Tired. Up very late now, trying to log this
entry. Grinding tired that
illuminates the scratch that had almost disappeared in the back of my
throat. It calls out the many days
since I’ve properly visited the gym and minor aches and pulls you feel, when you’ve
crashed out prematurely on a couch.
I can still feel the claws of sleep pulling, coaxing. 疲于奔命[1] may be a bit dramatic, taken literally but it is
only so far off the mark.
An evening with an old friend. Delightful conversation, which I really had no time
for. A drink, sure, up above the
city with a familiar but still mesmerising view. The environment vacant, vapid. Let’s go get some “family style” food.
This way, past Bubbling Well Road, and down to this small
street. Sure. Let’s just pick one that has a lot of
people. I walked him along a
stretch of restaurants near by the place I’d described last night. Unwisely, we walked right past that
place which has a horrible atmosphere but good food.
One block down on another corner was a bigger, better-lit
joint with quite a few people.
Alas, they didn’t know any better.
Dish after dish we’d ordered was flat. The best thing in my opinion was
the thin leafed green vegetable affair I saw that someone else was being served
on the way back from the bathroom at the outset. “What’s that?”
I can’t remember now what I was told, but I managed to hold on to it
long enough on the return from the fourth floor bathroom (?!) back to my table
where my friend was ordering. "We'll take one of those, too."
In the hustle and bustle of wrapping up where I’d been earlier, I
managed to leave my headphones. I
only noticed this as we packed up from the restaurant and I began fishing
around for them for the walk home.
They’ll either be back there in the morning when I go in or they
won’t. No point in kvetching about
it for too long there in the middle of the street. I miss them now though, as the music coming from the computer
speaker sounds faint and thin. They
better be there in the morning.
Marcos Valle isn’t anyone I’d ever heard before and as
suggested, I still haven’t really heard
him. But when I was proceeding
through all the recommendations of Brazilian music that my friend had profiled,
his name popped up as a suggested artist in Rdio. There were a number of his albums profiled and I threw on one
released on Verve in which he looks quite young and clean cut when he would
have been 25 or so called “Samba 68.”
Looking decidedly more shaggy and sounding decidedly more varied is the
release from five years later called “Previsao, Do Tempo.” I had a look at this means “prediction
of time.”“Os Ossos de Barao” from this 1973 album is on now, is irresistibly
positive and upbeat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_Valle
Interesting article about Xi Jinping in today’s Time’s that I'm sure he appreciated. It suggests that his family is swiftly working to off load some of their many assets in an attempt
to reduce his political vulnerability. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/world/asia/chinas-president-xi-jinping-investments.html?ref=asia&_r=0 It would appear that some of the highly controversial articles from two years back which Bloomberg
profiled of Xi’s extended family holdings and which the New York Times ran concerning the wealth of then, prime minister Wen Jiabao have had an affect. Articles cost both publications their
rights to be available on line in China.
And though there is not “free press” per se in the Middle Kingdom, the
global impact of investigative journalism, still manages to impact policy
regardless.
Some degree of pruning, at a minimum, is required of Xi and his clan so that he can legitimately pursue his program of “tigers and flies”
where in he intends to go after big potatoes like Zhou Yongkang as well as
every day corrupt officials. And
this, will proceed on his and their own terms, their own pacing. Not only are articles like this not
appreciated or allowed for Chinese public consumption but activists who point out such
matters publicly like the lawyer Xu Zhiyong who was recently given a four
year sentence for his role in calling for more public disclosure of officials
assets. The article has two sets
of pictures of Mr. Xi’s sisters villa in Hong Kong. I know the place well as my kids used to ride by it every
day there in Repulse Bay. It is
apparently abandoned, in disrepair and valued at around US$30M.
Another swig of water and a search for photos and then I
think I’m going to get some more rest.
An important call in a few hours.
[1] píyúbēnmìng:
lit. tired of constantly running for one's life (idiom); terribly busy / up to
one's ears in work
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