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Still can’t believe my friend Cate invited me to watch The Rolling Stones kick off their current tour at Staples Center last Friday. Still can’t believe how great they are live. Like the blues musicians they grew up idolizing, The Stones have become not only timeless but ageless masters… Yes, to kick off the evening they had the UCLA marching band play “Satisfaction” following a video montage of musicians, filmmakers, and fans sharing their devotion to Their Satanic Majesties; there were guest appearances by Gwen Stefani and Keith Urban; and the CSULB choir sang a chillingly beautiful intro “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to make it a special night. But really it’s all about their enormously heavy catalog of songs. Everyone from The New York Dolls to Aerosmith has tried in their own way to channel The Stones’ primal, evil grooves but The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band remains just that. Everyone talks about how Mick and Keef have survived with style but Ronnie and Charlie are effortlessly on point and cool…
A swimmingly excellent novel. I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying is a new novel in flash fiction by Matthew Salesses. In 115 chapters, all shorter than a page and some as short as five lines of text, Salesses details a man’s life that is simultaneously falling apart and coming together. A boy who is apparently his moves in with him after the mother passes away. Yet the man continues to juggle two affairs on the side while maintaining a passable relationship with “the wifely woman.” Meanwhile, his career advances, with no discernible effort on his part. Possibly medicated (prescribed and otherwise) into ambivalence, the narrator puts in appearances where and when necessary most of the time, trying to stave off the genuine pain that comes from true engagement. And yet, by taking his poison a thimbleful at a time, the bite eventually seeps in and both the narrator and the reader come to an understanding about his place in the world. Salesses is a husband and a father. His writing has been published widely. Recently, he took the time to share some thoughts about I’m Not Saying, I’m Just Saying with GR. 1) Is it harder or easier to write against type? I can tell you’re a nice guy and a good dad, so what is it like to write about a man who is ambivalent about relationships and fatherhood? I’m not sure whether it’s harder or easier, in general. It’s harder for me to make up someone than to use myself as a character. One thing I like about nonfiction is that I don’t have to worry about how to create fully rounded characters; I only have to worry about how to represent people/myself as fully rounded. The reason to choose fiction over nonfiction is to get at a truth that can’t be gotten at, or can’t be presented, as convincingly in an essay. Which means that in fiction I’m often writing against type, because I want to tell a story, and I don’t generally make a lot of interesting things happen in real life. In this book, that choice meant using the voice of someone more directly conflicted than I am. I could have written nonfiction about my own fear of commitment, but it wouldn’t have been as interesting or convincing (coming from a married man with a daughter) as the story of this narrator, who is deeply afraid and makes choices out of that fear. I guess to answer the question, it would have been harder to write this particular story if the narrator was nicer and a better dad. I’ve never actually seen an Easy-Bake Oven, but I love the myth of it. 2) Flash fiction. Here to stay as a viable format, or something that, in the future, will date all work to 201X? Here since at least Kafka, or maybe oral myths, and here to stay. Also, I remember teachers telling me in undergrad to write fiction that is timeless and would last...
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Tight capped bottles placed in a Coke machine in the very park where couples try to meet each other in Shanghai.
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Just got back from the opening night of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The featured flick was the Los Angeles premiere of Linsanity, a real crowd-pleaser of an underdog story that we’re all familiar with, but for a guy like me who doesn’t get out much the highlight was seeing friends. Clockwise from top right are Eric from GR, Working Man/Perfect Time/SGV skateboarding homie John Lee, Patrick from NFS, and Eugenia Yuan, who appears in the movie Chink on Saturday night. Also saw my pal Kristina Wong decked out in a bridal gown and met Judy Lei from the Asian American International Film Festival, who is going to bring the Animal Style skate program that I put together to New York City this summer. More on that later. First comes Los Angeles… Have I ever mentioned that my friend Anderson Le (Visual Communications’ Artistic Director) recruited me to be on the programming committee this year? Part of my duties include introducing films and filmmakers as well as conducting Q&As after screenings. These are the four that I’ll be handling, and it would be cool if you came by to check them out and say hi. Saturday, May 4 (Director’s Guild of America on Sunset) 12:15 – A River Changes Course. Winner of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary. 2:45 – Stateless. Like a spelling bee movie on steroids, Duc Nguyen tells the story of Vietnamese War refugees who never made it to America, settled illegally in the Philippines, and are preparing to interview with U.S. State Department officials when the immigration department decides to open new cases. 7:15 – Abigail Harm. Director Lee Isaac Chung does a remarkable job of crafting a compact but open-ended fable that can be as deep as you want it to be. As sad as you want it to be. And as fantastic as you want it to be. But gorgeously and masterfully executed in any case. Thursday, May 9 (CGV Cinemas in Koreatown) 7:00 - The Sound of Crickets at Night. Displacement from home, broken family, loss of identity, and eroding tradition are only some of the themes that are presented dreamily yet effectively in this modest and skillful film from the Marshall Islands. Seeya then. Support independent film! Support film festivals!
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Pictures of fleeing Hyundais strapped down with merchandise at the Kaesong Industrial Complex may be more exciting than old pictures of Kenneth Bae, but we should take a minute to think about the reality he’s now up against. In November of last year, while leading a tour group in North Korea, Bae was detained, found guilty of an unknown crime, and has now been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a N. Korean gulag. The North Korean government hasn’t said what the alleged crime was, and probably won’t. Without the recent nuclear threats, would Bae’s story be making headlines? He’s been there for a while now… Maybe we can send Dennis Rodman back to talk to his buddy Kim Jong Un, and explain that detaining people isn’t good for his public image. I guess threatening to launch missiles at people isn’t either though. Take a minute to read about Kenneth Bae’s story. A Facebook page has been created to share updates and news about his detainment. Maybe also take a few minutes out of your day to contact your representative in Congress and ask them what they’re doing to help free Kenneth Bae. All the Facebook likes in the world won’t get through to North Korea, but maybe letting our representatives know what’s at stake to their constituents, will help.
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