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Sat | September 24, 2005
next meeting
The next meeting will be on Saturday, October 15th at 3 pm.
It will be somewhere in Hell's Kitchen, at "a nice outside sitting area near a theatre which I can't remember the name of" (according to Dan).
More details, of course, TBA.
Posted by Lily at 08:24 PM | Comments (1)
Tue | September 20, 2005
Eyes Wide Shut
On a starry-night in 1997, I was walking with two female friends (Martine and Pam) down the French Quarter in New Orleans, a young smiling African-American came to me and said, “If you go 20 steps in this direction, there is House of Blues, and if you go in this direction…………” Rightfully so, he expected a tip, but I was a poor graduate student then, and I had no money in my pocket. He got flustered that I did not even tip him a dollar. A few minutes later, he saw me and the friends I was with, and he shouted in jest, “Ladies, dump this Chinese guy, he is no good.” I am not Chinese but Indian in ethnicity. We all laughed.
I do not know whether he survived the grinding poverty of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. We may remember him fondly even today and my friend Martine reminds me of the incident quite often but was he just a comic or a real human being to us?
Another starry-night in 1993, I sat on the floor next to the feet of some of the greatest Jazz musicians at the Preservation Hall in French Quarter. Between playing jazz, they would talk to all of us in thick N'Awlins accent seasoned with age that I barely understood. Sitting next to somebody’s feet in Asian culture is a mark of respect.
However, no matter the respect I showed or laughed with the African-Americans, I met in New Orleans for a brief moment – I failed, I failed miserably. When I walked past a project in New Orleans countless times, I never stopped and thought – how they were dancing with death, mired in poverty, violence, and dreams laid waste. Amongst all this, there is also a little, happy kid running with his pet dog who wants to be an astronaut.
After Hurricane Katrina, I better learn to keep my eyes and heart open. This time, I have seen their pain.
Note: Also, cross-posted at http://kushtandon.squarespace.com/journal/2005/9/20/eyes-wide-shut.html
Posted by Kush at 05:59 AM | Comments (0)
Fri | September 16, 2005
Sept 15 meeting
date: Thursday, September 15
time: 7 pm
place: Space Cafe, 32nd St. by 5th Av.
attendees: Ariko Ikehara, Lily Huang, Shalene Monihan, Nina Huang
Space Cafe is a better location than our old haunt Koryodang, because it is quieter. The drinks, it was resoundingly noted, were no less expensive. We chatted for awhile and then wrote, and then discussed. In some ways this was a seminal meeting because it was the first meeting after the Asian Writing Club multi-user blog was created. It was also the first meeting after I gave out some of the responsibilities associated with running the club to active members.
Posted by Lily at 01:44 PM
Saving Paper
A respect for paper plays a role in Asian culture I am not sure I entirely understand. It has some historical basis, I am sure, and an anthropologist of Asian culture might know. It plays a role in some Asian cultures and not others, and in some Asians and not others. Some Asians have told me they have no concern with saving or wasting paper. My Japanese friend says saving things is not a Japanese thing. But what of all the Japanese stationery products? Surely it shows a reverence for paper.
I will speak from my experience and judge later whether it's Taiwanese or Chinese or how far it goes around Asia (or if it's just me). Speaking for myself: I have a respect for paper, for saving paper, and for saving things in general. I am a little bit over it now which is why I can write about it. For a long time I hesitated to write because I did not want to deface the paper with my imperfect words. And then in writing class not only do you deface the paper with words, you make ten copies of it and distribute it to your peers.
But I am over it now and I print ruinous things all the time. I wasn't always this way. Growing up I revered books, and it took me awhile to shed this and take books with skepticism. Now unfortunately I am disinclined to believe that anything written will be good simply because it's been published. Even things that get good reviews turn out to be bad.
It's a bit of a disillusionment and those were definitely happier times when I believed every book, everything written on paper, was a piece of magic. That belief in the sacredness of print came from my mother and father who continue to this day to have a reverence for things written on paper. My mother once read aloud to me what was written on the shoebox of some moderately priced winter boots she had bought for my brother: "'The best, softest leather.' See? The best." "Mom, it's not the best just because it says so," I said. I've more or less gotten over the phase of snapping testily at my parents for exhibiting the same flaws that I have suffered from and with much effort excised from myself. No one likes to see someone mirroring the things we're trying so hard to repress or rid ourselves of.
I still save jars and make them into pencil and pen holders or containers for hair ties. And feel remorse when I throw things away. You take what you like from your culture and do your best to shed what isn't useful. In the case of paper, you don't worry about wasting it. But at least you recycle it.
Posted by Lily at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)
Mon | September 05, 2005
Kush Tandon
One of these days.... be Mahatma Gandhi, Breaker Morant, Subramanian Chandrasekhar, George Harrison, Jack Sparrow, Richard Feynman, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Langdon, Hans Bethe, Pink Floyd, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Shackleton, Edmund Hillary, Shaft, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Neil Young, Han Solo, Bruce Lee, Denys Finch Hatton, Mark Knopfler, and Like My Father.
I would consider myself successful in this endeavor, if part of being with Asian Writing Club makes me to read, write, and draw regularly, no matter how simple it be.
My blog: www.kushtandon.squarespace.com
Posted by Kush at 12:24 AM | Comments (1)
Sun | September 04, 2005
member profiles
Right now there are literally only a handful of blog members (anyone can comment, but only members can create posts). In the coming weeks there should theoretically be a few more member profiles up here, i.e., posts in which the title is the member's name and the content is something about that person. After the next meeting on Sept. 15 there will also, with any luck, be some stories or essays. Gradually there will also be more members, and thus more member profiles.
Posted by Lily at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
