type lung related thing.
I also got a bag full of herbs to be prepared as a tea every morning and taken morning and night for the next week. then i go back next week.
hopefully i'll be in beijing, but i think i'll probably be in shanghai. sigh.
any questions?
love you all,
jessie
what can this be, but two updates in as many days? my goodness. jessie must have too much time on her hands.
what insights will be unfurled in this post? what secrets of the universe probed? more pointedly, have these probes been sanitized?
I have to admit that I have nothing off the top of my head to post about, save that today I went to the doctor. I guess that works.
Attention! This post is now aimed towards sharing the experience of visiting a traditional chinese medicine doctor in china. I'm also going to mention that if Earth Wind and Fire had been smitten with the 24th night of September instead of the 21st night, I wouldn't have reminded everytime it plays that it narrowly misses my birthday. Man, how cool would it be to have that song coincide with your birthday? I have these thoughts EVERYTIME the song comes on. It kind of ruins it. Just a little.
That is so, so beside my point.
Today I headed over to the doctor for a little check up. My roommate Scott has an awesome doctor situated over by the JingSong subway stop, a hop skip and cab ride from the GuoMao stop in CBD. I mention the GuoMao stop cause it also happens to be beside my favorite of favorite vegan restaurants in Beijing, run by my friend Li. We swung by the Vegan Cafe and nabbed some delicacies of the cruelty free persuasion.
When you pull up to this clinic, it's in the bottom floor of a building around the corner from one of the largest libraries in Beijing (a whole floor of English language books! Goody!!). Walk straight down the corridor and you hit double doors leading into a very herb-y smelling waiting room. The lovely bit about this particular doctor is that his English is very good, and the clinic serves the Japanese speaking community as well as the Chinese and English. My particular visit was comprised of two main sections- first diagnosis and then treatment. I went into a cool back room where my doctor first asked some preliminary questions- medical history, whyd you come in today, hows your diet, any appendages burst into flame lately, etc etc. Then, to continue the diagnosis section of our visit, i had my tongue examined and lay (lied? layed?) down on a low examining table from which position the doctor took my pulse, felt my glands, and felt various assorted important places on my stomache and calves. Then he did a very interested and at this point unexplained chain reaction type thing where he had an assistant hold my hand while he grasped the arm of the assistant, and (supposedly) at some unintentional change in my hand her arm would twitch and then his arm would jump. i really have no idea what this was about. i need to ask.
maybe she just wanted to hold my hand.
anyway. this was the end of my diagnosis section. at this point i was handed over to the herbalist (the doctor who did my diagnosis was a muscoskeletal specialist), who was briefed by my other doctor and did her own short diagnosis using the meridian points in my hands a feet. Chinese Medicine is concerned, in large part, with the energies flowing through your body. Meridians are the main channels that these energies flow through, and main Meridian channels cane be found in your hands a feet. The way a Meridian check goes is, you supply your hands and feet (one at a time)to the doctor, who uses and electrical gauge (which is slowly pressed into each meridian's main point) to see how strong or weak the electrical charge is coming out of each point. This machine is hooked up to the computer which registers the electrical reactions as figures that then relate to your physical wellness (or illness) and even your family's medical history.
What, you want to know what mine said? Sigh. Well, she identified that my family has a history of hormone problems (such things as breast cancer, uterine cancer, etc), which is true of not only me, but i also think of most women at this point in time. The diagnosis also identified energy deficiency that relate to organs i've had trouble with in the past, and a few choice tidbits that I didn't entirely agree with. Apparently I have emotional problems. I'm really not sure I trust that particular diagnosis farther than I could throw the machine. Anyway.
After these things, she started treatments. this included but was not limited to some slight acupuncture and a little moxibustion. i'm sure most of us are familiar with acupuncture, but moxibustion is where small herbal compresses that very much resemble mini marshmellows are lit on fire and placed on the end of your acupuncture needles. you will feel like some kind of flesh/herb/steel specialty dessert while this occurs. the smoke from the herbs affects the energies that are being furthered stimulated by the needles, and also fills the room in some kind of smoke tastic cleansing type lung related thing.
I also got a bag full of herbs to be prepared as a tea every morning and taken morning and night for the next week. then i go back next week.
hopefully i'll be in beijing, but i think i'll probably be in shanghai. sigh.
any questions?
love you all,
jessie
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Le Home.
I wrote the following entry while sitting in my room, chilling out to the grooving sounds of pre-molestation charges michael jackson. here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Well, whats been going on lately? A whole lot. Theres been a lot of travel, a lot of sickness, and a whole lot of positivity to round the whole lot out. Was in Shanghai for about a week, before that (if we recall) was Guangzhou. Now I’m back in lovely lovely Beijing until Sunday. I really wish I could stay longer. It's starting to warm up and the Hutong is turning absolutely lovely. Not that it wasn’t lovely to begin with, but now I can walk around without my face freezing, peeling off, and shattering on the floor within moments of stepping into the courtyard. it’s a rather pleasant change.
Whats it like around the hutong? Well…
In addition to the weather, my roommates are extremely lovely. I’m very blessed to live with extremely good friends who are sweet, considerate, intelligent, and challenging. Scottie, my Australian roomie, is a musician (saxophone, drums, kazoo, young lady’s heartstrings), and a fabulously intelligent motivated guy. He’s our resident tai qi master, having just started the intermediate courses from the world famous masters at Bei Hai Park. He’s been studying for just over a year now, and is getting the whole hutong on the bandwagon. And he’s on a wicked health binge with no drinking and no animal products- yay! It’s nice to have someone else around who is not into drinking, and even nicer to have another resident vegan. I love living with vegans. Ohad, my Israeli roomie, is as sweet as sweet can be, and is slowly being convinced to go vegan! Slowly but surely, he’s making the change, and turning his formidable culinary skills to the task. This man has given me some seriously amazing Israeli rock and folk music, not to mention pleased my belly with some insane veganized Israeli grub. I’m just waiting for the day that we turn into a crazy vegan cook-tastic tai qi household- it’s going to be beautiful.
In terms of the hutong itself, it’s set off from the incredibly major and busy DongZhiMen Street, tucked back in the winding myriad alleyways that Beijingers traditionally live in. It’s about a ten minute walk from the street through alleyways that house other similar courtyard homes and various assorted open air markets and small (think really small. now cut that in half, and stick in your pocket.) restaurants. The hustle and bustle of the Hutong has an extremely different feel from that of the rest of the city. It’s a neighborhood, it’s small, intimate and for the most part peaceful. The hutongs are one of the very few places in the city that you can’t hear the honk of car horns, where neon advertisement’s don’t dog your every step, and where you forget for a while that you’re in the capital of an extremely populous and consumer driven country. One of the nicest things about the hutong is that every building is one story- you can see the sky and the leaves in the trees and the sun and the moon every step home.
Have I sung the Hutong’s praises long enough? I could go on for a while, but I think you get the picture. The thing is, the city’s Hutong’s are disappearing fast. They are being torn down to build new developments, high rises and shops and streamlined apartments. A few, maybe 40 or 50 of the city’s thousands, are bound (in my opinion) to be saved, gutted and renovated, for rent to foreigners and rich beijingers in the future. Hutongs are traditionally passed down through the generations, so for a lot of Beijingers this means losing a large piece of their family culture, and it means the dissaperance of neighborhoods that are rife with life and lore.
It’s not cool, and I’m extremely thankful that I’m getting to experience the hutong lifestyle before it disappears. I wake up, look out my ground story room window at the leaves in the trees, walk out my door across the open courtyard, and make my way across a few alleys to the market. It’s just so lovely, and such a rare mode of life in modern day beijing. I'm extremely grateful to live on the ground and shop at a local un-plastic laden open air market. Sigh. So lucky.
Peace
Jessie
Well, whats been going on lately? A whole lot. Theres been a lot of travel, a lot of sickness, and a whole lot of positivity to round the whole lot out. Was in Shanghai for about a week, before that (if we recall) was Guangzhou. Now I’m back in lovely lovely Beijing until Sunday. I really wish I could stay longer. It's starting to warm up and the Hutong is turning absolutely lovely. Not that it wasn’t lovely to begin with, but now I can walk around without my face freezing, peeling off, and shattering on the floor within moments of stepping into the courtyard. it’s a rather pleasant change.
Whats it like around the hutong? Well…
In addition to the weather, my roommates are extremely lovely. I’m very blessed to live with extremely good friends who are sweet, considerate, intelligent, and challenging. Scottie, my Australian roomie, is a musician (saxophone, drums, kazoo, young lady’s heartstrings), and a fabulously intelligent motivated guy. He’s our resident tai qi master, having just started the intermediate courses from the world famous masters at Bei Hai Park. He’s been studying for just over a year now, and is getting the whole hutong on the bandwagon. And he’s on a wicked health binge with no drinking and no animal products- yay! It’s nice to have someone else around who is not into drinking, and even nicer to have another resident vegan. I love living with vegans. Ohad, my Israeli roomie, is as sweet as sweet can be, and is slowly being convinced to go vegan! Slowly but surely, he’s making the change, and turning his formidable culinary skills to the task. This man has given me some seriously amazing Israeli rock and folk music, not to mention pleased my belly with some insane veganized Israeli grub. I’m just waiting for the day that we turn into a crazy vegan cook-tastic tai qi household- it’s going to be beautiful.
In terms of the hutong itself, it’s set off from the incredibly major and busy DongZhiMen Street, tucked back in the winding myriad alleyways that Beijingers traditionally live in. It’s about a ten minute walk from the street through alleyways that house other similar courtyard homes and various assorted open air markets and small (think really small. now cut that in half, and stick in your pocket.) restaurants. The hustle and bustle of the Hutong has an extremely different feel from that of the rest of the city. It’s a neighborhood, it’s small, intimate and for the most part peaceful. The hutongs are one of the very few places in the city that you can’t hear the honk of car horns, where neon advertisement’s don’t dog your every step, and where you forget for a while that you’re in the capital of an extremely populous and consumer driven country. One of the nicest things about the hutong is that every building is one story- you can see the sky and the leaves in the trees and the sun and the moon every step home.
Have I sung the Hutong’s praises long enough? I could go on for a while, but I think you get the picture. The thing is, the city’s Hutong’s are disappearing fast. They are being torn down to build new developments, high rises and shops and streamlined apartments. A few, maybe 40 or 50 of the city’s thousands, are bound (in my opinion) to be saved, gutted and renovated, for rent to foreigners and rich beijingers in the future. Hutongs are traditionally passed down through the generations, so for a lot of Beijingers this means losing a large piece of their family culture, and it means the dissaperance of neighborhoods that are rife with life and lore.
It’s not cool, and I’m extremely thankful that I’m getting to experience the hutong lifestyle before it disappears. I wake up, look out my ground story room window at the leaves in the trees, walk out my door across the open courtyard, and make my way across a few alleys to the market. It’s just so lovely, and such a rare mode of life in modern day beijing. I'm extremely grateful to live on the ground and shop at a local un-plastic laden open air market. Sigh. So lucky.
Peace
Jessie
Monday, March 9, 2009
Walking
Home today, I bought a shirt.
I had to.
It says, in huge block letters,
RABBITS
DONT EAT
SAUSAGE
<3
I had to.
It says, in huge block letters,
RABBITS
DONT EAT
SAUSAGE
<3
Monday, March 2, 2009
Yes Indeed.
Durian, sweet succulent Durian, how do i love thee?
Apparently enough to buy two of you in one day- and finish both.
Also, in other news, this morning before we jetted away from Guangzhou (tears! resentment! damn you, shanghai...) I found a market even more grand and amazing than all of the other ones I had found combined. It started out the way most of my market discoveries start. I saw an old chinese lady with a bundle of vegetables walking down the road- there! theres another one. Pretty soon, as long as you keep following the red plastic bags filled with vegetables, hunks of meat, and eggs, you find yourself in a neighborhood market.
Man, this one was epic. But I can't start to describe it, or give you my pictures. know why? I'm on the verge of sick, its late, and i want to get some sleep.
What i will do, after all the build up (oh, aren't I a tease of an blogger?) Is open up what from here on out will be a feature on Le blog. Music really gets to me, and lately I've been hearing a lot of songs that give me visceral memories. I'm a classic example of an auditory learner, something that i think ties into my extremely strong associations of times, people, and events with particular songs. I mean, I know that we all tie songs to times in our lives, but I get it bad. Like, can't listen to albums for years kind of bad. Not like, one album once in a while needs to be retired. It seems like every month I'm crossing off a few more albums I just can't, for painful nostalgia's sake, listen to. It's very inconvenient.
This having been said, since I'm being reminded so often lately, I'm going to attempt to exorcise some of these memories. I'll be putting up a little blurb and the music video for some of these. You guys can tell me if you like it. Theyll be short, and vague. So typical, eh?
All Falls Down
Kanye West, Lauren Hill
I’m in your car, and we’re driving through the cool Hawaiian air. I think it’s the H-1? The lights are blurring together cause my eyes are half open, too comfortable for complete lucidity. We’re both muttering the words to the rap, actions heavy with familiarity and repetition. The air on my skin is cool, coats me with a fine sheen of chill against the heavy warmth that’s been baked lately, by long hours landscaping, into my being. The evening air, as it always does, sings thick with promise. I push your hand.
Odd the things that stick within sensory memories.
Apparently enough to buy two of you in one day- and finish both.
Also, in other news, this morning before we jetted away from Guangzhou (tears! resentment! damn you, shanghai...) I found a market even more grand and amazing than all of the other ones I had found combined. It started out the way most of my market discoveries start. I saw an old chinese lady with a bundle of vegetables walking down the road- there! theres another one. Pretty soon, as long as you keep following the red plastic bags filled with vegetables, hunks of meat, and eggs, you find yourself in a neighborhood market.
Man, this one was epic. But I can't start to describe it, or give you my pictures. know why? I'm on the verge of sick, its late, and i want to get some sleep.
What i will do, after all the build up (oh, aren't I a tease of an blogger?) Is open up what from here on out will be a feature on Le blog. Music really gets to me, and lately I've been hearing a lot of songs that give me visceral memories. I'm a classic example of an auditory learner, something that i think ties into my extremely strong associations of times, people, and events with particular songs. I mean, I know that we all tie songs to times in our lives, but I get it bad. Like, can't listen to albums for years kind of bad. Not like, one album once in a while needs to be retired. It seems like every month I'm crossing off a few more albums I just can't, for painful nostalgia's sake, listen to. It's very inconvenient.
This having been said, since I'm being reminded so often lately, I'm going to attempt to exorcise some of these memories. I'll be putting up a little blurb and the music video for some of these. You guys can tell me if you like it. Theyll be short, and vague. So typical, eh?
All Falls Down
Kanye West, Lauren Hill
I’m in your car, and we’re driving through the cool Hawaiian air. I think it’s the H-1? The lights are blurring together cause my eyes are half open, too comfortable for complete lucidity. We’re both muttering the words to the rap, actions heavy with familiarity and repetition. The air on my skin is cool, coats me with a fine sheen of chill against the heavy warmth that’s been baked lately, by long hours landscaping, into my being. The evening air, as it always does, sings thick with promise. I push your hand.
Odd the things that stick within sensory memories.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Oh yes.
Who’s the nigger with the fastest trigger?
Shaft.
It’s a lovely evening in Guangzhou, the air crisp and chill, the music in my ear of the Isaac Hayes variety, the surroundings gracing my presence of the silly-commercial-face-wash-photo-shoot genre.
Actually, in all honesty, I dig this studio. It’s much more swank than the others I’ve been in recently- bamboo floors, nice sound system, bookcases full of photography books. Not to imply that the lovely system is being used to bump Isaac Hayes- that’s all coming to me straight from my lovely lover of a laptop. Yay for the foresight to tell which days will present opportunities that make lugging the laptop worth it.
We’ve been the last week or so in Guangzhou, which is my favorite favorite of Chinese cities. The air is heavy and damp, warm like the air back home. The streets are lined with banyan trees and the markets are superb. Did I mention the Durians yet? Cause I’ve bought one for each day I’ve been here. And the coconuts…ohh fruit, how you do send me into fits of absolute delight. Creamy, custardy, fetid fecundity…how anyone can cringe at a Durian I do not understand. Few things make me as unfailingly pleased as fresh ripe fruit. Not to mention fresh, ripe vegetables. Let’s not even get started on fresh, ripe people.
Though, all jokes aside, as I was eating my Durian today I started to ponder one of those Durian or sex kind of questions. The thing I like most about fruit is, it loves me without expecting anything in return. Maybe I shouldn’t be revealing that there was even a contest between sex and eating fresh fruit. Maybe that’s just a little too far off the deep end…
Enough of that…what is Guangzhou all about? Well, it’s in Guangdong, which is where pretty much everything you buy that has a little ‘Made in China’ stamp somewhere on it is made. It’s also where most commercials, tv shows, and print ads are shot. As a result of these two insidious characteristics, everything in Guangzhou is simultaneously for sale and on sale. However, in contrast to Hong Kong, this does not lend to Guangzhou a commoditized, cloying air of consumerism. I think it’s because of all the trees. Or the fresh fruit stands. Everywhere. Whatever it is, I’ve been able to prance around this city non-stop for the last week and feel quite fulfilled. Shoots, both commercial and print, mean lots of time to amuse myself, which means hours of uninterrupted exploring. I’ve come across winding, wide banyan covered boulevards and cramped narrow alleyways lined with glowing over spilling shops. These two things within walking distance of each other cinch the contest of Jessie’s favorite city.
I think the alleys amaze me most. They wind deep into residential neighborhoods, tiny and cramped, and along their seemingly endless length are lined with all manner of fruit, spice, electronic, and odds/ends stands. They bustle and overflow with throngs that clearly walk these particular cobble stones daily, live a stones throw away, and are about their regular business. Buildings loom 5 to 6 stories on either side, wide windows thrown open tempting a breeze of the thick air. It’s just so inviting and luscious. Full of life. Full of movement. Fresh and unfettered.
As for the markets, well, you’ll find things in Guangzhou markets that you’ll be hardpressed to find anywhere else in china. I mean, I was under the mistaken impression that I had been to well stocked markets in Beijing and Shanghai, but I think no Chinese open air market connosieur can even call themselves such until they’ve stepped foot inside one of Guangzhou’s many amazing specimens. I’m talking fresh coconuts to fresh alligator to scotch bonnets to sour sap fruit to cured dog to purple kale to traditional Chinese medicinal cupping done with hand carved bamboo cups and a tea foot bath while you’re waiting for the rest of your party to finish up purchases for dinner. Word life.
I’m now listening to Balkan Gyspy Beats on my laptop while the little lady is showcasing herself in a red shift dress and unfurling a Chinese New Year scroll. Such is life.
Jessie
Ps. I find well toned arms are alluring.
Shaft.
It’s a lovely evening in Guangzhou, the air crisp and chill, the music in my ear of the Isaac Hayes variety, the surroundings gracing my presence of the silly-commercial-face-wash-photo-shoot genre.
Actually, in all honesty, I dig this studio. It’s much more swank than the others I’ve been in recently- bamboo floors, nice sound system, bookcases full of photography books. Not to imply that the lovely system is being used to bump Isaac Hayes- that’s all coming to me straight from my lovely lover of a laptop. Yay for the foresight to tell which days will present opportunities that make lugging the laptop worth it.
We’ve been the last week or so in Guangzhou, which is my favorite favorite of Chinese cities. The air is heavy and damp, warm like the air back home. The streets are lined with banyan trees and the markets are superb. Did I mention the Durians yet? Cause I’ve bought one for each day I’ve been here. And the coconuts…ohh fruit, how you do send me into fits of absolute delight. Creamy, custardy, fetid fecundity…how anyone can cringe at a Durian I do not understand. Few things make me as unfailingly pleased as fresh ripe fruit. Not to mention fresh, ripe vegetables. Let’s not even get started on fresh, ripe people.
Though, all jokes aside, as I was eating my Durian today I started to ponder one of those Durian or sex kind of questions. The thing I like most about fruit is, it loves me without expecting anything in return. Maybe I shouldn’t be revealing that there was even a contest between sex and eating fresh fruit. Maybe that’s just a little too far off the deep end…
Enough of that…what is Guangzhou all about? Well, it’s in Guangdong, which is where pretty much everything you buy that has a little ‘Made in China’ stamp somewhere on it is made. It’s also where most commercials, tv shows, and print ads are shot. As a result of these two insidious characteristics, everything in Guangzhou is simultaneously for sale and on sale. However, in contrast to Hong Kong, this does not lend to Guangzhou a commoditized, cloying air of consumerism. I think it’s because of all the trees. Or the fresh fruit stands. Everywhere. Whatever it is, I’ve been able to prance around this city non-stop for the last week and feel quite fulfilled. Shoots, both commercial and print, mean lots of time to amuse myself, which means hours of uninterrupted exploring. I’ve come across winding, wide banyan covered boulevards and cramped narrow alleyways lined with glowing over spilling shops. These two things within walking distance of each other cinch the contest of Jessie’s favorite city.
I think the alleys amaze me most. They wind deep into residential neighborhoods, tiny and cramped, and along their seemingly endless length are lined with all manner of fruit, spice, electronic, and odds/ends stands. They bustle and overflow with throngs that clearly walk these particular cobble stones daily, live a stones throw away, and are about their regular business. Buildings loom 5 to 6 stories on either side, wide windows thrown open tempting a breeze of the thick air. It’s just so inviting and luscious. Full of life. Full of movement. Fresh and unfettered.
As for the markets, well, you’ll find things in Guangzhou markets that you’ll be hardpressed to find anywhere else in china. I mean, I was under the mistaken impression that I had been to well stocked markets in Beijing and Shanghai, but I think no Chinese open air market connosieur can even call themselves such until they’ve stepped foot inside one of Guangzhou’s many amazing specimens. I’m talking fresh coconuts to fresh alligator to scotch bonnets to sour sap fruit to cured dog to purple kale to traditional Chinese medicinal cupping done with hand carved bamboo cups and a tea foot bath while you’re waiting for the rest of your party to finish up purchases for dinner. Word life.
I’m now listening to Balkan Gyspy Beats on my laptop while the little lady is showcasing herself in a red shift dress and unfurling a Chinese New Year scroll. Such is life.
Jessie
Ps. I find well toned arms are alluring.
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