What’s the time? It’s time to get ill.


BxMh_Bridges_06
Originally uploaded by Pro-Zak

Deadlines looming all around me with a creative non-fiction essay and a chapbook contest entry both due tomorrow. But it feels good to be busy and to have these projects and it feels even better that I have taken them upon myself.

Now let’s see if I can squeeze some more time out of the clock to blog about New York, the Great Snow Storm That Wasn’t, the differences between the MTA & BART, Barb’s reading, my current reading list, my sense of place and how in poetry world I am trying to make a dollar (full manuscript) out of fifteen cents (my chapbook project).

ACHIOTE PRESS announces the RELEASE of their FALL CHAPBOOKS

For $12 (which includes shipping), you get 2 chapbooks: a single author chapbook by MIA YOU called OBJECTIVE PRACTICE and a multi-author chapbook featuring work by TRUONG TRAN, FRANCISCO X. ALARCON, VICTORIA LEON GUERRERO, and THERESA SOTTO.

You can purchase the books via paypal at www.achiotepress.com

More info on ordering, reviewing or chapbooks for trade is here

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CONTRIBUTOR’S BIOS

Mia You was born in Seoul, Korea, and was raised in Northern California. Currently a doctoral student in English literature at UC Berkeley, she received a Bachelor’s Degree in English at Stanford University and a Master’s Degree in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. She has worked as a journalist, publishing articles in The San Jose Mercury News and The Korea Herald, and as a translator of Korean poetry. She has also helped translate and edit film scripts, taught for the film studies department at Harvard, and interned at the Amsterdam Filmmuseum. In 2004, designer Thorsten Kiefer made an artbook of her poems, entitled YOU, which has been displayed in a number of exhibitions, and part of her current work-in-progress, Successions, can be viewed at Counterpath Online.

Truong Tran is the author of within the margin (Apogee Press, 2004), The Book of Perceptions (Kearny Street Workshop, 1999), placing the accents (Apogee Press, 1999), and dust and conscience, (Apogee Press, 2002), which won the San Francisco State Poetry Center Book Prize. He also wrote a children’s book, Going Home, Coming Home (Children’s Book Press, 2003). The selection that appears in this issue is forthcoming in Truong’s full-length book titled four letter words.

Francisco X. Alarcón is the author of ten volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night / Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), Sonetos a la locura y otras penas / Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes (Creative Arts Book Company 2001), Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 992), and De amor oscuro / Of Dark Love (Moving Parts Press 1991, and 2001). Children’s Book Press has published four of his books bilingual poetry for children: Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems (1997), From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems (1998), Angels Ride Bikes and Other Fall Poems (1999), and Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems (2001). He currently teaches at the University of California, Davis.

Victoria-Lola M. Leon Guerrero (Familian Cha’ka) is very proud to be from the village of Toto and the island of GuÃ¥han (Guam). Fueled by love from her family and the stories that were passed on to her, Victoria is writing her first novel and pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Mills College in Oakland. She also works as a media coordinator at the California Reinvestment Coalition in San Francisco, teaches basic composition to a group of freshwomen at Mills, and is actively involved in GuÃ¥han’s decolonization movement.

Theresa Sotto lives and works in Santa Monica, CA. Her poems have been published in POOL, No Tell Motel, Spinning Jenny, Coconut, Shampoo, Typo, Word For/Word, ZYZZYVA, and others. A chapbook of her poems is forthcoming in the Coconut Chapbook Series. When not writing, she works as an art educator at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

MST3: Akira Kurosawa’s Rhapsody in August

Three is a magic number when it comes to consuming pop culture. What’s the point in experiencing great art if you got no one to share it with? On the flipside, how can I share my cornucopic (did I just use l=a=n=g=u=a=g=e to make up word?) amounts of Haterade when I am subjected to whack ass moments?

Two is cool but you either have consensus or split-decision and when it comes to that good art that leaves you wondering if this is just zeitgeist or the real deal, it’s best to have a third party lend their voice. And there you have it- the magic number.

Last night the MST3, Sunny, Barb and I, watched Kurosawa’s Rhapsody in August. A movie I thought for sure would suck when I heard that Richard Gere makes an appearance. Well, the movie did suck a bit but – surprise! – mostly when Richard Gere was not on screen.

The difference between this and other Akira Kurosawa films is that where his other epics have these fine threads of emotional manipulation, camera tricks and lighting composition woven so tightly into the script and acting that they are near invisible. With Rhapsody in August, we don’t have thread but butcher twine and badly wrapped butcher twine at that, something Boricuas would call Un Pastel Malamarado.

The beginning of the film has an elderly Japanese woman surrounded by her oh-so-hip global culture loving grandkids. How do I know this? Cuz they are all wearing too tight jeans and various American t-shirts highlighting UCAL, Brooklyn and the Yankees, that’s how. The script continues with that same theme as we are giving the tourist walk through Nagasaki and are told details about the A-Bomb that we could find on any bus tour; the very height of expository dialogue at its most monotone.

Things take an interesting turn with the arrival of Gere as the American cousin that no one knew about since grandma was one of 12 and cannot accurately remember the existence of an elder brother who happens to be Gere’s father. Her grandkids could care less about this since all they see is a chance to eat some real pineapple (read: be down with American happa culture).

Gere does a fine job as the outsider who wants nothing more than to spend some quiet time with a part of his past rather than trying to make amends for his past which seems to be the hang up with the kid’s parents who don’t seem to be sure what to make of grandma and her history.

Kurosawa being Kurosawa is still able to surprise us in the end with a moving and memorable final scene that resolves nothing but is so visually stunning we can’t help but be awed. Too bad no one was able to convince him to shorten the film to 40 minutes cuz if they did this would be another classic.

Then again, those extra 50 minutes gave the MST3 a chance to make fun of some ass-eating-jeans, Spandua Ballet hair and an incest scene that could only make sense in the most liberal of Oswego, NY workfarms.

You should only see this after you’ve experienced some of Kurosawa’s best: Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, Rashomon, and The Bad Sleep Well; or if you believe that Richard Gere with short hair equals box office wizardry.

Poetry & Politics


Poster Design Politics
Originally uploaded by Diego Bellorin

Friday, December 7, 2007
Poetics & Politics Reading

Join Kearny Street Workshop for an evening of readings of new work developed in KSW’s Poetics & Politics Workshop with Truong Tran. Featuring eight compelling emerging literary voices, the event will include a reception afterwards for the writers.

Featuring readings by:

Oscar Bermeo
Sita Bhaumik
Nicole Bohn
Vanessa Huang
Margaret Rhee
Adrien Salazar
Truong Tran
Debbie Yee

Date: Friday, December 7th, 2007

Time: 7pm

Location: KSW’s space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, San Francisco

Cost: $5 suggested

Kearny Street Workshop is a community-based arts nonprofit based in San Francisco. Founded in 1972, KSW’s mission is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities. Our vision is to achieve a more just society by connecting APA artists to community members to give voice to our cultural, historical, and contemporary issues. KSW offers workshops, visual exhibitions, readings, artist salons and panel discussions, an annual arts festival, and more. For more information, please visit www.kearnystreet.org

Espacio

Just finished filling out a Public and Private in the Blogosphere survey which I started just to test out my feeds generator but which actually helped me articulate some of the reasons I blog which has always been this: To track and monitor my progress as a poet.

Back in the day I was posting some more private, inside joke, nebulous entries relating in weird ways to poetry but I stopped when I found out I was being so nebulous that six months I didn’t even know what i was blogging about.

In the interest of transparency and since it is a Public/Private sruvey, I’ve posted some of the questions and some of my answers.

How would you define the term “private”?
Anything related to my home life, family and day job.

How would you define the term “public”?
Anything related to my poetics (process, publications, critiques, conversations, etc.).

What is the purpose of your blog?
To document experiences for myself / preserve memories.
As a creative outlet.
To share my knowledge with others.

Who is the intended audience / readership of your blog?
People I’ve met online and offline
People I’ve never met but who have similar interests
Family

How does the relative publicity/privacy of your blog affect your blogging practices?
I want to make sure I am blogging from a historical (public) purpose and not for purely personal (private) motivations.

Bloggers, stand up and be counted! Take the “Public and Private in the Blogosphere” Survey!