narrative meaning presence awareness

How and where are these themes embedded in systems of communication? How, where and why do they manifest in physical objects? Basketball nets. Simple pure objects. Points of connection. Interaction. With their own language, dialog and narratives that surround them. The design of this object plays a significant role in this, basketball nets alter a landscape, and remain when the game is over, they are raised above eye level, accessible but out of reach, pressed against the constant sky as a backdrop. No matter where you are in the world. I became fascinated with this in China, baskteball nets at the shaolin temple, in courtyards of mansions in Shanghai's french concession... The narrative that surround these objects persist, even when play is over. And no matter where you are in the world, these objects hold as entry points to those narratives.

brother squares lines and a really fast train

is the grass more green in outer space?

Yesterday, wu yi kuai le! Finally made it over to the other side of the river. What I had heard was a clean, civil, sparse Pudong was packed with people, travellers from all over China, many of whom were seeing Shanghai for the very first time for the Labour Day festival. It was insanity. Photographers everywhere trying to sell you a picture of yourself in front of the pearl tower. Talia and I found this very puzzling at first. We soon realized that most of the travellers from the middle of China can't afford a digital camera. A quick snap from a photographer at the Pearl Tower is a definite cost effective way to document your trip to outerspace. Because trully that is what it must be like for many people. A trip to outerspace. Imagine going all the way there with your life savings only to you return home to discover that your picture didn't come out. In Pudong that can be avoided. I also saw a woman throw herself in front of a van while holding a baby. It all happened very quickly but I knew right away that she did this on purpose in order to extort money from the driver. A few weeks ago I watched a Shanghainese movie called The postmodern life of my Aunt. There was a scene in the movie where a woman bought a vase and then threw herself in front of a car so that the vase broke and then tried to get the driver to pay for the vase (or her inflated price of it). Yesterday this woman's foot became jammed under the front wheel of the van, the driver would not budge while people swarmed around, yelling at him to back up. Thankfully the baby was fine, did not even make a peep. And the driver also was unfazed. I was not. horrified to say small things.























Back on my side of the river there is grass and also pandas.

why didn't my pre-school have swords?

Not even the wildest imagination can do China justice. Things here are consistently beyond the realm of the conceivable boundaries...or whatever I understand my imagination to be. Whenever I expect something to be a certain way, even if I am pushing limits, boundaries are broken. I am consistently baffled. Baffled is not even the word. There are no words, no categories no communication tools that I know of to explain this. But it is nice to know that things like this are out there. Challenging me over and over again to restructure the way I think, understand and see the world. And it just keeps happening. Over and over again.

This is my trip to Henan province. I traveled here yi ge ren for 4 days. The center of China. No English. Fighting to communicate at every moment. Stories and adventures. They will come in time but first there were little red dots.

Thousands of them. Stretching beyond infinity across the vast landscape of Shaolin. Order and chaos aligned. Questions and solutions. Pain and sheer simple joy.

The first day I woke up at 5, did Kung Fu training, climbed a mountain and discovered a small Kung Fu school. They welcomed me. I bought them a basketball because there's was broken. We played and then I watched them train. The bigger school where I was staying was more regimented and intimidating. I think they only sleep for 2 naps a day between 2-5am and 12-3pm. A 7 hour hike that I thought might never end. It finally did in a parking lot, 30km away from where I needed to be, a fight in Chinese with illegal taxi drivers, roads under construction, dinner with kung fu coaches. Dodging 3 year olds with swords in the dark. The army never stopped. where/when do they sleep. I'm really not sure.

Laughter. Frustration. China treads a fine line. The train ride home was 11 hours. I waited until the last minute to book my ticket and when I got to the station in Kaifeng, there were no seats or sleepers left. I was forced to buy a standing ticket. Without a clue what that meant, I nervously boarded the train. Exhausted from my trip and expecting to be shoved into a cattle car to stand for the whole journey. This could have easily been the case, but once again my imagination was wrong.

A ticket to one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. My standing ticket meant tht I stood in the aisle of the train, between seats. Between people of all ages, speaking various dialects from somewhere near heart of China, all travelling east, all staring at the funny looking white girl. Trains are really nice in china. This car had about 10 small LCD screens and was playing some cheesy kung fu flick. I stood in the isle, sweating and exhausted while I had to move myself and my bag out of the way every 30seconds to let the food cart, or some person on their way to or from putting steaming hot water into their cup of ramen. As I stood there, the end of the movie was playing. And I have never in my life seen people so utterly captivated in anything in my life. This was clearly a cheesy, amateurish Kung Fu comedy. And when I looked around everyone from the three year old jumping in her seat, to the 80 year old man with his slippers on, to the jaded teenagers, to the migrant workers with big swollen fingers, to the quiet student off to visit his girlfriend. Everyone was completely enthralled and laughing hilariously outloud for the entire time. Never in my life have I seen an audience so captivated. So simple and shocking.

In the world that I was born, there is no such movie, or anything else for that matter, that could so effectively grasp the attention of so many people and cause them all to laugh. A big real loud hysterical laugh. This was China.

writer's block

up by Baoshan lu is a block that honors famous Chinese writers. And these two women hold it down. lots of statues, cool things to look at old people to talk to with birds. David (my friend from Argentina) and I explored and he also held and tried to steal a really fat baby. We bought these tiny comic books with amazing pictures from the revolution, they are really old and some have library cards. The ones we bought seem, from the pictures, as attempts at capturing aspects of western culture and history. I am interested in being able to one day decipher the interpretation. till then it is fun to make believe.

I am so good at making pancakes it is stupid

no really. I am the best pancake maker in the world, and I don't mean to brag, but I really am. It is like those kids that grow up playing basketball on court where the left hand side is all rocky and then when they get to a good court they have a really good left hand... That was me with pancakes. Chinese kitchens are not made for brunch, but by the 40th pancake I was a golden brown flipping machine. This was one of my best days in Shanghai. I had all of my students over to my apartment for brunch (BReakfast + lUNCH = BRUNCH I explained) the Sunday after we finished our final class. I cannot begin to tell you how warm and welcoming this group of people were to me during my first 6 weeks here. I began teaching every sunday 5 days after I arrived and every class they took me out and showed me a new type of food and showed earnest interest and appreciation for everything I taught them. They brought me flowers, a wooden musical box, and then one of the older students, who I called Boss...brought me a beautiful Chinese Tea Set. Even though I do make the best pancakes in the world, I don't think they really liked them. Chinese people really only do like Chinese Food. But Talia likes them and so did Lynn and Veronica (who came over and sampled and hung out as well). Oh and by the way...they made me take more awkward pictures than my Mom & Zaida combined...