Wednesday, June 30, 2004
So today was another day where I was at least a week off. I thought and believed it was June 22nd. I had a good meeting at work and then a good meeting after work. Went to Louder Than Words with Rich. It was a good night, a lot of discussion which is good although the entire audience was poets. But maybe thats what it is supposed to be. Its ok for a tuesday isn't it. For the record I tend to believe that even bad people can hit on truth and thus create good writing or art or whatever. Sometimes the person they are in their writing is the person they want to be and not the person they are so in that respect maybe the audience for the work is them selves. That being sadi I hate people that use the pretense of truth to garner pity or attention, or accolades. It's purpose then changes to be self serving and I hate that although it can still affect a listener or reader or viewer the same way as a truthful non selfish piece.
Today's song of the day is "twisted mess" by Neneh Cherry from the Soundtrack Best Laid Plans
Posted by Edward @ 12:25 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Sunday, June 27, 2004
What a beautiful weekend. I wish they were all like this. Friday I headed over to Peter Fedak's music show in the west village, after getting lost I met Ray at the door and we had a great time listening to the hot electronic music. Saturday I went to play DND at Omar's place in Brooklyn. Good times, with the ruckus boys. Thanks Diana for the freezer pops, I'm eating one right now. Then I went to a friends music show in Union Square. Yumi was playing the Koto Harp, it was dope, and the NEw age guys that played with her was funny as hell. At one point he took a sswig of water and started gargling as an instrument. Gargling! That's comedy.
Today I ate a lot of Dim sum, and then Jeannie, some friends and I went to the Cloisters. I had never been and it was reallly nice. Probably one of the nicest parks in New York. I gotta go there more often. Tomorrow more work. Next week, More las Vegas. Oh yeah.
Today's song is "Indigo boy" by Esthero, a band which I had lent away a long time ago and am so happy to have gotten back. They are a really good trip hop band, give it a listen. This song sounds like a cross between Bjork and Nelly Furtado.
Posted by Edward @ 10:07 PM EST [Link] [1 Comment]
Friday, June 25, 2004
I was going to write about going to acentos yesterday until I realized it was Thursday. Damn, time gets away from me. I had a great time at acentos yeaserday or whatever day it was. Amalia ortiz was a great and long awaited feature. Oh thats right on wednesday i went to a benefit for Asian Cinevision which got me regretting my actions to put off making a film. So I am filming the two scripts that i am satisfied with sometime this summer. So it is written so it shall be done.
Total aside: Jeannie just handed me some watermelon nerds candies a second ago and I thought this should be the official candy of next years nerd slam. Wonka candy would totally sponsor the nerd slam with candy and stuff. I need to tell Shappy for next year.
Another aside in getting ready for DND play on Saturday I was looking up an Ork language right. Perfectly normal stuff, when I notice that someone has made the Ewoks written language into a font from the animated series.
ASide I am addicted to flavor ice. I eat like ten a day. I need to stock up now because they don't sell them during the winter. Another thing I am addicted to is Sushi. I can't help it. It takes over my brain, I want to eat it everyday. If I won tomorrows 177million dollar megamillions jackpot, the first thing I would do is hire Iron Chef Morimoto to be my personal chef. What would be the first thing you did if you won that much money?
Todays song of the day is "How I made my Millions" by Radiohead
Posted by Edward @ 12:50 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
I am very happy I have just booked another vacation. Some of you may know that I am always looking online for travel deals. I often find really good deals and so Jeannie and I travel all over the place. Last year for instance, on the the day the Iraq war started jeannie and I got this great deal to London with Flight and Hotel fro three days, $278. That summer I found a deal to the dominican republic, all inclusive for five days with hotel and food and flight for 350 dollars. My luck continued this year as I found a trip to Paris for six days with Airfare and Hotel for $600. Now I just booked the rooms for the MGM grand in Las Vegas, Nevada the weekend of July 4th. And The Hotel and airfare for four days and three nights is : $300. I am so happy. I love Las Vegas. I can't wait, oh yeah.
Todays song of the day is "luck be a Lady" by Frank Sinatra
Posted by Edward @ 06:22 PM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Monday, June 21, 2004
So it must have been a pretty good weekend because not that many people blogged since Friday. My weekend went well although it went way too fast. On Saturday I went to St. Marks Bookstore to use my gift certificate, but I got overwhelmed and didn't pick out anything. I'm gonna have to give it some real thought. I also spent some time doing DND stuff. I'm excited to play on Saturday since we don't get to play that often. I am creating the map of the island for Omar. Its gonna be hot.
Sunday I spent cleaning out the basement of my parents house. In truth it was mostly my junk. I threw pout a bunch of stuff that I no longer remember why I wanted to keep. Then in the afternoon I spent the time eating and hanging around Chinatown. It was a good chill weekend. Hope yours was too.
Todays song is:Sweet Child of mine covered by Luna
Posted by Edward @ 09:54 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Friday, June 18, 2004
If anyone read the post prior to now I apologize for the mistakes in Grammer and spelling. It was late and I was elated from the win. Here it is as it should have been.
Today is probably one of the best days I have had in a long time. For weeks I have been trying to write poems for the Nerd Slam that happened at The Bowery poetry club today. I had started a bunch of poems that went nowhere or just plain sucked.
Today I did some work during the day and then took the rest of the day to write poems for the slam. I blanked, I couldn't think of a thing, so I decided that I would go to Bowery a little early to get inspired. I took my Superman notebook and a pen. On the train I was procrastinating by playing games on my palm pilot, but after a few minutes I said to myself. "Ok enough I am going to write until I get an idea". Outloud so I have to commit to it. For the better part of a year I have been trying to write a poem about being a secret nerd. I have never been able to get it going and I have never had a good way to end it. I started on that theme again on the train. It was 6:30pm, the reading starts at 7:15. For some reason when I am under pressure I am not so critical of what I am writing and so I end up writing much better. That happened tonight and I actually found a thread to go on for the secret nerd poem now called "night nerds". I ended up finishing it at the bar of the BPC, but was unsure of how I was going to read it, making edits on the sides the whole time. I wasn't even sure I was in the slam at this point since Shappy had said it was a closed slam but I forgot to ask if I was one of the people in it.
So after a little while I asked Cristin and she said I was in. Great. So I began on writing the second piece just in case I made it to the second round. I wasn't even going to write a second piece because I was going up against people like Mike Henry but I got an idea last second so I went with it. I read my piece and got the high score for the round. I couldn't believe it but I did go last in the round so maybe there was some score creep. Mike Whalen did an amazing piece about bowling that should have put him in the finals but who knows why the judges do anything, I'm not complaining. For the second round it was me and Post midnight in the trivia contest. I totally blanked on most of the question, I don't know why. My comic book trivia has always been my weak point because as a kid I didn't have money for comics. I never got money on a regular basis so when I would come into money(Christmas, Birthday) I spent it on toys. I have always been more about TV, Movies, and music, although I do own a good number of comics now. Anyway the trivia contest wasn't going so well so then I said why don't we just read a poem. Post agreed since we both had poems we wanted to read in our hands. I won the coin toss so Post went first. He read this great poem about wrestling and finding out it is fake from the NIck Foley autobiography. I followed him up with a poem about uniting the worlds of fantasy and sci-fi to go against the republican national convention. I got a standing ovation from BlackWolf the Wizard, the unofficial wizard of New York. It was very cool. It turns out that I won the Slam and a fifty dollar gift certificate to St. Marks Comics. YAAY. Last year I won the Cute boy slam and the Limerick slam but I did not feel like this when I won those. I was happy then but right now I feel validated. This slam is closer to who I think of myself as. I don't consider myself a cute boy and I am no limericist, so tonight was special. It felt really good to read to a nerd crowd and actually connect with them. I felt this way at nationals during the nerd reading too. I am really proud about this win, I don't know how else to say it.
I really want to thank Shappy and Cristin for including me in the Nerd slam, and for even putting on a nerd slam, when most venues wouldn't. The screen in the background was so cool. Playing video games and pulling up pictures of stuff that was relevant off of Google. It was really cool to be a part of it. Very Nerdy. Thanks to the Acentos crew for coming out as well. I realize that I never mention them individually so here goes Fish, Oscar, Rich, Jessica. It was cool to see them and eat with them (Rich, Jessica, Oscar) as well. I'll let you know what I buy with the money.
Todays song is "wierd friendless kid" by Emilliana Torrini from the album dunno for all the weird friendless nerds out there.
Posted by Edward @ 01:41 AM EST [Link] [1 Comment]
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
This week has been kind of hectic at work with the end of the year performances happening in the three schools, but it has really been worth it. So far Kennedy and Smith have done theirs and they have really been great. Both have had smaller audiences than we would have wanted and both have had technical difficulties, but overall the performers more than made up for it. This year has really been a great test run for next year which I know if going to be great.
Last night Jeannie, Omar and I went to go see "the Chronicles of Riddick". The movie is visually beautiful. I love the idea of the movie and the costumes, sets, designs for the ships and everything else. Vin Diesel talk s very little. there are a lot of action scenes. so why is it I wished they had talked even less. The dialogue was garbage. Many times a great scene was ruined by a line that was stupid that wasn't even needed in the first place. The story was told well enough with the visuals so that they could have cut half the dialogue. I still think it was worth seeing though. The visuals alone are worth it.
I brought a bag of doritos into the theatre with me yesterday and it reminded me of something funny in France. The day we went to go and See "harry Potter" In paris we had bought a pizza. We were eating it on line when it was time to go in. I was walking towards the door with a big pizza box in my hand ready to throw out the two remaining slices because they were going to say something. I motioned with the box to the person taking tickets. She took my ticket and didn't say anything. In the theatre I took out the box and finished my two slices. I realized later why I was allowed to go inside with the box. In France people don't eat on the go. Everything is sit down even fast food. You don't eat in the car, on the train, or in the street. Pizza is a sit down thing eaten with a knife and fork. So when I walked in with the Pizza box it was like walking in with a turkey. They had no idea that I would fold up the slices and chow down in the theatre. I should have brought a full pie with me.
Todays song of the day is "looking for he perfect beat" by Afrika Bambaataa to go withthe break dancing that the students did yesterday at Smith and friday at Kennedy.
Posted by Edward @ 09:22 AM EST [Link] [No Comments]
Friday, June 11, 2004
Last night was very cool. The reading at AAWW went really well. I got to read in front of a mostly new audience. I also got to read in front of some of the other NYFA winners and I got to hear them read as well. IT was cool to hear them because you can't help but wonder about these things.
I read a new piece for Ray Charles who passed away yesterday. I created a found poem out of the song titles of the three CDs I own of his. I gotta work on it a bit. i also re-edited a piece that's not too old and then I did my old piece which was one of the poems I submitted for the NYFA. It was really good to see my friends come out Oscar, Jessica, Rich, Omar and even Bonafide for a minute in the beginning. Thanks.
Afterwards was cool as we all went to MCDonalds and talked for two hours about everything from politics to the nerd slam coming up next thursday at the Bowery Poetry Club. I am excited.
Today is the first of the three year end shows at the high schools that I work at. I am nervous because I have invited a lot of important people to come and see them and they need to go well. The students are great so I have little doubts, but the doubts I do have are giving me a stomach ache.
Todays song of the day is about summer which is upon us:
its called "Gatekeeper" by Feist from the album Let it Die
Posted by Edward @ 08:06 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, June 10, 2004
I found out yesterday that the school might be closed on Friday because of a national day of mourning for Ronald reagan. While I wouldn't mind the day off, I have to wonder what the f... is going-on in the world. Have we all got Alzheimer's. I remember the bad shit that man had done because he mostly did it in Central America. Maybe those hundreds of thousands of mourners are all from the midwest and couldn't care less about the rest of the world. They are mourning their cowboy. Maybe those people just want to make sure he is really dead. I don't care either way. I kept thinking he died years ago and it somehow got passed over in the news. Nobody ever talked about him, nobody ever went to his house. Maybe he died last year and they were saving his death until it was closer to the election. It is a closed casket.
The only good thing that may come out of this is stem cell research. Nancy was at a pro stem cell research rally a few weeks ago talking about how stem cell research could have saved Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's, and cured Parkinson's. I hope she uses this as a platform to promote stem cell research. The conservatives would never go against her now.
In a different story: I am out of my jet-lag. I woke up at my regular time and should be ok now. I still have caffeine headaches from all the coffee I drank in Paris. We were drinking coffee everymoring to be able to go sightseeing all day. They have two kinds of coffee in Paris espresso and espresso with milk. I had it with milk. I have never really liked strong coffee.
Today is the NYFA reading at AAWW. It should be cool and hope that some of you can make it.
I'll put the blurb again:
The New York Foundation for the Arts and The Workshop present a full night of photographers, sculptors, poets and prose writers, all winners of 2003 individual artist grants. An hour-long curated event featuring Bruce Busby, Priya R. Chandrasekaran, Tina Chang, Che Chen, Quang Bao, Edward Garcia and Louis Reyes Rivera, plus special guests from The New York Foundation for the Arts.
Reception with prosecco and summer rolls follows
$5 suggested donation
@ the Workshop
Todays song of the day is "Zora" by Olu Dara from the album In the world from Natchez to New York
Posted by Edward @ 08:30 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
So it is not yet seven Am and I have already been awake for an hour and a half, damn jet-lag. I have been catching up on blogs to read what I have missed. I was paying by the minute for the internet in Paris so there was no time to keep current there. Happy Birthday to Oscar!!!! Congratulations to Rich, sorry I couldn't make it last night, glad I will be working with you soon.
Reflective on Paris: I think that there is something to the fact that all of the letters in Paris are also in paradise. Thats how I think of it, as almost Paradise. This is why: they value culture and art almost above everything. The only other thing they might value more is food. Do you see what I am saying?
On this trip I realized why so many americans have become ex-patriots there. It was the first time I had visited since I decided to become a writer. It changes your perspective, a lot. This time I looked at it not as some nice place that existed in the literary or historical past, but as a place that I could maybe call a second home. There are no definite plans and it would not be for years I am sure, but I did look at some of the real-estate pages. They are unbelievably beautiful and inexpensive. You get five weeks of vacation and your medical coverage is provided by the state.
I was watching the news closely while I was there to see the coverage of Bush in France, just to get a different perspective. It scares me now that everything is going his way. The job sector added 250,000 more jobs to the economy (probably all minimum wage but they never tell you that). All of the economists are saying that the economy is better and then Reagan dies and gives the fucker a platform to stand on as if Communism and terrorism were the same thing. It is scary. I am worried that Bush might win again. Worried that he will reinstate the draft, and that he will continue to persecute people of color as suspects, that he will continue to supply fear to the world. It is this fear that always has people look at me a little longer, just in case they saw me on a poster or news bulletin. It is all of these things that will probably push me out.
But as I said none of this is happening soon. what I return with is a desire to see the spirit of art and a community of artists in New York made stronger. It makes me want to interact and push myself, not only in the writing but also in the painting that I have left by the side so for too long. It was the Picasso museum that finally did it for me. The largest collection of Picasso's in the world. His wife left it to the state to pay off his estate taxes. It was inspiring.
Todays song of the day is "Naturally" by Slow Train off the Buddha Bar 6 album. And where is the Budhha bar, naturally its in Paris.
Posted by Edward @ 07:21 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
So yesterday was as packed full of stuff as all these days in Paris have been. I went to Shakespeare and co. which is a famous english language bookstore here. I found Jonathan Reeves' chapbook among the poetry section so that was cool. There was a guy who worked there who reminded me of more OCD version of morris stegosaurus. I missed the reading that happens there thogh. I got there too late.
Then we went to the Cafe Procope which is no longer the cafe procope and is now the restaurant procope. very sad since last time I was here they made this great coffee that was brewed the way it was originally in 1686. Anyway I'll write back later.
See you soon.
Posted by Edward @ 05:02 AM EST [Link]
Monday, June 7, 2004
So at this point I don't know if anyone is reading this because I said I would probably not blog and I have been blogging everyday. Everything is going well, if not too fast. We leave tomorrow and I have to say I would move here in a heart beat if I could. don't know what | would do, but if the opportunity presented itself I would have to really consider it.
Today we are going to the oldest cafe in te world. people like victor Hugo and voltaire drank coffee there. Its called cafe Procope. Quick someone tell Lynne.
I have had a great time so far and will tell you how it went in more detail when I get back.
Posted by Edward @ 04:40 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Versaille was cool yesterday, but we must have walked 20 miles all together. Versaille is the Palace that Louis the X!V decorated and everything is covered in gold. All in all I like the garden the most. It stretches as far as the eye can see. There was even a village in the back that was built for Marie antoinette to play in. Not a small play sized village a full sized two floor thatched roof village with fifteen buildings a lake a windmill, a water wheel and animals. Its insane.
Something funny happened to me while waiting for Jeannie by the bathrooms at Versaille. I was sitting on a bench when a little girl who must have been about four years old looks at me for a long time, like trying to figure something out. After a few seconds her eyes go up in surprise and she leans over to her dad and whispers in a voice of discovery. "Papa, un homme-lupe". (dad, a were-wolf). I thought that was kind of funny. I have been coming accross a lot of that as there are not many hispanics here at all, although there are many more people of color than I remember. Especially Asians which are about as many as African. Its kind of surprising. It makes Paris seem less foreign, and that's good.
Highlights so far the food. Everything in everyplace we have gone to has been good, if not great. Its surprising, and sounds cliche but its true. The strawberries are unreal, plus we had sheeps milk cheese. mmmm.
Today we might go to the Catacombs. We might not, it depends. The catacombs is basically a big underground cemetary, that the resistance used as a HQ during WW2. Six million corpses buried by type of bone not person. All the skulls together, femurs...etc. The only light in the whole place is from the flashlight you bring yourself. I'll tell you if we go.
Posted by Edward @ 05:11 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, June 5, 2004
So I finally figured out how to log from here. I had forgotten the user name for the blog. Paris is wonderful, we are having a great time. We have already been to the Notre Dame, the louvre, musee d'orsay, champs elysee, arc d'triumph. Our hotel is right by the sacre couer which is a beautiful area that looks exactly like a description of Paris might in a book. Me and Jeannie saw the third Harry potter movie yesterday. It was sold sold out and the line went around the block. It was really freaking good. Way better than the first two movies. It was directed by Cuaron. The same director of "Y tu Mama Tambien". I know thats what I thought. What is he doing directing Harry Potter? It was the best thing that could have happened. He is a Genius. It was soo dark. It comes very close to giving the feeling of the book although it leaves a lot out, but what movie adaptation doesn't. We also had pizza yesterday. They cracked a raw egg on top of it. It was kind of gross beacuse the egg is not really supposed to be cooked by the time you eat it. Its just supposed to be like a liquid sauce on top of the pizza. Otherwise everything is great. We are going to the palace at Versaille today. Our feet are tired from all the freaking steps, there are hardly any escalators or elevators. No wonder people here are so thin. I am of average size here.
The metro is the best. There is a train every two minutes. no kidding. two minutes.
After midnight we had to wait seven. boohoo.
The president followed us here. Everyone here is pissed that he is coming, frankly so am I. Can't get a vacation from stupidity.
I'll write again soon
Au revoir.
Posted by Edward @ 05:13 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
so my flight leaves in a few hours but I wanted to Blog. Last night I was up late finishing work so I could go to Paris, and preparing for a meeting I had this morning. Then at about midnight I realized that we had not used the Ristra(a hanging bunch of red peppers)from New Mexico that I lugged all over the hotel and the airport. I was afraid that they would go bad while we are away so I decided we should make hot sauce at midnight. I started cleaning and opening the peppers checking for bad ones and taking off the tops. Jeannie was roasting them in the oven. An hour and a half later we have one hundred red peppers roasted and blended ready to be cooked and one finished simmered and reduced jar of new Mexico red chile sauce. Then I notice that my middle and index finger are burning like I had scalded them. Its the freaking capsacin in the peppers I was opening them and washing them without gloves. It starts to burn more and more. I am in a mad dash on the internet looking for the cure. It says milk or yogurt. We have neither. So I put my hands in a bowl of sour cream, but that doesn't really work. I tried vegetable oil, peanut butter, sour cream again and a looooot of cold water. The internet said not to touch my nose or eyes, not to go to the bathroom, or have sex. All those things are hard especially at two am. I tried putting on a glove but it only seemed to make my hand even hotter and I think it spread to a bigger area. In the end nothing got rid of it. I had to go to sleep at two am with my hands burning like I was Satan's proctologist. Had to wake up at seven and since France is six hours ahead if I don't sleep on the plane I am screwed cause we get there at ten AM their time. If you mess with peppers wear gloves or suffer!!!!
I will see everyone on wednesday when I get back or maybe at the NYFA reading if you can make it.
Todays song of the day is "Non je ne regrette rien" ( No I regret nothing) by Edith Piaf
Posted by Edward @ 04:52 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Yesterday I went to Bar 13 for the Uppercase reading featuring Jessica, Maria and Matt. I sat in the back and did work on my computer while listening to the poetry. I have to say I was happy with what I heard. They all showed depth and polish. Individually they would be better than many of the features that have come through 13 over the years. I doubt that will ever happen as I don't think 13 has never had someone do the uppercase reading and feature for them, although I am sure Oscar is double checking right now. It really doesn't matter though as I am sure they will go on to be great well respected writers in the larger community. I want to give them all their props. Fish too for his no holds barred hosting. Nice.
Nice is a city in France and is pronounced neese like geese. I will not be going there but I will be in France as of tomorrow. Paris to be exact with Jeannie celebrating our three year anniversary. Yaaay.
I'll try to post but probably won't.
Because of that I want to tell you about the NYFA reading in which I am taking part on June 10th at the Asian American Writers Workshop at 16 West 32nd Street. Here is the blurb.
NYFA Night
Thursday, June 10, 7 PM
The New York Foundation for the Arts and The Workshop present a full night of photographers, sculptors, poets and prose writers, all winners of 2003 individual artist grants. An hour-long curated event featuring Bruce Busby, Priya R. Chandrasekaran, Tina Chang, Che Chen, Quang Bao, Edward Garcia and Louis Reyes Rivera, plus special guests from The New York Foundation for the Arts.
Reception with prosecco and summer rolls follows
$5 suggested donation
@ the Workshop
This presentation is co-sponsored by Artists & Audiences Exchange, a public program of NYFA.
Each performer is going to be on for five or ten minutes so it shouldn't be boring. Come on out and get on the good side of the NYFA staff, they want to give you money.
Posted by Edward @ 06:18 PM EST [Link]
