And yet I digress...

A snapshot of last week's sophomore class

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Me: "I like a lot of different music."
Xiao Wang (a.k.a. Chris): "Me too. Who is your favorite rappers?"
Me: "--maybe A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5, Outkast, M.I.A., the Roots, Jay-Z--"
Xiao Wang: "I like Jay-Z too."
Me: "Yeah? Who is your favorite?"
Xiao Wang: "Shaquille O'Neal."

Debut

I thought that those who care should know that I made my Chinese television debut this past Friday. For the Nanjing government's Mid-Autumn Moon Festival..."gala," I guess you could call it...The Nanjing government demanded my presence alongside the Brit who lives in my building--as well as alongside a Congolese student studying at Nanjing University. We sang "Purple Mountain," a song written by a Canadian and in honor of the Nanjing people's stand against the Japanese. The song was in English, and it had a bit of a Memphis feel to it.

Playing for the drummers in our shared dressing room

As my colleagues were instructed to lip synch, I was instructed to pretend to play guitar. All this Ashlee Simpson-ing is so that there are no mistakes. Harmony must be maintained--in regards to musical performance and quality of entertainment. The only entertainers who weren't faking during the evenings proceedings were the scantily clad Chinese dancers (who wore bunny ears and tails but zebra stockings) and the absurdly talented children playing in a traditional Chinese drumline--one kid totally wailed in a solo...would have kicked Nick Cannon's ass.

Anyways, I spent much of the day drinking free kumquat-and-lemon juice (weirdly good) and joking around on guitar with the children who played traditional Chinese drums--whenever, of course, they were allowed a break from their homework.

The show ended with cannons shooting golden glitter over all of us, with us smiling and waving to a packed auditorium and to the cameras telecasting us live to the city, with some handshaking with who I assume to be the significant governmental officials of the city, with our contacts gifting us a couple bottles of wine, and with the television offices rewarding us a three-hour salary for about four minutes of work.

This was easily one of the silliest things I have been a part of since coming to China, but I am in no way surprised. It feels like a rite of passage as a waiguoren (foreigner). Out of the evening, I was approached to help a teaching center as an English teacher and foreign model. Obviously, I am not sure really how this will pan out.

After scouring the Internet, I cannot find video (yet). I will keep searching, but I hope that these pictures will whet thine pallets for more on my rising stardom in China:

2nd pic--check that professional lip bite

And these women were one of my favorite acts--they came on about 15 minutes before us (same routine, though this footage is from some other absurd proceeding).

Cut and Pastiche

I am definitely not posting with the frequency that I would prefer. I wonder if my lack of writing contributes to a sense of feeling overwhelmed with thoughts that I want to communicate; I also wonder if the converse is not true in that the vast number of topics I want to discuss and stories I want to relay make it impossible to focus my writing.

No More Apologies

I have come to realize that I cannot post nearly as often as I would like--nor can I post with the creativity I would prefer. This will be my last apology for being M.I.A.: I am sorry. (Speaking of which, you should check out the new M.I.A. video for "Born Free" knowing that it will be quite violent.) This post should serve as a brief update on my life.

I have spent much of the past month studying so that I can now operate up-to-par with Zingerman's Roadhouse standards. Grueling and challenging at times, the process has ultimately been rewarding. I am all the more knowledgeable about food (production to plate) and enlightened by the organization's philosophy about people, community, and service. I am still loving my job, and I am looking forward to the coming months that are the Roadhouse's busy season--the other night a drunken and proud father of a recent grad insisted on telling me quite the animated joke and then confessing he would stop drinking Johnny Walker Black.

I recently soaked in a few rays while repotting C's and my cucumbers, pimento peppers, and zebra tomatoes.

Recently, I have been observing C and others go through the graduation process and have thus been brought face-to-face with one of those moments when events facilitate reflection on time passed. A flash to me last year would yield an image of a zealous and confident young man ready to start a summer job in service at a popular local business, planting a garden, enjoying the company of friends in an Ann Arbor summer, and secure in a future with the Peace Corps. If I have learned anything in the past year (which has been difficult, to put it mildly), I have learned to be humble about what I do have and to recognize how fleeting what I have can be. I appreciate my position in life, right now, and I do all I can to live contemporaneously with joy in that appreciation.

Still, the fact that I have come full-circle (in a way, when considering the similarities between my basic life description then and my basic life description now) has brought me to some questions that I have not yet been able to put into words for others. My language seems to fail to capture these reflective and thought-provoking circumspections.

Soon, I will begin learning some basic Mandarin. I have made it a goal to begin calligraphy as a hobby come August.

Otherwise, some recent intakes...
Movies I Have Seen Recently and Recommend: "Revolver"
Book Recently Finished: "No One Writes to the Colonel" by Marquez
Book Recently Began: "Steppenwolf" by Hesse
Music on my Mind: The xx, Groove Spoon, RJD2's "The Colossus," Caribou's "Swim," The Twelves remixes, The Glitch Mob