"irony is the ethos of our age"

..."He harvests awkwardness and self-consciousness. Before he makes any choice, he has proceeded through several stages of self-scrutiny. The hipster is a scholar of social forms, a student of cool. He studies relentlessly, foraging for what has yet to be found by the mainstream. He is a walking citation; his clothes refer to much more than themselves. He tries to negotiate the age-old problem of individuality, not with concepts, but with material things." via the NY Times


The "age-old problem of individuality" indeed. I've been wondering about this little problem and the lengths that we go to conquer it. What is gained--what is lost--in this struggle?

Read the rest of the article here.

remind me who i really am

Heard this driving down Michillinda Ave. as dusk was falling this evening. I found it poignant.

I'm not sure what this says about the state of the intellectual workings of my mind, that I would be moved by what is essentially a pop song. But I like Kelly Clarkson.

addendum

Now it is necessary to get to the grindstone again. I would like to live long enough to write three more novels and twenty-five more stories. I know some pretty good ones.

--the rest of what Hemingway wrote, again from the same preface

I'm amazed by his untainted eagerness, his unequivocal determination to keep writing. To batter his pen to the point of destruction so long as he could work out the words in his mind.

in going where you have to go

In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dull and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well-oiled in the closet, but unused.

--Hemingway, in the preface of my copy of his short stories

ye olden times in china

Apparently this used to be a set where they filmed China's version of the "period" film (unfortunately no sight of any silk petticoats or sprightly country dances here or manly men in double-breasted coats). It's an amusement park now, a la Universal Studios

But they did have a knight in shiny armor...at least of the magenta satin robe variety. I suppose that'll have to do.

shanghai, in photos

Okay, I wasn't going to put in any text but...really...this last picture? I don't think they're talking about ice cream...

we arrive

After watching five movies straight (see below for commentary) en route to Shanghai, we arrive. I'm a bedraggled pile of knitwear (stripes, cardigan, socks and all).

But. We eat at the best hole-in-the-wall place. I think this is seriously one of the best meals in my entire life and it was only $9 USD. Total. So that's four (actually five...my uncle and I both ordered second rounds) noodle dishes and three orders of dumplings, and this meat pastry that was dripping with grease and probably was the mortal enemy of my dad's cholesterol but boy did he swallow thing nearly whole.

I wish I had more pictures of that meal but I was too bizzy eating.

So many things, spread out all over the world, just waiting for me to happen upon!

--
My Movie Commentary, if you care to know:

1. The Artist: very cute and sort of Singin' in the Rain-esque. But seriously? It's like--what?--ten years before they end up together? The apocalypse could have come and gone by then.
2. Snow White and the Huntsman: love Charlize Theron in her melting, feathery glory but that's about it.
3. The Avengers: you end a movie with shawerma and I'm on board.
4. The Amazing Spiderman: he's dorky to the point of being inescapably cute. Need I say more?
5. Drive: Ryan Gosling at his most silent, most mysterious best. Carey Mulligan in a multiethnic, multicultural relationship. A man getting bloodily stabbed in the eyeball with a fork ?! I like.