Union Herald

January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T16:10:00.005+08:00

Swapping apartments with my landlord either in February or March, as her son is or isn't rolling back into town and she'll need the bigger (my current) apartment. The other apartment is a-okay but a bit further south (read: I saw a donkey drawn cart when I saw the place) but loads cheaper and nearish enough to the subway to make it a good move.

So this means that I've started packing. I already have about 8-10 boxes ready to go. I haven't started the real packing; I've just put most of my books into boxes. When I came here 3 years ago, everything I owned fit into two suitcases. Now, I need at least two maybe three bookcases. As I don't read a lot of fiction, it's harder to pawn my books to the local ex-pat coffee shops, donating to the libraries here is a bureaucratic nightmare, and the used bookstores pay less than the going rate for paper for books.

But there are much worse problems to have.

January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T22:35:00.003+08:00

New Jack City (1991), Mario Van Peebles.
Boyz n the Hood (1991), John Singleton.

While watching these films on my day off the other day, I thought that it might have been fun to have been a Critical Theory/Film Studies professor in the early-to-mid 90s. I was trying to imagine the syllabus for a course called "New Jack Theory" that was something of an intro to theory and the mechanics of critical discourse.

Take the opening scene of New Jack City: A white man in a suit is being held over the rail of the Brooklyn Bridge by the henchman of Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes). The (Wall Street?) suit takes a header into the East River. If you screened Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) beforehand, you could discuss power dynamics, race representation, audience expectation, cultural production (and financing thereof), etc . . . .

December 19, 2011

2011-12-19T08:16:00.001+08:00

"You can change the frame but you can't change the content." -- Ai Weiwei

29 November 2011

2011-11-29T10:30:00.004+08:00

Happy to announce the arrival of SAGINAW no.1, featuring work by Erika Staiti, Geof Huth, Matthew Lusk, Chad Lietz, and K. Silem Mohammad.

If you're not on the SAGINAW mailing list and would like a copy, send an email with your postal address to unionherald@gmail.com.

November 19, 2011

2011-11-19T20:00:00.002+08:00

Eric Bentley, "Introduction", in Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Intro, 1952; Signet Classics, 1980).

"Above all, Six Characters was not experimental. No first-rate art is. Experiments belong to science: The scientist decides on a hypothesis and then tests it, knowing that many tests will fail, but that he might make a breakthrough someday. That is not how artists work, and the 'experimental forms' of, say Conrad or Faulkner are really quite unexperimental: They evolved from the authors' original sense of narrative. And so, while Six Characters was something that came to his mind quickly, as in a vision, Pirandello had been working toward it for years . . . (ix).

November 13, 2011

2011-11-13T00:13:00.002+08:00

Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (1937; repr. Dover, 2004)

This week's subway read resonates all over the place: with what's happening in Beijing, what's happening in Oakland (America in general), and the failure of the Eurozone. A lot of Trotsky's animus comes from bureaucratic mismanagement and the cooking of the books that is necessitated by said mismanagement. Sure, he had Stalin in his sights, but it doesn't take much to use his rubrics, extrapolate a smidge, and analyze current situations.

October 28, 2011

2011-10-28T02:08:00.002+08:00

I'm thinking about Baudelaire and drink. I'm thinking about Jim Carroll and junk. I'm thinking about Tristan Tzara and WWI.

Why are you a poet?

October 26, 2011

2011-10-26T01:10:00.002+08:00

The problem with most living rooms is that they have a TV in them.

October 13, 2011

2011-10-13T09:50:00.004+08:00

Finally made my way to the National Library of China. Spent the better part of a day in a leather arm chair overlooking the rest of the library reading from their foreign journals section.

October 13, 2011

2011-10-13T09:42:00.005+08:00

A current events quiz by the Pew Foundation.

October 6, 2011

2011-10-06T01:56:00.001+08:00

"You think your country needs you,
but you know it never will."

-- Elvis Costello "Pills and Soap"

September 17, 2011

2011-09-17T20:06:00.003+08:00

The y means Detroit has clinched the division.

September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T20:32:00.004+08:00

Went to the Beijing Guoan soccer match against Liaoning last night at Worker's Stadium with Santiago and his friends. A tie, nil all.

First stadium I've been to where (1) soldiers sat guard looking directly at the spectators, as if daring them to try any monkey business, and (2) no beer to be had whatsoever, anywhere.

Beijing fans are filthy mouthed. It was awesome. When the opposition changes a player, the whole stadium sings:

shabi huan shabi
yue huan yue
shabi

[loosely]
Stupid fuck changed for stupid fuck
the more [they] change the more
stupid fucks

And this is Beijing soccer poetry, embraced by the Beijing green shirt wearing masses.

August 20, 2011

2011-08-20T00:14:00.004+08:00

This year, I decided to do Fantasy Football. It seems a smidge less engaging than Fantasy Baseball, as baseball is on the daily. But as this is my first attempt at a football team, we'll see how it goes.

Already, the Chaoyang Lions have traded for Oakland's Janikowski as a kicker, more out of "I like that guy" than "Christ, he's 497 years old."

I also traded for the Detroit Lions defense. Call me a sentimentalist, or a sucker.

August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T23:38:00.003+08:00

From the AP: "In this photo provided by Zhaohui Tang, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, who is the first Chinese-American ambassador to China, orders coffee at Seattle Tacoma International Airport on Aug. 12, 2011. Zhaohui Tang, a businessman who snapped a photo of Locke carrying his own backpack and ordering his own coffee at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport says he’s surprised by the big, admiring response the picture generated among Chinese citizens not used to such frugality."

August 8, 2011

2011-08-08T23:19:00.005+08:00

I dreamt that I was having a drink with Bob Geldof at the Japanese whiskey bar above the Chaoyang Theater. The Chinese acrobats came in, in costume, midway through a conversation that seemed very vague and simultaneously deep--Bob was trying to get through to me about something but I was apparently being thick. I went to the men's room. Gordie Howe was using the urinal next to mine dressed in full retro Red Wings uniform and skates. I said hi and he hit me. [then I woke up and put this in my dream journal]

August 7, 2011

2011-08-07T01:27:00.007+08:00

After a rewatch of The Wire, I thought I'd go further back into cop soap opera history, decided to rewatch the first season of Hill Street Blues (1981-87). Season 1 got 21 Emmy nods and took home 8. Renko, the cracker with a southern drawl (but apparently from New Jersey?) was shot and in a coma in the first episode. This was a ground-breaking cop show that took us inside the precinct and inside the politics. In any TV history timeline, it's a necessary forefather to Homicide (also dated now) and The Wire. Some good acting and writing. A lot of crap writing and acting (especially Faye , the captain's ex-wife [on both accounts]).

Hey, and let's be careful out there.

August 6, 2011

2011-08-06T00:45:00.002+08:00

Cyrus Console, Brief Under Water (Burning Deck, 2008).

Terse. Tense. Vigorous writing.

I have a feeling that Cyrus was appropriating Nirvana rather than Leadbelly on page 50: "Don't you lie to me. Tell me where did you sleep last night."

Notwithstanding, very tight.

August 4, 2011

2011-08-04T00:02:00.001+08:00

My workmate Petros was going around quoting snippets from the great Ali canon. This one stuck with me:

Last night I had a dream, When I got to Africa,
I had one hell of a rumble.
I had to beat Tarzan’s behind first,
For claiming to be King of the Jungle.
For this fight, I’ve wrestled with alligators,
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And throw thunder in jail.
You know I’m bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.
I’m so fast, man,
I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet.
When George Foreman meets me,
He’ll pay his debt.
I can drown the drink of water, and kill a dead tree.
Wait till you see Muhammad Ali.

August 3, 2011

2011-08-03T22:34:00.004+08:00

Ai Weiwei back on the internet

August 2, 2011

2011-08-02T00:07:00.007+08:00

So in the Fantastic Four, no. 4 (Marvel, 1961) the Submariner gets reintroduced after a long hiatus from the Marvel Universe by winding up an amnesiac Bowery bum in a flophouse. After a shave and a haircut (given by the Human Torch), the Submariner is pissed to see his old underwater domain destroyed by atomic bomb testing. He vows revenge against all humans. An anti-hero is born. Invisible Girl reluctantly agrees to marry him in exchange for not killing all of humanity, but her reluctance angers him more. A Human Torch tornado factors in, and we are all saved . . . for now.

July 24, 2011

2011-07-24T01:09:00.003+08:00

1. Just got back from Beidaihe. A two-day excursion with street seafood, night markets, swimming in the breaking waves of the Bohai Sea, sleeping in a tent on the beach, and a sunburn (to the confusion of WZ whose darker complexion has never burned).
2. Reading Herbert Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man (Beacon Press, 1964), strange beach reading maybe.
3. As much as I've done it here in China, traveling by train is still such a cool experience for me, even if you're looking at villages, nondescript cities, and cornfields for most of the trip.
4. Started reading classic comic books on my phone, like Journey into Mystery #83 (the intro of Thor) and Tales of Suspense #39 (the intro of Iron Man, created by Tony Stark whilst in Vietnam). It's geeky, but these were some of the comics I coveted but could never even see as a kid, in much the same way that I've always wanted Duchamp's Rongwrong in my zine collection.

July 18, 2011

2011-07-18T10:55:00.005+08:00

George Orwell, Why I Write (Penguin, 1984).

Orwell posits that there are four simultaneous reasons why someone is given to writing: 1) sheer egotism, 2) aesthetic enthusiasm, 3) historical impulse, and 4) political purpose (pp. 4-5).

I had fun trying how my motivations fall into this rubric.

July 5, 2011

2011-07-05T08:59:00.004+08:00

Everything is super fantastic! It's like Tintin and his high adventures.

July 4, 2011

2011-07-04T23:06:00.002+08:00

1. Rereading Verlaine and Éluard. Capital of Pain indeed.
2. A man with 30 plus button down shirts probly didn't need to buy another 6 this morning at the Zoo Market.
3. Boethius as subway read.
4. Koko Taylor, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, and Lightnin' Hopkins on heavy rotation at the Horton house.
5. X Minus One.

June 21, 2011

2011-06-22T02:20:00.003+08:00

1. Read Haruki's South of the Border, East of the Sun on the plane. It made me feel middle-aged.
2. In Phoenix to see the family.
3. Watched the Diamondbacks and White Sox with my dad on Father's Day.
4. Bought a Detroit Tigers cap to replace the one I gave Ste in Beijing.
5. Getting the guitar my parents gave me on my 13th birthday back today with new awesome travel case.
6. In the market for a bolo tie. Figure that Phoenix might be a good place to find one.

June 8, 2011

2011-06-08T23:42:00.003+08:00

I've been listening to a lot of radio dramas lately, mainly Golden Age, but some more modern -- it's one of the things I do to combat insomnia. This seems to me to be a really neglected art form. "The Shadow" and the like were utter kak, but Mamet's "The Water Engine", for example, shows that the form has potential.

Dragon Boat Day, 2011

2011-06-06T08:18:00.004+08:00

Dreams about dead fish in a bucket.
Dreams about a Scooby-Doo mansion.
Dreams about a murder most complicated.
Dreams about trains.
Dreams about a long table and many guests, no feast.
Dreams about walking around the neighborhood.
Dreams where I speak fluent Mandarin.
Dreams where I speak rusty French.
Dreams where I play hockey and wear a size 8 skate.
Dreams of arson.
Dreams of where I am involved in some international scandal and am unaware of my role.
Dreams that would make good radio plays.
Dreams that are more sonic than visual.
Dreams about villages and tundra.
Dreams about past and futures times.
Dreams about two-legged dogs.
Dreams about mahjong.
Dreams about everything being alright.

May 30, 2011

2011-05-30T23:14:00.003+08:00

Sometimes to make progress, you have to start over again.

May 25, 2011

2011-05-25T23:34:00.004+08:00

Paul Gellman qtd. in Chris Krause, Where Art Belongs (Semiotext[e], 2011), 36.

"Being a good collage/assemblage artist requires being a good scavenger. As you walk down the filthy streets outside your hovel you are probably feeling depressed because for one you live in a hovel, or you are affecting an air of the disaffected, or you are experiencing a fall out from some drug you've been binging on for the past weekend, week, month ... Use your downward gaze as an opportunity to see the beautiful detritus that our polluted city offers ... Begin to see recurring themes, colors, shapes in the pieces of trash your eye is drawn to. If you are attracted to something, it is because in some way it represents you and the more you learn about yourself the more freedom you have from said hovel."
_______
And she shows you where to look
among the garbage and the flowers
--Leonard Cohen

May 25, 2011

2011-05-25T00:02:00.005+08:00

Started reading Chris Kraus', Where Art Belongs (Semiotext[e], 2011) on the train to work today and was thinking that what she did to document the importance of the Tiny Creatures gallery in LA (9-43) really needs to be done for 21 Grand in Oakland.

May 18, 2011

2011-05-18T22:24:00.008+08:00

"I will win this battle if I have to kill every last white bitch in high heels around here."

Roseanne Barr spins a very interesting tale of sexism and classism about the making of her show, and how nada has changed since.

At the time of its peak, I didn't recognize the importance of Roseanne. Being working class, I've never thought about it. You see a family similar to you on TV, and why not, that's your life?

But for the life of me tonight, I can't think of any other mainstream prime time American TV show EVER that deals/dealt with the working class (unless you count crime shows, which I don't).

Being in China, there may be new shows that champion the working class, the hardest hit in the financial downturn. If these shows exist, lemme know.
___
(Amy King on Facebook clued me in to the Barr interview)

May 15, 2011

2011-05-15T22:00:00.003+08:00

In case you didn't see it on the Harriet blog, the Fluxus Reader is now a free pdf.

May 14, 2011

2011-05-14T23:56:00.003+08:00

For the first time in my three seasons of fantasy baseball, my team not only has cracked the top five, but has also somehow managed to take the top position. It's dubious how long Chaoyang Tigers can hold on to this, but it's nice to have seen these heady heights.

May 11, 2011

2011-05-12T15:37:00.002+08:00

Where Chinese women float in space: The mural at Jianguomen subway station in Beijing.

May 12, 2011

2011-05-12T15:15:00.000+08:00

Picked up my SPD package from the post office annex this morning. I am reading-material wealthy for the near future.

Alan Bernheimer, The Spoonlight Institute (Adventures in Poetry, 2009)
Julian T. Brolaski, Gowanus Atropolis (Ugly Duckling, 2011)
MacGregor Card, Duties of an English Foreign Secretary (Fence, 2009)
John Clarke, From Feathers to Iron (Tombouctou/Convivio, 1987)
Norma Cole, To Be at Music: Essays & Talks (Omnidawn, 2010)
Sandra Doller, Chora (Ahsahta, 2010)
Noah Eli Gordon, The Source (Futurepoem, 2011)
Fanny Howe, Tis of Thee (CD)
David Lespiau, Four Cut-Ups: or the Case of the Restored Volume (Burning Deck, 2006)
Rachel Levitsky, Neighbor (Ugly Duckling, 2009)
Charles Olson, The Principle of Measure in Composition by Field: Projective Verse II (Chax, 2010)
Sina Queyras, Unleashed (BookThug, 2009)
Joan Retallack, Procedural Elegies: Western Civ Cont'd (Roof, 2010)
Peter Richards, Helsinki (Action, 2011)
William Corbett, Albert York (Pressed Wafer, 2010)

May 9, 2011

2011-05-09T22:53:00.004+08:00

I'm waiting for a girl.

I'm waiting for a night train that'll roll in around 7 am.

I'm waiting for a turn in the tide.

I'm waiting for myself to get everything together.

I'm waiting for any form of contact from Mr. King.

I'm waiting for Mr. Lusk to finish the project and turn the deal.

I'm waiting for someone to be nice to me on the streets of Beijing for no good reason.

I'm waiting for the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series.

May 7, 2011

2011-05-07T10:02:00.002+08:00

The $25 computer

May 5, 2011

2011-05-05T11:33:00.001+08:00

Horse carts in West Beijing

May 3, 2011

2011-05-03T06:30:00.000+08:00

Victor Segalen, Essay on Exoticism: An Aesthetics of Diversity, trans. Tael Rachel Schlick (Duke, 2002).

"Clear the field first of all. Throw overboard everything misused or rancid contained in the word exoticism. Strip it of all its cheap finery: palm tree and camel; tropical helmet; black skins and yellow sun; and, at the same time, get rid of all those who used it with an inane loquaciousness [. . . .]

Then, strip the word exoticism of exclusively tropical, exclusively geographical meaning. Exoticism does not only exist in space, but is equally dependent on time.

From there, move rapidly to the task of defining and laying out the sensation of Exoticism, which is nothing other than the notion of difference, the perception of Diversity, the knowledge that something is other than one's self; and Exoticism's power is nothing other than the ability to conceive otherwise" (18-9).

May 2, 2011

2011-05-02T08:21:00.004+08:00

Su Xiaobai, Great Square

Spent yesterday at Art Beijing. Some notables were Su Xiaobai, who was represented by 3 galleries, the most extensive exhibit being at Tina Keng. I also liked Wang Hauiqing's "Curve and Straight" at Shanghai Hosan Auction.

Wang Huaiqing, Curve and Straight (1998)

I kept thinking that the art fair as format amounts to little more than an anthology for those not actively engaged in the commerce.

April 25, 2011

2011-04-25T10:36:00.001+08:00

April 23, 2011

2011-04-23T12:04:00.000+08:00

Check what the folks at ERG have been doing.

April 22, 2011

2011-04-22T06:43:00.000+08:00

Drinking tea at dawn at Peter Cornford's place trying to make plans for the day.

April 19, 2011

2011-04-19T22:46:00.009+08:00

I've been thinking about distance.

I've been thinking about Ed Hirsch's "My Pace Provokes My Thoughts".

I've been thinking about Baudelaire and Matt Lusk.

I've been thinking about a life in Inner Mongolia.

I've been thinking about my time in New York.

I've been thinking about baseball.

I've been thinking about the time I broke the windshield to my '67 Bug in Ferndale, Michigan after seeing the Talking Heads' movie in an art house theater.

I've been thinking about buying property.

I've been thinking about the US Embassy's hourly air quality reports.

I've been thinking about the future of mass transportation.

I've been thinking about better ways to manage a queue.

I've been thinking about the best burrito truck in Oakland.

I've been thinking about Latin and Esperanto.

I've been thinking about the Big Bang Theory.

I've been thinking about the shitty ending to the Romance of Tristan.

I've been thinking about Fidel Castro.

I've been thinking about Frasier v. Ali.

I've been thinking about Thaddeus Lowe aerograms and Ben Franklin half dollars.

I've been thinking about my mother.

I've been thinking about Ai Weiwei.

I've been thinking about the terrible quality of pens in the shops near my neighborhood.

I've been thinking about Sydney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe.

I've been thinking about Mao reading Lu Xun.

I've been thinking about basic mathematics.

I've been thinking about the many parameters placed upon me as complex Venn diagrams to circumvent or negotiate.

April 19, 2011

2011-04-19T08:57:00.003+08:00

Found a way back to the internet. More later.

April 10, 2011

2011-04-10T23:22:00.002+08:00

Brief notes from my trip to Inner Mongolia:

1. Reread The Romance of Tristan.
2. Glad I can watch baseball on my i-Phone. I'm catching at least 2 games a day.
3. Read seriously Jacob Saenz's "Evolution of My Block". Reminded me much of growing up in Detroit.
4. Read seriously Vachel Lindsay, "The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly".
5. Han Shan, the restaurant with the best Mongolian milk tea and beef jerky.

March 24, 2011

2011-03-24T20:06:00.002+08:00

Spent a fair chunk of the day doing what amounts to math/logic puzzles to meet the last requirement for me to be considered for management in my company. Luckily, I enjoy the mess out of a good math/logic puzzle. Had just come back from the sauna, Charles Mingus playing quietly in the background, and New Orleans coffee flowing all afternoon. I've had worse afternoons in Beijing.

March 17, 2011

2011-03-17T13:48:00.001+08:00

The man who brought rock to China.

March 17, 2011

2011-03-17T12:49:00.004+08:00

Sonic Youth & Yoko Ono are playing in NYC on March 27th to raise money for Japan.

March 16, 2011

2011-03-16T23:29:00.006+08:00

In China, instead of Facebook, Twitter, and the other tools we use to social network, they have their (gov't allowed and monitored) homegrown QQ and Renren, both more or less direct rip-offs of US social network sites/technologies. Above is my sorry QQ farm, where "friends" can steal my kid animals for more points, and I, in turn, do the same. I also have a garden where the same stealing from friends is a sideways way of keeping in touch. Kultur with a very miniscule k.

Ides of March, 2011

2011-03-16T00:50:00.002+08:00

While my last two seasons were "rebuilding" years, I think the Chaoyang Tigers look okay this year for competition:

Hitters
C-Martinez (Tigers)
1-Loney (Dodgers)
2- Pedroia (Red Sox)
SS- Ramirez (Marlins)
3- Sandoval (Giants)
OF- Rios (White Sox)
OF- Ellsbury (Red Sox)
OF- Morgan (Nationals), for the steals
DH-Reyes (Mets [SS])
DH- Pierre (White Sox), for the steals
Bench- Beltran (Mets)
Bench- Rollins (Phillies)
Bench- Brignac (Devil Rays)
Bench- Fowler (Rockies)

Pitchers
S- Verlander (Tigers)
S-Morrow (Maple Leafs)
RP- Bell (Padres)
RP- Rodriguez (Mets)
P- Franklin (Cardinals)
P- Aardsma (Mariners)
P- Lewis (Rangers)
P- Wilson (Rangers)
Bench- Floyd (White Sox)

March 11, 2011

2011-03-11T23:13:00.002+08:00

Rereading Beroul's The Romance of Tristan , this time trans. Alan S. Fedrick (Penguin, 1970). Would've preferred the original text, but I'll take what I can get.

March 9, 2011

2011-03-08T23:58:00.002+08:00

Trying to remember the artist (most likely German) who photographed a large board within a church that read: "Ich habe angst."
___
Thanks to Greg Roehl.

March 7, 2011

2011-03-07T08:21:00.002+08:00

Reading Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks (International Publishers, 1971; repr. 2010) and wondering about the future of labor in America.

February 28, 2011

2011-03-01T00:01:00.003+08:00

Detroit 187

When I asked my still-in-the-Detroit-area friend whether or not to watch this show, she simply said, "Detroiters aren't that pretty," and she's right. The cops I knew growing up in the 313 were much plainer, dumpier, not made for TV, think "Hill Street Blues".

That said, I do like the pro-Detroit spin that the writers (some of whom are obviously not from Detroit--for example, Grand Rapids to Detroit is a 3.5-4 hour trip, not a 2 hour trip, if you are speeding: this timeline was central to a rich wife having killed her husband. If it were a New York cop show, they wouldn't have been so sloppy.)

The shots the cameras are getting from the city exist, both good and bad.

I'm watching it because I can see my hometown from Beijing. I'm glad the producers and writers went the middle road with how they present the city.

February 25, 2011

2011-02-25T21:27:00.013+08:00

1. Sent WZ off at the Beijing North Train Station. Dismal place, but next to some very interesting architecture, both ancient and modern. I like these bubble buildings (above) just behind the train station at Xizhimen. Beijing has no problem with mixing architectural styles. It's a nice visual metaphor for Beijing itself: an ancient, yet very modern city. How long it will keep this balance beyond the confines of the Forbidden City and its near vicinity is in question, but for now the eye wanders and is at times perplexed in a way that can't happen in Chicago, for example.

2. Have rediscovered Coca-Cola as a beverage option. The only things weirder to drink in my experience are Dr. Pepper, root beer, baijiu (Chinese rice liquor), and butter milk (which my mom likes and apparently grew up on). And yet, here I am drinking a Coke.

3. In China, there is no NFL coverage outside of the Superbowl. So, I'm now watching the Detroit Lions 2010 season with no known outcomes--it's fresh to me, although I have heavy suspicions, as any Detroit fan (that's a strong word, life-long follower?) might. Thought it would be best if I watched their whole season in the space of a week to cut down on the frustration. That tactic isn't exactly working. Currently watching the Jets at Detroit, halftime score Detroit 7-Jets 10.

4. Which is to say, I've read a fair few books of poetry lately and have been mighty disappointed. Reading poetry is sometimes like being a Lions fan: the talent is there, the plays are there, as a fan in the stands you can see what they are going after, but the execution . . . .

February 17, 2011

2011-02-17T11:48:00.003+08:00

Happy Lantern Festival.

It's the 15th day on the Chinese lunar calendar. You're meant to eat glutenous rice to (if I remember the story right from Lu Xun) somehow trick the messenger to the gods (like Mercury) to keep his mouth quiet about your goings-on. Once a year, Latern Day, he comes round and then reports, or something. If his mouth is full of sticky rice, then he can't say anything, and that seems the best thing for everyone.

In Nanjing, folks gather around the Confucian Temple by the hundreds, everyone with a red lantern lit with a candle. It's truly something to see. Beijing doesn't seem to have anything like that.

February 14, 2011

2011-02-15T00:05:00.003+08:00

I'm glad I'm not a nature poet, because Beijing would have been the absolute worst place to wind up. That said, I am digging the recent snowfalls (both of them) we've had in the last week.

February 8, 2011

2011-02-08T07:44:00.001+08:00

My review of Qiu and Ren Hang's "Inner Ear" show is up now at Artslant.

February 7, 2011

2011-02-07T01:39:00.004+08:00

1. Dan Murphy did a real good job of giving us Hai Zi (海子) in English with Over Autumn Rooftops (Host, 2010). Active in Beijing in the 80s until his suicide at age 25, Hai Zi wrote a lot about wheat, standing in for everything from homesickness to lust. Fluid translation, and an important work for anyone interested in contemporary Chinese poetry and poetics.

2. My company is somehow saying that a bill for my time in hospital isn't enough to excuse me for the days I had off. I have to go back and ask the doctor to write me a doctor's note.

3. I've been reading Popular Science. The near future could really be much better.

4. I've lost all contact with Eric King, an artist I knew in Oakland. I hope to remedy that.

February 6, 2011

2011-02-06T21:47:00.003+08:00

I'm taking Tiger Mountain by slowly walking up it.

February 2, 2011

2011-02-02T00:49:00.001+08:00

新年快乐, Yep, Happy Chinese New Year.

January 28, 2011

2011-01-28T11:27:00.001+08:00

Nabokov, the butterfly expert.

January 25, 2011

2011-01-25T08:12:00.003+08:00

Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Money Jungle (1962).

Getting ready for my first day back to work with some coffee, some small oranges, and Ellington's Money Jungle. "Fleurette Africaine" is especially amazing.

January 23, 2011

2011-01-23T08:11:00.004+08:00

Picked up a few things from the Xidan bookstore the other day. They're all books I've read before but haven't read in a while:

Beowulf, trans. Michael Alexander (Penguin Epics, 2006)
Hergé, The Black Island (Little, Brown, 1966)
Albert Camus, The Outsider, trans. Joseph Laredo (Penguin Classics, 2000)
Thomas Mallory, Le Morte D'Arthur (Norton Critical, 2004)
Jean Toomer, Cane (1923; repr. Norton Critical, 1988)

January 22, 2011

2011-01-22T07:09:00.003+08:00

January 21, 2011

2011-01-21T14:41:00.006+08:00

Michel Gondry, The Green Hornet (2011).

The fight between Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) and Kato (Jay Chou, 周杰伦) plays out like an op-ed for the New York Times this week discussing the balance of power between China and America, with China having all of the obvious advantages, but also with the colonialist fantasy that somehow America (ie, Reid) has the "real" unforeseen upper hand: here Kato, therefore China, can't swim, thus ending the struggle as Reid throws Kato an inflatable toy lobster to save him from drowning.

January 20, 2011

2011-01-20T17:47:00.011+08:00

It's not every day you say, "Yeah, it's sarcoidosis!" But given that the other possible diagnoses for my inflammed chest lymph nodes were TB and cancer, I'll take what I can get at the moment.

Bronchoscopy is Hell on Earth for about 40 minutes. My doctors apparently skipped the give-the-patient-a-sedative step. But otherwise, things went as smoothly as could be, and as the big C was eliminated (TB had already been eliminated from a simple skin test days earlier), I'd say it was worth time standing still while I actually felt the insides of my lungs in a sort of inside-out sort of way.

I have nothing but praise for the doctors in the Respiratory Ward at Chaoyang Hospital.

I also have no qualms with the fact that 1 week in the hospital, a bronchoscopy, a biopsy, CT scans, X-rays, and numerous consultations with various doctors in various departments ran the ginormous sum of 7100 元. That's about $1078 US for the whole kit-and-kaboodle.

In contrast, the average hospital stay in Canada in 2008 cost about $7000 Canadian ($7016 US or 46,312元). I couldn't find an average for America, but plan to watch Roger Moore's Sicko in the very near future.
____
PS. I've watched Sicko, and every American with health care should watch this movie. (Jan. 23, 2011)

January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T11:22:00.003+08:00

Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text, trans. Richard Miller (Hill and Wang, 1975).

"It can't be helped: boredom is not simple. We do not escape boredom (with a work, a text) with a gesture of impatience or rejection. Just as pleasure of the text supposes a whole indirect production, so boredom cannot presume it is entitled to any spontaneity: there is no sincere boredom: if the prattle-text bores me personally, it is because in reality I do not like the demand. But what if I did like it (if I had some maternal appetite)? Boredom is not far from bliss: it is bliss seen from the shores of pleasure (25-6)."

January 16, 2011

2011-01-16T08:31:00.007+08:00

Banksy, Enter Through the Gift Shop (2010).

The "authenticity" of this Banksy documentary seems to be in doubt, but even if it's a hoax, it documents a few of the major players in the street art-to-gallery darling evolution that came about in the last decade. Whether or not Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) is "authentic" doesn't seem to matter much, as he is still putting on shows and selling on the market.

If Banksy, Shepard Fairey, et alia really felt MBW somehow hadn't "played by the rules", then making a full-length doco to give Guetta even more brand awareness and subversive outsider credibility would seem like the worst move possible. However, Banksy making a doco that asks just what "credible, authentic" art is, well that just seems right in keeping with his body of work.

January 11, 2011

2011-01-11T22:34:00.003+08:00

"Is it that your dream is unattainable, or is it that you have the wrong dream?"

--Joaquin Phoenix, I'm Still Here (2010)

January 6, 2011

2011-01-06T18:03:00.003+08:00

1. "Poetry is the Great Memory, every word a live metaphor." (Ferlinghetti, Poetry as Insurgent Art, 36).

2. As my Latin and Hebrew are getting rusty, I've just re-purchased both the Hebrew Bible (in Hebrew, obviously) and the Vulgate Bible.

3. Re-reading Leaves of Grass.

4. WZ is back in Beijing. Tonight we are going to a Ukrainian restaurant that hires former Soviet Army performers to sing old Soviet songs, usually accompanied by an accordion. The Chinese old-timers know these songs from their youth and sing along. It's actually quite special and nostalgic.

December 31, 2010

2010-12-31T20:31:00.003+08:00

The most atrocious thing I've read this year goes hands down to The Ladies' Monthly. The comments just extend the atrociousness.

December 21, 2010

2010-12-21T22:48:00.002+08:00

Rereading Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal . It's been a while, but Les Fleurs holds that special position for me of being one of the first books of poetry that actually resonated or did anything for me. I first read it while an exchange student at the Lycée de Fumel in France. Everytime I go back to it, it opens up something new for me.

December 16, 2010

2010-12-16T00:15:00.004+08:00

Hideki Matsui is coming to the A's.

He's another in the long list of past their prime sluggers to wear the Athletics jersey: think Mike Piazza or Frank Thomas. A single veteran with some (declining) stats isn't enough to build a team around, especially on a one-year contract.

How many rebuilding years can Oakland stand?

December 14, 2010

2010-12-14T09:51:00.004+08:00

Nicolas Bourriaud, The Radicant (Lukas & Sternberg, 2009).

The three sections of this book are informed by Bourriaud's reading of three figures: Victor Segalen, Marcel Duchamp and Louis Althusser. Bourriaud critiques the post-modernist period for falling into an identity politics that played more to tokenism and marginalization than creating a system for inclusion and evaluation. His answer draws on the plant world: artists need to root (even if temporarily) in other cultures and translate the new culture into their modus operandi. That he thinks cultural translation is a new idea is odd considering his in depth discussion of Modernism's problems (Pound, for one thought we could draw on just more than European traditions). He even points to Duchamp in New York as an example of the "semionaut" artist he is championing.

December 3, 2010

2010-12-03T21:05:00.002+08:00

1. Had a good Chengdu plan, but that got back-burnered and switched to a week in sleepy-sleeps Inner Mongolia, where I plan to actually sleep (been insomniacking lately) and to have a solid chunk of time to focus on writing.

Bringing:
Abraham Smith, Hank (Action Books, 2010)
Sawako Nakayasu, hurry home honey (Burning Deck, 2009)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Coney Island
&
Uncle Walt's, Leaves of Grass

2. Recently, relistening to a lot of bands like Husker Du, Fugazi, Neutral Milk Hotel, and their ilk.

3. My US credit card has decided that, even though I live in China and they send my invoices to Beijing, the fact that I tried to use my card in China is suspect. They denied my attempt to use the card and sent the transaction to the fraud department. This has been nothing but a headache.

November 20, 2010

2010-11-20T15:28:00.004+08:00

When you do things like hang out with your Scouse friends the night before your flight the next morning, you end up doing stupid shit, like forgetting your passport in the 30 minutes you left yourself to pack, and no, a US driver's license and a Beijing residency permit will not get you past the check-in counter at Beijing International.

The attempt was valiant, but doomed.

Amazingly though, after realizing the futility of the situation, I simply went to the Air China service desk and said (in Mandarin), "I forgot my passport at home." Without blinking, the agent asked if I could fly out the next day, which I could, and that was that.

No hassles, no money exchanged, just good service.

I don't really see that happening at LAX or JFK, or Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle, for that matter.

Flight in China, it seems from the dozen or so times I've flown domestically in country, is still about a happy customer. And I have no complaints thus far.

November 16, 2010

2010-11-16T10:03:00.002+08:00

1. Been busy doing some freelance editing for some Beijing-based art critics.
2. Starting to write art criticism after a brief hiatus.
3. Going to play snooker with my Center Director on Wednesday night. Should be fun.
4. Flying into Inner Mongolia on Thursday for a couple of days of much needed get out of Beijingness.

November 12, 2010

2010-11-12T12:12:00.001+08:00

Beijing's city central government has turned the heat on. It's glorious.

November 12, 2010

2010-11-12T08:49:00.001+08:00

I'm happy this morning at the rumors that the A's have acquired the rights to Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma.

November 10, 2010

2010-11-11T01:13:00.003+08:00

Things have picked up since the shit-hammer week of last post.

Thanks for the comments.

More later.

Mr. Hill,

My reply to your missive is on my washing machine. It'll hit the post tomorrow at some point.

November 3, 2010

2010-11-04T01:11:00.007+08:00

Since my last post, I've:

1. Watched my Chinese friend get pummeled by a group of Beijing Xenophobes. My friend ended up in the hospital with 8 stitches for the broken bottle he took across his neck. My friend was apparently defending us (the foreigners) when the racists went crazy on him. I tried to do something but was violently restrained. I ran to the police station not far from the altercation. The police passed out cigarettes and worked out a 2000 元 ($293) deal to keep the main instigator out of jail.

That's how the police work here: pass out cigarettes to everyone and then make a deal. No one seems to go to jail. This is the second time I've seen this tactic.

2. I put myself on suicide watch for a friend who was very low at the Halloween Party. He's much better now, but depression and alcohol are a bad mix.

3. I arrogantly pronounced I was going to have a drama-free week on Monday. To be honest, my nerves can only take so much.

Telling the world you don't want drama, and what it gives you, well . . .

October 29, 2010

2010-10-29T12:11:00.003+08:00

Three things worth seeing at 798:

1. Lee Gil-Woo's work at Gallery TN. Multi-layered work that uses a process so that each layer is equally for and background at the same time.

2. Pace Beijing's "Great Performances." As much as they leave out, and with an exhibition of this scope with an exhibition space of this size, curator Leng Lin had some difficult choices to make, but managed to offer a representative primer of Chinese performance art in the 1990s. Well worth seeing.

3. At Faurschou Beijing, they have Christian Lemmerz's "Hypnosis." I'm still trying to assess the piece as theory sound, or the obvious other. The fact that I'm thinking about it at 10:30 on a Friday means that it might be worth you guys mulling it over.

October 24, 2010

2010-10-24T00:02:00.002+08:00

I've had the kind of night that makes me wish I were more adept at script writing:

setting, a Beijing pool hall

a love triangle that every one knows about but is keeping quiet, or so it seems; a friendship triangle of men that once was solid, but is now in decay; folks on the periphery playing pool unaware of the obvious tension.

I feel like I should be able to write that into something one act.

Anyway, I'll be happy to go to bed and forget about most of it.

October 16, 2010

2010-10-16T06:48:00.000+08:00

If you haven't read it yet, Pierre Joris's 7 Minutes on Translation gives as good an argument as any I've seen for why we should (and why he does).

October 15, 2010

2010-10-15T18:02:00.007+08:00

Some of my favorite author photos are the ones that make them seem as if they are contemplating something very maniacal.

(Mayakovsky, Tzara, Kharms)

October 14, 2010

2010-10-14T11:43:00.001+08:00

If you're in the Pittsburgh area next week. . . .

October 14, 2010

2010-10-14T11:21:00.003+08:00

Danil Kharms, Today I Wrote Nothing, trans. Matvei Yankelevich (Ardis, 2009). I'm not sure where I came across Kharms' name, but this book arrived in the mail today. This writing is absolutely brutal. Take for instance "Sonnet" (48). A group of people forget which number comes after 6 -- is it 7 or 8? They go to a grocer to ask, but she offers conflicting nonsensical information, so they go to a park to count trees, but begin arguing after they reach the tree after 6. The argument is broken ("luckily") by a child breaking "both" its jawbones.

Kharms (1905-42) helped found the OBERIU (Union of Real Art) movement in the Soviet Union.

October 8, 2010

2010-10-08T21:49:00.005+08:00

The Wangfujing Bookstore is good for having things I feel I should have read, but haven't yet. Tonight's visit put a few more things on my to be read sooner rather than later shelf:

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. I've read a fair amount of shorter Steinbeck, so I'm looking forward to meeting the Joads.

Moliere, Les Fourberies de Scapin.

Henri Pichette, Apoèmes (1979; repr. Gallimard, 1995).

Michel Quint, Effroyable jardins (2000; repr. Gallimard, 2004).

Jack London, The Best Short Stories of Jack London. For the subway ride to work.

Carl Jung, Aspects of the Masculine (1989; repr. Routledge, 2008).

Herbert Read, To Hell with Culture (1963; repr. Routledge, 2002).

Beowulf, trans. John McNamara (Barnes & Noble, 2005). It's been a while since I reread this.

This plus some poetry books I ordered from SPD yesterday should keep me engaged for a spell.

October 8, 2010

2010-10-08T15:40:00.000+08:00

This shot, taken at mid-day, shows a not-so-bad air day in Beijing, according the official air quality folks. Compare it to another picture taken further away of the same Rem Koolhaas building a few days ago.

October 7, 2010

2010-10-07T08:47:00.002+08:00

Chicago Calling is under way, so if you're in Chicago, you may want to check some of these things out:

The City as Studio / Curatorial Practice in Four U.S. Cities
Saturday, October 9, 2010 (11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.)
Logan Square Small Arts and Business Incubator Phantom Gallery Chicago Network Office 2823 N. Milwaukee, 2nd floor Chicago IL 60618
admission: free and open to the public
You are invited to attend “The City as Studio / Curatorial Practice: A Curatorial Feedback Loop Among Curators in Four American Cities,” a panel discussion that happens during the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival and Chicago Artists Month. Participants include Gaille Hunter, Curator of the October Gallery in Philadelphia; Marshall Bailey, Curator of the Kuumba Collective Gallery in Sacramento, CA; Gretchen Smith, Installation Artist / Curator of N:8 in Paducah, KY; and Alpha Bruton, Director of the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network.

Facets of Southeast Asia
Sunday, October 10, 2010 (7 p.m.)
In Your Space, 3rd floor
Zhou B. Art Center
1029 W. 35th St. Chicago, IL 60609 (773) 523-0200
admission: free and open to the public
You are invited to attend “Facets of Southeast Asia,” a multidisciplinary event that happens during the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival and Chicago Artists Month. “Facets of Southeast Asia” creatively explores dimensions of this dynamic and culturally vibrant region of the world. Participants include:
Geejay Arriola (Davao City, Philippines) and Cesar Conde (Chicago) -- music and painting collaboration Duane Vorhees (Bangkok) and Matthew Barton (Chicago) -- poetry collaboration
Mojdeh Stoakley (Chicago) and Kamal Sabran (Malaysia) -- poetry and music collaboration Manit Sriwanichpoom (Thailand), Jamie Kazay (Chicago), and Tim Armentrout (Ronceverte, WV) -- poetry and visual art collaboration Basia Toczydlowska (Chicago) gives a presentation about her recent trip to southeast Asia
Jen Besemer (Chicago) and an As Yet Unnamed artist (Bangkok)

October 6, 2010

2010-10-06T08:04:00.003+08:00

The season has come to a close for the Chaoyang Tigers. A solid fifth place finish that would make any fan wonder what went wrong. My fantasy team did okay batwise with the likes of Pujols, Konerko, Jeter, and Ortiz, but my pitching was never really strong, even with all of Verlander's strikeouts and Rivera and Bailey in relief.

October 6, 2010

2010-10-06T07:20:00.003+08:00

An interesting piece on Black identity and body image in 1950s-80s Oakland. Nerdy Jennifer, Frankie: An African-American Tragedy (Regent, 2004; link courtesy of Deep Oakland).

October 5, 2010

2010-10-05T07:51:00.004+08:00

Killing the time waiting for my landlord to swing by to collect six months' rent by reading Brandon Brown's Camels! (Taxt, 2008; link courtesy of Deep Oakland). Superb writing.

October 4, 2010

2010-10-04T23:34:00.003+08:00

Reread Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems on an all night, 13 hour, hard seat train from Beijing to Inner Mongolia. Even with all the references to China that happen here and there, seldom has my reading material been at such a disconnect with my surroundings:

and then in Harbin I knew
how to behave it was glorious that
was love sneaking up on me through the snow
and I felt it was because of all
the postcards and smiles and kisses and the grunts
that was love but I kept on traveling

--"Mary Desti's Ass"

I read Schopenhauer's On the Suffering of the World on the way back. That was more in line with my surroundings, if not my mood.

September 27, 2010

2010-09-27T23:52:00.007+08:00

From the Desk of 21 Grand (in Oakland)

A lot of rumors have been spreading about changes at 21 Grand so here is the official news update:

After 10 years working as both Executive and Programming Director of 21 Grand, Sarah Lockhart has stepped down. She has left her indelible mark on this institution and the East Bay’s cultural landscape, and will be sorely missed here. 21 Grand would not still be in existence without her invaluable efforts.

In addition to Sarah's departure, 21 Grand recently received a “cease & desist cabaret activity” letter from the Oakland office of the city
administrator. 21 Grand has subsequently been forced to cancel all but a of live music shows that were scheduled. Until the permit issues are resolved, there will be no more live music shows at 21 Grand.

Events scheduled for October 24 (Fred Frith & Patrice Scanlon with
special guests) and November 20th (Lexa Walsh’s Kackala and Charming
Hostess) will be held pending special event permits.

This is a serious issue for 21 Grand, hindering our ability to continue to serve the experimental arts community. It also removes a major source of income that keeps our doors open. We are still figuring out how to proceed as an organization.

21 Grand currently has zoning clearance for the categories of “community assembly” and “cultural non-assembly”. So, if anyone has anything in mind for lectures, workshops, or renting for private rehearsals – please keep 21 Grand in mind. Live shows were a major part of 21 Grand’s activity and income; that time is now available, and other activities to help fill the gap are welcome.

Next Sunday, October 3, there will be an emergency rummage sale from
noon - 8pm. Come by and help us make up some of the budget shortfall
caused by the cease and desist! All our unused items in storage must go.

Stay tuned for further announcements on how you might help. 21 Grand
needs your support now more than ever.

Please direct any inquiries to: info@21grand.org

Darren Jenkins
Director, 21 Grand

September 22, 2010

2010-09-22T05:29:00.004+08:00

It's Mid-Autumn Day in China, which means I get an extra day off this week. I'm putting it to good use by waking up at 4 am for no real reason. However, I have started reading Rosalind E. Krauss' Perpetual Inventory (October, 2010) this morning. I've also been reading Allen Deloach, ed., Intrepid: A Decade and Then Some (Intreprid, 1976). It's interesting to read old anthologies to get a good sense of how the different writers' work pushed and pulled at the questions of the era.

September 12, 2010

2010-09-12T00:57:00.005+08:00

The Rem Koolhaas Mandarin Hotel