Chinese TV

Chinese TV is garish like pattern + color overlays in hotel/restaurant interior design; the ubiquitous neon of shop signs along the city rim every night [Zhuhai]; or even the clunky color + texture choices in the landscaping in "peoples' parks".
It is as stylized and shrill as traditional Chinese Opera; it tends to take on a particularly surreal tinge as it parodies American game show, reality show, cop show genres, and commercials and cartoons.
It's wonderful. And it's in technicolor!!

Shooting the Gods with Nick

Luckily, the nine a.m. Singapore sky was solidly overcast--perfect for walking.
The streets were dark stained from a steady rain hours before, now slightly steaming and silent as Sundays in most cities, except for the sizzling sound of taxi tires on slick pavement.
After walking just ten minutes, our shirts were thoroughly damp. A slight breeze stroked us--a welcome relief in the rising heat, as we entered the Tanjong Pagar Taoist temple complex. We split into different directions as we passed through the modest anteroom and spent a focused hour recording gently worn tiles, roof ceramics, newly gold-leafed colonnade brackets and altar dieties.

Nick was collecting collage imagery for work on a photographic series on Religion + War. Formerly based in Washington D.C., he is a professional portraitist who also taught photo technique at the Smithsonian. His new work is visceral and un-politically correct.
I was just savoring the visual feast before me--as usual.
As we moved to exit, many folks were arriving to burn handfuls of stick insense as thick as your thumb for departed ancestors.

We clung to the deep building shadows now beginning to form as we headed to the Pagoda Street subway escalator. The eastbound MRT offered its dependable cool relief as we boarded a desolate train and careened toward Arab town mosques. A short while later, we found the main mosque was closed so we opted to find a cafe to smoke shi-sha and drink mint tea. On the way, we were distracted by fabric stalls, prayer shawl and hat boutiques, perfumeries and bakeries--typical of the Baghdad Street bazaar. Weaving quickly through the sensual overload of a few final vendors, we eventually settled into a shady table as the cafe attendant fired our brazier and attached the plastic mouthpieces to our waterpipe. The white applewood smoke bubbling in the filtering bowl below softly complemented the crispness of the tea.

We sat, contented, for several hours, pinned to our seats by the heat of the day--we ordered Moroccan lunch and talked about Nick's living for 13 years aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean Sea. The mundane aspects of boat life like how to properly kill an ocean fish for a meal, is surprisingly not by clubbing but by pouring alcohol into its gills=instant death by vodka!! We left the conversation there as we slowly meandered by foot to the local multiplex.

Outside 10 Gopeng Street

Walks happen early morning and after the sun goes down. [springtime marks the beginning of hotter weather.]

The main neighborhood, Tangong Pagar or "divided island", lies in southeast Chinatown bordering the Financial District.
Among other things, it is the center of the gay district populated by bars, clubs and bridal fashion shops on Neil Road. [who better than a stylish faggot to dress a hopeful Cinderella on the most important day of her life?]

Singaporeans are fast walkers in this humidheat. I've learned to slow my pace to minimize overheating & drenching. British Colonial structures predominate the oldest areas flanked by concrete-metal-glass superstructures. Construction is rampant in within a two block radius of the ICON.

Narrow alleys hidden behind lines of Colonial row houses reveal small, freestanding altar houses which contain offerings of fruit and burning incense.
I prefer these walkways to the street front sidewalks. On one recent jaunt I discovered an impromptu arrangement of Chinese deity figurines arranged on a makeshift altar top=A homemade art gallery installation of throwaway art on miniature scale.
The artist clearly has an affection for this religious garbage; the artwork is an act of rescue and adaptive reuse.
It's more satisfying than the more studied, self-conscious work in local galleries---unlike cultural venues in most cities, this "art" is never pretentious or apologetic.

Another sidewalk statement I see every now and then is a burnt offering bounded by a chalk circle. Dave Woo of Singapore says it's dark. Rough translation: bad Taoist voodoo to be avoided. That specifically means not stepping within the chalk boundary. That's a lot to ask of someone whose head is usually in the clouds but I manage to be vigilant.

Other areas of the city, Dhoby Ghat or Orchard Road, although more contemporary like the nearby financial district, lack the charm and character of Tanjong Pagar.