Reunion Tower

Reunion Tower
Originally uploaded by shinyu32.

At the advice of my Tibetan doctor, in lieu of the usual sushi birthday dinner that I partake in every year, I need to be eating lots of hot cooked food. So Kort surprised me last night by taking me to Antares, atop Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas for a special dinner.

Antares is located at the top of Reunion Tower, about 20 stories up. A glass walled elevator shoots passengers up to the restaurant, which is one floor below the bar area. The dining area which is situated around the perimeter of the glass walled geodisic dome turns incrementally, so that at the end of a 55 minute revolution, diners get a 360 degree view of downtown Dallas. From our view, we spotted the neon lights of our apartment building, the West End, the grassy knoll where Kennedy was shot, and the courthouse and prison. Most dazzling was the lightning storm, perfectly timed for dinner, rivaling The Lightning Field.

Someone needs to shoot a short film or video in the elevator/dome of the tower. From the outside, the tower is affectionately known as "The Dandelion." The lights studded across the dome flash/dance in various patterns adding visual interest to the skyline.

While the food at Antares was not quite as delicious as the taste of salmon sashimi, the view was killer and the martinis and margaritas were quite excellent. To top off your meal, they give you special little candies with the image of reunion tower and downtown Dallas painted on the surface of white chocolate.

Manjushri

Manjushri
Originally uploaded by shinyu32.

Kort's birthday gift to me this morning was a deity pendant of Manjushri. Who is Manjushri?

The Sanskrit name Manjushri is variously interpreted to mean "wonderfully auspicious," or "sweetly glorious." However, in Tibetan his name Jampel-yang (contracted to Jamyang) means "gentle friend." In Chinese, he is called Wen Shu Shi Li; in Japanese, Monju.

Manjushri is a Bodhisattva who represents wisdom, and his mantra also symbolizes that quality. He holds a sword in his right hand -- symbolizing his ability to cut through delusion. In his left hand, by his heart, he holds a book -- the Perfection of Wisdom teaching.

I have officially left my 20s. Today, is the first day of being 30.

Just updated my submissions log and realize that the new manuscript, a collection of selected writings related to interdisciplinary collaborations, is circulating at 9 different publishers. One expressed interest, but has no funding, and after getting tied up in other projects which need funding, the prospect of doing more grant writing leaves me feeling tired. They would be willing to do an e-book, but the POD has also provided some interesting experiences. I have to remind myself that the path to getting Equivalence out into the world was also fraught with challenges, before I found La Alameda there were countless competitions (Walt Whitman, Vassar Miller, Copper Canyon...) and bottomless pits of entry fees. I'd like to think that this time, I'm going about this in a smarter way, but looking at the net I have cast, there are no fees this time around, but the response rate leaves something to be desired..

It's fall and I am 5 weeks into a grad poetry workshop at UT Dallas. I long to write and finish projects. Heck, start projects. On the plus side, just wrapped an interview with Tom Morgan for @tached document on the poetic journal. I looked over the body of the interview today and felt that so much of the material felt dated. But then a lot has happened in the last 2 months, and I feel like a very different person.

QUIPU

QUIPU
Originally uploaded by shinyu32.

Arthur Sze's new book is out. A MUST read. Buy now.

Early birthday gift #2: Comet in Moominland.

I wasn't here, but I hear that Dallas didn't have a drop of rain and the hurricane never reached N. Texas. Back to 100 degree weathers, hard to bear after the mild temps of San Francisco. My co-worker's mom was evacuated from her town in South TX and she was on one of two buses dispatched from the nursing home for San Antonio or Dallas. The bus to Dallas exploded into flames killing 24 people. She was on the bus to San Antonio.

I would like to know who is reading this blog from Saksvik, Sor-Trondelag, Norway. I hear that Norway is the most liveable place in the world according to research reports. Skol.

The Canessa Gallery is a 2nd story space in an old building near SF's financial district. The reading space is a large room with hard wood floors, brick walls, and a large desk reminiscent of elementary school occupying the space from which the reader presents his/her work. Avery Burns, editor of 26, host the series and this past Saturday, I read with SF transplant Standard Schaefer who's first book is on the City of Angels. Standard read an elegy to New Orleans, a long poem in progress, and a few from his collection Water & Power which is incidentally the original name of Polanski's movie Chinatown.

Thanks to Morgan, Michael B, Shannon, Michael W, Jon, and Jessica for coming out to support the reading and for making my visit to San Francisco a wonderful one. Had the opportunity to meet some very friendly Bay area poets - Gary Goch, Joseph Noble, and Albert DeSilver. Albert, the nicest poet I have met in ages, is part of the gift project by SonaBooks and his project just arrived in this weekend's mail. Reminds me that I am lagging on producing my gift project for SonaBooks. At this point, it will have to be a postcard piece.

We spent Friday in Calistoga, a quaint little spa town where our friends Sandy and Kris married at the Hans Fahden Vineyards. This place is fucking unbelievable - the wedding reception was held inside the "cave" of Hans Fahden - behind antique wood doors, swing open to an actual volcanic ash cave with medieval wall mounts for candles. Unforgettable.

I HEART San Francisco. More on that soon.

Check out MiPo Radio's weekend podcast which includes a few of the love hotel poems. (Editorial note: The correct title of the poem I read is "Little Chapel Xmas, Nihonbashi.")

Check out also this week's future at www.asianamericanpoetry.com.

Heading to San Francisco tomorrow morning for a wedding at Hans Fahden on Friday and a poetry reading at Canessa on Saturday. If yr in the neighborhood - stop by and say hello:

Shin Yu Pai & Standard Schaefer
Saturday, Sept. 24, 5 p.m.
Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

Dave's book has had me ruminating on adolescence quite a bit. The fashions and the mindlessness. I remember Oakley sunglasses and Ray-Bans. Chris Avella who wore a trench coat so that his girlfriend and he could put it over their laps and pet. Water polo players in navy parkas with yellow fleecy lining - girls masturbating boys through deep pockets. High school was bizarre and fucked up. I stumbled upon this article yesterday through Hyphen mag on Reena Virk, an Indian American teen who was brutally beaten to death by a gang of teenagers for being different.

Press Lorentz is producing a limited edition artist book of The Love Hotel Poems in early 2006. The press will be sending out comp copies to potential reviewers. If you are interested in seriously reviewing this work, email me.

Dallas has been slowly moving the hurricane refugees out of the Convention Center and they are already gone from Reunion Arena, absorbed by the community or relocated. How will Dallas change with this population explosion? Refugees were turned away from both shelters because the relief effort had been poorly planned and they had overestimated the number of people they could take on. When we drove home last 2 weeks, throngs of people wandering around the Convention Center, a highly visible police presence. I'd see folks getting on and off the train at the Convention Center stop, wearing colored wristbands and lugging 6-packs of high corn syrup content beverages. In the newspaper last week, a reporter wrote about how Dallas is a New Orleans waiting to happen. There are plans to build levees around the Trinity River and it is entirely conceivable that with poor urban planning, the error could repeat itself.

In Taiwan, hurricanes are called typhoons. And they hit often.

Early birthday gift #1:
Soundtrack: Lost in Translation

Countdown to my 30th birthday on Sept. 28, birth day of Confucius....

I have a new neighbor in the Southside program - Kim Sun Doo. We just came from having "sparrow's tongue" tea handpicked by monks in Korea with Sun Doo and his wife. Though their English skills are limited and our skills in Korean are completely lacking, there is great humor in the effort to communicate across cultures. Sun Doo was explaining that he taken a tour on the Silk Road with artists, a cameraman and a "politician." That one confused us, until we realized that he meant "producer." We loaned them our spare rice cooker when we noticed they were making rice on the stove.

My feelings about the res program and the majority of its inhabitants are at this point entirely antagonistic, though the building has been peachy. It was lovely to encounter this piece of yellow journalism in last week's Observer which gives the program a mention. And yet, no one knows quite what to make of it.

Girlfs for Breakfast

Girls for Breakfast
My last summer at Naropa, there were a handful of talented AA writers on campus (we were hard to miss, ethnically speaking), including Dave Yoo. Dave just came out with his first novel earlier this year and it is one amazing project.

The narrative follows the development of Nick Park, a Korean American boy growing up in the white suburb of Renfield, CT, in the era of JimmyZ t-shirts, Haircut 100, and the Kung Fu Channel. Nick's character gradually awakens to being other through his experiences with teachers and classmates (who believe he's a kung fu master and identify him as the "Asian kid") and these formative experiences inform and socialize so much of Nick's adolescent experiences. The portrayal of Nick's parents is a strong balance of criticism of how out of touch they are offset by tenderness for their hardworking and devoted immigrant ways.

It is gratifying to see Nick have the opportunity to come to terms with his identity and overcome some of his cultural self-loathing, thru interactions with kids from the Korean church and how these exchanges and perceptions evolve over time.

Reading this book it was very difficult to not thing back to my own upbringing in suburban Riverside, CA where my family was the only Asian family in our little town of Highgrove for years and years, amongst Blacks and Hispanics. I remember going thru coming into a self-awareness of being other in elementary school and what a shock and puzzle it was for many years. And than being forced to go to Saturday Chinese school where my brother and I were laughed at and teased for not speaking a word of Mandarin (we grew up learning Taiwanese in the household). The alienation from all sides.

Dave does a stellar job of getting down the complex cultural displacement and self-loathing experienced by many American born Asians. Combined with the agony and weirdness of high school and puberty (first sex, hook-ups and beer parties) in general - this is a work of authentic genius.

Favorite moment in the book has to be the prom scene where Nick pulls the scissors kick move on his victimizer and the book loops back to his early childhood lie/illusion of being a kung fu master. But the timing and imagery with which that passage is written - like the mind flashing back on cheesy kung fu metaphysical moments, where time stops, a heightened awareness of nature comes in, and a flash of insight happens, followed by the chorus of Nick's former disciples echoing the name of the move they learned in childhood.

I love this book and recommend it to everyone.

Creole talking teens
board the train
at Convention Center

armed with six
packs of Gatorade –
Katrina's survivors

Coming to the Bay Area during the APAture weekend:

Shin Yu Pai with Standard Schaefer
September 24, 5:00 p.m.
Canessa Gallery
708 Montgomery Street
SF, CA 94111

In Memoriam: Colin Peter Baerman (1972-2005)

Duende Poetry Series
Box 281, Placitas New Mexico 87043

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Duende Poetry Series presents

ROBERT CREELEY MEMORIAL READING
Sunday, September 18, 2005
5pm

Anasazi Fields Winery of Placitas, NM announces the third in its Duende Poetry reading series... to honor and celebrate the work and life of one of this century's most innovative and influential poets & former Placitas resident, Robert Creeley... featuring Creeley's poet compadre Bobby Byrd from El Paso with Gene Frumkin, Larry Goodell, Karen McKinnon, Margaret Randall sharing poems of homage anecdotes favorite Creeley poems open mic for poems about/by Creeley at the end

Please come out to Anasazi Fields Winery, Village of Placitas, to share some wine & poetry & company. The reading will be held Sunday, September 18 at the Winery in Placitas and will begin at 5 pm. Anasazi Fields wines will be available for tasting and purchasing. Poetry books will be for sale. Free snacks. Free admission.

To get to the Winery take I-25 to the Placitas exit 242, drive 6 miles east to the Village, turn left at the sign just before the Presbyterian Church, follow Camino de los Pueblitos through two stop signs to the Winery entrance.

The next reading in the Duende Poetry Series will be in the Winter.

CONTACT:
Jim Fish Anasazi Fields Winery 505-867-3062
Cirrelda Snider-Bryan Duende Poetry Series 505-897-0285, cirrelda@laalamedapress.com