still haven't quite figured out where to go for springbreak. addy says it is obvious i have to go to columbia becos i haven't seen her since august, and yen will be there too! and of course, new york city is more exciting than urbana, il (yes, cindy) she also dangles the ballet as bait. but cindy is quick to tempt me with her mobility. she's just about the ONLY one of my girlfriends who has learnt to operate a vehicle, and i really like the idea of going out to "eat wind" (hey wasn't there a singapore movie called eating air?) what an empowered woman she is! also, addy is having a zhou xuan craze and will make me transcribe lyrics for her, and zhou xuan is notoriously hard to transcribe with her pouty-coy voice., (i remember her for tian ya ge nu, but lately for hua yang nian hua used in the wong kar fai movie) not to mention that available recordings still have that slightly raspy quality of gramophone records. but i like zhou xuan, she was the favourite singer of my grandmother, who died of cancer before i was born. and besides, zhou xuan is just one of those fascinating old shanghai figures: enormously popular, early and stormy marriage, multiple failed love affairs and children out of wedlock, frequent mental breakdowns, and death in her thirties. addy is writing on her for her thesis, as well as on ruan lingyu, another of those glamorous 1920s shanghai movie stars, and another one with a tragic life, and who committed suicide at 25. hmm, can't find a nice ruan lingyu biography site, but here's a detailed description of the 1992 stanley kwan movie about the life of ruan lingyu (starring maggie cheung!). on the subject of maggie cheung both addy and cindy will want to see hua yang nian hua, although i shall just coerce poach into it! for poach is the other person i was thinking of visiting. hoping her thesis fervour will be contagious, and want to show her some new books i've got. also julian is singing on sunday and i said i'd show up and embarrass him with "julian for president" banners. currently huffing at poach for she forbade me to name any teddy bear w.h.r rivers becos w.h.r rivers is a dignified figure and dear to her heart (she's writing on the role of hospitals and other institutions for rehabilitation/recovery in war literature). heh.