purple rain, purple rain

rurple pain. rurple pain.

it’s been a very cold string of days here in Hangzhou. bonafide winter, I tell you! I’ve been sleeping on the futon in my “office” because it’s the warmest room in my apartment. that said, I scrapped any and all ambitious plans of yester weekend in favor of staying in and watching a movie. because that’s all the energy I could muster. that said…

I just finished watching something simultaneously terrible and amazing. I’m a 31 year old American living in china and today marked my first viewing of purple rain. holy crap. that’s all I can say. I think I felt a similar confusion after watching zanadu for the first time (in korea, which was equally strange), feeling profoundly inspired by how bad it was. but zanadu actually triggered quite a bit of fear in me as well--like some altered dream state from which you can’t quite escape, set in a vaguely ’80s and acutely terrifying landscape, replete with roller skates. eek. but hey, no fear with purple rain. except, why’d prince have to go and slap apollonia around? maybe he really IS just like his father, too bold. sigh.

since the movie is fresh in my mind, I think some reflection is worthy. depending on one’s definition of worth. and since my definition includes “blog-inspiring” I’d say the film is worthy.

57:45: prince, to movie dad, offscreen, “Where are you? Where are you? Answer me, motherfucker!” keep in mind, prince’s speaking voice is actually quite high. it was a shining moment, fer shiz. and the drama sure was….dramatic, even moreso because It’s all “autobiographical.” I’ll have to wikipedia this to find out. but if I had home internet I wouldn’t have wasted my time with this movie. so the wik will have to wait another few days.

I’d say it’s no injustice that prince hasn’t appeared in more films. but you can’t deny that this tiny, gyrating man on a stage (even a movie one) is something you have to watch. particularly when he’s dry-humping the monitors (multiple pumps, he’s prince after all) or doing the bootie shake at the end of the movie, after a particularly-james brown-ish dance montage. so much rubbing and licking. question though: considering his dad had just tried to blow his brains out, right before his very eyes, wouldn’t prince have thought of different hand gestures for “I would die for you?” point to self, mime blowing brains out, quickly segue into holding up 4 fingers, then point at lover of choice. repeat. it just seemed like an insensitive oversight.

i wonder what prince wears at home, around the house. does he have sweat pants? slippers?

I had nothing better to do after watching the movie (hence this piece of writing) so I pampered myself with the other dvd of bonus features. which meant, yes, removing the original, and replacing it with another dvd. a task I wouldn’t extend to just any 80s musical sensation.

one of the segments on the bonus features is the mtv premier party. wow. thank you, jehovah, for this veritable time capsule back to a whole joke of a decade. for real. so in the film, I thought maybe peeps were stretching it a little bit with clothes, hair, makeup. but then they showed footage (recorded live) of the premier. and holy crap, that’s how people actually dressed. again, I lived through the 80s, but I just didn’t remember it being so, uh, colorful. and asymmetrical. and swooping. and tight. and geometric. I’m not sure which of these observations relates to clothes or to hair or to both. anyway, there’s a bit where this vj with amazingly curly hair (white dude with essentially a jerry curl) has 3 “celebrities” lined up to ask them about the film: little Richard, Sheila e (celebrity?), and eddie Murphy. little Richard is interviewed first. and he holds up a bible that’s he’s had specially made for prince, as well as a book called steps to Christ. a little awkward. he just wants prince to realize that all of his musical gifts came from god. no harm there. and he talks for a bit about how all these different people are versions of him for their generation—prince, james brown, etc. Sheila e is trying not to laugh the whole time. she says maybe 5 words, then eddie Murphy makes fun of little Richard, claiming that prince, james brown and little richard were actually the eddie murphys of their generation. I guess it’s just something you have to see to understand and/or appreciate.

one more nugglet. john cougar mellencamp (sitting next to a rather subdued weird al): “compared to other rock n roll movies, you know like help, it’s a far better movie than that.“ who knew lil’ ol’ johnny cougar knew so much about rock n roll movies? I’m sure he speaks for all of us on that one.

so yes, today’s been a good day so far. I need to hit the dvd shop again. the slim pickins last time are also to be credited for today’s viewing pleasure.

it’s December 22nd. which means it’s close to Christmas. which means I should feel Christmas-y. whatever that means. i think I felt a tinge of sadness yesterday after a rather serendipitous afternoon nap. I’m sure it’s probably due to homesickness or other things that tend to creep up and make me more questioning of all aspects of my life. so yeah, during these “bouts” I’m generally less fun to be around, because yes, I usually am a veritable ball o’ fun. it’s been a while since one of these waves of “badness” has approached. I’m generally happy here in Hangzhou. I think I’m just starting to realize that there are certain trade-offs when you move to a new city. duh. in jiaxing I was really engrossed in my teaching and had no social life and felt like there was this big void that needed attention of some sort (keep it clean, folks. there’s no innuendo there…), a lifestyle, a hobby, openness. now I’m in Hangzhou and I go out and I have friends and a bike and a lifestyle, but there are certain things about my work environment that leave me feeling empty or less productive than I would like. so I’m feeling lately that I traded academic standards and job satisfaction for a social life. this is not to say that Hangzhou doesn’t have academic standards, they’re just not as high or as nurtured as they were in jiaxing. I’m sure there are statistics somewhere that disprove my claims, but having worked at both places, I know how it feels to be part of a machine that’s working vs. one that feels like the wheels are about to fall off. so that’s a tough thing to reconcile. but maybe my opinions will be worth more in a few months and I’ll be able to help implement some sort of change or steps in a right-er direction. there’s a very real fear, however, that even if I should get some title of distinction here, my actual ability to help anyone or to help the school won’t be a realistic part of my job. a whole litany of ideas that will never be actualized…but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. found out today (December 23rd) that I might be forced to take on a roommate here in the next two weeks. me no likey. that’s what I call a dealbreaker, particularly when living alone was the dealmaker…we shall see.

back to el holiday. on Christmas eve I’m going to eat tepanyaki. dressed as santa clause. then we santa clauses shall commence to pub crawling. methinks it will be a fun night and an even more painful morning. we shall suffer as Christ suffered? there’s the link back to a sacred Christmas…but on that painful Christmas day all the ef schools are going to a fancy hotel for what I hear is a pretty expensive and spectacular brunch. the mimosas will be plentiful. and I hope there’s some good western fare. I ate jellyfish, fish balls and lotus root last night at our school’s party. and these delicacies were just okay. I also hate the inherent competition of eating in a Chinese group environment. all the dishes are communal and it’s a mad dash to get your chopsticks in before everyone else. a Chinese meal is pretty much a microcosm of any number of more frustrating societal situations that involve sharing or waiting or the vague (and apparently abstract) notion of patience.

I went to Chongqing a few weeks ago. the first time I’ve left Hangzhou (besides a few trips back to jiaxing for western union issues). I guess the reason was to celebrate jules and my birthday, but I was a few weeks too late for that. it was actually just an excuse to get out of Hangzhou for a while. and there’s absolutely no harm in admitting when you miss people. so there. I missed people, two in particular. which isn’t to say I don’t miss other people, but I don’t have the same near-instant gratification of hopping on a plane and feeling better about things.

Chongqing is a completely different world than Hangzhou, though. for starters, it’s massive. for a place that ultimately felt Chinese as fuck in all the right ways—the dirt and the grit and the ever-present bustle of commerce and general daily life--crossing the bridge into the city proper on the way in from the airport was surreal. this skyline of massive buildings and lights. but it’s a little hazy on account of pollution, lending it a post-apocalyptic, disastrous feel. it’s hard to explain. this wasn’t a bad feeling, just an otherworldly one. the city also has all these layers (jules has talked about that before) and hills. Hangzhou is relatively flat, hence my bike as transportation, so I think hills are cool. you walk out of jules’ old apartment, where she’s already in a high rise apartment building. and you’re on the ground floor of this particular apartment building. then you walk about 25 feet ahead and a little to the right and look down, and there’s another high rise apartment building that just sprouted out of the ground underneath the already massive apartment building. it was crazy! and also felt like another world. also, I think we ate hot pot 4 times in 3 days. so the hot pot is different from here in Zhejiang province. it seemed simpler and better in chongqing. and obviously spicier. the spoons extend out of this thick pit of ma spice and peppers. there were no green onions or little brown things that I don’t know what they are or giant chunks of ginger that trick you into believing that they’re potatoes. none of that fancy shit. and there is no way to construe this broth as “brown.” it’s red and spicy as fuck. and the animal fat that they dissolve in the pot coats both utensils and tofu with a thin, waxy layer. it sounds disgusting, but it’s awesome. this was most obvious in what was called the “happy pot.” it had metal grates in it (great!) that divided it into 9 partitions. so you could segregate your veggies for easier identification later.

another highlight of Chongqing was seeing jules’ shiny new ef school that she’s the dos of. it was just nice to see something clean and organized. and it had interactive whiteboards. I want one.

tomorrow I have to meet with a potential vip student. I say potential because he wants to meet me first to determine if I’m worth his time/money. so no pressure there. but he’s studying in America right now. the cool thing about teaching him is that he doesn’t actually need help with the general weak areas of esl learners, but he actually needs skill with writing essays for his literature class at his American university. so if this gig does happen, it will be very cool to revisit the traditional essay format. I’m a dork who gets excited by precisely this sort of situation—claim, evidence, warrant, oh my!. I hope I’m worthy. but I’ll find out after I post this.

hey, i'm worthy! met with the dude yesterday.