Assortments

I find it funny...

I cannot summon the time or energy to blog. I can barely write a full page for an entry in my own journal, and I rarely take photos these days. Now that I am drawing cartoons in my Slingshot calendar, have I lost motivation to journal in other ways? Those are but snapshots of absurdities or funny moments. They miss so much--though my more consistent smile may preclude time or mentality for dispatches to the "Traveling Onion" or to my future self (via my journal).

Maybe my daily guitar playing is serving the cathartic purpose [of escape into creativity] that my writing has done for so long. My callouses have not re-formed, so my fingers sting with the burn of shame from abandoning the instrument so long ago and from anything but spartan practice. Madness?!? This is Shenzhen.

So, here are some highlights from my current events:

-A few weeks ago, I paid off the Chinese mob with about US$250 to get a friend out of trouble at a mob owned nightclub;

Kite helper

-One day later, I accompanied a potential tutoring gig to a private party at which I was embarrassingly under dressed; luckily, I am quite used to losing face. After forcing me to drink liquor in excess while introducing me to various local officials (professors, the head of the city's train station, the city's Minister of Culture, etc.), my prospective client brought me to his three-story, mahogany-interiored mansion that is guarded by three St. Bernards. He had me listen to five gorgeous Chinese women in white dresses play music, and then he insisted I eat about twenty fresh Australian cherries. Before the night was finished, I was under the impression that he was either in the mafia or a vampire (or both);
-Classes are going really well; I am impressed with how one man's approachability increases at least ten-fold when he begins sporting a bow tie. The kids are smiling more, which means they are more relaxed, which means they are learning more, and this means I smile more. Smiles go well with bow ties;
-We currently have a couchsurfer from Hong Kong. Her name is Xiao Fay. She shares this name with my favorite hot pot restaurant: Xiao Fay Yang ("little fat sheep");
-I have begun private tutoring to become literate in Chinese. My tutor's mom will soon begin administering cooking lessons to me and a few friends;
-I'm getting to the beach.

Books, Movies, Music, T.V.: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, The King's Speech, True Grit, "Glass Figurine" by Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, Maximum Balloon, "Eleven" by Thao and Mira, Gold Panda, The King of Limbs by Radiohead, "Apollo Throwdown" by The Go! Team, Junip, Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabate, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Rome, Glee.

Pilipin

Everybody! Pose like a Chinese schoolgirl!

This post is a continuation of the last--my recent series of lazy rehashing of my journal.

01/27:

My thoughts (especially those I deem worth writing) have slowed. Is this a sign of relaxation? A shift in mindset due to current state and prospective jobs? Or an indication of having processed my anxieties to a point of acceptance?
*
I pass-out to power ballads blasting on a bus between Clark and Manila. When I wake, it's to a dingy city covered in filth, billboards, box buildings, and few green things. During our brief walk to get bi-bim-bop, our senses are assaulted by honking cars, neon, whispering drug dealers, and self-advertising prostitutes.
*

01/28:

Street vendors and hustlers walk the aisles of our bus as we slowly drift through Manila traffic with the coach door open.

Children wearing only underwear sit on our fast-craft pontoon and beg while the sun beats on their tanned skin.
*
Thin beaches. Coves with bangkas. Perfect sunsets. Drunken admissions and mosquito net riggings.