An unusual time

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Market place

I haven’t been to this part of the town for a while. The new construction is certainly impressive, but I still find it more attractive at the old Eastern Market: even just a quick exchange of a few words with the small vendors there, be they African American mother and son, an elderly white man, or a native American, who may sell black soaps, wooden crafts, or mushrooms, reveals a kind of wit that tells me they know life.

The Navy Yard Neighborhood (on the bottom right: near Eastern Market)

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So quickly

Fall is around the corner; I hear his slipper moving on quiet leaves here and there down the trail. And the “sculpture garden” has already assumed a different character.

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To my surprise

Following the Capital Crescent Trail, I find myself walking into a jazzy town of electrifying colors. Or perhaps it’s been too long since the last time I was here.

Bethesda, one of the satellite towns in DC’s suburb.
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Small town charm

I cannot remember how many times I looked on them from the Blue Ridge – tucked away far in the valley, sometimes dressed in a blue fog, mystifying as a blue fog. Coming close to meet them, I want to Sing a New Song to the tall purple coneflower stems on the highway and bring the message of LOVE from Harrisonburg to all the people in the world…

These oil paintings in the gallery Artists In Cahoots at Lexington Virginia best present the rural landscape and the charm of small towns in the Shenandoah Valley. Along Interstate Highway 81, or following any local roads like Route 11, one would discover a rolling terrain stretching between towns dotted with real farm houses and roaming cows. The painting on the bottom left depicts Lexington’s historic downtown.
An artwork titled “Sing a New Song” (mixed media) in the gallery OASIS Fine Art & Craft at Harrisonburg VA.
The small LOVE tiles on this mosaic art work are written by members of the Harrisonburg High School Ambassador Program using their native languages – 28 different ones.

Woodstock

Woodstock has a simple rural charm that is easily perceivable even in a very brief walk through the town.

Harrisonburg

Blacksburg

The presence of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and James Madison University in Harrisonburg seems to lend the two towns different vibes.

Lexington

While Lexington is known for being an important historical place associated with the American Revolution and the Civil War, to me it typifies small towns in the Shenandoah Valley that have a rich colonial tradition. The town also hosts the Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University. It is impossible then not to learn some history here. That the names of Washington and Lee appeared together was not a coincidence – it revealed a social network of the few rich and powerful elite families woven through intermarriages in colonial Virginia. According to the British historian John Keegan, “As early as 1660 every seat on the ruling Council of Virginia was held by members of five interrelated families, and as late as 1775 every council member was descended from one of the 1660 councillors.”

Roanoke

The clock on the historical Colonial National Bank (built in 1926–1927 and still beautiful) reminds people of the passing of time, as well as changes this once-booming manufacturing town and the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia has gone through.
An artwork titled “The Frame of the Mind” (copper) on display in the gallery Market Gallery right next to the farmers’ market in downtown Roanoke VA. The gallery features original work by local and regional artists who take turn to manage it.
These sculptures in a garden explore the theme “Roanoke Rising,” representing the town’s renewal efforts.

Staunton

Staunton definitely lives up to its fame of having the best main street (bottom). Its side streets (upper right) look good too, and taking a “bird view” of the town from Wilson Park above the railway (upper left) can be a moment of contemplation. Served as a supplying center for the Confederate Army in the Civil War but not a battle site, Staunton’s colonial architecture was left largely undamaged after the war. The buildings in town showcase different architectural styles (Greek Revival, Italianate, Dutch Colonial, Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, Romanesque Revival, Venetian Revival, Colonial Revival…) that have evolved over time and enriched by the architect T. J. Collins who moved to Staunton from Washington DC in 1891.

It is a delightful walk to look for these little architectural gems across town; and the walk would naturally lead to Woodrow Wilson’s birthplace in the Gospel Hill neighborhood. Then one cannot help taking a peek at his handsome 1919 Piece-Arrow. A glimpse of the First Presbyterian Church, where his father served as a minister, from the house’s backyard through layers of tree leaves and behind crapemyrtle flowers is almost glamorous. In the same neighborhood, you’d find an elegant Queen Anne style house perched on a hill. It was built by Edward Echols, Virginia’s Lt. Governor (1898 – 1902), and was said to have employed every imaginable material. Right across the Beverley Street is a magnificent Greek Revival style building designed by Robert Cary Long and completed in 1846. It is home to the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind. Mary Baldwin University in town occupies another Greek Revival style house dating back to the 1830s.
On the left: the interior of National Valley Bank which was established in 1865 and still function as bank offices provides a fine example of the Beaux-Arts style. On the right: the exterior of a clock shop that is timeless.

Staunton also boasts a camera museum with an impressive collection of antique cameras. It is amusing to see how much a telescope camera that was used to take sports photos in old days looks like and feels as heavy as a cannon. And it is displayed on the side of tiny spy cameras! A bit of history I learned there: Oskar Barnack came up with the idea of and invented the first 35 mm camera because he had asthma, and it was difficult for him to carry around a large camera. The entire history of the camera industry has been one of copying, re-invention, and innovation.

On a side note, I am glad to hear the museum manager say my Lumix cameras are the best today, and we agree that Panasonic is innovative. 🙂
On the left: a glass vase in the shop of a local glass blowing studio Sunspots Studios. In the middle: “Spring Walk,” a painting by Sally Bowring (acrylic on panel) as part of an ongoing exhibition In Dialogue at Staunton Augusta Art Center, featuring four female artists. On the right: “Abstract Forest” (pen and colored pencil) on display at the family-run Staunton Antiques Center.
Paintings by Sae A Lee (acrylic on panel) as part of an ongoing exhibition In Dialogue at Staunton Augusta Art Center, featuring four female artists.

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Safe Haven

At the height of summer, I woke up on a Sunday morning to realize that the probability of being caught by bears is actually much lower than being killed by another human. After all, being eaten by a fluffy animal would simply be a natural return to nature and surely would feel better than a cold metal bullet. It was a liberating revelation; thus I overcame my bear-phobia and immediately went hiking in Shenandoah. Sunspots felt warm on the rocky paths. The air was breezy. I had almost forgotten how refreshing summer is here. It is a bit tempting to think we might still be able to find a safe haven in these mountains at the side of the waterfalls…

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Summer is here

These days I take my daily walk in the evening. When it becomes darker, the bushes on the trail side would be sparkling as if stars had descended near. Then, I know summer has arrived. Yesterday I went out a bit early, and it was still light. While I was just thinking of it, it came, flying around me; landed on my palm. I was surprised, and touched for a whole night.

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Reread Eileen Chang

Recently I picked Eileen Chang from my bookshelf again and casually flipped through some pages. I found myself still astonished by her talent. If one doesn’t have rich life experiences and can write so many characters whose every inch is alive, what is it if it is not talent? She did not dream A Talent’s Dream (an essay she published at eighteen years old that made her name); she was talented.

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It came to me all of a sudden that those sad men and women in Hong Kong’s movies and pop songs all seem to have walked out from her books. Her Eighteen Springs (also known as Half a Lifelong Romance), for example, is not a long novel, but has been a source of abundant inspiration.

Let’s put the book’s protagonists aside today. Cuizhi and Shihui are two secondary characters who really liked each other, but the differences in their family backgrounds would not allow them to be together. Many years later when they met again, Cuizhi already got married, and Shihui, though still being single, had more than one women in his life and each was like a shadow of Cuizhi and only richer than Cuizhi. The book ends with a scene that the two of them sat across each other at a dinner table. Watching a thick yellowish curtain blown by the evening wind as if a woman’s full skirt lingering at the window that could step in or take leave anytime but didn’t, both felt a deep loss in their lives and a sense of futility.

So, we see in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love and 2046, his leading man would forever look for a Su Lizhen he had once fallen in love under a special circumstance. They understood and felt for each other, but nothing had really happened in the end because of the circumstance. We hear Lin Xi’s Not Coming Not Going; the title of the song is almost a copy of Chang’s words.

It seems that not just me – Hong Kong must have also fallen too deeply for Eileen Chang.