Jade Maiden 6.2

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[continuing chapter 6]

"You are becoming disrespectful again, and we will not tolerate that."  Number One Grandfather looked more than usually unhappy, but Wen couldn't tell whether it was because he was preparing a smack on the head or because he was regretting the small part he and his fellow ancestors had played in Chin's initial escape with Wen.  "There is surprisingly little being said about General Chin these days outside of the bars on Penglai Island," he eventually said.

"It wouldn't bother me if I never heard his name again," said Wen.  He heard himself sighing as well.  In his case, though, he knew exactly what the problem was.  He was nowhere near as rich as he wanted to be—needed to be.  And it was, he suddenly realized, not so much a matter of being bored as it was of finding the demands of three dozen men—and one very frustrating young woman—much more of a problem than he'd ever contemplated, when he first imagined being a pirate.

So when Number One Grandfather said, "There is, in fact, a simple solution to your problem of too-small treasures," Wen suddenly found himself telling the craggy old spirit to just tell him.

Jade Maiden 6.1

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SIX

"On the whole, we have approved of what you have been doing of late.  This is why we have been leaving you alone as much as we have.  But now something in you seems to have changed, and we feel it is our duty to correct you."  Number One Grandfather hovered over the small table—or, rather, his head and upper torso did; the rest of him had faded to vapor in a way that made Wen feel slightly queasy.

"I don't understand what you mean," Wen muttered, "and I wish you wouldn't feel compelled to explain."  They were going to anyway, of course.  He knew the relative quiet of late had been too good to last.

"We don't really have to explain anything," said Number One Grandfather, sounding smug and entirely too pleased with himself.  "Your subordinate Lum has spelled it all for you; all you have to do is read the scroll he's left you."

Jade Maiden 5.11

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[concluding chapter 5]

Once the man had been revived and given a drink of strong wine, Wen tried again.  "I'm here to trade, not to cut your throat.  No, please don't faint again."

"But—but, 'Bloody Sheet' Wen...!" the man said.

"Doesn't hurt those who readily accede to his demands," Fengzi said, exasperation dripping from the words.  "And what he demands is to trade with you.  What part of this do you not understand?"

"And please, call me The Notorious Wen if you refer to me at all."

The Cosmic Jukebox?

 A few days ago I finished reading Electric Shock, a not-quite comprehensive history of recorded popular music, written by the British journalist Peter Doggett. I highly recommend the book, despite a few blind spots displayed by the author (and too much attention paid, so far as I'm concerned, to British band-leaders in the period between the world wars... and really to British pop music overall), and I am completely blaming Doggett for the fact I've done virtually no writing at all in September.

The reason for this is buried near the end of the acknowledgments at the end of the book (and we're talking about 736 pages here, including the index), where Doggett comments that through YouTube he was able to listen to every top-selling record ever released. And we're talking about songs recorded as long ago as 1890.

So I thought I'd spend a little time trying to verify his claim. And yep, so far he seems to be right.

John Philip Sousa? Check, an 1890 recording of Semper Fidelis by the US Marine Corps Band.

Recording of the first true "pop" song? Check, an 1893 recording of "After the Ball" by George G. Gaskin. (I don't advise listening to this one; it's puerile mush, really. Not unlike most of the work of Max Martin.)

First recording superstar? Oh, absolutely. YouTube is chock full of the early records (and they were all early records, 'cause the man died in 1921) of... Enrico Caruso. Man released nearly 250 records in the first two decades of the twentieth century, and he had a contract (with Victor) that paid him $2,000 a year just as a retainer. The estimate is that he earned something like five million dollars from those 247 records. That's the equivalent, today, of about $138 million.

But I digress.

Jade Maiden 5.10

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[continuing chapter 5]

"We're tired of eating dried, salted fish.  That's all."  The man, evidently not happy at having been appointed spokesman for the crew, twisted his long hair between two fingers.

"Ah.  So mutiny has never entered into the discussions?"

"Gods, captain, of course not!  You're a much better captain than Chin Gwai ever was, honest!  It's just that we've been eating that stuff for weeks now and our lips are all cracked and our noses are drying out.  How can you stand that stuff?"

Jade Maiden 5.9

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[continuing chapter 5]

He thought about the money that he had so far largely failed to accumulate, and his father somewhere on the south coast, sick and miserable and himself unable as yet to do anything to help.  "And I hate that my father has been a complete failure at everything he's tried to do, because everything he's tried to do has been dictated by his duties—as a son, as a student, as a—as a Chinese!  Don't you wake up some mornings, Fengzi, and just think that something's not right about the way things are?"

"Pretty much every day," she said.  She was, he realized, looking at him in a sort of cocked-head way, as if he'd done something strange like pull a moon-cake out of one ear.  "You'd best watch yourself, Captain Wen.  Try to do too much and the gods will smack you down."

Jade Maiden 5.8

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[continuing chapter 5]

"Hey, Wen!"  Pocapetl waved as Wen stumbled down the stairs into the semi-basement main room of the wine-shop.  "Have you heard the news? Chin's escaped again!"

"Why doesn't anyone just execute the big idiot?" Wen asked, taking up the cup Pocapetl offered him.  "Why do they insist on gloating at him?  It only makes the man angry, and gives him time to break loose of whatever they've bound him with."

"You're sure right about that, barbarian Bloody Sheet."

"Oh, stop.  I don't need that from you."

"You have a reputation now," Pocapetl said.  "Don't you want to revel in it, just a little?"

Jade Maiden 5.7

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[continuing chapter 5]

"And then he let them all go!"  The Jade Maiden crewman—Wen didn't know his name, but figured he would soon enough if it mattered—turned to the people on the opposite side of the table before he continued.  "He didn't execute a single one, not even the governor's assistant under-secretary who happened to be accompanying the cargo, or some of it."

"Not a single execution?"  This from an old man who looked as if he'd have trouble executing a bowl of rice gruel.  "That's not the way it was done in my day!"

"No, you're right there, old man.  Instead we sailed the ship to the nearest village and put everyone ashore.  The only thing Captain Wen did that I understood was he told everyone to tell everybody they met about what they'd seen.  Not that he had to remind them.  I could hear them as we were leaving, and all I kept hearing was 'sheet of blood.'  We're right in it now, and no doubt of it."