I’m not a ‘short format’ kind of guy. Maybe I need to work on that. :-O In any event, it doesn’t help my blogging habits. Half finished epic entries sit unposted on my desktop as my enthusiam and memory for the subject wanes. One way or another it seems obvious something has to change, and somehow I doubt it’s going to be the amount of time I get to devote to writing. (For now…) So we’ll give it whirl. Shorter, and hopefully sweeter.
One false inner mantra I’ve been able to effectively disprove here in China is that I only write when I’m emotionally inspired to do so. I mean, I do. But, thing is, I find myself emotionally charged and in awe of at least one dongxi per day, usually more… see entries November through for January for evidence of just how much inspriation does for my writing (hint: not much)
Anywho, there are a few events that truly set me lusting for a keyboard. One of them being Chinese New Year.
Killer party in an empty apartment aside (thanks Lauren S.!) the raw ludicrosity of Saturday night’s city-wide fireworks “display” was simply astonishing. The first firecrackers started ambushing Shanghai eardrums a few week ago. Here and there a shocking but isolated explosion in the middle of a crowded street, or subway station such to render the body’s sympathetic systems frazzled.
However, shortly after dusk on New Year’s Eve the real show started in earnest growing in phonic measure from the trampling of Zeus’ steeds to the amplified tectonic roar of colliding planets. This was no blitzkrieg, half-hour, Hudson River family event. This was seven hours of hours of increasingly frequent crack-crack-cracks, fizzzzles and B**MS; cardboard and spent mortar ricocheted off 10th story apartment windows. Hardly safer from our 40th floor rooftop vantage we took in the explosive 360 degree panorama and did our share of contributing to the fiery festivities. By 11:30 the city was shrouded in a sulfurous gun-smoke fog that stung the eyes and midnight struck with the confused, far flung violence of the dowager Tsu Hsi’s will. As far as the eye could see colored sparks engulfed every shikumen, da jie, nong and empty airspace. No window below 800 feet of altitude was safe for opening and as we watched lacy soot settled into the pile of the city’s collective wardrobe.
In many ways the scene, both a marvel and a treat, was the ultimate expression of humans enjoying the fruits and freedom of humanity. By God, we invented fireworks, so let’s all of us fire them off everywhere and anywhere we damn please, safety and sanity step aside for the wild moment please. There are so few places you can do this anymore.
