February is beginning to take its toll and I want to escape.
I think that I would not even particularly mind being airlifted out of here and taken against my will to a mysterious Himalayan monastery where life revolves around peaceful contemplation, the acquisition of wisdom, forbidden love and escape plots. This is the premise of the 1933 James Hilton novel "Lost Horizon," which inspired a 1937 Frank Capra opus two years in the making, a 1973 cult musical with songs by Burt Bacharach, and the common use of the utopian catch-all name Shangri-la.
For most people these days, Shangri-la is a synonym for a Caribbean vacation. In China's Hunan province, where paperback copies of "Lost Horizon" are ubiquitous, the government has adopted the name for restaurants, resorts, and even a town, in the hopes of competing with neighboring Himalayan nations for "Shangri-la tourists," if such a thing really does exist.
My favorite adaptation of the "Shangri-la" conceit takes place in the paradise I pine for... New York of course!: see this article about the Lost Horizon Night Market Delivery Truck Circus
The night market delivery team states on their website:
You may contact Those Who Choose the Place and Time using the form below. We are particularly interested in hearing from those who wish to contribute an Establishment to upcoming Markets, or start a Market in your own town.
For now, alone on my boat with only a snoring mutt and the internet as my sources for dazzlement and wonder, I'll search for my own Shangri-la between the bars of a rhyme:
billy idol: shangri-la
the shangri-las: remember walking in the sand
the kinks: shangri-la
duane eddy: shangri-la
m.ward: shangri-la
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