Nam Le Skylight Reading 6/29/2008

Over 100 people turned out on a sunny Southern California Sunday to see Nam Le read at Skylight Books in Los Feliz. (A small miracle, IMO, not for Nam (he's great), just for books in general)

I came early and found an aisle seat. Behind me, a guy told a gal all about Nam: how he'd been in the New York Times, and NPR, and this and that mainsteam publication. She responded in one of those hushed PC whispers, "Wow, that's impressive, especially for...an ethnic writer."

Ha, I thought to myself, that's exactly the attitude Nam critiques (read "clowns") in his story "'Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice." And right on cue, Nam appeared and read the first half of the story. I loved the story on the page, but to hear it with his pauses and breaks and tone, cut me to the bone.

Nam then deftly navigated a question-and-answer session, where he addressed authenticity in literature, his research process, writing influences, and general things he likes: ''good Vietnamese food'' and ''right now, poker.''

Some well-meaning, but somewhat ignorant person asked Nam how he "as a Vietnamese Australian" could write others outside of his experience (in this book: two Viet characters, a middle aged white man, a young white woman, an Australian boy, a Colombian teen, a Japanese girl).

Many of us do-gooder, thinker-types rolled our eyes. Is his background a handicap of some sort? Is Nam human or subaltern? Who gets asked these questions?You know who. And aren't all fiction writers writing "outside of their experiences?" Isn't that their job? But Nam, ever the gentleman, was way more diplomatic. He said, "There’s a conviction that I have to believe that it’s not outside my experience…That there is commonality, universality in the human experience that we can all partake in.''

Afterwards, Nam and his friends and Who's-Who of Vietnamese America got to hang out and then grab drinks at the Dresden from Swingers fame. They included author/businessman Quang X. Phạm; Professor Mariam Beevi Lam from UC Riverside; Ysa Lê, the executive director of VAALA; poet and film producer Jenni Trang Lê; film producer Hiếu Hồ; and director Đòan La.

AAPW Has a Home!!!

Marvel at just under 200 square feet of prime North Long Beach real estate. Thanks to the Maxwell Gluck Foundation for making this happen and contractor Jimmy "I-know-you-so-much-better-now-that-we've-been-to-Home-Depot-together-
over-100 times" Liang.

So if you've ever wondered where the site and blog comes from or "where the magic happens," your wish has come true.

As you can see, we went for a white and chrome, minimal modern look. The biggest influence was the Tantive IV Blockade Runner from Star Wars (no joke). Hence the name of the office is "Spaceship."

Dwell on Design Show 6/7/2008

Not sure this is true, but is it only in Los Angeles that the Dwell on Design show can be held the same weekend as the Erotic LA show, which is just what it sounds like: a pornstar Convention.

I imagine people getting mixed up at the various Los Angeles Convention Center buildings, design heads wandering amidst leather and lace. Porn fiends lost in a sea of Eames chairs and pre-fab houses...and I love it! Hybridity hybridity.

Here are my favorite pieces from the show.

Gabriela Jauregui's Los Angeles debut reading 6/8/08

Poet and AAPW editor Gabriela Jauregui reads from her debut collection of poetry Controlled Decay at the Poetic Research Bureau in Glendale. In addition to crowd favorite poems like "Get On Down to the Floor to the Heaven of Other Animals" and "Collective" (about the metro system in her hometown of Mexico City), Gaby varied the reading with humor in her Lokus (the opposite of Haikus), tragedy "After Goya (and Fallujah and Kigali and Juarez and Da Nang and Wounded Knee and Tiananmen and Cali and Compton) which is one of my favorites, and new works from a manuscript called Beast Language.

Shout outs to the Poetic Research Bureau, an amazing and much-needed new space. The big crowd that turned out on a scorching afternoon. And to poet Ara Shirinyan who helped Gaby open the reading with a hilarious duet. His latest book Your Country is Great is probably my favorite book of the year. You must read it and trust me, you'll be hearing much more of him in AAPW later this year.