Nicotine Laminated Larynx

Well, it’s all turning into to dirty snow, the way urban snow always does.  The streets are clear of ice and are once again dusty.  This grit swirls around and sullies all the snow that’s off to the side.  Up to the right the poplar trees have only a scattering of resilient leaves left, shaking in the wind like something mechanized.  We just passed a broken down, empty bus. The bus driver was down on the ground trying to fix what looked like a flat tire.  Must take quite a jack to lift up a bus with your bare hands. 

My cab driver’s the kind of guy who isn’t afraid to use the side lane.  He’ll save us at least ten minutes with this brazen illegality.  The tough-as-tar, nicotine laminated larynx of Shan Tianfang（单田芳）is screaming from the taxi radio’s modest speaker.  I ought to confirm if his voice is available on line, (I did.  It is：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TxNZ9f7l2Y ) for posterity.  If there was one smell, like an open bottle of baijiu that might instantly invoke China, his voice would be the Proustian audible, summoning this city down from the memory shelves.

Last night we all went to see “The Martian.”  It had been recommended strongly and only just opened here a few days back.  It would be hard for anyone not to be captivated by the visualization of plodding around Mars.  And I’m as ready to promote science as the next person.  Go Botany!  But let’s be fair, the writing was miserable.   Matt Damon’s “aw shucks” demeanor and “WTF?” like epiphanies, were regularly implausible.  The wooden head of NASA with the Donald Trump hair cut, was utterly implausible.  The multi-culti-assortment of African American, and Asian American scientists felt obligatory, and certainly, sitting here in China, thinking of the censors, I couldn’t help but be cynical when the Chinese and the Americans cooperate to do good, enabling a heart rendering Chinese crowd scene of people cheering when our man who’d been left behind, is finally back on board. 

Ahh.  No one asked you.  Movies shouldn’t have to be cinematography classes.  We are a family seeking “entertainment.” Unlike a television, the big screen is too big and too public for me to talk back to for very long.  Shut up and lie back in the chair.  Everyone else is having fun.  So what if the plot is hackneyed.  Don’t ruin it.  Let's talk: ‘gee wiz.'  Let's talk:‘go-science!’ "You know . . .  I bet one day you’ll be able to go to outer space".  

Privately though Mars might have been a bit more remarkable if Matt Daemon’s video logs felt like a human soul had recorded them.