I really liked this story. You took me to a place that I never really thought about existing but now that I see it I understand it and really appreciate it. I knew about hell money. Some of the other customs are new to me.
The whole motorcycle thing. It's not something you can even make up.
Dude. This brings me right back to that fascinating SF interzone you describe, of which I assume the mortuary served as kind of matrix, or portal. A place where you'd see cultural practices that utterly confounded western eyes and ears. Like this fastidiously dressed senior gentleman I used to see commanding a median (maybe on Columbus?) and staring down the steady stream of cars as he ..what would you call it? wailed? hollered? Performed, anyway, some kind of really aggressive and totally impenetrable (to me) vocalism, almost like an extremely non-pentatonic blues shouting. Brings to mind that Brian Eno quote (possibly from A Year With Swollen Appendices): "I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to 'get' any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera." Now I wonder if he was either a designated mourner or super-square-looking acid casualty, or, based on your account, both.
Oh my God! I used to love that Chinese gentleman who used to sing weirdly at the traffic on Broadway and Columbus. I heard from a contemporary of mine that he was tortured under Mao, and this broke his brain. But he always seemed quite happy to be singing.
So you're telling me that what I took for a fascinatingly new cultural practice was actually the product of traumatic brain injury? Well, it wouldn't be my first time doing that. But you're right: he sure did seem pretty psyched about it.
I really liked this story. You took me to a place that I never really thought about existing but now that I see it I understand it and really appreciate it. I knew about hell money. Some of the other customs are new to me.
The whole motorcycle thing. It's not something you can even make up.
Thanks so much, Raj! Yeah, truth is weirder than fiction.
Im bonkers for this kinda Cultural Pith.
It drives me bonkers when you say bonkers.
It's 2023 and I still have a friend who says groovy unironically
Dude. This brings me right back to that fascinating SF interzone you describe, of which I assume the mortuary served as kind of matrix, or portal. A place where you'd see cultural practices that utterly confounded western eyes and ears. Like this fastidiously dressed senior gentleman I used to see commanding a median (maybe on Columbus?) and staring down the steady stream of cars as he ..what would you call it? wailed? hollered? Performed, anyway, some kind of really aggressive and totally impenetrable (to me) vocalism, almost like an extremely non-pentatonic blues shouting. Brings to mind that Brian Eno quote (possibly from A Year With Swollen Appendices): "I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to 'get' any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera." Now I wonder if he was either a designated mourner or super-square-looking acid casualty, or, based on your account, both.
Oh my God! I used to love that Chinese gentleman who used to sing weirdly at the traffic on Broadway and Columbus. I heard from a contemporary of mine that he was tortured under Mao, and this broke his brain. But he always seemed quite happy to be singing.
So you're telling me that what I took for a fascinatingly new cultural practice was actually the product of traumatic brain injury? Well, it wouldn't be my first time doing that. But you're right: he sure did seem pretty psyched about it.
It seemed like he'd found his inner beach with it, somehow.
I thought he sang rather compulsively, but it scratched that itch for him.
Thank you !
Love you Eteri!
Fascnating!
How many lives have you lived ? You continue to amaze.
I love the flow in this. You write so well.
totally different topic but
do you think sean penn is so bat crazy because he leaves so much of himself in roles ie Mystic River, Dead Man Walking?
your piece on him/fame was hilarious anyways
Always impressed by Cintra's ability to make seemingly mundane subjects wildly entertaining.