"Return To Shaxi" and Beyond....

Splitting from Kunming for a few days for our epic sequel, "Return To Shaxi - The Halloween Visitation".... We're taking the bus to Dali with beautiful Laura from London, an architectural designer and all-around super chill sweet girl, who's lived in Sri Lanka and India the past six months....

Noon-thirty in Kunming to 10:00 PM in Shaxi! Bus to Dali, bus to Jianchuan, haggle the minivan kid at nine o'clock at night down to 100 qwai for the both of us; too much dough, but we just don't want to stay in a Jianchuan bordello and get the clap from the sheets.... We roll into the Horsepen Hostel while everyone is still awake except Slipper, and Shirley is super-happy to see us and gives us big hugs! IT's like coming home, this dear old Horsepen.... Slipper finally wakes up and comes out of his room and wonders what we're doing here! He's just not on point without some barbells in his hands....

Ritodhi's unofficial entry into the Guinness Book of World Records: 69 toothpicks stuck into beard, at Muslim Lady restaurant, Sideng

The dogs of the Horsepen: Mali the Fatass and Luoshi the Sex Addict

***Interview with Slipper***

- 24 years old so far, from Chengdu

- Learned how to make composting toilets because IT's good for the environment

- Loves mountains because he loves to take over their summits

- Old wood houses could easily catch fire because he smokes, he prefers modern houses because then you can't hear the neighbors and then you don't have to cut down trees; he likes concrete because IT's strong, and feels that IT's okay to make environmentally bad houses as long as they're strong

- New Chinese life is better than old Chinese life, technology makes everything better; cars and medical tech are great, living in the country is more healthy than in the city.... When cities take over all the countryside, he hopes he is in heaven

- Feels that wherever you live, you always want to be somewhere else; if you're from the city, you want to move to the country, and vice versa

- Likes old Chinese clothes, but finds that Western food has more power

- Feels there are not enough jobs in China, and people will need to move to other countries.... He wants to travel all over the world

- Message to young people: Do whatever you want to do, you can realize IT! Oh, and don't smoke! (waving cigarette in air)

*****

Hangin' at Ashley's! So many sexual innuendos.... So much sexual tension.... So many nonsequiturs!

Nicklas and Hanna both attend Country Town University in Sweden, and are majoring in travel and being blond - says Ashley (with a little help from Ritodhi)

Specxy: Spectacular and sexy.... tip of the hat to Nicklas' english learned from TV and movies

"IT mimics a turbo - a turbine - de blew IT.... (motioning towards groin with both hands) i have to go to the bathroom!" - Ashley

RITODHI (Motioning towards two empty chairs): Ashley, why did you get those two chairs?
ASHLEY: I HAVE FRIENDS!

"You should really not take your fingers off that thing while i'm around!" - Ashley

"i'm one of those filfs.... milfs.... whatever they're called." - Ashley

RITODHI: i like hilfs.... you know, hamsters you like to fuck?
NICKLAS: Hamstrung?

Our Shaxi Cultural Center Three-Ring Circus: Ashley as the Bearded Lady, Ritodhi as the Bear on the Unicycle, Nolan as the Clown, Nicklas as the Strongman, and Hanna as the Trapeze Artist

"Hurt.... i love hurt." - Ashley

"You could be one of those mims.... mimes.... no, those statues!" - Ashley

"My chest is tight." - Ashley

"We're tomatoes!" - Ashley to Hanna

"The octopus - the pussy garden - the Beatles!" - Ashley

"i'm going to fill up your whole thing there!" - Ashley

"Soccer Mom meets Janet Jackson" - Ritodhi on Ashley's dancing

Sam Mitchell is a kind old hippie fountain-of-info professor and doctor of all things Sino-Indian from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who runs the school program that originally brought Ashley to Shaxi; he and his wife Yuen bought and restored the Cultural Center, set IT up as a guesthouse, and gave Ashley the job there.... Sam is a talker for sure, very interested in spreading information and very happy to do so very consistently throughout the day; some people are just meant to be professors.... During his time he spent in Austin, Townes Van Zandt and Stevie Ray Vaughan knew him by name, and he's an old Deadhead for sure, having gone to 21 Dead shows between '72 and '80.... He has an encyclopedic knowledge (albeit with some spotty recall) of topics ranging from 20th-century American pop music to Sino-Indian relations to ancient Vedic literature, and was suuuuuper-psyched to meet Ritodhi, who matched him note-for-note in talking about Indian history, culture, and literature.... He even wheedled an Indian cultural book-list out of Ritodhi, of titles Sam wasn't familiar with that Ritodhi knew intimately.... Such fun to observe the two of them! Some people are just meant to meet each other....

- Our food-providers in Sideng: Nice Lady, Muslim Lady, Slow-Cooking Guy, Ripoff Lady (who charged us more when we brought our own broccoli & mushrooms and Ritodhi helped her cook IT than when we just bought all her stuff), Salty Lady, Baba Lady

Shibao Shan! We wake up earlier than is entirely comfortable for a trip up the local Bai people's holy mountain, led by Sam, who is eager to share the specific and unusual iconography with Ritodhi and Ashley and i.... The little-known iconography in the holy spots on the mountain sports the only Shaivite temple in the People's Republic of China, featuring a trident-and-dumru-carrying Shiva with six hands and snakes wrapping around his legs and staff, accompanied by a Chinese warrior-guardian.... The local mountain temples and the Shizhong Shan Grottoes that we eventually reach feature mostly all-Buddhist iconography, with the notable exception of an obvious conical Shiva-lingam, made into a yoni with a deep slit cut down ITs front.... The cone is greasy and covered in oil from butter offerings, for according to the sign outside the niche, this statue is the holiest local yoni and feminine power-deity of the Bai people; according to Sam, local Bai women come to this shrine to offer fertility prayers and to give birth.... When or why local people transformed the ultimate male worship image into the ultimate female worship image are questions without answers.... These examples of Vedic influence in China (according to Sam) are the only known specific instances of Shaivite worship in the whole of China, and offer evidence of the mixing of Chinese and Vedic religion in the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom, the political area that stretched from modern-day Burma in the west to Thailand in the south and the whole of Sichuan in the north, from the late 8th century until ITs overthrowing in 902 CE; this religious mixing is apparently not documented or acknowledged in the current scholarship on the Nanzhao Kingdom, and Sam's intention is to write a specialized book on the topic....

Our 10-km-plus walk is very beautiful, climbing up and around winding mountain paths over Shibao Shan to gain an awe-inspiring view of the whole Shaxi valley, so huge and spread out with our little town of Sideng far below.... Our trip back down a paved road is punctuated with an area of nature preserve that is home to a colony of freely-roaming monkeys, a sight which i have never seen; i am entranced in watching their movements and monkey-consciousness, and feel very excited about the prospects of observing and interacting with monkeys in India, until Ritodhi explains to me that monkeys in India are more like gangs of starving homeless people than gentle animals; if one sees that i have food, IT will try to get IT away from me, and if i then kick IT in the head, all of ITs monkey friends will attack me at once like a vicious gang.... He says the best thing to do is to stay away from them or to run away from them if they try to engage....

After walking for a long time on the paved road, and sticking out our thumbs numerous times for numerous cars, we're all getting a bit tired and Ashley asks Ritodhi to try to reiki us a car.... Maybe ten minutes after he starts his walking meditation, a car stops with a couple of dazzling Chinese urbanites, and invites us in for a ride back into town.... Unexplained Phenomena? Oooooo....

"No Nakedlight"; "Beware Of The Firm Feet"; "Firefighting Equipment Can't Move Away" - Warning signs, Shizhong Shan Grottoes

"Any shaman you meet will want three things: a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of strong alcohol, and a chicken." - Sam

"A good trip is a rare find." - Ritodhi

"i want to read a book as fast as i can eat IT." - Ashley

Nipples the dog is alive and well! After not seeing her for the past three days, when she was a daily fixture of Shaxi life before, we went ahead and assumed that she had been made into a stew or stir-fry in one of the local restaurants.... But as we walked up the street to the Muslim Lady's for dinner, there she was! Dangly as ever, scratching her fleas.... i walked up to her and said "Nipples!", and she totally remembered her name and remembered me, and came and sat with us during dinner! What a sweetie....

- Talking with Rachel (Gui Ru Fei) in the Horsepen dorm, we learned about each other's holidays in America and China.... Chinese holidays are New Year's (both Jan. 1st and the lunar calendar date), Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day (built-in to the culture for everyone to go to the family graves and bring flowers and giftees), May Day (May 1st, Worker's Day), Dragon Boat Day (commemorating a famous poet Qu Yuan's suicide over his untenable political situation by jumping into the river - the day is celebrated by having boat races and eating zongzi, which is dropped into the water for the fishes to eat - just like the poet!), Double Strong Day (9/9, Sept. 9th, dedicated to the elderly of China, family hiking to the mountains), Mid-Autumn Festival (with all the Moon Cakes and chestnuts), and National Week (the big hullaballoo of the year)....

"He just did me.... i'm exhausted." - Sam on Ritodhi's interview

"When in doubt, slow down." - Sam

A fun night of playing tunes for Sam, Ritodhi, and Ashley.... Sam, between his encyclopedia of old pop music knowledge and his Deadheadedness, knew every song that i could play.... How wonderful to be able to play music for someone who is so familiar with my repertoire! Of course, that person would have to be in their fifties.... i'm such a dinosaur.... Magical "Black Peter", though, and a first time for Ritodhi on that song, so that's good.... Also, Sam said that whenever he hears "Wharf Rat" from now on, he'll be thinking of me, which is quite the honor! "Wharf Rat" --> "Imagine" --> "Wharf Rat" and ending off with "Brokedown Palace" was pretty fun.... And for the night's end, outside under the giant twinkling sky completely full of stars, the closest shooting star i've ever seen! The Leonid meteor showers were happening for sure, and this particular happening had little sparks around ITs head and left an orange trail in the sky.... for just a moment....

Halloween 2011! Devil's Night comes to a close, as the sun rises on another Day of the Dead here in the Shaxi valley.... The mewing cat down in the Horsepen courtyard calls a memory of three Halloween mornings ago, when i received the call from Devon that my little friend Mysto had been struck by a car during the night.... That Halloween of '08 was one of my first real encounters with death, burying poor mutilated Mysto in the rocky foothills of North Foothills Highway outside of Boulder, up by Sarah's old place where he had loved to be free.... The meaning of the holiday had never been clearer to me than in experiencing the gruesome passing of a beloved friend, and tonight i will honor these connections in meditation and calling upon the spirits for intimate contact, cradled here in the Shaxi valley....

Yay! Laura from London finally showed up in Shaxi on Halloween morning! So we will have a little party after all; i will find some black shit somewhere to darken up my face, wear Ritodhi's Chinese hoodie, and become Ghost Dog, Samurai hitman to the mob....

"i gotta go get my ya-ya's out." - Ashley's family saying

"i ate after i came!" - Ashley

"The Platonic Replacements" - Ritodhi's awesome band name

"i am Simon.... wait, Legend!" - Ashley

"She messed up a high-six by doing a ten and a seven!" - Ritodhi on Ashley

"i miss thee.... no, t-h-w-e!" - Ashley

"Is that Mesmerelda? You're a liar.... That sounds like pants on fire!" - Ashley

"i can't stop rocking!" - Ashley

After a fun evening of Thriller, Gonggui plum wine, strawberry candies, beers, doughnut penises, and Ashley laughing/throwing up/falling down/being carried home from the river by Ritodhi, we three remaining Halloweenies (Me-Ritodhi-Laura) had a wonderful late-night Halloween conversation, ranging from tantra and kundalini yoga to quantum science and impermanence in our lives, reiki and vipassana and anger.... We spoke of things we're not ready to accept, and things we're working on accepting.... IT was wonderful to connect in all these things, and i had no thought during our time together of going off alone into the woods in search of the local cemetaries, or the want of solitudinous meditation.... The spirits were watching over us, the living, talking late down by the dark river under the bright stars; and they were smiling, i'm sure....

"Wow, French people are epic, yo! They have such fucking heavy suitcases!" - Ashley

"We really hear what we want to hear...." Me on our little Shaxi collective

Off to Lijiang! The Disneyland of Yunnan.... Or maybe i should say, "Chinaland", as ITs old-town's streets are ablaze with overpriced crapshops, restaurants, laser fog-light dance clubs, and bars with one guy-acoustic guitar-and-songbook, where drunk customers can get up and do a little live karaoke.... The place is like Vegas without the gambling, a Chinese tourist's heaven where the party never stops, seven days a week....

The canals running through the old-style architecture, lined with weeping willows, are very beautiful, and the cobbled streets recall a simpler time when the city must have bustled with horse-drawn carts and local people come to buy and sell their wares and produce.... Yet now the narrow streets are packed with tourists from all over Yunnan and all of China as well, where the colorful shops distract mightily from the beauty of the buildings housing them; the buildings themselves are mostly all recent constructions, having been rebuilt in the old traditional style after the originals were mostly destroyed by a large earthquake in the eighties.... IT was actually refreshing to get out of old-town for a walk into the actual current city of Lijiang (looking for the one guitar shop in town), and be surrounded by streets and stores made for regular citizens rather than throngs of gabbling partygoers....

What a treat to meet up with Hanna and Nicklas again, randomly at the Panba Hostel here in Lijiang! IT's totally unexpected and always welcome company with these two Swedish sweeties, and hopefully we'll be reuniting yet again in India....

"The Ray Of Sunshine Pugai Noodie" - Lijiang noodle shop

Lijiang dreams: Apocalyptic future scenario in which the ultimate control of humans will be affected through our smartphones, and all my steampunk Road Warrior anarchist friends are banding together.... Before the Big One hits, they grab me and start running, demanding to have my Gphone so they can destroy IT for my own good; i don't want to give IT up; "What about all my phone numbers and contacts?" i wail helplessly, as i am pulled along under the night skies full of thunder and lightning.... But i surrender IT, and IT feels unexpectedly liberating to be removed from the phone.... The underground bunker is full of my steampunk anarchist friends, decking themselves out for apocalyptic battle, and i am proud to be among them....

"People Foremost Customer As Supreme" - Lijiang tourist motto

"Alian Snack" - Lijiang storefront (New Town)

Wow, this is just not really cool! On the train from Lijiang back to Kunming, a guy dressed in a train-official uniform is right behind me, doing a VERY loud live half-hour infomercial in a VERY loud voice for little quick-drying towels, soaking them in a bowl of water and showing how quickly they dry, walking back and forth down the aisle, slapping his rolled-up towels into his hand, and yelling his advertisement in my fucking ear.... He keeps doing these little pauses, and i think maybe he's done, but then his grating nasal voice starts up shouting again.... Oh my god he WILL not stop! *** Will someone just shoot me now? After a glorious period of silence, NOW he's walking back and forth again, shouting and holding up packaged toothbrushes.... *** And NOW he's got a little plastic self-cupping device for moxibustion therapy and WILL not shut up! i wish he would suction the little cup over his lips and do his shouting advertisement through his cup-pursed lips.... JESUS now there's two of them! Both with uniforms and cupping tools and they're both walking up and down the aisle shouting! AAAAA!!!

.... Back in Kunming, Tiffany and Ritodhi and i had one last Chinese hangout sesh at the Hump, good as always.... And then, Ritodhi was gone.... After two months of non-stop awesomeness, we took a cab to the airport together and filmed his fake arrival in China at the doors of the airport as he got ready to leave.... He gave me some wonderful hand-knit wool socks that are already coming in handy, and a beautiful little letter.... i miss him already, and very much look forward to our reunion in his homeland....

Home To Kunming

Back at The Hump Hostel.... feels like being home again.... IT's good to feel at home when you're sad....

i can't write this right now, because IT's too late at night and i'm too sleepy and emotionally drained, but i will write this over the next several days, i feel.... i will need some time to process these huge feelings wracking my spirit....

.... So now, a couple of days later, i think i can begin putting words to this stuff.... We got into the Hump on the 19th and got on the net; i checked my email and so did Tiffany, and everything was completely normal.... And then Tiffany looks up with wide eyes, and says, "Nolan.... Bob Epstein died."

She shows me the Daily Camera obit online, and sure enough, there's a pic of dear old Bob, and a story written by someone who didn't know him, saying that he passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on October 11th.... In shock, i check back in my email, and sure enough, there's a letter from Jackie telling about how the two of them had just taken an amazing trip to Spain, how Bob had fulfilled a long-time wish to be in Barçelona on his 60th birthday among Antonio Gaudi's treasured creations, how romantic IT had been, and how many inspirations and plans had come out of this wonderful trip.... They returned to the states very happy and excited for the future.... And then one day shortly thereafter, Bob had a heart attack and was pronounced gone at 1 AM....

Crying, i call Jackie, Margie, Josh, and get all machines.... Finally, Alex picks up his phone; he and Josh and Cass are all at Bob's house still, and i speak with each of them in turn, expressing my sorrow and love.... Josh tells me that IT was a very clear expression of Bob's love for me that he let me store my stuff up in the music room storeroom, because whenever anyone asked him if they could store stuff at his place, he ALWAYS said no.... So the fact that he said yes to me was a pretty big love deal.... That was nice to hear amongst all the tears.... He also said that they were keeping the music room as is, and they would keep my stuff safe for me until i return....

Crying out on the deck couches at the Hump, i write to everyone i know who knew Bob, letting everyone know about his passing and asking them to join me in remembering to love the people we love as much as possible RIGHT NOW, and let them know IT while we're all around to love each other.... Cause god damn! Any day, any of us.... BAM! No more being around! IT can happen so fucking suddenly.... just ask Bob!

Bob Epstein drove a cab in NYC, worked as a stagehand at the Fillmore East and saw the Grateful Dead, Janis joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and many, many more.... Bob was at Woodstock in '69, lived on a functioning commune in New York State, has attended so many motorcycle rallies at Sturgis that he doesn't even go anymore.... Bob is an artist, a sculptor, a guitarist, a singer, and an appreciator and collector of art and comics and music and jokes and all things surreal, psychedelic, weird, and hilarious.... He's made his own electric guitars, customized art-parts for Harleys, bizarre sculptures, and a quiet and wonderful life for himself out on a beautiful property in Lafayette, Colorado, looking out towards the beautiful Rocky Mountains fringing the horizon....

Bob Epstein is a gentle, sweet and loving big bear of a guy who can get really gruff if he needs to, or can be the sweetest, huggiest dude.... From what i understand, he used to get very frustrated about some things in life; but i think in his later years while i've known him, he's had a better understanding of his own frustrations to the point where he can diffuse them early (at least IT seems so while i've been around him).... He is a wise and tolerant person, has an appreciative relationship with his Judaic heritage but heartily embraces any and every spirituality from around the world, and has been a loving partner with the amazing and beautiful Jackie Buckner for over twenty years.... i have loved playing guitars and singing harmonies with him for years now, and he always has said that i'm one of his favorite-ever people to sing with; we've played more little jams with his old band buddies than i remember now, out there in his little cluttered art/music studio and wood shop, sung so many good tunes together, jammed out way too loud, hit a few beautiful songs spot-on with harmonies to raise some goosebumps and bright smiles, and even played a couple of shows together with his old band "Wasted Youth".... Bob has been like a second dad to me ever since i met him, and has been helping me to positively re-envision what life can look like in so many ways that IT's taking me a long time to even begin putting them all into words....

"You should get the Dead Guy Ale.... Oh, i didn't mean IT like that." - Tiffany (and yes, he's laughing)

"Wow, i'm not even hungry now, seeing how much you guys ate.... i've got a contact full." - Colin Flahive, on our epic Salvador's meal

TIFFANY: "Go for IT, dude.... Get the Star Destroyer with Rum Raisin on top."
ROTEM: "Are you gonna caress me when i'm pooping myself out on the street?"

"i can't say no to old men!" - Rotem

- Well, i finally bought my closed-toe shoes that i've really been needing in these muddy villages these past several weeks.... After trying on crap shoes in a whole bunch of shoe stores, Ritodhi and Rotem and i stumbled upon the footwear motherlode on the basement floor of a big mall building near the Hump.... The CATerpillar Store! Big heavy giant awesome brown CAT boots called the "Colorado Special" for, uh, $185.... Yes, i realize that's like a third of my month's budget, and i also know that these shoes are made like tanks and will hold up and care for my feet for (hopefully) a long time to come.... Of course, any thoughts about "having time" seem rather farcical after today's difficult news.... Yet happy i am to have these excellent clodhoppers, and i hope to take care of them as well or better as they take care of me....

Now, the all-inverted cards i pulled in asking for guidance surrounding this laughably expensive purchase were NOT seemingly in favor of my pulling the trigger on the footwear deal; and yet, my true instincts were to go ahead and hook myself up with good-quality necessary gear, so i must look to the card-meanings involved as necessary reminders in the process about what's REALLY of true importance here.... Namely, that the shoes aren't the main point! Learning true love and the landscape of my heart (inverted Page of Cups) is the real work to be done, requiring attention to be paid to the support and wisdom of the Mother and not harping so much on self-sufficiency and rigid adherence to habituated patterns (inverted King of Discs), experiencing too much attachment to permanence and security through the expensive shoes (inverted Magician) and experiencing difficulty in understanding how a potentially wrong choice may still turn out okay (inverted Sun).... In this way, i can understand how buying the shoes is a good thing, and still keep focus in mind on what i'm really supposed to be doing here....

But upon reflection beyond even these understandings and reminders, i sense an overall message that i need to state in plain terms: Doing the same things as i am used to (using lots of money/resource to purchase potential security) WILL NOT assist in this process that i intend of evolution beyond my current shackled boundaries.... IT is okay that i have done this action, but not to the point that i lose sight of this important reality! The cards are beckoning me further and further out to an uncharted sea, and the more lifelines to shore to which i cling, the more tethered i am to an existence of familiarity and self-imprisonment....

Wow, today was the day that we almost saw Shaquille O'Neal! The crowd of hundreds of excited people surrounding a small stage area in the entrance to the Brilliant Plaza off the main walking mall attested to the fact that we were in Kunming at the same time as the Shaq Attack.... Unfortunately, he wasn't scheduled to make his appearance for another hour and ten minutes from the time that Tiffany, Rotem and i wandered by.... So we were not blessed with each other's presences....

- Ritodhi and i are generally very much on the same wavelength (which just doesn't happen for me very often), and i am super-psyched to have such a supportive friend in my immediate sphere.... i hope to travel to India soon, with the knowledge that i have a solid friend and point of connection in a land that is (in all probability) going to rock my world in ways i don't understand right now.... Ritodhi says that one can't go to India expecting to find the enlightenment and peace of spirit that all these shmoes from the west tend to expect; he says that isn't the way IT works, and that India will kick my ass in every way i can imagine because IT is a place where life is simply not lived in ANY WAY that i am accustomed to.... From the inside out (Delhi Belly, etc.).... Rotem and Tiffany keep saying that i'm going to die in India, and Ritodhi is consistent in his encouragement and support of my abilities to adapt and grow, which i really appreciate more than i can say.... His recommendation to me is to get a jute bag and Indian clothes and leave all my nice gear with someone i trust, and to travel the land as an Indian person would for a while, to become a person that i have not been, and not in the Eat Pray Love bullshit way.... anyway, we'll see about all this.... But India is on my radar

Wow, i've really been hitting my head a lot for the past few days.... Three times getting off the bus in Kunming, punching myself in the face, the shelf in the Hump common area, the iron lamppost decoration on the street, the side of my bunk bed in the Hump dorm, the overhang out on our midnight walk.... What does IT mean? When will IT change?

"How much is IT gonna cost for me to put your stuff in my shit?" - Tiffany

"Arrrggghhh.... Poop in ass want out!" - Rotem

Rotem is catching his flight to Beijing this evening, in preparation for heading back home to Israel in three days, so a proper celebration was necessary.... We had a fully epic last meal for the Fantastic Four at the promised-land all-you-can-eat sushi & hotpot restaurant on the fourth floor rooftop of one of the nearby mall buildings.... goddamn IT was good, so much food and then us all groaning and staggering out of the place.... We ate them into submission so completely that they had to close their doors; all the waitstaff and cooks packed up and beat IT, and we left our table a wasteland of destroyed foodstuffs, crumbled cookies, and sushi dumped in the hotpot broth....

"Hey, IT's not gay.... IT's love!" - Rotem

Pole dancing with the gay boys! Going out to clubs in China is the only time i can ever remember feeling like a hot girl.... Everybody is so friendly, and people just keep giving me beer.... especially in the gay bar!

- Two girls, arm in arm, walk by us at the end of our slightly drunk dancing night; one slightly smiling, the other visibly sad and sullen, carrying a giant teddy bear.... "Just goes to show, teddy bears can't buy you happiness," says Aussie Rhiana....

There is a Father & Son duo which sings karaoke together out in the square in front of the Hump for dough.... The son is two-something, maybe three years old, and singing VERY off-key.... Keep practicing, kid, IT's a long way to the top....

"Care grass as protect skin" - Kunming park sign

"No Thino To Lose" - Kunminger's t-shirt

Well, looks like a Halloween return trip to Shaxi might be in the works.... Ritodhi is saying he'd rather go and deepen his information about one of his key areas that he's studied, instead of going and getting shallow info on a completely new area with no contacts or introductions.... "Return To Shaxi" might be just what the doctor ordered....

Lying in bed, writing about Bob and listening to sad songs, having my grief and my thanks all at the same time, i take out the cards to randomly flip through, looking at them.... and one card is backwards in the deck, with the backside towards me.... How does this happen? This never happens.... except sometimes IT does.... i flip IT over, to reveal: the Card of Impermanence, inverted....

Good Taro reading for little Aussie Rhianna before her departure for back-home, concerning transitions into upcoming adulthood for her.... IT was a good reading (Consummation, Catch & Release inverted, The Fool inverted, Schism inverted), and IT felt good to do an actual reading for someone again! i'm thinking about taking a day and just setting up shop at the Hump tables, giving readings to anyone who wants....

Nicklas is a big baby-faced Swedish guy from Gothenberg who is a hell of an understated dancer, with little funny moves, a big smile, and a jolly perspective on life; he plays some guitar, bartends at a jazz club called Nefertiti back home, and hangs out with....

Hanna is a wonderful supercool skinny kickboxing musician girl from Gothenberg in Sweden; she plays trumpet and flute for Irish and Swedish folk music, harbors a wish to go do a tour of American folk and bluegrass festivals, and is a sensitive and insightful soul - not to mention her fun dancing! She and Nicklas should start a dance troupe.... They are both going to be travelling in India, and IT is entirely possible that we all may spend christmas down in Auroville, the organic farming community in southeast India....

- Well, quite the saturday night in Kunming! Ritodhi and i got a bunch of white people excited about the prospects of being given free beer at the gay club downstairs from the Hump, and then we dressed to impress.... Making our appearance as the Gay Terrorist and the Space Cowboy, we were the gayest guys in the gay bar for a night.... We showed the gay guys what IT means to be gay! Several memorable stage dances, pole dances, conga lines being led by a dude in a full Bugs Bunny suit with one regular eye and one black hole, sexy girls climbing poles and hanging upside-down, and finally the stupidly-drunk guy who fell into the table and then ate IT right down on Rianne's knee, dislocating IT into a nasty unnatural position! At this point, our party ended, as Rose and i carried poor Rianne out onto the outer deck and the medics were called.... They put her knee back in place (and man, was she a tough cookie! Holding IT together the whole time; i would have been freaking my shit), and told her she'd be okay, but she wanted to go to the hospital to be checked out....

Tiffany, Iris, and Rianne just returned home to the Hump from the hospital; Tiffany reports that the doctor said three days, no walking, but she'll be fine.... That's very good news, considering her shit looked straight fucked.... whew

- Today i have been reborn, with the shining light of Buddha and the snake demons penetrating my soul! i feel like i've given birth to a simpering bat-boy and an army of underwater rats....

Ritodhi and Nicklas and Hanna and i took a walk over to the movie theater today, and although they sneakily tried to get us to see Green Lantern in 3D, we rose victorious to see the most amazing movie of 2011: "IT's Love"! Tony Ching's masterpiece, clearly, in all ITs sub-par-CG glory, IT also features Jet Li in his most compelling role to date as Master Faihi, Buddhist demon-hunter! i could try to explain this crowning jewel of Chinese cinema in writing, but i think that the intricacy of the plot and the amazingness of the cinematography warrant a different rendering altogether.... So i think i'd like to present the brilliance of this film through the nonlinear sharing of ITs myriad imagery....

IT's Love: Buddhist disciple waking up in the morning to find he has pointy ears and fangs; A white snake locked away in a pagoda tower; A floating inflammable spirit-herb that undulates like an octopus; Romantic underwater kisses amid breath bubbles; Demon-hunting; Incestuous lesbian snake women; Cock-a-Doodle wine; Giant golden Buddha-hands; Master Faihi writhing and convulsing, covered in snake-bites, lying atop Buddha's giant head; Bromance mouth-to-mouth CPR; Mountain herb-picking; Elderly talking turtle

"Celebrate space - will have opportunity - talk with international" - Kunming girl's shirt

"If i didn't have to put food on the table in order to go to work, i sure as hell wouldn't do that." - Tiffany

Playing the Halfway House's open mic tonight, i had one of the best times i've had in China so far.... The venue is run by a musician and guitar player who loves Bob Marley, so there were many pictures and much music playing on the PA celebrating the deceased reggae guru.... i thought a little tribute to Robert Nesta might be in order, so i started off with "Waiting In Vain" and was quickly joined by a girl on shaker and a dude on djembe, and what do you know? The drummer was actually a drummer, and listened, and paid attention to my cues! Ah, things always go so much better with a real drummer.... Folks seemed to really appreciate the Wailers cover, so i gave them a little original with "2012", in which the drummer kept up beautifully with the fermatas, and ended off with "Georgia On My Mind", during which a saxophone player randomly popped up and blew a fun solo and backup! IT was simply mahvelous to have that kind of round-out to the set (and to that song in particular!), and i thanked the two other players profusely afterwards.... Tiffany said that IT was the happiest that she's seen me on this trip and encouraged me strongly that she feels that i'm supposed to be playing music, and that is what i'm meant to be doing....

The rest of the open mic had a bunch of really fun players and good music, and we had a great time listening to them all; Tiffany said IT may have been the best open mic she's ever been to!

We were sitting with two cool gay guys (Li Jing and Zhang Kun) at one of the tables in the back of the bar, who both expressed great love and admiration for my playing, and as we continued conversing with them, i discovered that Li Jing had been listening to the Grateful Dead for the past ten years since he was fifteen! We cuddled together, listening to "Attics Of My Life" on his tiny little phone speaker in the loud-ass bar.... How wonderful! i felt the gentle hands of Bob Epstein at work around our meeting, because how i could possibly meet a huge Deadhead in southwest China is so unlikely as to be almost ridiculous, yet here IT was happening! Thank you, Bob, for guiding me towards family even halfway around the world....

IT's Love: Master Faihi versus enraged white snake chick; The Fool forgetting his true love, Bat-boy saving the green snake - "Why is IT that every time i wake up, i'm next to you?"; Amitabha; Golden Spirit Dagger

"You are beautiful - We are ready for ready" - Kunminger's shirt

"Life is a zebra crossing" - Kunminger's shirt

"Every day of your life, live charmful" - Kunming shirt

IT's Love: Bat Demon shaking the canals of Lijiang; Underwater army of rats versus senior chanting Buddhist monks; "Use maximum protection!"; Snake-induced tsunami; Disciple Boy ready for demons with cymbals on his hands; Master Faihi triumphant on an underground lava rock; "You must be mistaking me for a gentleman," says the Fool; Evil spirits trapped in a circular portal; Inter-world marriage; Mom's fashionable rabbit-ears