Avenue of Stars

it's funny...i have to practically drag myself hard to write in this blog but somehow, when i finally do, i realize i've been needing to all this time. that's what happens when you're alone - your thoughts run wild, so wild you don't ever feel you have a real chance to put them down on paper (or on screen) because there are too many of them, most of them unexplainable.

when you're alone, many things you take for granted become readily apparent. like restaurants or shows those damn guide books ...lonely planet or eyewitness...fill their pages up with, that cater towards people traveling with people. but then, being alone also reveals many things you take for granted because you're always with people. like watching movies in theaters or looking out at a view or going to museums. all those places hush up for your thoughts and you have no choice but to absorb every sight, sound, and scent around you.

today i went to the avenue of stars. i read about it in my guide book and decided to sit out there. it's awe-inspiring. it's weird calling a city awe-inspiring. usually you call natural things...like the grand canyon...awe-inspiring. but a city can be grand in its own right. it's so undeniably man-made, screaming of human. there's something amazing about seeing how many big things people can make.

there it is...and there's so much more where that came from..it's just my camera couldn't fit it all in. i must have sat looking at this for 2 hours, watching the sun go down, then watching the buildings go pink with the clouds, and then this. and all of a sudden, at 8....these buildings become this brilliant light show coordinated perfectly with this music blaring from nearby speakers. it sounds like amusement park-y music...corny and ultimately tourist...but incredibly entertaining. these buildings WERE the light show - changing their exterior lights to different patterns and colors. that's exactly what hong kong is - a largescale amusement park.

and just because i haven't posted this up yet...here's a picture of my street. i literally live down that street, on the left.

looking at pictures like these make me shake my head and think i'm living a dream life..or guide book..or commercial..or just something NOT normal. it's really too much to take but i realize most of that might be internal.

a little poem i wrote while i was at the hong kong museum of art and looking out at the view:

waiting two images coming towards each other but never collide floor by floor slowly descending into the depths of human life digitally remastered an evolution of the metropolitan in a matter of seconds and mere pixels delicate with just the right amount of pressure the tip of balance. what are we connected by but just memory, history, emotions and what now? i guess that should be enough the sound of settling is unbearable the sun is setting and it's creating a mystical gold sheen smeared against the faces of tall, humanless structures made by humans sitting heavily on weightless water up up rises the buildings, the tall fallic building scrapes my heart every so gently with as much finesse as a paintbrush against your face. i will never understand this place but i can try immobile tires ride along the waves people crisscross each other but never collide. sometimes i wish they did.