Remember John

Strawberry Fields, Copyright 2003, 2007 Curtis P. Stranathan

It is Sunday, December 9 here, but back home it is still Saturday, December 8, 2007, 27 years since John Lennon was slaughtered outside his home in NYC.

I remember the moment I heard the news that day, but I had not encountered any tape of the announcement being made by Howard Cosell during a Monday Night Football game. Until today. Here is a video that starts with the announcement:

Warning: it may bring back painful memories in an unexpected way. At least it did for me.

And so it goes.

I probably should be doing more of this thing, writing about topical items that occur that catch my attention, and I’m a bit sorry that I’m doing so on the occasion of someone’s death, but I was touched by the death of Kurt Vonnegut. (Here’s the NY Times obit which I highly recommend.) I was touched by his books, his writing, his thoughts too, as I’m sure most of you reading were. I once had the opportunity to see hear him speak, and to be honest, I can’t remember a damn thing he said. (I also had the chance to hear Jorge Luis Borges speak and can’t remember a damn thing he said, either.) But he (and Borges, come to think of it) was just like his picture and his writing. A lot of times you see someone famous in person and think “Hmm, he doesn’t look like he does in his picture,” but Vonnegut did, with his hair and his cigarettes and his glasses and rumpled clothes and his crankiness. I always wanted to write like him, he seemed to be able to do it with ease and to make it natural and true. Living through the firebombing of Dresden will do that to a guy, I guess.

The other person whose death touched me recently was Molly Ivins. I loved her wit and charm and ability to turn a phrase and her sexy-smokey Texas voice. The fact that she was so often right about what she said was a bonus.

I will miss them both.

Do me a favor, go read a book (or two) by either one of them and have a beer and think a good thought of me. Here’s a little advice from Vonnegut for you from "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine":

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ "

So, have a beer, read a book.

And be kind.

More Fireworks

I've posted another video on YouTube of the fireworks that took place on New Year's Eve. This is the early session that started after supper that night. It's not as impressive as the one that took place at midnight, but still plenty loud. It should give you a sense of what goes on in the neighborhood when people get their pyrotechnics going at the same time. Keep in mind, these aren't professionals, just average citizens letting loose. Believe it or not you can buy these kinds of fireworks at every corner store here without having to have a license or fill out fake forms like you do back home.

Here's the alternate link in case it doesn't load on this page.

Here is another video shot by a guy who lives on the southeast side of town on the 20th floor of a building. It has a more panoramic view of the city and shows how widespread the celebration was.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all! Guo Nan Hao!

Cathy returned to her hometown to spend Spring Festival with her family and I caught a flu bug, so I stayed home. (Something about New Year here--I seem to recall being sick last year too.) As I’ve mentioned before, blowing stuff up is a big part of celebrating New Year here. The schedule for New Year’s Eve is to have a big dinner around 6 P.M., go outside and blow a few things up, then come back inside and watch the festivities on TV. (Kind of like our Dick Clark special back home.) At midnight, you go back outside and blow the rest of your stuff up. Well, there was no sleeping from about 7-8 tonight, so I went on my back porch and shot some video of the neighbors blowing their stuff up. When they were done, I went back to bed until they encouraged me to get up again at about 11:55. This time I went to the front side of our building and shot some video. I posted it on YouTube and here it is.

Here is another link in case the video on this page doesn't load correctly.



Note: This is NOT any kind of professional, city-sponsored fireworks display. This is just the neighbors going out in the street, courtyards, sidewalks, and blowing stuff up. And this is just ONE neighborhood in a small part of ONE city here. Imagine what it’s like all over the country. Plus, this is only the stuff that goes up in the air. On street-level, people are setting of coils containing thousands of firecrackers, roman candles, sparklers, bottle rockets and other things that you can’t see above the rooftops. I walked around during Round 1 this evening and it’s pretty cool. A lot of gunpowder in the air.

By the way, this is the Year of the Pig. The Chinese zodiac is divided into twelve, like the western one, and each one is given an animal. For example, 1956, the year I was born, was the Year of the Monkey, and every 12 years after that. (The latest Year of the Monkey was ’04.) It’s pretty interesting stuff, and here’s a link to a Wikipedia article if you’re interested.

Here's another one to give you the ins and outs of celebrating New Year.

So, to all my friends: Gongxi facai! Congratulations and be prosperous!

Wow, Thanks!

Gee, everybody, what can I say! Cathy and I really appreciate the kind thoughts from everyone. We are very touched and grateful to have such good friends. Thanks so very much.

Cathy was amazed when I started sending out the "announcements" to everyone. She just couldn't believe that I was still in touch with so many people from so long ago. She's very excited about traveling to the US and visiting my old stomping grounds and meeting all of you. You've already made an impression on her. Thank you very much for welcoming her into your hearts.

Mostly because I need to update the profile section of the blog, here is another picture of Cathy and I taken this summer down near the river here in Ningbo. Truth in advertising moment: Cathy isn't quite that tall, at least not without standing on the lower rung of a railing.

You might remember the last picture in the profile section over to the right, a shot of me standing at the end of famous Nanjing Lu in Shanghai. There's also one of Denny at the end of his second post. Well, Cathy and I had to go to Shanghai to get a Certificate of Marriageability from the US Consulate, which gave me the chance to take yet another picture of a loved one in that same spot.

Cathy had not been to Shanghai since she was a little girl, so it was a relatively new experience for her. It IS a very impressive city, even to these jaded eyes of mine. I highly recommend it to any of you thinking of taking a long-distance vacation. (Although I've never been there, I've heard that it is much nicer, more cosmopolitan than Beijing, even though Beijing is hosting the Olympics in 2008).

Speaking of getting married in China, I think in the next post or two I'll walk you through the process in case any of you are of a mind to do that. It was interesting and different (a common occurrence here) to say the least. But, yes, it IS official, and yes, I AM married. I even have the little red book and the ink-stained finger tip to prove it.

An Interesting Development

Greeting and Hello to everyone. A belated Happy New Year to you all and an early Xinnian Kuaile or Happy Chinese New Year to you all. New Year's is very late this year, February 18, and I can't wait. It's one of my favorite holidays on any continent, mostly because here you get to blow a lot of stuff up and do it often.

As I promised in the e-mail many of you received, I have some news. First, let me "utter" a sentence I've never uttered before in my life:












(Keep going...)










I'd like you to meet my wife.

Everybody, this is Yao Hai Ya. She uses the English name Cathy. So I'm pleased to introduce you to my wife, Cathy Yao. The other day she was trying on the name Cathy Stranathan for size, and I must admit, she did a better job than a majority of the people I've heard on their first try.

Cathy is from DaYing, a small town about forty-five minutes west of Ningbo. She works for a wholesale office supply export company here in town, dealing primarily in notebooks. So, if you're in the market for two or three hundred thousand composition books, Cathy's your gal. Well, she's my gal, but you know what I mean.

We met about two years ago through a mutual friend, an Australian who was teaching with me at my old school. Fortunately, Cathy speaks very good English, or we would not have gotten very far in our relationship relying on my Chinese skills. We're still deciding what to do in the long-term, but for now we're content and happy here in Ningbo, so we'll stay here for the near future.

Enough of me, here's Cathy in her own words.

Hi, Everybody. I am Cathy Yao Stranathan. I would introduce myself here, but I thought Curtis didn't want to give me the chance.

I got married with Curtis on January 10, 2007. I felt a little nervous while we got the red book. I asked Curtis "Are we really getting married? Are we really getting married? Are we really getting married?" The nervousness was gone the next day, because I was still myself, I didn't have any changes.

Thank you Curtis, my dawg. You're the right man for me, I am like a fish in the sea. I feel freedom, respect, understanding with you.

Our friend Chuck told me: "One thousand years, One thousand children." I think we can do it!

Just so you know, we were watching the movie Finding Forester not long ago. It's the warm sensitive story of an isolated middle-aged white guy and an inner city youth and how they find understanding and friendship together. Cathy was fascinated watching and listening to the teenagers' casual conversation and "Dawg" was the thing that stuck in her mind. I guess that's one of the reasons I fell in love with her.

I'm not even going to tell you what line she remembers from Rainman. Let's just say she gets an awful lot of chances to use it.

So, there you have it. Another sign of the coming Apocalypse, possibly, but pretty cool, nontheless.

Stay tuned as I, oww, er, um we promise to be more conscientious about posting.

Love to all,

Cathy and Curtis