Lifestyles of the poor and unglamorous
Glamour Bar is a lovely place, but when it’s packed and you can’t get your overpriced drink unless you want to wait like by the bar for half an hour like you’re waiting for food rationing, it’s not really my cuppatea. I can’t hear people talk. I can’t get drunk enough to lose inhibitions and dance. I don’t want to talk to the women, even the attractive ones, because i can’t hear anything and in that kind of situation, conversation becomes strained. Since that’s about my only forte, if you can call it that, having that nullified by the loud club music means game over for me.
I had street food again at the corner of Changde and Kangding. Same meal–the chow mein and some chicken kebabs. There’s something satisfying about this cheap and dirty type meal. It appeals to the cheapskate in me–and makes me believe, to a certain degree, that this quasi-bohemian lifestyle is tenable. That you don’t have to make a ton of money and be part of the rat race to enjoy the essentials of life.
As I walked home with some grapefruit juice and coffee, I thought, this isn’t half bad. Simple and cheap pleasures–if I could somehow do this more often, life my life in this mode, then perhaps I would be happy. The grass would be greenest on my side of this fence. THen I think, that perhaps in order to do this I need to withdraw more from the activities of this world. That i am not in a place that’s conducive to this way of life–of course, I could firewall my mind so that I don’t get unduly influenced by what other people in this town are doing. But there are so many friends and they like this kind of thing, and that makes this kind of thing inescapable, doesn’t it.
My thoughts turned to Hangzhou, to moving somewhere where I could have nice living quarters and somehow be far from the madding crowd. But would it be too lonely, without the comfort of friends? Without my cats? With less “temptation” would I be able to live my life more purely? Would I be able to concentrate on studying mathematics, what with a study and ample table space for books and calculations, the likes of which i lack in my apartment here?
Would I be more able to live more impulsively and spontaneously, what with less costs and with less temptation to stay here in Shanghai?
Lisa is discussing. 
Lisa 12:10 pm on March 8, 2009 Permalink |
The simple pleasures, and the simplicity of pleasure, are always there. The difficulty is in realizing it. There is so much pressure about what society – whether broadly or intimately defined – considers “fun” that we attempt to ignore how grimly tedious that “fun” can be. I hear of your succession of nights out at bars and think, well no wonder he’s unhappy.
I likewise wax miserable enough at my endless flurry of swank parties, but they are redeemed at least by the art and by the cool people I meet, the good conversations I have, and the fun outfits they justify. But even at their best, they remain Work.
It seems obvious to me that street food washed down with Reeb is a banquet preferable to a spread at M paired with 80 kuai fauxtinis. It’s not just the bang for the buck, the opportunity cost; it’s largely the baggage of how much you’re supposed to enjoy the latter, its presumed superiority, that makes it immediately inferior. In my mind, at least.
When weather permits, KH and I (or sometimes just me with camera) do street food rambles. Usually just between her gallery and our homes, but occassionally we or I have travesed wide swatches of the city, eating wonderfully and having great chats with the venders and the shopgirls who crowd these joints around 10:30 pm. You should join us sometime.
A Hangzhou move might be what you need. You could take the cats, and your friends would come visit you. I am sometimes flabbergasted by how much you go out, and some of the places to; the classic 20-something expat binge lifestyle. Only most by your age have outgrown it, moved “back” gotten married and a job and some kids; even most of the Man-Boys eventually tire of “going out”. It does seem like you mostly have friends who facilitate and encourage this lifestyle. Maybe some contemplative lakeside solitude would do you good.