Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Wednesday is AKIC Sunday

Decoration Above
Workers are decorating an apartment above us and they are making a lot of noise doing so.  It is a common occurrence in China.  It doesn't seem to breed love for one's neighbours.
 
Is it just me, or is she nuts?
In a building next to ours, a woman who I think is crazy, is having her apartment decorated.  I say she is crazy because she is very intent about the process.  She can been seen walking back and forth in the lane in front of our buildings.  She paces in front for hours on end.  She has a countryside woman's gait - very unfeminine, she looks like a sergeant major inspecting barracks.  When she talks on her mobile, she is louder than the workers above us.  I first think someone is having a quarrel when she is on the mobile. Locating the quarrel, I see her barking into the phone like an angry general asking why his orders weren't obeyed.  I have tried to get my wife to look at this woman.  "Honey!  Look at this woman!  Is she nuts or what!"  My wife doesn't seem interested, poo-poohing my observations.
 
Dylan Documentary
Funny how one thing can lead to another in seemingly unrelated ways.  I was listing to an Econ Talk podcast in which the host of the show mentioned a Dylan Documentary he had watched.  The film, directed by Martin Scorsese, showed a Dylan who wasn't so much a protest singer with deep meaning, as a man who just wanted to make songs and be famous.  The Econ Talk host said that to learn this about Dylan shocked many people - it was a problem for them.  But it wasn't for the Econo Talk man who was an Economist.  Everyone has those sort of motives.  So, I went on youku.com,  found the documentary, and watched it all last night.  I quite enjoyed it.  I am not a Dylan fan.  He doesn't electrify me as Sinatra does.  Dylan often seems to mumble.  And the seriousness of the participants in the sixties is a turn-off for me.  Dylan's ambivalence about the protest scene is admirable.  He didn't bother going to all the sit-ins about Vietnam and so-on.  There is footage in the movie of Dylan fielding gaseous questions where I couldn't help but admire his rudeness.  (Obama, I have heard, plants these sort of questioners at press conferences, and instead tries to take on a magnanimous air).  I also read this story about Dylan in a right-wing side.
 
He is Up and At 'Em!
He is awake!  Tony got up about thirty minutes after I did.  After having his bottle, he went into the living room, took his pail of blocks and dumped it on his t.v. chair.  He then pulled me away from the computer to turn on the DVD player for him.  I hope he doesn't require me to take him out four times like he did yesterday.  All that sun killed me!  And I didn't do the things around the house that I said to wife I would do, thus losing even more credibility with her.
 
Underneath, Mirror, and Frame
I want to clean underneath all the furniture.  A lost of dust has accumulated there.  I have to put up this mirror, four frames of which I have already erected.  And there is this family portrait that will go on the wall near the dining room table once I find the hammer and hooks.
 
A Classic Look
I have been seeing a lot of this old local men, heads shaved, no shirts, wearing just shorts and sandals, their skin sunbeaten, their bodies thin but strong, looking for all the world like the coolies of days gone past.
 
Addendum
I forgot to mention that when I took Tony on a bike ride yesterday, we rode through some neighborhoods of Yanqiao.  Deserted these neighborhoods were in the hot afternoon sun.  I couldn't help but wonder what it was like to live in these places all made of concrete.
 
1,000 Views in 24 Hours
This video has been seen 1,000 times on youku.com
 
To Go or Not to Go?
I have been invited to a BBQ in the area.  Will I go?  The wife won't.  Blood done gone bad.  I wonder if I should go.  But. Never say never.  Maybe means No in China.
 
I Like This
I like this headlining I have been doing in my blog entries.  I like the look and I am sure the readers may find it attention-grabbing.
 
Sex
Rare readers and glancers know that I would never try to use cheap titillating sensationalism or exaggeration as a means of getting readers and visits.
 
Diarrhea
Someone has it.  No me.  I have been lucky so far this summer.  A few times, I have had the runs.

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