Recently, the entire street level of a particular bank building
in the Financial District was cleared out to make room for retail and
restaurant space in real estate-starved San Francisco.
Maybe there haven't been many takers. It has stood empty for a while.
Just prior to Chinese New Year, they put in several parade dragons. Every day
more pieces of dragon arrived and were assembled.
The obviousness of the photo op killed me, and I finally decided to take
advantage of it on one of my lunch breaks.
You've got me: Why would anybody want to go shoot off a gun to celebrate New Years when one can wait another month and a half to see the Chinese New Year Parade? A few of these dragons come tricked out with more running lights than many shitkickers have custom installed on their Trucks. Hallucinatory.
In the Chinese Zodiac, the dragon comes fifth, after the rabbit.
While Chinese ideas about rabbits compare well with those of
Westerners, dragons are considered in a totally different light. Not only
are they seen as the only thing around that could easily kick a
tiger's ass, but they are also thought to be agelessly wise.
Ideas of benevolence or malevolence might be misplaced, however.
Anything that could shake a mountain or divert a monsoon
would probably hold an incomprehensible agenda.
The sacred beast, holder of authority, power, and messenger of
good fortune. Tempermental, moody, irascible. The dragon is the
great wah-wah pedal of the universe, a clean,
multicolored kundalini path orgasm AND a peck
on the cheek, as far from a mom 'n' pop business as a multinational
corporation can get, and much like a finely-tuned horde of ninjas performing an intricate and beautiful synchronized swimming routine,
probably moving to a celestial wavelength. That's why they need so much fireworks
to make for a proper dragon dance.
Hard to tell what the year of the dragon will bring, but it probably won't
be boredom. Hope your lunar year is on the good fortune peck-on-the-cheek side.