Upon returning from work, I found this note atop a giant pile of laundry strewn across my living room couch. It’s from my maid.

“These clothes are all yours, and they’re all clean. Please put them away.”

I’m legitimately busy to the point where I need a maid to avoid total disorder in my house, and she’s basically asking me to pitch in and lend a hand.

I know some people reading this are like “it’s not cool to call them maids” and “it’s actually really not cool to have a housekeeper,” but there’s over a billion people here and at least she’s not working in a glue-stick factory or something. And I’m not even gonna be vengeful and give her like “some of her salary.” I’m just gonna write a note back, which involves an actually-pretty-enjoyable adventure through the Chinese dictionary, and I get to use markers.

They’re called “Ayis” here. That translates to “Auntie.” Chinese often people call friends and acquaintances by family names even when they’re not actually related. For example it’s polite if I say “Hey grandma, take this seat” on the bus.

Back in the pre-dayjob days, my auntie/maid and I were pretty close. We would cook together and talk about our lives. On days when I couldn’t or didn’t want to talk, she bounced about the house, yelling in a strong, animated (and completely unintelligible to me) dialect on her hands-free.

Somehow she always speaks in an exclamatory voice; never fails to be totally surprised by some minor circumstance.

Example, I’m eating oatmeal with brown sugar at the dinner table, she’s [poorly] drying dishes.

Auntie/Maid walks in, stares at the food for a minute, smiles.

Auntie/Maid: “Zhe shi shenme!?” What is this!?

Me: “Yan mai zhou, fang yi dian tang” Oatmeal with some brown sugar

Auntie/Maid smiles and stares for a few more seconds

Auntie/Maid: “Nimen zheyang chi shi ba!?” “Oh! You eat it like this!!”

So yeah, we used to be tight, but now we just communicate through these bullshit notes, and she’s even asking me to do her work. But it’s still way cooler than texting each other.

Some music.

Amazing track from 1970. Would love to get this on vinyl. Original pressing and shit, maiiiin.

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Sixto Rodriguez - Sugar Man

i’m won’t even attempt to apologize for my lack of posts lately. just come to this party and i’ll make it up to you on the dance floor.

Some seriously sexy, deep grooves and really proper cocktails. Yes, they do a fine whiskey sour.

Half off before 10PM, best deal in town.

Lots of fine, fine new music out lately. Loving this track…summer vibes.

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Baths - Aminals

but no fireworks allowed in the new hood, damn.

and, the outdoor party in the park today got cancelled, by the man.

i’m hiding somewhere between the air conditioner, with its invisible shower of particulate matter, and the hot air monster lurking outside my building and on my balcony, so unforgivingly humid.

but don’t everybody love the sunshine?

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Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves the Sunshine

This post is dedicated to Nocturnal Disco Aardvark (the nice lad from Bristol and his equally genial girlfriend). Kid put me onto a lot of good tunes, including this Talking Heads track I’d never heard before.

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Talking Heads - Pull Up The Roots