FINE WINE TIME IN SHANGHAI

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Love falls from the cells of the underground, from within the mythic stories the bones reveal. It is wine time in Shanghai. I am called to a special meeting at The Cellar Club in the wine tasting lounge. The lounge is an exclusive private membership room decorated in classical European style to provide a wine appreciation atmosphere. The Cellar Club stores wine for 100 members- the private lockers can hold anywhere from 30 to 3,000 bottles of wine stored so perfectly that it delivers "total peace of mind". Imagine rich Shanghai people exchanging business cards as the television shows a happy American family in front of a fireplace baking in the wealth and glow of the American Dream which is now on high speed rail to Shanghai. My former student Rita shows up at the Club and we write silly notes to each each like crazed adolescents as the speakers talks about how he climbed the ladder of wealth with noodles and chopsticks. I draw little pictures on the back of my business card and then I had to learn the proper way to give and receive business cards. I write let's dance up a storm and hand it (the proper way with two hands gently eases it into the receivers hands) to a 72 year old business man who helps bring money from England to Shanghai. Meanwhile, the turtle down the street is wandering why is he swimming in a sea of consumption in the window at a fancy department store- well at least he is not eaten for dinner that night!

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