Friday, April 12, 2019

Are Important to Shanghai





Looking down now on the Shanghai Art Museum, the former Shanghai Race Club building built by the British in the thirties, which is lit up dramatically beneath the monstrous Raddison Blu.   I was on that Deco roof top spot not long ago.  It was nice.   The city is lit up in every direction.  Lights are important to Shanghai.  I suppose they always have been.  No concern for the light bill.  Any more than New York or Hong Kong does.  Will cities and lighting be different in the future? 

My day?  I only really headed out from the fourth floor campus twice, to go to a Starbucks.  A triple the first time.  Two hours later, a double.  I was achingly tired.  And I decided that any ingestion of food would be the kiss of death.  Stay away.  All the blood would rush to my tummy and I’d be passing out on my feet with these kind students I was supposed to be teaching.   A bit of abstinence did the trick.  I was tired. But in control. 



Trudging back to the hotel I considered just crashing out but erred on the side of dining with the free buffet and staying up as long as I could before laying myself down and repeating the odd-ball patterns of sleep from another part of the world that would only leave me ridiculously enervated, once again, tomorrow. 



I’ve had Mal Waldron on for the last few days.  Elegant, moody, he has many different albums that I don’t know of, which are presented as “would you like to try this?” choices in my Youtube meanderings.  The Mal Waldron’s Quintet: “Seagulls of Kristiansund,” live at the Village Vanguard for example, has me gently captivated.  Yes, I looked it up.  Kristiansund is a seaside down on an island not far from Trondheim in Norway.  Charlie Rouse is on the tenor and he doesn’t sound at all like he does with Monk.  Perhaps I’ll go one day.  It’s very far away.




Friday, 04/05/19



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