“When did your brother die?” “A month ago.” Well, that explained Valiotaky’s appearance. It was taboo for him to wash his clothes or shave until his brother was buried. But even with the backing of Tsiaketraky, the Father-and-Mother, I was troubled. Was I really going to be a horrible paparazza, intruding on a family of strangers in their mourning?

During this debacle, Wei was probably out of harm’s way to the north of the city in Sui-chou, the modern Sui-te county, Shensi ("Composed in Sui-chou”).]

O for a beaker full of the warm South, / Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, / With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, / And purple-stained mouth; […]

Financed and photographed by the writer-director himself, a Baltimore resident who raised the money by making TV commercials, it combines the rigors of elaborate preplanning with the bold risk taking of an aleatory event.