Suburbia III

At the very end of our visit, Wai Gong busted out a picture of himself in Shanghai from when he was 26. As you can see, he had it all rolled up in the back of some drawer. He told us it was taken in front of the only Western-style bridge in the city. I like the picture on the right because it's almost like four people are in the picture. Also because we have real people, painted people, photographed people. Wai Gong seemed kind of saddened by the picture. He said, "Pretty good-looking, eh?" wistfully, and then lamented "So old, ugly, now!" Aw. We tried to assure him that we don't find him ugly at all, but he wouldn't listen. It's true, he was a handsome guy, as well as a sharp dresser! Here's the close up.

When we're old, we'll probably feel the same way about pictures from our youth.

Suburbia II

We went into the neighboring town (name forgotten) to check out the thrift stores. The ones featuring housewares were pretty expensive, but the clothing ones were more reasonable. We had to pass on innumberable fiestaware teacups and novelty Florida glasses with flamingos on them. I couldn't resist this book on Hieronymous Bosch though,

especially since it was written by Peter S. Beagle, the author of The Last Unicorn. Maybe you remember The Last Unicorn?
Apparently, it's just been rereleased on DVD in a 25th Anniversary Widescreen Edition. It seems Peter Beagle was shafted out of getting much money for it, so if you want to buy it (anyone? anyone?), buy it here. The other fun thing about anonymous New Jersey town neighboring Raritan was the creepy Shoplifters Beware poster we found in a window.

Scary, right? Both arms are so skeletal, with those malformed hands! I knew crime didn't pay, but who knew that it could twists your limbs like some disease only the debauched bachelors get in those Victorian novels! If that's what shoplifting does to you, I'm out!
Next post: a great picture of Wai Gong, age 26!

Suburbia

I have a lot of pics from visiting Wai Gong with Tara, Mina, and Julia this past weekend, so I figure I'll space it out over a few posts. But we set the scene first:
There they are, a sight from my childhood: detached, single-family homes, each on an acre plot! I didn't get pics (why? why??!!) but some of Wai Gong's neighbors got very excited about Easter, and decorated their lawns with all kinds of lawn furniture - bunny statuettes, large hanging banners shaped like carrots. Since we won't be back before Easter, I guess I missed my chance to document. I don't know if any of the summer months have holidays that engender the same level of lawn decoration. We can only hope. Wai Gong's house, as you can see here
does not have lawn furniture. I guess since he's eighty-five, we'll give him a free pass on hauling out bunny statuettes. But it was nice to be in such a spread out physical environment after being in the city for a few months. You forget what life is like when there aren't ten people in every square foot. Plus, you know, grass. Something about it made me very tired - both days I was all yawny and groggy. Tara thought that maybe we were constantly overstimulated in the city and so the suburbs gave us a chance for all our senses to take a break. Greg thinks that somehow there's more oxygen in the suburbs and it makes us tired, as opposed to all the toxins and pollution in the city, which, what, acts like caffeine? Well, okay, he's not a scientist.

Inside Wai Gong's house, a lot of the furniture was missing, since he's getting ready to move next month. You can see how much open space there is now, which I think actually looks pretty good.
Here's Julia under a painting by Wai Gong's deceased wife. I wanted it to be a subject of a picture of its own since it tends to upstage everyone else in any attempt to have it as a backdrop. And below is a painting of the artist (Wai Gong's wife) when she was young.

Visiting Wai Gong

On Sunday we trekked out to Raritan, NJ to visit Tara's grandfather (a.k.a. Wai Gong)! We had cake (check out how Wai Gong can't wait for cake), played Mah Jong, took some family photo style pictures and ate a lot of Chinese food. We couldn't stay very long, but we made plans to come back soon and have a sleepover with "Singing in the Rain" and lots more Mah Jong!