dude, you were two stops away from my house! call me next time.

It's springtime again and as you know, nothing heralds spring quite as much as the budding tulips and the bare, round shoulders of the Tokio jungfrau and the promise of a cool sip of gin bathed in tonic and lime on a rare patio table in this Godforsaken uncivilized burg.

But tonight, it was not to be gin, as I happily happened upon a wonderful, familiar, topheavy green bottle of Absinthe at my local sakiyasan.
Yes, once again, I succumb to the call of the green imp's blissful, merciful ministrations.
Miraculous. It's been far too long.

After a few glasses, I again feel the intensity and fascination of life that typically comes only with a first love.
Shadows find their own life.
Spring leaves glow with a cloying insistence, begging for a worthy painter to grant them immortality.
Music finds a new intensity.
Poetry again fascinates.
Art again captivates.
Understanding, inspiring a near-relgious clarity becomes a goal unto itself.

As an infant in Cartagena, my nursemaid made a habit of swabbing my teething gums with a sugarteat dipped in absinthe, as hers had done for generations. Of course, she was promptly beaten and dismissed when my family discovered my infant eyes glazed and my young countenance twisted with a cynical disinterest, this was my introduction, the beginning of my love for the Opalescent Fairy that is Absinthe.
Later, as a fifteen year old in Prague, my schoolmates and I would snatch a bottle of evil Czech absinthe from the back of Pivni Galerie in Holesovice and sip it mixed with water from a garden tap from cupped hands. Even then, laying on the rough grass, fondling the red-cheeked local girls in that long-gone park you must remember, the sky and clouds took on a polarized intensity as the clouds heaved by,
I knew then that any moment that followed would pale in comparison to the absolute purity of that time.

I've gotten that weird vibe too, Ian. But I wasn't sure if it was really there or just my issues with Christianity coming to the surface. At least they're nice to my face. That's got to count for something, eh?

Edited by author 05-09-2003 03:07 AM
Yea I wonder if I'm projecting or not @_@, I *think* I'm being objective though. And that feeling definetly wasn't there when I went to the big buddhist church, but maybe only because I was carrying no expectations or sterotypes with me like I might be with Christianity..hmmm. BTW I'm going to the Asian Kungfu Generation concert tonight, see ya if I see ya ;)