Capricorn

So Jay says he isn’t that into astrology. So much for fantasies (mine, all mine) that we would be on the same page in our interview, he with his album titled after his sun sign, Capricorn, and I with my birth-chart craze. There we were in Taipei county, in the same studio, at the same table and so not on the same page.

When asked about the title he said, “Many people are fascinated by astrology, aren’t they?” (Translation: My album is for the masses and they are fascinated by astrology, aren’t they?)

He said, when asked about astrology, he used to think it was true but doesn’t now. Jerry Yen is a Capricorn like him, isn’t he, but they aren’t alike. “Astrology is what other people say about you. You have to believe in the things you do.”

So he said and so I scrawled in my notes. It was a professional interview, not a personal conversation, and I didn’t feel free to stop him to say – I could have, I should have, said –

Lun-lun, you are so Capricorn lor. Your sun, Mercury and Mars are in Capricorn. You are a Capricorn talking the Capricorn talk and walking the Capricorn walk. Why do your albums sell by the million? Because you can’t bring yourself to release a record that doesn’t sell – that isn’t successful. You are a goat with your feet on the ground and your eyes on the prize. Some might call you cold and calculating – but not me. My moon is in Capricorn and I get you.

Jerry, poor Jerry, why isn’t he like you? Because his chart isn’t like yours. His planets aren’t aligned. He has a hard sun-Pluto aspect and isn’t good with transformation (he is “…prone to inner tension and negative, self-destructive behaviour…”). You know him, don’t you, and how negative he was when he shot to stardom? All the F4 fellows but him basked in it a bit. I had to write him and nag him to be less negative, the one and only time I wrote any star.

You, with your powerful sun-Mars conjunct, aren’t like him naturally. You have more willpower (“…you are enterprising and have powerful stores of energy that you can draw upon when needed…”). So although you and Jerry both began life as underachievers, as Capricorns do, you made the much smoother transit to overachieving.

You are such a superstar and it was written in your chart lor.

A little luxury

The news of M’s death broke in what was a bad week for me. I had to write a story about a Chinese painter’s gift of art to our Republic, which involved interviewing people who didn’t want to talk. As an interviewer as unwilling as my interviewees I didn’t want to talk to them too. So I had a weary week picking up the phone to call them while wishing they wouldn’t pick their phones up – while wishing I could get out of work, mourn for M and go live a little.

The irony of it wasn’t lost on me. There was M, snatched from life suddenly in her 50s, and here was the painter, deliberately delineating his legacy in his 80s. Life is random. Some people are lucky and have all the time to do all the things they want to do – to plan proper exits – others don’t. Time is a luxury.

So as soon as I was free from the story I went KTV-ing, twice in three days. I lined up meetings with as many friends as possible. I went to Kinokuniya and got Proust, all six books. I had a ceremonial lunch with a fellow friend of M’s – we had Asahi Super Dry in memory of her – to which I wore a new Prada-esque black lace sheath, price tag barely torn off. I had to be all dressed up, not only for M but also for me.