Feb 11 08


New explosions. Celebrating the arrival of the god of wealth. All night long! The picture is a few remains of the red papers holding the fireworks but they've almost been all swept up by 7:15 a.m. Is that getting rid of the evidence? All I could think about was how to write a symphony of the celebrations...using amplified timpani; one 'boom' sends up the bomb and a second 'boom' blows it up in mid air. These 'explosions' are not your average 'kapow' -- take a rife shot and amplify by about 15X. We could amplify clapping to get the firecracker effect.

The music store I planned to go to either is closed today or just didn't open yet. A lot of businesses are closed for a week or more. A violin factory I got in touch with sent me a list of their fantastic fob prices but they won't be back open until the 18th.

The lantern festival is coming up on the 22nd; I imagine a lot of weddings will take place that night because it is 2-22-08. The number 'two' is considered lucky, especially for weddings, as in double happiness, and this falls on a Friday night this year. Eight is also considered to be a good, lucky number.

I went on a bike ride today over the outer ring road to the west area of town, maybe outside the boundaries of Shanghai proper. It was more like an 'old' town, or anytown China, with the little vendors, rubbish chucked into the street, and everybody conducting their business out in the open on the street. I may have found a tailor to try; it was the tiniest hole in the wall shop I have ever seen and I have frequented some pretty small ones in China! I crossed over an orange canal; yes, the water was orange. Another was a more typical murky green, but that is better than black as I have also seen in the past! "Be a Civilized Citizen. Crack Down on Criminal Activites. Get Rid of Superstition.Invite science."

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