On goodbyes

And yet we know that death must be a liar when no goodbye is ever good enough. Could it be? That everything sad is coming untrue? –Jason Gray, Everything Sad is Coming Untrue, Pt 2 Whenever it’s time to say goodbye to someone deeply beloved, whether sudden or expected, I find myself coming back to … Continue reading →

Word-cue poetry, Part 3

For a few years now, I’ve had an ongoing schtick where I invite people to give me a one-word cue for poetry.  It’s a blatant cribbing of an idea I first saw in the movie, Before Sunrise, when the two main characters come across a gondola captain who does the same for them. The cue-words were … Continue reading →

Word-cue Poetry, Part 2

For a few years now, I’ve had an ongoing schtick where I invite people to give me a one-word cue for poetry.  It’s a blatant cribbing of an idea I first saw in the movie, Before Sunrise, when the two main characters come across a gondola captain who does the same for them. The cue-words were … Continue reading →

Word-Cue Poetry, Part 1

For a few years now, I’ve had an ongoing schtick where I invite people to give me a one-word cue for poetry.  It’s a blatant cribbing of an idea I first saw in the movie, Before Sunrise, when the two main characters come across a gondola captain who does the same for them. The cue-words were … Continue reading →

The Blessing of Trust — A Burning Man Memory

The setting is Black Rock City, a place that means many things to many people. To the factuals, it is an experiment in temporary community, in which sixty eight thousand people drove to the middle of a dust-filled Nevada desert every year to live amongst one another for a week. To the bacchanals, it is … Continue reading →

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

One year ago today, I was in Beijing on the crew of a world-touring musical.  I might have had the flu, one night before the biggest show of the entire tour.  Checkerboard was just getting off the ground, and it’d be about a month or so before Suhail roped me in for issue number four. … Continue reading →

Atlantis and Cool Waves

In my shower, I keep a bottle of Gilette Cool Wave shower gel. It sits comfortably on that metal rack that hangs from my showerhead, an inverted carbon-grey triangle that stays there next to whatever other shower gel I actually use. I bought my last lot of it in Hong Kong about 3-4 years ago, … Continue reading →

Shaving

2/26/2004 Two weeks ago, I shaved for the first time. It feels odd to be saying that. For most, I presume, shaving’s something that comes much earlier; a cumbersome but welcome addition to one’s daily routine. I remember seeing those first whiskers appear above my lip–thin filaments long enough to be visible, yet not quite … Continue reading →

How I learned to stop worrying and love the banquet

I feel a little bit odd about what I’m going to write below, because as far as I can tell, it might very well be a pretty localized problem that afflicts only those that have the luxury to even consider it. But then again, it might actually be an element of the human heart that’s … Continue reading →

Principled Political Discussion

As of two months ago, I’ve officially spent ten years living in California, a blue state. That term never meant anything to me while I was growing up in Hong Kong, except for early in my senior year of high school when I watched the 2000 election boil down to a handful of people in … Continue reading →

Atlantis and Cool Waves

In my shower, I keep a bottle of Gilette Cool Wave shower gel. It sits comfortably on that metal rack that hangs from my showerhead, an inverted carbon-grey triangle that stays there next to whatever other shower gel I actually use. I bought my last lot of it in Hong Kong about 3-4 years ago, … Continue reading →

Of Wealth and Wisdom

“I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It is like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing … Continue reading →

Tea and Ivy

“Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn’t have guessed. That’s one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It’s a religion you couldn’t have guessed.” –CS Lewis I’m sitting in a Greenwich Village cafe, listening to the sounds of Sinatra while on a canvas-covered chair that tilts slightly to my left because the floor at … Continue reading →