The other night, in the company of Sonya Chung (author of LONG FOR THIS WORLD), my boyfriend Dustin and I went to see the opening feature presentation at the Asian American International Film Festival. There was a moderately full crowd in the theater, but I wondered where “everyone” was, as the Taiwanese delegation, celebrating the [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘political art’
August 28, 2009
Learning to Love Long Duk Dong
When Long Duck Dong appears for the first time during Sixteen Candles, a gong rings, and if you’re Asian, as you see his face swing down over the bunk bed and the halo of black hair appear around his head, you experience a moment of PTSD, remembering every time anyone ever followed you on the [...]
August 19, 2009
“Consider Writing an 86 Proof Sentence.” – Charles Baxter
1. Saturday, I drive to Vermont with my friend Tayari, to Bread Loaf. The mosquitoes are terrifying. At a cocktail reception, as we take turns outside spraying ourselves, Sigrid Nunez advances a theory that this is because the bats are dying and are not eating the mosquitoes anymore. All up and down the Eastern seaboard, [...]
February 5, 2008
One Day This Kid Will Get Larger
To make the private into something public is an action that has terrific repercussions in the reinvented world. The government has the job of maintaining the day-to-day illusion of the ONE-TRIBE NATION. Each public disclosure of a private reality becomes something of a magnet that can attract others with a similar frame of reference; thus [...]
January 5, 2008
18% Winner, 82% Loser
You might wonder how [Chris] Matthews could simultaneously argue that John McCain would be a big winner if he got 18 percent of the vote and that if Hillary Clinton finished with more than 30 percent, it would mean she had been “rejected here in Iowa by two-thirds of the Democratic Party.” Well, it might [...]
September 4, 2007
Best Campaign Slogan of ’08 (so far)
Legalize Freedom —from the Ron Paul campaign, based on a suggestion of his in a speech.
May 26, 2007
“I’m so tired of America”
“I’m definitely a fan of juxtaposition,” he explains. “Using the most beautiful line to say the most horrific thing — I think one of the main things in songwriting is definitely friction between the words and the melody. It’s got to be done very delicately because both elements are somewhat explosive, and all of a [...]
May 26, 2007
The Rails of Korea
Tonight I’m searching for images of the Korean War. I don’t really know why, I’m just sort of following a feeling. Last week my friend Shauna sent me this link to an article about North Korea and South Korea allowing rail travel again between the two countries. For some reason I thought of the comics [...]
