Saturday, August 22, 2020

SOMEWHAT MORE ANGULAR

This time last year I had been out of the hospital for a month, and was starting to get back into things. Not quite recovered, but well on the way. Which, of course, now I nearly entirely am.

The constants in the past twelve months have been Leslie Cheung clips (張國榮 'jeung gwok wing', a famous Cantonese actor and singer; he passed away seventeen years ago), egg tarts (蛋撻 'daan taat'), an excess of tea (both hydration and stimulation), ogling the opposite gender when appropriate (no, I don't have sunglasses), and smoking my pipe.


Another pipe:


Leslie Cheung was a complicated individual. Discreet about his homosexuality, he frequently played the male lead in romantic roles, and most viewers didn't have a clue. Consequently many women adored him. His Hong Kong fans thought that he was totally dishy, if they were female. And wanted to be like him, if not. A very handsome man.
In action movies, there was an electricity about him.

Sadly, he was a cigarette smoker.

Leslie Cheung, 12 September 1956 – 1 April 2003.

But he made it look good.

An elderly gay friend was heartbroken when news came of Leslie's death. And I could easily sympathize, even though at that time I did not realize he was a gay idol. All I could think of was Leslie as Ah Kit in A Better Tomorrow II, or with Anita Mui (梅艷芳 'mui yom fong') in the movie Rouge.
And all the poor desolated girls grieving for him.

He was stellar in A Chinese Ghost Story.
倩女幽魂 ('sin neui yau wan'), 1987.


Mui Yim-fong (梅艷芳), Anita Mui, starred in over forty films, and was also a popular singer. Her demise in 2003 was likewise deeply lamented.

Anita Mui, 10 October 1963 – 30 December 2003

The movie "Rouge" (胭脂扣 'yin ji kau') is worth watching.
And re-watching. It's beautiful.

Leslie and Anita in Paris

Gosh darn it, both of them were so nice.
They look happy together.


Daan Taat have always been a favourite snackipoo. And I had lost maybe thirty pounds over summer. Unintentionally. At my near-all-time scrawniest.
I have since gained back about ten pounds (not only because of daan taat, but those helped), ladies, and I look fine! Well, probably not as good as Leslie, but lets talk about him somewhere else.

The excess of tea is, probably, most evident in the texts on this page.
I am a gibberant man.


This time last year I was also considering the pan-seared king flower fish (封煎王花魚 'fung jin wong faa yü') at one of the eateries in Chinatown. But I've never had it, as I eat alone, and a whole fish requires at least two people to do it justice. 王花魚 is actually 黃花魚, which is pronounced exactly the same, but four strokes 王 is simpler to write than twelve strokes 黃 ("yellow") so it's contextually okay.

Both pipes shown above were fond smokes from Spring through the end of Autumn when the rains came. Then they went into one of the boxes, and didn't enter the regular rotation again till about a week ago.

Yes, I still ogle the ladies. I'm careful not to show that. But it's a largely pointless activity despite my enormous skill at doing so.
I do not look like Leslie Cheung.

Thin Protestant lips.




TOBACCO INDEX


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you cook "pan-seared king flower fish" yourself, please post a recipe.

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