SILLY: To Denmark, I go!

The sun is out, the stockings have come off, lilacs (my favorite!) are bloomin' and it is officially Spring. SPRING! Who in New York isn't smiling today? Tell me that.



This also means, I hope, that the weather conditions will be good for my flight this evening to Copenhagen. As a result of my fear of flying (or just taking off, really), I'll take whatever good omens I can get. The thing is, my fear is completely and totally irrational, and goes something like this: I think I've used up my "quota of survival" on flights; and since I did so much traveling over the last few years, every flight I take from now on is like gambling with the jumbo jet gods.

After many discussions about this fear, Martin bought me a book put out by Frommer's (the only good guide the place has ever come up with) called Fly Smart, Fly Safe, and before all major takeoffs, I memorize new anxiety-reducing exercises in breathing and muscle tension. Amazingly, one of the suggestions is to wear a rubber band around the palm of your hand and snap it every time you're imagining your fiery death -- a kind of a watered down shock therapy. In case you were wondering, I am not going to do that. It hasn't gotten that desperate yet.

Next time, I'll be posting updates from my adventures across the pond!

Photo of Lilacs and Goldfinches from http://www.elmspuzzles.com/gallery/Bourdet/lilacsgoldfinches.jpg.
Photo of Nyhavn from www.asdreams.org/ 2004/copenhagen_nyhavn.jpg.

CLIP: Picture Perfect, Baby Banyan Tree

Thought I'd add another of my more visual clips from HK Magazine: a cover I took on assignment for a corresponding feature (not written by me) about tree conservation in the region.

When I was leaving Hong Kong last spring, legislators were taking certain measures to ensure the future of trees in the city's concrete jungle, but it wasn't easy. Tree advocates weren't allowed to incur any costs to the government, so they had to think of alternative ways to include them into more broad-based conservation bills, and even enlisted teachers and schools as "Green Spies" who would "adopt" trees, and unofficially keep developers and eager tree-trimmers at bay. While it's illegal to cut a tree whose trunk is more than 30 centimenters in diameter, people do it anyway -- especially with banyan trees -- as tree roots reek havoc on architectural stability and even the strongest of concrete structures.

It was a helluva a photo assignment because the editor of the magazine really wanted me to capture, in just one image, how trees were struggling for survival in the city. I took hundreds of digital images of fully matured banyans (see left), Buddhist pines, wall trees, tree houses, tree altars, trees growing from cracks in buildings and up pipes and I even snuck into several residential buildings to try and capture at eye-level, trees growing on fire escapes and on rooftops.

The cover image they finally used, taken in Sheung Wan, very nearby the editorial offices of the magazine, is a simple, baby Banyan tree, which, reaching full maturity, would probably rip that staircase right out of its foundation. But there it was, small, harmless, beautiful, and certainly in danger of being destroyed.

SERIOUS: How Blogs are Changing Journalism, AAJA Mini-Conference Panel, 3/25/06

I went to a couple of great panels at the Asian American Journalist's Association mini-conference held this Saturday at the NYU Silver Center, just off Washington Square East. The first panel, entitled "How Blogs are Changing Journalism" featured panelists Jeff Yang of SFGate.com, Choire Sicha, formerly of gawker.com and now a Senior Editor at the New York Observer, and Derek Rose, of the NY Daily News. How *is* blogging changing journalism, the moderator asked:

Depends on how you define journalism, said Yang, who also puts out a biweekly email blog called InstantYang, about Asian Pop Culture and Issues (to which I immediately subscribed). Blogging isn't usually investigative or muckraking in the traditional sense, but is rather characterized by three main components:

* Aggregation. Bloggers link to links that link to other links. If you trace the trail all the way back to the "beginning", you might find that there's no source other than a blogger with a big mouth and a small opinion. But people aren't reading blogs for hard news. They're reading them because they bloggers do a good job of the next component...

* Filtration. There's SO much crap on the internet now -- as I said in my very first post to this blog, analysts estimte that 75,000+ blogs are started per day -- how can you know where to start? Well, that's a blogger's job, to weed out interesting facts, links and other tidbits that their readers might find worthwhile. Where do you find these blogs? Ask friends, go to Technorati.com, or blogebrity.com. Type in keywords (or what bloggers will call "tags"). You'll find something.

And finally, blogs involve themselves in...
* Giving a slant to news. You're reading my blog, presumably, because you care what I have to say about the things I choose to talk about. Of course, I'm not going to choose things that aren't interesting to me. There are more authoritative blogs for news and gossip, numerous blogs about New York news (like gawker.com" and gothamist.com), certainly more frequently updated blogs...this is just a little blog for me to write, and for you to read.

Blogs, he said, are ultimately about the Informed Reader, but much, much less about the Informed Writer. I think this is a really interesting and fundamental evolution in the way we are consuming information. Blogs are about choice -- choosing what to write, choosing what to read and bookmark, choosing who you link to, and who you leave out.

NYU Silver Center photo taken from http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/image/39315190.
Jeff Yang photo taken from www.en.utexas.edu.

SILLY: Duane Reade has a new boss!

Oh, I am so happy! Duane Reade, the famous New York pharmacy/convenience/things-you-NEED store, is actually acknowledging that it has a problem. Bad service, slow service, uninformed staff, low stock, no stock, you name it, it's happened to every one of us looking for what we need at Duane Reade. But the company's got a new CEO -- Richard Dreiling -- and, after taking over in November, he has resolved to fix all the service problems that plague the chain.

With 251 outlets in the city, DR is the ubiquitous first stop for city residents desperate for liquid hand soap, licorice, prescriptions...but no longer. And with the company already losing money, as Walmart and CVS Pharmacy slowly move in on its territory, Dreiling's cleaning up the Duane Reade act. Crain's New York reports that the CEO's first move is to streamline the employee corps: slicker uniforms of black slacks and blue shirts (versus the smocks of yore), and a limited number of piercings (hmm...); "[In my first] couple of weeks on the job, I couldn't even tell the customers from the employees," he said. Yeah, we couldn't, either.

The chain first opened on the downtown intersection of Duane and Reade Streets (duh) in 1960, but in the last few years has been losing a lot of money. (Click here for the company's financial profile.) I think this man and his plan will do it some good!

SERIOUS: Lego is not racist.

Martin, my Danish partner-in-crime, recently brought to my attention a controversy that's been set off by the U.N. (which controversy *isn't* these days?)...or rather, the U.N.'s design team. Can you find anything wrong with this, their poster for International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st)?



If your immediate answer is "no", don't worry, you're not alone. I wasn't sure what the problem was, either, and I'm pretty brushed up on my Danish pop culture trivia.

Basically, Danish citizens think this is a very clever, incredibly subtle insult to their country. Lego originated in Denmark, and along with a few other cultural icons -- Carlsberg, the Little Mermaid, Hamlet -- the company believes itself to be a very obvious symbol of the small country. In the wake of the Danish cartoon debacle, to use a quintessentially Danish emblem, the 3-dimensional Lego block, in a campaign to identify racism as a "different shape" from the 2-dimensional status quo, is to insult 5 million people with already sensitive skins.

Let's see. My opinion? The U.N. made a mistake. You'd think an organization would have "fact-checked" its props, especially for a widely published poster (multi-lingual, at that). It advertised a day that while largely uncelebrated (I mean, let's face it, shouldn't *every* day be International-Eliminate-Racism-Day?), is still publicized in the global community. SOMEone should have caught the Denmark-Lego connection, at least before the Danish did.

I do not think Lego is a racist company, though their concern with bad PR is understandable. Lego spokespeople made an interesting point, though; the U.N. has worked with Lego on refugee commission posters (pictured left)...why wouldn't they have informed the company in advance that they were printing more literature with the Lego mark on it?

I still find it difficult to believe that someone in the graphic art world was taking a cheap shot at the people of Denmark. What would be the point of putting salt in such an open wound? Danish goods are being boycotted, and its citizens no longer enjoy their peaceful status in the international cast of characters. I can't believe that even the most staunch Muslim supporters within the UN would approve such a public slap in the face. No matter, soon after the posters were released, they were taken down from the website after plenty of complaints, and you'll only find it on a number of blogs and small feature articles in obscure European newspapers now.

There wasn't a ton of press about this -- likely because not many immediately associate Lego with Denmark -- but I think you do have to sympathize, in a way: all of this, because of some EDITORIAL cartoons in a newspaper circulated to no more than 3 million people, in a country that has finally put itself on the world map for something it would much rather have kept under the radar.

A good deal of blogging took place about the topic [no surprise there], a few days ago...I'm a little late, as it turns out:

* In support of Legos in UN campaigns
* Outrage [from an American] at the suggestion that this wasn't a pointed attack at the Danes (to get to the right entry, search "Lego" within the webpage
* If you can read Danish, click here for Politiken's report on Lego's outrage. (Note: Politiken is *not* the newspaper that published the cartoons.)

English Poster graphic taken from politiken.dk.
Arabic poster graphic taken from michellemalkin.com.

pretty SILLY: Vaginas.

My freshman year in college, I was in a one-night only Valentine's Day production of "The Vagina Monologues" by Eve Ensler, directed by Caroline Messmer, '02. My piece was called, "Because He Liked To Look At It." I'm not sure why I thought of this today, but I remember feeling that the monologue had a certain relevance at that time in my life. Here is an excerpt:

"This is how I came to love my vagina. It’s embarrassing because it’s not politically correct. I mean I know it should have happened in a bath with salt grains from the Dead Sea, Enya playing, me loving my woman self. I know the story. Vaginas are beautiful. Our self-hatred is only the internalized repression and hatred of the patriarchal culture. It isn’t real. Pussies Unite. I know all of it. Like if we’d grown up in a culture where we were taught fat thighs were beautiful, we’d all be pounding down milkshakes and Krispy Kremes, lying on our backs, spending our days thigh-expanding..."

For the rest of this monologue, click here.

Since we're on the theme of, well, vaginas, I'll make mention of something else that seems relevant (you'd be surprised how much I have to say on this topic). A friend of mine recently graduated from Mama Gena's School of the Womanly Arts, best-described as a kind of group collaboration committed to helping empower the women who join, by, well, helping them to explore what makes them fundamentally different from men.

I attended my friend's fairly outrageous graduation from the school, feather boas and pink abound, where "Sister Goddess" graduates told inspirational "brags" -- from a woman who finally quit her awful admin job to another who overcame her fear of a body operated on -- and also performed stripteases, reverse stripteases and renditions of Aretha Franklin. It was incredible to see how uninhibited all the students were, and how easy it was, in a way, to pick out all the guests who'd come to support their friends. We squirmed in our seats, laughed nervously at first and then uproariously, and shook our heads with disbelieving grins stretched across our faces.

And of course, one of my roommates left with a pink boa.

SILLY: Cate Blanchett is not Asian. But this post is, mostly.

I think I'm starting to figure out how to plan a weekend:

One cultural event + one good party + one nice dinner = one Happy Girl

ONE CULTURAL EVENT:
My roommate Katherine purchased tickets for us to see a Saturday matinee of the Sydney Repertory's "Hedda Gabler" starring Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving (best known for his turn as Liv Tyler's Elf King dad in "Lord of the Rings"), and I enjoyed it very much. Despite some subway snafus, we managed to make it into Brooklyn to the BAM Harvey Theater, a beautiful old brick thing with peeling paint and asbestos hanging from the ceiling. Click here for Ben Brantley's gushy New York Times review of the sold-out play.

And here is Charles Isherwood's Critic's Notebook retort, in which he writes, "...I'm talking about actors who have, by the grace of their gifts and hard work and good fortune, achieved a level of fame that brings with it artistic clout. It seems to me that the public — or at least the critics — have a right to hold them accountable when they betray their talent. Note should be taken when they fail to show respect for the artistry that earned them their place in the sun, when they fail to practice their craft seriously..." yipe.

ONE GOOD PARTY (for my Asian friend):
My friend Anri's gotten engaged, and she's asked me to be her maid of honor. yow! She and her fiance, Dave, had an informal celebration with friends and folks at Alphabet Lounge this weekend. Eighties music, Anri in a green dress and the Williams rugby team all in one room -- ah yes, a good party indeed.

ONE NICE DINNER (at an Asian restaurant):
Katherine's parents are on this side of the pond from London, and took us to Jean-George's Chinese restaurant on Church Street, called, simply, "66". I was allergic to a lot of the menu -- damn sesame allergy -- but the place is quite good. I liked the pumpkin dumplings and all of the desserts. A handsome place, the interior was designed by Richard Meier and the uniforms by Vivienne Tam. very swish.

So, this is my ONE CULTURAL EVENT for this coming weekend (an Asian American Journalist's Association conference):
I've registered for the AAJA 2006 East Coast Journalism Mini-Conference which is being held at NYU all-day Saturday. Some of the panel topics are, "How Blogs are Changing Journalism" (right up my alley!) and "Multicultural Masthead: Why Diversity Matters in Magazines." I am looking forward to it. It's only $45 for the whole day, lunch included. Anyone interested in coming with?

Photo of Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.
Photo of Cate Blanchett, cover image from official BAM "Hedda Gabler" program.
Photo of 66 from arcspace.com.

SILLY: Tourism at Home -- VR Photography

I love to travel. But today I was shown something so unbelievable, so very LIKE the experience of "being there", that I wondered whether or not the internet was really bringing us together, or affording us the opportunity to travel without really ever leaving our seats. So, while I am referencing all of you to this website, I would like to just say that I hope you all go see the real things someday, too.

It's called Virtual Reality [VR] Photography (also known as "Immersive Photography"), and is described as an interactive panoramic image that can be viewed on your computer screen. You can actually pan around the entire image --360 degrees -- looking up at the sky, down at the ground, straight out into the faces of the frozen people, and it is absolutely WILD.

Of course, I'm probably the last one to find out about this. But here's one of my favorites, of a snowboarding competition being held in Taipei. (You will need Quicktime to view these images). Be sure to look at some of the other tourist and photojournalistic "Virtual Reality" photos.

If a picture's worth a thousand words, how many do you reckon we could get out of these?

SILLY: I am not a stereotype. SERIOUS: And Ronald Johnson.

I know this isn't politically correct, but I can get away with saying offensive things about Asians because:

(a) I *am* one,

and, if my friends would like to refute my right to perpetuate stereotypes by calling me, "the whitest Asian person they know," they can't anymore because:

(b) I've lived in Asia for 2 years. I traveled extensively there. I had real Chinese friends, and learned to read characters and speak Cantonese. So I wouldn't be making fun of the "other"; anything offensive is really self-mockery.

In that vein, I'd like to tack this on to the list of funny Chinglish stuff that I've collected over the years:


I wonder what scorn tastes like. For more of these sorts of dishes, check out this hilarious dissection of the entire menu , courtesy of spam from my boss.

And to the second subject of this post...

I wanted to mention that I went to the Poet's House last night for a tribute to an obscure poet called Ronald Johnson who I knew first as a cookbook author. You can see one of his poems at left.



Johnson was part of the "concrete poetry" movement, which created architecture and visual meaning out of letters and words. Lots of folks (including myself) might immediately associate his style with that of e.e. cummings, though I don't believe he was part of this movement.

Anyway, Johnson wrote a couple of "epic" poems: one of them was called "Ark" and another called "RADI OS", in which he took Milton's "Paradise Lost" and cut out entire chunks of text to make it his own. He even does it in the title, as you can see here:

PARADISE LOST
---RADI--- --OS--

Click here for more. This is the only sampling of Johnson's stuff that I could find online, since Johnson scholarship seems to be very rare. If you use the "next page" link you will be able to read several poems of his.

The lecture was awfully interesting and though pretentious at times -- big, mispronounced monosyllabic words being used by Ph.Ds -- much was discussed including Johnson's treatment of gender, a rare book of concrete poetry called "IO and the Ox-Eye Daisy" and a precursor to mixed media artwork: poems written in dialogue with bird recordings taped by Johnson on a tour of the Appalachian Trail.

very cool.

A Johnson obituary.
An interview with Johnson conducted by Peter O'Leary, a leading Johnson scholar.
The American Table, a gift from Eden Ross Lipson, and my introduction to Johnson. Will be cooking from this book over the weekend!

SILLY: Vegetarian for a Week

I've decided to go vegetarian for the week. It was an easy decision that developed organically (forgive the pun, sort of): I ate a detox-vegetarian meal at the home of my friend Eliza on Monday, and met another friend at a delicious vegan restaurant on the Upper East Side last night, and figured, hey, why not keep going.

Now, let it be known, usually I will never turn down a good steak or a crisp piece of bacon. (If you're interested in the process of makin' bacon, check out my friend Andy's hilarious bacon blog, Horowitz Pork Products.)

But this week, I thought I'd see if I *felt* any differently after not eating meat. Let it also be known that I'm not giving up eggs, though I recognize this as an aberration from being vegetarian. Here are some funny vegetarian facts:

Did you know that there was an American Vegetarian Party, under whose umbrella these two fellows each ran for President on 5 different occasions between the years of 1948 and 1964? Bet you didn't.




Did you know that all rhinos are vegetarians? (1) yup.

And, approximately 8% of Californians are vegetarians. (2) ...guess they're not rhinos.




Famous vegetarians that you knew about:

Paul and Linda McCartney
Alicia Silverstone
Lisa Simpson
David Duchovny
Ghandi


And ones that you perhaps didn't:

Leonard Nimoy
Joaquin Phoenix
Albert Einstein
Charles Darwin


Look like I'm in good company. Wish me luck!

SERIOUS: heat in the media, and How to Publish a Manuscript.

Happy foggy Monday from midtown Manhattan. I thought I'd update you a little bit on the interesting media news of the day:

This week, the min Exclusive! is "Best and Worst Selling Covers 0f 2005". Click on the image at left for a glimpse of what sold, and what did not.

At the beginning of each week, I receive this Media Industry Newsletter (min) at work. The jargon can be very esoteric and pretentious, but this week, it's accessible and interesting.
I only wish it was easier to see WHERE these magazines were sold, rather than HOW MANY of them. My suspicion is that they are consumed and read along the coasts, and in the south-South, all of which combine to make 'The Big Smile', as they sometimes call it during election time.

In other news, two intellectual magazines are having at it right now: in this corner, *Harper's Magazine* and in the opponent's corner, in blue, *The Nation*. *Harper's* is in big trouble for printing an article about clinical trials for HIV treatments in Africa, and forwarding a scientist's thesis that H.I.V. doesn't actually cause AIDS. The article's called, "Out of Control: AIDS and the Corruption of Medical Science," and has elicited rage from various groups, including *The Nation*, immunologists and scholars. Click here for the New York Times article explaining the intellectual mini-battle. If you liked the film, The Constant Gardener, the themes of the HIV/AIDS piece will resonate with you.

Today's clip from the HK Magazine archives is a more practical set of tips for any of you readers out there that might also be writers: How To Publish a Manuscript, located in blue on the bottom right-hand corner of the image to the right (click on image to enlarge). The 6 bullet points were solicited from an editorial director of Pan Macmillan publishing house, which has divisions all over the world.

CLIP: Writers' Groups and Picnics in Hong Kong

One of the hardest things about writing is admitting to other people that you do it. Or that you want to. When can you start calling yourself "a writer"? If your writing reaches more than just a handful of friends? If you've been published? If you keep a journal? And how has this definition changed now that people can "self-publish", for free, online, in the form of weblogs?

I attended a NYC Writers Literary Circle "meetup" group on Tuesday and found out that it's not as hard to confess your hopes and ask your questions in a group of people who are asking themselves the same things every day. So thanks to my little discussion group of playwriters, visual artists, art historians, editors, poets and fiction-heads.

Here's another little clip about places to picnic in Hong Kong. It was fun to write this because people don't spend enough time outdoors there. The buildings are so close together in some areas, while sprawling country parks and beaches are literally just a subway ride away. It may not be relevant for everyone [or anyone] reading this blog, but it's up here since this purports to be a portfolio of sorts. (Click on the image for a larger version of the article.)

CLIP: "Gay Sex Wins Booker"

This is an interview that I conducted with Alan Hollinghurst in April of last year for "G" Magazine, a gay interest publication put out by Asia City Publishing. After winning the Man Booker prize for Literature in 2004, Hollinghurst went on a book tour that included a stop at the Hong Kong Literary Festival last spring. I met him in his Causeway Bay hotel, where we talked about his book, *The Line of Beauty*, his love of music and Henry James, and how cocaine captured the 80s.

***
“Gay Sex wins Booker” was the Daily Express headline that ran last autumn (2004) when Alan Hollinghurst’s novel, The Line of Beauty, took Britain’s top literature prize. He talks to Jenn Yee about both the novel and life after winning the Booker.

HK: You’ve spoken about the “write what you know” mantra in the past. How much of your own experience has informed The Line of Beauty?

AH: Quite a lot. The impressionable young man coming to London with a sense of a whole new world opening up in front of him was very much my own experience and a lot of Nick’s [the protagonist] interests are mine. As with everything I write, there’s a lot of me spread around in it. It’s like having an argument with myself, I put bits of myself into different characters. At the same time, I certainly didn’t move in the circles described in the book in the 80s, thank god. In the end, I think the imagination is rather important when writing and I was always rather depressed by this idea that you should only write what you know.

HK: What is it that draws people to the book, as so many of the characters are not sympathetic, and hard to relate to in any way…

AH: Yes they are. Nick himself has been a sort of mystery to me, actually. He is a person who doesn’t behave very well on various occasions and I wanted to suggest that his aesthetic way of looking at the world has rewards and limitations, and does rather leads him astray. I don’t myself read books so as to identify with a character – I know this is the way some people do read fiction, they like to have someone they really like in it – but I was always more interested in the complexity of a character. I think I’ve always been interested in bad behavior - people not doing what they should - it’s much more fun to write about than good behavior.

HK: Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, or in your case, classical music…

AH: Sex, drugs and Richard Strauss…yes…

HK: How much did you consciously or subconsciously use this formula in your book?

AH: All four of my books have been quite essentially about gay sexual behavior, particularly the first one. It’s always been a central thread of them. Cocaine just seemed to me to be the right kind of drug as a metaphor for those years in the mid-80s, the acceleration and the excitement that comes with it. It’s rather a selfish drug. I never touched it myself in the 80s, but I was aware it was going on. It is difficult to write about people taking drugs interestingly, it’s like talking about people’s dreams, experiences that are fascinating to them, but everybody else gapes with boredom. I wanted to bring out in the book the monotony involved with cocaine as part of everything that starts to go wrong.

HK: And rock n’ roll…?

AH: I’ve always had a thing about music in the books. Perhaps I haven’t actually described music, but I’ve always been interested in what writing can do about music, since there is so much that’s not communicable in words. Nonetheless you can describe the sort of sensations that people have while they’re listening to music. I just wanted to show Nick in a realm of aesthetic sensation surrounded by people who were bored to death and longing for a drink, that he was someone who invested a lot of his values in things that mattered terribly to him and didn’t seem to matter to anybody else.

HK: Nick is obsessed with various things in the book, including music. Are you anything like him?

AH: I have been very obsessive about music at various times of my life. Secondary school was the beginning of a lifelong Wagner obsession. There were years when I was student, and it will seem rather crazy, really, but I just sort of lived in Wagner the whole time. It was a distorting feeling. You sometimes wish life would conform to a Wagner opera, which it almost always failed to do (which is just as well). He is obviously one of those incredibly powerful artistic inventors sort of akin at a much higher level to Tolkien, where you find an artist who creates a whole world and system in which you want to absorb yourself.

HK: You seem to have a fondness for very old things…buildings, music, authors. Who are your influences?

AH: Henry James has long meant a lot to me, and I’ve made it a little more explicit in this book. I do feel like I want to make an homage to a certain writer when I’m writing myself. In my second book, The Folding Star, which is about a man falling in love with a teenaged boy, I was conscious of it being two other things, one of which was Death in Venice and the other of which was Lolita. I am conscious at times of playing with literary situations. James is a useful figure to a novelist because he’s interested himself in the technique and structure of a novel. I saw various Jamesian challenges in this book: it’s written in the third person and everything is seen through consciousness of one character. It’s a very difficult way to write a book. A hundred years earlier he was writing about rather similar worlds of rich but unprincipled people, worlds into which idealistic, innocent, vulnerable, young people are on their own without knowing quite what they’re up against.

HK: How is it being a full-time writer?

AH: Almost ten years ago now, I “retired” from the Times Literary Supplement. And I took to retirement very well. I wasn’t depressed or anything, perhaps I was thrown back to my natural idleness. With writing, when I get going, I have quite an austere regime. I don’t see much of people, it’s an odd, monastic existence. I like to be able to concentrate continuously.

HK: So has the Booker affected your private life much?

AH: It has, actually. I seem to be rather more in demand. The question is how long it will last. Literary fame is quite a transitory thing. People recognize me for a little while, but it takes me such a long time to write a new book, that people forget what I look like.

HK: What’s the strangest question you’ve been asked at a book signing?

AH: Well, people can get sort of fresh, or they’ll press a brown envelope into your hand containing more information about them than one would care to know…but it’s generally a friendly experience. After the long-drawn out, solitary experience of writing, it’s nice to meet people who know your work.

SILLY: In Defense of the Oscars

For the record, I enjoyed the Oscar broadcast a TON. I thought Jon Stewart and his Daily Show-esque antics were hilarious, quick and smart, for once. I laughed loudly and frequently at a party in Philadelphia (thank you Claudia and Cyndi!). I even think 38.8 million viewers seems like a lot, even though all the newspapers say it isn't.

I thought it was funny that whenever the camera flashed to Jack Nicholson and Keira Knightley, it was clear that he got Stewart's jokes, and she didn't.

I thought that honoring Robert Altman was just peachy. Who didn't love MASH and Nashville? He was lovely when he compared his career to the filming of "one long movie" of which some people liked only some parts.


The only injustice -- and it was a big one -- was the voters' change of heart about Brokeback Mountain. This film stays with me, and I am only sorry that it didn't in the hearts and minds of the Academy. Those who know me well know that I saw the film twice, because I wanted to visit with young Ennis and Jack again during the beginning part of the film, when they are happy together for those few fleeting moments.

SERIOUS: Michael Wolf, award-winning photographer

This is an interview I conducted last March with Michael Wolf, a German-born, US-raised photographer of Hong Kong landscapes and objects. Wolf has some interesting ideas about Hong Kong's growth, the deterioration of its unique grimy, gritty aesthetic, and about China. Click here for his online portfolio.

"First Person" features are designed to really capture the voice of the interviewee, so it is not a question-and-answer in its traditional format. The piece is pictured as it appeared in the April 1, 2005 issue of HK Magazine. Click on the image to get a readable version.

I know I promised Alan Hollinghurst, but I've only got it in hard copy format, so I'll need to retype the interview, which was never published in its entirety. More to come!

SILLY: It's Oscar Night!

I'm using the Academy Awards, and the fact that I am away at what promises to be a fantastic South Philly Red Carpet Oscar Party, as an excuse not to post some of the clips I promised until tomorrow. The next post will consist of an interview with Alan Hollinghurst, last year's winner of the Man Booker Prize for Literature for his novel about gay life in Margaret Thatcher England [pictured at right].


Until then, let me just say, Brokeback Mountain, the film to watch.

Meet Me, In a Shoe

That's me, just a few days after the New Year, rarin' to go in my Dutch shoe.

I'm starting this blog as a way to get my writing in front of people, and myself.

In 2005, I completed a four-month, full-time internship with Asia City Publishing, where I wrote for HK Magazine and G Magazine, entertainments listings and gay interest publications, respectively. Click here to register with Asia City and download PDFs of HK Magazine and access some of my clips! (You will have to scroll through "Magazines" from 29 April 2005 and earlier.) I photographed the covers for the 15 April and 11 March [pictured on the right] issues.

I have also written a travel piece on rock climbing in the Krabi Region for Sawasdee Magazine (the in-flight magazine of Thai Airways), as well as bits and pieces for Time Out New York where I completed a high school internship, a long, long time ago, in a neighborhood far, far away [from midtown, where I presently find myself].

I hope to put up clips that I've published, interviews I've been lucky enough to write up, and the newest, slowest, most personal work that I've been slowly hammering out.

the drawing board

75,000 new weblogs are created every day, which means that on average, a new weblog is created EVERY second of the day. (Dave Sifry, "State of the Blogosphere, February 2006, Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth", AlwaysOn-network.com).

I figure I must fall somewhere around the halfway mark.