Every morning, on my way to work, my bus passes the Kung Fu Buffet, an all-you-can-eat establishment in Phibsborough shopping centre. I've never patronised it, but I do intend to one day. It always sparks my imagination-- the fusion of cheap glamour and everydayness always sparks my imagination.
I never really watched martial arts movies or TV shows, although I do love the song "Kung Fu Fighting", and I did love Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies. I did watch Monkey but I didn't really get it-- I was a young kid and it confused me.
One morning, after passing the restaurant, I wrote this little ditty on my smartphone and sent it to my office-mate, who I knew would love it. And he did love it, even quoting lines of it back to me quite often. I then sent it to a few other friends, who seemed bemused and baffled. I even sent it to two of my brothers, neither of whom replied or ever mentioned it to me. Ha!
I've hesitated to post it here, because of "raaaaaaaaaaaaaaacism!". I hope it's obvious that it's an affectionate parody of a particular genre, and not making fun of oriental culture in any way.
Do you remember Monkey Magic, kung fu flying through the air?
Do you remember Bruce Lee movies, kicks and punches everywhere?
In Phibsborough town in Dublin city, you and me go there today,
Food there like an oh yeah roundhouse
Come to the Kung Fu Buffet.
In Phibsborough town yeah man in Dublin
Fight the power and save the day.
Fight like tiger eat like tiger
Come to the Kung Fu Buffet .
Do you remember Kung Fu fighting, funky men from Chinatown?
Do you dig that Jackie Chan man, he knock hundred bad guys down?
In Phibsboro town in Dublin city, pay your money, grab a tray,
Fight like tiger eat like tiger
Come to the Kung Fu Buffet
In Phibsboro town yeah man in Dublin
Don't care what yo momma say
Fight like tiger eat like tiger
Come to the Kung Fu Buffet.
I can remember watching MONKEY also. Years later I used to question whether it reflected any real beliefs or folklore or was it just made up? Do any people really believe in all those strange gods and the Buddha also? It treated Buddha as a divine being but Buddhists don't generally think of him as divine. And what baffled everyone,I remember, was wether the actor playing the priest was a boy or a girl
ReplyDeleteYou have a clearer memory of Monkey than I.
DeleteI think the divinization of Buddha crept into Buddhism with popular piety-- if you ask me, popular piety has a healthier instinct than the philosophical purists.
I probably remember better because I'm a bit older. Speaking of which I can remember when Phibsboro had mostly small shops. One little old-fashioned one sold nothing but eggs. It was packed with them. It's quite strange thinking back that a shop like that would have existed once
ReplyDeleteAn egg shop? Ha!
DeleteWell, teh shopping centre looks prety old and grungey...part of why I like it.
I think it was one of what they used to call ' The 40 shops' which had been there even when my parents were teenagers,( they are now both in their 80s). I'm not sure if there ever really was 40, wasn't interested enough at the time
ReplyDelete