Water + So(u)l

17 May 2012

Going to the Getty

The last time I went to the Getty, it was 2001, back when I thought I hated LA. My life was unrecognizable then, my 3-year relationship kaput, my identity, masticated by self-doubt + confusion. And seeing the Getty changed my perspective on LA, on SoCal, on almost everything. Eleven years later, I saw the Getty with fresh eyes + a heavy heart. Just like in 2001, I now feel like I'm just passing through LA once again. But I'll save you the sob story + show you how beautiful it can be from the inside:

02 May 2012

Giving Some Love to (U)SC

(U)SC has been extremely good to me. Not only was I given the enormous privilege of working with famous writers like TC Boyle, Aimee Bender + Percival Everett, but I was also given the privilege of working with prominent scholars like Bill Handley, Viet Nguyen + David Lloyd. In other words, for three years now, I was paid to write fiction, read some of the greatest works of literature in the English language, work with some of the most respected scholars in the fields of Asian American literature + the literature of the American West + work with rockstar writers too. I may have earned my spot in my this program, but it has still been an amazing privilege to develop both intellectually, professionally + creatively while working on my PhD. So, now that I've passed both my field + oral exams, + now that I'm a PhD candidate instead of just a PhD student, I wanted to give props to my school for giving me the critical/creative space to evolve as an artist, an intellectual + a professor. I don't know where this experience will lead either academically or artistically, but I'm so fucking grateful for the time I've spent here in LA.

Here are a few of the things I'll definitely miss:

20 April 2012

My 38th Birthday at LACMA

Sometimes, the best way to spend your birthday is by walking to the La Brea Tar pits, wandering aimlessly around LACMA with your boo + then opening presents. I can be a relentlessly simple man sometimes + these simple b-day gifts from LB + my mom hit home + made me feel nerdy + urban in all the right wys:

1. A sage-colored bath robe that looks a little like a kimono

2. Some new Rochas for men, which is like my favorite fucking cologne in the whole goddamn world

3. An Adidas gift certificate so I can buy a new track suit in the fall--holler!

4. A new pageboy hat that screams "Sister, I'm a Poet!"

5. Yoshihiro Tatsumi's epic graphic memoir, A Drifting Life

6. David Mura's When the Body Meets Memory

Here are some pictures from our 1/2 day at LACMA:

19 March 2012

My Flash Entry of LA

LA is like the bookstore of Babel, divided between languages, genres, aesthetics, format, media, historical periods + authors (that is, each neighborhood or microculture has its own regional identity, sharing space only tangentially but very rarely intersecting culturally, linguistically or materially with its neighbor). This is why if you live in Venice or Westwood, you'll almost never see your friends in Angeleno Heights or Echo Park, not because you live that far from each other, but because psychospatially, those neighborhoods are completely separate, self-sustaining worlds that seem utterly disconnected from your own world, even though they're not.

So, anyway, here's a flash photo entry of some of the places LB + I have been kicking it at for the past several months . . .

Larchmont Village: