Love and Communication

Last night, I went to the French Concession for an art gallery opening. They had mostly oil paintings and it was pretty small but the real reason I am glad I went is because while I walked 20 minutes in the wrong direction, "Love and Communication" by Cat Power came into my head so I decided to listen to it on the ipod. Previously, I had only heard the acoustic version and thought that was the only one there is, but apparently it is on "The Greatest" which is the version I happened upon on the ipod. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not but then I listened another eight times and now I am obsessed with it. In the background, there are murderous violins and it fit exceedingly well into the streets of the French Concession area of Shanghai. I felt like I had stepped back into 1890 and that Jack the Ripper was around the corner. This feeling of death in a humid environment was compounded when I happened upon this statue in a small park on the way back to the subway:



I don't know who this is but I stood and stared at it for at least 10 minutes. I love it. I have never felt so strongly about a statue in my entire life. It is extremely inspiring and creepy. This is the best statue of my life, by far. I am 95% positive I will never come upon another statue that I feel even remotely as strongly about. The French Concession is marked by a neverending canopy of trees I've never seen before and a gigantic mansion. The mansion is the first house I've seen in Shanghai. The French Concession is my new favorite area of town and it seems haunted. Or, at least it does when you are listening to a lonely murderous ballad and can't speak to anyone around you.