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Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 20 most recent ones recorded in
Wanderlusting's Blurty:
| Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 | |
| 9:28 am | The Passion  Today I met with Sister Regina at her school in a slum area in Buntumpum, Cambodia. She met my tuk tuk driver at a Buddhist Wat on a motoscooter and lead us through the winding streets back to her mission. It was wonderful seeing this white woman with a hefty frame dash far ahead of us on her moto. Sister Regina is part of a sect of Catholic nuns known as the Maryknoll Sisters, a group of about 700 nuns who work overseas. I talked with her about her work over here and her history. She grew up in Chicago and her spiritual belief in doing what she believe’s is God’s work on earth has led her to become a nun. Before this, she had a cushy job working in Hawaii when she volunteered to come to Cambodia to work with very developmentally disabled children and kids with HIV. The needs, as you can imagine, are vast here. There is a rampant sex trade here (more on that later) and AIDS is a common, miserable fact of life for many here. Plus throw in the fact that many of these children are the children of people who lived through the Khmer Rouge years. Mix that in with the abject poverty that is omnipresent and how hard it is to get anything near a basic education here. And yet as Sister Regina and I talked politics and economics in very erudite, academic ways, she wakes up every morning and gives her heart, muscle, sweat and soul to these kids. She is extremely intelligent, thoughtful, funny, profane and has a complete awareness at how daunting her challenges are. She is not a pie-in-the-sky, everything-is-gonna-work-out-if-you-just-b Because so many of Carson High’s population is Catholic, it has always been fascinating to see how the ideas and rules of Catholicism have been taught to you and how you, in your own ways, follow them or put them to practice. Personally, I have always liked the Jesuit Order of Catholicism since they always seemed the most intellectual, adventurous and open-minded. The Jesuits are responsible for many of the best colleges in the United States including LA’s LMU , Washington D.C.’s Georgetown University and Chicago’s Loyola. (Oh yeah…if you read THE SPARROW, then it’s those guys that go off to Rakkat to greet the aliens.) In my early ‘20s, I became very enamored by a woman named Dorothy Day, a convert to Catholicism, who, starting in the Depression and through the rest of her life, practiced a very radical form of devotion to God in her absolute doctrine of pacifism, social justice, equal rights and an unwavering commitment to the poor and invisible. Over the years, many brave Catholics have given their lives standing up for siding with the poor against the powerful, cruel and tyranical. Many stood even when, at times, their church was on the opposite side of them and justice. Among the particular concerns of Maryknoll throughout the world are poverty, migration and refugees, health care, the rights and dignity of women and children, the growth in gang violence, anti-military, just trade agreements, debt cancellation, small and subsistence farming and other work accessible to the poor. Sister Regina has no choice BUT to do this work. The Maryknoll founder, Mother Mary Joseph, often spoke of the Maryknoll Spirit "as being a reflection of the love of God, nothing more nor less than that, a reflection of the love of God." I don’t believe in God. That’s me. But I do believe in this cause and this mission. Looking around at the situation that Sister Regina finds herself in, my heart was filled with despondency at the overwhelming, heartbreaking burden she has chosen to undertake—and extraordinary joy that in her eyes, it isn’t a burden, but a privilege to do God’s work on Earth. To go to the Maryknoll’s website: http://www.mklsisters.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=6&Itemid=6  |
| Sunday, April 20th, 2008 | |
| 8:24 pm | No. 1 With a Bullet! So I've been posted on Utube. Fame and Immortality at last! http://www.youtube.com/user/utubepar182 If you like the hair, you're gonna LOVE the breast implants. I figure since I'm over here, I'd take the chance to experiment a little and, um, "transition". |
| Thursday, April 17th, 2008 | |
| 8:27 am | Hollywood on the Mekong Okay. Can't escape the biz no matter where I go. I am at this social gathering and I'm talking to this guy who is an Asian film producer. He makes very cheap (under a million dollars) horror or gangster films and they ALWAYS makes a profit. He was one of the producers for THE HOST (if you were in my Cinema class, that's the Korean horror film about the giant lizard and the dysfunctional family). Anyway, it was very interesting talking to him. First off, I found out that Asian horror films sell to regular distributors and DVD makers in the United States and Europe...but in Asia, they go straight to the Indonesian mafia here who cuts out all these legitimate people altogether. They buy the film for about 40 cents a dvd and then it appears all over Asia as bootlegs on the black market and are sold for around $1.50-$2.00. The reason why there are so few movie theaters in this part of the world is because all the movies are on the street. Anyway, this guy offered me a job writing a film about a Giant Catfish. I kid you not. A giant muthaf'n killer Catfish. It can go on land and eat and maim anything in its way. Blood, destruction, mayhem (don't know if there's any sex supposed to be in it--we didn't get that far into the plot details). He guaranteed it would get made within three months and on the streets in five. They have the CGI factory in Bangkok and a model (Godzillafish) is already being built. I love eating them, but...christ almighty, have you ever heard of anything so stupid?  Can my dignity and honor be bought? Um, well, let me see if the check clears. |
| Sunday, April 13th, 2008 | |
| 10:11 am | HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  It's the Khmer New Year. Not to be confused with the Vietnamese New Year nor the Chinese New Year (Year of the Rat). This means for the first time since i've been here the streets are quiet. You can cross the street without fear of losing a limb or being slammed by a moto. Most everyone has gone back to visit their families in the provinces. Many of the bars and restaurants are closed for four days. I've stocked up my refrigerator with bread, vegetables, some shrimp and Angkor Beer. I should be able to weather the worst of the shut down.     Stephanie, where are you?!? Your peeps want to see you! Come back and eat some Amok!!! |
| Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 | |
| 7:36 am | Leibner VS. High Society I had the interesting experience of attending a gala here in Phnom Penh. For a cool hundred bucks I had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with 450 of Cambodia’s most elite to raise money for an organization called Youth Star. This group is trying to promote volunteerism among Cambodian youth to serve as peers and mentors for the rest of the country. Think about Koletty’s Peer Counselors but on a country-wide scale. Since I brought no suit with me from LA here, I had one made in Vietnam, complete with silk shirt and faux Versace shoes (no one noticed though). It was held in the Grand Ballroom of Phnom Penh’s swankiest hotel. I know you think I’m used to these sorts of soirees all the time (one day, you’ll see the bar and discotech that is also the Carson teacher’s lounge) but actually most places of high society have had the good taste to exclude me. But here, in one of the world’s poorest countries, I had a shot at finally hanging out with the elites, and I wasn’t about to blow it. Thus the fake Versaces. In attendance was a mixture of white Europeans/Americans who for the most part, work for various NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) and the very upper class of Cambodia. We were greeted in the Ballroom by “Monkey Dancers”--kids dressed up as the Hindu monkey gods and they performed a classic Cambodian dance from The Ramayana. Good thing there was an open bar for this portion. Then some Prince spoke to us in Khemer (remember, Cambodia is a “Kingdom”) and the translation appeared on a beautiful, large screen. Boy, was I jealous. I wish I had it in the OAR to project my movies onto. How can Carson be poorer than Cambodia? Okay. The food: Chicken satay. A Thai-style soup. Paella. Salmon with a French sauce. Sorbet. Some crazy rich cheesecake and strawberries. And all the beer or wine one would care to drink. There are many places in LA that would be far more than a hundred clams. But then came the dancing. I sat on the sidelines because in order to do Khmer dancing, you have to be very well versed in the hand gestures. No other country (except those in Bali where there remains a cultural kinship) places as much emphasis on the delicate movement of the hands and fingers. You have no idea how expressive and dexterous your ring finger could be. And sexy. Whoa baby! If I were to have gotten out on the floor everyone would have thought I was either arthritic or retarded. It was a fascinating evening just observing many of the Cambodians decked out in such phenomenal clothes and amazing bling--i was blinded by the rubies, diamonds, saphires galore. I pointed to a silver clip on my bogus Versaces but no one was impressed or had to put on sunglasses. I did meet a 27-year-old lawyer who lived in LA for a while after graduating from Harvard writing for The New Yorker magazine (remember the Susan Orleans character/writer in ADAPTATION?). We talked about LA hang outs--she’s an aficionado of Thai Elvis (Andrew, this guy is from Bangkok and puts on an Elvis show...you may have a future when he retires!), a campy Hollywood strip club named Jumbo’s (well, if you’ve ever seen some of my holiday cards...) and the beautiful hiking trails of Griffith Park. “What brings you to Cambodia?” I wondered. Well, she is observing the Khmer Rouge War Tribunal of leaders who participated in the genocide here thirty years ago. It is a huge international deal and she feels privileged to have the opportunity to bear witness to history. It truly is a remarkable experience. Did she ever imagine that she would end up in Cambodia? No. But that’s how cool life is. You NEVER know where your life will take you or the experiences you will have if you leave yourself open to the opportunity. Well there was more dancing (a more western band came on playing the goofy standards: “Hey Ya” , “Proud Mary”, “La Bamba” etc.), but I usually save all my best moves for the prom. I did gloat a bit while watching those middle-aged Cambodians dancing to "Brick House". They looked quite arthritic and retarded. When the event shut down, I filed out with everyone else. I then hailed a tuk tuk on the street. When I got out at my apartment and paid the driver $2, he took it with two hands and clasped his palms together in a Buddhist gesture of thanks. Never in his life will this driver ever be inside such a gala. I climbed the two flights, watched some CNN and went to bed.  |
| Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 | |
| 11:48 am | WAR? What's it good for? A Reflection...  In the colossal Citadel in the walled city of Hue, the tourists come by the boatloads to take a look at this fabulous structure. The rain falls warmly on the parade of westerners with their cameras and their plastic bottles of water. Forty years ago, this city was under seige. It was bombed by the United States and almost completely obliterated. If you saw the Stanley Kubrick film FULL METAL JACKET, the excruciatingly long final sniper sequence takes place here. The Vietnamese here now mostly sell souvineers and trinkets and bowls of Pho to the tourists. The events of the Vietnam War seem so long ago now. When you look at the Vietnamese, many seem poor and without much...but looks are definitely deceiving. Think about it: In the last 50 years, these people have kicked the ass of France, the United States, China and "liberated" Cambodia from the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge. I would say the Vietnamese are the All-Time Champions of World History...who would be foolhardy enough to take them on? When most of us learn history in school, it really is only the "outline" of history. When you go to college, history will become much more complex, more topsy-turvy and confusing. There are many different INTERPRETATIONS of history that conflict with one another. Who is right? Is there such a thing as an "objective" narrative of what happened? Some people absolutely fall in love with history BECAUSE it is so multi-layered and intrinsically fascinating. The Vietnam War is a superb case in point. It is far too complicated to try to explain in a blurty--in fact, there have been probably thousands of books written on the subject and it is too much for any one of them. Needless to say, the Vietnam War is something that will be studied for centuries for all the many levels of it. So here's a quick thumbnail sketch: Vietnam was under the control of the French until the Vietnamese fought their way to independence. The United States wanted to keep the new country away from the Communists (remember, this is during the Cold War and the Soviet Union and the US were battling for, ostensibly the control of the planet). Unfortunately, the US has a sad history of backing authoratative, anti-democratic "strongmen", particularly in Third World Countries, if we believed they would help our strategic interests, particularly against Russia. It's a reason why many countries dislike the US because it seems we preach one thing (i.e. "democracy for all") but our actions over the years sometimes has been quite contrary. Rebels in the north led by Ho Chi Minh were determined to "reunify" the country. JFK sent military "advisors" to the region. After his death, LBJ hyped an attack on a US ship in Vietnamese waters (The Gulf of Tonkin incident) and Congress gave the President power to wage an "undeclared war". Well, the war escelated, American troops died, and the war was taking much longer than expected.  In one of the most remarkable periods of American history, the campuses of our universities became political hotbeds of activism. Most of those drafted to fight this war came from poor, working class families, but you were exempted from military service if you were in college. As the war dragged on and the "light at the end of the tunnel" was not forthcoming, many Americans took to the streets to protest our involvement in this conflict. When you hear about the 1960's, the revolt against the war is certainly the centerpiece of what we think about when we look back on the times. Certainly, America has seen nothing like those protests against "the establishment" since. In many ways, even now, we are very mistrustful of what our government says because of the lies that we used to justify and expand the war.      Skip ahead to 1973--we finally begin to get out of Vietnam. It is recorded as the first defeat of the American armed forces ever. In April, 1975, Saigon falls to the North Vietnamese and Communist control. There still is an authoritarian government here and very little real democracy, alas, but capitalism is certainly thriving. Maybe in another ten years or so things will be more "free" here for the people. The rule of the North Vietnamese over the South definitely brought hardship to some and the memories of the collapse of the governement we backed are particularly brutal and tragic.  http://youtube.com/watch?v=gNa75jNfDIA In Saigon, now named Ho Chi Minh City (who died in 1969 and never lived to see the country brought back together, and whose body you can actually SEE PRESERVED in Hanoi), the most popular tourist attraction for Americans is The War Remnants Museum. When I first came to Vietnam in 2001, it was still called "The Museum of American Atrocity". It is a VERY strange experience to go through a musuem (something we think as projecting an "objective reality") and going through the surreal looking glass where the war is seen through Vietnam's eyes. It is a harrowing and sobering experience to see our actions as perceived as monstrous and cruel and unrelentingly vicious. You walk through this musuem very quietly and reflectively. At a bar in Saigon named, unironically enough, Apocalypse Now, I'm drinking and watching the scene. Here there are many men, former vets, now in their late 50s, mid '60s, hanging out, drinking beer, listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival and Rolling Stones songs. Many are joined by Vietnamese women. Yeah, some are young and maybe prostitutes...but other women are 50 and 60 too. Maybe former lovers? Maybe current lovers/wives? It's sort of sweet and sentimental. And as the song "American Pie" comes on, and both Americans AND Vietnamese sing-along knowing every single goddamned lyric by heart, you have to pause and reflect what brings these men back here? Imagine being 18 or 19 years old...you've never been anywhere out of your own hometown--Gary Indiana, Louisville Kentucky, Detroit Michigan or Carson California. Then all of a sudden you find yourself with a M-16 in your hand and in the deep, vast jungles of a country whose name you never heard of 8,000 miles away from anything you have ever known. You are told to kill. And you better kill because those bullets are coming at you. What has really ever prepared you for that?  Maybe years later...after you have lived a little longer and understood life more...you begin to reflect back on what happened to you when you were really just a kid. What did it all mean? Who were "the enemy"? Who was the person I left behind there? Who was me? And perhaps a reconcilliation has to be forged to mend broken bodies, broken bones, broken hearts and broken psyches. Wars are fought not only with tanks and shells but those bodies, bones, hearts and minds. Equipment goes on to fight another day...but what of the other "things". What becomes of them?  When you go to Washington, DC, you will of course go to the Vietnam War Memorial. It is a black reflective wall that descends to a deep point before going back up. The names of all the dead are there. All 56,000+. There is no wall big enough to record the over 3,000,000 Vietnamese who died. You may get emotional watching relatives or fellow soldiers stare at a name etched in the wall. It is very moving to think that the architect who designed it was Myra Lin, a Vietnamese imigrant. Seeing the wall one wonders if we remember any lessons at all...the desolate battle in Iraq seems all-too-familiar. As I'm about to board a bus back to my "home" in Cambodia, I think of the Vietnamese people. Without exception, the Vietnamese have been welcoming and gracious and so happy to see Americans. Their big smiles and cheer..."I have family in Garden Grove...in Springfield, Virginia...in San Jose..." or "I want to come to America" or "America #1". Maybe time does heal all wounds? The energy and spirit of the people, particularly the young people I've met, the artists, the students...their enthusiasm and drive is remarkable. Their hearts so big. Does going to war make you "hard" or incredibly "soft"? Once you realize the fragility of human life and our power to both give and take it away, the responsibility is almost too emotionally overwhelming.  |
| Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 | |
| 10:36 pm | Ready for the Red Carpet  I know for a long time many of you have wondered, just where does Leibner get his fashion from? What rich exculsive store does he shop at? How can I get those duds? Well, friends, buy a ticket to Hoi-An, Vietnam. Hoi An is a beautiful coastal town in the center of the country. It has a very long history and is quite rustic with its small streets and lazy river life. It was spared the intense bombings of the Vietnam War that most everywhere else received. But this is the town where everyone comes carrying their clippings of Yves Saint Laurent, Hilfiger, Armani, Dior, Ralph Lauren or Vera Wang and says, "Make this for me." And so you go shopping in one of the 500 tailor stores they have here and when you enter there are always lots of foreigners in various stages of undress as they get measured, fitted, re-fitted and sent off with a designer dress at a fraction's fraction of the cost. Or play designer yourself. Let your inner Versace go wild! Take your humble narrator for example. I needed a ultra-cool jacket I could wear with my black turtleneck and jeans when I'm "casually" hanging with my Hollwood pals. You know...kicking it with Brad, Angelina, Denzel or Julia. I told a local tailor what I was looking for. In fact, I drew a sketch of a certain sort of collar on a coat. Twelve hours later, I got my very own Leibmani. So when Tom asks me where he can get a jacket like that, I can wave my hands and say, "You can't afford it." And truly, how do I know I have a God-given fashion flair (other than my obvious wardrobe)...? A man came in the store and saw my coat and said he would like to have one made just like it! You can imagine how pissed I was that these Vietnamese have no sense of copyright infringement so my Leibmani is going to be bootlegged all over Asia. No respect for the artist! Today, while waiting for a refitting for a suit, I got a bike for a short 5K ride to the beach. Stunning. A lovely, refreshing swim in the South China Sea and a grilled fish and rice and large beer ($4) brought to me under my umbrella. Am reading an Alan Lightman novel right now...if you want a wonderful mind trip book that is quick and fun, read Lightman's EINSTEIN'S DREAMS. I'm considering doing the whole book with a class next year. One other very funny thing: As you know, I have a Panama hat that I picked up last year in the Yucatan. I brought it over here and I have been swarmed by both women and men alike wanting to have their picture taken in the hat. I have been offered a whole lot of dongs for it. A Panama hat is one of the few things the Vietnamese can't mimic because it's made of special reeds that aren't found here. This hat has been the subject of innumerable cell phone photos. (By the way, how come all you Asians love holding up a peace sign everytime someone takes a picture of you?)  Okay...off to Hue and a ride through the mountains. Look for my Fall '08 Collection hitting Carson soon!  |
| Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 | |
| 1:41 pm | |
| Saturday, March 29th, 2008 | |
| 4:21 pm | Anthropology and Deconstruction: There's No Escape!  It is always completely mind altering to leave the frenzy of the city and head into the solitude of nature. Taking an overnight train to Lao Cai through the rice paddies, up to the mountains of northern Vietnam on the Chinese border. Here, many different Hill Tribes live and one can trek through the hills and come upon village after village where you witness lives that most of us would find unimaginable.   On the morning of my trek, i sought out a croissant shop for breakfast. From the next table over, I heard someone trying to order eggs in a particular style--the accent was unmistakably American. I looked and saw a young Asian girl (I never new which variety of Asian--you people are so confusing!) and asked her if she wanted to join me for breakfast. Jenny was 23 and said she was teaching in Bangkok for a year at a Christian school. She was on spring break here and going to do a bike trek. I told her i was impressed by her spunk and complimented on her for doing what she was doing, alone even! Jenny said she had graduated a year ago from Liberty College and was teaching science. This perked up my ears because Virginia is my home state and that college was founded by the televangelist Jerry Falwell who just recently died. I asked her if by any chance that included in the science she was teaching was Creationism. This is the belief that the Bible is literal and the world was created in Seven Days including Adam and Eve as the first humans. Jenny said yes, of course. She then looked at me and asked, "You're not one of those Evolutionists?" What I wanted to say was, "I not only believe in Evolution but also Gravity and Atoms" but I just respectfully nodded my head and said, "Yes." We both smiled at each other. I asked her if the Biblical creation story made "sense" to her. Jenny began by saying, "If God is God, he can do anything." That's a hard point to argue, but I wanted to know why that story made "sense" to her. She said because it had "meaning" to her. Well of course this set all my Deconstruction hairs on end and it was like the first day of 11th grade all over again with the alphabet. Does "Meaning" exist without human beings? If there were no humans on Earth, is there such a thing as "meaning"? Does a black cat have meaning? Does a lightning storm have meaning? Do the stars in the sky create a story or is there no story until someone "creates" that tale? Does even God have "meaning" if there are no human beings to give Him such? Do we "create" everythng by just "being" and "thinking"? I asked Jenny if she thought God had to create human beings to give Him meaning? Or would he still have "meaning" if there was no humans? Can He give himself "meaning"? She pondered this and said that she asked what the "meaning" of "meaning" is? Superb question. Then she asked if "meaning" was the same as "purpose"? Another terrific question. We went back and forth on this. She said I wasn't going to change her ultimate view but she would think about these questions while bike riding. I said I would think about hers. Jenny and I both "see" the world based on our own unique backgrounds, experiences and how we personally connect-the-dots to have everything make sense to us...and give "meaning" to what we understand as the life around and in us.  Sho was my trekking guide...she was part of the H'mong hill tribe. She was dressed in beautiful, intricately woven shirt and skirt. Sho is 21 years old but really 20 because the Vietnamese count the year you are inside your mom so when you arrive you are already one! It was fascinating talking to her throughout the hike. Most marriages in her tribe are arranged. Girls usually get married around 14 or 15 and certainly have babies by a year or two later. Sho is Budhist and liked a Catholic boy but parents didn't want that so the relationship ended. We would enter villages that might only consist of ten wooden structures. Schools in these villages were just cement rooms with hard wooden battered desks, chairs and a single blackboard. At the front of each room was a Vietnamese flag and a picture of Ho Chi Minh (the Vietnamese revolutionary founder--their George Washington). Sho said that the hill tribes identified more with being of their own individual ethnicity than being "Vietnamese". The boundries of the country happen to encase where they live. This situation is very common throughout the world and has caused much strife...just look at what happened when Yugolslavia disolved and the various ethnic factions went at each other. Of course we can all see what's happening in Iraq that was only held together by the dictatorship of Sadaam Hussein who ruled a country of warring religious groups that were forced together in the 1920's when the British carved up the boundries and called the result "Iraq". It make you wonder what binds Los Angeles with the people of Bangor, Maine or Norman, Oklahoma or Rapid City, South Dakota. We are all our own various tribes but maybe some of the common rituals like proms and homecoming and shopping at Wal-Mart or eating at McDonalds or renting the junk at Blockbuster is what connects the United States with each other.  I thought of Mr. Perman and his Anthropology class what you all would make of these socieities and their ways. Where we trekkers "homestayed" for the nights were in wooden tribal homes whose inhabitants were very poor. Some had only a limited amount of rice and corn stored up. Fortunately, they had beer for sale. Centuries old techniques of weaving, farming and making tools were employed. Sho said that she saved up 7,500,000 dongs ($550) to buy her family a waterbuffalo. Considering Sho only makes 100,000 dongs ($6.50) a day, you could only imagine how long that took (or to put it in "my world perspective" a waterbuffalo = two quick trips to the ATM and not 85 days worth of work). The waterbuffalo got sick after only six months and died. It was an economic calamity for her family. She only earns as much as she does now because she has learned English quite well and is very employable in the tourist trade that deals with foreigners.  When the tourists and travellers started coming to Vietnam after it really opened up in the late '90s, the way of life of these Hill tribes became altered. You see many of them selling their crafts to foreigners (farang) and shops and services being created just to cater to them. The little ones are learning English. (In Vietnam, it is now compulsary for students to learn English--which means that America is VERY lucky that we came of age when we did because English is the common Traveller language throughout the world and everyone usually learns it. If the great globalization had happened twenty years hence, the language would most definitely have been Chinese.) Because of this, one definitely wonders how the Hill Tribe People will change over the years. How will their culture be affected? How will their way of "seeing" alter? Will their old "meaning" still have "meaning"? I think of this extremely profound sequence in Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN where the trio of the journey find themselves at last on the long sought after beach in Mexico where they meet a fisherman who takes them happily around on his boat before making them a feast for dinner. The Omniscient Narrator of the film interrupts the merriment by saying, "Juan Pedro came from a family of fisherman for at least five generations. A multinational company would buy this beach for a hotel and put an end to his livelihood. Juan Pedro will work as a janitor in the hotel."  Sho mentioned that she had a few of her fellow guides go off with farang men. Some have even married them. Think how strange this would be. Although this has ALWAYS occured between peoples throughout history, the same strange chain reactions must take place in the brain for the person leaving their old culture for something wholy different. I know I know...John Smith and Pocohantas...but how weird must it be for these hill women to suddenly see downtown London or Tokyo or New York or even Rapid City, South Dakota? Even odder would be if you or I married a tribe's person--could we adapt to their village ways knowing all that we know about the outside world? How would our brains "see" the new world we find ourselves in...would we accept it? Think it insane? After a few months become "homesick" for the world we know and understand and flee seeking refuge in what we have come to know as familiar and "normal"? It is far more common for men to become attached to these tribal women of this station than for farang women to "hook up" with tribal men. Obviously there are reasons for this gender/class/cultural disparitity...another blurty? Before I left on this trip, I was very grateful that Ms. Bottlik gave me the terrific Barbara Kingsolver essay "High Tide in Tucson". I read it the same time many of you did. It was all about who we are really? What are we? Are we an amalgamation of our environment, our experiences, our biology that all work in concert shaping our lives? Does all this make us who we are? X+Y+Z=Us? Are we each our own hermit crab that has to learn to adapt wherever we find ourselves? Do we try to make the place/experiences more like the ones we internally/psychologically recognize?  Since I've been here, I've witnessed a Cambodian wedding (Jesus! Ten outfit changes for the ceremony! Annie Lee do you really have that many dresses?!?!?) and a vietnamese funeral (dramatic and moving). What are these rituals? What are these ceremonies? Do they provide meaning for us no matter what guise it comes in? Is a Priest really just a Shaman by another name? Is it really strange to go into a confession booth and say, "Forgive me Witchdoctor, for i have sinned. Whether it is Marthina or Grace's Debut or a Mexican girl's Quincinera, humans mark this planet with "meaning". Sometimes I feel bad that the Bar Mitzvah i had when I was thirteen meant so little to me but it meant so much to my Grandfather. Can I help that? Do I live my life for my Grandfather and make his meaning of the world mine? Would he feel like I was betraying his Old World Eastern European Jewish culture by becoming a H'mong and following their traditions instead of his? Seeing the world as they see it and not as he? Even though he certainly wasn't the same sort of Jew as HIS father was.  <  Are We are bound by where we come from and learn early in life or do we adapt and become hybrids of sorts? Do we become wholey unique beings as we trek through our lives and any event can change us (whether organically or being plucked from our east coast beach and suddenly find ourselves in the high desert of Arizona)? Or are we still bound to the culture that formed us and we never truly escape those formative views of the world...the initial concepts that created those primoridal "meaning" that maybe hardens so it is our psychological DNA? So Jenny, I hope you had a wonderful bike trek. I hope you thought about our discussion as much as I thought about it. I'm dedicating this blurty to you, Jenny though you won't ever read it. We will never meet again (but then again, who knows?) but I wish you well in your own individual travel on this planet. Whatever you find "meaning" in I hope it brings you comfort, joy and wisdom. |
| Monday, March 24th, 2008 | |
| 9:34 am | Art and the Greed of Wanting!  Took an airplane from Angkor Wat to Hanoi, the provincial capital of Vietnam. It is much smaller than Ho Chi Minh/Saigon and the lovely winding streets and small French style architecture does remind one of the streets of Paris. After another day of amazing Vietnamese meals (shrimp encrusted in coconut and grilled snapper in banana leaf and rice) the thing to do in Vietnam is shop. Yep. Everyone's Inner Girl is definitely brought out by this place. Other than Mexico, Haiti and some places in Eastern Europe, the Vietnamese have the best sense of design and aesthetics of any culture i've ever seen. First you have to go through all the chachkis and touristy junk to get to the real stuff. You would be amazed at the number of places you can get full size oil painted replicas of the MONA LISA or THE LAST SUPPER...or anything--Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, Lichtenstein, Warhol... If you want, show these guys a picture of ANY painting you've ever wanted and in 24 hours they'll have it done for you, oil still glistening. I wanted to fuck them up by giving them a Jackson Pollack to do, but lo and behold, the clever bastards have even mimicked him! So my suggestion is to spend the money, fly to Vietnam and buy that Picasso you wanted and save the 50 million bucks to actually own it. Girls, you would have a field day over the Vietnamese purses and handbags. There's nothing like them in the world...and so inexpensive. Wish I could bring you over for just one hour shopping! When you are older, you will appreciate the amazing bed sheets, furniture and ceramic design they have here. Astounding and makes me gape in awe...would never even turn my head in a typical American store.  I don't think I've ever fallen in love at first sight with a woman, but I have many times with a piece of art. It's that same sting of Cupid's Arrow that makes my heart go BOIIINGGG!!! when i see something I like--I mean really like--I mean I GOTTA HAVE IT! I know I know...Not very Buddhist of me. I need to control my appetite better that's for sure.  Here, I am surrounded by beautiful art. The contemporary art of Vietnam is so spirited and alive. The young artists here (and in China) have such a unique vision and mix some of their classical design with their visions of the 21st century. I spent the entire day going from gallery to gallery. Art seems to be the most consistent way I have of divesting all my screenplay savings, but as the great British soccer player George Best said of how he went from being a multi-millionaire to almost penniless, "I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."  So yeah, I bought some pricey pieces...but it makes me happy!  Last night I took an 11 hour overnight sleeper train (yeah it was fun) up to the far north of Vietnam to a village called Sapa almost on the Chinese border. I have already had my ass butted by a huge Yak (yeah it hurt) and been swarmed by indigenous tribe children and old women peddling their crafts, all tugging at my shirt, "BUY FROM ME!"  Am going to go on a three day trek through the small villages up here. As much as I love cities, people, museums, theater, art, etc., you always need the flip side and that's nature. Getting away from everything and having just the universe or god/s' creation to help you put one's life in perspective is essential. My lungs certainly needed a good cleansing. Too many breathtaking things in the natural world to see that it could make you cry...and often will.  Hope the world is spinning well for all of you and that spring break did all of you a world of good. |
| Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 | |
| 3:56 pm | ANGKOR WAT: Forget Tomb Raider...this is the REAL deal  Well this is the main reason to come visit me...and Cambodia: The fabled, fabulous ruins of Angkor Wat. This is the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire that existed between the 9th and 12th centuries AD. "Angkor" means "Holy City" and "Wat" is the designation of a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It is the single most impressive site I've seen in all my travels anywhere. The size and scope of this ancient city dwarfs almost anything else. When you first come upon the three tremendous pine-cone shaped spires, and walk down the long Royal Way into the complex, you are certainly humbled. Hindu in design, the structure is a hybrid of both this earlier religion and the flowering of Buddhism that will sweep over the continent. Images of Buddha are everywhere. In my travels, I've often wondered whether there are more images of Buddha in the world than even Christ.  It could take a week to travel to all the various structures and temples in the area. Many people's favorite is one the Khmer king built for Buddhist monks, it has been since claimed by the jungle called Ta Prean. Huge trees seem to swallow the buildings as you walk through it. Ancient bas reliefs are covered by tree trunks and roots.  Everywhere you look on the walls there are carvings. You have to love the bas relief that goes the entire southern wall of the structure that represents the Hindu concept of creation, where good and evil forces band together in the piece "Churning of the Ocean of Milk" to create life (Okay you Freudians, have a field day with this one!).  Your jaw drops thinking about how intricate and extensive the stone carvings on the temples are. Millions of man hours must have went into making this creation. The carvings tell of Hindu stories of the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, real historical battles and the craftsmanship is always presided over by thousands of Buddhas and Asparas, the spirited dancing women. Ahhhhhh, the ladies here are pretty va-va-va-voom!!! My favorite is the Bayon temple.  This awe-inspiring temple has the faces of 240 large Buddhas carved into its spires each facing a different compass direction. What is most overwhelming is the expression on the Buddha's faces. It is the most perfect example of the "spirit of Buddhism": Understand and accept the world as it is. Happiness is peace from within, not out. Renounce desire and set yourself free.  (SIDE NOTE: I DO think its fascinating that unlike western religions, there is no sacrifice involved with Buddhism. In, Judaism and Islam that claims Abraham as their spitual father, God required the sacrifice of his son Issac as a test and in Christianity, the price, of course, was the life of Jesus.) You will have similar feelings of awe and majesty when you visit the great pyramids of Giza and Luxor, when you stand in the shadows of the Aztec genius of Teohtihoucan, the Mayan work of Chichen Itza or Tikal, the Inca creation in Machu Picchu, Peru, at the The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, at St. Peter's in the Vatican in Rome, gazing atop the Great Wall of China, staring up at the ceilings of Notre Dame in Paris, getting lost in the complex geometry of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, shaking your heads at the towering Easter Island structures, wandering through the thrillingly preserved ruins of Pompeii, marvelling at the lost city of Petra in Jordan or having your breath taken away in the spectre of the glorious Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Human beings have created so extraordinary things in the short time we've been around. It's a big amazing world. Let's take a field trip!  |
| Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 | |
| 11:10 pm | GARBAGE CHIC  Took a five hour bus ride up into the heart of Cambodia, the ancient Khmer capital nowActually, called Siem Riep, but is the home of the spectacular temples of Angkor Wat. I came to attend a fashion show. Actually, i had been to a fashion show in Phnom Penh last week...it was an interesting amalgamation of French and Khmer fashion (sans anything see through) and it was a lot of fun watching Project Runway Cambodia style. The fashion show in siem riep was political. The feature event was to draw attention to the growing problem of the proliferation of the plastic bag. Yep. The kind you get EVERYWHERE.  These bags last forever. They don't disintergrate and pollute so much of the world. The centerpiece of the fashion show was an artist instalation of a Naga (the legendary seven headed serpetn and "father" of the Khmer people) about 100 yards long over the Siem Riep River made entirely of staples, wood and plastic bags. It was an amazing sight. The fashion show was called "The Rubbish Project" and the fashion models all wore outfits made of trash. yep. Plastic bags, soda cans, dorito chip bags...all the crap that blights the world. it was fab. the only thing i ever saw comparable was a designer from Brazil who featured her dresses at UCLA's Fowler Museum made entirely of condoms. And then, to top it off, there was a classical Cambodian dance performance. Truly a magnificent night. Now it's off to the glorious Temples of Angkor Wat!  |
| Friday, March 21st, 2008 | |
| 6:32 am | HELP WANTED!: NEED INTELLIGENT TEEN EYES Okay. I just finished a new screenplay. It is a teen romance so who should I go to get thoughts on it than the source yourself. Just need about two or three volunteers who would want to read this and see if teenagers would want to go see it. A quarter of the film is animated. The rest is a drama. You can always call/text at my new Cambodian cell at 1 855 12 759 203 (it's always so busy you know) or save the riels and just easier to hit me up through the internet. leave your email address. Thanks in advance! Hope you all enjoyed spring break! Sorry you got to go back, but you have great books waiting for you! |
| Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 | |
| 10:19 am | Fourteen Hours ahead of you and Feeling it Tonight  So I'm sitting here very late with my glass of wine. As cool, as romantic, as thrilling, as sensory overloading that travelling is, it definitely is lonely on occasion. These are the nights where you wanna be with someone in a bar talking about, well, anything. Okay. No such luck. So I'm sitting in the apartment I flip on the TV. Always hit the news station first. Let's see...U.S. is in a financial crisis. Good thing I'm not going to college now. Riots in Tibets. God, those Chinese S.O.B.'s are really something. Watch. Those Beijing Olympics something is gonna go down. (Before I left the States, I saw an amazing Chinese film called SUMMER PALACE. It was a heartfelt, winsome film about a love affair between two people over a period of about ten years...and there was a sequence that takes place during 1989's Tiananman Square massacre. That and the full frontal nudity of both the stars got the director, Lou Ye, a five year ban on making films from the repressive Chinese government. Catch it on DVD and support world wide artistic freedom) Seeing lots of soccer on TV...no NCAA news (why would anyone care here?)...Surprising amount about the New York governor and the prostitution ring (in other parts of the world no one would really care; just business as usual)...oh, and so many people want to know whether i like Obama or Hillary. Very funny that people are so aware of that race. No one has a clue who John McCain is. Let's keep it that way. What else... Riding on the motos (motorcycle taxis) you get to see how everyone else rides. Girls, in deference to modesty, ride side saddle on the back of cycles which freaks me out in case they were ever in an accident. They have absolutely no defense...but they certainly look cute. Was at an art exhibit earlier tonight full of photographs of...plastic chairs. Yes, it was entitled "The Universal Chair" and some photographer went all over the world taking pictures of people utilizing that cheap, curved, plastic chair that everyone has. He went to places that were very swank and very destitute and took photos of who sat in the chair and the environment it was in. Gotta love art and artists. Um...went shopping at the market. I will talk more about these markets later, but if you were to take all the malls in Southern California and stuff all the stores and their contents into eight by eight by eight cubicles, you would get a picture of the insane density of these cramped, airless, hot, steamy, mega-markets that go on forever selling ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. You need about a gallon of water to get yourself through one of these things and its amazing that thousands of people don't die of either suffocation or some haphazard electrical fire that could easily occur trapping everyone. But if you want a live Catfish, you can get it. If you want a Nazi flag, you can get it. If you want the most AWESOME Christmas lights you have ever seen putting everything we have in the west to shame, you will be the toast of your 'hood next December. Put down what you want now and I guarantee I can get it and i'll just charge a mere 10% commission. Uh...back to the TV...I have HBO and Cinemax, but it ain't like cable at home. Most of the movie channels in the US are pretty awful but out here, they take dreadfulness to a new level. Why these Asians like these ridiculous Fantasy films is beyond me. They are basement level LORD OF THE RINGS sorcery and dragon stuff. Also, they like any stupid action film. Doesn't matter. If shit gets blown up, they can't get enough of it. The only love stories they like are the ones that make me wanna slit my wrist. ELIZABETHTOWN is shown like eight times a day here. And if Whoopi Goldberg starred in it, you can catch her and her wacky antics anytime. Violence and bad language is okay. I have yet to see any breasts, genitals or asses. Jesus. How would I run my film class? I think it must be forebidden to show nudity on TV here which is pretty amusing for you can get ANYTHING on DVD here whatever your "tastes". I guess you can see how bad midnight sometimes can be when you travel. But it's all part of the experience. Okay. Time to turn off the TV and find a DVD. J/K!!!!!  |
| Sunday, March 16th, 2008 | |
| 5:02 pm | Looking Around My apartment is by the “Olympic Stadium”, which is pretty funny because it will be about two centuries before Cambodia will host any Olympics. Anyway, what’s remarkable about this place is that around sunset, the stadium fills with thousands of people. As part of a very dedicated exercise regime, they are participating in choreographed dancing to various western disco or traditional Khmer music blaring from the loud speakers. It is quite a sight seeing this tremendous throng of humanity, from very tiny children to teenagers to parents to grandparents, all participating in this ritual. The smart ones wear a surgical mask because sometimes breathing the air and soot here makes me yearn for that clear, fresh and invigorating Carson air. Jealous that you get to experience that everyday. Don’t take it for granted! Went to the local western “bootlegery” and had about 50 albums downloaded into my ipod. Everything from M.I.A. (the more i hear “Paper Planes” the more i’m fascinated by this woman) to Nina Simone to the Magnetic Fields to Hank Williams (OK, I don’t expect you to understand...but just trust me on him) to Mozart. In order for me to write, like many of you I need music blaring. Loudly. Fortunately, everyone here is rather loud so i don’t have to worry about offending anyone. Just one more note in the cacophony that is Phnom Penh. At a bar last night there was Latin D.J. so there were many foreigners salsa dancing while slurping mojitos and pina coladas. Outside these clubs are all the tuk tuk and moto drivers all waiting for tipsy westerners to stumble out. They will make more from them then any locals so they are patient. Le Centre Culturel Francais is hosting a film festival for the next ten days. It should be mentioned that there is not ONE SINGLE movie theater in this whole city. I don’t think there is one in the entire country! Barbaric! Believe me, i can get a dvd of 10,000 B.C. so don’t worry about moi, but I definitely miss the experience of seeing a film in a theater. Anyway, the French screened this documentary about the lives of these Cambodian refugees who America took in when they were kids after the Khmer Rouge atrocities, but when they committed crimes in the U.S. (mostly as gang members in LA and Long Beach) they got deported back to Cambodia, a country they really knew nothing about. Here they have had to scrape and fight to survive in a world much more brutal than anything they knew back in the States. Called “returnees”, they really belong to no country. They are their own strange and lonely hybrid culture. Their lives seem very desolate and hopeless, separated forever from the only world they’ve ever known. It gave me an idea that maybe i can work with them here. We’ll see. |
| Saturday, March 15th, 2008 | |
| 1:18 am | Things to Know About Cambodia  The average per capita income is about $400 a year. Of all the Asian countries, it only gets 1% of the tourist trade. Ninety-nine percent of all Cambodians have never used an ATM machine. The average life expectancy is 58 years. Most of the population, 85%, are farmers, weavers, fisherman, but most cultivate rice.  4000 Riels = $1  Over half the population is under age 25.  Ninety percent of Khmers (What Cambodians call themselves) follow the Theravada branch of Buddhism. The main philosophy of this school is to dedicate time and effort to earning merit in this life to gain better karma in the next, until ultimately Nirvana is achieved. Obviously Hinduism is also threaded into the theology and its presence is most obvious in the temples at Angkor Wat. |
| Friday, March 14th, 2008 | |
| 2:31 am | WELCOME TO PHNOM PENH!       |
| Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 | |
| 6:33 pm | Holiday in Cambodia (not just a great Dead Kennedy's song!) This is from an early scene in the overwhelmingly phenomenal film APOCALYPSE NOW: Set during the height of the Vietnam War, American Army Captain Willard has been assigned by his higher ups to seek out and kill a renegade and probably insane American Colonel who has set up his own kingdom in the Khmer jungle. He has hired a patrol boat to take him up the Mekong River. WILLARD "What do you think Chief ?" CHIEF "I don't think. My orders are I'm not supposed to know where I'm taking this boat, so I don't. But one look at you and I know it's gonna be hot, wherever it is." WILLARD "We're going up river about 75 klicks above the Do Lung bridge." CHIEF "That's Cambodia, captain." WILLARD "That's classified. We're not supposed to be in Cambodia but that's where I'm going. You just get me close to my destination and I'll cut you and the crew loose."  Took a six hour bus from Saigon to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Cambodia is an even poorer country than Vietnam with an extremely gruesome and horrific recent history (more on that later). Phnom Penh is a lot less bustling than Saigon, but still plenty active. I have rented a beautiful apartment with balcony. It has two bedrooms and two baths. There are two gas burners, but alas, no oven. I go with the landlady tomorrow to pick out our furniture. Looking for some old antiques and then will go cull the art galleries for quality paintings to enliven the walls. And yes, it has cable TV. It would be hard for me to exist without CNN. This city is small compared to Saigon and easy to navigate. No problem hailing a tuk tuk. Ate at a Lebanese place last night and had a Chicken Schwarma. I love eating local food, but being an American means wanting/demanding(!) variety. Have already eyeballed the Indian, Japanese, and, oh-thank-heavens! the Mexican Burrito joint (Gotta make a bee line there tonight and check out its authenticity! Ole!). They have a relatively well-stocked grocery store (but my imported Bran Flakes are $7 US!!!!). Guess I'll stick to the stuff with the letters I have no idea what it says but just judge by the happy pictures on the boxes. Phnom Penh seems to have a very vibrant expatriot community--these are individuals who live here but are citizens of their home country. The overwhelming nationality is French who all these years later seem to refuse to relinquish their grip on this country. There are many shops and restaurants who cater to this strata of society that only foreigners or rich Cambodians can frequent. There are more rich Cambodians than you would think because many are government officials and their families who live very well here. As you can imagination, corruption is also rampant and with all the influx of overseas investment coming into this country, there are people doing very well unfortunately at the expense of others. I have an old college friend here who I worked with on the Wisconsin newspaper all those years ago. She has contact with many NGO's (this stands for Non-Governmental Organizations--and they are groups that do mostly relief work in foreign countries that are privately run) so I will have no problem hooking up with some organization. The volunteer work will give me structure to my days while I do my own writing. Also, Phnom Penh is a good base for going anywhere in the area--Thailand, Laos, south western China or any place in Vietnam. (BTW, medical care is dirt cheap in Bangkok and many westerners come here for their major surgery or even inexpensive plastic surgery, so at last I' m finally going to get that boob job I've wanted for so long!) Anyway, I'm glad to get settled. Shout outs to Annie Lee, Jessica, Whitney and my Cambodian peeps! Let me know if you have any aunties here who can do hair! |
| Monday, March 10th, 2008 | |
| 4:10 am | HEY!!! Go to New York for Spring Break and See This!!!!  The famous Chinese pyrotechnic artist Cai Guo-Qiang is having a retrospective of his work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. It is so cool to see what modern artists come up with in their ways of creating metaphors that reflect the contemporary world. Check out the LA Weekly or go on line to see what art events are happening in Los Angeles. Oh yeah...there's an exhibit at the Japanese American Museum in downtown LA of contemporary Asian artists called "One Way or Another" http://www.janm.org/ What a great field trip or weekend art jaunt!   Cai is going to put on the show that opens this summer's Beijing Olympics--sure to be amazing since he is being given gobs of money to do it. To read more about this unique visionary, you can go to an article in The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/02/25/slideshow_080225_cai/?xrail |
| Saturday, March 8th, 2008 | |
| 2:27 am | Gotta Love The Onion: AREA ECCENTRIC READS ENTIRE BOOK This about sums it all up: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_eccentric_reads_entire_book Pick up a copy of The Onion anywhere in LA except Carson. You can go on-line and read it at http://www.theonion.com P.S. The movie PARANOID PARK looks interesting. It's a Gus Van Zant film and he has a unique eye for capturing teenagers (My Own Private Idaho and Elephant) and all the coming-of-age ambiguity that comes with that territory. A true, artistic filmmaker. Here's a review if you are interested. http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0810,350959,350959,20.html |
