Isham Cook's Blog: Isham Cook, page 14
June 23, 2013
Yangtze River cargo ship, bats, Agricultural Bank of China (video)
Hypnotic video I took of a cargo ship passing down the Yangtze River in Wuhan at night as bats fly around (neon sign is China Agricultural Bank ad). Filed under: Essays on China Tagged: Wuhan, Yangzte River
June 14, 2013
The catch. A short story
“Well, what happened?” “Let me tell the whole story from the start. She’s tall with glamorous movie star eyes, tits on the small side but a nice round set of hips. The first time we met she was wearing green … Continue reading →
May 28, 2013
Good teacher, bad teacher. A short story
“How did you do that?” “Watch again.” Fifty students stood around him craning their necks – some standing on chairs – as the teacher moved three walnut shells around the surface of a desk. “Now look,” he said, turning up … Continue reading →
May 3, 2013
Restaurant time warp. A short story
“I like the decor here. Look at the designs lit up on the wall by a hidden projector, and the silver mobiles over there, suspended in space like birds or fish. Notice the rafters in the ceiling above lighted blue. And that big … Continue reading →
April 25, 2013
Paradox. A short story
To make the nude not look like a manikin, to make it vibrate with weight and physical gravity, was mere entry level for any professional painter. But to embed light into the flesh, to render the nude not like a … Continue reading →
April 16, 2013
The ventriloquist’s dilemma: Anglo travelogues of China
Let’s start with Liam D’Arcy-Brown’s Grand Canal voyage The Emperor’s River: Travels to the Heart of a Resurgent China (2010). A great idea, certainly, traversing the entire Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, especially as no one else, at least in our day, … Continue reading →
The ventriloquist’s dilemma: Anglo travelogues from China
Let’s start with Liam D’Arcy-Brown’s Grand Canal voyage The Emperor’s River: Travels to the Heart of a Resurgent China (2010). A great idea, certainly, traversing the entire Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, especially as no one else, at least in our day, … Continue reading →
March 26, 2013
A little accident. A short story
Liu Yan’s new Mazda 6 hadn’t a single dent on it in the year since she had bought it. Not bad for a novice negotiator of Beijing’s congested streets. She had taught herself how to parallel park without an attendant’s … Continue reading →
February 28, 2013
What you know, you know. A short story
Siran was showing how the seam on her antique Chinese shirt opened up for breastfeeding, and by the time she got through all the knotted buttons – they take as much dexterity to undo as to do up – my … Continue reading →
February 12, 2013
The mean and the angry. A short story
I’ve often been struck by the small eyes of mean people. They are not actually any smaller than normal people’s, of course, just narrowed in perpetual suspicion, but it does make them immediately identifiable, generally to our benefit in staying … Continue reading →
